ATDIWR Chapter 93

Chapter 93 Cloned Mental-type Zombie King, Invisible Fighter Jets Have Arrived!……

All the Power Users instantly ran out of the house and saw one zombie after another breaking out of the ground.

“How are these zombies coming from underground?” Kong Zhongcheng joined the battle and asked at the same time.

Ji An said, “Mental-type Zombie King. Everyone be careful, there’s likely a Mental-type Zombie King nearby.”

Only Mental-type Zombie Kings can arrange troops and formations. This one was planning to sneak over while they weren offt heir guard and trap them all like turtles in a jar, catching them all in one swoop.

He Tao cursed, “This Mental-type Zombie King is evolving too fast! Is it even giving people a chance to live?!”

Gu Jinsheng roared, “Everyone, try to finish the fight quickly. Don’t attract the R Country invisible fighter jets.”

Otherwise, that would be a disaster. They would have to defend against both the zombies and the missile bombardment from the R Country invisible fighter jets.

Ji An’s Mental-type Ability turned into a precious sword. He leaped into the air, his sword powerful and imposing, sweeping across, the sword energy cutting down a row of zombies.

Zombies are not afraid of pain. Except for those whose heads were directly blown off, the rest, even if they were cut in half at the waist, or only had a bouncing head on the ground, could continue to bite people.

Gu Jinsheng released his Thunder Dragon. The Thunder Dragon flew into the sky and circled near Ji An. With one flick of its tail, it blew up a zombie’s head, or it bit off a zombie’s head and swallowed it into its belly to burn it to ashes before spitting it out.

The Thunder Dragon also followed behind Ji An. After he had chopped the zombies into pieces, it seized the opportunity while the zombies were immobile to spit out a lightning ball, burning the zombies to ashes.

This time, the zombies were clearly organized and disciplined. As Ji An and the Thunder Dragon coordinated tacitly, one responsible for cutting the zombies and the other for setting them on fire, a column of water descended from the sky, extinguishing the lightning fire spit out by the Thunder Dragon.

A zombie head, with only its head remaining on the ground, rolled towards Ji An, its blood basin mouth wide open, trying to bite Ji An’s lower leg.

Ji An used his sword to pry open a zombie’s skull and picked out the Zombie Crystal Core. With his other hand, he reached under the arm holding the sword, grabbed his gun, and shot the zombie head attempting to bite his leg, blowing it up.

Gu Jinsheng’s fire whip, sparking with electricity and thunder power, whipped up a strong wind. With one whip, any zombie it touched immediately ignited into a raging fire. Before, this move could take down half the zombies, or even more.

After all, zombies had no intelligence. Their instinctive reaction when on fire was to extinguish the flames, causing them to run around wildly and collide with more companions, setting them on fire as well. They were essentially walking arsonists.

But now, this move was ineffective. As soon as a zombie here caught fire, a Water-type Ability Zombie there would spray a column of water, often directly extinguishing the fire on the majority of the zombies.

Seeing this, the Thunder Dragon loudly complained that Gu Jinsheng was useless. “Gu Jinsheng, you’re really useless! As a Tier 6 Power User, you can actually have your fire extinguished by zombies! Is your ability fake?!”

The Thunder Dragon finally found an opportunity to loudly mock Gu Jinsheng in the sky.

Gu Jinsheng said to Ji An, “You need to be careful. There are many high-level zombies mixed in with this horde.”

Although Gu Jinsheng was a Tier 6 Power User, his strength was built steadily through combat, and his true power was far greater than that of a typical Tier 6 Power User. The fact that the zombies could extinguish Gu Jinsheng’s lightning fire meant their abilities were at least two minor tiers higher than Gu Jinsheng’s, possibly even reaching Tier 7, which is the maximum level for zombies.

Ji An thrust his sword towards a zombie’s head. The zombie tilted its head to dodge and retaliated with an attack. Ji An parried with his sword and simultaneously replied, “These zombies are evolving very quickly. There are many high-level zombies in the horde. I suspect there’s likely intervention from a Zombie King.”

“Devouring companions?” Gu Jinsheng replied while fighting.

“Yes, otherwise they shouldn’t be evolving this fast. Zombies are evolving alongside humans. Humans have intelligence and understand artificial evolution; the fastest evolving batch is only Tier 6 at most.

Countries M and R can create max-level Power Users by using the ‘Raising Gu’ method.

It’s perfectly normal for Zombie Kings, having evolved intelligence but lacking morality, to choose the ‘Raising Gu’ method of evolution.”

Ji An and Gu Jinsheng both felt a chill run down their spines simultaneously.

