Chapter 82

The mutant characteristics of the Licker are somewhat different; it still retains a trace of pain sensation.

So when Zhao Futu hit it with two consecutive shots, its jumping motion paused for a moment, and it failed to successfully leap onto the opposite wall, quickly retreating to the cover of the wall to avoid Zhao Futu's gunfire.

Bang!

Another shot hit the Licker's back, and it landed with a thud, a trace of blood appearing on its back, but it quickly stopped bleeding due to its accelerated metabolism, though the bullet remained inside its body.

"Crack!"

Zhao Futu fired again, but only an empty click was heard; he was out of bullets.

There was no time to reload, so Zhao Futu took out a dagger from his personal space and threw it at the distant Licker! With his Enhanced Basic Ranged Combat at Level 5, he had an enhanced ability to master any ranged combat techniques, whether it was firearms, bows, throwing, or various hidden weapons, and he rarely made mistakes when targeting stationary targets.

The dagger hit the Licker's neck, but it was just an ordinary dagger, costing 50 survival points per pair, and the damage it inflicted was limited. The killing power mainly came from his 29 points of Strength. However, with the damage bonus from his Level 5 Basic Ranged Combat, this hit caused nearly 50 points of damage, and the dagger embedded itself in the Licker's cervical vertebrae, making its head movement somewhat sluggish.

Instinctively, the Licker tried to pull the dagger out. After all, a dagger is not a bullet; bullets are small and cause minimal interference inside the body, but a large dagger, once embedded in the cervical vertebrae, began to affect its head movement. The Licker's red tongue retracted and coiled around the dagger, pulling it out. At this moment, Zhao Futu shouted and activated the 'Snow Tread' ability on his Cloud Swallow Boots, doubling his speed. He pounced like a shadow, grabbed the Licker's leg, and performed a 'Heaven and Earth Throw,' slamming it heavily to the ground!

The Licker, which usually moved on all fours, was thrown like a toad by mischievous children in the countryside, causing a loud thud and a cloud of dust!

With 29 points of Strength, Zhao Futu completely overpowered the Licker's 20 points of Strength. The heavy throw left a shallow mark on the ground, and then the Nightmare Space gave a prompt:

"Grapple Combat Proficiency Check Passed! Target Constitution Save Failed! Target Mental Will Save Failed! Critical Hit Triggered! Target Stunned!"

Ancient martial arts move like a fierce tiger, and once a move is executed, it aims to kill the enemy!

This move might have caused less damage than the previous dagger throw, but the powerful critical hit triggered an abnormal state due to the Grapple Combat Proficiency. Although it is difficult for a Licker to be stunned due to its mutant characteristics, it still has joints, ligaments, and spinal bones. This heavy throw immediately caused severe damage to its spinal bones, putting it into a momentary stun!

"Die!"

Zhao Futu shouted and pounced, slamming his elbow down with great force.

—Crack!

With the sound of bones breaking, the Licker's spine was shattered into two pieces by his elbow, and the vertebrae in the middle were completely crushed!

Despite such severe injuries, the Licker's counterattack was still powerful. Its tough tongue coiled and shot straight at Zhao Futu's brain like a sword!

If this hit, it might even penetrate his skull!

Slap!!!

At this critical moment, Zhao Futu's instinctive reaction kicked in. At such close range, he had no room to dodge, and he had already used up all his strength with the elbow strike. However, the enhanced reflexes from the Nightmare Space's attribute boost worked wonders. Without time to think, he instinctively swung his left hand, narrowly deflecting the long tongue by a hair's breadth!

It was like deflecting an arrow with a reflexive hand movement.

"Grapple Combat Proficiency Check Passed! Target's waist has accumulated 25% of total health damage, causing a crippling effect!"

...

Basic Melee Combat Level 10 increases melee damage by 50%, and Grapple Combat Proficiency adds another 50% unarmed combat damage, increasing the critical hit chance on vital joints by 25%. Although his 29 points of Strength only caused less than 15 points of base damage, the double damage stacking and critical hit on a vital point resulted in 65 points of damage!

