Bzzzt—
On a bright street under dazzling sunlight, a sharp slicing sound rang out. A Zombie was cut clean through at the waist, split into two on the spot.
Thick blood oozed from the severed half. White spine, ruptured organs—everything was visible to the naked eye. It looked utterly disgusting.
But even so, the Zombie’s upper body was still active.
It crawled forward with everything it had, stretching out its dried, powerless right hand, all for the sake of grabbing the woman’s jade-like foot and savoring it properly...
“If only... I can reach that place...”
Maybe that was what it was thinking.
But in the next second, the sound of bone cracking followed.
Crack—
In the end, it still failed.
Those white high-heeled boots were clearly right in front of it, yet the merciless Bai girl simply lifted her foot and stomped down hard. The solid heel crushed its skull instantly. Brain matter and blood splattered everywhere, and the pitiful Zombie finally lost all signs of life...
Congratulations, Coca-Cola.
Only when the camera pulled up did the full scene become clear. This entire street was already carpeted with Zombie corpses. Severed limbs and chunks of flesh were everywhere. The whole road looked like a river where blood had pooled, a shocking sight.
After setting out early in the morning, Bai Ling and Duan Heng had come here. This was near the city center, three to four kilometers from the residential complex. A perfect hunting ground.
Bai Ling was naturally wearing her nano-suit and white coat. Her cute high-heeled boots clicked as she walked. A few flecks of blood stained her pure white figure, making her look like a white rose blooming from blood.
Duan Heng, as usual, was dressed in black. Beneath his stylish jacket was a fitted base layer. The fabric wasn’t even that tight, yet the rough, powerful lines of his muscles could still be vaguely seen. Calm and cold.
‘Combat Power Index: 28. Zombies Killed: 0.6k. Current Level: 7.’
‘Your System Coins: 981. Please use them wisely.’
As the saying went, man and woman working together made the job easier. The black-and-white duo killed every Zombie they saw. In just one hour, they had earned over three hundred System Coins.
But even then, Bai Ling was still quite dissatisfied with the speed.
Today’s items alone had cost a full 4600. At this rate, if they wanted to earn all those System Coins back, the two of them would have to keep chopping nonstop for over ten hours without eating or drinking.
So after killing that Zombie just now, Bai Ling pouted unhappily, turned her head, and reached out to Duan Heng.
“This is way too slow! Got any more bombs? Lend me two so I can level up faster~”
Bai Ling puffed out her lips as she asked for them, looking oddly righteous about it.
Duan Heng didn’t really mind. He just knew exactly how strong his bombs were. They simply didn’t have that kind of power. So he scratched his cheek and said helplessly,
“It’d be useless even if I gave them to you. Don’t be dumb.”
“Hah? Why?!”
Bai Ling’s face was full of indignation, while Duan Heng continued explaining,
“My explosives were all set up before the Apocalypse. Blowing up one building takes thousands of jin of raw materials. You really think some random homemade bomb can wipe out hundreds of Zombies? No chance.”
“How can it be like that!”
After hearing his explanation, Bai Ling immediately let out an unhappy protest. But with her soft, delicate voice and aggrieved tone, it sounded more like she was acting spoiled. Even Duan Heng couldn’t help feeling his thoughts drift a little after hearing it.
What he didn’t know was that Bai Ling was secretly gritting her teeth inside, thinking honestly to herself:
“Damn it. So the explosives route won’t work either. Then when am I ever supposed to surpass Duan Heng? This is so unfair!”
“Looks like there’s only one way left. I have to kill elite Zombie monsters! As long as I kill more elites than Duan Heng, I’ll still have a chance to become a stronger Esper than him!”
“When that time comes, I’ll make him kneel on the ground and kowtow to apologize. I’ll return all the humiliation from these past days. I’ll make him have a taste of what it feels like to be treated like a pet too. Hmph hmph...”
“But... I should be able to do it, right? Right?”
At that thought, Bai Ling started wavering again.
Mainly because Duan Heng’s strength was unfathomable. At least so far, he had never truly gone all out.
And just as Bai Ling was thinking, Duan Heng’s pupils suddenly shrank slightly. He noticed something in the distance.
So he quickly patted Bai Ling on the shoulder, signaling for her to look ahead. Only then did Bai Ling snap out of her daze.
“Huh? What’s that?”
Looking farther down the road, a massive Zombie was slowly walking out of a shopping mall at the end of the street.
Its body was as sturdy as a bull, and it stood over two meters tall. The skin all over its body had mutated into a black-gray color, as tough as steel.
But that wasn’t the main point.
The main point was that this thing’s right arm was half a meter thick. It looked like a giant carrying a water barrel. Its enormous shoulder was so swollen that its head was shoved off to the other side of its body. Its whole frame was so bulky it barely looked human anymore.
‘Charger Zombie (Mature Form): An evolved type of ordinary Zombie. It possesses a towering body and an extremely powerful arm. Its strength far surpasses that of ordinary Zombies. Upon spotting prey, it will rush at the enemy with terrifying speed and smash them into pulp.’
‘Combat Power: 30~50’
‘Intelligence: 2’
‘Skill: Savage Charge.’
‘Attribute: Physical.’
...
“So it’s a first-top-up Zombie...”
“Hah???”
Duan Heng said the Zombie’s name with complete calm, but Bai Ling’s eyes widened in shock. She couldn’t imagine how someone as serious as Duan Heng could say those two words out loud.
But well...
The reason he called it that was actually because the one who gave it that nickname in their previous life was Bai Ling herself.
This Zombie’s right hand was absurdly thick. What normal Zombie looked like that? And there were a lot of this type, too.
Then one time, Bai Ling had joked, “Could it be that it topped up too many times, so its right arm got more developed than the others, and after mutating it turned into this...?”
“Holy shit? That actually makes sense!”
That had been Duan Heng’s response back then. From that point on, they started calling it the first-top-up Zombie. In the end, the nickname even spread so widely that people all across Yanhuang liked calling them that...
But that was beside the point~
Back to the present, Bai Ling looked at the monster in the distance, a full two heads taller than her, and couldn’t help feeling nervous. She quickly tightened her grip on the alloy blade.
But who would’ve thought that just as she was considering how to coordinate with Duan Heng to take down the monster, that guy suddenly placed a hand on her back—
Then shoved hard, pushing Bai Ling straight forward, and even whistled while he was at it!
Fweee—
“Ah! What are you doing?!”
Bai Ling cried out in panic. By the time she steadied herself, the Charger Zombie in the distance had already slowly turned around and fixed its gaze on her.
“Didn’t you want to earn System Coins? This elite monster is perfect for you. If I kill it, there’ll be transfer loss on the System Coins, so I’m leaving it to you!”
“What?!”
Even after hearing Duan Heng’s words, Bai Ling still wore a blank expression. She hadn’t processed what was happening at all.
At the same time, the Charger Zombie had already raised its massive right arm in front of itself like a shield. It bent slightly and lowered its center of gravity...
Then it suddenly kicked off and charged straight at her, letting out an earth-shaking roar along the way—
“ROOOOAAARRR—!”
That furious roar shot into the sky and echoed through the street. Its heavy footsteps made even the ground seem to tremble.
Seeing this, Bai Ling couldn’t help sucking in a sharp breath. She hurriedly raised her long blade to meet the attack, while shouting in horror,
“This is an elite monster?!”
“This is obviously a boss!”
