Chapter 87: Chapter 81: Welcome, New Member

Normally, it takes about ten to fifteen seconds to climb one floor, but now it takes a full minute!

This long duration is enough for everyone to recover their strength while climbing, making it feel less tiring.

“Old Tan, the occupancy rate in your complex isn’t high, is it?”

With a layout of three units per floor, Zhang Su noticed that almost every floor had vacant apartments, with some floors being completely empty, the protective film on the doors still intact.

Tan Huajun panted slowly and said, “My dad works as a security guard in the property management; he said the occupancy rate is less than half, but I’m not sure.”

Zhang Su nodded without asking further. Data would always look better than reality; if the data showed about half, the actual situation would probably be around one-third, which matched what he saw.

Heading all the way up to the nineteenth floor took nearly twenty minutes. Besides having to cross some obstacles, they didn’t encounter any surprises, but as everyone continued to step upwards, they noticed Zhang Su had stopped.

The group had developed a habit: whenever Zhang Su was cautious, there was bound to be a situation ahead!

Zhang Su gestured for the group not to follow, tiptoeing further to look up from the stairway corner. As expected, he discovered two zombies wandering outside the safety door.

From their appearance, one of the zombie’s necks was a bloody mess, evident of being bitten and infected, while the other seemed relatively intact.

“Two zombies! The usual method, lure them down. Old Tan, you’re in charge of taking out one of them!”

Zhang Su quietly returned to the nineteenth floor and told the others.

“Got it!”

Tan Huajun tightly gripped the calipers, which seemed to fit perfectly in her arms.

Zhang Su then said to Lu Yubo, “Bozai, make some noise to attract the zombies. They’re so clumsy on the stairs they just tumble down.”

“You can do that?”

Lu Yubo was completely taken aback, having never considered such a method to kill zombies.

Seeing Zhang Su nod, he eagerly ran to the corner and started coughing and stamping his feet.

Sure enough, the zombies swiftly turned their heads towards Lu Yubo, let out a weird shriek, and charged, predictably tumbling down the stairs with a series of thuds.

Thud.

The zombie rolled to the stair’s corner, hit heavily, and lay there howling but unable to get up. Pathetically, its arm bones broke during the fall, twisting at an unnatural angle.

Bang, bang!

Zhang Su smashed the zombie’s head on the top with a few blows, efficiently handling it without any unnecessary delay, then turned to look at Tan Huajun.

“I, I…”

Tan Huajun held the calipers upside down, studied it for a while, then raised them high, swinging towards the zombie!

Poof.

Perhaps due to nervousness, Tan Huajun used the wrong side of the calipers, attacking with the short measuring claws. The aim was accurate, but unfortunately, the claws were too short, only making a bloody hole in the zombie’s head without delivering a fatal blow, instead making its struggles wilder.

Howl, argh.

The zombie screeched continuously, trying to bite Tan Huajun, only to be met with a kick.

After kicking the zombie, Zhang Su encouraged Tan Huajun, “That’s great! Just like that, attack with the longer claws!”

Tan Huajun nodded earnestly, adjusted the calipers in her hand, and raised them high again.

“Hah!”

With a not-so-loud shout, the calipers came crashing down, the claws over ten centimeters long piercing through the zombie’s head directly, making its erratic limbs twitch like an electrocuted puppet before they went limp and still.

Zhang Su stroked his chin, contemplating as he watched the panting Tan Huajun, thinking her aim was a bit peculiar…

Saying she’s not skilled, yet she attacked accurately at the same spot twice in a row; saying she is, yet she held the calipers backward.

When he first killed a zombie, he made quite a few mistakes, often missing hits, and even now still occasionally slashes inaccurately. In contrast, Tan Huajun could jab a zombie dead through the eye socket with a steel bar, and now with calipers, her aim remains precise, quite impressive.

“Wh-what’s wrong?”

Tan Huajun, still shaken, noticed Zhang Su looking at her suspiciously.

Zhang Su shook his head, “You might look cooler with a different hairstyle.”

After saying something that puzzled everyone, Zhang Su instructed Zheng Xinyu to sort their gear while he continued scouting upstairs.

From the twentieth floor up to the twenty-third, they didn’t encounter any more zombies. The cold air was faintly filled with a putrid smell, and the eerie silence made one wonder if there were any living people left in the building.

On the twenty-third-floor hallway, the group gathered at the door of apartment 2302. Tan Huajun held a bunch of keys with trembling hands.

“I’m scared to open it.”

Tan Huajun tried several times but ultimately backed out.

“It’s so clean inside and out. I’m sure it’s better than you think!”

Zhang Su listened carefully, convinced there was no movement inside, meaning at least there were no zombies. Whether there were survivors required opening the door to confirm.

Hearing Zhang Su’s assessment, it was as if a weight lifted from Tan Huajun’s shoulders. She inserted the keys into the lock with a click.

“Hmm?”

As she turned the key, Tan Huajun was stunned to find the door was deadbolted?

Quickly regaining composure, she sped up her actions; after two turns, the lock clicked open, and as she pulled the door open, only silence and an empty living room greeted them.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep