Chapter 122

Chapter 122

"..."

"Thud! Thud! Thud!"

"Clang—"

"Boom—"

Whether it was the zombie with arms transformed into weapons or the bulked-up, bare-fisted zombie, their impacts against the ironclad barrier erected by Zhao Lei produced metallic clashing sounds.

The one with the swollen body had clearly reached the highest tier of physical enhancement—ironhide durability. Against ordinary weapons, it would be totally bulletproof.

"So strong!"

Zhao Lei reinforced the metal plate with densely packed spikes, barely blocking the attack before being forced back by the recoil. The confined space made it difficult for their powers to go all out.

"Be careful."

After Liao Yu's warning, he placed his hand on the nearby wall and activated his superpower, coating the surface and the ground ahead with a layer of ice.

With so many zombies, freezing them entirely was impossible, so he instead erected layered ice walls. Combined with Jiang Nian's Purify ability, this slowed the zombies' charge and mitigated their brute-force charges.

Underground, they couldn’t afford recklessness—zombies were bad enough—a cave-in would be worse. Otherwise, they wouldn’t need to be so careful.

Once Liao Yu's ice walls were up, Zhao Lei temporarily retreated. Jiang Nian's Purify Superpower fanned out in a controlled arc, while Huang Qian swiftly lashed vines around the zombies.

Cheng Jing's Thunder Fire followed precisely, searing their bodies but nowhere else.

One side of the corridor led to the pharmacy storage, while the other had rickety, half-collapsed railings—letting the flames spread in either direction would’ve been a disaster.

Even so, the two juggernaut zombies pressed forward, their bodies blazing with Thunder Fire. The flames spread to other zombies upon contact, filling the corridor with blistering heat and screams of agony.

Liao Yu's ice walls creaked under the pressure with sinister cracks.

"Bang—"

Finally, the swollen Superpower Zombie's legs burned through, causing it to slip and collapse on the ice.

Jiang Nian's earlier interruption of the ability had prevented them from regaining peak condition, so even their ironhide durability couldn’t withstand Cheng Jing's Thunder Fire for long.

With the behemoth zombie down, the ones behind crashed into each other in a tangled heap.

Cheng Jing carefully controlled the flames and temperature, while Liao Yu raised ice walls to prevent the fire from spreading into the pharmacy or letting burning zombies break in.

Huang Qian retracted her vines, joining Zhao Lei and Lu Ningzhou in ensuring the surroundings didn’t collapse.

Gradually, the zombies' roars weakened, leaving the floor littered with shattered core fragments and ashes.

The heat and stench were overwhelming, and the burning risked oxygen depletion. Jiang Nian used his Purify Superpower while checking an oxygen detector.

Fortunately, just as the safety indicator neared the red line, the large-scale mass zombie barbecue ended. After dealing with the two troublesome ones, the rest were easily dispatched.

Overall, the danger level wasn’t excessively high—just cramped due to the limited space.

With a "ding," the female zombie's crystal core was sterilized. Once Jiang Nian confirmed the area was safe, he hurried over, while Liao Yu quickly flash-froze it separately.

Jiang Nian turned around and gave him a thumbs up before picking it up—it was a diamond-shaped transparent crystal filled with tiny pores, a Superpower Core crystal.

Apart from those pores, nothing stood out about this Medium Crystal Core at first glance.

Jiang Nian studied it briefly before turning to Cheng Jing:

"Brother Jing, mind if I hold onto this core?"

"Sure."

Cheng Jing nodded. He was pumped too, but the priority right now was searching the pharmacy storage and getting topside as soon as possible.

Everything else could wait.

Aside from the female zombie's core, only the two boosted Superpower Zombies had left intact cores—the rest had turned into fragments.

The quality of the cores obtained this time was exceptionally high, though the haul was small.

*Bang—*

*Brrrt-brrrt—*

Just then, muffled gunfire reached them from above ground.

Everyone snapped their heads up, but by the time they listened carefully, it had already stopped.

After a while, scattered gunfire popped off again—likely from someone encountering wandering zombies.

Cheng Jing checked his walkie-talkie, but unfortunately, there was no signal.

From then on, gunfire popped up here and there.

"Let's move faster."

After Zhao Lei spoke, the team split into groups to search the medicine storage rooms.

This floor had ten storage rooms in total—five for Western medicine and five for traditional Chinese medicine, including pre-made Chinese remedies.

Good news: No one had been here since the earthquake caused the building to sink.

Bad news: The storage rooms appeared to still be under renovation, and supplies were thinner than in a typical hospital.

Additionally, the zombies that had gathered here had caused severe damage, especially in the Chinese herbal medicine storage.

After enduring extreme cold, snowmelt, and being sealed underground, almost everything had moldered, spoiled, or gotten contaminated—except for a few vacuum-sealed items.

Upon entering the storage rooms, the air reeked of rotting zombies mixed with medicinal herbs.

In comparison, Western medicines mostly had packaging, so they held up better.

Of course, despite the damage, it was still a storage facility, so they still scored decent supplies compared to other places.

In the end, the team collected about fifty-odd boxes of medicine in various sizes, mostly Western medicine.

Jiang Nian used his Superpower to Purify any possible zombie virus taint.

As for the dirty outer packaging, there was no time to clean it now—they simply bagged everything in burlap and stashed them in ring space.

For this trip, Jiang Nian and Cheng Jing had freed up nearly a full ring space in advance.

They distributed some of their original supplies between the shop and their teammates' living quarters, and with the temporary help of Yang Kai and Zhou Li, a small underground storage room was set up in the inner district for additional storage.

Working with people they knew ensured high confidentiality and safety.

With the ring space and the remaining space in the vehicles, they'd be happy if they could fill all available space.

"..."

After searching the warehouses on the 2nd floor, Zhao Lei and Lu Ningzhou inspected the stairway leading to the lower level, only to find it completely collapsed, making descent impossible.

Jiang Nian completely gave up on his curiosity about exploring further.

"Brother Nian, if you want to go down and take a look, we can try using our abilities," Lu Ningzhou suggested, and Zhao Lei also nodded in agreement.

But Jiang Nian decisively refused:

"No need, don’t waste your abilities. It’s a cold storage area, and after all this time, it’s basically useless. Besides, the collapse might have completely connected it to the basement morgue or something. Clearing it would just cause problems."

If it was on their way, they could take a look, but going out of their way wasn’t worth it. The planned objectives had already been achieved, and they even gained unexpected finds—there was no need for unnecessary risks.

Cheng Jing nodded in agreement and signaled the command:

"Fall in. After a quick resupply, we head up."

He then checked the time—over six hours had passed since they entered the hospital.

While they were tense, they hadn’t felt hungry, but now that they had relaxed slightly, their stomachs began protesting. After all, their work was both mentally and physically exhausting.

This wasn’t the place for leisurely meals, so everyone quickly ate concentrated energy bars, compressed biscuits, and some specialty drinks.

After swiftly replenishing their energy, it was just past 3 p.m.

The group began ascending, planning to return to the surface by around 5 p.m.—two hours should be enough.