In the distance, at the end of the highway leading into the city, tens of thousands of zombies had gathered. Thousands of wrecked cars were scattered around, with pieces of corpses strewn everywhere.
In the middle of the highway, a small hill made of corpse remnants sat a young boy. He impatiently toyed with a severed arm in his hand, as if searching for something. Finding nothing, he casually tossed the severed hand aside, then started rummaging through the pile of corpses beneath him once again.
"Not this one," the boy's young voice was stuttering and hesitant. Not far away, a group of zombies gathered around the corpse hill, but they didn't dare to approach. There was a blank circle around the boy at the top of the hill, and even though he appeared harmless, it evoked strong fear in them.
"Clang!" At the edge of the zombie group, one of the zombies, jostled by its companions, stumbled into that blank circle, lost its balance, and fell to the ground, making a clanging sound as it hit a scattered piece of metal. The boy suddenly raised his head, his eyes crimson.
"Roar!" An invisible shockwave spewed from his mouth, instantly shattering the fallen zombie. The zombie group panicked. The mindless zombies were showing bizarre emotions in the face of the boy's intimidation.
If Clark were here, he would recognize that this was the innate intimidation displayed by zombies when they faced a Mutant of over the Third Order within the zombie group!
"Not this one either!" The boy's angry and frenzied emotions manifested as a shockwave sweeping through. In an instant, the surrounding zombie group, along with the wrecked cars, turned to ashes.
The boy eventually gave up the search and stood up straight. There was a black fragment embedded in his small chest. It didn't move even in the absence of wind, and he floated gently in mid-air, as if being manipulated like a puppet traversing the void.
The boy's stiff head scanned his surroundings. After a moment, he changed direction. The remaining corpses underfoot followed his lead. The mass of corpses surged, heading for the center of LJ City!
An hour later. "Squeak!" The motorcycle swerved and came to a halt. Clark suddenly applied the brakes with a serious expression. Not far away, a corpse hill loomed at the entrance to the city, and what was eerie was the absence of any zombies in the vicinity.
Lynn woke up startled, her eyes half-lidded in drowsiness. Without a word, Clark had slammed the brakes, causing her chin to collide with Clark's back and giving her quite a knock.
"Ouch... that hurt. Is this guy made of stone or something? Doesn't he know how to be gentle?" Lynn couldn't help but complain inwardly about Clark's lack of consideration.
Clark turned his head slightly but felt nothing. With his current physique of 14.4, let alone a bump, even an ordinary person wielding a cold weapon wouldn't be able to scratch his skin under hasty circumstances.
The scene in front of him was indeed peculiar. Clark decisively activated the Eye of Judgment to quickly survey the area. There were numerous human casualties, bodies piled up into a mound, but there were no zombies present. This strangeness made him cautious.
"Scanning complete," the Eye of Judgment scanned all the information in an extremely short amount of time.
"Survivors: 0."
"Zombies: 0."
"Damaged vehicles: 11,219..."
The corpse mountain stood at about ten meters high, consisting of at least tens of thousands of bodies piled up. There were a few bodies near the highway entrance, the guardrails, and inside the vehicles. Some of the pieces of meat on the ground were still slightly reddish, indicating that some time had passed. Not far from the corpse mountain, some shattered zombies surrounded a circle.
After Clark confirmed that there were no threats around, he cautiously approached the most peculiar group of corpses. What was this? Clark took a few steps and arrived in front of the shattered corpses. His expression turned serious. The shattered corpses had clean cuts, and the muscle tissues inside were almost completely mashed into a pulp. This wasn't the result of an explosion or a physical attack that could achieve such an effect.
Clark lowered his head in contemplation, feeling somewhat uneasy. He looked back at the corpse mountain and then compared it to the pieces of flesh in his hand. The top of the corpse mountain had been flattened, as if something had stood on it. Something capable of causing this kind of damage.
Clark repeatedly compared it in his memories and, after a moment, came to a conclusion. The traces of psychic impact! Only psychic impact could achieve this kind of effect.
Clark suddenly felt a chill down his spine. Psychic impact, at the very least, was an attack method mastered by Third-Tier Awakeneds or Mutants. Such a large-scale, indiscriminate attack. It might even be more than just Third-Tier!
What could it be? Clark was puzzled. Whether Awakeneds or Mutant zombies, Third-Tier shouldn't appear in the early stages of the game. In his previous life, the Third-Tier entity known as the "Corpse King" only appeared six months into the game, leading millions of zombies to destroy a large safe zone. Nearly a million people were killed or injured, and it took the military's extensive use of tactical missiles to finally eliminate it. Beings of this level could single-handedly annihilate organized armies.
Clark thought about the suspicious Third-Tier Mutant that had appeared near LJ City, and his heart couldn't help but feel heavy. The existence of entities that shouldn't exist according to his memories. Was it due to the butterfly effect or something else? He had just carefully examined the traces on the ground.
A large number of zombies had moved toward the LJ City area not long ago. There was no doubt that the migration of the zombie horde was related to that Third-Tier Mutant, and the danger was looming.
Now, as far as Clark knew, there were already two Mutants above the First Tier in the LJ City area: "The Stitcher" and the unknown Third-Tier Mutant.
Lynn, who had followed him with heavy steps, had a pale face, and the shocking sight of the corpse mountain had left her deeply shaken.
"Are there still survivors in LJ City?"
This intersection was the only way out of the city. If this road was blocked, and there were numerous survivors who had met a gruesome end, it meant that there might be no one left who could leave the city at this stage.
Lynn asked Clark with a touch of despair in her voice. Although all players were forced to input some information about the apocalyptic game after its start, knowing and seeing were two different things. She had thought that it would be like zombies in movies. However, when she saw the pile of at least tens of thousands of bodies, she suddenly realized that this world might not be that simple.
"yes" Clark answered briefly after a moment of silence. There were currently at least two million survivors in the LJ City area, but this was not a good thing. Because it meant that in a week's time, LJ City would have more than a million zombies.