Two Worlds in the Apocalypse: Each journey through the modern world lasts 60 seconds.

Chapter 161 Standoff

Xu Mo's triangular dagger pierced the last ordinary zombie that pounced on him. He habitually swung his knife to prepare for the next wave of attack, but then he froze.

The space in front of me is empty.

It's not the kind of emptiness where all the zombies have been wiped out, but rather the kind of emptiness where zombies should have rushed up, but didn't.

A dozen meters ahead, at least thirty or forty zombies were huddled together. Their mouths were open, revealing rotten gums and broken fangs, and they were making low growls, but they did not charge.

Xu Mo subconsciously glanced to his left and right. The same situation was observed: the zombies maintained a distance of two or three meters, surrounding him, Luo Li, and Tian Tian. They bared their teeth, adopting attack postures, but never took that final step.

Xu Mo's grip on the triangular dagger tightened slightly, a subtle unease rising from the depths of his heart. The relentless battles just now had become a muscle memory for him—zombies charged, he thrust, zombies fell, and then the next wave would come. It was a mechanical, repetitive, almost instinctive rhythm of killing.

Now, that rhythm suddenly stopped. It was like throwing a punch with all your might, only to hit empty air. That feeling of "having strength but nowhere to use it" was even more unbearable than facing a horde of zombies.

Xu Mo took a deep breath, forcing himself to break free from the inertia of killing. His gaze swept over the surrounding zombies, quickly analyzing the situation before him.

There were at least a hundred of these zombies, mostly ordinary zombies, with a few Level 1 mutants mixed in. With his current strength, he could easily deal with them if they really charged at him, but they didn't.

Xu Mo subconsciously turned around and looked at Luo Li.

Luo Li's face was still pale, but the weariness in her eyes had been replaced by a solemn vigilance. She held Tian Tian's hand tightly, and that invisible mental fluctuation continued to spread.

"Is that you?" Xu Mo asked.

What he meant was: Did you seize control of these zombies just a moment ago?

But as soon as the words left his mouth, Xu Mo knew his guess was wrong. If Luo Li were controlling them, these zombies wouldn't be baring their teeth at them. Even when Luo Li was just driving them away, the zombies obeyed her commands. The way these zombies were behaving clearly indicated they were acting as an enemy.

Luo Li shook her head.

"It wasn't me."

Her voice was soft, but clear.

Xu Mo frowned slightly, his gaze unconsciously falling on Tian Tian. The little girl was still closely following Luo Li, her blood-red eyes staring blankly ahead. Xu Mo stared at her for two seconds, but Tian Tian didn't react at all, not even glancing at him.

If it wasn't her, then there's only one possibility left.

Xu Mo looked back at the howling zombies around him, his eyes gradually turning cold.

It was the being that could control level three naturally evolved zombies, and it was watching the three of them through the eyes of these zombies.

Xu Mo's pupils contracted slightly.

What is it waiting for?

"Can you sense the other person?" Xu Mo asked, his voice very low.

"able."

Luo Li's voice carried a hint of solemnity, as well as an emotion that Xu Mo couldn't quite decipher.

"Very close."

Xu Mo's heart raced slightly, and he became extremely alert.

How close is "very close"?

Xu Mo didn't ask aloud, but instead gripped the triangular dagger in his hand and listened intently, trying to discern any unusual sounds from the roars of the surrounding zombies.

But there was nothing there, only the howls of the zombies rising and falling, like some kind of eerie background noise.

Xu Mo's left hand twitched slightly; it was Luo Li's hand. Her hand was cold and trembling slightly, and Xu Mo gently tightened his grip, giving her a silent signal.

"Strong one from afar, you have proven your strength. I acknowledge you. You may leave now."

17

The sound suddenly came from deep within the ruins ahead.

It wasn't a roar, nor was it a mental fluctuation; it was a genuine male voice, deep, hoarse, with a strange tone, like the awkwardness of someone who hadn't spoken to anyone in a long time.

"Um?"

Xu Mo let out a short, soft hum, then turned to look at Luo Li with a strange expression.

