Chapter 264 - 226: The Situation (3)

Chapter 264: Chapter 226: The Situation (3)

"So, is this how you always make friends? Fail an ambush, then try to negotiate?"

Her words made Lin Fan chuckle; he hadn’t heard such a confident speech since the apocalypse began.

"No sincerity at all, huh?"

But on second thought, it made sense. ’With the power that came with over a thousand Life Value, she was completely safe from regular zombies and even basic Mutated Zombies. Add to that an attack strong enough to have just nicked my own axe... this woman definitely had the right to be confident.’

The woman opposite him seemed to be in charge. With a gesture of her hand, the man behind her pulled a small, cylindrical tin from his clothes and handed it to her. Based on the design, it looked like a tea caddy.

"Here are twelve crystals..."

She took the can, opened it, and tilted it slightly in Lin Fan’s direction.

"You know how it is. The round ones can’t be stored, so we’ve already consumed them. We couldn’t possibly have many of these diamond-shaped ones on hand. This is all we have..."

As she spoke, she squatted down and rolled the can across the ground toward Lin Fan. It rolled with a series of CLATTERS before striking the blade of the silver giant axe Lin Fan was leaning on with a loud CLANG and coming to a stop.

"We don’t need to discuss Li Xun; he was just a scout. As for Hong Chuan..."

She said, turning her head slightly to look at the "iron man" collapsed by the wall.

"He’s tough, but either of us could have killed him... You’re strong, but I doubt you can withstand our combined assault. What’s more..."

As she spoke, the man pushed open the iron door again, and two more tall figures emerged from it behind her, stepping out into the rain with heavy footfalls.

"There aren’t just two of us..."

Lin Fan might have been unconcerned by the woman’s words, but the sight of those two figures made his pupils contract.

The one on the left was nearly three meters tall. Its arms were grotesquely mutated, as thick as hundred-year-old tree trunks and covered in bulging veins. They hung so low that they scraped against the ground, creating a piercing sound on the concrete every time it moved.

It was a high-tier [3000/3000] Giant-Armed Zombie, stronger than any Lin Fan had seen before.

The one on the right was slightly shorter, but its body was a mass of knotted muscle, its skin the deathly gray of granite. It was clearly a perfect synthesis of strength and defense.

It was also a [3000/3000] dual-strain Mutated Zombie, possessing both strength and hardening mutations—a type he had never seen before.

The two behemoths, with a combined six thousand Life Value, silently walked to either side of the woman and stood still.

They didn’t roar or fly into a rage. Instead, they stood like two silent stone statues, letting the downpour wash over their rotting, grotesque bodies without moving a muscle.

Cowering in the shadow of the two monsters, a few survivors in mismatched clothes scurried out from behind the door. Heads bowed and bodies trembling, they didn’t dare to even glance at the beasts. They worked quickly, dragging the two headless corpses and the weakened Hong Chuan back inside the iron door. On the ground, only a few bloodstains, already being washed away by the rain, remained.

BZZT... KSHHH...

Lin Fan’s sharp ears faintly picked up the crackle of static from within the woman’s gas mask; she was clearly using an earpiece to communicate.

When the communication ended, the woman looked up at Lin Fan again, her eyes now holding the look of a persuasive envoy.

"My boss says there was never any conflict between us."

She pointed at the tin can on the ground.

"These crystals are the key to human evolution. That makes us the same kind of people. As for the talentless trash destined to become zombie fodder... whether they live or die is none of our concern."

Seeing that Lin Fan didn’t interrupt, she continued to lay out her offer.

"The bridges along the river are all destroyed; heading north or south is a dead end. But, truth be told, we’ve maintained secret contact with the quarantine zone. We supply a portion of the crystals we ’produce’ to them..."

"If you’re willing, this is a path for you as well."

As she spoke, she kicked the black walkie-talkie—the one Hong Chuan had dropped in the mud—over to Lin Fan. The device’s indicator light suddenly glowed green.

KSHHHHHH—

After a piercing burst of static, a voice—wet, cold, and slimy, as if speaking through a throat full of thick phlegm—cut through the rain, coming through loud and clear:

"Friend..."

"I’m the factory manager here..."

"You can call me..."

CRUNCH!

Lin Fan extended his foot and crushed the walkie-talkie. The slimy voice cut off abruptly.

"I don’t talk to people who are afraid to show their faces..."