Chapter 17

"Jin-ge, be careful!"

"Damn... Why are there so many zombies on this floor!"

Chen Fei cursed under his breath, rolling his body to pick up the crossbow that had fallen to the ground.

Chen Fei knelt on one knee, took a deep breath, and held his breath, calmly and steadily pulling the trigger twice.

Whoosh... Whoosh...

With the consecutive pulls of the trigger, two steel bolts accurately pierced the heads of two zombies.

Without the threat from the other two zombies, Nangong Jin let out a low shout, her long sword slicing through the neck of the zombie in front of her. The zombie's movements abruptly stopped, its head rolling to the side after a few wobbles, and its already stiff body fell heavily to the ground.

No more zombies rushed over. In the corridor of the elevator, apart from the heavy breathing, there was only the sound of the fire door being forcefully hit.

Chen Fei and Nangong Jin exchanged a glance, nodded slightly, and cautiously walked towards the room at the end of the corridor.

This floor was the most gruesome one Chen Fei and Nangong Jin had seen, truly like a hell. Blood splatters, drag marks, and rows of bloody handprints were everywhere on the ground and walls, as if narrating the intense scene at the time.

The door of room 2002 was tightly closed, while the door of room 2001 was wide open.

Chen Fei and Nangong Jin tried to walk as quietly as possible. After discovering that the arrows in the crossbow were running low, Chen Fei drew seven steel bolts from the quiver on his back and reloaded them.

As the first scene of the possible tragedy, the living room of room 2001 made Chen Fei involuntarily draw a deep breath. Dried blood and shredded flesh were everywhere, and the splattered blood even reached the ceiling. On the floor of the living room, two zombies with incomplete limbs and mouths still opening and closing lay.

Their bodies were in a state of disintegration. One of the zombies had lost both legs and its left arm, and from the rotten wounds, it seemed to have been torn off. The remaining right arm was just a bone with a bit of rotten flesh.

Not far from this zombie, another one-armed zombie with its abdomen and chest cavity torn open lay on the ground, possibly due to a broken spine, unable to move, and its remaining left arm was randomly grabbing at the air.

After Chen Fei and Nangong Jin entered the room, these two zombies became more active, but due to their limited movement, they could only wildly twist their necks.

Chen Fei and Nangong Jin first searched the rooms inside to make sure there were no other zombies. After confirming, Chen Fei returned to the living room and used the M9 multi-function bayonet to stab into the eye sockets of the two zombies and stir, which saved a lot of effort compared to stabbing the skull.

On the coffee table in the living room was a birthday cake that was unrecognizable, and behind the sofa, the words "Happy Birthday" were spelled out with balloons. Seeing these, Chen Fei finally understood why there were so many zombies on the 20th floor. It seemed that a birthday party was being held here when the virus broke out, which explained why the zombies were all slender and dressed in fashionable clothes.

Chen Fei let out a long sigh and sat on the sofa without caring about the dried blood, wiping the sticky blood on the M9 multi-function bayonet onto the sofa.

Nangong Jin's face had a hint of abnormal redness from the battle, making people involuntarily think of many things. Chen Fei noticed Nangong Jin's conflicted expression. After all, women tend to be cleaner. Although her clothes were also stained with blood, they were not as covered in the stench of blood as Chen Fei's.

The sofa was a casual fabric one. Chen Fei thought for a moment and flipped the cushion of the adjacent sofa over. Although it was covered in blood, the bottom was still clean.

Chen Fei patted the sofa to signal, and Nangong Jin hummed and walked over to sit down.

"Just a few zombies made us so狼狈, and there are thousands of zombies on the streets outside. I guess we'll be chewed to the bone," Chen Fei said with a self-deprecating shake of his head.

"But... we are still alive, right? And we have plenty of food, enough to last for a year or two. How about it? Living with a beautiful sister like me, you must be secretly happy, right!" Nangong Jin's tone was mocking, but Chen Fei could see a hint of sadness in her eyes.

It's no wonder Nangong Jin felt this way. If anyone thought their parents were well-prepared, only to find out that one of them had turned into a zombie and bitten the other to death, ultimately becoming a zombie couple, it would be hard to accept. Chen Fei thought that Nangong Jin's ability to hold back her tears for so many days was a testament to her strength and the endless heartache behind it.

Although the battle on the 20th floor was quite intense, Chen Fei's gains were not small. Of course, the gains were not the supplies in room 2001, but the number of zombies, which brought him closer to his goal of killing 50 zombies.

