2026-08-23 12:29:25"Cough! Cough! Ugh... fuck, I almost drowned," Wu Chen groaned, coughing up the filthy sewer water that had filled his lungs.
He had washed up along the edge of a rocky canal that flowed directly into the Merchant District. His entire body was covered in dark blue-black bruises, his broken ribs shifting painfully every time he drew breath, while the remaining poison in his body caused his consciousness to constantly drift in and out. "B-Big Brother! Are you awake? You're not dead..." Xiao Yu's crying voice came from beside him. The little girl was soaked to the bone and trembling violently. With what little strength she had left, she had apparently managed to drag Wu Chen out of the rushing canal using a floating wooden merchant's board, placing him on the dry ground of an empty logistics dock. "Yeah, you're noisy, kid. Stop crying so much. You're making my head hurt even more," Wu Chen rasped, trying to sit up against a stack of wet cargo crates. He stared at his thin, trembling palm. "Fuck... Li Jian Nan's body really is a wreck after that fight with Lieutenant Zhao." "B-Big Brother... did we... did we make it through the iron gate?" Xiao Yu asked, staring around the dock with her eyes wide. "Yeah. We're in the Merchant District now," Wu Chen replied, squinting through the thick blur still lingering around the edges of his vision. However, the Merchant District before them was far from what Xiao Yu had imagined. The supposedly magnificent and secure district was now in complete chaos. Silk and spice shops that had once lined the dockside streets in neat rows had been reduced to wreckage. Their doors had been forcibly smashed open, and everything inside had been looted. Fragments of expensive porcelain littered the marble-paved streets, mixed with piles of wasted grain. "Why... why is it such a mess here too, Big Brother?" Xiao Yu whispered fearfully, edging closer to Wu Chen. "I thought this was where all the rich people lived safely..." Wu Chen gave a cynical laugh, immediately aggravating the unbearable pain in his broken ribs. "Safe, my ass, kid. Wherever fear takes hold, the rules disappear immediately. Even civilized rich people will turn into animals worse than the zombies outside when their lives are threatened. That's called the law of the jungle." Wu Chen's eyes swept across the chaotic streets. Instead of feeling afraid, his ruthless mafia instincts formed a faint smile behind his pale face. "But for me... an environment without laws like this is actually pretty welcoming," Wu Chen murmured, a wild glint returning to his clouded eyes. "This is an ownerless concrete jungle. It's exactly the kind of environment I knew in my old world. In a place like this, I can start building a new power base from scratch." Tap! Tap! Tap! Suddenly, hurried footsteps echoed from a passageway at the dockside intersection. "Hey! Search the eastern dock canal!" a hoarse voice shouted from a distance. "We just received a report that the canal water was violently disturbed! It must be a refugee rat from the Common's District who escaped through the waterways!" "Prepare your weapons! Anyone who looks dirty or suspicious, incapacitate them immediately!" another voice called out firmly. "Shit, a private patrol or an association's mercenaries," Wu Chen muttered, immediately shifting into a defensive stance. "We need to find somewhere safe to hide before they find us covered in blood and sewer filth." "B-Big Brother... my legs are weak... I can't run anymore," Xiao Yu whimpered, her body trembling violently from hypothermia after being submerged in the filthy water for so long. "Hold onto my shoulder, Xiao Yu. We have to move now!" Wu Chen ordered sharply. Supporting Xiao Yu with one arm, Wu Chen dragged his leaden legs forward. Every step sent waves of burning pain through his chest from his broken ribs. The fever coursing through his body continued to worsen, making his head throb violently. "System... how much time do I have left, damn it?" Wu Chen whispered hoarsely inside his mind. The System gave no audible response, but a blue holographic screen suddenly flickered violently before his increasingly blurred eyes. [SYSTEM WARNING: INFECTION SPREADING RAPIDLY TO THE MERIDIAN NUCLEUS.] [LIFESPAN COUNTDOWN ACTIVE...] Wu Chen continued forcing his body down the deserted dockside passage, searching for a large building with strong enough defenses to serve as a hiding place. But his footsteps suddenly stopped in front of a magnificent and expansive white marble building. Above its entrance hung a large sign made of sturdy oak, exquisitely carved and coated in gold: "Tingzhou Trade Association" Creeeak... The massive oak gate suddenly swung wide open from the inside before Wu Chen could turn away. Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! A dozen guards wearing thick black leather armor and steel breastplates rushed out, immediately surrounding Wu Chen and Xiao Yu in the middle of the street. Each of them held a long steel spear, its sharpened tip gleaming beneath the first rays of dawn. Shhk! The dozen steel spearheads were instantly aimed directly at Wu Chen's neck, stopping only a few millimeters from his filthy skin. "Stop! Don't move an inch!" the head guard barked in a thunderous voice, staring at Wu Chen with disgust. "Who are you?! You're filthy, you stink of sewage, and your body is covered in fresh bloody wounds! You must be plague-carrying wild refugees from the Common's District who managed to escape!" "Big Brother...!" Xiao Yu cried in fear, immediately curling up behind Wu Chen's legs and clinging tightly to him. Wu Chen stared coldly at the dozen spearheads aimed at his neck. He tried to raise his trembling right hand to show that he was unarmed, but at that exact moment, his System screen suddenly flashed bright red with an intense warning, covering his increasingly darkening field of vision. [SYSTEM: LIFESPAN REMAINING: 48 HOURS.] [WARNING: CRITICAL STAGE REACHED. FIND PURIFICATION INGREDIENTS IMMEDIATELY TO UNLOCK MERIDIAN OR FACE TERMINAL ROT.] "Shit..." Wu Chen whispered hoarsely, a cold, sarcastic smile curling across his lips as he faced the guards' spearheads. "My time... really is down to two days."
