novelbin Chapter 2 Controlling Zombies
Chapter 2 Controlling Zombies
Lu Chen arrived at the door, stepped onto a stool, and climbed over the top of the iron cage, landing gently.
He pressed his ear against the door and held his breath.
He had confirmed it yesterday; there were two zombies wandering in the corridor. But that was yesterday; everything changes every day in this apocalypse.
"I hope the number hasn't increased!" he prayed in his heart, the ideal situation being that there was only one left.
Slow footsteps and the occasional gurgling sounds from zombies could be heard in the corridor.
The sound of shoes dragging across the floor tiles was intermittent and rhythmic, and Lu Chen listened to it for a full quarter of an hour.
"There should still be two," he concluded.
They move alternately, one near and one far.
He did not act immediately, but continued to wait for the right opportunity.
As the footsteps drew closer again, Lu Chen immediately jumped out and stood on the stool.
He quickly checked the tools in his hands: scissors in his right hand and an iron rod in his left.
He took a deep breath, extended the iron bar through the gap in the iron cage, aimed it at the door handle, and pressed it down hard.
The door opened silently through a crack.
Immediately afterwards, he gently rubbed the iron railing beside him with the iron rod, producing a faint metallic scraping sound.
The voice was very soft, but he knew that zombies' hearing was much more acute than it was in life.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
The footsteps outside the door suddenly changed rhythm, and the zombie heard them.
boom!
A figure burst through the door and rushed in, crashing into the iron cage with undiminished momentum.
The security bars emitted a piercing metallic twisting sound, the cloth strips and knots were stretched to their limit, the entire cage shook violently, and the supports at the four corners slid a few centimeters on the ground.
But it managed to hold on and didn't fall apart.
The zombie went completely berserk the moment it saw a living person, roaring and desperately ramming into the iron cage.
At that force, the cage wouldn't last ten seconds.
But that was enough for Lu Chen.
He immediately stretched out his stick and, through the iron cage, forcefully pushed the door shut to prevent another zombie from rushing in.
At the same time, the scissors in his right hand were already attached to the nylon rope of the hanging wardrobe.
At that moment, he was indeed nervous. His heart was pounding like a drum, his palms were sweaty, and the scissor handles were slipping in his hands.
Fortunately, he had practiced this movement dozens of times in the past two days, and it had become ingrained in his muscle memory.
Even though she was quite nervous, her fingers still managed to complete the movement.
The rope was cut.
boom--
The solid wood wardrobe crashed down vertically, landing squarely on the zombie, which was then crushed face down.
But before Lu Chen could even get excited, he saw the wardrobe start to shake.
The zombie struggled violently with astonishing strength, and the wardrobe was lifted up little by little.
This wardrobe, along with the quilts and clothes inside, weighs at least 200 pounds.
Normal humans couldn't lift it at all when it was pinned down, clearly indicating that after just three days of evolution, the zombie's strength had surpassed that of an ordinary adult.
Fortunately, Lu Chen was well prepared.
He turned around and picked up the suitcase that had been placed beside him beforehand. It was filled with books and weighed forty or fifty pounds. He pressed it down on the wardrobe, pushing the gap it had created back in half.
The zombie's struggles lessened, but it was still moving.
Lu Chen didn't stop. He rushed into the kitchen, carrying a five-liter bottle of water in each hand, and stacked the two bottles on the wardrobe.
This time, the wardrobe finally sank completely, pinning the zombie down.
boom! boom! boom!
There was a banging sound coming from outside the door.
This series of actions caused quite a commotion, attracting another zombie in the corridor.
Lu Chen glanced back and saw that the sound was just an ordinary zombie, not the robust monster he had seen that morning. His stainless steel security door could still hold up.
He turned his attention back to the present.
There was a gap between the floor and the wardrobe. Lu Chen squatted down and reached his hand inside.
He deliberately avoided the zombie's head and upper body, because if he were bitten or scratched, he would be finished.
He chose the waist, lifted the other person's clothes, and touched the skin with his fingers. The skin felt cold, much lower than the normal body temperature.
