I Hoard Supplies and Raise a Child in the Wasteland World by Drawing Cards (GL) - Chapter 11
The two zombies naturally noticed Lin Ran’s movement and smelled the scent of a living person. The tall male zombie in the lead lunged at Lin Ran.
The zombie’s face was horrifying. One of its eyeballs had already popped out, and a viscous fluid, whether it was the whites of the eye or bl00d, was flowing from the socket, looking even more disgusting than a slug. Its shoulder looked like it had been bitten by another zombie, and black bl00d was still seeping out. Its throat let out a hoarse roar that didn’t sound human.
Lin Ran didn’t hesitate and reacted quickly, kicking the male zombie in the chest. The zombie lost its balance, but because there was a female zombie behind it, the male zombie didn’t fall.
At that moment, Lin Ran saw an opportunity. She quickly gripped the hilt of her Tang Dao with both hands and slashed down at the male zombie’s neck. With the sound of metal scraping against the spine, the male zombie fell backward, pinning the female zombie behind it.
Lin Ran was a little surprised as she looked at the Tang Dao in her hand. The sword was sharper and more durable than she had imagined. The human spine is extremely tough, and usually, it would take four or five hacks with a machete to completely decapitate a person. But after that one blow, Lin Ran was confident she could cut off a zombie’s head in two strikes.
As the male zombie tried to get back up, she quickly delivered another slash. A foul-smelling, blackish-brown bl00d splattered out, hitting Lin Ran quite a bit. The smell was even stronger than that of rotting fish.
It was a good thing that Lin Ran used to be a top bodyguard and had endurance training. Otherwise, the stench alone would have made a normal person vomit.
But she couldn’t hesitate. The male zombie was down, but the female zombie it was pinning was still roaring.
Lin Ran took a step forward and firmly pressed her foot on the male zombie’s chest, pinning the furious female zombie beneath it. She then quickly lifted her Tang Dao and, with two more slashes, the frantic female zombie went silent.
“Congratulations, darling. You have collected two Grade 1 zombie cores. These cores can be used for drawing,” the system’s mechanical voice immediately sounded in Lin Ran’s mind.
Lin Ran keenly picked up on the meaning of the system’s words. “So there will be Grade 2 and Grade 3 zombies later on?”
“Yes, darling. The higher the grade of the zombie cores, the higher the level of drawing you can participate in. The higher the drawing level, the more rare and valuable the prizes will be,” the system explained.
Lin Ran felt a shiver down her spine. The world was already like this with newly evolved Grade 1 zombies. If higher-grade zombies evolved, things would be even tougher in the future.
But Lin Ran didn’t have time to think too much. She wiped the bl00d off her face with her sleeve and continued down the stairs. On the third floor, she saw four more zombies, seemingly a family. These zombies were lingering by the elevator door and hadn’t seen Lin Ran yet, but Lin Ran wasn’t going to just walk past them. If she dodged these few zombies, how would she be able to survive in the future?
With that thought, Lin Ran was filled with motivation. After all, she had a few things that normal people didn’t. She carefully walked to the large white iron door connecting the fire escape and the hallway. She could still see the zombies through the crack in the door.
One of them, a female zombie about 1.5 meters tall, moved toward the white door. The zombie had a limp, and half of her neck had been bitten off when she was infected. Lin Ran could even see her spine through the flesh and bl00d.
“3, 2, 1!” Lin Ran counted silently in her head. When she reached 3, she kicked the iron door, and it flew open, sending the female zombie flying behind the door.
The large white door was creaking and about to close. At that moment, the limping female zombie squeezed through the crack, pushing half of her body toward Lin Ran. Lin Ran held the white door firmly with one leg, keeping the zombie half-exposed.
The corners of Lin Ran’s lips curled into a slight smile. “You’re being so proactive. Okay, I’ll put you out of your misery to spare you this pain.”
As she spoke, she aimed a slash at the female zombie’s spine in her neck. Even though Lin Ran was an international bodyguard in her past life, knowing how to quickly kill an opponent was an essential part of her training. Therefore, she could accurately find the weak points on the human body. When she was cutting the spine, she aimed for the natural gaps to save a lot of energy.
Lin Ran could clearly feel the Tang Dao vibrating from the female zombie’s spine. She gripped the hilt with both hands and pulled the blade back with force, then quickly retracted her right leg and nimbly moved back like a monkey. In the next moment, the female zombie lunged out from the white door. Lin Ran slashed at the female zombie’s wide-open mouth, using her momentum to smoothly guide the Tang Dao through and quickly cut off the female zombie’s head.
