Chapter 21 (1/2)

Translator: Atlas Studios

Editor: Atlas Studios

Crack!

The blade of the ax landed on the black corpse’s neck. The sound of bone cracking rang crisply in the deadly-silent forest.

However, the zombie seemed to not feel any pain. Tilting its head, it used its shoulder and face to trap the blade, preventing Li Ang from pulling it back.

Since he was unable to pull it back, Li Ang decided to let go of the ax handle and kicked the black corpse’s chest instead.

The black corpse had merely taken a few steps back when it had been shot by the shotgun previously. Li Ang’s kick only forced it to take half a step back.

Half a step was sufficient.

Using the recoil of the kick, Li Ang moved backward as he took a glass coke bottle out of his backpack.

The bottle did not contain coke but an extremely dense gasoline-based mixture. The mouth of the bottle was sealed shut with rubber, and two sealed glass straws filled with concentrated sulfuric acid were glued to its sides.

The coke bottle spun in the air, gliding in an arc until it collided with the black corpse’s forehead. Then, it exploded.

The average Molotov cocktail would explode if one lit a cloth soaked in flammable liquid on fire before tossing it.

On the other hand, the cocktail made by Li Ang made use of the force exerted on the concentrated sulfuric acid to induce an explosion through a chemical reaction. This method was much safer and did not require lighting a cloth on fire.

Glass shards flew everywhere. The concentrated sulfuric acid and the gasoline mixture splattered on the black corpse, exuding a piercing smell strong enough to cover the corpse’s smell.

The exothermic chemical reaction instantly lit up the gasoline mixture. Sparks and flames enveloped the zombie, transforming it into a human-shaped torch.

The light of the fire shot up into the sky, brightening the entire forest. Clueless insects were attracted by the light, flying and circling the human-shaped torch.

The clothes on the zombie were burned to ashes. Even the layer of black hair that could stop bullets shriveled amid the flames.

“Ahhh!”

The black corpse opened its mouth extremely wide and roared. The ax embedded in its neck fell to the ground.

Bang!

Li Ang pressed the shotgun’s trigger. Upon being shot by the steel ball bullets, the corpse convulsed on the ground as if struck by lightning.

Bang, bang, bang, bang!

The shotgun fired continuously, forcing the black corpse to move backward. Flammable liquid droplets slowly dripped onto the fallen leaves, leaving behind a burning trail.

The black hair layer was burned until it was around two centimeters long. Li Ang placed the last two magazines inside the barrel of the shotgun and took the electric pop riveter out of his backpack.

This industrial-grade pop riveter could run at a maximum of 2500 W and fire 45 steel nails per minute. These nails could pierce 10 to 20 mm of concrete wall or channel steel.

This flesh-made body was akin to frozen tofu in front of the pop riveter.

Ding, ding, ding.

Clear firing shots echoed in the dense forest. After shortening the black hair on the body, the long nails were pinned onto the black corpse’s forehead, eye sockets, nose bridge, lips, jaw and throat, piercing the skin and embedding themselves into the flesh.

A few moments later, the black corpse’s face was covered with steel nails. This hair-raising image was frightening enough to make anyone with trypophobia faint.

The steel nails were embedded into the black corpse’s brain, scrambling its rotten brain. Even so, it remained standing.

The layer of black hair on the zombie seemed to have a life of its own. It swiftly clumped together, twisting and coiling, forming a reticulate defense layer on the black corpse like a hauberk.

As this reticulate defense layer was formed, the hair, which was tinged with green, started to extract the remaining fluid from the black corpse. A layer of this fluid spread on the reticulate defense layer, filling the gaps in the net-like holes.

Since the flames inside did not have access to oxygen, they were quickly extinguished. The flames burning outside were blocked by the wet hair, becoming smaller until they were gradually extinguished as well.

This whole process occurred in the span of a few minutes. The extraction of the bodily fluid made the dry muscles and the flesh of the black corpse shrivel further. From afar, it looked like a zombified black monkey that was both skinny and weak.

The skinny, hunched black corpse stood there like a statue. Li Ang looked at it silently. As he slowly walked backward, his hands continued to change the steel nail chain on the pop riveter.

His vision suddenly blurred, for the black corpse’s speed had increased once again. In the blink of an eye, it had transcended several meters and arrived in front of Li Ang.

The sharp claws of the black corpse sliced down and Li Ang hastily retreated. However, he failed to fully evade the tip of the claws, which came into contact with the CQB bulletproof shirt.

The outer layer of the CQB bulletproof shirt was made out of soft puncture-resistant material made from strong polyethylene fibers. The strength of these fibers was 40% greater than that of the famous aramid fiber.

This soft puncture-resistant layer, which could withstand an adult man stabbing it thousands of times, could not hold its own against the black corpse’s fingernails. It was immediately shredded into pieces before shattering in the air.

The sharp claw continued to drag down.

Inside the CQB bulletproof shirt were a NIJIII-Grade SAPI bulletproof board and an OTV bulletproof vest made by America’s research institute.

This NIJIII-Grade SAPI bulletproof steel sheet weighed 1.8 kg and could block even the attack of a 7.62mm caliber bullet.

The sharp fingernails came into contact with the bulletproof steel sheet with an ear-piercing screech.

The modern industrially-produced steel sheet was reduced into ribbons by the sharp fingernails and split into two.