Chapter 89

Facing the Licker (mutated form) once again, Zhao Futu felt much more at ease. He had a rough idea of the Licker's speed, so he wouldn't feel as flustered as he did at the beginning. To be honest, the Licker wasn't too powerful. The reason was simple: these zombies fought based on instinct. Their fighting methods might be a bit bizarre and hard to guard against, but once you adapted, it became much easier.

Take the Licker, for example. Out of ten attacks, six were with its long, incredibly lethal tongue, three with the sharp claws on its limbs, and one with its mouth full of sharp teeth. Apart from these three methods, Zhao Futu hardly noticed it using any other attack. In other words, these zombies, which fought purely on instinct, only had these three moves.

As long as his agility wasn't completely overwhelmed by the Licker's, he could judge the best time to strike based on the gaps in its attacks.

— "Bang!"

Another dull gunshot echoed from the outskirts of the square. The sniper who cooperated with Zhao Futu fired five shots in succession, each hitting its target, killing three evolved zombies and creating a hole in a Licker's body.

The sniper belonged to the type of high-burst, low-rate-of-fire weapon users. They couldn't form a sustained firepower suppression, but they could severely injure the target!

This shot hit a Licker's leg, immediately slowing it down. Zhao Futu seized the opportunity, pouncing forward and using a powerful joint-locking technique.

The grappling techniques he learned consisted of 108 moves in total, with 36 small grappling techniques that were intricate and versatile, focusing on joints and ligaments, mainly targeting the wrist, elbow, fingers, knees, and tendons. The 72 large grappling techniques were more aggressive and powerful, with strong and fierce moves, mainly targeting the enemy's arms, shoulders, knees, and head.

The zombies' bodies were extremely resilient, making the grappling techniques almost useless against them.

To deal with these highly regenerative evolved zombies, Zhao Futu had to use the more powerful and fierce large grappling techniques to have any effect! With a crisp "crack," the Licker's right arm was directly broken by Zhao Futu. Then he lunged into its embrace, delivering a heavy elbow strike to its chest. Another sound of broken ribs, Zhao Futu locked the Licker's arm joint, roared, and twisted with all his might!

— "Creak!"

The Licker's arm joint made a sound like a piece of rubber being twisted, and Zhao Futu directly tore off its arm.

At this moment, another Licker seized the opportunity and shot out its long, sharp, blood-red tongue. The space for dodging was very limited, and it was hard to retract after exerting force. It wasn't easy to dodge. However, the battles had honed Zhao Futu's nerves, and he had accumulated some experience from close combat.

Without thinking,

Zhao Futu instinctively grabbed the neck of the severely injured Licker beside him and turned to use it as a shield!

— "Thud!"

The tongue, like a sharp sword, pierced through the Licker Zhao Futu used as a shield. With an additional layer of protection, this attack only left a blood mark on his chest, not even penetrating his muscle layer. In contrast, the Licker used as a shield had its chest pierced, left to struggle in its dying moments.

Zhao Futu directly broke its neck and threw its corpse forward.

The corpse quickly collided with another Licker. Zhao Futu crouched and then pounced like a cheetah. This time, his movements were much more proficient. He predicted the Licker's trajectory and grabbed its limbs, pulling it down from mid-air.

— "Bang!"

Zhao Futu lifted its ankle and slammed it to the ground, then roared and threw it into the air.

— "Clang!"

The fine steel sword was drawn. The Licker, thrown into the air, had no support point and couldn't dodge this fatal blow. As it landed, Zhao Futu swung his sword with a powerful slash from the Silver Cross technique, cutting it in half!

However,

Even so, the Licker still didn't die. It shot out its tongue at Zhao Futu again, but he easily dodged it and then stepped on its head.

— "Crunch!"

Like a watermelon bursting, the Licker's head was crushed, and white brain matter splattered everywhere.

At this point, the battle was almost over.

More than twenty contractors had gathered near the square. Surrounded by so many contractors, the zombies became the besieged. Zhao Futu bent down to pick up two light blue keys. When a tall woman carrying a heavy sniper rifle appeared in his line of sight, he threw one of the light blue keys to her.

In theory, he could have kept both keys, as he was the one fighting on the front lines, while she only fired a few shots from a distance.

However, without those shots, Zhao Futu wouldn't have been able to deal with the two Lickers so easily. Since she had contributed, she deserved a share of the rewards. This was a principle Zhao Futu lived by. After confirming that the woman in camouflage with the large sniper rifle was the sniper who fired the shots, he threw the light blue key to her.

At this point, most of the zombies were dead.

The Tank mutant had also been killed by Tiger, dropping a light blue item and a dark blue key. Tiger didn't hesitate to take them into his private space. He had charged to the front, while the other contractors only provided fire support. He had no intention of sharing the rewards with the newcomers.

The other contractors had no complaints, as this was the norm in the Nightmare Space.

On the contrary, the sniper in camouflage who received the key from Zhao Futu looked at him with a strange expression and then accepted the light blue key with a smile.

Occasionally, there were "fools" like Zhao Futu in the Space. As a beneficiary, she actually preferred such fools.

Snipers rarely acted alone because even if they killed an enemy, they still needed to go and pick up the items. A lone sniper could be robbed of their loot. Most contractors in the Space worked in teams and then divided the rewards after the battle. Today, she encountered a contractor who would actively share the rewards, so the tall woman in camouflage couldn't help but look at Zhao Futu again.

— "He seems like a veteran, but his actions are like a rookie just entering the Space!"

The woman thought to herself.

...

Zhao Futu didn't care about her thoughts. He just believed that since she had contributed, she deserved a share of the rewards.

After the battle, he immediately leaped over the ruins and ran toward the location of the giant spider mutant. He was curious about the thin man with the code name 'A' and whether he could kill the giant mutated spider. Among the contractors, 'A' was undoubtedly the strongest, and Zhao Futu knew the gap between himself and the top veterans.

However, when he arrived, the spider mutant was almost dead.

Its body was covered in wounds from claw attacks, and its appearance was unrecognizable. 'A' also seemed to have lost some of his cold aura, returning to his initial icy expression.

He noticed Zhao Futu's arrival, leaped out of the battle, landed beside him, and pointed at the dying spider mutant, coldly saying, "This is yours! The head is mine!"

Zhao Futu was taken aback and glanced at the spider mutant. Its vitality was incredibly strong, and its wounds were already beginning to heal. 'A' pounced again, his arm's blade-like claws slicing through the air, once again driving the spider into a dying state. He then landed beside Zhao Futu, looking somewhat impatient, "It's yours! Give me the head!"

Zhao Futu finally understood.

He threw the Tyrant's head to him and pounced on the spider mutant.

This spider mutant, just by its size, was a BSS-level existence, definitely a higher-level zombie than the Tank mutant. He kept the Tyrant's head, thinking it might be useful, but he didn't expect 'A' to value it so much, willing to exchange a BSS-level zombie in a dying state for it.

This was a good deal, and not taking it would be foolish.

At this moment, as Zhao Futu pounced on the dying spider mutant, 'A' caught the head Zhao Futu threw.

A hint of joy and greed appeared on his icy face. He plunged his hand into the Tyrant's brain, and the head, like a liquid, writhed and was absorbed into his body.

"Tyrant... Tyrant's DNA..." 'A' let out a comfortable moan, like someone smoking opium. After swallowing the entire head, he glanced at Zhao Futu and left.

At this moment, Zhao Futu successfully killed the spider mutant and received a substantial reward:

"Contractor No. 1013 killed the spider mutant, gaining 1500 survival points, 5 merit points, and one dark blue key."

...