C28 Slaughter

As they fought their way through, zombies collapsed in their wake, and mutated beasts met their demise. Chen Yu never overlooked the importance of having his team members gather crystal nuclei. These were vital strategic resources in the post-apocalyptic world, and the loss of even one was unforgivable in Chen Yu's eyes.

The team was formidable, bolstered by Chen Yu's leadership. Their advance was swift, with scarcely any force capable of halting their progress. Along the way, they managed to rescue nearly a hundred survivors. However, constrained by their mission, Chen Yu could only secure them temporarily in the safety of the high-rise buildings. Once the zombie horde was dealt with, they planned to evacuate these survivors along with those from the X Supermarket to the community camp.

The battle raged for nearly an hour before the towering structure of the X Supermarket came into view. Concurrently, the streets began to swarm with an increasing number of zombies. Chen Yu also observed a rise in the presence of mutated beasts as they neared the supermarket, clearly drawn by the concentration of human life within.

The predatory instincts of these beasts kept them at the fringes of the zombie masses, poised to strike at the survivors inside the mall at any moment. Thankfully, the intervening zombies served as a barrier, preventing the mutated beasts from getting too close. Without this buffer, even the formidable defense mounted by the thirty-three Evolvers, led by Liu Xingzhong, Cui Yingying, and Bai Zijian, would not prevent significant losses among the numerous survivors in the mall.

Chen Yu's combat intuition had also picked up on several hidden awakened mutated beasts lurking in the vicinity. He had a clear plan for clearing the zombie horde. Once they were close to the supermarket, he directed the team to split into the previously arranged squads. Each squad, led by two Evolvers, would flank the streets, methodically reducing the zombie numbers.

Should the zombies regroup and mount an assault, the squads would use the high-rise buildings on either side of the street for quick retreats and to avoid the brunt of the attack. Moreover, Chen Yu had instructed Liu Xingzhong and the others the day before that once the teams from the community camp made their presence known, they should simultaneously strike back at the zombies from within the supermarket.

Inside and outside the zone, over fifty Evolvers joined forces to clear the horde of corpses.

With a steady, cautious approach, avoiding a reckless advance that could lead to encirclement by the corpses, clearing the tens of thousands of smaller ones was simply a matter of time.

Chen Yu, upon detecting the presence of several awakened mutated beasts, had already stealthily broken away from the group.

Guided by his combat instincts, he silently approached the most menacing among them.

...

In the dim, damp confines of the underground garage, Chen Yu's breathing was measured and deep, his eyes scanning the pitch-black expanse before him.

His instincts warned him of an awakened mutated beast lurking in the shadows, poised and focused on him.

A sudden surge of danger gripped him.

Chen Yu sidestepped swiftly, leaving an afterimage that was immediately skewered by a volley of bone spikes.

Bone spikes!

A cold smile played on Chen Yu's lips as he instantly recognized the ability of the beast concealed in the darkness.

"You had me wary of your powers, but you've given yourself away. Now, you can't blame me for what comes next!"

"Die!"

In the instant the bone spikes passed through the afterimage, Chen Yu's instincts pinpointed the hidden beast's location.

His fist surged with power, unleashing a massive whirlwind that roared into the shadows.

Chen Yu's form darted after it, a blur into the darkness.

The shadows erupted with the sound of shattering stone, followed by the muffled thud of flesh on flesh and a sharp, pained shriek from the beast, then silence.

Thud!

A nearly three-meter-long creature, armored with tough, bony scales and a mouth of serrated teeth, was flung from the darkness by Chen Yu.

An awakened mutated rat.

Its skull was crushed beyond recognition by Chen Yu's strike, leaving no question of its demise.

Chen Yu emerged from the shadows, not a trace of grime on him, as if untouched by the skirmish.

Dealing with a mutated rat, an awakening from a mere pet hamster, had hardly taxed Chen Yu's strength.

Particularly this dim-witted rodent, which had prematurely revealed its awakened powers.

With his guard up, Chen Yu handled it with ease.

Retrieving the ability crystal nucleus, Chen Yu hoisted the carcass of the rat beast and made his way out.

After securing the mutated rat's corpse in a safe spot to prevent other beasts or zombies from scavenging it, Chen Yu swiftly moved on to his next target.

The second awakened mutated beast he encountered was another pet that had undergone mutation—an awakened chameleon beast. Its inherited ability was camouflage, but it had evolved to be far superior. The creature could become nearly invisible against a wall, indistinguishable from its surroundings unless physically touched—a nearly five-meter-long predator lurking unseen.

Moreover, the chameleon beast's tongue was lethally sharp, capable of easily piercing a fifteen-millimeter-thick steel plate. Chen Yu found this adversary particularly challenging, mainly because he initially struggled to pinpoint its location, nearly falling victim to a stealthy attack.

However, after several clashes, once Chen Yu had determined its position, it took only two powerful punches to shatter the beast's tough scales. He then tore open its chest with his bare hands, extracted the ability crystal nucleus, and finished it off with a final punch. The brutality of the scene was enough to make a child cry, too gruesome to behold.

...

After Chen Yu had taken down the third awakened mutated beast, the others lurking nearby seemed to finally recognize the imminent danger. As soon as they identified Chen Yu as a threat, they scattered from their hiding spots, fleeing to more distant areas.

But Chen Yu was relentless, pursuing and taking down a Scaled Mang Beast and a Six-Legged Chicken Beast before finally, with a sense of unfulfilled yearning, he ceased his pursuit, allowing the remaining awakened mutated beasts to escape.

Chen Yu's ferocity served as a stark warning to these creatures. He wanted these cunning beasts to understand that he was the dominant force in this territory, and those who wished to survive would do well to steer clear of him.

With the awakened mutated beasts driven off, Chen Yu had effectively completed his task. Clearing out the hordes of corpses was a minor matter, not even requiring his intervention.

The members of the guard team brought by his subordinates, along with the dozens of Evolvers in the X Supermarket, all needed real combat experience to quickly adapt to the post-apocalyptic world's rhythm.

With his work done, Chen Yu found himself standing atop the building across from the mall, surveying the area.

Observing the cleanup crews on either side, he witnessed a massacre of the horde.

The ordinary zombies, lacking the guidance of Awakened ones, were no match for the organized Evolvers; they were simply lambs to the slaughter.

Countless zombies fell victim to the Evolvers' ferocious strength, being blasted apart and dismembered.

Afterward, survivors trailing the Evolvers would slice open the fallen and extract the crystal nuclei.

The spectacle was both brutal and awe-inspiring.

Were it not set against the backdrop of the apocalypse, with the zombies stripped of their human form, the collective effort to reap the harvest might have even been considered a sight to behold.