Chapter 383 – Zombie Head Cannonball

As the maid girl awoke, Yu Shiran suddenly shivered, immediately receiving a burst of joyous psychic energy from Black Silk.

“Hey, stop messing with my body!” Yu Shiran complained.

“We need to find some cover,” Xia Na said, glancing back at Ling Mo. “They’re getting more numerous.”

After a moment of thought, Ling Mo spoke up, “These ordinary zombies are only targeting me, so there’s no need to fight to the death with them, needlessly wasting energy. More zombies will be attracted by the bodies. If I simply disappear, they will naturally give up.”

“Why think of this method only now?” Li Ya Lin asked, running her fingers through her hair.

“I had to struggle at least a bit…” Ling Mo responded, “But now, I’m done struggling. Cover me, and we’ll regroup shortly.”

Indeed, disappearing from a horde of zombies was not an easy task anywhere else.

Ye Lian grabbed Ling Mo’s sleeve, staring at him with wide eyes, “I… I will go with you.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

Watching the two dash into a factory, Xia Na turned her head back to face the front.

Behind a pile of corpses, a large mass of zombies continued to approach relentlessly…

Ban Yue looked at the blood on the ground, suddenly sticking out her tongue to lick the corner of her mouth.

“No,” Xia Na’s cool voice intervened before Ban Yue could pounce.

“Hey…” Ban Yue turned around only to see Xia Na staring at her with blood-red eyes, “We have rules, and since you’re working with us, you need to follow them. Didn’t you say someone taught you a lot? Have you not learned the word ‘obedience’ well?”

Ban Yue furrowed her brow, biting her lip, but eventually responded obediently, “No…”

Yu Shiran suddenly turned her head to the side, discreetly wiping drool from the corner of her mouth.

“Then learn it well!” Xia Na growled, her eyes slowly returning to normal, “None of us can eat, so how can you hog it all!”

“Speaking her mind with such righteous indignation…” Li Ya Lin chimed in from the side, her waist cocked and a smile playing on her lips.

Her posture was supple and seductive, the hint of amber in her eyes briefly mesmerizing Ban Yue.

“Who are you really…” Ban Yue asked tentatively.

Li Ya Lin tilted her head, her eyes both chilling and captivating as she regarded Ban Yue, “Let’s just say, a beautiful serpent.”

“Serpent…” Ban Yue looked Li Ya Lin up and down with curiosity, suddenly remarking, “But the virus in you isn’t pure, hasn’t anyone told you?”

“What do you mean?” Li Ya Lin straightened up quickly, shaking Snake’s Kiss in her hand, which she then used to grab the head of a passing zombie, tossing it as a projectile at another that had come too close. The zombie head cannonball was quite effective; the head and the impacted zombie were sent flying over ten meters away.

Ban Yue glanced back and said, “Is this the excitement of humanity? Seems like you really have no clue. The bodies of lower-level zombies contain many human elements, which is why they’re not as strong as us. Now, inside you, there’s our virus, the snake’s virus, and a small remnant of human components—it’s quite the mishmash, isn’t it…”

Li Ya Lin nodded and replied, “Sounds pretty formidable and logical.”

“It’s just that you didn’t understand a word, right?” Ban Yue also kicked a zombie trying to rush them, then stomped on its chest with such force that a ‘crack’ sound was heard, and the chest of the zombie immediately caved in.

Xia Na turned to ask, “So, what’s the solution?”

Shaking her head, she responded, “Grandma explained it to me several times, but I’m still not clear. Oh, all this was told to her by that guy. Hmph, being with humans really does make one weaker! How about it, why don’t you all come with me? Although I only like Ye Lian, maybe after spending some time together, we might develop… a bond similar to that of mates?”

“Ling Mo will really kill you for that,” Xia Na said coolly.

“Then I won’t take you!”

“I wasn’t planning on going anyway.”

“…Aaargh!”

Ban Yue, in a frenzy, carrying the maid girl on her back, charged into the horde of zombies.

The female zombies covered her with ease, but it was more troublesome for Ling Mo.

There weren’t many zombies in the factory, most likely because they had been lured away, so entering was relatively smooth.

However, upon entering the workshop, a pungent smell immediately hit them, causing Ling Mo’s head to ache.

Seeing Ye Lian just scrunching her nose and looking around blankly, Ling Mo quickly covered her mouth with his hand.

“Silly girl, even if you can ignore the discomfort, you still have to take care of yourself.” Fumbling in his backpack, Ling Mo pulled out two masks and put them on both of them.