Luo Li's expression was equally complex, a subtle, indescribable light flashing in her weary eyes. She had clearly heard those words too, and had also discerned a key phrase within them.

A powerful figure from afar.

Xu Mo had heard those words from Luo Li before. Just yesterday evening, in that desolate open space far from Luochuan City, Luo Li, holding a black umbrella, uttered those first words to him.

Now, these words are spoken again by another "person".

This subtle repetition gave Xu Mo an inexplicable sense of unease. It was as if these two people were using the same opening lines, the same formula?

Xu Mo shook his head, banishing the absurd thought from his mind. He looked again at the shadowy ruins ahead, took a deep breath, and said, "Come out and talk."

His voice wasn't loud, but it was clear enough.

"I don't feel safe when I can't see anyone."

There was silence for a few seconds deep within the ruins.

Then the male voice rang out again, this time with a strange undertone.

"The weapon on your back can threaten me, so I dare not come out."

Xu Mo's eyes narrowed slightly.

He subconsciously tightened the straps of the Barrett rifle on his back. That thing knew of the Barrett's existence, knew that this gun could threaten it. What did that mean? It meant that it had been observing him all along, from the moment Xu Mo entered Luochuan City, from the moment Xu Mo used the Barrett to kill the first scaled beast.

It knew the power of that gun, and it was also afraid of it.

Xu Mo's lips curled into a slight smile. Fear is good; it means he can kill.

"Then you're letting me leave?" Xu Mo asked. "If I leave, will you continue to cower here?"

Silence fell once more deep within the ruins.

"I never intended to fight you," the man said, a hint of grievance in his voice. "You've been the one killing my men."

Xu Mo frowned.

He didn't intend to fight?

Who the hell is surrounding me on the outskirts of Luochuan City? Who sent wave after wave of level-three zombies to their deaths? Who made these zombies surround me now?

"Are you human, or what?" Xu Mo asked the most crucial question directly.

The silence in the depths of the ruins lasted even longer.

Then the voice rang out, its tone carrying an indescribable complexity: "I don't know either."

Xu Mo frowned even more as he looked at Luo Li again.

Luo Li's eyes flickered, but she didn't speak. However, Xu Mo sensed a certain resonance, or rather, a certain understanding, in her eyes.

She said something similar.

He was "once" a superhuman, but after eating a large amount of mutated creature flesh, he became deformed and is unsure whether he can still be considered human.

Now, this thing hiding in the ruins also says "I don't know".

Xu Mo took a deep breath, temporarily suppressing the chaotic thoughts in his mind. He needed information, he needed to figure out exactly what this thing entrenched in the eastern district of Luochuan City was.

"How did you find me?" he asked. "How did you know where I was?"

This time, the male voice answered very quickly.

"You killed my offspring the day you arrived."

Xu Mo's pupils contracted slightly as he recalled how he had dealt with a zombie that was hiding and observing him when he first arrived in Luochuan City.

"I sent my men to take revenge when it was raining, but they were killed by you."

"That scaled beast?" Xu Mo asked.

"Yes," the male voice replied, "It was raised by me in a special way, so you could say it's my offspring."

"You killed that one too," the man continued, a hint of admiration in his voice. "I thought to myself, 'You're amazing.'"

"Then I thought, since I can't kill you, I might as well turn you into my subordinate." The male voice continued, "Your body is very strong. If I can train you to be my offspring, you will definitely be stronger than that scaled beast."

Xu Mo's eyes turned cold.

"So you started to surround and ambush me?"

"Yes." The man admitted it readily. "I had birds watching you, and zombies surrounding you, trying to corner you before making my move. And then—"

It paused.

"As a result, you slaughtered your way through, wiping out all my level 3 and level 2 soldiers."

Upon hearing this, a thought suddenly flashed through Xu Mo's mind.

Birds?

He looked up at the sky. Above him was a hazy gray sky, with a few black dots occasionally flitting by—these were mutated birds. They circled in the air, looking down at the ruins.

Xu Mo's heart sank slightly. No wonder.

No wonder that thing knew his every move, no wonder it always managed to send out zombies to intercept him just when he was about to break through. It wasn't because of the spies Luo Li sensed, but because of the birds in the sky.

