Chapter 20: The Corpse Snake

The underground parking garage was shrouded in darkness, its entrance devoid of electric lighting. A clear line separated the sunlight from the shadows at the entrance.

Lin Yi led the way, followed by the fully armed Zhang Tie.

"Clang-clang—"

A rhythmic metallic tapping echoed from deep within the parking garage. The sound was distant and muffled.

The dark corridor loomed before them like the entrance to hell.

"Captain Lin, did you hear that?" Zhang Tie asked. He was wearing two oversized, heavy cotton jackets and the largest welding helmet they could find. His already large frame seemed even more imposing, reminiscent of his transformed state.

"Something doesn't feel right," he continued, lowering his voice cautiously. "When I escaped earlier, this place was crawling with zombies."

The parking garage entrance ramp held only a few wrecked cars, with no zombies in sight. Logically, given that the apocalypse had begun just days ago, this area near the hospital should have been teeming with undead.

In the span of a day, the zombies had vanished. It defied reason.

Lin Yi nodded, acknowledging Zhang Tie's concern. When things seemed out of the ordinary, there was usually a sinister explanation.

The two had originally planned to fight their way from the parking garage into the hospital.

"No need to whisper. Use the team voice channel," Lin Yi said through their communication system. "Be cautious. Something must have changed last night."

He recalled the piercing wail that had echoed in the dead of night.

Zhang Tie hesitated, then chuckled awkwardly. "I'm still getting used to this," he said, his voice booming through the team channel.

Lin Yi gave Zhang Tie a resigned look. "Let's move."

They advanced carefully, their footsteps echoing in the empty space. As they descended the ramp, they encountered numerous wrecked and overturned vehicles. Dried blood stained many of the windshields, and handprints covered the car bodies—evidence of their owners' final struggles.

A quick count revealed over two hundred vehicles, yet strangely, not a single corpse was in sight.

"Clang-clang"

The eerie tapping continued unabated. Lin Yi still couldn't pinpoint its source, but he had a vague sense that it was coming from somewhere deeper in the structure.

They navigated through the maze of abandoned cars blocking their path.

"Captain! There are drag marks here," Zhang Tie pointed to the ground nearby. A trail of dark red blood, about three meters wide, stretched towards the second level of the parking garage. Overturned vehicles lined the trail, revealing a five-meter-wide clear path.

"I see it. There's another one on the left," Lin Yi noted. Another blood trail led from a crushed SUV, adding to the unsettling scene.

With a powerful kick, Lin Yi forced open the closed elevator doors. The metal dented, revealing a small gap.

"Pry it open," he ordered, gripping his Nepalese kukri in a reverse hold, ready for combat. The elevator shaft above led directly to the emergency center, and there was a high probability of encountering a horde of zombies inside.

As Zhang Tie strained to open the doors, his face reddened with effort. He suddenly realized something was amiss; with his enhanced strength, this task should have been effortless. Unless...

Unless there was a mass of "things" pressing against the other side of the doors.

"Power burst!" Lin Yi shouted, recognizing the situation. Golden spirit energy surged through him as he unleashed his full strength.

Together, they wrenched the elevator doors open.

"Roar!"

As if awakened, a cacophony of zombie howls erupted. The elevator shaft was packed solid with undead, compressed like sardines in a can.

As the doors gave way, zombies poured out like a flood. Zhang Tie, caught off guard, was knocked to the ground by the surging mass.

"Bear transformation!" he roared. Black fur rapidly covered his body as he morphed into a massive bear.

With a swipe of his enormous paw, Zhang Tie sent several zombies flying, their skulls shattered and brains splattered across the floor.

Lin Yi's eyes flashed coldly as he swung his kukri in rapid succession.

"Arc slash!"

The blade carved a beautiful arc through the air, decapitating a swath of zombies with its enhanced power.

"Push through!" Lin Yi commanded over the team channel.

The stream of zombies from the elevator shaft seemed endless. It appeared that during the initial outbreak, the emergency center's elevator doors had been breached, causing zombies to fall into the shaft and completely block it.

If they stayed here, they'd never be able to kill them all. Worse, if they delayed too long, zombies from other areas might be drawn to the commotion, cutting off their escape route.

Moreover, a single mistake could lead to infection from a zombie's scratch. While Lin Yi had some immunity due to his poison resistance, Zhang Tie had no such protection.

"You clear the way!" Lin Yi shouted, crouching to gather his strength.

