Chapter 60 The Bait

After listening to Han Shuang's personal account, Ao Xin could not help but sigh with emotion.

Indeed, the most terrifying thing in this apocalyptic world was the human heart.

After Han Shuang became a crystal-mutant, she had once contemplated death, yet in the end, the instinct to survive still prevailed.

"Do you know my younger brother? How is he now?"

After a brief exchange with Ao Xin, Han Shuang sensed that he had no intention of killing her, and gradually lowered her guard.

This was the first living person she had laid eyes on since slaughtering those men.

Not only was he overwhelmingly powerful, but he also seemed entirely free of prejudice against her.

Deep down, this fostered a sense of reliance on Ao Xin, prompting her to recall his earlier mention of her younger brother.

Perhaps she could learn news of her family from his lips.

"They are all dead."

Ao Xin replied.

Naturally, he did not know Han Lei or their family.

These were details he had heard from Han Shuang in his past life.

After hiding in the basement for a while, she had gone out to search for her family, only to find nothing at all.

Later, she inadvertently discovered surveillance footage from a nearby store, wherein she saw her entire family being infected by zombies at the very onset of the apocalypse.

"Dead?"

Han Shuang murmured, her heart heavy with grief as tears welled up within her sunken eye sockets.

It was within expectation; in the apocalypse, death was the only norm.

After sleeping on the sofa for the night, he woke up the next morning to find Han Shuang gnawing on a zombie's thigh.

It was a zombie he had slain the previous day.

"Morning."

He rotated his neck a few times. Sleeping on the sofa was quite uncomfortable, leaving his neck rather stiff.

Seeing that he had woken up, Han Shuang hurriedly turned her back. Although she could only sustain herself by feeding on zombies, she still hoped to avoid being seen in such an unsightly state.

Ao Xin smiled, withdrawing a large slab of roasted Sea King meat from the Divine Grace Space and swallowing it down in massive gulps. He then washed it down with mineral water retrieved from the basement the night before.

Activating Life Return, he completely digested all the energy contained within the meat.

After the meal, Han Shuang tore off a piece of the tablecloth to wipe her mouth, while Ao Xin felt his entire body surging with strength.

Lifting his steel whip, he walked toward the door. "Let's go!"

Han Shuang followed closely behind. The moment the heavy door swung open, a massive horde of zombies lunged toward them.

Ao Xin slung the steel whip across his back, engaging the enemy with Finger Pistols and Tempest Kick, though the latter lacked projectile slashes.

After a brief hesitation, crystals manifested across Han Shuang's skin, and she plunged into battle alongside the zombie horde.

The evolutionary path of crystal-mutants mirrored that of zombies—they devoured other zombies, utilizing the zombie virus to accelerate the reinforcement of the crystals within their bodies.

Even though they retained human appearances, their genes had already mutated into those of an entirely different species.

From the exact moment they transformed into crystal-mutants, they lost the ability to utilize the Divine Grace Space.

To humanity, whether zombies or crystal-mutants, both were mere monsters.

Monsters that could be hunted and slain!

Crystals erupted over Han Shuang's fists, and she slammed a punch directly into the torso of a muscular zombie.

The formidable impact drove the brute back several steps, but it immediately lunged forward again with a roar.

Riff!

Her back was clawed open by a passing zombie, leaving a bloody gash as the zombie virus entered her bloodstream.

However, she was no longer susceptible to infection. Her eyes flashed with a crimson glow as she crushed a zombie's skull with a single punch, snatching up one of its arms to ravenously devour.

The bloody gash on her back slowly healed, only for another zombie to lunge at her flank.

She raised her arm, upon which hardened crystals surfaced, blocking the zombie's attack.

Discarding the gnawed, mutilated limb in her hand, she coated her fists in crystals once more and charged into the surrounding horde.

Yet, she was, after all, merely a former bar waitress who had never received any combat training.

Even upon becoming a crystal-mutant, she possessed nothing more than enhanced physical prowess, while her combat techniques remained utterly crude.

It was solely by virtue of brute strength, virtually indestructible crystals, and a mutant constitution immune to infection from bites that she was able to hold her own amidst the sea of zombies.

The two advanced westward while fighting. Whenever fatigue set in, they would seek out a building to hide and rest; once recovered, they would resume the slaughter outside.

"Your combat techniques are far too shallow."

Along the way, while effortlessly dealing with the endless stream of zombies, Ao Xin offered guidance to Han Shuang.

"I'm sorry, I don't know how to fight."

Han Shuang felt deeply ashamed. Watching Ao Xin's artful combat style, her own movements suddenly seemed as graceless as relieving herself.

However, the brain-domain crystal of a mutant possessed formidable learning capabilities akin to a supercomputer. While fending off the surrounding zombies, she began absorbing and imitating Ao Xin's combat posture.

Moreover, the learning curve yielded astonishingly remarkable results.

After clearing out yet another wave of zombies, Ao Xin withdrew several bottles of the cheapest hard liquor from the Divine Grace Space to rinse his body.

"Do you need some?"

He asked Han Shuang while pouring the spirits over his head.

"Ah? Me?"

Han Shuang looked down at her blood-stained, foul-smelling body, then glanced at Ao Xin's well-defined, powerful muscles, prompting her to lower her head in sudden self-deprecation.

"Here, take it!"

Ao Xin already understood that, regardless of sinking so low as to survive on the flesh of zombies, she remained a woman at heart.

What woman did not desire cleanliness?

He also exchanged several bottles of liquor for her, and the young girl poured them over her own head as well.

Though it was impossible to wash herself completely clean, reducing the grime slightly, dampening the stench, and achieving even a fraction more comfort was worthwhile.

"Thank you."

She was a woman of few words; unless Ao Xin initiated conversation, she invariably maintained silence.

After the rinse, her clothes were thoroughly soaked in alcohol.

There was no alternative, but fortunately the blazing sun hung overhead, causing the alcohol to evaporate rapidly and drying her clothes in no time.

"Hmm? Why are there so few zombies on this street?"

Upon entering a new avenue, the sparse clusters of scattered zombies seemed highly unusual.

This had once been a bustling commercial district, precisely the kind of place where zombies congregated. Why were there so few?

Easily dispatching an approaching zombie, the two strode forward.

Yet, the further they advanced, the denser the zombie population became.

"Is someone luring the zombies?"

Amidst his frantic slaughter through the horde, he caught sight of a massive iron barricade up ahead.

The barricade was thick, reinforced behind with numerous other heavy obstructions capable of resisting even muscular zombies.

Atop the barricade was a high platform where a young girl sat, periodically pulling faces at the zombies gathered below.

Behind the defensive barrier below, a large group of people armed with spears—exchanged from the Divine Grace Space—thrust them out through the gaps in the barricades, slowly picking off the zombies.

In the exact center of the intersection stood a burly man draped in grayish-green scales, featuring an elongated jaw and a thick tail swaying behind him.

He wielded a serrated long-blade in his grip.

This weapon was an exact match to the one wielded by Arlong!

Ao Xin recalled that this was a Great Wazamono-grade weapon known as [Kiribachi], priced at a staggering ten thousand contribution points!

Aside from himself, someone else had managed to accumulate ten thousand points?

This individual was undoubtedly no mere nobody!

The Kiribachi was heavy yet razor-sharp. With every downward sweep, it easily cleaved a zombie in two; even the muscular variants required no more than a few extra strokes.

The strength wielded by this man was likewise formidable to the extreme!