Chapter 167 - 114: Exploration

Chapter 167: Chapter 114: Exploration

The only problem was that the infantry fighting vehicle was surrounded by a swarm of zombies. They were clawing futilely at the armor plates, producing a harsh, grating sound, so he couldn’t get a look at its specific condition. Still, the vehicle reminded Xu Mo of the Superpower User squad he had seen before, and he wondered if they were the ones who had left it behind.

"ROAR!!"

Just as Xu Mo was hesitating about whether to go check on the distant infantry fighting vehicle, a tremendous roar shattered his train of thought.

He saw a zombie over two meters tall charging toward him. Its physique was exceptionally burly, its muscles gnarled and swollen all over, as if a thick set of biological armor were attached to its skeleton. Its original clothing had long since been stretched and torn into strips, hanging from its body in tatters.

The most striking feature was its right arm. From the elbow down, it was no longer a human hand. Instead, it had mutated into a bone blade nearly a meter long. As it ran closer, the blade swung with its arm, making it look as if it were chasing him with a two-meter-long greatsword.

"Holy shit! What the hell are you?"

Watching the zombie charge him, Xu Mo couldn’t help but curse. The Strength Zombies he’d seen weren’t this fast, and the Agile Zombies didn’t have such an exaggerated physique. This one, however, fused the two—it was massive and incredibly fast. ’It must be a level-two zombie.’ Realizing this, Xu Mo immediately turned and ran.

"ROAR!"

Seeing Xu Mo turn and run, the level-two zombie roared again and continued its pursuit with great strides, each step leaving a deep footprint in the rubble-covered ground.

"How about we make nice? You stay put, and I’ll go buy you some oranges!" Xu Mo shouted as he ran.

But the level-two zombie behind him ignored Xu Mo’s shouts and continued its relentless pursuit, its bone blade making a faint whistling sound as it cut through the air. As for the regular zombies that had been following Xu Mo, they all cowered in place, trembling and motionless, after hearing the level-two zombie’s roar. This, at least, made Xu Mo’s escape easier.

"Son of a bitch! You had to do it the hard way!"

Cursing at the relentlessly pursuing level-two zombie, Xu Mo sheathed the Mountain-Cutting Saber at his waist, shrugged his shoulder, and swung the Barrett from his back into his hands.

He turned, chambered a round, aimed, and fired.

"BOOM!"

Xu Mo completed the entire sequence in less than a second. A moment later, a bowl-sized hole blasted open on the left side of the level-two zombie’s chest. Shredded muscle tissue and dark blood sprayed backward. The powerful impact of the Armor-Piercing Bullet sent its massive body staggering back two steps, revealing torn bones and fragments of internal organs through the wound.

However, this fatal blow didn’t take it down immediately. It merely glanced down at the wound on its chest, let out an even more furious roar, and resumed its charge toward Xu Mo, though its speed was now noticeably slower.

"What are you, a cockroach?"

Seeing the level-two zombie still standing, Xu Mo sucked in a sharp breath. ’Its vitality is unreal.’

But that was the extent of it.

Seeing that one shot hadn’t killed the level-two zombie, Xu Mo centered the crosshairs on its head this time.

"BOOM!"

With the second crack of the Barrett, the level-two zombie’s head exploded, and its body swayed for a moment before collapsing.

"ROAR! ROAR!"

But before Xu Mo could even feel a moment of relief, two more tremendous roars echoed out—identical to the one from the level-two zombie he had just killed.

Hearing those two roars, Xu Mo’s expression hardened. He slung the Barrett back over his shoulder and ran without a second glance.

’Are you kidding me? I was just curious and wanted to check things out, not get myself killed.’

After a great deal of effort and a long detour, Xu Mo made it back to Fortress C-07 safely.

After taking off all his gear, Xu Mo finally let out a long sigh of relief. ’Today’s expedition was a little too exciting.’

Moreover, as he recovered, Xu Mo was once again struck by how small and powerless an individual was in the great tide of the apocalypse.

The strength of the Cowhide Realm might be enough to handle regular zombies and level-one mutants, but it was far from sufficient when faced with higher-level threats and an increasingly bizarre, unpredictable world.

Take the level-two zombie he’d just encountered, for example. The sheer presence it projected as it charged toward him, and the way the regular zombies trembled in place, too scared to move—it all spoke of its immense power. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

This power made Xu Mo deeply wary; he wouldn’t dare test its strength while surrounded by a horde of other zombies. In that environment, the slightest mistake could have gotten him killed. ’Looking back, even opening fire was a huge risk,’ he thought. ’I should have just run for it from the start.’

"I can’t stay stuck in the Cowhide Realm!" A glint of determination flashed in Xu Mo’s eyes. "I have to get stronger! I have to break through to the Iron Bone Realm as soon as possible!"

His mind made up, Xu Mo no longer hesitated. He assumed the Pile Training stance of the Thirteen Grand Protectors’ Cross Training. His feet planted themselves firmly on the ground like roots as his consciousness sank inward. His breathing grew long and deep, and he began to actively guide the surging torrent of his vital energy.

The vital energy, like a river of scorching mercury, roared and surged within Xu Mo’s body. It washed over and hammered his physique again and again, attempting to seep deeper, into his very bones.

The vital energy of the Cowhide Realm was already incredibly potent, and every circulation brought with it an immense sense of power.

But Xu Mo could clearly feel an invisible, tenacious barrier hindering his vital energy from tempering and reforging his bones on a deeper level.