This time I chose Paladin.

Chapter 54 All tactics changer
Many times, when people talk about the end of the world, they think of zombies.

This may be due to the influence of some literary and entertainment works, or it may be because humans are very clear that as long as people and the collective are still there, even if the existing social order collapses, reconstruction is only a matter of time.

But what if the crowd itself could turn into the enemy, what if the enemy people face was just an ordinary person some time ago, a person like themselves, or an acquaintance, or even worse, a... relative or friend?
Someone who gave birth to me, nurtured me? Someone who raised me? Someone who guided me forward? Someone who shared my joys and sorrows? Someone with whom I shared a spiritual connection?
If they become monsters like that, and come near you...

How many people can harden their hearts immediately and completely separate that familiar face from the past?

Now, people on Earth are beginning to face this problem.

This wasn't without warning. For three months, zombies had been a constant challenge for humanity, and some had even been studying the differences between the zombies of the New World and those of Earth. However, there were too few zombies in the New World, and people currently lacked the means to conduct in-depth testing. They could only confirm that these zombies were corpses controlled by a parasite. Their bodies, identical to those of Earthlings, were penetrated, prodded, and pulled by the parasite, and even occasionally exhibited strange symptoms on their surfaces, much like... a snail infested with a Diplococephalus parasite.

But before the people from Earth came here, it seemed that there had been no intelligent creatures in the new world for a long time. Most of the animals in nature had mutated. This mutation flowed through the genes, making it increasingly difficult to hunt animals and leaving the zombies with very little nutrients to consume.

First the zombie's own flesh and internal organs, then the nerves, and finally the parasite itself... The long shrinkage was forcibly slowed down by some force, but it still continued all the time.

Therefore, the threat people have faced from zombies has not been that great: they are slow in movement, weak in strength, dull in perception, and their balance is very easily broken... Even children aged seven or eight can work in groups of two or three and use some techniques to hunt zombies.

But now, all that has changed.

The first is quantity.

An endless stream of zombies crawled out from beneath the ruins of every former human settlement, even though they had never existed there before.

Then there was the power and the speed—these things got their nourishment from nowhere, their muscles replenished, their nerves nourished, and when they suddenly attacked and grabbed a target, their sharp, dirty nails tried to break through the defenses and pierce the skin.

Finally, it is contagious.

The earth rolled over and spit out these monsters that were once humans. When they emerged from the ground and crawled up, they bit the nearest person.

There are dense black threads wriggling in their mouths. Those are the zombie parasites 'black threads' - they are extremely fragile and will die if they are hit by anything. In a normal natural environment, they can only survive for 5 to 10 seconds. But if they are allowed to burrow into human flesh alive, that person will be finished.

Some variants of zombies even have the ability to throw or launch parasites...

"Focus fire on that [nest]!" a battlefield commander shouted.

In the distance, a huge, fat zombie was moving slowly, but the circles of grayish-white flesh that looked like tires were not filled with fat, but fleshy insect nests growing all over its body.

Groups of "black lines" were wriggling in the insect nest, some even just under a thin layer of oily skin, pushing the cortex to pass through.

【[Line Nest]-
Matrix Creation. -
Releases [Black Line] when attacking.

Purpose: To infect organisms
-
I don't know how it moves, but it's coming.

At this moment, 'Xingchao' vomited out a ball of tangled black lines from its mouth. It swung its arms twice and threw the black line ball towards the crowd!

A dense stream of curses echoed through the crowd, and everyone was desperately trying to escape. This wasn't a matter of everyone fleeing in the face of imminent disaster, or even simply dying. No one wanted to be parasitized, especially in such a disgusting way. Even so, many were entangled by the black thread. A few were lucky enough to shake it off immediately, but many more screamed in agony, their health bars beginning to be covered in a strange, oily black thread.

The next moment, a group of young men rushed out from behind the crowd, shouting "Get out of the way!", each carrying a can of grease and a can of water on their backs, and holding spray guns of various shapes in their hands. The next moment they turned the switch, a raging fire spurted forward!

