The Peril Strain

Obtaining the short buffer of time, Lin Chao had got himself to the building's entrance. The door unlocked immediately when he swiped the key fob on it.

At the same time that Lin Chao crossed the door, the Golden Hound was already there furiously crashing against it. The violent noise instantly alerted the zombies on the first floor as they slowly made their way over.

Lin Chao moved quickly away from the gate lest he got discovered by them.

The Golden Hound howled lowly outside the gate as it ramped against it, quickly drawing the zombies over. The zombies growled in thrill when they took in the canine's scent of flesh and blood, aggressively crashing against the gate. The anti-theft gate was at risk of falling apart under pressure from seven to eight zombies pounding against it. Soon enough, the welded part of the doorframe shook as white cement fell off while it crumbled.

Seeing that the gate was about to collapse, Lin Chao slipped behind the zombies and went into the elevator.

Kill each other. He gloated at his thought.

The Golden Hound would not be able to defend against these zombies that lacked any sense of pain even if it were a Gold-class mutated beast. After all, it was not fully grown yet.

Taking the elevator back to the eighteenth floor, Lin Chao returned to his room. It was not important to him whether the zombies or the Golden Hound had won the confrontation earlier as he picked up his binoculars and observed the black SUV on the street.

There were several normal zombies around the car but no special zombie was in sight.

Lin Chao was not in a hurry. Special zombies were rare. The Organism Detector ranged up to thirty miles in circumference and there were at least tens of thousands of zombies within the distance, he would surely meet one special zombie.

Based on the speed at which the frequency traveled, it would spread to the thirty miles within two days. Lin Chao was at ease, already prepared to wait out the two days.

Furthermore, there was a Golden Hound guarding the entrance now. He would not be able to go out even if there were a special zombie.

He could only wait!

Lin Chao trained himself during the waiting period. He went back to the survival mode he was in during his previous life — training and thinking! When he trained to the point of exhaustion, he thought about how he was going to kill zombies.

These two tasks occupied all his time and effort daily. Unlike people in the olden days where they had to work, socialize, spend time with friends and family, watch movies or play games… There was not much time at all left after adding sleep into the equation for a person to calm down and think about his life.

During the night, Lin Chao occasionally checked with his binoculars. The bomb was remotely controlled so it was quite easy for it to explode mistakenly if it were a self-ignited explosive. That was why he chose to personally supervise the situation, anticipating twenty-four hours a day without sleep. His sense of determination allowed him to not even bat an eyelid despite having to stay awake for three full days.

The bomb's remote control was a mobile phone. Lin Chao had reprogramed the system to contain only one function – ignite the bomb!

Two days passed in a blink of eyes.

There was not one moment in these two days that Lin Chao had some shuteye. He had been waiting by the window for a special zombie but it did not come as anticipated.

Lin Chao kept his cool and continued his wait.

Another three days passed.

Adorned with dark eye circles and a full face of fatigue, Lin Chao was finding it hard to sustain himself after continuously staying up for five full days. He had no energy to train in the day at all, barely being able to maintain his consciousness.

"Could there be a defect on the detector?" Lin Chao doubted himself.

As the sun moved to signal that it was already noon, Lin Chao took his meal to the window side, as usual, staring at the black SUV outside while he ate.

Looking down to pick at his dishes and looking up again casually, it had been without much anticipation but he surprisingly saw an additional shadow on top of the black SUV, prompting him to check it out properly.

The shadow was in a strange position and judging by its horrendous appearance, it did not seem like a special zombie…

Hold up!

That's…

Lin Chao's eyes bulged, suddenly recalling a distant name that evoked fear. He put down his cutlery in suspicion and shock to quickly grab the binoculars beside him, clearly seeing the thing from the lenses.

That's right. That's it, it's really it!

Shock and disbelief washed over Lin Chao. He had waited for five whole days, not for a special zombie, but a Peril Strain instead!

The Peril Strain was a nightmare in the apocalypse. They were very rare in numbers, probably only a handful in the entire world, but any one of them was a domineering presence of terror in the world of zombies. Even an Awakened was mere food to the Peril Strain!

The Peril Strain was a breed of zombies that formed under extremely harsh conditions. If there were only one special zombie that could be produced out of ten thousand zombies, it was only possible to birth one Peril Strain out of ten thousand special zombies.

Formed from the genetic mutation of a special zombie, the Peril Strain would possess a second ability created from the mutation in addition to keeping the special zombie's unique power.

The evolution nucleus within them, called the multi-evolution nucleus, was the dream of the Evolved. It was said that only three among the apocalyptic top hundred strongest were Multi-Evolved who possessed two special powers!

It was not a mere addition of a second power to the arsenal. The dynamic from the combined force of two special abilities was absolutely devastating.

The Peril Strain that was currently on top of the SUV looked like a mix between human and beast. Aside from its head that still retained the look of a human, tiny green scales covered its body after the neck, bouncing a cold hard sheen from it under the sunlight.

It was rested on the top of the vehicle. Like a desert lizard, its front limbs that had already turned into sharp claws tapped the car roof lightly.

Lin Chao clenched the modified mobile phone that was the bomb's remote control.

To bomb or not to bomb?

He would have pressed the button decisively if the bomb's explosion power was exceedingly high. However, he had only been thinking about special zombies previously, so the calculated explosion force was only adequate to paralyze a special zombie, not even destroying it. It would have been a wasted effort if the explosion was too powerful and destroyed the special zombie's evolution nucleus altogether.

As for this Peril Strain… The densely overlapping scales were sufficient basis to imagine how fortified its defense ability was. If it were not killed from the explosion but angered, if it then began slaughtering everything around it, Lin Chao did not think that he would be able to escape the detection of the Peril Strain just from stuffing the door gap with towels.

He hesitated for three seconds and hit the ignition button in the end.

Let's go for it!

He refused to believe that an early stage Peril Strain could be so terrorizing!

The moment he pressed the button, a loud explosion erupted from the street. The black SUV was blasted, flinging the Peril Strain that was perched on top while tapping the window in confusion.

The entire vehicle was in flames.

Lin Chao's binoculars locked in on the Peril Strain's location, watching as it was thrown two to three meters high before landing harshly on the road. Strands of blood seeped from the scales on its back, evidence of a light traumatic injury, but it was generally unscathed. Forget being paralyzed, it was not even severely wounded!

Lin Chao's heart sank.