From the very beginning, every step he took was being watched by eyes in the sky. From his reconnaissance outside Luochuan City, to killing the scaled beast in the rainy night, to abandoning his car and walking on foot, to meeting Luo Li, to fighting his way through the eastern district, those eyes in the sky were watching him the whole time.

Xu Mo took a deep breath, suppressing the complex emotions in his heart.

"Since you can control birds, why don't you use them to attack me?" he asked.

The male voice was silent for a second.

"They're not very obedient," it said with a hint of helplessness. "I can only let them see, let them relay messages to me, and let them attack things they don't want to."

Xu Mo was stunned for a moment, then realized what he meant.

The mutated bird flock has its own social structure and its own leader. This two-headed, four-armed creature can control zombies, but it can't control birds; at most, it can only use their eyes.

"Alright," Xu Mo interrupted, "Come out here, let's talk face to face."

The man immediately became alert.

"The weapon on your back—"

"I know," Xu Mo said. "I'm putting it down now."

He released Luo Li's hand, and to Luo Li's surprise, unfastened the Barrett rifle from his back, bent down, and placed the gun on the ground beside his feet.

It's not thrown far, but placed right at my feet where I can reach it with a lunge.

Xu Mo straightened up and looked at the shadow in front of him.

"I've shown my sincerity," he said. "Can you come out now?"

There was a full ten seconds of silence deep within the ruins.

Then, a rustling sound came from behind.

Xu Mo's hand unconsciously tightened around the triangular dagger, his gaze fixed on the direction from which the voice came. Then, the owner of the male voice walked out.

Xu Mo's first reaction was no wonder. No wonder Luo Li said, "It looks like a zombie, but it moves like a human."

No wonder it didn't dare to come out; no wonder it was afraid of Barrett.

It was a "person," a person with two heads and four arms.

It was about 1.8 meters tall, but above its shoulders were two heads, one on the left and one on the right. The head on the left was human, with a well-defined face and regular features, looking to be about thirty years old. If it weren't for the eerie blankness in its eyes, Xu Mo would have thought it was an ordinary middle-aged man.

The right side of his head was that of a zombie, with rotting skin, exposed gums, murky eyes, and dark brown liquid dripping from the corner of his mouth. It was the head of a typical mutated zombie, but those eyes gleamed with a kind of intelligence that ordinary zombies would never possess.

Four arms extended from its shoulders, two to the left and two to the right, hanging naturally at its sides. The arms looked human, but the skin was covered with fine black lines, like some kind of eerie network of blood vessels.

It was wearing tattered clothes, or rather, a piece of fabric scavenged from who-knows-where, barely enough to cover its body. On its exposed skin, one could vaguely see some strange marks, like wounds or some kind of tattoo.

Xu Mo looked at it, and it looked at Xu Mo.

The feeling of being stared at by four eyes at the same time, the sense of being watched by two different consciousnesses simultaneously, intensified Xu Mo's sense of unease.

Then Xu Mo's gaze unconsciously turned to Luo Li, who was also looking at the thing, but the light in her eyes was too complex to decipher.

A thought popped into Xu Mo's mind: no wonder Luo Li's abilities couldn't compare to itss; it had two heads, one human and one zombie. Two heads meant two consciousnesses, which meant two sets of mental power. Luo Li only had one, and even with Tian Tian's amplification, she could only barely contend with it.

If we only consider the total amount of spiritual power, this two-headed, four-armed creature might have twice or even more than Luo Li.

"What are you looking at?" the thing asked.

The sound was coming from the human head; the zombie's head was just open, emitting a low hissing sound, like some kind of background noise.

"It's nothing," Xu Mo said, withdrawing his gaze. "Let's talk."

The thing hesitated for a moment, then took two steps forward and stopped about ten meters away from Xu Mo. This distance was neither too close nor too far, enough for it to react if Xu Mo suddenly launched an attack.

"What are you going to talk about?" he asked.

"How did you become like this?" Xu Mo asked directly.

The two heads of that thing were silent for a few seconds. The human head frowned, while the zombie head let out a low growl, as if expressing some emotion.

