Chapter 415 – Armored Zombie

During the frantic chase, Liu Baodong ran haphazardly into a maze of shelves.

The floor was cluttered with various debris, and some shelves had collapsed in the middle, making his escape exceedingly difficult.

The more panicked he became, the more he was hindered by the obstacles.

Feeling the distance between him and his pursuers closing in, Liu Baodong was overcome with fear and silently screamed:

“Help… Help!”

Not only were there zombies along the way, but two zombies were also relentlessly chasing him from the front and back.

Just dealing with the zombies along the path was already challenging enough; handling those two special ones was beyond his capability.

After all this running, he felt his stamina reaching its limit.

No matter where he ran, he couldn’t find his suddenly missing companions, leaving his hopes for assistance dashed.

“What the hell is going on!”

Liu Baodong felt like he was on the verge of collapse. His mind was in turmoil, and he tripped, falling into a pile of goods.

“I’m done for! This is the end!”

Just as Liu Baodong, ignoring the pain, was scrambling to get up, he suddenly heard the sound of a blade scraping the ground from behind one of the shelves.

“What was that sound?”

Liu Baodong was initially startled but then showed a glimmer of hope.

Aside from zombies, there were no other living beings here. The source of such a noise had to be…

“Help… Oh shit!”

As a foot stepped out from behind the shelf, Liu Baodong’s fleeting hope turned into sheer terror.

A towering figure, clad in pieces of patched-together armor, wielding a long machete with an iron chain wrapped around the muscular arm, emerged.

This terrifying monster, with a face obscured, was covered in chunks of flesh and drenched in blood.

In its hand, it dragged a blood-soaked female zombie.

Upon closer inspection, this female zombie was the very one that had been relentlessly chasing him earlier.

But Liu Baodong was too terrified to notice any of this. From the moment he saw the Armored Zombie, he felt his entire body go rigid, as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

His teeth chattered uncontrollably, and a sudden urge to urinate overwhelmed him.

The Armored Zombie slowly turned its head, and the cold gaze from behind the mask sent a shiver down Liu Baodong’s spine.

“What… what kind of monster is this…”

Just as this thought crossed Liu Baodong’s mind, the male zombie chasing him arrived.

However, the moment the male zombie, brandishing a rusty dagger, appeared, it was locked onto by the Armored Zombie’s gaze.

The machete flew from the Armored Zombie’s hand, striking the bewildered male zombie on the shoulder.

With a swift yank of the iron chain, the Armored Zombie lifted the male zombie like an insect.

These actions were executed seamlessly, perfectly matching its terrifying appearance!

“Clang!”

The Armored Zombie suddenly turned its head back towards Liu Baodong.

“No, no… if it catches me, I’ll be chopped to pieces. I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die!”

At this life-and-death moment, a strong will to survive erupted within Liu Baodong.

He scrambled over the shelves and dashed towards the stairs.

At this moment, Liu Baodong ran faster than ever, even more desperately than before.

The Armored Zombie hesitated for a moment, then a clear, slightly surprised male voice emerged: “Huh, I thought he was scared stiff. I figured he’d be easy to deal with.”

He fumbled at his waist and pulled out a walkie-talkie from the blood-stained armor.

After a moment of hesitation, he put the walkie-talkie back: “Forget it, I won’t ask what he turned me into. I’m curious, but it’s better not to know…”

In the dim light, his reflection could be faintly seen on a glass cabinet.

Short hair, dressed in sportswear, an unremarkable short young man…

“Next time I transform, why not turn me into an even scarier monster? One that can dominate the scene just by standing there!”

The “Armored Zombie” glanced down as he spoke. “So, I only managed to capture two?”

Lying at his feet were the two remaining team members from Liu Baodong’s group.

However, the female team member had completely passed out, and the male team member’s shoulder was deformed, seemingly knocked unconscious from the pain.

The so-called “iron chain machete” was actually a nine-section whip…

“Whatever, I’ll drag them back first. That coward can be scared into submission later; he probably won’t get far anyway.”

The “Armored Zombie” scooped them up, one in each hand, and headed towards another set of stairs…

In a state of extreme panic, Liu Baodong hadn’t run far along the stairs when he collided head-on with Xia Na, who was carrying Lucy.

But it was as if he couldn’t see them at all; he ran right past them.

“Huh? I smell something!”

Although Xia Na didn’t see Liu Baodong, her sense of smell picked up something unusual.

Almost reflexively, she turned and kicked backward.

Liu Baodong, who was sprinting wildly, had no idea a kick was coming. He fell forward, landing sprawled out on the stairs.

“Knocked out?”

Xia Na’s eyes had changed color. She walked over and gave Liu Baodong another kick.

“I was worried I didn’t kick hard enough, but it looks like you’re pretty weak.”

As her eyes returned to normal, Xia Na noticed the difference. “So it’s not that I couldn’t see him; he was just blending into the background… Human superpowers, probably the same psychic type as Ling-Ge. My evolution is in the psychic direction, and my eyes can cause hallucinations, but it seems breaking through illusions is my strong suit…”

“But this kind of hallucination is quite interesting. If I knew how it was done, could I learn it?”

As this thought crossed her mind, Xia Na felt a twinge of excitement.

“Tch, human curiosity… I didn’t expect to retain this trait…”

Xia Na smiled slightly. “I might not be able to find the superhuman who made the hallucination, but there’s a strange scent mixed with this cowardly human’s stench…”

Xia Na spoke as she dragged Liu Baodong down the stairs.

The jarring pain briefly brought Liu Baodong back to consciousness. However, as soon as he opened his eyes, he felt himself being dragged by something invisible, down the stairs…

The combination of pain and fear made Liu Baodong roll his eyes back and pass out again…

Meanwhile, in another part of the department store, Ling Mo was tightly holding Ye Lian’s hand as they walked along a dimly lit corridor.

The long-haired youth wasn’t powerful enough to alter the environment itself. After a probing exchange, the long-haired youth likely wouldn’t attempt to impersonate his companions again.

“But what other tricks could a superhuman who can only create hallucinations have?” Ling Mo thought as he constantly explored his surroundings.

Although he was expending a lot of psychic power, capturing the long-haired youth would naturally replenish it.

“Ye Lian?”

At that moment, Ling Mo suddenly felt Ye Lian release his sleeve.

He quickly turned back, only to find Ye Lian glaring at him with a frosty expression.

It was evident that the long-haired youth had done something to Ye Lian, causing her perception of Ling Mo to become terrifyingly distorted.

“How despicable…”

Although Ling Mo was momentarily stunned, he didn’t let go of Ye Lian’s hand.

“Hey, Ye Lian.”

Ling Mo inwardly mocked the long-haired youth, who was unaware of the psychic link between him and Ye Lian. Such tactics were utterly useless…

While both possessed mental abilities, the long-haired youth clearly wasn’t adept at sensing…

Seeing Ye Lian’s gaze lower, Ling Mo felt a twinge of unease.

“…Ling-Ge… It’s not really a problem that you look like this, but… why is that part also…”

“Damn it!” Ling Mo was furious. He didn’t need to guess to know that the long-haired youth was desperately trying to ruin his image.

However, the youth’s original goal was to provoke Ye Lian into killing. But once she realized it was Ling Mo, she would never attack.

“Hallucinations can’t kill. Let’s see what other tricks you have.”

Ling Mo, seething with anger, turned his head and saw, standing in the shadows of the corridor, a long-haired youth staring intently at him.