The moment they made contact, he activated his supernatural power.
Lu Chen could clearly sense that power surging from deep within his body, passing through his arm and fingertips, and entering the zombie.
Once inside, the supernatural power began to converge on the zombie's head on its own, seemingly invading its brain.
One second, two seconds, three seconds—each second felt incredibly long.
By the 5th second, whether it was an illusion or not, the zombie's struggles seemed to have slowed down significantly.
At the 8th second, it stopped completely.
As soon as the 10th second passed, Lu Chen felt a special connection being established between himself and the zombie in front of him.
It was an invisible passage through which he could sense the presence of zombies and send them commands.
"Shut up," he gave his first command.
The zombie, which had been unconsciously making hoarse noises, shut its mouth tightly after the command was given.
Lu Chen couldn't help but clench his fist.
He succeeded! He did indeed control a zombie.
He immediately took down the bucket and suitcase from the wardrobe, and then ordered the zombies to cooperate with him to lift the wardrobe back up little by little.
Only then did he have the mind to examine the zombies in front of him.
The other person was muscular and wore a faded gray short-sleeved shirt and dark blue shorts.
Lu Chen thought about it carefully. He realized the person wasn't a resident on their floor, but he had occasionally seen him in the elevator on his way to and from get off work. Square face, thick eyebrows—if he remembered correctly, the person worked on a construction site and shared an apartment upstairs with several coworkers.
"No wonder he's so strong. He was already physically strong in life, but he's become even more terrifying after turning into a zombie."
These were disadvantages before they were controlled, but now they are clearly advantages.
"However, you're injured. I wonder if it will affect your combat strength." Lu Chen made the other person stop and carefully examined the wounds on his body.
The wardrobe hit his head when it fell, and blood was seeping from the left side of his forehead. If it were a normal person, it would be at least a concussion.
In addition, there were abrasions on the elbows and knees, with the knees being the most severely affected, where some of the flesh was torn open.
But as he examined it, he noticed that the blood at the edge of the wound was congealing, and if he looked closely, he could see the flesh wriggling in extremely subtle ways, as it was repairing itself.
"Is this the regenerative ability of zombies? It's terrifying!"
Lu Chen's feelings were mixed; he didn't know whether to be sad or happy.
Perhaps because he stopped making any noise, the zombies outside the door stopped after banging on the door for a while, but they didn't leave and lingered at the door.
Lu Chen ignored it and began testing his superpowers to see how far he could control the zombies.
After some initial exploration, he gained a clearer understanding of his superpowers.
First, controlling zombies requires consuming superpowers, but once you have complete control, you no longer need to consume them.
Secondly, there's a limit to the number of zombies he can control; based on his current power level, he can probably only control around 10. Of course, this number will increase as his power strengthens.
Finally, control is divided into two types: simple control and possession control.
Simple control is what he does now: he simply issues commands, and the zombies will carry them out.
The downside is that ordinary zombies have very low intelligence and cannot understand even slightly complex commands.
As for possession control, it involves completely shifting one's perspective onto a zombie and thoroughly controlling its every move.
There are two disadvantages to doing this: First, after possession, the original body cannot move.
Secondly, it will continuously consume supernatural energy at a considerable rate; he estimates it will only last for half an hour at most before running out.
In addition, there should be distance limitations, but these cannot be measured at the moment.
"Only ten can be controlled? That's a bit few!" Lu Chen rubbed his chin.
Although it is already very strong compared to other superpowers.
However, the reality is still quite different from his expectations of using this superpower to rule the world in the apocalypse.
"Wait a minute!" He suddenly realized something.
He immediately ran into the kitchen, took out a cleaver, and placed it in the zombie's hand.
His gray-white fingers came together one by one, gripping the knife handle tightly.
Lu Chen took a step back and examined the zombie in front of him: a robust physique, superhuman strength, a self-repairing body, and a sharp knife.
"With the physique of a zombie combined with human weaponry, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that one could take on ten!"