A few days later, on the sixth floor.
"Thud!"
An ax came down, splitting a zombie in two.
Ye Chen moved with the fluidity of water, weaving through the horde of zombies. With each swing of his ax, another zombie fell to the ground, lifeless.
In just a moment.
Dozens of zombies lay on the ground, black blood pooling everywhere. Severed limbs and gruesome corpses covered the floor; not a single body was left intact.
"That's brutal..."
Bai Long, watching from the side, swallowed nervously, muttering under his breath.
Ye Chen stood among the pile of zombies, barely any blood on him, a figure of intimidation, like a demon god. He glanced at Bai Long and said, "There are two more rooms over there. Go take care of them."
"Well... I'm not feeling well today, I'm sick. Could I maybe..." Bai Long mumbled.
Ye Chen walked over to his sister Ye Zhu and instructed, "We only need to make dinner for two tonight."
"Oh, I remember now, it's my turn to hunt those zombies in the other rooms, right? Sure, no problem!" Bai Long looked dazedly at Ye Chen, shook his head, and quickly grabbed his machete, heading to the last two rooms on the floor.
After these days of zombie hunting, he had consumed some mutagenic meat, growing much stronger, roughly with the strength of five men, while Ye Chen had reached the strength of thirty men, and Ye Zhu had the strength of twelve.
After Bai Long left, Ye Zhu began dissecting the zombies on the floor. Originally, Ye Chen intended for Bai Long to handle this job, but Bai Long's luck seemed worse than his own, needing to dissect over a dozen zombies to get a finger-sized piece of mutagenic meat. Thus, this task was left to his sister Ye Zhu.
"You're training him to develop survival skills in zombie hunting, aren't you?" Ye Zhu commented while dissecting, "Otherwise, with your strength, you could have dealt with those zombies in no time."
Ye Chen looked at her helplessly, realizing his thoughts were always transparent to her.
Before long, Bai Long returned from the two rooms, covered in blood, sweating profusely, and panting heavily, "Finally done, I'm exhausted."
Ye Chen nodded and said, "Drag the corpses over here and let Xiao Zhu dissect them."
Ye Chen did not keep the secret of the mutagenic meat, knowing it would be impossible to hide in the long term, so he decided to be upfront. Besides, since he had accepted Bai Long into the group, he wouldn't ostracize him.
Hearing Ye Chen's words, Bai Long sighed, took one last look at Ye Chen's cold demeanor, and reluctantly got up, muttering, "I'm not afraid of you, I'm just giving face to your sister!"
...
After the dissection was done, the group took the elevator back to the room on the 18th floor.
After washing up, Ye Zhu took charge of dinner, Bai Long handled moving things and doing chores like laundry, while Ye Chen sat on the sofa, lost in thought.
In the living room, the sound system played popular music.
Bai Long was mopping the floor, humming along with the music, swaying his head. To the uninformed, he might seem crazy, but those who knew him understood he was just dancing. When he got excited, he hugged the mop like a guitar, singing and playing.
Everything was harmonious.
Ye Chen enjoyed this kind of scene, so despite his annoyance at Bai Long's out-of-tune singing, he didn't stop him.
"Dinner's ready!"
Around seven o'clock, as night fell, they closed the windows. The three of them gathered around the table to eat.
"We had a good haul today." Under the light, Ye Zhu brought out two large bowls of mutagenic meat, her cheeks flushed with excitement.
Bai Long's eyes lit up as he reached for some, but Ye Zhu brought out a small bowl of mutagenic meat, handing it to Bai Long with a smile, "This is what you hunted today, more than yesterday. Keep it up tomorrow!"
Bai Long looked at his small bowl, then at the two large bowls, giving Ye Zhu a pitiful look, "Let me share some of yours!"
Ye Zhu giggled, "Alright then." She picked a small piece of mutagenic meat and placed it in Bai Long's bowl.
"Just this much?" Bai Long was dumbfounded.
