Chapter Seventeen: The Mutant Zombie

Xie Han glanced at his watch—only a minute had passed. This wasteland wasn’t particularly large, and with more than two hundred zombies crowding together, there wasn’t much room for him to maneuver. Every time he led them around in a circle, his space shrank a bit more, narrowing his escape route. Faced with these tireless undead, Xie Han felt powerless. If only he had an automatic rifle and enough ammunition, he could probably wipe them all out in ten minutes.

This expanse of wasteland must have been cleared when the gas station was first built, but after years of neglect, it had become a tangle of wild grass. Xie Han took one look and quickly devised a plan. He moved closer to the earthen wall, some ten meters high, left behind by an excavator. With a sudden leap, he vaulted upward, driving his steel pipe into the earth to climb. After ascending halfway, he carved out footholds with the pipe, standing above the frenzied horde and laughing heartily.

“If you’ve got the guts, come up here and get me…” Xie Han even dug himself a seat in the earth with his steel pipe, sitting there, legs dangling. Three minutes had now passed—Xu Qiang should have finished refueling. All Xie Han had to do was buy a few more minutes, giving Xu Qiang time to escape with the gasoline.

Below, the zombies surged toward the base of the wall, clawing and shoving, slowly climbing upward. Within a minute, several had already reached a height of over three meters, using their hardened fingers to gouge into the earth, oblivious as decaying flesh peeled from their hands. As more zombies scrambled up, Xie Han’s expression changed. He hadn’t expected these creatures to climb at all.

He muttered, “Well, if that’s how it is, don’t blame me for being rude.” Gripping the steel pipe, he waited for the zombies to come close, then hooked one off the wall with a sweep—often sending several tumbling down together. Watching the zombies topple from the wall, Xie Han suddenly felt a sense of heroic grandeur, as though he alone were holding a thousand enemies at bay.

Just as Xie Han was fully occupied, suddenly, amidst the horde below, a male gas station attendant froze, ceasing to surge and climb. His rotten flesh seemed to come alive, turning from black to a blood-red as new muscle sprouted and bulged, splitting his tattered uniform. His entire body quivered as muscle grew, and he let out a howl as chilling as a ghost’s wail.

Standing high above, Xie Han immediately noticed the change and was dumbfounded. “What the hell is that?” he cursed. He knew that a zombie’s muscle tissue was typically destroyed by the infection, leaving only nerves to animate the corpse. But now, a zombie was growing new muscle? It was beyond belief—his understanding of the XR virus shattered.

While Xie Han stared in shock, Zhou Ruomeng quietly emerged, kindly warning him, “That zombie has mutated—its abilities are about five times those of a regular zombie. You’re really unlucky to run into one, given the one-in-ten-thousand odds.”

Regaining his wits, Xie Han broke out in a cold sweat at the thought of the mutant zombie’s enhanced powers. “Zombies can mutate? If they keep evolving, will humans have any space left to survive?”

Zhou Ruomeng explained, “Statistically, regular zombies have a one-in-ten-thousand chance to mutate, but actual mutation requires certain conditions. So, roughly one or two mutants emerge per fifty thousand zombies. After each mutation, the chance of further evolution is again one in ten thousand. Theoretically, out of the world’s 7.2 billion zombies, there’ll be about 350,000 mutants, and from them, perhaps 150 will reach a third stage of evolution. The XR virus is very complex—there might even be zombies that evolve four or five times. These evolved zombies are ranked from R1 to R5, and possibly the even rarer R6.”

Xie Han felt a bitter taste in his mouth. By that calculation, the power of an R6 was beyond comprehension. R1s were just ordinary zombies, about three times as powerful as a human. R2s, after evolving from R1, were about seven times as strong. With his own strength being about ten times that of a normal person, he could only barely handle an R2.

While Xie Han and Zhou Ruomeng conversed, the male attendant had evidently completed his evolution and reached R2. The partial restoration of muscle allowed it to make guttural sounds. It first roared at Xie Han, then suddenly leaped from the horde and clung to the earthen wall, scrambling toward Xie Han with alarming speed.

“Oh hell…” Xie Han’s scalp prickled at the R2’s agility. With several times the speed of a regular zombie, this would be tough to handle. The R2 was upon him in an instant; Xie Han yanked his steel pipe from the earth and thrust it at the creature’s head. The difference between R2 and a regular R1 was the partial restoration of muscle—though the lack of skin left raw, bloody flesh exposed.

The R2 seemed aware that its head was vulnerable. As Xie Han struck, it twisted aside, still lunging for him. Its fingers had evolved to be sharper, long iron-colored nails gleaming with deadly hardness.

Xie Han hadn’t expected an R2, supposedly devoid of consciousness, to know how to dodge. It was clearly more than just enhanced muscles. Still, no matter how the R2 evolved, it was still a zombie. With a slight adjustment, Xie Han drove the steel pipe straight through its eye, destroying the nerves within.

The fatal blow made the R2 shudder, then fall still. Xie Han flung the corpse several meters away into the wasteland. The seemingly simple attack had drained his strength—had he missed, he would have had little room to escape the R2’s reach.

The thought of such agility terrified him. If an R2 appeared before ordinary people, even heavy firepower might not be enough. As long as the R2 kept moving, hitting it would be difficult—and you had to aim for the head to kill it. If just a few of these monsters lurked among a horde, they could easily annihilate an unprepared team.

From his vantage point, Xie Han finally spotted Xu Qiang sprinting with a gas can. Without hesitation, he knocked down the last few climbing zombies, then scrambled higher up the wall. Above the steep embankment was a range of hills. Shaking off the zombies below, Xie Han dashed toward the minibus, determined to cross this stretch of road before the horde flooded back to the gas station.

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Second chapter delivered. Where are those votes…