Rely on yourself...
Chen Shiyu silently repeated the words in her heart, quietly clenching her small fist.
Chen Chao came to the window. At this moment, the neighborhood and the streets outside were stained with patches of blood, like blooming roses, filled with a pungent, iron-like stench.
He quietly observed the decaying creatures.
In the future, the decaying creatures were terrifyingly strong, not only possessing some unique abilities but also human intelligence. They could use strategies, set traps—making them nearly impossible to defend against.
The initial-stage decaying creatures were much simpler, with many weaknesses.
In the current first-infection state, the decaying creatures had no jumping ability, no intelligence, and their retinas were eroded by the virus. Their vision was blurry, and they could only clearly see things a few meters away.
Their hearing was also poor. Some of the decaying creatures were even deaf, with their eardrums corroded by decaying flesh.
Additionally, they feared light!
With their bodies severely dehydrated, they instinctively feared heat. It was possible to drive them away with high temperatures. However, if there was any smell of blood, they would disregard the heat and rush towards it, driven by their feeding instinct, which surpassed their fear.
Their fatal weakness lay in their skulls.
Even without a heart, they were still alive, because their circulatory system had already died. It didn't matter whether they had a heart or not. But the structure of the brain was much more complex. Even if most of the brain cells were dead, as long as the central nervous system remained intact, biological micro-waves could still control their movements.
Therefore, smashing their skulls was the only way to kill them!
One thing worth noting was their exceptionally sensitive sense of smell—about ten times more sensitive than that of humans. This was an exaggerated level, roughly equivalent to a quarter of a dog's sense of smell. A dog could track a target by the faintest scent, and unless you eliminated the scent, you couldn't escape!
This meant that if you had even the slightest wound, they would swarm toward you like sharks in the sea.
Knowing their weaknesses, Chen Chao had many ways to deal with them. However, he chose not to act at night. The first reason was that these decaying creatures were more active at night. They didn't need eyes to detect humans. The second reason was that their speed was about a third faster at night compared to the day!
"Go to sleep," Chen Chao said, looking at Chen Shiyu's worried face.
Chen Shiyu widened her eyes. "You can still sleep?"
Chen Chao smiled faintly. "The days are long. You must learn to conserve energy. If you're not going to sleep, then do something productive, don't waste time."
Time is precious.
This phrase didn't have much significance in the old world, but in the apocalypse, it became immediately effective. Chen Chao had managed to survive from being an orphan to the age of nineteen because he had always valued time. While others slept, he was thinking about how to hunt the decaying claw rats. While others curled up in their houses, afraid to face the monsters, he was quietly training his body.
His throwing knives were learned in elementary school, using stones for basic training. After becoming an evolved person, he accumulated his skills and, by the time he was nineteen, mastered two sets of A-level skills—an extraordinary achievement in the future!
It was thanks to these two sets of A-level combat skills that he was able to survive time and time again, narrowly escaping from the jaws of monsters. If not for the unfortunate encounter with a rare awakened being, he would have lived even longer.
"I can't sleep..." Chen Shiyu said with a hint of frustration.
She had always thought she had a strong psychological quality. While other girls screamed at the sight of a mouse, she found them cute. While others' legs turned to jelly at the sight of a snake, she felt no fear, as long as it wasn't venomous. Others feared corpses, but her university's major in anatomy had made her excited at the sight of blood and dead bodies...
But today was completely different.
This was the apocalypse!
Just the thought of the familiar world she once knew being gone forever, with no more fast food joints, no more companies, no more schools, and no one walking the streets, left her shuddering. In this desolate, ruins-like city, she was left alone with a horde of flesh-eating monsters...
The most important thing was...
How could she sleep with all the noise outside?
Chen Chao chuckled softly. He had indeed made things a little hard for her. Most people, if they were in this situation, would be so frightened they wouldn't be able to think straight. That she could still maintain her composure was impressive. The noises outside, the cries and roars, made it nearly impossible to sleep.
"If you can't sleep, go play on the computer. The internet should still be working. The forums are probably going wild by now," Chen Chao said with a light smile.
Chen Shiyu's eyes lit up, and she immediately nodded.
After she left the room, Chen Chao saw that it was still early. The noise outside made it impossible to get a good rest. He grabbed his iron staff and went out onto the balcony to practice his marksmanship.
Smash!
He didn't practice any fancy moves—just this one smashing strike!
At his current level, if he tried to use any advanced firearm techniques, they would only look impressive but lack real power, like a hollow show.
Only smashing mattered!
For dealing with these initial-stage monsters and decaying creatures, a good smash was enough.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The iron staff whistled through the air, the sound sharp in the night.