“Ah!” Suddenly, someone among the Power Users let out a scream. Ji An turned back and saw a Power User being bitten on the arm by a zombie.

The zombie’s two sharp fangs were deeply embedded in the Power User’s arm.

Ji An swept his long sword, sending out a wave of mental power to push the zombies back. Seizing this moment, he swapped the sword in his hand for a bow and arrow. He shot an arrow at the biting zombie’s head, blowing it off instantly. The zombie’s head exploded into a splatter of blood, but despite this, the two zombie fangs were still deeply embedded in the Power User’s arm.

Panic filled the Power User’s eyes.

The Thunder Dragon flew over and sprayed a fireball, burning the two zombie fangs deeply embedded in the Power User’s arm to ashes. But it was already too late; two deep tooth holes were left on the Power User’s arm, and black blood gushed out.

The zombie virus had already invaded the Power User’s body.

But no one could get close to the bitten Power User; they were all entangled in combat with the zombies.

Ji An couldn’t get through either. He quickly fired a few arrows, blowing the heads off several zombies that were sneak attacking.

Xue Bi was sprayed in the face with blood and only then realized a zombie had been sneak attacking her from behind. She didn’t even have time to thank him before being surrounded by zombies again.

“Ah!!!” Another scream rang out, a Power User’s terrified voice sounded, “I’ve been bitten by a zombie, I’m finished!”

Gu Jinsheng roared loudly, “Don’t panic! Think about your family at the Base! You still have to fight!”

The Power User who had been bitten by the zombie quickly calmed down upon hearing about his family. Tears welled up in his eyes. Although he knew there was no hope for him, he gritted his teeth and continued fighting.

More and more zombies appeared, as if they were inexhaustible.

“Boss, this isn’t working!” Kong Zhongcheng roared.

He Tao also followed up, “It’s already dark. All our various abilities are flying around here; it’s like a torch in the night! If those pursuing R Country invisible fighter jets still can’t see us, they must be blind!”

“To catch the leader, first catch the king. Has anyone seen the Mental-type Zombie King?” Ji An asked.

“No.” Kong Zhongcheng, He Tao, and Xue Bi replied in unison.

Gu Jinsheng said, “The Mental-type Zombie King should not be nearby. I haven’t detected it either.”

“Remote control?” Ji An said to the Thunder Dragon, “Thunder Dragon, cover me. I’ll release my mental power to scan.”

“Okay, An An, don’t worry, I’ll protect you thoroughly!” The Thunder Dragon flew over and coiled around Ji An.

While coordinating with the Thunder Dragon in combat, Ji An spread out his mental power.

Ji An’s mental power flowed very quickly this time, unlike the last time when he carefully checked room by room.

Soon his mental power spread like a flood throughout the entire village. All the rooms in the village were in Ji An’s view; there were no zombies in any of them.

Yes, Ji An couldn’t even find where these attacking zombies had emerged from.

Zombies could absolutely not appear out of thin air, so the only possibility was underground!

Ji An’s mental power began a rapid carpet search. It quickly reached the area of the blown-up houses that Xue Bi had described to him earlier.

There was a mental power fluctuation here. Ji An immediately sent his mental power into it, following the energy trajectory of another mental power fluctuation. He discovered many underground passages beneath the abandoned houses. These passages were new, clearly recently dug.

Ji An sent his mental power in and found that these passages branched out in all directions, extending widely. Ji An finally understood how those zombies had infiltrated from underground; it was through these tunnels.

Ji An’s mental power swiftly moved against the direction of the tunnels and finally reached the end. It was a large underground cave over a hundred square meters. Inside the cave were beds, tables, and chairs, just like a human living room.

A zombie was sitting on a chair, its back straight, unexpectedly possessing a hint of the imposing aura of a superior.

Ji An’s mental power rushed in, targeting the Zombie King’s head. The Zombie King looked up, its eyes no longer completely filled with the zombies’ dull and mechanical gaze; they actually held a glimmer of intelligence.

The Zombie King glared over and waved a hand. Innumerable mental power threads suddenly burst from its brain. Those threads were as thick as a baby’s arm. They clashed violently with Ji An’s mental power. Ji An’s brain went numb from the shock, his mental power quickly dissipated like a receding tide, and at the same time, he staggered back two steps.

Gu Jinsheng, who had been paying attention, immediately asked, “Little An, what happened?”

“The Mental-type Zombie King. It’s hiding beneath the blown-up houses in the center of the village. There are underground passages there.” Ji An swung his sword, forcing back a zombie, and said, “It should be a Mental-type Zombie King above Tier 6 but not yet Tier 7!”

