Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
Crack!
The blade of the ax landed on the black corpse’s neck. The sound of bone cracking rang crisply in the deadly-silent forest.
However, the zombie seemed to not feel any pain. Tilting its head, it used its shoulder and face to trap the blade, preventing Li Ang from pulling it back.
Since he was unable to pull it back, Li Ang decided to let go of the ax handle and kicked the black corpse’s chest instead.
The black corpse had merely taken a few steps back when it had been shot by the shotgun previously. Li Ang’s kick only forced it to take half a step back.
Half a step was sufficient.
Using the recoil of the kick, Li Ang moved backward as he took a glass coke bottle out of his backpack.
The bottle did not contain coke but an extremely dense gasoline-based mixture. The mouth of the bottle was sealed shut with rubber, and two sealed glass straws filled with concentrated sulfuric acid were glued to its sides.
The coke bottle spun in the air, gliding in an arc until it collided with the black corpse’s forehead. Then, it exploded.
The average Molotov cocktail would explode if one lit a cloth soaked in flammable liquid on fire before tossing it.
On the other hand, the cocktail made by Li Ang made use of the force exerted on the concentrated sulfuric acid to induce an explosion through a chemical reaction. This method was much safer and did not require lighting a cloth on fire.
Glass shards flew everywhere. The concentrated sulfuric acid and the gasoline mixture splattered on the black corpse, exuding a piercing smell strong enough to cover the corpse’s smell.
The exothermic chemical reaction instantly lit up the gasoline mixture. Sparks and flames enveloped the zombie, transforming it into a human-shaped torch.
The light of the fire shot up into the sky, brightening the entire forest. Clueless insects were attracted by the light, flying and circling the human-shaped torch.
The clothes on the zombie were burned to ashes. Even the layer of black hair that could stop bullets shriveled amid the flames.
“Ahhh!”
The black corpse opened its mouth extremely wide and roared. The ax embedded in its neck fell to the ground.
Bang!
Li Ang pressed the shotgun’s trigger. Upon being shot by the steel ball bullets, the corpse convulsed on the ground as if struck by lightning.
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
The shotgun fired continuously, forcing the black corpse to move backward. Flammable liquid droplets slowly dripped onto the fallen leaves, leaving behind a burning trail.
The black hair layer was burned until it was around two centimeters long. Li Ang placed the last two magazines inside the barrel of the shotgun and took the electric pop riveter out of his backpack.
This industrial-grade pop riveter could run at a maximum of 2500 W and fire 45 steel nails per minute. These nails could pierce 10 to 20 mm of concrete wall or channel steel.
This flesh-made body was akin to frozen tofu in front of the pop riveter.
Ding, ding, ding.
Clear firing shots echoed in the dense forest. After shortening the black hair on the body, the long nails were pinned onto the black corpse’s forehead, eye sockets, nose bridge, lips, jaw and throat, piercing the skin and embedding themselves into the flesh.
A few moments later, the black corpse’s face was covered with steel nails. This hair-raising image was frightening enough to make anyone with trypophobia faint.
The steel nails were embedded into the black corpse’s brain, scrambling its rotten brain. Even so, it remained standing.
The layer of black hair on the zombie seemed to have a life of its own. It swiftly clumped together, twisting and coiling, forming a reticulate defense layer on the black corpse like a hauberk.
As this reticulate defense layer was formed, the hair, which was tinged with green, started to extract the remaining fluid from the black corpse. A layer of this fluid spread on the reticulate defense layer, filling the gaps in the net-like holes.
Since the flames inside did not have access to oxygen, they were quickly extinguished. The flames burning outside were blocked by the wet hair, becoming smaller until they were gradually extinguished as well.
This whole process occurred in the span of a few minutes. The extraction of the bodily fluid made the dry muscles and the flesh of the black corpse shrivel further. From afar, it looked like a zombified black monkey that was both skinny and weak.
The skinny, hunched black corpse stood there like a statue. Li Ang looked at it silently. As he slowly walked backward, his hands continued to change the steel nail chain on the pop riveter.
His vision suddenly blurred, for the black corpse’s speed had increased once again. In the blink of an eye, it had transcended several meters and arrived in front of Li Ang.
The sharp claws of the black corpse sliced down and Li Ang hastily retreated. However, he failed to fully evade the tip of the claws, which came into contact with the CQB bulletproof shirt.
The outer layer of the CQB bulletproof shirt was made out of soft puncture-resistant material made from strong polyethylene fibers. The strength of these fibers was 40% greater than that of the famous aramid fiber.
This soft puncture-resistant layer, which could withstand an adult man stabbing it thousands of times, could not hold its own against the black corpse’s fingernails. It was immediately shredded into pieces before shattering in the air.
The sharp claw continued to drag down.
