Chapter 93 - 92: Zhaozhao’s in Trouble
’It certainly doesn’t sound like a regular zombie.’
But it didn’t matter.
As Lin Fan expertly moved to jam his crowbar into the door seam, he suddenly noticed his energy bar below his Life Value read [183/200]. He hesitated for a moment. ’I might as well try the Impact Crystal. If this works, I won’t even need to carry a crowbar anymore.’
A fully charged Impact Crystal could punch a hole in a concrete floor, so destroying a door lock should be a piece of cake.
Lin Fan reversed his grip on the short spear, aiming the blunt end at the lock.
The force of the impact began to swirl around the iron rod. As the energy gathered, the rod started to tremble slightly.
Lin Fan swung his arm, smashing it against the door lock with a loud CLANG.
Following the impact, a rapid CLICK-CLACK, like the sound of gears stripping, echoed from inside the security door. A moment later, under the relentless pounding of the zombie within, the door was smashed open and a towering figure burst out!
But Lin Fan was hidden behind the open door. The monster didn’t see him and barreled right past, shattering the staircase railing. It rushed down to the landing below and slammed into the wall with a loud THUD!
Lin Fan felt the entire building shudder. He glanced down to see a towering zombie standing at the bottom of the stairs, scanning its surroundings.
[965/965]...
The zombie was as tall as a Giant-Armed Zombie, but its proportions weren’t as exaggerated. Its body was a mass of explosive-looking muscles, bulging high and covered in dark-brown veins.
Every muscle was malformed to an unnatural degree, completely devoid of the symmetry one would expect from a human body. It looked like a monster whose muscles had simply grown out of control all over its frame!
Lin Fan shook his short spear and banged it against the door. The zombie immediately looked up from the landing below. Its pale eyes, shot through with brown streaks, locked onto Lin Fan behind the door, and it charged up the stairs.
Lin Fan’s eyes lit up as he looked at the approaching zombie. ’A new type of zombie means a new type of crystal!’
He raised his short spear, gathering the force of impact, and swung at one of the arms the charging Mutated Zombie swiped at him with!
With a dull THUD, foul blood splattered everywhere!
[-122]!
The short spear smashed into the zombie’s forearm—which was as thick as Lin Fan’s own calf—and snapped the bone, exposing a splintered, white shard.
Though its arm was now shorter and missed Lin Fan, it lost none of its momentum. With a SHUNK, the bone shard stabbed into the metal skin of the security door, splattering another spray of foul blood.
The hallway was too narrow to conveniently fight a zombie this burly. Lin Fan used the force of the monster’s blow to retreat back into the apartment.
The muscle zombie roared and charged into the room. But now that Lin Fan had plenty of room to maneuver, the outcome of the fight was certain. He broke one of the zombie’s legs with a single strike, throwing it off balance, then finished it with a clean blow that shattered its skull.
[Strength Crystal]
[Energy Level: Incompletely Crystallized—Damaged (Remaining Energy: 965)]
[Quality: Fine (Incomplete Structure, Cannot Be Fused)]
[Equippable]
[Strength: Increases the wielder’s physical strength. Consumes the crystal’s own energy while equipped.]
"A Strength Crystal..."
It had a similar amplifying effect to the Activation Crystal, but it was a damaged version, which was a shame.
He stored it in his inventory, took stock of the other dropped supplies and potions, then tossed the crowbar out the window.
Lin Fan readied his weapon and leaped from the balcony window of Apartment 501...
THUD!
[-10]!
[645/655]...
The moment he landed, the spear in his hand hit the ground with a CLANG. Lin Fan felt a sharp pain in his ankle and saw his Life Value drop by 10 points...
"Hiss... That hurts..."
Even though he only lost 10 points of life, it proved that a fall from this height was enough to injure him.
It hurt, but he had successfully tested his body’s capabilities. ’Worth it!’
’It’s only 10 points of health. I’ll just equip the Activation Crystal, and it’ll recover in a bit.’
Lin Fan took out the list Liu Bin had given him and limped toward the next location.
...
Over the next three hours, taking breaks to rest and recover his energy, Lin Fan cleared every room that Liu Bin’s group had flagged as potentially containing a Mutated Zombie. He worked his way through the list until he finished the final target: Building 25, Unit 4, Apartment 602.
In the living room of Apartment 602 now lay a mangled, bloody Mutant Dog, its body torn in two.
Lin Fan stood nearby, picked up a sofa cushion, flipped the blood-stained side over, and sat down on it.
Out of seven marked rooms in Building 24, five had contained Mutated Zombies. In Building 25, out of five marked rooms, all of them held Mutated Zombies, with the sole exception of one that just had a very fat regular zombie.
Liu Bin really had a knack for sniffing out trouble. After this long hunt, Lin Fan’s Life Value was at a full [750/750]!
Although the number of crystals in his backpack was growing, the expression on his face became increasingly grim.
These Mutated Zombies posed no real threat to him, but they came in a bizarre assortment of types.
There were muscular types, armored types, agile types, and stealth types. If an ordinary survivor ran into any of them, it would be a death sentence.
He took stock of the nine crystals he had collected. Four were circular, and five were polygonal.
Among the circular ones, besides the earlier Strength Crystal, there were two Stealth Crystals with different amounts of remaining energy, and one Hardening Crystal. Its effect was similar to a Hardening Potion, and it had 869 energy remaining.
The five polygonal crystals were a Normal-quality Swiftness Crystal, a Sharpness Crystal, an Armor Crystal, and a Strength Crystal, plus a Fine-quality Activation Crystal.
[Fuse?]
With a thought, Lin Fan fused the new, Fine-quality Activation Crystal with his original one...
[Activation Crystal]
[Energy Level: 1]
[Quality: Rare (Fusable, 40% Effective Channel Structure)]
[Equippable]
...
The quality had reached Rare. Lin Fan equipped it, and a strange energy immediately spread across the surface of his skin. The activation effect was definitely stronger!
It had been a while, so Lin Fan couldn’t clearly recall the effects of that mid-grade Berserk Potion, but this feeling couldn’t be far off!
Lin Fan shook out his arms. As he rested, he gazed at the blue sky outside the window, half-tempted to see what jumping from the sixth floor felt like now...
"Lin... *KZZT*... Brother Lin!..."
He had only been resting for a moment when a panicked man’s voice suddenly crackled from the walkie-talkie at his hip. It wasn’t Liu Bin. Lost in the sensation of the Activation Crystal, Lin Fan couldn’t place the voice at first...
"...Give it to me! ...It’s Su Qing!"
A chaotic scramble came over the walkie-talkie, and then Su Qing’s voice broke through. Only then did Lin Fan realize the first voice had been Chu Zhaotian’s. He unclipped the walkie-talkie and replied:
"Sister Qing, it’s Lin Fan. What’s wrong?"
He heard Su Qing’s voice rise in alarm as she spoke hurriedly:
"...We’re outside Building 25... hurry back... something’s happened to Zhaozhao..."
The moment Lin Fan heard the frantic change in Su Qing’s tone, he knew there was trouble!
He didn’t even wait for her to finish her sentence before he shot up from the sofa.
He snatched his spear and launched himself out of the living room’s balcony window in Apartment 602!
THUD!
[-5]!