“Tier 6 Mental-type Zombie?” Kong Zhongcheng roared, “How can a Zombie King be here with us? Wasn’t it at the Luoshi Base?”

“Perhaps there’s one there too. We just don’t know which one has the higher ability level, the one here or the one there?”

“MD, what are Countries M and R trying to do? Are they not satisfied that this Apocalypse isn’t chaotic enough, that the zombies aren’t strong enough? It’s one thing to artificially enhance Power Users’ strength, but they’re even creating intelligent, evolving Zombie Kings? Are they impatient to die?” Kong Zhongcheng cursed.

Ji An said to Gu Jinsheng, “Jinsheng, fighting like this isn’t working. Let’s go capture the Zombie King.”

“Okay.”

The Thunder Dragon swooped down and stopped in front of Ji An. “Get on, I’ll take you.”

Ji An immediately jumped onto the Thunder Dragon’s back. The Thunder Dragon wagged its head and tail and flew towards Gu Jinsheng. “For An An’s sake, you get on too.”

Gu Jinsheng also jumped on. At the same time, a zombie suddenly sprang up and leaped onto the Thunder Dragon’s back. The Thunder Dragon performed a 360-degree rotation in the sky, shaking off that zombie.

Simultaneously, the Thunder Dragon cried out, “Besides An An, no one is allowed to defile Dragon Dragon’s purity!”

More zombies leaped into the air and charged towards Gu Jinsheng and the others. The Thunder Dragon accelerated and soared into the sky, leaving those zombies behind. But the zombies did not give up, launching one ability after another. The Thunder Dragon’s body weaved through the zombies’ abilities, occasionally turning back to spit out lightning balls to defend against the zombie abilities.

Ji An said, “The Thunder Dragon seems to have become more powerful again. Now it seems it doesn’t need your command to fight at all?”

Gu Jinsheng nodded. “I just need to give it a little attention, and that’s enough. It can fight on its own. Occasionally, I pay attention to it and find that its fighting style is very compatible with my thinking. Even if I were there, I wouldn’t command it any differently.”

Ji An recalled facing that low-level Zombie King last time and said, “Last time, the Thunder Dragon didn’t seem this flexible, or rather, this intelligent. And now it can even carry people. It just carried over a hundred Power Users down earlier, it should have consumed a lot of energy, but now it can still carry the two of us and continue flying? The Thunder Dragon has become much stronger?”

Carrying people also consumed the Thunder Dragon’s energy, and it was a significant consumption, no less than fighting.

Last time against that Tier 4 Zombie King, the Thunder Dragon was not as flexible or as powerful as it is now. Otherwise, it could have carried Ji An into the air to escape at that time.

Now it seems this skill of carrying people might have just awakened recently. The Thunder Dragon becoming powerful can only mean that its owner, Gu Jinsheng’s ability, has increased.

“Jinsheng, is your ability about to level up recently?” Ji An asked.

Gu Jinsheng replied, “There’s some loosening, but it shouldn’t be because of that.”

“Then what is it because of? Do you know?” Ji An asked.

“I feel it seems related to mental power. I feel my mental power is getting stronger.” Gu Jinsheng himself was also confused. Generally speaking, people with strong mental power are Mental-type Ability Users, which he is not. After discovering his mental power might be strengthening, he specifically checked the Power User Crystal Core in his brain, and it was still just one.

“Although my control over the Thunder Dragon is weakening, I feel my mental power is getting stronger. It seems the stronger my mental power becomes, the more powerful the Thunder Dragon becomes, and the weaker my control over it becomes. It’s contradictory, but that’s the feeling it gives me.”

Gu Jinsheng is a Tier 6 Power User, and his feelings are generally not wrong. Ji An thought that he himself doesn’t have a Power User Crystal Core but has mental power. He instinctively felt the problem still lay with the Spiritual Spring Water. The Spiritual Spring Water was truly amazing; it seemed to not only enhance mental power but also change the way mental power evolves.

The Thunder Dragon flew through the sky and said to Ji An, “An An, thank you for praising me, but I feel very tired now. Even though I’m only carrying the two of you, I feel more tired than when I was pulling a hundred people.”

The Thunder Dragon moved quickly, arriving at the location in the blink of an eye. It plopped down onto the ground with a thud, kicking up a cloud of dust. “An An, Dragon Dragon is exhausted, Dragon Dragon can’t fly anymore.”

The Thunder Dragon lay on the ground like a lazy Husky, not moving. Ji An looked at the Thunder Dragon, then at Gu Jinsheng, and asked, “How do you feel?”

