Chapter 195: Chapter 193: City of Fog
(Chapter 176 has finally been unbanned. It wasn’t easy...)
~
Shen Feng opened his eyes to a white ceiling and the sound of pattering rain.
Though the eye of the typhoon had passed, the wind and rain hadn’t stopped, though it was much lighter than before.
He got up and looked out the window. It was already dawn; though the sky outside was still overcast, it was clearly daytime.
He stretched and felt completely refreshed. His spent stamina and energy had been fully restored.
With the epidemic stabilized and the typhoon gone, it seemed the worst was over.
If he could just find the source of the outbreak—Celestial Divine Biomedical Corporation—then perhaps a vaccine for the Evil Spirit Virus could be developed.
After all, they should have extensive data on the virus.
The only thing that worried Shen Feng was that black-hole-like consciousness.
’What was that, anyway?’
’Could it be the Whisperer’s true form? But it didn’t seem quite right...’
’But it was just a projection, after all. Its real body obviously isn’t in this world, so there’s nothing to worry about.’
The aroma of fried eggs, ham, and pan-fried dumplings wafted over. Jingwei had finished making breakfast and brought it to him.
"Shen Feng, after a full night of research, everyone has reached a unanimous conclusion. The residue in the bottles you brought back still isn’t the original virus sample. If we want to develop a vaccine or a cure for the Evil Spirit Virus, we have to get our hands on the original sample, or a blood sample from a mutated Immune."
Shen Feng nodded.
A mutated Immune was someone naturally resistant to the Evil Spirit Virus.
However, in an environment like the Tokyo Epidemic Zone, being infected and turning into a zombie was arguably a blessing. Any true Immune would simply face the tragic fate of being eaten alive, which made them incredibly difficult to find.
Comparatively, obtaining the original virus sample and research data from Celestial Divine Biomedical Corporation was the most direct path.
Shen Feng then quickly washed up, sat at the table, and began to eat.
The Celestial Divine Association was located deep within the epidemic zone; he had to be in peak condition to face the dangers ahead.
Fifteen minutes later, Shen Feng walked out of the hospital, carrying the brain of a heavily infected individual.
His mimicked form was still that of a tall, thin Japanese man wearing a pair of glasses.
Outside the hospital, the zombies tethered by metal chains began to roar the moment they saw Shen Feng appear.
The severed arm dangling from the pole was right before their eyes. They had struggled all night to get it, only for some random zombie to wander by and gnaw it clean right in front of them.
Though the eight zombies had lost most of their reason and human consciousness, the incident had left them utterly furious. When Shen Feng appeared, they all pointed at the metal pole and roared indistinctly:
"...Meat...stolen..."
"...Eat...want eat..."
"...So hungry...want...meat..."
They looked just like pets raised by Shen Feng, complaining to their master that someone had stolen their food.
Shen Feng couldn’t help but frown.
’Who the fuck ate my arm?’
’How am I supposed to get moving now?’
Just then, the roar of an engine echoed from the street corner. A Toyota sedan came speeding around it at over a hundred kilometers per hour, a dozen or so sprinting zombies hot on its tail!
The moment the Toyota turned onto the street, one of its tires blew out. It instantly skidded, flipped, and rolled several times before crashing into a row of metal racks on the roadside.
The zombies swarmed the wreck!
Shen Feng sprinted forward. A small Gray Tide surged behind him, instantly forming dozens of sharp spikes. The spikes shot out, precisely piercing through the zombies’ eye sockets and exiting the back of their skulls.
With the zombies dispatched, Shen Feng peered into the car.
Inside was a young man in glasses. He had clearly been hiding out at home and tried to use the post-typhoon chaos to escape Tokyo by car. In his panicked flight, he’d attracted zombies and crashed.
A piece of the metal rack had smashed through the window and impaled his chest. Blood streamed from his mouth, and his forearm was nearly severed, hanging on by just a shred of flesh. He was clearly done for.
Shen Feng clicked his tongue. With a look of pity, he leaned into the car and said:
"Rest easy, friend. I’ll just be borrowing this arm."
With that, he tore off the nearly-severed arm.
He turned to leave. He had only taken a few steps when, just seconds later, the young man’s corpse began to tremble. It suddenly raised its head, a bizarre smile on its face, and stared at the severed arm in Shen Feng’s hand.
"Meat... Eat meat... Smells so good... Can I please have that to eat? Eat, eat, eat, eat, eat..."
Clearly, the man in glasses had been infected before he died. After a brief moment of brain death, the virus seized control of his body, and his transformation into a zombie was complete.
The only thing that attracted him now was fresh human flesh, even if that arm had been attached to his own body moments before.
Shen Feng immediately lowered his head and sniffed the severed arm, then let out a long sigh of relief.
