Xyrin Empire
Chapter 340 - Chapter 340 Chapter 340 Long-Awaited Rotten Flesh

Chapter 340: Chapter 340: Long-Awaited Rotten Flesh Chapter 340: Chapter 340: Long-Awaited Rotten Flesh After wandering through the barren wilderness for over half an hour, we finally spotted the silhouette of a city. The distant high-rise buildings added a bit of variety to the otherwise monotonous landscape.

Visca had been collecting data from our surroundings the whole way. Beyond what satellites could observe, the data she had gathered could easily fill two British Libraries–from the composition of the air to the gravitational constant, from the structure of plants to atmospheric density, from cosmic ray remnants to light intensity. She even idly began to calculate the radius of this “Earth” we were walking on based on the data already measured.

Thanks to Visca’s somewhat overly exaggerated diligence, we had gained a basic understanding of this world. At a glance, it seemed scarcely different from Earth in terms of environment and life forms, which were conventional carbon-based beings. Besides discovering one or two types of monocotyledonous plants that had already gone extinct on Earth, one could even say this place was another Earth. Therefore, when I saw the city in the distance that looked vaguely familiar, I was not at all surprised.

Unsurprisingly to anyone, the city we reached was completely lifeless. After quietly driving into this seemingly modern metropolis, we were only greeted by an almost palpable frigid silence. As we slowly drove through the deserted streets, I could not help but feel as though this dead city was quietly observing us–an illusion not unfamiliar to me. In past dreams, the sleeping Xyrin Mother Star was similarly silent, but that was merely a slumber waiting for awakening. The city before us now, however, was already dead.

It didn’t seem to be the place Lin Xue had seen in her dreams. As we drove on, I theorized that the scattered bodies and signs of resistance described in Lin Xue’s dreams were absent. It looked like what had occurred here prior to its destruction was an orderly evacuation rather than futile chaos. Of course, we might not have reached that part of the city yet–after all, we were still only on the outskirts, and even a major disaster shouldn’t have left no peaceful streets behind, right?

“Brother, abnormal life fluctuations detected ahead.”

As we were slow-driving on the city streets, Visca’s warning light flashed a serious red.

“Is it that ‘Fierce Beast’ that caused the disaster…?”

I murmured softly, then steadied the car in front of a shop. I didn’t activate any disguise system because I was curious about this ‘Fierce Beast’ that high-tech humans couldn’t handle, even to the point of facing extinction.

According to Lin Xue’s description of her dream, although she couldn’t see the creature that killed the citizens, the wounds on the bodies made it clear that the attacker was a beast. Could such a world of low magic and low energy produce something that even advanced firearms couldn’t counter?

Soon, the mystery was revealed before us. From around the corner of a street opposite us, several shaky figures began to appear in our sight.

The creatures appeared quite clumsy and seemed to be blind, but I barely touched the car door and made a slight sound. However, those things quickly located our presence and then suddenly sped up, running towards us.

Even when they ran, they were still clumsy…

We didn’t even have to get out of the car; the Seven Billion autonomously locked onto the hostile targets. After several beams of energy-concentrating laser light sliced through, the enemies charging towards us were cut in half. Even with such fatal damage, the creatures didn’t die immediately. They let out a wailing cry, and their remaining upper halves struggled fiercely as they continued to move towards us, dragging their filthy blood and organs behind them on the ground.

“Truly disgusting.” I muttered with a grimace, but we didn’t need to take action. Realizing the first attack was ineffective, Seven Billion’s built-in tactical circuits quickly calculated the optimal response plan. A deep red light spread from under the headlights, and the thin layer of ground in a radius of over ten meters in front of us, along with several monsters, turned into steam. Only one creature, which moved too slowly and hadn’t completely entered the attack range, was left with its body intact, except its head had been evaporated.

Of course, it was intentional on my part, as the ghost energy radiation of seven hundred billion could cover half a small town…

“Did you see that thing just now?”

After those exceptionally vigorous entities were eliminated, I turned to Sandora and asked.

Sandora frowned, her face twisted in disgust, “I saw… Such disgusting creatures, all that rotten flesh.”

“This matter really is absurd.”

I shrugged my shoulders, then started the car and ordered Visca to set the life detection radar to maximum power to search for possible survivors in the city.

The things we had just killed should be considered zombies… oh, should they be called undead instead?