Inside the CQB bulletproof shirt were a NIJIII-Grade SAPI bulletproof board and an OTV bulletproof vest made by America’s research institute.
This NIJIII-Grade SAPI bulletproof steel sheet weighed 1.8 kg and could block even the attack of a 7.62mm caliber bullet.
The sharp fingernails came into contact with the bulletproof steel sheet with an ear-piercing screech.
The modern industrially-produced steel sheet was reduced into ribbons by the sharp fingernails and split into two.
Fortunately, the claws were blocked by the bulletproof vest and could not penetrate even deeper to rip Li Ang apart.
Surrounded by peril, Li Ang, who was on the brink of dying, had yet to feel relief when he saw the black corpse swing its claws once more.
The piercing sound of the claws tearing through the air rang out. Li Ang remained calm as he slammed his body against the black corpse.
He could not retreat, for it would only result in his defeat. The black corpse’s agility was much higher than Li Ang’s agility. Therefore, once he retreated, he would be ripped into pieces by the attacks that would surely rain down on him.
There was a great disparity in their body size. This collision was akin to a gorilla hugging a baboon, and this act sealed the movement of the black corpse’s shoulders.
In this awkward position, Li Ang could distinctly smell the extremely pungent rotting, bloody odor emitted by the black corpse.
This smell was a lot like the smell of a bloated cadaver sealed in a sauna for a dozen days…
How reminiscent… Li Ang thought.
Clank! The pop riveter had been successfully reloaded. Li Ang, who was hugging the black corpse with both arms, aimed the pop riveter at the back of its head.
Ding, ding, ding, ding!
A dozen nails were embedded into the gaps of the black corpse’s atlas, axis, and third cervical vertebra, ripping the ligament, piercing the dura mater, and snapping the black corpse’s cervical vertebra.
Usually, such an injury would immediately result in death or, at the very least, in paralysis for life. However, the neck of the black corpse merely lost its support and dropped against its shoulder. The arm that was still swinging down continued to do so.
Now!
The glittering Cat’s Eye of Li Ang let out a brilliant gleam of light.
Illusion activated.
Inside the black corpse’s mind, this was the image projected: A small, skinny, yellow-skinned boy in tattered clothes who had snot dripping from his nose cried as he lifted a wooden basin.
“Mom! I’m hungry!”
These seemingly ordinary words appeared to drain the black corpse of all its energy.
The swinging claws trembled and stopped moving.
Those jumbled, blurry memory fragments appeared once more in the rotten brain before finally condensing into droplets of bloody tears that seeped out of the black corpse’s eye sockets and flowed down its dry cheeks.
Everything lost its meaning after death. What lived in this rotting body was no longer an old lady but a new vengeful being. It was a zombie living on anger and feeding on flesh.
It should not possess any more feelings over its past life, nor should it feel sad about anything.
But why, just why is its chest hurting so much?
“Roar!”
As though it was rejecting the past and its momentary weakness, the black corpse got angry again. The last bit of emotion in its eyes disappeared like snow on a hot summer day, vanishing forever.
The slanted head opened its mouth widely and bit Li Ang. At the same time, its arm started to grab for his vertebra in a downward motion.
Making use of that split second of hesitation, Li Ang violently lifted his shoulder and slammed it against the biting head. Then, he tilted his body forward, lifting his right leg backward like a ballet dancer before using his right foot to kick the approaching arm wrist, successfully stopping the attack.
The black corpse’s head flew backward as a result of the collision until the back of its head hit its spine and only a layer of skin connected the entire neck!
The existence of the vengeful zombie might defy science, but its entire body needed the vertebra to exert strength. Now that its spine was broken, its arm was like a puppet that had lost the guidance of its string, thus dropping back down. Even its black hair became loose, losing its defensive purpose.
Li Ang remained silent, gently hugging the black corpse as he ran until both of them slammed onto an extremely thick tree trunk.
Thump!
The tree trunk and its branches shook violently and its leaves fell. Moonlight seeped through the gaps between the branches.
Making use of the moonlight, Li Ang retreated, unsheathed the dagger from his boots, and stabbed the zombie’s oral cavity, pinning it on the tree trunk.
Separated by a layer of tactical gloves, he used his other hand to pick up the camping ax that had fallen from the black corpse’s neck to the ground.
The eyes of the zombie only contained pure hatred for the living and had completely lost all traces of consciousness.
It was truly pitiful.
The battle ax’s blade glinted coldly under the moonlight.
Like a woodcutter, Li Ang’s arm swung the ax in an arc and sliced the black corpse’s neck.
Dong!
The tree trunk shook again before the zombie was decapitated.
[Eliminate Hidden Mountain Village Zombie 1/1]
[Scripted Quest “Starvation Limit” is complete]
[Reward is being determined]