Chapter 103 – The Silent Play Unfolding

After more than an hour, Ling Mo finally arrived at the entrance of the Peace Theater with a team of Zombie Puppets.

Killing the zombies on the way wasn’t difficult, but those drawn by the scent of blood kept emerging from all directions, making Ling Mo’s scalp tingle with anxiety.

In the end, he had to resort to a desperate measure, sacrificing two Zombie Puppets to lure the zombies in the opposite direction.

When he first entered X City University, Ling Mo didn’t have a clear sense of how many zombies there were. But now, he deeply understood how overwhelming the number 30,000 could be.

Even though he had chosen routes with fewer zombies as much as possible, it was still incredibly challenging. One could imagine how difficult it would be for ordinary Survivors to find a glimmer of hope in such an environment.

Of course, this also had to do with the direction Ling Mo chose. Ordinary Survivors wouldn’t deliberately head towards the areas with the most zombies like he did.

He felt a bit grateful for his cooperation with Lin Luanqiu. Otherwise, someone like him, who was completely unfamiliar with the environment, would have stumbled around aimlessly and lost precious time.

Seeing the front doors of the Peace Theater slightly ajar, Ling Mo sent a Zombie Puppet inside to scout the situation.

As he stepped onto the stairs, Ling Mo felt that the Peace Theater was bound to be a scene of utter carnage.

Bloodstains still lingered on the entrance doors, and following the trail of blood led to a not-too-long hallway.

The hallway was no cleaner. Just looking at it, one could imagine the horrific scene of blood and flesh splattering everywhere.

After passing through the hallway, a tiered medium-sized theater came into view. Although the lighting was dim, with the zombies’ superior vision, it wasn’t hard to make out the interior.

However, with just one glance, Ling Mo felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

The first impression: Bloodthirsty!

Through the eyes of the Zombie Puppet, Ling Mo took in the entire scene of the hall at first glance! As for places like Backstage, they would require a more thorough search to understand.

The theater wasn’t particularly large, with two levels that could accommodate around a thousand people. But now, it had almost become a slaughterhouse.

Bloodstains and various unidentified marks covered the seats and walls. It took Ling Mo a few seconds to regain his composure. He cautiously manipulated the Zombie Puppet to enter the theater.

Such a scene couldn’t have been caused solely by the disaster on the first day. There must have been many subsequent battles among the zombies left behind.

These zombies, though ferocious, had a significant flaw: their lack of thinking ability. They would stay where they were led unless they discovered new prey.

In a mostly enclosed theater like this, they would be trapped inside, killing each other until a truly conscious Mutation Zombie or even an Advanced Zombie appeared.

When Ling Mo first entered, his heart skipped a beat. If all the zombies inside had killed each other, then his target might have long since left, making this trip a waste.

However, as Ling Mo slowly moved the Zombie Puppet towards the stage, he realized he had been overly worried. Some dark figures were lurking in the shadows, and some even blocked the aisles. Roughly estimating, there were about thirty zombies. Although the number wasn’t large, these zombies had clearly undergone several enhancements. While they hadn’t yet become true Mutation Zombies, they were likely not far from it.

One more round of mutual slaughter, the few remaining zombies would probably become genuine Mutation Zombies.

As Ling Mo maneuvered the Zombie Puppet past them, he tried to be as quiet as possible, but inevitably made slight noises, causing the zombies to turn their heads towards him. If they suddenly went berserk, this Zombie Puppet would be shredded in an instant. Fortunately, they seemed to have no immediate desire to attack…

The process was nerve-wracking because, while the body was the Zombie Puppet’s, Ling Mo experienced everything firsthand. The zombies moved slowly, as if performing a silent play, their blood-red eyes wide open and their faces twisted into grotesque expressions.

“Are only these semi-evolved ones left? Where are the Mutation Zombies and Advanced Zombies?”

Ling Mo felt a bit disappointed. With a theater this large, it seemed likely that many people had died here. Shouldn’t there be at least a few, if not a dozen, Mutation Zombies?

He carefully maneuvered the Zombie Puppet around the group of zombies and then moved towards the stage, heading to the back.

Just as he stepped into the backstage hallway, Ling Mo suddenly felt a pang of anxiety. He quickly turned around and, sure enough, saw a dark figure leaping out from behind, lunging straight at him.

Only an Advanced Zombie could move with such stealth and speed!

Ling Mo was both shocked and frustrated. Do Advanced Zombies all prefer to ambush? Is this some kind of racial trait?

He knew that Advanced Zombies had some basic intelligence and could make judgments and employ instinctual tactics. Among so many zombies, his lone moving Zombie Puppet was bound to stand out. This Advanced Zombie had the patience to lie in wait and launch a sneak attack from behind.

Ling Mo had expected to encounter Mutation Zombies, so he hadn’t armed the Zombie Puppet. He was caught off guard by the appearance of an Advanced Zombie!

The Advanced Zombie’s movements were incredibly fluid. It leaped high and pounced directly at the Zombie Puppet, its skeletal hands like eagle talons.

“What’s there to be afraid of? It’s just a Zombie Puppet,” Ling Mo thought. He considered dodging but then realized it wasn’t his real body. It might be a good opportunity to gauge the strength of this Advanced Zombie.

In this life-or-death struggle, there was no room for technique. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, Ling Mo raised the Zombie Puppet’s arm to meet the Advanced Zombie head-on.

A direct clash of strength!

But the moment they collided, Ling Mo realized that the Zombie Puppet was vastly outmatched by the Advanced Zombie!

This Advanced Zombie was even stronger than the one Ling Mo had encountered in the Mall!

Since he wasn’t fighting in his own body, Ling Mo’s reaction speed couldn’t perfectly synchronize with the Zombie Puppet. Thus, as soon as he raised its arms, the Advanced Zombie grabbed them and slammed the puppet to the ground.

While ordinary zombies didn’t react to pain, which meant it wouldn’t affect Ling Mo directly, the impact still shocked him.

“This thing is so fierce and fast…” Ling Mo thought, trying to figure out how to deal with the Advanced Zombie, but it was already charging at him again.

He quickly maneuvered the Zombie Puppet into a roll, but its speed was still slightly slower than the Advanced Zombie’s. As he barely evaded it, the puppet’s back was raked open, leaving a long, bloody gash.

“If only I could use the Psychic Tentacle through the puppet, I might be able to block it.”

Previously, Ling Mo’s psychic control had little effect on the Advanced Female Zombie, but now he was confident that, even if he couldn’t fully control it during the fight, he could at least disrupt its actions.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t use the Psychic Tentacle through the Zombie Puppet, so he had no choice but to run deeper into the Backstage area, ignoring the blood pouring from the puppet.

Ling Mo’s plan was to lure the Advanced Zombie away with the puppet, then have his other Zombie Puppets take this opportunity to enter and kill the semi-evolved zombies inside, or at least incite another round of mutual slaughter.

By the time the Advanced Zombie finished off the puppet, Ling Mo should have already reached the theater with Ye Lian and Xia Na. With their cooperation, taking down this Advanced Zombie wouldn’t be too difficult.

But just as he maneuvered the puppet past the Dressing Room door, an arm suddenly shot out and yanked him inside!