'call----'

The raging fire steamed the heavy rain into hot mist. The high temperature and flames came into contact with each other, turning the black lines into ashes.

This was the Lang City fire department, playing with water as well as fire. In the previous battle against the first wave of monsters, they hadn't shown much combat effectiveness due to the rain. After all, their fire spray would be quickly extinguished by the rain, and their water spray would simply merge with the water.

But now, even if the fire is extinguished by the rain, they are still the most suitable combat class to deal with 'black lines'! That's the value of a basic attack with a cleave!

However, this level of flame cannot solve everything. Even when the flame tail passes through the nest, its thin layer of oil skin will instantly break.

The next moment, the huge internal pressure was released, and a waterfall of black lines gushed out like a fountain bomb!

Faced with such a horrific scene, the sweat and rain of the fire brigade almost merged into one. They solved these black lines in a well-trained manner, spraying fire at the insects just like they had sprayed water at fire.

But the land turned over again...

"There's something underground!" a firefighter shouted.

"The fuel is coming!!!" A high-pitched and penetrating voice came from a distance.

That's Yunni.

The voice that could make Nie Weiyang shout across the night wind and the forest was indeed powerful. Her voice was heard clearly by everyone in the area, and they realized that the second batch of fuel allocated by Xiang Feng had arrived.

Yunni ran incredibly fast. Her leg was still bandaged, and a look of pain occasionally crossed her face as she ran, but her pace never faltered. "Pour out all the fuel!" she shouted. "There's something in the ground. Quickly move the supplies and prepare to burn the ground and get out of the city! Let's go to the nearby areas that have just been burned!"

In the city, talented individuals like Dr. Gong Yunfei, a doctor of agronomy, rushed into the greenhouse with their men and began to salvage their research results—thankfully, they had backpacks to back them up, so at least they didn't have to carry the sacks themselves out of the city. Meanwhile, the other residents of Langcheng, suppressing their grief, spread fuel everywhere.

People who suddenly lost their homes, and who had spent three months trying to rebuild new ones with their own hands, only to have them completely burned down...

Damn it, this time all the tactics have changed, but it’s my own home that’s been changed.

All this happened at a rapid pace. Xiang Feng was so anxious that he used his hands to chop the shells of the giant nail corpses on the city wall, but he could no longer fight in person because he was the military commander here, and also because, from now on, the new world would test people's collective ability to withstand pressure countless times.

Speaking of pressure...

Xiang Feng turned back and saw that the terrifying figure outside the city had already passed through some of the intact areas of the minefield without stepping on any mines. Administrator No. 2 was approaching Zhen Jiankang, and the glowing crystal lit up. The latter's three teammates had been recalled by Xiang Feng and assigned to different locations. Among them, the assassin was reluctant to stay too far away from Sun Desheng, seemingly harboring a fondness for him, so he sent the two of them to the hospital together...

Now, the World Boss is just outside the city walls, but everyone in the city must leave as soon as possible.

'Rumble...'

A bulge began to form on the ground in the city center square, as if something was about to emerge from the ground.

'boom! '

A streak of light flashed from the glowing crystal, then vanished in an instant. Administrator No. 2 didn't stop. Even amidst the gazes and avoidances of the crowd, he slowly walked into the city.

——He should be able to launch an attack from a farther distance, he just... joins in the fun again!
In such a chaotic time!
Xiang Feng suddenly closed his eyes. He felt that his hair was falling out every moment.

Do you regret leaving Zhen Jiankang behind in order to catch the hidden clue, which gave the other party the opportunity to muddy the waters?
There was no point in considering these things. He only hoped that the Second Administrator didn't have the mechanism of 'taking out his anger'.

　This volume will end soon.

　　The character design of the second administrator was not drawn, but an illustration was made directly. The partial draft was put in the easter egg of the chapter about hitting a car.

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　　I'm sorry that some details in these two chapters were not explained clearly!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)