Capítulo 17: What's that noise?

Heehee~ The sudden sound from behind made Ming's scalp tingle. He quickly took a step forward, crouched, and turned around, ready to shoot with his crossbow. He found that there was no zombie behind him, but a face sticking to the hole in the wooden door of room 2103 that he had shot through with the charged arrow earlier.

That face was staring at him through the hole, making a hee hee sound while hitting the door.

Ming let out a sigh of relief, walked up to the zombie with grayish-white eyes, and shot it in the head with his crossbow. He looked through the hole and saw no other zombies inside, so he reached in and opened the door.

After searching the room, he only found some onions and potatoes. He then went to three other rooms and found a few bottles of water and some corn and cucumbers. After that, he returned to the 21st floor. When he reached the fire escape stairs, he cautiously peeked down. The wailing and roaring sounds from below had decreased significantly.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a grayish-black figure swept past him, and Ming immediately withdrew. Although he couldn't see which floor it was on, he was sure it was the same creature he had seen during Da Vinci's previous outing because he also saw a long tail.

A tail, so it should be an animal, right?

Mutated creatures include animals and plants.

Ming stood still, listening carefully to the sounds below.

Bang bang! Two muffled sounds, as if something was hitting a door. Judging by the volume, it should be between the 14th and 16th floors.

Boom!

A loud noise, as if a door had been broken open.

"Damn it! I'll fight you... Ahh!!"

"No... Ahh!!"

"Bring the gas canister! Lighter!!!"

"Damn it, let's die together!!"

"…"

Ming continued to listen, but the gas canister didn't explode. It seemed that the mutated creature didn't give the person a chance to die together.

After a while, the area quieted down. He carefully approached the stairs and looked down again. A grayish-black figure moved swiftly through the stairwell, disappearing towards the lower floors. Its body was long, and it made a somewhat hoarse hissing sound. Due to the commotion earlier, more zombies emerged from the lower floors of the fire escape stairs, their hee hee sounds echoing everywhere.

Ming carefully walked downstairs, reaching the 19th floor. According to Da Vinci's travel search information, there were no zombies on this floor. He continued to down.

18th floor, also no zombies.

17th floor, encountered a zombie without an arm in the elevator hall. Shot it in the head with one arrow.

He stopped at the stair platform between the 17th and 16th floors and didn't continue downwards.

At this moment, the fire escape stairs were crowded with several zombies, and more were constantly running up from the lower floors, attracted by the noise earlier.

Cheng! Ming aimed at the zombies congesting the stairs below and shot them one by one. He wanted to create a wall of corpses here to block the zombies rushing up from the lower floors. Although it could only delay them, he couldn't let them rush upstairs without any obstacles. However, it was clear that the grayish-black mutated creature had no interest in zombies. Even with their hee hee calls, the dark figure didn't appear.

Roar! The zombies continued to rush upstairs.

Ming retreated to the corner between the 17th and 18th-floor stairs and shot at the first zombie that rushed up.

Cheng! Triggering the knockback effect, the zombie in front was shot and sent flying, crashing into the zombies behind it and squashing them together.

Ming took a step forward and shot his crossbow, killing one zombie with each arrow. During the process, the knockback effect was triggered again, sending zombies that had just climbed over their fallen comrades flying once more. As he killed more zombies, a series of light pillars rose, mostly white ones. At the same time, a series of kill data floated through his mind.

He didn't pay attention to these but focused on hunting and cleaning up the zombies.

Cheng! After shooting the last crossbow bolt, Ming immediately picked up some of the cards on the ground while the zombies below hadn't swarmed up yet. He then rushed to the 18th floor. The zombies behind him were temporarily blocked by the corpse wall created earlier, and the fallen zombies were struggling and biting aimlessly, making it difficult for the others to advance smoothly.

Ming sat on the stairs of the 18th floor to rest, drank a bottle of water, and waited for his bolt quiver to replenish. The current rate of one bolt per minute was too slow. He needed to learn some close combat skills if he had the chance, otherwise, it would be difficult to continue in situations like this.

With the zombie wall blocking them, it would take the remaining zombies a few more minutes to get upstairs. Ming immediately checked the four white cards he had just collected.

First: [Novice Combat Boots]

Second: [Apocalypse Brand Toilet Paper]

Third: [Basic Treasure Map]

Fourth: [Quenched Long Spear]

"Quenched Long Spear?"

Ming put away the other three cards and kept the Quenched Long Spear:

[Quenched Long Spear Durability 100/100]

[Strength +2]

[Agility +1]

He tore the card, and a long spear appeared in his hand. The wooden spear shaft was about 1.6 meters long, wrapped with leather strips at the gripping area, and the spearhead was about 20 centimeters long, shaped like a triangular pyramid.

Ming stood up, gripped the spear with both hands and thrust it forward. He didn't know if it was because of his increased strength or if he had a talent for using spears, but his thrust was straight and steady, possibly due to his improved attributes and firmer grip.

By this time, the zombies below had crossed the corpse wall and were rushing upstairs. Ming stood on the platform between the 18th and 17th-floor stairs, holding his spear and waiting.

The first zombie crawled up the stairs and was stabbed in the head as soon as it appeared. Ming pulled back the spear and found that the thrust and retreat were surprisingly easy.

The second zombie came up, and its head was pierced through once again. As its body fell backward, it hit the third zombie. Ming pulled out his crossbow and aimed, shooting the third zombie's head and pinning it to the stairs. The combination of the spear and crossbow became increasingly smooth – long-range crossbow shots and close-range spear thrusts were a perfect match in this environment. In no time, the remaining dozen or so zombies were all turned into real corpses.

Ming walked downstairs with the spear in one hand and collected cards with the other. After collecting all the cards, he looked at the corpse wall in front of him and checked the time. The apocalypse trade event would start soon. He decided to go home first and not miss it. He would deal with the grayish-black figure after the trade was over.

When he returned to the 20th floor, he locked the door to the fire escape as usual. As he passed by his neighbor's door, he heard a crackling sound coming from the room.

"Huh?" Ming frowned and wondered how there could still be something in the room after he had checked all the rooms on this floor.

He quickly aimed his crossbow at the room and entered cautiously.