Chapter 444 - Releasing the Zombies

After replicating Fawkings’ abilities and factoring in his God equipment, Han Wu had reached his peak strength in this place. The magnetic force field worked seamlessly with his God equipment’s defensive force field, rendering him almost invincible. Bullets and explosions no longer affected him.

Moreover, he could manipulate magnetic forces to weaponize the surrounding metal, conserving both energy and stamina. Meanwhile, Hyper-Regeneration acted as a safety net in case he was ever injured; though so far, nothing had managed to harm him.

In the control room, Zweisteine was losing his composure. If even the strongest fighter had failed, who else could possibly stop Han Wu?

“All ability users, attack! Whoever kills the intruder will become the base’s strongest fighter!” he bellowed through the broadcast system.

A reward was all it took to stir the desperate into action. Many ability users were fired up and ready to fight. In a world ravaged by the zombie apocalypse, power was nearly impossible to attain. However, they now had a chance to seize it by killing Han Wu. Following the route Zweisteine had laid out, the ability users positioned themselves to launch an ambush.

Zweisteine planned to overwhelm Han Wu through sheer numbers. Normally, Han Wu would’ve been cautious, but after replicating Fawkings’ abilities, he saw no need to hold back. He pressed forward, ignoring every trap and ambush that lay ahead.

He controlled countless tiny but sharp metallic shards to orbit around him. With a little force, the shards accelerated into a metallic tornado that protected him and shredded anyone who dared attack. Agonized screams echoed for an instant before being silenced by the metallic tornado.

For the first time, fear gripped Zweisteine as Han Wu left a trail of destruction in his wake. The strongest ability user, Fawkings, had already fallen. Now, even if all the ability users joined forces, none could bring Han Wu down.

Zweisteine was down to his last option. He glanced at the camera feed in the corner of the large screen, which showed a laboratory. Inside were nearly two dozen zombies that he had ordered captured alive. He had conducted countless experiments on them, infecting each with a virus of higher purity. Their strength had increased dramatically, and they were much more powerful compared to the mutated zombies roaming in the wild.

Even Fawkings, who once sparred with these mutated zombies, had warned Zweisteine never to relax that laboratory’s security. If they ever broke free, then Tanuki Town would be completely destroyed.

Zweisteine looked at the few remaining ability users still alive and knew that he had run out of options. Without hesitation, he pressed the button. The vats in the laboratory hissed open, releasing a flood of fluid dense with sedatives. One by one, the mutated zombies opened their eyes, and an eerie aura filled the room.

Even Zweisteine wasn’t sure whether he had done the right thing, but he had no choice. Stopping Han Wu was all that mattered now.

There were twenty-three mutated zombies in total. Twenty of them had received a higher-purity strain of the virus, which granted them the strength of Rank 4 ability users at the cost of their intelligence, making them dumb killing machines. The remaining three were as powerful as the Rank 5 Fawkings. They had awakened their special abilities and retained the intelligence of ordinary humans.

As the mutated zombies awoke, fragments of memories flickered through their minds, driving them into a frenzy. Overwhelmed by the flood of information, they yearned for human flesh to ease their madness.

Zweisteine quickly opened a passage leading toward Han Wu’s position. As expected, the noise of the metal doors drew the zombies from the laboratory. Sweat beaded on Zweisteine’s forehead as he had been worried that they would not take the bait, but to his relief, everything went according to plan.

He opened the doors one after another, guiding the twenty-three powerful mutated zombies until they came face to face with Han Wu. The moment they saw a living human, they went berserk and lunged at him, each desperate to be the first to taste human blood.

Han Wu took one look at them and waved his arm. The metallic tornado surrounding him intensified as the shrapnel, drawn by his magnetic control, spun into a deadly vortex. The mutated zombies leading the charge were shredded into minced flesh, leaving only their crystals scattered on the ground as evidence that they had ever existed.

Upon realizing how strong Han Wu was, the zombies in the rear stopped. Then they spread out and circled him in search of an opening in the metallic tornado.

Among them was a mutated zombie with a mid-range ability. It raised its claws and aimed at Han Wu. In the next instant, its claws extended more than ten meters, striking straight into Han Wu’s force field. Feeling the resistance, the mutated zombie poured more power into its claws.

Han Wu was also busy blocking the claws. The combined power of his magnetic force field and his defensive God equipment stopped the claws just ten centimeters away from him.

Han Wu looked at the mutated zombie mockingly, then drew the longsword he had taken from Fawkings and slashed at its claws.

With a sharp crack, the metal-hard claws split cleanly in two. The mutated zombie howled, enraged by the loss of its weapons, and lunged at Han Wu to tear him apart and devour him.

Though he seemed to handle the fight with ease, Han Wu was actually vigilant. He had only slain five mutated zombies so far, and eighteen still remained. He worried that he couldn’t defend against all their attacks at once, so he decided to thin their numbers. He took out his 4-Star God Flying Arrow and controlled it with his mind.

The Flying Arrow weaved past the mutated zombies with ease. Some fell instantly when the arrow penetrated their skulls, while others deflected the strikes with their hardened bodies.

Han Wu conserved his energy, shifting targets whenever the arrow failed to kill. In rapid succession, he eliminated fourteen of the eighteen mutated zombies. Of the last four, three were as strong as Fawkings, and the fourth rivaled a Rank 4 ability user with metallic skin.

Surprisingly, they showed almost human expressions of shock, fear, and doubt at the sight of their fallen kin.

Han Wu retrieved his Flying Arrow and switched to close-combat armor. With his longsword of unknown material in one hand and his greatsword in the other, he approached the four mutated zombies.

The zombies instinctively retreated.

In the control room, Zweisteine had been watching closely. He quickly sealed the doors behind the mutated zombies, trapping them inside and forcing them to fight Han Wu.

The mutated zombies let out guttural snarls, their ugly faces contorted in rage and frustration. With no way out, they had no choice but to fight.