Apocalypse: I Can See Health Bars

Lin Fan’s heart sank the moment he heard him.

He had already guessed as much from the rumors he’d heard from the crowd outside. If people saw him take so many things from the supermarket, there was no way they hadn’t seen where he’d moved them to...

The "little chick" this brute mentioned couldn’t possibly be Chu Zhaozhao, who was right next to him. That only left...

Su Qing.

"Letting zombies into the building, what do you mean by that...?"

Lin Fan ignored the brute’s words, staring at him coldly as he asked his own question.

Perhaps intimidated by Lin Fan’s icy gaze, or perhaps gloating that he had cut off his enemy’s retreat.

The bald brute gave a signal with his eyes, and a skinny, dark-skinned man immediately darted to his side. The man leaned toward the car and spoke with immense arrogance:

"What else could it mean? You took all the food from the supermarket, so of course, we brothers had to go to your place to ’borrow’ some..."

"Not only would that broad not open the door, she even let zombies into the first-floor rooms..."

As he spoke, he got more excited, nearly shoving his face right into the car.

"FUCK! She’s fucking crazy, to think of a dirty trick like that. It’s just a shame about that little chick..."

He said, a lecherous smile spreading across his face.

"But this one isn’t bad either..."

"BAM!"

[-99]!

With a dull thud, and before anyone outside could see what had happened, a deep indentation appeared on the skinny man’s face. His entire body flew backward, his head slammed against the curb, and his neck snapped at a grotesque angle. He didn’t move again.

A chorus of "FUCK!" erupted. The men surrounding Lin Fan’s three cars and those by the supermarket entrance all swarmed forward, raising their motley collection of weapons. They watched Lin Fan with tense vigilance, yet they were so stunned by the way the man had died that not a single one of them dared to truly advance.

"B-Brother Wang, I think Skinny is dead..."

One of the lackeys crouched down to check on the skinny man who’d been sent flying. He then ran to the bald brute’s side and whispered in his ear, his nervousness making him stutter just like his boss.

The bald brute’s expression tightened. He quietly took a step back, raised his axe, and pointed it at the car window.

"K-Kid! I know you’ve got a few tricks, but with... with all of us here, you might not get away so easily!"

His shock was so great that it had mostly cured his stutter.

He’d heard before that this kid had killed three zombies by himself, but he’d just assumed the person telling him was bullshitting. He never imagined the kid would attack without a moment’s hesitation, and with such vicious, overwhelming force!

Besides the now-dead Skinny, he had been the closest. The mark on Skinny’s face was clearly a fist print!

’Sending a man flying with a single punch... That’s something I’ve only ever seen in the movies...’

The circle of men in front of the car gripped their weapons tightly, the greed in their eyes now tinged with fear. They shoved each other, the encirclement growing looser as no one dared to step forward.

Words were useless. Only shattered bones could teach a lesson.

Seeing this, even the crowd of onlookers in the distance silently retreated further away. The smart ones had already climbed into the first-floor windows of the buildings on either side, with only their eyes peeking out from the corners.

Meanwhile, Lin Fan sat in the car, silently examining his own fist. A wave of fear washed over him in hindsight.

’I didn’t mean to kill him with that last punch. I didn’t expect a living person to be so fragile. Their heads are way softer than a zombie’s.’

’Good thing I held back. If I’d gone all out, I would’ve smashed his head open and splattered his brains all over my car. The guy was disgusting enough as it is; I almost let him gross me out in death, too.’

"Ugh..."

He wiped his fist on his own... no, on Chu Zhaozhao’s worn-out jacket next to him.

"Zhaozhao, in a situation like this, what would the protagonist of one of your novels do?"

Chu Zhaozhao hadn’t been scared at all. As long as Lin Fan was there, she wasn’t afraid of anything.

Seeing Lin Fan strike so decisively, sending a grown man flying with a single punch—witnessing that power up close was even more shocking than seeing him instantly kill three zombies!

"Huh? A novel? ...Oh, right, in this situation..."

Lin Fan’s question snapped her back to reality. She tilted her head in thought and said hesitantly:

"...Play the weakling to ambush the strong?"

Lin Fan nodded. But it was a bit late to play the weakling now that he’d already killed someone.

He would have to take a different approach, then.

"Stay hidden."

He told Chu Zhaozhao, then reached back to open the car door, closed the window, shut and locked the door, and walked out toward the encircling crowd.

The already loose crowd began to back away and part before Lin Fan’s steady, even steps.

The cowards had already slunk around to get behind their bald leader, avoiding Lin Fan’s direct path.

Only a few of the bolder ones remained in front, still clutching their weapons, but even they were forced to retreat step by step under Lin Fan’s cold gaze. Not one dared to make a move.

Seeing Lin Fan walk straight toward the clinic, the bald brute was now at a complete loss.

’Even if Lin Fan is some martial arts master with god-given strength, two fists are no match for four hands. I have so many men. Losing a few just means fewer people to split the loot with. In the end, we have him in the bag.’

Besides, those three cars weren’t going anywhere. He frowned, waiting to see what Lin Fan was planning.

Lin Fan walked slowly to the base of his building. He saw several pry marks on the rolling steel door of his pet clinic. The glass window next to it was shattered, and a few bars of the security grille were broken.

Luckily, the rolling door was very sturdy. And luckily, he had Su Qing...

"Sister Qing?"

Lin Fan called out toward the third-floor window.

At his shout, the previously quiet space behind the rolling door suddenly erupted with the low growls of several zombies! A series of THUMPS followed from inside the clinic. The rolling door buckled and warped outward from the impacts, but it refused to give way!

Just as Lin Fan’s heart was growing colder, the sliding window upstairs was pulled open with a CLICK.

"Little Brother!"

A familiar face then peeked out, an irrepressible look of joyful surprise on her features.

Su Qing looked down at the figure of the man she had thought of day and night. She covered her mouth with her hands as tears streamed uncontrollably down her face.

But then, as if remembering something, she quickly threw a nylon rope down from the window and shouted anxiously:

"Little Brother! Hurry, come up!"

"They were prying the door open, so I opened the stairwell door and let the zombies in! They don’t dare come in now!"

"Come up first, we’ll figure out the rest later!"

Seeing the green [92/100] health bar above Su Qing’s head, Lin Fan finally broke into a smile, his heart at ease.

Ever since he heard those thugs mention Su Qing, Lin Fan’s heart had been in his throat. He knew she was tough and brave, but he never expected her to be this crazy.

To protect the supplies at home, she had actually resorted to the mutually-destructive tactic of letting the zombies from inside the complex into the stairwell.

No matter how bold those thugs were, they would never dare to pry open a door that clearly had a dozen zombies behind it.

’Let zombies into the stairwell and then run upstairs...’

"Little Brother! Hurry and come up! We can forget about the stuff in the cars!"

Seeing Su Qing still waving anxiously at him from upstairs, Lin Fan waved back.

"It’s fine, Sister Qing. Throw down my two short spears. Be good now..."

"Little Brother, what are you going to do?"

"Help you take out the trash..."

...

...

...

...

"So that’s ’Sister Qing’..."

From her corner of the windshield, Chu Zhaozhao looked up at the long-haired beauty upstairs, a salted fish’s gleam flashing in her eyes.

...