As the female zombie fell, the three zombies behind her lunged at Lin Ran. In an instant, Lin Ran had a thought, and the long blade in her hand disappeared. She nimbly swung down, grabbing the railing of the fire escape, and landed steadily on the next floor. In the next moment, the Tang Dao reappeared in her hand.
The two men and one woman behind the female zombie, who could only determine direction by sound and smell, tripped over the fallen female zombie and tumbled down the stairs.
This was exactly what Lin Ran was waiting for. The male zombie who rolled near her was wearing a suit, but it was now soaked in blackish-brown bl00d. His once handsome face was covered with terrifying greenish veins, and his neck was twisted into an arc that a normal person couldn’t comprehend. He crawled toward Lin Ran on the ground, his body twisted.
“You’re struggling so much. I’ll just send you on your way early,” Lin Ran said. Without waiting for him to crawl closer, she held the Tang Dao with both hands and slashed at his neck twice as if she were chopping vegetables. The male zombie stopped struggling.
At the same time, the female zombie behind him lunged at Lin Ran. With her mouth full of bloody water, she tried to bite Lin Ran’s carotid artery.
Lin Ran firmly held the female zombie’s head with both hands to keep her from getting closer, while using her leg to kick the female zombie back a few steps. Using this opportunity, Lin Ran used both hands to deliver a vicious slash with the Tang Dao and then quickly pulled it out. But zombies didn’t feel pain. Even though the female zombie’s neck was bleeding and her head was now resting on her shoulder, she still lunged at Lin Ran. The other old male zombie behind her tripped over the body of the dead male zombie in the suit.
But the old male zombie on the ground didn’t stop. He crawled over the male zombie’s body and lunged at Lin Ran’s legs.
Lin Ran turned around cleanly, dodging the attack, and used her left hand to hold onto the railing of the stairwell, swinging down again. This time, however, Lin Ran’s luck wasn’t as good. She came face-to-face with a male zombie in a janitor’s uniform who was standing at the bottom of the stairs.
It was a classic situation of “a tiger in front and an ambush from behind.” However, Lin Ran didn’t panic. She took advantage of the janitor zombie’s slow reaction and kicked him. At this point, there was an open space on the second floor of the stairwell, and Lin Ran could have easily run away, but she chose not to.
Instead, she immediately raised her Tang Dao and slashed at the janitor, then kicked him again, forcing him to lean against the wall. By the time he tried to get up, Lin Ran’s second slash had already landed. Foul-smelling bl00d splattered, covering Lin Ran, but she remained calm. After the dangerous situation she had just faced, her heart had become even steadier.
Turning her head, the two zombies from the upper floor had caught up. Lin Ran didn’t dodge. Instead, she charged at the zombies with a smile on her face. The female zombie, whom she had already slashed once, was also lunging at Lin Ran.
Just as Lin Ran’s body was about to touch the female zombie, she nimbly turned around. The Tang Dao in her right hand, using her momentum, neatly cut into the zombie’s spine, severing it completely. Lin Ran didn’t stop. With another slash, she cut off the arm of the old male zombie who was reaching for her, and then, with two more slashes, it was all over.
Her swinging speed was noticeably faster than when she killed the first zombie, and she had become more excited. In an extremely dangerous situation, a person’s adrenaline can be maximized, and all their survival instincts are triggered.
But to be honest, killing zombies took a lot of physical effort. She hadn’t even left the stairwell yet, and she was already exhausted.
“Congratulations, darling. So far, you have collected a total of seven Grade 1 zombie cores. Please keep up the good work,” System 33’s voice sounded again.
Lin Ran leaned against the stairwell wall to rest. It was a good thing she didn’t have to dig for the cores in the zombies’ heads; that would have been another challenge.
She took a pack of tissues from her pocket and, looking at her phone’s screen, managed to wipe her face so she looked somewhat normal. However, her clothes were almost completely covered in bl00d, and the foul blackish-brown smell was nauseating.
Lin Ran just endured it. She didn’t have time to go back and change her clothes. Besides, it wouldn’t make a difference; she would just get splattered again when she killed more zombies.
Lin Ran estimated the time. According to the system, the first card-drawing location would appear at 4 p.m. During this time, the location would remain for three hours, and she needed to get there within those three hours and complete the drawing. The prerequisite for the drawing was that she had to collect 100 Grade 1 zombie cores.
She took a breath, put her phone away, and, with her sword in hand, headed down to the first floor again.
But when she got to the corner connecting the first and second floors, Lin Ran found a pleasant surprise. At least five or six zombies were wandering outside the wide-open main entrance on the first floor. Lin Ran’s lips curled into a smile. The stairwell was a narrow space, and she was at a high vantage point, giving her a huge advantage. To her, these few zombies were like an appetizer.