This single hit drained more than half of the Licker's health.

...

Note: The chance of triggering a crippling effect with melee attacks is higher than with firearms because the attack surface and force are much stronger. Bullets get stuck in the muscle and bone, but unarmed combat can penetrate the body.

...

The attack was successful!

Zhao Futu did not continue to tangle with the Licker, as its tongue was too bizarre.

It could attack from any angle without needing a point of leverage, so after the heavy hit, he quickly kicked back and took out a magazine from the air, loading it into his Desert Eagle. He then fired several shots at the half-paralyzed Licker. The Licker's spine was already shattered, meaning the nerve connections between its upper and lower body were almost severed.

With a broken spine, jumping was out of the question, but crawling was still possible.

Perhaps with the Licker's powerful regenerative abilities, it could recover in a short time through metabolism, but Zhao Futu was not about to give it that chance.

After several shots to its brain, the Licker failed the critical hit death save and became a true corpse.

Then, the space gave a prompt:

"Contractor No. 1013 has killed a Licker Evolution, gaining 150 survival points, one unidentified item, and one E-grade Soul Crystal."

...

The unidentified item dropped by the Licker was its long, four to five-meter tongue, which looked very disgusting when coiled up.

Zhao Futu picked it up and threw it into his personal space, then began examining the Soul Crystal: "Why would a small Licker drop an E-grade Soul Crystal? Is the drop rate for the Gold-level main mission so high?"

But upon closer inspection, he understood why.

"Soul Crystal E-grade Mission Item: This is a product of the space's rule force, enhancing the collection rate of soul energy. Any Soul Crystal obtained from killing any creature in this scene will become a mission item, and the contribution points will be determined by the amount of energy injected into the teleportation connection point, and the corresponding survival points will be awarded."

...

It seems there will be no Soul Crystal rewards for this mission. I wonder what compensation the space will give after the mission is completed! Zhao Futu observed his surroundings and headed toward the center of Shanghai.

Each contractor received a side mission centered around the teleportation connection point. The veterans received tasks to establish and protect the connection points, while the newcomers received tasks to hunt zombies to provide energy for the connection points. Some higher-level contractors might be assigned more difficult tasks, but as a newcomer who had only experienced two scenarios, Zhao Futu was assigned the basic side mission of providing energy.

The Nightmare Mark contains the locations of 3,600 teleportation points on the continental shelf!

Contractors must build the corresponding connection points at these locations. With a density of five to six thousand people spread across the entire Earth, the number of contractors near each point should not be too high. However, most of the points are concentrated in coastal cities. For example, a small city like Shanghai has thirty teleportation connection points, and Zhao Futu estimated that at least forty contractors were deployed here.

The teleportation connection points marked on the Nightmare Mark are densely packed, but they are mainly concentrated in countries like China, Japan, Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The United States and Japan have the most connection points, which account for nearly half of the total. This means that the largest number of contractors are deployed in these two countries, and the chances of encountering each other are higher!

Additionally, Zhao Futu noticed that there was one teleportation connection point each in the Antarctic and Arctic, and he wondered who the unlucky person would be to be deployed there.

...

Shanghai is a city with a high population density, so it quickly became a zombie territory after the disaster.

There is no sign of human life in the city now. The entire city looks like a ghost town, eerily silent, with broken and exploded vehicles covered in dust on the streets. Most of the shop doors on the sides of the streets are shattered, and the ground is covered with dried, black blood. With no living humans, the zombies here can only devour each other to evolve, and the bodies that should be scattered everywhere have been completely devoured by hungry zombies, leaving no human bones behind.

Ordinary zombies only attack humans, but those with the potential to evolve will seek energy under strong instinct, and other zombies naturally become their targets!

"Phew!" Zhao Futu carefully walked down the endless, empty street, his body tense, ready for battle at any moment.

As a modern person, especially one who has been to Shanghai and seen the crowded Chinese crowds, walking through the deserted streets of Shanghai in this nightmare space-connected scenario felt particularly eerie.

The uncomfortable feeling made his skin crawl. (Your support is my greatest motivation.)

{Piao Tian Literature}