Ye Zhu nodded earnestly, "Brother said you're not much help; eating too much might be hard to digest."
Bai Long nearly spat blood, turning to look pitifully at Ye Chen, but Ye Chen never glanced at him, his expression indifferent as he ate his mutagenic meat.
Bai Long felt like crying but had no tears, finally saying, "Alright, I, in the name of God, forgive you two stingy people."
After eating the mutagenic meat from today's hunt, Ye Chen's physique strengthened a bit more, now roughly equivalent to the strength of 31 men.
Physical Attributes:
Strength: 1550kg!
Speed: 100m/2s!
Nerve Reaction Speed: 0.008!
Once Ye Chen's nerve reaction speed reached about 0.004, he would be able to see the trajectory of a bullet and dodge it. At 0.001, most handguns would no longer pose a threat, and even sniper rifles could be avoided.
After dinner, Ye Chen left the room, went to another room, and brought back a barrel of gas. He then checked the connection between the handle and the head of his fire axe for any looseness.
"What are you up to?" Ye Zhu frowned slightly at Ye Chen's actions.
Ye Chen glanced at her and said, "Tomorrow, I'm going downstairs to hunt the mutated ant. I won't be able to accompany you when you go zombie hunting, so be careful." He looked at Bai Long, "I'm counting on you to take care of my sister."
Bai Long puffed out his chest, "Of course!"
Without saying more, Ye Chen started preparing for the next day's mission.
It had been almost 20 days since the apocalypse started. If he didn't kill the mutated ant within this month, it would mutate further under the virus next month, its strength growing more terrifying, reaching the power of sixty men. It would be even harder to hunt it down then.
"Once I capture this mutated ant, I'll have the chance to become a gene warrior! Then, I'll truly have the power to protect my sister." Ye Chen's eyes were resolute, determined to capture the mutated ant!
...
The next morning, Ye Chen woke up early and began a series of preparations.
First, Ye Chen placed the gas barrel, fuse, and other items outside the room where the mutated ant resided. He then prepared his weapons and donned a canine leather jacket, sewn from the fur of the mutated dog. It was much more protective than rough cloth, and ordinary zombie claws couldn't tear it apart!
There were only two of these, usually worn by Bai Long and Ye Zhu, but today, Ye Chen took Bai Long's.
"Brother, be careful. If you can't handle it, just run away!" Ye Zhu said worriedly.
Ye Chen nodded, "I'm confident. You two be careful, don't get caught by the zombies. If you encounter mutated creatures, just run."
"Don't worry!" Bai Long nodded with a smile.
Then...
After Ye Zhu and Bai Long left, Ye Chen started his plan. He moved the gas barrel to another room's bedroom, modified the wiring in the room, and dug a small hole under the door, just big enough for the mutated ant to pass through.
He turned on the gas, sealed the door cracks with a wet towel, placed a bowl of sugar water on the gas barrel, and sprinkled a trail of sugar water leading to the room where the mutated ant was.
After finishing everything, Ye Chen hid in an inconspicuous place, waiting quietly.
Bang! Bang!
Before long, the mutated ant started pounding on the door, using its powerful strength to smash a big hole in the thick door, and crawled along the trail of sugar water.
Ye Chen held his breath, gripping the fire axe, hiding in a cabinet in the living room, peeking through a crack. He saw the mutated ant following the sugar water trail, crawling into the gas-filled room...
"Boom!"
Ye Chen's eyes were cold. He lightly pulled a white string in his hand, and the room switch clicked, sparking a small fire. With a roar, the room exploded, blowing off the bedroom door, and a wave of fire swept out, blackening the door frame.
Ye Chen quickly emerged from the cabinet and rushed to the room. He knew a single gas barrel wasn't enough to kill this mutated ant.
When he reached the doorway, he saw the room in shambles. Near the shattered gas barrel, the mutated ant was charred black, writhing in pain on the floor. Most of its legs under its abdomen were broken, and its hard shell was cracked open.