When his left arm grew tired, he switched to his right. When the right arm tired, he switched back to the left...
He practiced like this until after midnight. The eerie howls of the decaying creatures had finally grown quieter. The neighborhood and the streets were empty, with only wandering decaying creatures and some feasting on human corpses. There were remnants of human limbs, gnawed down to the bones, scattered everywhere.
Chen Chao was sweating profusely. After wiping his face with a towel, he decided to go to sleep.
That night was destined to be restless.
The next day, as the sky began to lighten, Chen Chao woke up.
He looked outside the window at the neighborhood. After a night's decay, the area and the streets were empty of people, with only wandering decaying creatures left. These creatures had swollen up, their flesh bloated from the virus, resembling rotting bodies floating in water for months. It was difficult to tell what they had once looked like.
Chen Chao went into the living room. While the city's power grid was still running, he used the rice cooker to make some porridge. After eating, he prepared to go hunting.
First, he armed himself.
The iron staff was a must. He also brought three throwing knives, tucking them into the seams of his pants. The weight was just right, not affecting his movement.
Then, Chen Chao rolled up some thin fashion magazines and wrapped them tightly with tape to serve as arm guards.
When fighting decaying creatures, the arms were the most vulnerable. Even the smallest scratch could lead to infection and eventual transformation into a decaying creature.
After getting ready, Chen Chao noticed that Chen Shiyu hadn't woken up yet, so he didn't disturb her. He left a note on the table, telling her not to worry, then took the iron staff and approached the security door...
There were still bloodstains on the floor.
Taking a deep breath, Chen Chao unlocked the security chain, gently opened the door, and a cool breeze blew in, carrying with it a strong smell of blood and faint decay.
This familiar air...
Chen Chao felt as if he had returned to the life he once knew in the apocalypse—the daily struggle for survival, fighting in the wild, all flooding back to his mind. His blood seemed to heat up, his body's cells shifting into survival mode.
He quickly closed the door behind him, isolating himself in another world. The smell of decay grew stronger. Taking a deep breath, he gripped his iron staff tightly and scanned the other three rooms.
Each floor had four households. At this moment, two doors were tightly shut, and one door was slightly ajar. A large pool of blood was seeping out from within. This was the room of the decaying creature he had killed yesterday.
Chen Chao didn't enter; there was likely no one alive inside. He proceeded toward the seventeenth floor.
Just as he rounded the corner, he heard a faint swallowing sound. In the quiet hallway, it was eerily clear. He peeked over the railing and immediately saw an elderly man sitting on the stairs, facing away from him. His shoulders were shaking, as if he was crying.
Chen Chao didn't approach immediately but instead observed from the side.
In the elderly man's arms was the decaying body of a woman. His shoulders shook because he was gnawing on her corpse.
Suddenly, the old man looked up.
It was a decayed face, with milky eyes, wrinkled and rotten skin hanging off it. Half of the face was covered in blood, twisted in a snarl. He still had a piece of flesh in his mouth.
Chen Chao's expression remained calm as he quickly scanned the surroundings. After confirming there were no other decaying creatures, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Roar!
The old man dropped the half of the woman's body and roared, crawling toward Chen Chao with claws bared. The movement of prey excited it even more.
Chen Chao did not retreat. Instead, he immediately leaped down from the handrail, slamming the sole of his size 42 shoe into its decayed face, sending its entire body flying backward. Even though it was three times stronger than a human, Chen Chao's falling momentum was too much for it to resist.
As it fell, Chen Chao swung the iron rod down with a sharp whistle!
Bang!
The rod struck its skull with a muffled thud.
The skull didn't shatter, so Chen Chao swung the rod again. But at that moment, the old zombie had already risen from the ground, roaring and lunging at him again.
Chen Chao remained calm and immediately stepped back two paces.
Thud!
The zombie's foot got caught on the stairs, tripping it forward, and it crashed onto the ground at Chen Chao's feet.
Chen Chao had been waiting for this moment!
He swiftly raised the iron rod like an executioner's axe and brought it down!
The iron rod collided with the zombie's skull, and the weight, speed, and momentum of the blow combined with the fall made it powerful enough to crack a human skull.
With a sickening crack, the skull caved inward, leaving a deep mark. If it had been a living person, the pain would have been unbearable, but the zombie felt nothing. It kept roaring, lunging at him again.
Chen Chao struck again, bringing the rod down with force!
Still on the same spot!
Bang!
The skull exploded like a watermelon, brain matter and blood splattering everywhere. The old zombie's hands finally stopped moving and fell limp.
Chen Chao quickly squatted down, pulling a black plastic bag over his hand, and then used a throwing knife from his leg to slice open its chest.