After Rhodes called out, Bess and Ira stumbled out of the closet toward Rhodes.
"Rhodes... S-sorry… W-we failed to…" Ira stammered.
Beth, on the other hand, could no longer speak. She opened and closed her mouth but no sound came out from it.
"F*ck!" Rhodes cursed angrily. Before he could even figure out what had happened to Julie, it seemed like Ira and Beth were about to lose their sanity. He was incredibly furious, but he could kill both of them now.
Left with no other choice, he could only use Poison Control on the three women in hopes that it would slow down their mutation.
The system notification began to ring in his mind soon after.
"Ding! The number of zombies affected by the Poison Control has increased to another three zombies!"
"Zombie girlfriend, Julie. Loyalty: 100."
"Half-human-half-zombie, Ira. Loyalty: 80."
"Half-human-half-zombie: Beth. Loyalty: 80."
"Zombie Police. Emma. Loyalty: 80."
After hearing the system notification, Rhodes knew Beth and Ira's conditions should have stabilized for now.
Then, he hurriedly asked Ira, "Ira, what happened?"
"I… I only remember hearing a loud roar before Julie lost control… While we tried to get under control… I think… I-I think we were injured! She seems… to be looking for something important. I don't know how I know that, but I can sense the thing is very important to her..."
Rhodes fell deep into his thoughts after listening to Ira's explanation. All kinds of questions appeared in his mind at this moment. 'Julie grew agitated after hearing a roar outside? However, I didn't see anything outside when I returned. Moreover, she seems to be looking for something… What was she looking for?'
While he was distracted, lost in his thoughts, the three women seemed to have heard something and grew agitated and violent. Regardless, they did not hurt him at all. Instead, they began to head outside, ignoring him.
Thump!
While Emma shuffled outside, she tripped on a wire and fell to the ground.
The loud sound caused Rhodes to regain his senses. When he saw the three of them seemingly headed to the same place with a purpose, he decided against using Poison Control to stop them. It seemed to him that whatever caused these reactions in three of them was the same thing that caused Julie to go berserk.
Rhodes decisively followed them out of the alley.
As soon as the three of them exited the alley, he was stunned by the scene in front of him. Hordes of zombies, one after another, were shuffling systematically toward the same direction.
Rhodes continued to follow the army of zombies, walking and stopping.
The south gate!
Rhodes did not expect them to head to the south gate!
After the zombies moved further away, it was his turn to walk past the south gate. His nose was assaulted with a sour and rotten stench of garbage and corpses. He looked at the severed limbs strewn on the ground and the pools of dark red blood before he retched.
He quickly calmed down and followed the zombie army.
This is the first time he was venturing outside the vicinity of the campus after so many days. He was afraid just imagining what was going on outside so far away from campus.
The university's south gate was the closest to the park. After exiting the school gate, if one turned left, one would soon arrive at the entrance of the park.
As expected, this was the zombies' destination.
Now that Rhodes had found out the destination, there was no need for him to stay behind the zombies. He quietly used his special ability to summon Beth, Ira, and Emma with his mind. He ordered the trio to follow him.
Just like that, four of them quietly left zombies and made their way to the heart of the park through a path. Since he no longer needed to follow the zombies' pace, he was much faster now. In just a short time, they arrived at the heart of the park.
At this moment, the zombies seemed to have gone crazy. They swarmed toward the heart of the park like stampeding beasts.
Rhodes, who wanted to observe the situation, had no choice but to climb up a tree.
The situation was not very complicated. A short zombie was standing in the center. Next to it, groups of zombies were fighting each other as though they were trying to determine who was the strongest.
Rhodes activated the special ability, Insight. He discovered the horde of zombies in the center were all level-six to level-seven zombies. He was startled by this discovery. He had worked hard, day and night, to kill zombies and harvest their energy crystals for Julie, but in the end, he only managed to help Julie become a level-eight zombie. He wondered inwardly, 'Where did these zombies get so many energy crystals to level up?'
Then, he was further shocked when he shifted his attention to the short zombie standing in the center. 'Level-five? It's only a level-five zombie! How did he make these level-six and level-seven zombies fight?'
Soon after, through Insight, he saw two blue lights flickering in the short zombie's body. Upon seeing this, he seemed to understand why the other zombies were in such a state. It seemed like the zombies were here for the blue lights. The zombies were most likely fighting to see which of them was the strongest so they could obtain the short zombie's blue energy crystals.
With this, he confirmed his suspicion that Julie had to be among the hordes of zombies.
He wasted no time in looking for her. When he found her, she seemed to be in a miserable situation. She was surrounded by four level-seven zombies. Although she was a level higher than them, she could not handle being surrounded by four level-seven zombies at the same time.
Julie was about to be defeated by the four zombies when Rhodes suddenly appeared by her side. With a body that was ten times stronger than an ordinary person, he sent a level-seven zombie flying with just one punch. Then, he grabbed Julie and used all his strength to stomp on the ground to propel himself backward.
Before he made his way to Julie, he had ordered Beth, Ira, and Emma to hide among the hordes of zombies and to regroup with him amidst the chaos.
When the short zombie saw that someone had disrupted the fight around it, it immediately shrieked. Its ear-piercing scream spread through the entire park. All the zombies stopped fighting immediately and began to chase after Rhodes.
Rhodes did not look back. He carried Julie and rushed toward the area where the number of zombies was the lowest and charged through their ranks.