Infinite Ebullience
Chapter 1168 - 47: Rare Monster (625 Votes, Additional Release)

Chapter 1168: Chapter 47: Rare Monster (625 Votes, Additional Release)

Tang Zheng took the gun and had just checked it when he heard the faint sound of gunshots.

"Go check it out, it might be our own people." Yuliya didn’t wait for Tang Zheng to reply; she had the Licker clear the way and ran out.

"What we need to do now is leave the laboratory through Route 7, set up an ambush on the surface, and seize the virus strain." Tang Zheng was worried about Zheng Sheng and the other two, but as a stranger in a strange place, he was unable to rescue them and could only pray for their luck.

Yuliya waved her hand in disagreement. She was an excellent attacker but definitely not a good captain, too easily swayed by emotions in her judgments.

"What’s going on?" When he saw six comrades mixed with a team of SWAT in dark blue police uniforms, the short-haired man nearly popped his eyes; there were also three from the Recovery Team, a researcher in a white lab coat, and six unknown civilians who looked like Southeast Asians.

"They must have been chased by monsters; Yuliya, come back!" Tang Zheng shouted. Only in the face of zombies did humans temporarily put aside their differences and unite because both police and guards were just trying to make a living, not sworn enemies, and these resistance members weren’t always dwelling on suicide missions filled with deep hatred.

"There’s a Licker." A SWAT member saw a Licker charging towards them and fired his M4A1 in a panic, missing most shots.

The team was thrown into chaos, with expressions of panic on everyone’s faces that turned to despair upon seeing the Licker.

Behind them was a humanoid monster, a rare mutation caused by a virus due to its high tolerance, a one in several thousand chance, an important experimental specimen previously kept frozen. Due to a power outage and some unknown reasons, it had escaped and began slaughtering all living creatures it encountered.

The monster had a hideous, intimidating appearance; although it walked upright, aside from its flaking skin head, it was hardly recognizable as human anymore.

Under the erosion of the virus, the monster’s body looked like a corpse that had been floating in seawater for months, swollen all over, but all comprised of strong muscles which made it very fast, fast enough to bite the tail off any human. Its upper body was covered with tumors, squeezed together, repulsive to the extreme.

The right arm degenerated and disappeared, and the right shoulder turned into a huge mouth full of broken teeth. The original left arm also degenerated and shrank, regrowing into a thick armature with sharp serrations like a siege hammer; it was covered in broken flesh and soaked in blood, clearly having killed numerous people.

"What kind of monster is this?" Tang Zheng asked, observing the four meter tall, rust-colored monster, querying the short-haired man beside him.

"Never seen it before," the short-haired man replied succinctly and turned to run; the monster was already within forty meters.

Yuliya commanded the Licker to crawl over the ceiling and attack the monster.

The monster’s chest swelled, then it let out a piercing scream and a shower of light yellow gas. It squatted slightly, leaned forward, and like a cannon shell, burst forth with a breaking wind sound, sprinting over a ten-meter distance straight.

Two slower men bumped into its belly; before they could react, the serrated left arm swung down, breaking their spines.

The two unlucky men coughed up blood; obviously beyond saving. The monster’s smaller arm grabbed one man’s head, brought it to its mouth, and directly bit open the skull, devouring the brain pulp.

The policemen fired, bullets hitting the monster and bringing out bursts of blood, while launched hand grenades tore open its skin, causing the monster pain and anger, yet its speed did not decrease, relentlessly pursuing.

"Run fast; we can’t defeat it; it’s thick-skinned, ordinary firearms are useless, only TNT explosives and biochemical bullets can kill it," the man in the white lab coat shouted, correcting Yuliya’s misguided tactic, "use the Licker to delay it."

The monster swung its arm, smashing another unfortunate’s head into pulp. The Licker pounced onto it, biting and blinding it, buying everyone time to escape.

The monster’s right arm grotesquely elongated, swallowing the Licker’s head, those jagged teeth embedding into the flesh like barbs, preventing escape.

The monster’s belly undulated wave-like, acid surged forth, and within seconds, the headless corpse of the Licker dropped to the ground.

The Recovery Team was firing biochemical bullets and threw several hand grenades; if not for that, the monster would have caught up sooner, but there wasn’t much time left to delay its advance.

The monster’s body charged through the corridor like a tank, its shoulder mouth spewing acid; two people screamed as they were doused, their flesh emitting white smoke and disintegrating as if dipped into concentrated sulfuric acid. Its powerful left arm was also formidable; any human struck by it would certainly fracture.

The team fled for three minutes through just two corridors, yet eight men were already dead; against such a monster, humans were truly powerless.

Tang Zheng wasn’t self-sacrificing enough to risk his life for strangers; leveraging his physical superiority, he was third in line, while others, far less composed, sprinted frantically, no longer concerned that those at the front were most likely to be attacked.