"Understood!" Zhang Tie's bearish face contorted with determination.

Covering his head with his massive paws, he turned sideways and began to charge.

"Bear rush!"

The ground trembled as the transformed Zhang Tie plowed into the zombie horde like a heavy-duty truck. The sickening sound of crushing bones filled the air as the zombies deep in the elevator shaft were reduced to pulp.

Now was his chance! Lin Yi took a deep breath, then leaped into the air, his right foot exploding off the ground.

With a single slash, he bisected the falling zombies before they could touch the floor.

"Step!"

Using Zhang Tie's broad shoulders as a springboard, Lin Yi propelled himself back into the elevator shaft.

Zhang Tie winced, his face turning slightly blue. Lin Yi's kick had been forceful; if not for his enhanced constitution, that single blow might have shattered his shoulder blade.

Inside the shaft, Lin Yi bounded off the walls, his blade a blur of motion. Each swing of his knife formed an impenetrable web of death, unfailingly claiming zombie lives with every strike. He was like a meat grinder in a factory, mercilessly harvesting flesh and bone.

Zhang Tie, standing at the base of the shaft, felt as if it were raining meat. Occasionally, a zombie head would fall, still snapping its jaws, which he would casually crush.

"Jump up!" Lin Yi called out. "There are too many zombies at the lobby elevator entrance. We'll charge in together!"

"Your bear form is ending. You'll be vulnerable to infection!"

"Got it!" Zhang Tie replied, his expression grim as he bent his legs in preparation.

Both of their special abilities had time limits; Zhang Tie could only maintain his bear form for a few dozen seconds. If not for the thick fur and enhanced skin of his transformed state protecting him from zombie bites and scratches, he would have been infected long ago, despite his caution.

After adjusting his position, Zhang Tie aimed for the first-floor elevator exit above. The shaft's interior was cramped, with his bulk occupying most of the space.

Taking a deep breath, he launched himself upward. The transformed bear shot up from the bottom of the shaft like a mortar round.

Meanwhile, Lin Yi braced his feet against the shaft walls at an angle, holding back the zombies as he waited for Zhang Tie to reach the optimal position.

After continuous fighting, Lin Yi's initial "power burst" was nearing its end.

Now!

"Power burst!"

Spirit energy surged once more as Lin Yi felt his strength return to its peak.

"Rebound!"

He twisted his body, kicking off the elevator shaft wall and causing a violent tremor. Then, he spun and launched a powerful kick—aimed directly at Zhang Tie, who had just reached the first-floor exit.

"Huh?!"

"What the—"

Before Zhang Tie could react, Lin Yi's foot connected squarely with his rear, catapulting him out of the elevator and into the emergency room lobby.

The zombies blocking the doors were instantly cleared as the massive bear was propelled like a cannonball into the room. Zhang Tie flew four or five meters, crushing a swath of zombies beneath him and leaving a bloody trail on the smooth lobby floor.

Having delivered his kick, Lin Yi fell back into the shaft. He quickly rebounded off the wall once more, using the momentum to propel himself out of the elevator.

The zombies at the elevator entrance had been cleared by the "cannonball," allowing Lin Yi to exit unimpeded.

"Move!" Lin Yi shouted as he quickly surveyed the lobby.

The entire hall was packed with zombies—a rough estimate put their number at three to four thousand! They filled the space like sardines in a can, blocking every possible route.

They couldn't afford to be surrounded!

Hearing Lin Yi's order, Zhang Tie hurriedly got to his feet. His broad bear back was covered in the flattened remains of zombies.

"Captain, my ass hurts!" Zhang Tie complained, trying to reach his rear with his short, thick paws. "You could've warned me before kicking me!"

"I'm not a damn ball, you know!"

He felt somewhat wronged. He had thought Lin Yi wanted him to jump to the first-floor position and wedge himself there so they could fight their way out together. He never expected to be used as a human—or rather, ursine—cannonball.

After taking two kicks from Lin Yi, he felt like his entire body was about to fall apart. An awakened one with a weaker constitution might have been killed outright by those blows.

Lin Yi coughed dryly, signaling that they shouldn't dwell on the topic. The idea had come to him suddenly, and he hadn't expected it to work so well.

"Let's not talk about this now. I won't kick you next time!" Lin Yi said. "We need to break through to the second floor!"

The zombies in the lobby had already begun to surround them. The horde's frenzied howls filled the air as thousands of undead charged towards them at an alarming speed.

