"Cough cough... Mom, damn it, it hurts like hell!"
Several minutes after the explosion, Thomas Xu was pulled up from a pile of rubble by Jack, looking disheveled. He stared in shock at the large hole in the wall, which was about four to five meters in diameter. Ignoring the gaping wound on his forehead that was bleeding, he asked in confusion, "Did I... did I hit the gas canister? Why did it explode so violently?"
"It's not a gas canister; it should be a kind of psychic storm used by that monster!"
Jack was equally disheveled, with a gaping wound the width of a finger on his neck, caused by a rock during the recent explosion. If that rock had been just a little higher, given the force at the time, it would have undoubtedly pierced Jack's throat without mercy.
"Mental storm? What is that?"
Thomas shook the dust off his head and staggered up from the bricks. He looked utterly miserable, with a bruise on his forehead and multiple injuries on his body. The dark red bloodstains on his cheek smeared half of his face, making him look neither human nor ghostly. He walked unevenly towards the cave's edge, stepping in and out of the stone pile, and suddenly stopped to ask, "Brother Lin, is that thing dead?"
"Should have fucked it, right? Look!" Jack shook the dust off his head, holding the flashlight as he walked over, directing the beam of light onto a pile of grayish-white objects.
Thomas Xu curiously approached and kicked aside a few pieces of rubble on the object. Once he got a clear look at it, he immediately felt nauseous and said, "What the hell is this broken thing? No hands, no feet, and such a big head, it looks just like a big brain sitting on a pile of rotten pig intestines... Brother Lin, this guy's eyes are also big and black. Why do I think it looks so much like an alien?"
Jack walked over and shone the flashlight at the unknown monster. The creature indeed resembled what Thomas Xu had described, with a large head that looked like that of an alien. It was almost impossible to see its limbs, as if all its nutrients had gone into that big head. Its skin was a pale gray, and its entire body was sticky, as if coated in a layer of transparent gastric fluid. Overall, it looked like a paralyzed alien patient. On its right brain, there was a very obvious gunshot wound, which was probably the fatal spot that Thomas Xu had inadvertently hit.
"This is a living corpse that has directly come into contact with the source of infection and undergone mutations. Although I have never seen it, I have heard others talk about it. People have even given it a very fitting name based on its appearance, calling it the 'Big Head Living Corpse.' The Big Head Living Corpse has almost no strong offensive capabilities and is not contagious. Its only means of attack is to influence our brain waves, causing us to experience various illusions, thereby achieving its predatory goals!"
Jack squatted down without the slightest disgust and looked again at the incomplete body of the zombie. Frowning, he said, "This zombie actually has no teeth? I guess this long trachea in its mouth is used for sucking blood. I really don't know what kind of hallucination it gave Liu Fei before she died. Liu Fei's face is so twisted, it looks like she was scared to death!"
"By the way, Brother Lin, what do you mean by a mental storm?" Thomas Xu asked curiously.
"It is a powerful shockwave formed by strong brainwaves, but that should be his means of survival. I estimate that even he cannot easily release it. Fortunately, there is a wall between us; otherwise, Thomas Xu, you would likely suffer several times worse!" Jack said with a smile as he turned around.
"Damn it, a monster is still a monster. It took a shot to the head and is still struggling to survive! But even if this thing doesn't have any storms, I still find it quite tricky. If I weren't somewhat clear-headed, knowing that my sister can't come back to life, it would have almost tricked us into killing each other!"
Thomas frowned in fear and then asked suspiciously, "Brother Lin, why didn't it attack us when we passed by last night? Is it smart enough to know we were going to save someone and wait for everyone to come down together to take them all out?"
"There is a strong possibility!" Jack stood up and nodded, saying, "This thing is not only smart, but it can also read our memories. Otherwise, it wouldn't be able to imitate the people we are familiar with. It knows our fears and concerns because it has a kind of mind-reading ability, which is why it can easily target our weaknesses. I estimate that even if we all turned into incomplete corpses, it wouldn't hesitate to attack!"
"Yeah, the appetite of a zombie has always been good, but this time its greed got the better of it! By the way, Brother Lin, where did you first notice something was off? I thought this guy's performance was simply perfect from start to finish; at least the little girl it conjured up really scared me!" Thomas Xu patted his chest, looking quite frightened.
"Shadows and incomplete corpses!" Jack smiled slightly and said, looking at the incomplete corpse on the ground, "It unnecessarily created a shadow behind the little girl, but with three or four flashlights shining on her, her shadow turned out to be just one. Moreover, the hundreds of incomplete corpses piled around, I don't know if you noticed, but they appear to have repeating incomplete corpses at intervals, with the same postures and characteristics, just like images that have been copied. This is completely different from the incomplete corpses we saw at the beginning last night. I think perhaps this living corpse's mental power is not enough to handle so many of us at once, so the illusion turned out a bit rough!"
"Fortunately, it's only this bad; otherwise, it would be outrageous. If it were to imitate my mom as well, I'd probably go crazy!" Thomas Xu looked at the incomplete corpse of the living dead, which resembled a pile of rotting organs, and spat out in frustration.
"This guy's legs are gone; it must have been trapped here before. The only thing it can move is its mouth, which can suck blood and drag people. If its body were intact, we would be in big trouble!" Jack shook his head in amazement, feeling a deep apprehension towards this bizarre mutated creature.
"Man...man...are you… are you all right?" As soon as Thomas Xu finished speaking, the two saw Gao Chujiang cautiously approaching with a flashlight in one hand and a piece of rusty steel pipe in the other, while Gao Yuanyuan followed closely behind him like a little tail.
"What do you think? Do I look like I'm fine when I'm this miserable?" Thomas Xu said with a pout, showing Gao Chujiang his disheveled appearance.
"Yo! How did it end up like this? Did you guys throw grenades?" Gao Chujiang looked at Thomas Xu, who looked like a beggar, with great surprise.
"Damn, even if I'm stupid, I shouldn't blow myself up with a grenade, right? Sigh~ I can't explain it clearly right now, so don't ask. But that spooky monster took care of us, so hurry and gather everyone so we can leave!" Thomas Xu shook off the dust from his clothes and slung his gun over his shoulder; he didn't want to stay in this eerie tunnel for another second.
"Okay! But…" Gao Chujiang hesitated for a moment, looking at Thomas Xu with a serious expression and said, "Gao Hai wants you to come over; he has something to say to you!"
"Gao Hai?" Thomas Xu nodded and followed Gao Chujiang inside.