Black smoke went straight up into the sky, making the barren, empty scene look even more empty. Beyond Zhang Xiaoqiang's line of sight, he knew what was happening there. He was very curious. He glanced at his watch. It was 3:40 p.m. There were still at least two hours left before it got dark, so he had plenty of time to go to the rooftop and check it out himself.
Zhang Xiaqiang put his fake Tiger Fang combat knife on his belt. The shoelace under the sheath was tied tightly around his thigh. After taking a few steps to make sure it wouldn't get in the way, he grabbed his shield, iron spear, and binoculars before heading out.
He climbed the stairs carefully. Zhang Xiaoqiang lived on the second floor, and the rooftop was on the eighth floor. He carefully climbed the stairs. He got to the third floor and tried the security door of the third-floor apartment. As expected, it was locked tight. At least he didn't have to worry about zombies bursting out from inside.
Zhang Xiaqiang went up slowly, checking the door handles on every floor until he got to the eighth floor. This made him feel a little better because his unit was safe and the zombies were locked inside. As he passed each door, he could hear zombies scratching at the metal doors inside. His scent made them want to scratch more, and their sharp claws scraped against the metal, making a loud, unpleasant sound that made his teeth hurt.
The owner of the eighth floor had blocked the stairwell entrance with iron railings. A metal door was locked. Zhang Xiaoqiang tried to pry it open with the tip of his iron crowbar, but he couldn't make it move. He looked closely at the door. Its edges were heavily rusted, and it was locked so tightly that only a card as thick as an ID could fit into the lock.
Zhang Xiaqiang felt like going downstairs for tools. He checked the door and found it was surprisingly thin. To save materials, the owner welded a sheet of tin onto a triangular iron frame with a welder, using few weld points. He breathed a sigh of relief—this would be easier!
He took out his Tiger Fang combat knife, put it under the sheet metal, and pried it out. A corner of the metal plate broke with a loud clang. He kept digging with the knife until he had made a big enough hole to crawl through.
Zhang Xiaoqiang went to the rooftop terrace. The surface was covered with construction materials, including bricks, river sand, cement, various PPR water pipes, and PVC conduit. These materials spanned the entire deck. It looked like the owner of the eighth floor was planning to add a private rooftop deck. At the far end, a row of red brick walls was already half-built.
Three zombies suddenly came out from behind the wall, one in front and two behind, and started to go after Zhang Xiaoqiang. The one in front held a trowel in its clawed hand.
"Damn it!" Zhang Xiaoqiang said an angry word under his breath. Bad luck can strike at any moment.
He spun around and took two steps before stopping to keep from running away.
"I can run now, but what about later? It's only three of them—what's there to be afraid of?"
Zhang Xiaoqiang felt his blood pump faster, giving him energy. He spun around and took short, quick steps toward the first zombie. He grabbed the shield with his left hand and held the iron spear with his right hand, slightly raised. He started to breathe heavily, staring at the zombie.
The zombie's skinny cheeks and very wide mouth were now visible. The zombie was hit right away, and his hand swung the spear in an arc through the air. The spear hit the zombie's right calf with force.
Crack... The sound of bone snapping echoed.
Thud... The zombie fell to the ground.
Zhang Xiaoqiang didn't care about the dead body. He ran toward the other two zombies. He was standing about five or six meters apart, one to his left and one to his right. He ran toward the one on his left. He felt sweat on his hand as he held the iron spear, and his heart was beating very fast. It was hard to breathe.
"Two meters... one meter... now!"
His left hand held the metal pot lid tightly against his left chest. He used his left shoulder to hold the lid in place and hit the zombie as hard as he could. A powerful force shot from his shoulder to his left wrist, causing a burning feeling in his hand. The metal lid bent and folded, and its shape is now completely different.
There is no time to think. Zhang Xiaoqiang jumped at the chance to get the lid off when the zombie fell to the ground. He grabbed his iron spear with both hands and ran toward the last zombie. He got closer and bent his left leg at the knee to make it look like he was going to shoot someone. He aimed for the creature's face with the spear, throwing it forward quickly.
"Thud..."
The gun's tip went through the zombie's throat and then drilled through its neck. Zhang Xiaoqiang rotated the gun from left to right, and the sharp triangle of the file cut through the zombie's flesh and bones. There was a large hole in the zombie's neck. The zombie's head, still connected to its body, hung from its back as it fell to the ground.
"Phew..." Zhang Xiaoqiang let out a breath. He tried to hit the head, but he hit the neck instead. What a bad shot!
The zombie that had been standing still had already gotten up. The earlier impact didn't cause any damage. It lunged at Zhang Xiaoqiang again, claws out. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the first zombie he'd killed crawling toward him on the ground, its broken leg dragging behind. For zombies, the craving for flesh and blood was the most intense. They wanted to chew him to pieces, tear him apart, and swallow him whole!
Zhang Xiaoqiang avoided the zombie's attack and ran behind the one with the broken leg. He firmly placed his foot on its back, stopping it from moving. With a strong push of his arm, the iron spear went through the zombie's head. He twisted the spearhead out of the shaft. The zombie lay still. Its spearhead was covered in a yellow substance that smelled bad.
"Just one left."
Zhang Xiaoqiang looked up as the last zombie lunged toward him. He wanted to test an idea. He wanted to see if there were any other vital points besides the head. He circled the zombie, taunting it, then seized the moment to break both its arms one after the other.
The bayonet thrusts in and out, destroying the zombie's clothes. Its black, bony frame was covered in holes. Its heart, liver, and lungs were all torn apart and could not be identified. But the zombie didn't notice, and it kept chasing him like a crazy dog, swinging its two broken arms as it tried to bite him. The experiment ended when the spearhead went into the bad-smelling mouth, breaking its sharp teeth before being pulled out.
He took a tissue out of his pocket to wipe the sweat off his face. He was thinking about nothing in particular.
"Damn it, taking on three at once—I actually did it. I really did it. Just five days ago, I was scared to death facing one zombie. Today I killed ten straight, three of them with nothing but frontal attacks!"
Zhang Xiaoqiang felt very happy. "Who says nerds are useless? I'm alive, and I'll keep living. I'll live even better!" he told himself.
As he became less excited, Zhang Xiaqiang looked at his watch. It was 4:31 p.m. Searching the building had taken about ten minutes, prying open the iron gate over twenty minutes, and killing zombies, conducting experiments, and searching for the legendary brain nuclei had taken less than ten minutes total—even though the zombies' heads contained nothing but brain matter.
Remembering why he came upstairs, he walked to the edge of the roof and looked at the smoke through his binoculars. More than 30 minutes had gone by, and the mist was starting to clear. Through the lenses, a medium-sized van lay overturned on the ground. It was surrounded by hundreds of zombies in several groups. The front of the car had hit a flower bed on the side of the road, and there were still small fires along the car's body. Before the van, a bus and a medium-sized truck crashed head-on, and more passenger cars were piled up behind them. The bodies of the two vehicles and the many cars completely blocked the entire roadway.
It became clear that a van carrying survivors had sped out of the city center, but couldn't stop on time on the blocked road. Some people died from being burned inside the vehicle, while others were thrown out and eaten by the zombies.
When Zhang Xiaoqiang saw this, he felt a heavy weight in his chest. In this world, zombies have taken over. Everyone is desperate and fighting for their lives. At least he was lucky. He had a lot of food stored up at home. It would last him two months. But what about after that?
"Just get through these two months first. We'll worry about the future later."
Zhang Xiaoqiang shook his head and used typical otaku logic to console himself as he went downstairs. Just as he came down, it started raining!