Wu Xiaoming pulled up the collar of the scrub - he was still wearing the clothes he had had on before coming here underneath it. It seemed that the scrub just appeared on him. He took it off and looked around the hallway, there were a few rooms on both sides, and one storage room on his left. So he headed over.
On his way, he tried to pull out the weapons from his inventory, but strangely, the panel would not open. The only panel he could see was his character panel showing his status. His skill tree panel was locked along with the inventory - it seemed he would need to get out of here first before worrying about allocating his skill points. He stopped for a moment to try to use his spells - his spirit could flow, but it dissipated rather quickly, so quickly that he barely managed to light up his palm with a golden light spell.
“So, physical fight only?” Wu Xiaoming frowned. This was not good. Maybe he could check out the environment a bit and exit early. This kind of “ability/item lock” was not rare in video game dungeons he had used to play, but actually being in this kind of environment was a whole other thing.
A man in a white robe, with scratches on his face and a gruesome bite mark on his neck was inside this room. When the door opened, he turned to Wu Xiaoming, his pupils dilated, his arms raised. Without further warning, he charged at Wu Xiaoming after a low growl.
“Shit!” Wu Xiaoming sidestepped and reached his left foot forward , tripping the man just as he lunged past before him. The man in a white robe faceplanted and banged his arms on the wall. His forearms popped out of the elbow sockets, and the end of one of his left forearm bones broke through the skin on his arm and protruded into the air.
The man growled more and struggled on the ground, turning his head bit by bit at Wu Xiaoming, twitching and shaking, mouth drooling and dripping blood from the corners of his mouth. His gaze was full of animalistic hunger and aggression, and not a single ounce of concern for his grievously injured arms. Zombies, only no longer in the realm of a childish imagination, but much grittier and realistic.
Wu Xiaoming took a quick look at the inside of the storage room - inside of it were shelves storing medical supplies, like syringes and tubes in paper bags. No weapons or anything that could be used as weapons in sight. So he just pressed forward, leaving the zombie struggling on the ground with barely usable arms.
As he paced forward with controlled steps, he sensed this limbo he was in. It turned out if he wanted to, he could actually exit, like how he would exit the ethereal realm. But he needed to pay a price in Spirit Fragments doing so, he was not sure about the exact amount yet, but it was probably more “expensive” than him getting out of the ethereal realm normally. Still, with his current “savings” he could afford it.
Interestingly, it was the first time he got this kind of feedback from sensing the environment. It was as if as he gained enough levels, his mind and sense were more in tune with the mechanisms and laws of the ethereal realm. It was no doubt a good thing for him, it greatly reduced the chance of him getting into a limbo and was robbed of all his currencies unknowingly when he would exit.
He made a turn, just in time to run into the fire escape, with a fire extinguisher in a metal cabinet mounted on the wall next to it. And as he checked the inside of the cabinet, on the side of the fire extinguisher, was a fireaxe. A bit too convenient, but it would be foolish if he would pass on this easy first weapon.
Wu Xiaoming checked around for a blunt object, then just decided to use his elbow to break the glass - luckily he was wearing long sleeves and still had his scrub with him, the shards did not cut him at all. He grabbed the fireaxe with one hand and the distinguisher with another. Both items were light, it seemed at least his physical abilities were not “nerfed”.
Footsteps incoming, it appeared his breaking the glass was enough to attract other - presumably zombies. But there was still a low chance of them being regular humans.
He immediately jumped behind the turn. If they were zombies, he could just run the other way, or push through them to enter the fire escape.
As he himself quieted down, the footsteps slowed. Wu Xiaoming concentrated on the footsteps and the ground. Before long, two human-shaped shadows approached, with both their hands reaching forward and up, with pointy fingertips poking forward. No way they were humans.
Wu Xiaoming took a silent deep breath and pushed his Qi - it would still flow in his meridians and his bones and muscles. And maybe because it did not contribute to any spells or “supernatural” or “magical” abilities, its effects were not diminished at all.
The two zombies walked past the corner and stopped in front of the metal cabinet, with their eyes fixed on the ground and broken glass. Their arms and face muscles twitching, their nose sniffling, as if they were trying to find out the trace of Wu Xiaoming.
The two zombies were a little different than the first one Wu Xiaoming had seen. Their skins were darker, and their muscles somehow bulkier. Their eyes were bloodshot and bulging, and strange muscles squirmed and pulsated under the skin around their jaws. Mutated zombies, maybe? Both were wearing uniforms of hospital staff - one looked like a nurse, while the other a doctor in a white coat, and more muscular.
Wu Xiaoming raised the fire extinguisher and threw it right at the less muscular nurse zombie, then immediately switched the fire axe to his right hand and swung it right at the doctor zombie’s neck.
The nurse zombie was knocked back a few steps and fell through the fire escape door. The doctor zombie, however, raised his left arm in front of the axe just in time.
“
Foosh
” the zombie’s left hand flew off from his wrist. The axe blade continued on its trajectory and landed right below the zombie’s jaw.
The doctor zombie’s body was thrown rightward from the impact. The swing did not do as much damage as Wu Xiaoming had hoped. From the feel of the handle it seemed he barely chopped through the neck bone.
Neck still connected = still alive and ready to fight. So Wu Xiaoming pressed on, right after kicking the fire escape door and bashing the nurse zombie back down.
The doctor zombie bounced up from the ground and tried to lunge at Wu Xiaoming, but his left forearm was cleanly sliced off by a swing of the fire axe, and was thrown back down on the ground by a kick to the stomach.
Wu Xiaoming raised the fire axe again, ready to aim for the head again. From the last two attack attempts, he could tell this zombie, though taking the shape of an adult man, had much stronger physical abilities than any regular human - its muscles were tougher, its bones felt harder, and its reflexes were enhanced . So while he had the chance and upperhand, it would be good to take it out.
Before he could swing the fire axe, the doctor zombie’s mouth opened wide, its lower jaw split open from the middle, making the opening bigger. A muscular tongue curled up like a spring in its mouth and throat shot out, with a sharp bone spike protruding from the tip aiming right at Wu Xiaoming’s throat.
Wu Xiaoming shifted his weight and pulled himself sideways with all the energy he could muster up. And out of pure instinct, he barked, while focusing on the root of the tongue, “Slash!”
The energy slash left a trail of distorted air behind before severing the tongue almost at its root, then moving forward and cutting through the jaw bone and cheekbone.
Dark red blood shot from the wound of the severed tongue, gray slime spilled from what was left of the doctor zombie’s half a head - to be precise, the lower right half of its head. The upper left part was cleanly separated from its body already.
Wu Xiaoming darted and pushed himself at the wall to avoid being splashed by the foul blood, while fixing his eyes on the two halves of the zombie’s head. Soaked in the gray smile was not the natural and expected brain matter, but a curled up creature with pale skin and long legs or tentacles. His energy slash had cut off several legs and a chunk of that creature’s body, but right now it was still twitching, struggling to crawl out of the open skull.
He lunged forward, chopping up the upper left half of the zombie’s head, completely crushing the creature inside. But another creature crawled out of the lower right half of the head and began scurrying towards the fire escape.
Just at this time, the nurse zombie charged through the fire escape door, running over the creature.
“Attack!” Wu Xiaoming roared again, focusing on the running creature. There was simply no other way to stop it with another zombie in his path.
The energy blast also left a trail with distorted air. It worked just as he had expected - the creature’s body was completely torn apart with gray “blood” splattered everywhere.
The nurse zombie growled and charged at Wu Xiaoming. Its nose was broken and its left eye was bleeding from a cut, presumably from the bash of the fire escape door.