Gu Jinsheng said, “Mentally very tired, like my brain has thought too many things, overloaded.”

“How can that be? The Thunder Dragon is the materialization of your ability. If the Thunder Dragon is tired, it should mean there’s a problem with your ability. Why do you feel mentally tired?” Ji An was puzzled.

The Thunder Dragon complained, “No way, Dragon Dragon is exhausted, Dragon Dragon needs to go back and rest. See you, An An!”

The Thunder Dragon waved its claws goodbye to Ji An, then drilled into Gu Jinsheng’s brain and vanished with a whoosh.

Ji An and Gu Jinsheng didn’t have time to think about the Thunder Dragon; zombies were already pursuing them.

Ji An turned back to face the zombies and fight, while also saying to Gu Jinsheng, “The Mental-type Zombie King is below us, but there are many tunnels down there. We can’t go down. If there are zombies hidden inside, we’ll be trapped.”

“I’ll do it.” Gu Jinsheng unleashed his Fire-type Ability, directly tearing up the houses on the ground, flipping over the entire layer of earth.

As the earth was flipped open inch by inch, the underground passages branching out in all directions were revealed inch by inch.

Ji An and Gu Jinsheng fought the zombies while moving forward along the flipped ground. Suddenly, a zombie appeared before Ji An. It quickly darted into one of the passages. Ji An roared, “Jinsheng, the Mental-type Zombie King ran that way…”

Before Ji An could finish speaking, another zombie quickly darted out of a different passage. Its entire body shape, height, weight, and appearance were exactly the same as the zombie just now. It dashed into another passage leading in the opposite direction from the first zombie.

Before entering the passages, both zombies looked back at Ji An. Ji An saw that the two Zombie Kings looked exactly the same.

“They look the same, Cloned Zombies!” Ji An immediately reacted, “Countries M and R created Cloned Mental-type Zombie Kings!”

“Jinsheng, let’s split up and chase them, one person for each.” Ji An said, “We can’t let them escape!”

“Okay.” Gu Jinsheng said, “You be careful of traps on your own.”

“You too!” Ji An turned back, finished off the last zombie with his sword, and took over the task of tearing up the ground. While flipping the earth, he ran forward, chasing the Mental-type Zombie King.

Ji An didn’t know how far he ran before he stopped. When he stopped, he had already left the village, and the sounds of fighting behind him were completely inaudible. At this point, the Mental-type Zombie King, which had been fleeing, stopped.

It turned around and looked at Ji An, its mouth twitching with difficulty. Although it looked more like a zombie’s facial nerve twitching, Ji An knew it wasn’t. This should be the Zombie King smiling.

Ji An immediately knew that the one he was chasing was the same Mental-type Zombie King he had seen underground earlier, the one controlling the entire zombie horde.

It seemed this Zombie King had deliberately separated him and Gu Jinsheng to lure him alone to this side.

Ji An vigilantly scanned the surroundings. Four or five high-level zombies emerged from the nearby woods.

Ji An cursed inwardly. This Zombie King was setting another trap for him.

The Mental-type Zombie King grinned at Ji An and pointed its long index finger with black nails at Ji An’s head.

Ji An understood instantly. MD, this Mental-type Zombie King had set its sights on his Mental-type Power User Crystal Core. He hadn’t even thought of digging out its crystal core, yet it was already plotting to take his.

Ji An said, “Then let’s see who wins!”

Ji An roared and charged forward. At the same time, he spread his hands, his mental power transforming into a mental power net. Before the high-level zombies could react, he launched a preemptive strike, catching all the zombies in the net while they were unprepared.

The high-level zombies collided in a tangled mess within the net. The zombies who reacted were extremely angry, roaring and hissing, seeming to scold Ji An for being dishonorable and using sneak attacks.

Even zombies know how to use scheming and tricks, so why should Ji An care about martial virtue? While the zombies hadn’t yet torn through the mental power net, he pulled out hand grenades from his spatial storage and threw them at the zombies one after another.

“Bang bang bang!!!” Hand grenades exploded one after another. The zombies were blown to pieces, flesh and blood flying. In the blink of an eye, the Mental-type Zombie King was left as a bare commander, all alone.

Ji An smiled provocatively at the Zombie King, and at the same time, pointed to his own head.

Although the human and the zombie couldn’t speak each other’s language, the Mental-type Zombie King perfectly understood Ji An’s meaning. Ji An was mocking it for having no brains.

The Zombie King was so angry it roared up at the sky, then extended its long nails and pounced.