After a brief rest, Chen Fei and Nangong Jin left room 2001. Chen Fei couldn't immediately retrieve the bolts he had used to kill zombies in the stairwell, so he had to wait until he could lure the zombies away. Although Chen Fei had 200 steel bolts, it wasn't the time to waste them. He had to be frugal and plan ahead.

Since there were too many zombies to fit in the bathroom, Chen Fei dragged the zombie bodies into the master bedroom of room 2001, opening all the windows for ventilation. Otherwise, the smell of rotting bodies would be unbearable.

Chen Fei knocked on the door of room 2002. The room was very quiet, with no cries for help from survivors or the howls of zombies. Chen Fei had to use his lock-picking skills to open the door. Having learned from previous experiences, Chen Fei and Nangong Jin were more cautious when opening the door to avoid being caught off guard. They were lucky this time, but they couldn't count on being lucky next time, so they had to be more careful.

After opening the door, Chen Fei found it was a false alarm. The room was simply furnished, and after searching all the rooms, they could confirm that no one had lived there for a long time. The kitchen had only half a bag of rice and half a bucket of oil, and the appliances like the refrigerator and TV were not even connected to power.

Chen Fei then went down to the 14th floor to lure the zombies in the stairwell of the 20th floor, then took the elevator back to the 20th floor. After quickly retrieving the bolts from the stairwell, Chen Fei and Nangong Jin quietly walked to the 21st floor...

By 11:00 AM, Chen Fei and Nangong Jin had cleared up to the 23rd floor. The intense battles had taken a toll on them. Apart from the survivors on the 21st and 17th floors, the other floors were all dominated by zombies.

Since the survivors on the 21st and 17th floors were relatively friendly, Chen Fei left some of the living supplies from the opposite apartments for them. One reason was his unextinguished sympathy, and the other was that collecting all the supplies from these floors at once was exhausting.

...

For lunch, Chen Fei and Nangong Jin ate at Grandpa Zhang's home on the 12th floor. Although the two elders were advanced in age, they were still in good health. Grandma Li spent the whole morning making pork and scallion dumplings for Chen Fei and Nangong Jin, which was the most sumptuous meal they had had in the past few days. Chen Fei's ravenous eating made Grandma Li's face beam with affectionate smiles.

After the sumptuous lunch, Nangong Jin returned to her home on the 11th floor to rest. Chen Fei was afraid that Nangong Jin would start a fattening plan in the apocalypse and turn into an XXL beauty.

Chen Fei did not return to the 11th floor but patrolled the 12th floor to ensure its safety. He moved all the movable items from apartment 1201 to the other side of the fire door in the elevator corridor to block it. If the zombies in the corridor increased and the fire door was damaged, these items would prevent the zombies from rushing in.

At 1:30 PM, Chen Fei and Nangong Jin began a new round of clearing.

Chen Fei was doing this to kill zombies and complete the task to activate the Apocalypse Overlord System. Nangong Jin, on the one hand, was afraid that Chen Fei would become zombie food, and on the other hand, she wanted to use this to hone her combat skills. She had to prepare for the worst, as the catastrophic virus might last for a long time, and she needed to be ready for a prolonged battle.

The clearing went smoothly, and in just an hour and a half, Chen Fei and Nangong Jin had cleared up to the top floor. In these floors, they only encountered zombies and saw no survivors.

Imagine... when a neighbor you know well, with a bleeding wound from a bite, knocks on your door for help, most people would open the door out of human decency, especially if the neighbor is a pretty and cute girl or a mature and charming woman, making it even harder to refuse.

And this is the origin of the tragedy, where one family's tragedy spreads to another, leading to the entire floor being overrun by zombies. Of course, only the people involved would know the exact cause.

As for the floors below the 6th floor, Chen Fei and Nangong Jin had no plans to clear them. The floors were too low, and zombies gathered too quickly, making it highly likely to be surrounded on three sides. They had to make a cautious decision.

What made Chen Fei unhappy was that he had not yet killed enough zombies to activate the system, which required 50 zombies. But Chen Fei thought that 12 years later, when he got the system, no one had told him in advance. If he could kill 50 zombies unprepared, how much easier would it be now, fully equipped.

However, Chen Fei did not know that 12 years later, the task to activate the system was just to survive the 24 hours after the virus entered his body. As for killing 50 zombies, that was the variable in the story of the future Chen Fei.