Chapter Twenty-Three: The Fall of the Prison

This was a group of highly evolved zombies, capable of cohesion and cooperation, possessing an uncommon intelligence.

Zhang Xiaoyuan could see that at this moment, Tank was ferocious beyond compare, slaughtering madly. He had previously fought Tank, forcing him to retreat. Clearly, Tank had returned for revenge.

“These creatures... they actually hold grudges?” Zhang Xiaoyuan’s brows knitted tightly.

“Brother Yuan, look over there!” a nearby guard exclaimed in amazement.

Amidst the tide of corpses, a young man stood out—clad in a spotless white shirt, utterly at odds with the hideous zombies around him. His face was expressionless, watching the carnage with cold detachment.

“Is that... is that a human or a ghost?” Zhang Xiaoyuan was equally shocked. After the apocalypse, even among survivors, it was rare to see someone so pristine. The young man’s presence felt unreal, almost as if he’d stepped out of a poorly rendered background.

“Quick! Aim at him and fire!” Zhang Xiaoyuan barked.

The guards instantly swung their guns toward the young man, tongues of flame spitting as countless bullets poured forth. Yet Lin Dong stood still, unmoving. A flash of red glinted in his eyes—astonishingly, the bullets passed straight through him, striking the ground behind.

“Damn!” Zhang Xiaoyuan turned pale. The scene before him was too uncanny.

As more guards fell from the walls, their firepower weakened. Zombies crowded at the base, clambering atop one another to form a human ladder, the uppermost scrambling onto the wall.

They bared their grotesque faces, shrieking as they pounced at any human in sight, savagery in their eyes. Several guards were dragged down, torn apart in a frenzy of gnashing teeth. Panic spread among the survivors; their formation dissolved.

The outer wall was about to fall.

“Quick! Retreat—get inside the safe room!” Zhang Xiaoyuan ordered.

The guards, already desperate to flee, turned and ran, firing occasional shots to slow their pursuers.

But Xiao Ba was the fastest. Her claws were stained red, her face alight with bloodlust as she reveled in the carnage. The sight of fleeing humans only stoked her hunting instincts, and she darted forward in a blur, bringing down five or six in the span of a few breaths.

“That’s an Agile Corpse King!” Zhang Xiaoyuan realized, flames igniting in his hands as the searing heat of his fire ability filled the air. If he didn’t stop her soon, few of his men would make it out.

With a wave, two fireballs hurled toward Xiao Ba. She reacted instantly, leaping back to evade.

The fireballs exploded, forming a wall of flame. Only under its cover did the guards manage to retreat into the building.

Out of the corner of his eye, Zhang Xiaoyuan spotted Lin Dong striding forward through the sea of corpses.

He dared not linger, leaping down from the wall and falling back to the building. There was something unfathomable about Lin Dong, some power yet unknown.

With the outer wall breached, Lin Dong advanced unhurriedly toward the building, making no move to attack. He wanted to see what the awakened humans were capable of. His Corpse King’s domain was formidable, but if he unleashed it fully, he could only maintain it for five minutes—too reckless, and he might even soil his clothes.

After a brief skirmish, over two-thirds of the hundred-odd guards in the prison had fallen, fewer than forty remaining. Lin Dong’s side had suffered almost no losses, his zombie horde sweeping in relentlessly. Tank followed behind him, a childlike grin splitting his ugly face, savoring the long-awaited revenge.

Let them bully me now.

Inside the prison, Zhang Xiaoyuan and his men had constructed a safe room, its walls, ceiling, and floor all forged from ten-centimeter-thick alloy with not a single weak spot. Only a few fist-sized holes pierced the front wall, serving as gun ports and ventilation.

Once inside, the survivors finally breathed easy.

“These zombies... they're too fierce!”

“Yeah, they're nothing like the hordes before!”

“No kidding—have you ever seen a zombie wield a weapon?”

“You might not believe it, but I was nearly hacked to death by a zombie with a cleaver...”

“These monsters are evolving too fast!”

The guards were left shaken and awed.

But Lin Dong’s vanguard had already arrived, snarling and clawing at the walls. The alloy was too thick; the zombies couldn’t break through.

“Use the satellite phone to contact headquarters. We’re safe for now, but we can’t stay trapped by zombies,” Zhang Xiaoyuan instructed.

“Understood,” a guard replied, hastening to comply.

Just then, Tank smashed through several walls, charging straight to the safe room. Realizing his enemies had hidden in their “turtle shell,” he roared in frustration, slamming his massive fists against the door again and again.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The safe room shuddered but the thick alloy held firm; Tank couldn’t break through.

“Hmph! You big oaf, you’re not getting in,” Zhang Xiaoyuan scoffed. The safe room was built for this very purpose: to withstand the likes of power-type Corpse Kings or mutated monsters.

“Roar, roar, roar—cursed humans!” Tank bellowed, seething with rage.

Zhang Xiaoyuan was certain that with Tank’s intelligence, he couldn’t possibly orchestrate such a disciplined horde. The true leader had to be someone else—undoubtedly, that immaculate young man.

He was still pondering this when suddenly, every zombie outside fell silent, not making a sound. It was as if a noisy classroom had been hushed by the teacher’s arrival.

“What’s going on?”

“Why are they suddenly so quiet?”

“These zombies... they’re really strange!”

The abrupt silence left everyone bewildered. Since the apocalypse, they’d never seen anything like it.

The zombies stood in orderly ranks, and then, with perfect coordination, parted to form a path.

Shock deepened—no one had ever witnessed such behavior.

Then, a young man appeared in the distance, walking slowly toward them. Xiao Ba and the Doctor Zombie followed, one on each side, the hierarchy unmistakably clear.

“Brother Yuan... these zombies are too weird!” a subordinate whispered, terrified.

Zhang Xiaoyuan’s gaze was fixed, equally shaken.

“It’s fine. They can’t get in anyway. We just have to wait for rescue,” he reassured.

His men nodded, slightly comforted. With the safe room’s strength, not even a missile could breach it. There was no real danger of zombies breaking through.

“Pah! Damn zombies, come in and bite me if you can!”

“Yeah! Stop putting on an act—aren’t you supposed to be tough?”

“Damn it, my brothers were all killed by you!”

The guards, nerves frayed by the bloodshed and the loss of comrades, now vented their anger, emboldened by their temporary safety. Some even fired a burst of bullets through the gun ports.

But as the muzzle flashes flared, Lin Dong’s advancing figure suddenly vanished.

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