Chapter 158: Striking First to Gain the Upper Hand

The more the Little Mushroom thought about it, the more wrong it felt. The bunch of fellows in front of it were not humans at all; they were peers who were likewise trying to lure and deceive humans!

"How extremely bad luck."

When peers meet, he who strikes first gains the upper hand!

The Little Mushroom no longer hesitated. It suddenly launched an attack, waving its arms as countless spores were released, sweeping forward like a misty, long dragon.

Wang Hu's reaction was not slow either, retaliating almost simultaneously. His abdomen split open, and a thick tentacle shot out like a flying arrow.

When the tentacle encountered the fungal spores, it was similarly parasitized, growing red tumors that began to spread toward Wang Hu's main body.

"What a bizarre ability..."

Wang Hu hastily severed his own tentacle to prevent fungal parasitism.

The Little Mushroom raised an eyebrow, thinking that this ability of his was also extremely weird.

"We are both thousand-year-old foxes, why are you trying to play tricks with me?"

"Wasn't it you who started playing tricks with me first?"

Wang Hu's expression turned fierce.

The five parasitic monsters behind him also dropped their disguises, their faces turning ferocious and their bodies snapping as several tentacles sprouted from them, charging forward.

Meanwhile, the Little Mushroom's group of mimetic human lackeys showed no weakness either, eagerly lunging forward.

The two sides clashed, and the forest descended into complete chaos. Roars and shrieks echoed continuously—this was the first-ever battle between zombies and parasitic monsters.

Both sides were unimaginably ferocious, each wanting to put the other to death!

The parasitic monsters possessed formidable physiques and were not easily killed. In terms of combat capability, they were indeed much stronger than the mimetic humans.

However, following a piercing screech from the Little Mushroom,

all the red tumors throughout the mountain forest began to writhe, transforming into human shapes or small animals as they emerged from all directions.

"What are these things?"

Wang Hu swept his gaze around, finding himself surrounded by enemies. As a parasitic monster, he was usually the one using bizarre abilities to hunt other creatures, but today he was being besieged in return.

Fighting on its home turf, the Little Mushroom held every advantage. With its massive number of lackeys, it could easily wear them down to death.

Surrounded by a dozen wildly dancing tentacles, Wang Hu repeatedly pierced the mimetic creatures, only to find that no blood flowed from them; instead, they were composed of white mycelium material.

"These things are neither human nor flesh and blood—they are simply endless."

Sensing that this was merely a pointless consumption of energy without any benefits to be gained, Wang Hu felt the urge to retreat.

Just at that moment, however,

a tall, fierce tiger suddenly bounded out from the dense thicket in the distance. With white fur and black stripes, it looked majestic and imposing. Its pair of red pupils stared round as it sprinted toward the parasitic monsters.

The white tiger was extremely fast, reaching them in the blink of an eye.

"Again?"

Wang Hu narrowed his eyes. Twisting his neck, several tentacles shot out from it to block the white tiger's advance.

Yet the white tiger was fierce. Leaping into the air, it shattered the tentacles with a few swipes of its paws, completely unstoppable.

"Oh no! This thing is not a mimetic creature!"

Wang Hu's eyes widened as he suddenly realized something.

The white tiger possessed a robust physique, unlike the fragile mimetic humans that shattered at the slightest touch... Among countless fakes, a real one had actually been mixed in!

By the time Wang Hu reacted, however, it was already too late.

A giant shadow blocked his vision as two tiger paws pressed down on his shoulders, knocking him flat onto the ground with brute force.

"Roar—!"

Little White pinned Wang Hu, roaring up to the sky. It was extremely foul-tempered, reeking of murderous intent.

Then, its blood-smeared jaws clamped down, tearing half of Wang Hu's body away in a single bite and swallowing it whole. Green blood spewed forth from the corpse.

"It feels like I've eaten this somewhere before..."

Little White had a very deep impression of the taste of its food and quickly recalled that the boss had brought some back before... So it was the monster-stuffed little biscuit.

Still the familiar recipe...

With another bite, Little White swallowed the other half into its belly. Having integrated Lin Dong's Corpse King blood, its strength was formidable.

Retaining some of its natural instincts as a tiger, it loved to roam around the forest. Noticing the battle here, it had rushed over promptly.

With Little White joining the fray, the parasitic monsters, already at a disadvantage, were now reduced to mere targets for slaughter. Although their vitality was strong, Little White was far too brutal, refusing to stop until it had completely torn its prey to shreds.

Before long, the parasitic monsters were thoroughly wiped out.

The six parasitic monsters were quickly devoured by the mushroom and Little White, leaving not even their bones behind, as if they had never existed at all...

The mushroom pondered for a moment.

"This matter... should probably be reported to the boss."

......

Sticking close to home with nothing to do, Lin Dong soon learned about the appearance of monsters in the mountains, though he didn't take it too seriously.

As the apocalypse progressed, all kinds of monsters emerged in an endless stream. It was completely reasonable for the territory's surroundings to suffer some minor disturbances.

He could even guess that those monsters disguised as humans had escaped from the official shelter.

After all, based on his warning, the shelter was currently in the middle of purging monsters.

Promptly, Lin Dong took out his phone and logged into the shelter's official website to check on their progress...

"Shocking! Monsters indeed exist within the shelter. Through our investigation, we have uncovered over a dozen monster parasitism cases, some of which have already escaped. If anyone around you exhibits strange behavior, please report it to us promptly."

Below the announcement was a list of the escaped individuals, along with their photos.

Lin Dong glanced over it roughly.

He figured that the few individuals wiped out by the mushroom and Little White should all be among them.

It was evident that the shelter had already stabilized the situation and would not suffer any major chaos.

However, right below that announcement was another post.

"The shelter has been attacked by a sizable force of water zombies and lizard monsters! All Awakened ones out on missions are requested to return immediately!"

"......"

Seeing this news, Lin Dong remained silent for a long time.

Another attack?

The zombies of Binhai City had chased them all the way from the granary to the shelter, persevering with incredible tenacity...

Just how deep was this grudge?

Right now, the shelter had monsters on the inside and zombies on the outside—truly plagued by troubles both internal and external. Fortunately, they possessed nearly ten thousand Awakened ones, including Cheng Luoyi, a talented lunatic with decent aptitude. Their strength was not weak, so they should be able to hold their ground.

These recent events had nothing much to do with Lin Dong, and he was quite happy to take it easy. At home, he swallowed crystal cores to absorb energy, while casually eating melons and watching the show...

......

Binhai City.

Waves continually churned across the sea-covered ruins, rising and falling in cycles, occasionally churning up traces of foul blood along with decaying corpses.

On the roof of a half-submerged skyscraper, Qing Lin and the Corpse Infant stood side by side.

Over this period of time, the Corpse Infant had grown considerably, now resembling a teenager of fifteen or sixteen. His eyes remained pitch-black, with faint wisps of black fog dancing within them.

"I feel that my ability has matured and stabilized. It's time for me to go and take my revenge!"

"I advise you not to be foolish."

From behind, Qing Lin spoke up: "Right now, whether it's humans or Corpse Kings in Jiangbei City, they are all extremely powerful."

"Then what should we do? Are we supposed to rely on those trash... ahem, subordinates that you've been cultivating?"

......