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Ch 84. The Undead King
The sight was enough to freeze the blood of anyone on the battlefield who still possessed a shred of sanity.Through the billowing dust and smoke left behind by the earlier explosion, Wei Kang strode forward with absolute arrogance. The First Mutant was no ordinary oversized zombie. He was the apocalypse given breath and flesh.Standing over five meters tall, he towered above the battlefield, blocking out the light of dawn. His entire body was covered in swollen, necrotic muscles as hard as solid steel, while clusters of dark purple meridian spikes protruded from his flesh, pulsing continuously as they radiated a poisonous aura.Every time his massive feet struck the ground, the earth before the South Gate of the Core City shook violently."Dear God... What kind of monster is that?" San whispered, his knees trembling so violently that he nearly dropped his machete. "Boss, that's no ordinary mutant! It's as tall as the gate walls!""Shut up, San! Keep a firm grip on your weapon!" Wu Ch
Ch 83. The Last Shield Wall
The blood-red dawn illuminated the endless sea of death stretching across Lantern Sector. Beneath the shadow of the Inner City's colossal steel Southern Gate, thousands of regular Tingzhao soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder in a tight phalanx formation. Together, they formed a massive wall of interlocking steel shields, with thousands of long spears jutting outward like a deadly forest of thorns.Atop an emergency command tower assembled from wooden beams and stone in the center of the formation, General Han Rui stood rigidly in his black armor, already soaked with dew and blood. His sharp eyes caught sight of the ragged troops emerging from the drainage trench on the left flank.The general gave Wu Chen a stiff nod. A silent acknowledgment of their tactical alliance.“We take the left flank!” Wu Chen roared, driving his wooden cane into the mud. “That area has the thinnest defenses! If the left flank breaks, Han Rui's shield formation will be rolled up from the side!”“Understood, B
Ch 82. The War Drums of Lantern Sector
Filthy dust rained down from the stone ceiling of the water prison, settling on the shoulders of refugees huddled together in terror.Thud. Thud. Thud.The sound was no ordinary earthquake. It was the synchronized march of tens of thousands of living dead advancing across the surface of Lantern Sector, directly above their heads. The vibrations were so powerful that puddles on the stone floor rippled violently, while the walls of the water prison groaned as though they were about to collapse.“An apocalypse... This is a goddamn apocalypse!” one of the clan's young men wailed, clutching his trembling head. “There’s no end to those monsters! The ceiling could cave in at any moment!”“Doctor, what are we supposed to do?! My baby won’t stop crying because of that noise!” a woman screamed, clutching her infant with a deathly pale face.Mass panic began spreading like a deadly poison throughout the underground stronghold. A dozen clan loyalists who had been standing at attention moments ear
Ch 81. The Giant Shadow Behind the Fog
The night sky above the Lantern Sector looked as though it were bleeding. Fiery red and sickly green light from the exploding lantern oil facility billowed high into the sky, driving back the thick storm clouds and casting a flickering glow across the muddy pools below.The tremors from the explosion had not yet fully subsided. The air still vibrated with residual force. But amid the swirling dust, an incredibly deep and deafening roar tore through the silence of the night.HRAAAAAAAAARRRGGGHHHH!The sound was nothing like a human or an ordinary zombie.Its frequency was ancient, savage, and filled with such overwhelming dominance that it seemed capable of paralyzing reason itself.Wu Chen, who had only just dragged himself out of the muddy lake, froze where he stood. His dragon cane slipped from his hand. His left hand clutched his chest, which was covered by mutated leather armor. His heart pounded wildly, sending sharp waves of pain through him as the remnants of the Primordial Ser
Ch 80. The Birth of the Monster King
“Cough! Cough! Gahk!”Murky lake water mixed with thick mud surged from Wu Chen’s throat. The former mafia king crawled with great difficulty through the icy shallows toward the shore. His trembling fingers clawed into the roots of dead mangrove trees, dragging his battered body out of the filthy water.His breathing came in harsh, ragged gasps, painfully loud in the middle of the night. His left leg, still stiff from the lingering paralysis, dragged helplessly through the mud.Behind him, Jiao, San, and three other clan loyalists crawled onto dry land. They coughed violently, vomiting up lake water and the remnants of the acidic gas they had inhaled. Their clothes were torn to shreds, their bodies covered in horrific burns and bruises.But they had made it out alive.“Boss... we made it, Boss,” Jiao groaned, collapsing onto his back in the wild grass, his chest heaving. Tears of relief streamed down his soot-streaked face. “We really made it out of hell.”Wu Chen did not answer. With
Ch 79. Escaping Through the Eye of a Needle
“Everyone, run for the drainage chute!”Wu Chen’s roar thundered through the facility, tearing through the shrill decompression alarms screaming throughout the steel corridors.The floor beneath their boots shook violently, as if struck by a tectonic earthquake. The reactor engines in the chamber behind them, already beginning to overload, sounded like metal being ripped apart by invisible blades. Blood-red emergency lights flashed aggressively, illuminating the absolute panic that had seized the hellish facility.Jiao, San, and the remaining clan loyalists stationed at the intersection immediately ran after Wu Chen. Their faces were deathly pale, covered in cold sweat and soot.“Boss! Is the reactor really about to blow?!” Jiao shouted between ragged breaths as he ran alongside Wu Chen.“We’ve got less than a minute before this place turns into an ash crater! Keep running. Nobody stops to catch their breath!” Wu Chen roared.The left side of his chest, now covered in mutated black ar
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