’Good. It still smells like fresh meat.’
’It’s a good thing I acted quickly and grabbed this arm. Otherwise, who knows where I’d have found more bait.’
Ignoring the newly turned zombie in the car, Shen Feng walked up to the eight chained zombies. He waved the severed arm at them, immediately inciting a frenzy of roars and commotion.
The zombies were utterly famished. At the sight of the arm, they looked ready to tear free from their chains and charge.
Under the influence of the Evil Spirit Virus, their metabolism was extremely high, fueling their immense strength and superhuman speed.
But this came at a price.
Without fresh flesh to consume, their powerful metabolisms had begun to break down their own fat and muscle.
In just one night, the zombies had been reduced to skin and bones, looking utterly emaciated.
And yet, their explosive strength seemed to have paradoxically increased.
Shen Feng, of course, couldn’t care less whether the zombies lived or died. In fact, he was quite satisfied with their condition. He nodded, hung the severed arm on the metal pole, and mounted his bicycle again.
He suddenly released the "reins" and shouted:
"Hya!"
The word was barely out of his mouth when the eight zombies shot forward like wild horses breaking their tethers, lunging for the severed arm on the pole.
CLANG! With a sharp metallic ring, the chains around their necks pulled taut, launching Shen Feng and his bicycle forward like an Arrow from a bow!
Using the metal pole as a steering wheel, Shen Feng constantly adjusted his direction, heading swiftly toward the core of Tokyo.
With the zombie brain constantly stimulated to emit a magnetic field, he could now perfectly conceal his presence.
While yesterday’s torrential storm had put immense pressure on the defense lines, it had also washed the epidemic zone clean of any traces of human activity.
Perhaps because most of the zombies had followed the fleeing refugees, the streets of Tokyo were not teeming with the undead.
Some of the zombies that had been searching for fresh humans had, due to the loss of intelligence from their mutating brains, lapsed into a dazed and bewildered state.
As Shen Feng sped by, he saw many zombies simply pacing back and forth, like anxious middle-aged men.
The zombies that still retained some intelligence were busy searching shops and residences for new sources of food.
Meanwhile, in some deeply flooded sections of road, many zombies were pulling drowned refugees from the water and devouring them while they were still warm. They would even exchange what sounded like pseudo-polite, deferential phrases with one another, making for an exceptionally bizarre scene.
"Hungry..."
Aside from roaring, this was the word they uttered most.
The whole scene was like an absurd vision of Hell.
Many other zombies seemed to catch the scent of fresh flesh. As Shen Feng passed, they "activated," turning and sprinting toward the severed arm hanging in front of his eight-zombie-drawn ride.
By the time Shen Feng entered the core of Tokyo, dozens of zombies were trailing behind his bicycle.
He could already see the spire of the Tokyo Tower ahead; his destination wasn’t far.
Tokyo Tower is a landmark building in Tokyo, located in Shiba Park, Minato-ku, Tokyo. It stands 332.6 meters tall and was modeled after the Eiffel Tower in Paris, with construction completed on October 14, 1958.
Besides its primary function of transmitting television, radio, and other broadcast signals, Tokyo Tower also sends stop signals for JR trains during major earthquakes and serves as an aviation beacon and a site for measuring wind speed, direction, and temperature.
It possessed powerful signal-broadcasting capabilities.
The moment he saw Tokyo Tower, Shen Feng was struck by the feeling of being watched, as if he had just entered a bizarre magnetic field.
All along the street ahead, the wandering zombies suddenly stopped in their tracks. They stood frozen for a moment, then bizarrely turned their heads in unison to look at Shen Feng.
But just a second later, they all reverted to their previous state and resumed their aimless wandering.
His expression grim, Shen Feng continued onward. Just then, a cloud of yellow mist drifted toward him from the end of the street.
The dense fog billowed forward like a tidal wave, quickly consuming half the street and threatening to envelop him.
The zombies enveloped by the yellow fog immediately ceased all movement, standing stock-still like wooden posts.
Shen Feng’s brow furrowed. He decisively abandoned the bicycle and dashed toward a nearby skyscraper. The Nanomechanical Cluster surged across his body, forming tentacles that pierced the building’s facade. Like a Spider, they propelled him rapidly up the exterior wall.
Soon, he had climbed dozens of meters. Looking down, he saw the yellow fog had completely submerged the street below and was continuing to spread outward.
The eight zombies that had been pulling his bicycle were in the middle of fighting over the severed arm. But once the yellow fog enveloped them, it was as if someone had hit a pause button; they all stopped moving and stood there dumbly.
After a few more minutes, the zombies standing frozen in place suddenly widened their eyes. A thick, yellow fluid began to stream from their eyes and ears. Then, they opened their mouths wide and spewed out plumes of yellow fog!