Chapter 45
by LhaoziChapter 45: Mutated Zombie
“What?”
The moment Qin Xi spoke those words, Bai Hanyue and the other two were completely stunned, hardly able to believe their ears.
Just moments ago, over thirty zombies had swarmed up from the first floor!
Setting aside whether it was safe down there, even the standing floodwater itself—having soaked those zombies—was bound to be filthy enough!
Bai Hanyue was the first to speak up and dissuade her:
“But, Sister Xi, the water down there has zombies floating in it, and there might still be other zombies below that haven’t come up…”
Lin Xin listened and chimed in to persuade Qin Xi as well:
“Exactly, Sister Qin. Besides, if you go down, how are you going to hold your breath…”
At that point, he suddenly realized something. Looking first at Qin Xi and then at Qin Song, he asked tentatively:
“Do you guys… have scuba suits?”
Pretty sharp!
Qin Xi smiled upon hearing that. Looking at Lin Xin, she nodded, but what she said exceeded his expectations entirely:
“We have scuba suits, but I won’t be needing one either. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. You guys wait for me up here—I’ll definitely be back within twenty minutes. While you wait, collect all the crystal cores from the heads of these zombies.”
Hearing this, the group shifted their gazes to the pile of zombies on the floor. While their eyes lit up, their expressions also carried a hint of disgust.
Looking at Qin Xi, Bai Hanyue’s voice still held some concern:
“Then watch out for your safety.”
Qin Xi nodded, feeling a touch of warmth from the girl’s words.
Having one’s extended kindness returned with genuine goodwill was bound to make a person feel happy.
Lifting her feet, she stepped carefully down the stairs through the pile of corpses step by step.
Qin Song followed by her side with an impassive expression. The two walked down to the stairwell landing, seeing that the water level had receded significantly further.
When they had first entered the community hospital, the flood level was around the second-floor stairwell entrance; now it had dropped to the stairwell landing.
In fact, if they waited a bit longer, it would likely drop to the level of Qin Xi’s chest.
However, Qin Xi didn’t want to wait any longer.
She turned her head to cast a glance at Qin Song, then pulled a men’s scuba suit out from her spatial dimension, handing it to him:
“I’ll be back very soon. Since the system said it can block attacks, nothing will go wrong for sure.”
Listening to her comfort, Qin Song made no sound, taking the waterproof suit in silence.
Qin Xi turned around. Looking at the pitch-black water surface before her, where plenty of debris floated, she took a deep breath, activated the skill in her mind, and stepped straight into the water.
The instant she entered the water, she merely felt her body lighten for a brief second.
Before long, however, the sensation returned to normal.
The scene underwater was somewhat dim, yet clear enough to see.
Qin Xi walked forward two steps, making a wondrous discovery—sure enough, she could not only breathe, but her movements underwater were also extraordinarily effortless.
Her movements were smooth, no different from walking on dry land.
With that, she let her heart settle completely, then began taking in the layout of the first floor.
The first floor was almost identical to the second, except the rooms on both sides of the entrance had been converted into two glass service windows.
One side was the payment window, while the other was the pharmacy.
Directly facing the staircase was the main hospital entrance. Looking over now, the main entrance was indeed locked tight.
It seemed those zombies earlier had indeed run inside from outside when the outbreak erupted, only to mutate inside the hospital and infect others as well.
Qin Xi swept her gaze down the hallways to the left and right.
The corridors on both sides were pitch-black, offering only faint, blurry glimmers of light, with no moving entities in sight.
She let out a small sigh of relief, then walked up to the pharmacy entrance.
The door was locked shut with a padlock hanging from it.
Qin Xi reached out to fiddle with the lock. Looking at the somewhat old wooden door panel, she took a small step back, inhaled a breath, and brought her foot down hard in a fierce kick.
The loud thud wasn’t particularly distinct underwater, sounding somewhat muffled instead.
However, the door panel burst open in response.
Qin Xi stepped inside, then quickly pulled the door shut behind her.
The interior was also filled completely with standing floodwater.
The medicines were entirely soaked, with many even floating in the water. Had she not closed the door, they would have drifted straight out to the water surface outside.
Qin Xi surveyed the pharmacy, prioritizing the boxed medicines stacked behind the medicine racks that were unboxed but hadn’t been put on shelves yet, storing them away box by box.
Only then did she go on to clear out the items on the medicine racks.
The variety of medicines at a community hospital wasn’t comprehensive, but for everyday medical needs, it was more than sufficient.
Qin Xi also found plenty of traumatic injury sprays, safflower oil, along with rubbing alcohol and povidone-iodine.
Although these had been submerged in water, they were all sealed in airtight packaging, so their usability remained completely unaffected.
What proved difficult were the floating medicine boxes. Because they were too light, almost every time Qin Xi moved, they would be pushed away by the water ripples; reaching them was considerably harder.
Fortunately, there weren’t many floating around.
Furthermore, after being submerged for so long, most of the cardboard boxes were thoroughly soaked through and had settled at the bottom of the water.
She picked up quite a few more from the floor. Once she felt it was roughly enough, she turned around, intending to check out the other rooms.
Just as she opened the room door, a hand suddenly thrust out from near her feet, grabbing viciously at her calf.
Startled, Qin Xi hadn’t even reacted when—just as that hand was about to touch her—it was violently bounced back.
Qin Xi immediately swung the Standard Machete in her hand, bringing it down with force right onto the arm.
With a muffled crunch, the arm snapped into two pieces.
Only then did she see clearly that lying at her feet was actually a zombie with only an upper body left.
Likely because it could only crawl, it had been unable to climb the stairs.
Now, with one of its arms chopped off by Qin Xi, it could only lie flat on the floor, still trying to grab at Qin Xi with its other hand.
Yet every time it was about to touch Qin Xi, it was bounced back once more.
Without much hesitation, Qin Xi raised her blade to end its suffering.
Right at that moment, however, she suddenly noticed something wrong!
Black nails had grown out on the fingers of this zombie’s hand!
This was actually a mutated zombie!
A mutated zombie was one that underwent a secondary mutation on top of already being a zombie.
A universal feature of such zombies was growing sharp, black nails; their skin would become tougher and their bones harder, making them far harder to kill.
Most critically, this type of zombie would evolve special powers akin to supernatural abilities—such as corrosive or polluting destructive abilities.
Naturally, there was also a good aspect to these zombies.
That was, the crystal cores from such zombies were black, yet usable by supernatural ability users of all elements. Furthermore, the absorption efficiency was double, or even triple, that of single-element crystal cores!
For this reason, in the late post-apocalypse, many people even took extreme risks to actively hunt these mutated zombies, wanting to rely on those crystal cores to earn extra survival resources.
It had led to many losing their lives as a result.
What astonished Qin Xi, however, was that in her past life, such mutated zombies hadn’t appeared until two months after the apocalypse! How could one already exist right now?
She bent down, dug the zombie’s crystal core out, stored it into her spatial dimension, and continued checking the other rooms.
In her mind, however, she made a note that she needed to mention this to Qin Song so they could stay on guard!
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