Chapter 343: New Discovery

Until he figured these things out, even if he returned home now, he would still have to come back later to investigate. It would be better to put in a little more effort now.

After observing for a while, Joo Joowon discovered that the zombies inside the red mist had not shown any changes because of the stone marten’s departure. They were still wandering around aimlessly inside the red mist.

Logically speaking, this should not have happened.

One had to know that Elite Zombies were different from ordinary zombies. Their brains were relatively more developed.

When searching for prey, they not only knew how to deliberately make noises to frighten their prey, but could also perform actions such as opening windows. Their intelligence seemed to be even higher than that of ordinary animals.

Therefore, when they were not hunting, they should not have wandered around aimlessly like ordinary zombies. Instead, they should have chosen to rest, sleep, cultivate, play, or do something similar.

Joo Joowon did not know what Elite Zombies would do when they had nothing to do, but he knew that as long as a creature possessed intelligence, its behavior patterns could no longer be the same as when it only had instincts. Otherwise, what difference would there be between them and ordinary low-level zombies?

After observing them for a while longer, a thought suddenly flashed through Joo Joowon’s mind.

Could it be because the red mist had only modified their bodies, causing them to have an inherent deficiency?

Could that be why, aside from their HP and physical abilities becoming stronger, both their brains and other aspects had remained at the level they had possessed when they were low-level zombies, resulting in this kind of aimless wandering?

Thinking about it this way, everything seemed to make sense.

The stone marten had fought fiercely against Joo Joowon and Hwi so many times, and every single time had ended with its death. If a slightly smarter creature had encountered this situation, it would have simply run away immediately after resurrecting. How could it have continued giving Joo Joowon and Hwi opportunities to kill it again and again?

Yet the stone marten had never once thought about running away. It would rather adjust itself again and again to deal with their attacks and insist on killing them. Wasn’t this behavior exactly the same as what low-level zombies did when they saw flesh and completely threw their brains away?

Otherwise, could it be that there was some deep grudge between them, so that even after dying again and again, they still insisted on killing Joo Joowon and Hwi?

But Elite Zombies would not normally behave like this.

Each Elite Zombie had its own distinct personality. Some would refuse to let go when they encountered a difficult prey, but there were also those that would choose to run away when they found their opponent too difficult to deal with.

Even those that chose to fight would not attack completely mindlessly. They would observe their enemy’s weaknesses, attack their vulnerable points, or adopt a strategy of exchanging injuries for injuries.

After all, unlike the flesh-and-blood bodies of their enemies, they were not afraid of getting injured. Aside from certain injuries that might slightly affect their movements, most other injuries were not much of a problem.

Because of this, exchanging injuries for injuries had become a very common combat method among Elite Zombies.

The stone marten, however, had never shown such behavior. When Hwi was clearly making mistakes because of fatigue, a slightly more intelligent Elite Zombie would definitely have chosen to keep targeting Hwi, eliminate him first, and then turn its attention to Joo Joowon.

However, the stone marten was different. Its behavior was very mechanical. It was very easy for Joo Joowon to draw its attention and pull its aggro toward himself, leaving Hwi enough time to recover his stamina.

It simply did not seem to have that kind of intelligence. Basically, whoever attacked it first was the one it would attack. It really did not look like something with a functioning brain.

Thinking of this, Joo Joowon could not help becoming more spirited.

If that was really the case, then even though they possessed the ability to resurrect repeatedly, their difficulty would be greatly reduced. They would not be nearly as troublesome as he had initially imagined.

However, this kind of thing could not be concluded so hastily. He still needed to observe them for a while longer before he could feel at ease.

Joo Joowon squatted in the grass and waited, wanting to see when this group of wandering Elite Zombies would actually become active. There was no way they would just keep wandering around like this without doing anything, right?

If that were really the case, then why had the red mist transformed them in the first place? Was it doing charity work?

Joo Joowon did not waste his time while waiting either. During this period, he also tried to use these Elite Zombies to divine the source of the red mist.

Without obtaining the aura of the other party first, the speed of this divination was very slow.

However, this could not be helped. The stone marten was already dead, so the connection it had with the red mist naturally faded away, making it difficult to capture. At least, this was the case for Joo Joowon.

Fortunately, when the stone marten had chased Hwi out, Joo Joowon had collected some of the aura it carried. Therefore, this time, it could not be considered as difficult as searching for a needle in a haystack.

Even so, he still had little confidence that he could divine the source of the red mist.

The Elite Zombies created by the red mist could already reach Level 12, so there was no need to mention how high its own level might be.

Even with the simplest divination that did not involve anything particularly important, once the target of the divination was a high-level existence, the difficulty would increase drastically. Not only would it consume a great deal of mental energy, but there was no guarantee that he would gain anything from it.

However, he could not simply do nothing because of this. After all, what if he actually succeeded?

Unfortunately, no pleasant surprise came. Until the sky began to darken, Joo Joowon still could not divine anything useful.

The fates of these zombies were completely blurred, just like the red mist before his eyes. They were hidden beneath layers upon layers of fog, making it impossible to see anything clearly.