"My bear form is ending!" Zhang Tie barely had time to shout before his body rapidly shrank back to its normal human size. The helmet on his head was deformed from the transformation, and his clothes were in tatters.

"Use the corpse snake's spine!" Lin Yi called out. "Don't engage in close combat!"

Lin Yi took the lead, charging towards the zombie horde with the momentum of a thousand-strong army.

"Forward diagonal slash!"

With all his might, he cut down the zombies at the forefront.

"Arc slash!"

The distance between the horde and the two men was already short, and Lin Yi unleashed his full power as they clashed.

His blade flashed like a laser cutter, sweeping through a wide arc and felling zombies en masse.

"Reverse chop!"

Lin Yi's reactions were lightning-fast. He spun around, cutting down the zombies that were trying to surround him from behind.

Though encircled by the undead, Lin Yi moved like a god of death within the horde. His fierce bladework kept the zombies at bay, unable to close in.

"Crack."

The blade made a crisp sound as several notches appeared along its edge.

In the heat of battle, Lin Yi had been aiming for the zombies' heads to ensure instant kills. The zombies' skulls, strengthened by the virus, were much harder than those of normal humans.

The frequent impacts were too much for the ordinary alloy blade to withstand under such intense combat.

"Captain!" Zhang Tie called out. "It's not working! There are too many zombies!"

Not far away, Zhang Tie was surrounded by hundreds of zombies. He frantically swung the corpse snake's spine like a whip.

Each time he struck, the spine cracked like a whip, its sharp end easily shattering zombie skulls.

Although he had never used a whip before, his brute force approach was proving effective.

This weapon was indeed useful, Zhang Tie thought as he grew more comfortable with it.

Compared to typical axes or large swords, the corpse snake's spine was not only incredibly sharp but also allowed him to avoid close-quarters combat.

Without this "whip" in hand, his low agility would have left him vulnerable to the surrounding zombies.

"Transform again!" Lin Yi shouted, his expression grim as he ordered Zhang Tie to activate his bear form once more.

There was no time to conserve energy now.

Originally, they had planned for Zhang Tie to save one transformation for when they reached the second floor, in case of unexpected situations.

But the sheer number of zombies in the lobby was overwhelming. Even with Lin Yi killing one with each strike, he couldn't keep up with the rate at which they were being replaced.

If Zhang Tie didn't transform now, they'd never break through.

"Captain! This is my last transformation!" Zhang Tie roared as his body instantly expanded.

In just a second, a massive black bear reappeared in the lobby.

"Roar!"

The bear's bellow mixed with the zombies' shrieks.

The slender bone whip now looked like a toy in his enormous paw.

Zhang Tie violently lashed out with the "bone whip," each swing decimating a group of zombies.

Without having to worry about zombies getting too close, his attacks were devastatingly powerful.

In the blink of an eye, he had cleared a small area around them.

The situation improved rapidly.

However, Lin Yi noticed that Zhang Tie's eyes were becoming dull—a sign of mental exhaustion.

Compared to Lin Yi's power burst, Zhang Tie's bear transformation consumed much more mental energy.

Moreover, Zhang Tie's willpower attribute was not particularly high to begin with.

As a result, transforming twice in one day was pushing him to his limit.

Lin Yi sighed, wishing Wen Ya could join the battle.

Given her unique status as a mutant, she could have replenished the mental energy for both Lin Yi and Zhang Tie.

Without having to worry about mental energy consumption, the two of them might have been able to slowly whittle down this zombie horde.

Unfortunately, she wasn't an awakened one yet, and her abilities were too weak for her to participate in such intense combat.

Lin Yi thought of the [Stitcher] at the Wan Da Shopping Center, where the number of zombies would likely be even greater than here.

When facing vast hordes of zombies, the ability to replenish mental energy was crucial to the battle.

It seemed that after acquiring the equipment, they would need to prioritize Wen Ya's awakening. Having a mutant's abilities go unused was far too wasteful.

"Get ready to charge together!" Lin Yi called out.

With Zhang Tie in bear form, they had successfully regrouped and now fought side by side.

After their relentless assault, they were now only about ten meters away from the second floor.

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

Lin Yi took a deep breath and shot forward like an arrow released from a bow.

"Step slash!"

His blade wove a dense web of death, instantly shredding the zombies before him.

Beside him, the black bear roared and charged into the horde with reckless abandon, carving a bloody path through the mass of undead.