Lu Zhang looked at the zombie, laughing softly as the Empty Fang faded from around his hand.
'This...'
'This is really...'
'The greatest high!'
The Blob shrieked, the sound vibrating through the layers of fat and trapped limbs. The loss of its arm seemed to have enraged it, the flesh rippling violently as the embedded zombies wailed in unison. It lunged again, faster this time, the massive bulk moving with surprising momentum.
'Speed. I need more Speed~'
Lu Zhang didn't retreat. He watched the massive wall of flesh descending on him.
To a normal person, it was a fleshy wall of death.
To him, it was a telegraphed animation.
He stepped to the side.
Not a frantic dodge, but a calculated sidestep.
The Blob crashed into the stairwell railing, concrete dust exploding into the air. The impact shook the floor, but Lu Zhang was already moving. His eyes locked onto not the main head of the mutant, but the flailing, half-absorbed bodies stuck in its side.
'The main body has too much health. My attack power isn't high enough to pierce the fat and kill the core in one shot.'
'But these things...'
He looked at a zombie torso protruding from the Blob's flank, its arms clawing at the air. 'They are separate entities fused to the host. Which means...'
[Empty Fang]
Lu Zhang's hand blurred. He didn't aim for the Blob. He slashed at the trapped zombie.
Squelch!
The mana claw tore through the exposed neck of the trapped zombie.
[Zombie Lv 1 killed!]
'Just as I thought.'
Lu Zhang grinned, his eyes manic.
'A farming spot on a single boss.'
The Blob roared, trying to turn, a new chain of limbs shooting out from its mouth. Lu Zhang ducked under the grasp, his movement leaving an afterimage.
'Too slow!'
He circled the mutant, carefully hunting the zombies within it.
Slash.
Another trapped zombie went limp, its head rolling down the stairs.
[Zombie Lv 2 killed!]
The long awaited sound rang out in his mind, as the translucent screen morphed.
[Level Up!]
[System]
[Stat Points: 5]
'All in Speed.'
Lu Zhang didn't hesitate. If he couldn't get hit, he couldn't die.
[Speed: 14 -> 19]
The world seemed to slow down further. The dust in the air hung suspended. The flailing arms of the Blob looked like they were moving through water briefly. Lu Zhang felt light. Weightless.
He kicked off the wall, landing a few meters up the stairs. The Blob was turning around, preparing another charge. It was furious now, its body trembling as it prepared to roll up the stairs.
Lu Zhang launched another strike with the [Empty Fang], carving a deep furrow across the zombie's flesh, but it was filled with more rotting biomass in an instant.
'I can't kill the main body yet. And I've already milked the easy Exp...'
"What a pain..."
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Su Yao had returned, standing pale-faced at the top of the landing. She slammed her metal ruler against the railing of the stairs.
The noise echoed sharply in the stairwell.
The Blob paused, its attention snapping from the gnat biting it to the loud noise above. That split second was all Lu Zhang needed.
He ran up the stairs, grabbing Su Yao's arm as a chain of limbs slammed through the wall where he had been moment's ago.
"Run."
They sprinted down the hallway, the heavy thudding of the Blob's slow pursuit of them echoing from behind. But with Lu Zhang's speed and the mutant's bulk, they gained distance quickly.
They reached the library office. As expected, the door was still shut tight.
Lu Zhang slammed his fist against the wood.
"Open the door."
Silence from inside. Then, the sound of frantic whispering.
"Don't! Don't open it!" A voice hissed from within.
"They'll bring it inside!"
"He's crazy! Did you see him covered in blood?"
"Keep it barricaded!"
Lu Zhang's expression went cold. He looked at the door, then at Su Yao, who was panting heavily. He didn't have time for democracy.
"I know you can hear me," Lu Zhang said, his voice flat. "I can tear down this door right now if you don't open it. If I have to break it down, I'm using you as bait for the thing behind us."
"No! Wait!"
The barricade scraped against the floor within, as the lock clicked. The door cracked open and the glasses wearing student stood there, his face sweating, and hands trembling as he pulled the door wide enough for them to slip in.
"You idiot! You'll kill us all!" The guy with the phone hissed from the corner, backing away.
Lu Zhang pushed past the glasses student, dragging Su Yao inside. He immediately kicked the desk back against the door, securing it just as a heavy thud shook the walls. The Blob had slammed into a wall somewhere nearby, losing their trail.
Lu Zhang turned to the glasses student.
"You opened it."
The student swallowed hard, adjusting his glasses. He looked at the angry phone guy, then at Lu Zhang.
"You... you're the only ones fighting," he said, his voice shaky but firm.
"I... thought about what you said. If you die out there, that thing eventually breaks in here anyway. And we can't stop it."
He looked Lu Zhang in the eye. "We need you. And we need to change."
Lu Zhang looked at him for a second, then sighed in relief. "At least one of you has a brain."
He walked over to the desk, wiping the muck off his hands onto a piece of paper.
"Basically," Lu Zhang said, "That thing is a Blob. A Level 5 Mutant zombie according to my Inspect skill. High defense, and higher health."
He looked at Su Yao. "My attacks are too shallow. I can kill the parasites on it, but the main core is buried too deep under the fat."
"Even it's head is abnormally tough."
"So we can't kill it?" Su Yao asked, her chest still heaving.
"Not yet," Lu Zhang corrected.
"Not with all the other enemies."
He pointed to the door. "The noise will attract the smaller zombies from both our floor, and the first floor. Probably already has."
"If we fight the Blob right now, we get swarmed by the trash mobs. We get surrounded, and end up serving them a nice meal."
He looked at the three survivors. "So here is the plan."
"We ignore the Blob for now. It's stuck in the stairwell or wandering the hall. It's pretty slow too."
"We clear the rest of the floor first."
Lu Zhang's eyes glinted. "We hunt down every single straggler on this level." "We secure the stairwell."
"And when there's nothing left but that fat sack of meat..." He crushed the paper in his hand and smiled giddily.
.
.
.
"We hunt it."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Name: Lu Zhang]
[Level: 3]
[Strength: 5 ->6]
[Speed: 11 ->14 ->19]
[Intelligence: 6 ->7]
[Endurance: 5->7]
[Mana: 70/70 ->58/70 ->62/70](recovering)
[Skills: Inspect lv 2, Empty Fang Lv 3]
[New Function discovered!]
[Mana Pool regenerates faster outside of combat!]