Their gruesome overall appearance, faces covered with stiff, decaying flesh and ragged clothes revealing gun wounds or bite marks, by their looks alone they should be dragged out and shot for five minutes. In Azeroth, they are called zombies; in a biohazard, they are referred to as undead; to us, they are unsightly meat, which was a bit disgusting.

“It could be the world of a biohazard,” I muttered after turning down a nearly destroyed shopping street, “or some other type of biochemical apocalypse, no wonder doomsday literature of this kind is so popular, it seems it’s because of this world’s projection effect…”

“There’s something else I don’t understand,” Sandora said, slightly frowning and puzzled, “Undead, although often featured in human fantasy literature, should actually be impossible in a technologically and magically low world. They have characteristics of the dead, and their existence doesn’t comply with normal biology. Visca has also scanned the life forms of this world, and they are completely the same as on Earth…”

At this moment, Visca, who served as the radar function, suddenly spoke up, interrupting Sandora’s analysis, “Brother, turn left in three hundred meters ahead, three normal life reactions, six abnormal life reactions.”

The gray car, which had been moving at normal speed, paused slightly, then the tailpipe emitted a blue glow, and the entire car shivered like an illusion before vanishing from the spot.

A second later, we had jumped to the area marked by Visca and parked the car in a hidden alley before running forward following the sounds.

At the entrance of a store on the street corner, an assault was in progress. Six tattered zombies staggered together surrounding what seemed like a family of three–a robust man was wielding a long machete smeared with blood, continuously chopping at the approaching creatures. Beneath his feet lay a zombie whose half head had been chopped off, probably by the same machete. Behind the man, a long-haired woman in casual clothing protected an eight- or nine-year-old girl, scanning her surroundings with terrified eyes. Then, she saw us.

Seeing us, the man’s face, previously desperate, brightened with relief, but as he saw Sandora and Visca emerge from behind me, that relieved expression suddenly froze.

“Well, I admit, Sandora, with her aristocratic demeanor and dress, along with the Little Loli next to her pretending to be blind, really didn’t look like they have any combat ability. In a way, our trio and the family of three facing doom up ahead share some subtle coincidences…”

“Simply based on appearance, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to consider Visca a daughter rather than a sister, but Sandora and I, playing the role of the ‘parents’, really do look too young for the part. Young people these days… nonsense! Why is no one stopping me from going off on such a tangent?”

“Help!”

Just then, a long-haired woman ahead of us, who was clearly on the verge of a breakdown from extreme tension, suddenly started shouting loudly toward us, almost as if she feared we would turn around and run away–an all too normal reaction in such a world.

However, her cries for help first caught the attention of the Zombies. It’s baffling how these rotting creatures, with their ears nearly falling apart, possessed such sharp hearing. They hesitated slightly, then unanimously decided to bypass the fierce man wielding a machete, charging directly at the mother and daughter behind him. Seeing this, the man wielding the machete almost collapsed, shouting loudly in desperation to draw the Zombies’ attention back to him, his long blade madly smashing on the Zombies’ heads. But the absolute numerical disadvantage left him unable to save his wife and daughter in time.

“Uncle, these monsters don’t respond to taunts.”

I called out from a distance, then snapped my fingers, “Explosion.”

Six grotesque Zombies were in the midst of leaping toward the mother and daughter, but in the next second, crimson flames erupted from within their bodies. In the blink of an eye, the monsters were burnt to ashes, with only a few specks falling on the long-haired woman.

Easily eliminating those monsters, which were quite fearsome to ordinary humans yet had no energy resistance, we quickly approached the family that had narrowly escaped death. They were still in shock, unable to comprehend what had just occured–a Zombie attack should’ve been an unprecedented experience for them.

I gave the bewildered, burly man a hard pat on the shoulder. He immediately let out a scream, shuddering violently, and even dropped his machete with a clang, before finally snapping back to reality, casting us a terrified look, and instinctively shielding his wife and daughter.

“It seems I’ve been mistaken for a monster…” I said with a wry smile, turning to Sandora, “Uh… Visca, close your eyes… never mind, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

As it turned out, what really scared them was Visca’s eyes–the blood-red catlike pupils. In this world ravaged by monsters, where everyone’s nerves are on edge, anything unhuman enough could send ordinary people into panic, especially Visca’s eyes, completely mutated by Abyss Energy. Honestly, sometimes even I get startled when I bump into a restless Visca wandering about at night.

