The layout of the 18th floor, and even the 4 floors above until the 23rd, was exactly the same as the one I was admitted to. The same 5 private rooms with a terrace garden, a nurse station, and a waiting room.
As for my position, it was near the emergency gate with my target being the nurse station, specifically the on-call room inside it.
I first analyzed the Lesser D-Grade zombie in front of me before taking a quick look at those behind him. There were two E-Grade in the hallway to the nurse station, while about 20 of them were trying to get into the nurse station.
How long will the zombies take to break down the door to the nurse station?
[1 Day 13 Hours 34 Minutes 42 Seconds!]
Looking at the time, I believed the door was guarded well from the inside. Perhaps the people inside had pushed a few heavy objects against the door, making it harder to barge inside.
Since that was out, something I did not need to worry about, I focused back on this guy once again.
How long will it take him to attack me?
[3 Minutes 14 Seconds!]
Why wait that long? I questioned for a moment before deciding that it did not matter to me. Even if there was something tricky at play, I could use my (foresight) to check for it and dodge it before it happens.
[Eyes of the Timekeeper!]
One step at a time, I moved closer to him.
10 meters.
7 meters.
4 meters.
3 meters.
As I closed the distance, enough to get a direct hit, I saw the blue image of him jumping in my direction. It alarmed me for a brief moment, but… compared to the crawler, his speed was…. normal.
-BAM!!
Knowing the direction it was going to come from, I used the baseball bat to hit him directly on the head. The idea was to make him fall before using the cleaver to take him out… though it did not go as I wished it to.
Taking that hit, he just stood there with no visible movement. Menacingly, he just stood there looking at me before he took a step forward.
[HP: 960/1000]
If not for the decreased HP, from the way he was unaffected, I might have even believed that he was impossible to kill.
-Rawr!
Though other than that tenacity, there was nothing different about him that made him stand out differently from the other zombies. He walked like the others, attacked like the others, and was far slower than the crawler that I had faced before.
Taking a step to the side as I dodged his attack, I switched my weapon to the cleaver. Then, waiting for him to stop his movements, I analyzed his path using (foresight) once again.
-Slice!!
[HP: 910/1000]
The cleaver hit a portion of his neck, barely a centimeter before getting stuck in it. Despite seeming easy to take out, when I used my full strength, I found it was stuck like a nail in there. I had to separate myself from the cleaver since the zombie had moved in for another attack in the window.
One step back, I saw the cleaver still stuck in its neck.
Hmmm… that could have been worse.
I turned to my right.
By this time, the other two zombies in the hallway had reached closer to me as well, and thinking that it could get ugly to get trapped between the three, I decided to take out the weaker ones first.
[2 Seconds!]
[1 Second!]
Timing my attack according to their movements…
-BAM!
One hit made it fall to the ground.
-BAM!
[You have killed an E-Grade Zombie!]
And another killed it.
Repeating the same with the third zombie.
-BAM!
-BAM!
[You have killed an E-Grade Zombie!]
Since the other zombies were too engaged to enter the nurse station, I got a little breathing room before I turned to the Lesser D-Grade zombie approaching me slowly and slowly.
Looking at the cleaver stuck in its neck, I smiled as I then moved closer to it.
"No more third wheels, pal. It's just you and me now," I smiled as I raised my baseball bat and then aimed at the place where the cleaver was and…
-BAM!!!!
…hit at the exact spot where the cleaver was stuck, pushing it in even more.
[HP: 720/1000]
Persistent bastard. I cursed as I continued…
-BAM!
[HP: 600/1000]
While it was indeed a Lesser D-Grade zombie with insane resilience, there was nothing unique about him. His speed was average, his reaction time was average, and the way he moved was also pretty much normal.
-BAM!
[HP: 420/1000]
It made me wonder if the evolution process of a zombie was fixed in only one direction. Like only a particular aspect of their power would evolve, leaving the others at a stagnant pace.
-BAM!
[HP: 200/1000]
It would allow me to exploit their weaknesses. I thought as I saw that the Lesser D-Grade… didn't seem so invincible anymore.
-BAM!
[HP: 12/1000]
His head was barely attached to his body, almost by an inch; it looked like it would fall even with the nick of a finger. And even so, he stood there in the same position as before, with no change in his motion from the start.
Man… if this guy… or perhaps if any of those Lesser D's evolve even more… it's gonna get ugly, isn't it? I gulped as I looked at these strange zombies before going for one last swing…
-BAM!
[You have killed a Lesser D-Grade Zombie!]
[+500 Exp!]
The zombie's neck was thrown away from his body while the body fell to the ground. Meanwhile, I moved towards the cleaver, only to find its durability hitting single digits.
Sigh.
I didn't even get to use it properly.
Turning back to the decaying zombie,
"Let's just hope… we can reach level 10 before encountering any complete D's," I prayed in a low voice before turning to the 20 or so zombies that were still trying to enter the nurse station.
It's good that they are dumb. I smiled as I moved towards them.
[Inspect!]
Checking their status, I first confirmed that all of them were E-Grades. Then, once I made sure that there weren't any, I lured a few of them away from the group using the plastic bottle trick from before.
Since we had an open terrace on this floor, I moved towards the garden first. And when the zombies attacked me, I used that timing to dodge them before pushing them off the railing.
Just in case, I used (foresight) to be completely sure of my actions too.
[You have killed an E-Grade Zombie!]
Free exp.
I smiled as I then greedily looked at the other few zombies who had been lured along with the first one.