Then the human head spoke: "I don't know."

"have no idea?"

Xu Mo frowned. When he woke up?

"You were originally human?" Xu Mo asked.

The other party was silent for a moment.

"I think so." Its voice became somewhat ethereal. "I remember some things vaguely, like a dream. Someone was calling me, but I can't remember the specifics."

Xu Mo didn't speak, but listened quietly.

"Then I discovered I could control them," the thing continued. "Not all of them, but most of them obeyed me. So I lived here with them."

Xu Mo's gaze swept back and forth between the two heads.

A human head, a zombie head. Two consciousnesses coexisting in one body—what is this? Is it a special form that evolved after humans were infected? Or is it a mutation that occurred after zombies evolved to a certain stage?

He recalled the materials about the apocalypse in the Jiangcheng Library, but none of them mentioned anything like this.

"Why did you attack me?" Xu Mo asked the most crucial question.

The thing's two heads were staring at him at the same time.

"You attacked my offspring first." Its voice carried a hint of righteous indignation. "You killed it, so of course I have to take revenge."

Xu Mo's brows furrowed even more.

"And what about you?" The other person suddenly looked at Luo Li. "Why did you attack me?"

Luo Li's body stiffened slightly.

"You stormed my settlement." Her voice was hoarse but clear. "You brought zombies and tried to enter our home."

The thing paused for a moment, and the zombie's head tilted slightly.

"I just saw people like me over there." There was a hint of confusion in its voice. "I thought they were one of my kind, so I went to check it out. My men followed me, and I didn't let them attack anyone."

It paused.

"The results haven't arrived yet, and you've already called."

Xu Mo fell silent after hearing this.

He looked at Luo Li.

The light in Luo Li's eyes was so complex it was hard to decipher. She didn't speak, but simply bit her lip tightly.

Xu Mo suddenly felt a sense of absurdity. What was this all about?

This two-headed, four-armed creature saw "people like itself" in the western district of Luochuan City (presumably referring to Luo Li's mutated state) and assumed they were of the same kind, so it wanted to go and take a look. But before it could even make contact, Luo Li made the first move.

Or rather, the zombies controlled by Luo Li clashed with this guy's subordinates, and the war escalated until now.

Xu Mo took a deep breath, suppressing the sense of absurdity in his heart.

"So," Xu Mo began, his voice tinged with an indescribable emotion, "you fought for so long, lost so many men, and I fought my way here only to find that 99% of them..."

Xu Mo paused at this point.

"Is it a misunderstanding?"

The other's two heads looked at him simultaneously. The human head blinked, while the zombie head opened its mouth and hissed.

"You killed my offspring," it emphasized.

"You're surrounding me," Xu Mo said.

"You killed him first."

"You sent the Scaled Beast to kill me."

"That's revenge."

Xu Mo fell silent, realizing he couldn't refute it.

Logically speaking, he did kill the other party's offspring first. Then the other party sent a scaled beast to seek revenge, but he killed it instead. Then the other party started to surround him, trying to turn him into their subordinate.

Xu Mo turned to look at Luo Li, who kept her head down and didn't say anything.

The zombies around were still howling, but their voices had become much quieter, as if they were waiting for their master's command.

Xu Mo suddenly felt a strong sense of powerlessness, not because he was tired, but because of the absurdity.

In the apocalypse, two people, each leading their own army of zombies, fought to the death. But in the end, they discovered that their initial conflict stemmed from a misunderstanding.

Xu Mo shook his head and tucked the triangular dagger back into his waistband.

"Alright."

Luo Li and the person opposite her both looked at Xu Mo, seemingly waiting for his next words.

Xu Mo looked at him, then at Luo Li, and finally at the densely packed zombies around them.

"What do we do now?"

Xu Mo was having a headache. He desperately hoped that the person opposite him hadn't said anything and had attacked him right away, so that he could save himself a lot of trouble.

Now, the other party is trying to reason with him, even claiming that he killed the other party's offspring first, so he's here for revenge. This makes Xu Mo feel somewhat guilty, putting him in a difficult position.