“Don’t mind it, my sister was born this way.”

I patted Visca’s head and said to the man with a smile. By now, he noticeably realized we meant no harm, especially since I had just saved their lives–regardless of how unbelievable the process was–and he finally relaxed a bit, then slowly collapsed to the side.

…This plot is too melodramatic, isn’t it? The blood-covered father fighting to protect his family loses his last bit of spiritual support the moment his rescuers arrive, ultimately falling on the blood-soaked battlefield. After entrusting his wife and daughter to the mysterious man who saved them, he dies with a smile. The little daughter who witnessed this tragedy then harbors a seed of vengeance, undergoing grueling training to eventually become the most powerful warrior under that mysterious man. When she destroys one enemy after another and finally uncovers the truth behind that day’s events, she’s shocked to find that the mastermind behind everything was none other than her foster father… Come on, are you not going to cut me off from this ridiculous plot…

“My goodness, I’m exhausted…”

The man I had mentally crossed off and commemorated with a tombstone covered in Chinese parasol leaves every autumn, now slumped onto the ground and let out a long breath, saying this.

I: “…”

Despite not knowing why this family of three had stayed in this now very dangerous city, it was clear that this was not a place to linger. Zhao Leisong, the self-proclaimed man, knew this as well, and after experiencing a zombie attack, they were desperate for strong assistance. In this chaotic world, having an extra person by your side is a wise decision, although the origins of that group of helpers were a bit dubious.

When they found out that we had a car, the three of them were clearly overjoyed. I then realized that due to the orderly evacuation of the city’s population following the disaster’s outbreak, it was nearly impossible to find any usable transportation within the city. Walking on foot in an area rampant with zombies without Uther’s strength was akin to courting death–and Uther, after all, was swallowed by Arthas’s sea of undead, *cough cough*…

However, when Zhao Leisong saw what our car looked like, his face almost fell into despair.

I could empathize. Even I would doubt whether this car, which was constantly modified by a certain little loli general, ending up with patches upon patches and holes within holes, could even outspeed a wheelchair…

But I didn’t have time to explain, as more abnormal life forms were detected approaching by Visca.

“It really doesn’t look it from the outside, but this car has such large space inside…”

After Bilion smoothly started and hit the road, Zhao Leisong finally relaxed–this guy didn’t believe the thing he was sitting in could actually move!

If it wasn’t for fear of being too shocking, I’d really want to open up all the space expansion modules and let him experience what a base car really is!

“I could even fit an army corps in here.”

I joked, setting the autonomous cruise control to follow the optimal route around the city as mapped out by Visca. Since Zhao Leisong’s family had been unexpectedly delayed here, perhaps we could find even more survivors.

Sandora and I sat in the front seats, while Visca squeezed in next to Sandora. It wasn’t that there wasn’t space in the back; it’s just that Visca’s hostility towards strangers was beyond my imagination. The rescued family of three was now quietly curled up in the back seats, faces weary yet filled with the joy of a narrow escape. And that man, who had left an impression on me with his valiant fighting earlier, now looked just as disheveled, even his right hand that had just been clutching a knife was trembling slightly. Still, I could highly commend him. Clearly, he was just a slightly stronger-than-average man, the sort who worked diligently and relied on physical labor to support his family. Yet, after the disaster struck, he could fight so bravely, even protecting his family against several fearless zombies–this was indeed bravery, even Sandora, had given him a comment that “He could be a warrior,” and for a Battle Song Princess to acknowledge someone as a warrior, it took more than just physical strength.

Zhao Leisong didn’t ask about the several zombies that had suddenly turned to ash after our appearance. I could see the confusion and speculation on his face, but in these dangerous times, having a stranger willing to lend a helping hand was already incredible luck. When survival becomes the greatest luxury in life, all other questions must step aside. Since we hadn’t broached the subject, it wasn’t Zhao Leisong’s place to probe further.

During our brief conversation, I also learned their names: the long-haired woman, now exhaustedly asleep on the seat, was named Song Yao, Zhao Leisong’s wife, a simple clerk and their daughter around seven or eight years old, Zhao Xiaoxiao, who was tightly held by her mother–just an ordinary family of three–if it weren’t for this damn apocalypse. (To be continued. For more, please visit www.NovelFire.net. More chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)

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