Beside him was a blond policeman wearing a gas mask; Tang Zheng could tell he still had reserves of strength. Among these people, he was the only real threat; as for the survivors likely from Southeast Asia, he had no interest in intervening, the monster would take care of them.

"Be careful, there’s a monster ahead," Tang Zheng heard the beast’s growl, but he shouted half a beat too late, as the leading policeman had already turned the corner, followed by sudden barks and screams.

The blond policeman didn’t slow down, raised his gun and shot, taking down the zombie dogs one by one. Tang Zheng fired additional shots, killing them. It was the first time the two cooperated, and they were incredibly proficient, but he intentionally left two injured zombie dogs. He didn’t want the survivors to leave this place alive.

The zombie dogs got up, biting a Southeast Asian man’s thigh. He screamed, struggling frantically, but even his companions didn’t stop to help him.

"You’re running the wrong way, the exit is on the left," the man in the white lab coat shouted as he saw the blond policeman turn into the right corridor.

The policeman hesitated for a moment but then ran back.

"Is there something wrong with this guy?" Tang Zheng frowned. Even he, who had never been here before, knew to check the map to confirm the route. Why would this sharpshooting, calm and decisive policeman make such a mistake? Most importantly, this guy had previously consulted a map that was obviously captured from the recovery team. Misleading them didn’t match his previous elite behavior.

"Is he doing this on purpose? Probably not, maybe I’m just being paranoid," Tang Zheng couldn’t afford to be distracted anymore, as ten more zombies appeared in front, left behind after the chase for the escaped target.

"You take the left, I’ll handle the right!" After the policeman spoke, his rifle had already fired, killing the zombies in front of him.

Tang Zheng’s killing speed wasn’t slow either. The two powerhouses paved the way, enough to make it possible for those behind them to run full speed, otherwise, they would be caught by the monsters if they slowed down.

A minute later, the small squad of ten people escaped into the power zone, where electrical equipment and thick cables sprawled everywhere, looking like a mass of pythons, filling their entire field of vision.

An encounter had occurred here before, some equipment and cables had been damaged, sparks sizzled around, and corpses of zombies and humans were visible on the ground.

"We’re not going to get electrocuted, are we?" the man in the white lab coat said, going pale.

Bang, a poor soul was thrown by a monster, and he spat blood as he crashed into a leaking large transformer, getting stuck to it. Blue electric currents ran up his body making him convulse continually, frothing at the mouth, and within seconds, his body shrank due to muscle contraction.

Another ten or so zombies appeared ahead, this time Tang Zheng and the policeman didn’t attack but shifted to the left simultaneously.

"What are you doing? Wrong direction," the man in the white lab coat was about to panic; although he had only walked through during emergency escape training, he was absolutely certain of the route.

"Yuliya, this way." The map only showed approximate routes, and after entering the power zone, there were more choices, such as climbing the ladders embedded in the walls and leaving from above, which was safer. Tang Zheng and the policeman were flexible thinkers and started looking for the best shortcuts soon after entering.

"This way," Yuliya notified her companions. She trusted Tang Zheng and also noticed the crisscrossing metal bridges one meter wide above their heads, built for the convenience of electrical maintenance, but unfortunately, her companions hesitated, only the short-haired man, having seen Tang Zheng’s prowess, followed them.

Tang Zheng slung his rifle over his shoulder and quickly scaled the ladder, reaching the ten-meter-high platform and running along the metal bridge. In these thirty seconds, two more people had died.

Having escaped from that terrifying monster, the short-haired man slowed down, finally being able to catch his breath, as the blond policeman also climbed up from another side and joined them.

"We must kill this monster, or it will chase us to death," the policeman said as he watched the monster slaughtering humans below, his tone didn’t change.

"You know it well?" the short-haired man, saddened by the deaths of his companions, said, "Using them as bait, let’s withdraw."

"Impossible. That monster has exceptionally good hearing, capable of locking onto and distinguishing each individual by the faint sound of a heartbeat, then relentlessly pursues to kill," the policeman’s voice was somewhat distorted through the mask but still had a magnetic quality.

"Is it that powerful?" the short-haired man nearly dropped his jaw.

"No doubt about it. They were originally created as biochemical weapons. Although they are defective products, some advantages still remain."

"How do you, a mere policeman, know all this?" Yuliya looked at the blond with suspicion, ready to draw her gun at any moment.

"I reviewed the documents before the operation," the policeman didn’t care about those concerns, "I was about to go to the disinfection area earlier because there might be a chance to kill it there. It’s too dangerous here, might well cost us our lives too, but now we have no choice, let’s start the operation."

"You have a tactic?" the short-haired man was very impressed, why did every man they meet have to be so powerful?

"You and him, act as bait!" The policeman named the short-haired man and Tang Zheng, commanding with the composure of a captain.

(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to recommend tickets and monthly tickets on Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation.)