Ji An used his mental power to condense a precious sword and fought head-on with the Zombie King. The Zombie King’s nails were as hard as iron. When they struck Ji An’s sword, Ji An felt like he was stabbing a solid rock, which made his tiger’s mouth ache.

Ji An quickly dodged, pulled out a hand grenade, and threw it at the Mental-type Zombie King. The Mental-type Zombie King recognized this item; it was what blew its companions to pieces. It didn’t dare to grab it and kept dodging.

Ji An had many of these things in his spatial storage; Gu Jinsheng had prepared them for him when Ji An’s ability wasdisabled/wasted, perhaps better translated as unusable or weakened.

Ji An threw these items at the Mental-type Zombie King as if they were free. At first, the Mental-type Zombie King only dodged, but after it reacted, it began to use its ability to parry.

Ji An had to admit that the Mental-type Zombie King’s learning ability was very strong.

Ji An dodged a hand grenade that the Zombie King parried back and jumped into the nearby bushes.

The Mental-type Zombie King didn’t know what Ji An was up to. It didn’t dare approach and just peeked out from behind. Ji An, meanwhile, took out hand grenades from his spatial storage and arranged them in a row. Then he released his mental power, transforming it into little hands. They simultaneously picked up the hand grenades, pulled the pins at the same time, and threw them at the Mental-type Zombie King together.

Ji An, on the other hand, ran in the opposite direction from the Mental-type Zombie King, leaped and jumped into the tunnel where the Mental-type Zombie King had been hiding earlier, and rolled inside.

Bang bang bang!!!

The sound of hand grenades exploding one after another rang out. Some grenades were parried back by the Zombie King and exploded where Ji An had just run from, shaking the ground three times!

After the ground settled, Ji An found his ears buzzing. “Little An, Ji An…”

Ji An vaguely heard someone calling him, but he couldn’t hear clearly. Ji An crawled out of the tunnel and saw Gu Jinsheng searching for him among the debris where the zombies had been blown up, his back facing him.

Ji An shouted extremely loudly, “Jinsheng, I’m here!”

Gu Jinsheng turned around and smiled in relief at the disheveled and dusty Ji An. “Are you hurt?”

Ji An shook his head and pointed to his ears.

Gu Jinsheng shouted, “It’s okay! It’s just from the shockwave of the bombs, it’ll get better with rest!”

Ji An nodded, took out some Spiritual Spring Water from his spatial storage and drank a mouthful. After thinking about it, he actually poured it into his ears, washing both of them.

Gu Jinsheng looked at Ji An’s weird move and was speechless.

Ji An’s eyes were bright. He said to Gu Jinsheng, “Oh my god, it actually worked! I wasn’t even expecting it to work, but it turned out to be effective.”

Gu Jinsheng spoke with difficulty, “I didn’t expect it either.”

“Was there an ambush where you chased that zombie?” Ji An asked.

“Yes, but they were all low-to-mid-level zombies and easy to deal with. And the zombie that looked exactly like the Mental-type Zombie King wasn’t a Mental-type Zombie; it was a Water-type Zombie. This is its crystal core.” Gu Jinsheng opened his hand. A blue Water-type Zombie Crystal Core lay among a pile of Zombie Crystal Cores of various colors, exceptionally conspicuous.

Ji An naturally took all the Zombie Crystal Cores and said to Gu Jinsheng, “Mine were all high-level zombies. I don’t know where the crystal cores were blown to. Let’s search around.”

“Okay,” Gu Jinsheng replied.

The two searched the surrounding area. Ji An even released his mental power to help search. At the same time, Ji An said to Gu Jinsheng, “Originally, I wasn’t completely sure that these zombies were the work of Countries R and M. Now that I’ve seen two identical zombies, I can be certain these are the cloned zombies created by Countries R and M!”

Gu Jinsheng said, “I don’t know how many such high-level cloned zombies they still have in their hands, and how many they have released. What’s the situation like in other Bases?”

“After this, I don’t know how many Bases will still exist. This is nothing short of a second Apocalypse for Country Xia. We don’t know how many people were killed or turned into zombies by their family members, controlled by the Mental-type Zombie King, without even realizing it in their sleep.”

Gu Jinsheng didn’t reply. He found the seven-colored glowing Mental-type Zombie Crystal Core in the weeds. This crystal core was very beautiful and transparent.

Ji An took it and put it into the spatial storage item he had developed.

Gu Jinsheng said, “Hopefully the Luoshi Base can hold on a bit longer!”

With a loud boom, the ground beneath Ji An and Gu Jinsheng trembled. The two exchanged glances, both seeing worry in each other’s eyes.

The R Country invisible fighter jets had arrived!