Ashen God
Chapter 72 The Trouble with Happiness

Chapter 72: Chapter 72 The Trouble with Happiness

"Ah, I’m plagued by a strangely blissful dilemma," Zhang Yanhang decided to continue fighting the zombie horde in the alley. After all, it had to be cleared sooner or later, and earlier clearance meant less hassle. He silently picked up the two treasure boxes dropped by the eighteen Lickers, and then reloaded his emptied M4A1 rifle with a Beta C-Mag drum magazine carrying a hundred-round capacity.

When facing ordinary zombies, firing the M4A1, a firearm, proved much faster than hacking with fists or cold weapons like a chopper. Moreover, using hands to tear apart zombies consumed more physical strength. Although Zhang Yanhang’s stamina limit had been enhanced by the A-rank Talent "Longevity" (+130%), the consumption rate would never be able to keep up with the recovery speed, inevitably reaching a limit.

Before, it was suggested that Zhang Yanhang could continue clearing zombies for 23 hours straight without a break. But now, not only had his Constitution improved to 25 points, but also his Talent had evolved from C-rank to A-rank. Consequently, it was proposed that he could battle for dozens of hours non-stop to clear the entire above-ground part of Raccoon City in one go.

But although that was the suggestion, Zhang Yanhang definitely didn’t dare to do so. Without the support of the options, he doubted there were only two possible outcomes if he attempted it: either dropping dead from staying up fighting zombies or being overwhelmed and perishing from exhaustion.

Moreover, Zhang Yanhang felt that the vast endurance he possessed was largely thanks to the variety of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures he had consumed over the past month. A significant portion was meant for strengthening his defensive power and physical strength. In fact, he had eaten a Spirit Fruit just yesterday that could also increase his physical strength.

After all, physical strength is quite basic. The high-end Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures directly increase Spiritual Power limits and Cultivation realms, or they grant some unique effects. For example, the Earth Spirit Fruit consumed by Zhang Yanhang previously—the defense effect of Earth Spirit Protection truly was formidable, capable of resisting ordinary bullets.

One could say, it was thanks to the Earth Spirit Protection shielding Zhang Yanhang in the early stages that he managed to successfully clear over a thousand zombies and accordingly accumulate a total of 7,200 Soul points.

However, it was precisely because it was so basic that it became widely available, which, in turn, created Zhang Yanhang’s stamina limit beyond the imagining of ordinary people.

If you replaced him with any other cultivator or Awakener, they certainly wouldn’t be able to achieve what Zhang Yanhang did—fighting continuously for eight hours after having only recently leveled up a few times, without any rest, equivalent to running an ultra-marathon while simultaneously dealing with enemies. The physical exertion would likely exhaust an ordinary cultivator in half an hour, and even an Awakener wouldn’t last much longer.

In the brief moment that Zhang Yanhang was slightly distracted, the Lickers, zombies, and Zombie Dogs he had previously perceived finally arrived. It was unclear whether there was an issue with the Lickers in the Ashen World, but they seemed able to stay together with their food, quite calmly and without causing trouble.

Here, the ’food’ referred to the ordinary zombies. Normally, Lickers need to continually consume the brains of ordinary zombies to maintain their extremely high metabolism and prevent themselves from starving to death.

Indeed, that’s also why Lickers are considered a Deterioration Mutation. Whereas an ordinary zombie could go without food for decades without starving, Lickers need several meals a day. Although their combat abilities are far superior to those of ordinary zombies, their endurance pales in comparison.

Well-cared-for zombies can see through three generations of humans, yet Lickers would probably drop dead within a week if not fed.

Ordinary zombies were still making their way slowly from behind, while the faster Lickers and Zombie Dogs had already reached Zhang Yanhang’s eyesight. In fact, some Zombie Dogs had already started biting at Zhang Yanhang’s calves in the front, and the Lickers were aiming for his upper body.

"Seriously annoying, but I’ve got no choice. Annoying as they are, I still have to work hard to kill zombies. Only by doing this can I get more Soul points and become stronger faster."

While speaking to himself, Zhang Yanhang shot himself in the head because a Zombie Dog had just used another as a springboard to leap onto his head, and it wouldn’t stop attacking his head of thick, beautiful black hair, as if the Zombie Dog could tell how important the hair was to him—a Computer Science student at the university.

"Thank goodness for the Spiritual Qi Recovery, or my hair would probably fall out within a couple of years after graduation."

The thought of the shiny, bald foreheads of the exemplary alumni returning to their alma mater made Zhang Yanhang shiver. Oh, wait, it wasn’t him shivering—it was the three Lickers on the side continuously pulling on his upper body with their tongues that made him sway.

There were only these three in the first batch of Lickers, but they mysteriously showed great unity, winding their tongues together around Zhang Yanhang’s waist. Regarding this, Zhang Yanhang made the appropriate snarky comment, "Speaking of which, does this count as a three-way tongue kiss among Lickers? It feels kind of disgusting."

Part of his intelligence-gathering phase, Zhang Yanhang had just finished reading a comic about Lickers the day before yesterday. He felt that the Lickers in the two-dimensional world were obviously much better looking than those in the Ashen World. Those in the two-dimensional realm were not only female but also extremely friendly to humans, liking to alleviate human worries for free by extracting nutrient fluids.

But what about the Lickers in the Ashen World? They evolved from male zombies and even liked to engage in tongue kissing with each other, not to mention being utterly unfriendly to humans, making them incomparable with the two-dimensional Lickers.

Zhang Yanhang spun on the spot, carrying the Zombie Dogs lying on him, which tightly wrapped the three Lickers’ tongues around his waist like rolls of toilet paper, closing the distance between the three Lickers and himself in the process.

The three Lickers seemed to want to prevent this from happening, but now the narrow back alley was piled high with the corpses of Lickers and Zombie Dogs. The ground was completely covered in the filthy, decaying Zombie Blood, and the three of them couldn’t increase their friction much, even if they buried their claws deep into the pavement.

Zhang Yanhang’s left hand was continuously mowing down Zombie Dogs and the belated Ordinary Zombies at the alley entrance with an M4A1, while his right hand was imbued with a trace of Spiritual Energy, delivering three Life-taking Brain Bangs to the trio of Zombie Dogs.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Among the crisp, loud sounds, the Spiritual Energy drilled into the Lickers’ brains through Zhang Yanhang’s middle finger and detonated swiftly. The Lickers’ deformed, unprotected brains burst like foam, instantly blown into pieces. Filthy blood and shattered brain tissue flew everywhere, and a miniature rain of blood suddenly fell in the narrow, secluded alley.