Chapter 60: Win-Win
Lin Fan looked up at the beautiful face he saw day in and day out, a mix of emotions stirring within him. *Those thugs had called her a crazy bitch...*
’Crazy? Why do I find myself liking her more and more the longer I look?’
Su Qing didn’t understand what Lin Fan meant, but after a moment’s hesitation, she decided to trust him. She turned and vanished from the window.
When the bald man behind him heard Lin Fan ask for a weapon, he assumed Lin Fan was about to make a last stand. He quickly stepped out from behind the crowd and shouted:
"Th-this fucking bastard! You ungrateful piece of shit! Bro... Brothers, get him!"
But for all his fierce shouting, he didn’t dare to advance himself. He just shoved his lackeys forward.
"Go! What the fuck are you waiting for! Go!"
Goaded on by him, the few core members who had been surrounding Lin Fan had no choice but to tighten their grips on their weapons and slowly close in again.
"Sigh..."
Seeing this, Lin Fan couldn’t help but feel a flicker of admiration. ’A top salesman is a top salesman, no matter where you put him.’
’These guys definitely weren’t neighbors from the same building. They probably didn’t even know each other before this. To be organized by this bald leader in just two days... the guy’s got some kind of talent.’
’Too bad they’re all scum.’
Lin Fan could see bloodstains on the steel pipes and machetes in their hands, and on the bald leader’s axe. Some of it was from zombies, but some of it wasn’t.
In this chaotic mob, for them to try and seize a prime spot like the supermarket, they must have clashed with other people.
When he’d returned, he’d noticed more bodies in the area, but their heads were all smashed in. Lin Fan couldn’t tell which were the original zombies and which were residents they had murdered.
Just as he was thinking this, a steel pipe was tossed down. Lin Fan had just caught it when a second one followed.
Along with the pipes came Su Qing’s worried eyes, anxiously watching every little movement downstairs.
Seeing Lin Fan armed, the men, who were already dragging their feet, began to hesitate again, not daring to advance.
The bald leader saw this and finally snapped. ’How am I supposed to lead this crew if this keeps up?!’
He spat on the ground—PTUI!—then raised his axe and stomped menacingly toward Lin Fan.
The moment their leader moved, his lackeys seemed to find their backbone. Shouting curses, they raised their weapons and surged forward to attack Lin Fan!
"What’s the rush? These aren’t for you..."
Lin Fan said with a flippant wave of his hand at the approaching crowd.
’Even though I just killed a man, there was no notification for my Life Value or any drops. In other words, killing people is completely useless to me.’
’So why should I get my hands dirty?’
So, for this group of thugs, this distilled essence of scum, Lin Fan had a plan...
He raised the steel pipes, knocking them together twice. CLANG! CLANG! Then, with a sudden heave, he brought them down with lightning speed, smashing them against the bottom of his clinic’s roll-up security door!
The attackers were just about to charge up the steps when they saw this. They were horrified, their eyes wide, and for a moment they were all struck speechless.
The bald leader scrambled to a halt.
"HOLY SHIT, man! Let’s talk this over... FUCK! You’re insane!"
KRANG! A deafening crash!
The roll-up door, already warped from being pried at and battered by zombies, finally gave way under the heavy blow!
The lock core shattered!
With a loud K-RRUNCH, the entire metal door was torn from its frame!
Dull, gray eyes. Sallow, bluish skin. One after another, zombies poured out from the ruptured doorway, lunging madly toward Lin Fan and the crowd behind him!
"AHHH!"
"FUCK!"
"He’s a psycho!"
"HELP ME!"
The crowd, which had only just rallied around the bald leader, instantly scattered in every direction.
They shoved and crashed into one another. The scene descended into chaos.
These guys might have the courage to fight one or two zombies or a regular person, but faced with a dark horde of zombies that outnumbered them, this pack of scum—bullies to the weak and cowards to the strong—immediately pissed their pants and fled for their lives.
’Killing people doesn’t increase my Life Value, so there’s no problem with letting them become zombies!’
’This also finishes the job Su Qing couldn’t, and gets some payback for her.’
’A win-win!’
’That’s two wins!’
...
Lin Fan casually parried a lunging zombie—one of his new "minions." He couldn’t bring himself to kill it. Instead, he turned and led the horde after the fleeing thugs.
Lin Fan was faster. He shook off the zombies and dashed to the side of the van.
He equipped the [Cloaking Crystal], then flipped around and landed steadily on the van’s roof.
The zombies immediately lost track of Lin Fan. They looked around, then resumed their chase of the screaming, wailing thugs.
The ordinary onlookers watching from a distance had seen things go south and had long since ducked into the residential buildings on either side.
The ones being chased by zombies were the same ones who had grabbed Lin Fan and surrounded his vehicle.
’What’s that? You were standing so close just to watch the show?’
’Go tell that to the zombies and see if they believe you.’
...
Screams, curses, and the low growls of zombies filled the air.
In the blink of an eye, most of the dozen or so thugs had become zombie food. Only three or four were left, desperately climbing the iron security bars on the first-floor windows, just out of the zombies’ reach.
Among them was the bald leader.
His axe was long gone, and all his earlier bravado had vanished. He was plastered against the security bars of a first-floor balcony window, his head down, not daring to make a sound.
Several zombies clawed at him from below, their fingers inches from his feet. The big man was shaking like a leaf, and a dark patch spread across his pants. He’d pissed himself in terror.
Lin Fan stood on the van’s roof, feeling not a shred of pity.
’Never mind that they murdered ordinary people and seized food supplies for themselves.’
’They tried to break into my home, they bullied my Su Qing, and they even keyed my van!’
’How could I let that slide?’
’Not a chance in hell!’
’If killing people increased my Life Value, I would’ve chopped them to pieces myself long ago.’
’You think you can mess with me and just walk away?’
With a thought, a metal lump slightly larger than his palm appeared in Lin Fan’s hand.
It was [Scrap Metal]. This stuff drops from common zombies, and since it was useless anyway, he wouldn’t feel bad about losing it.
He weighed it in his hand. Not too heavy, not too light. Just as he’d thought, it was perfect for throwing.
Lin Fan took aim, wound up, and let it fly with a WHOOSH!
CRACK!
The first-floor window of the apartment shattered on impact!
’Dammit, I missed...’
’Let’s try again...’
The sudden sound of shattering glass drew the attention of several more frenzied zombies.
The number of zombies beneath the bald man instantly doubled, and the sound drove them into an even greater frenzy of clawing and grasping.
Startled by the whoosh of something flying past his ear and the sound of shattering glass, he nearly lost his grip and fell. Forgetting all about staying quiet, he screamed in terror.
"Brother! Brother!"
"Sir! Pops! My own dear father!"
"I was wrong, for fuck’s sake!"
"Please, be the... be the bigger man!"
"I have food! I have food and water at my place!"
"It’s all yours! Just spare my life, I’m begging you!"
He didn’t even know where Lin Fan was; he just kept wailing hysterically.
’Who else would be bored enough to be throwing rocks at me right now? After who I just pissed off, do I even need to guess?!’
"Oh, father... my dear father..."
"My living god... please spare me..."
...
"Ugh..."
’No principles. Disgusting.’
Lin Fan aimed again. And threw.
"AHH!"
The piece of metal struck the bald man in the thigh. His foot slipped, and a zombie seized his ankle, stretched its neck, and took a bite!
"AHHH!!!"
"MOTHERFUCKER!"
"YOU FUCKING PSYCHO!!"
Then he was dragged from the security bars and swallowed by the horde of zombies...
"Ahhh, that’s better..."