On the way there, there hadn’t been a need for masks, but upon really entering the factory, it became unbearably uncomfortable.

The lathes in the workshop were lined with neat strips of silver aluminum foil, surrounded by control instruments.

Walking further into the workshop, they soon found a staircase leading upwards. The smell was coming from above.

Ling Mo took Ye Lian up the stairs and discovered several large barrels, each taller than a person, filled with what appeared to be chemical liquids. A wooden ladder rested against one of the barrels, beside which hung a blackened corpse, reduced to skin and bones.

Some of the barrels had toppled over, their contents mixing with blood, creating an eerie hue.

“Ling Mo… why… why did we come here?” Ye Lian rubbed her nose. “The masks aren’t working anymore.”

“That’s exactly what we want,” Ling Mo said as he sat her down in a spot, “We’ll stay here for a while. Our bodies can still withstand it. If there’s a problem, I’ll be the first to feel unwell, which means I can get you out of here before it affects you.”

“But…”

Some of the zombies here are noseless, relying mainly on their hearing—and I have no idea how sharp that’s become, but squatting still probably won’t cut it. The rest must have a keen sense of smell, especially with the strange odors permeating everywhere. Their sense of smell must be stronger, but still, it’s no better than yours or mine, seeing as their noses haven’t evolved into Pinocchio’s.

Ling Mo wiped a small peephole on the grimy glass and peered out, “So this place should keep them at bay.”

Ye Lian was stunned for a moment before she suddenly had an epiphany, “So that’s how it is… You mean, humans can hide by understanding our weaknesses, then…”

“Hide? Impossible. If you need to eat and drink, you have to go out and search. Water, an essential, won’t just magically appear, and you can’t just drink any water from the rivers. And food, well, even if it’s just roots and bark, you’ve got to step outside to find it. I bet some survivors might run to the mountains; maybe there are survivors there.”

Ling Mo said this while keeping an eye on the activity below.

“Ban Yue is particularly fierce. I thought she was going to toss Black Silk’s parasite like a grenade. Those leg moves are impressive, so fast and brutal… Damn, she just decapitated with a kick!”

Under Ban Yue’s onslaught, the zombies that rushed onto the highway were mostly halted.

But the scene, with blood splattering and limbs flying, was gruesomely bloody.

This was Ling Mo’s first time witnessing a wild leader level zombie fighting regular zombies, and it was truly staggering…

Compared to Li Ya Lin and the others, Ban Yue’s attacks were simpler, more brutal, and bloodthirsty. She seemed to intentionally make the fatal wounds worse, creating a more intense visual impact.

Considering the zombies’ intelligence, Ling Mo preferred to believe she acted on instinct rather than as a psychotic cold-blooded killer.

“Wild… But this way of attacking, she could easily get hurt…”

Ling Mo noticed that some zombies, not dying immediately after being attacked, would rush at Ban Yue.

Although Ban Yue always managed to keep the maid girl safe, she herself sustained a few injuries.

But Ban Yue didn’t care; instead, she became even more ferocious.

“We definitely can’t let Ye Lian and the others pick up these bad examples,” Ling Mo turned his head, pinched Ye Lian’s cheek, stopping her from coming closer, “especially you.”

A few zombies found their way in from other places, homing in on the factory like they had built-in radar, and Ling Mo even heard some noise from the direction of the stairs.

But soon, the noise ceased, and the scent of blood lured those zombies back out.

“Good, it worked…”

“Eh? Could it be… Ling Mo guessed this?” Ye Lian’s voice was muffled as her cheeks were pinched, her eyes wide.

“They should be able to join us soon.” Ling Mo said calmly, relaying the scene to Xia Na and Li Ya Lin through Black Silk.

Soon, they pulled Ban Yue away from her thrilling battle and headed their way.

The ground was littered with no less than a hundred bodies, and to say that blood flowed like a river would be no exaggeration. As soon as they left, the zombies swarmed towards the corpses, completely obscuring them from view in the blink of an eye.

If one were closer, the dense and frightening sound of gnawing would be unmistakably audible…

“The scent of blood is strong now; let’s get moving.”

Ling Mo pulled Ye Lian down the stairs, just in time to run into Ban Yue and her group inside the workshop.

Exiting through a side door, they encountered another staircase, which led them to a large two-story warehouse.

The air here was noticeably fresher, and apart from a few skeletons, there was no sign of zombies. It was likely due to the sealed environment and the absence of food, which meant the zombies didn’t bother to open the door and wander in.