Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 627 Corpse Transformation
Just as Liu Meng had guessed, these primitive people who had been swept down soon stood up again... Not only that, but some extremely terrifying changes also occurred in their bodies.

The flesh torn and crushed by bullets mingled together, multiplying wildly like out-of-control cancer cells—after a headless corpse stood up, seemingly endless tissue gushed out from the severed neck. This tissue expanded rapidly, even enveloping the upper body of the deceased… In just a few seconds, the deceased had transformed into a huge ball of flesh with two legs.

The other corpse, its body severed in two, had countless tentacles extending from its upper and lower halves, reconnecting the broken torso. These tentacles then began to extend upwards and downwards, quickly forming a mass resembling a sea anemone. The body encased within these tentacles visibly shriveled up.

Even as a veteran who had experienced several real battles, Liu Meng couldn't help but gasp when he saw this bizarre scene. The two greenhorn recruits carrying the stretcher were already stunned, looking completely bewildered.

"Bullets won't kill them!" Liu Meng roared. "We need heavy firepower!"

However, the only weapons that could be considered heavy firepower on the entire convoy were a 12.7mm heavy machine gun mounted on the roof of the vehicle and the grenades carried by the soldiers. But because it was a patrol mission, the grenades carried by the soldiers were offensive fragmentation grenades with relatively small explosive charges and power, which could not possibly cause any effective damage to these monsters.

The patrol team's drone was originally equipped with a ground-attack bomb, but with the loss of contact with the squad leader, the drone has also disappeared.

"Old Lu! Retreat! Our weapons are useless!" Liu Meng shouted to the deputy platoon leader, who was slowly retreating along the top of the hill while firing.

"No! We have to hold these monsters off!" the deputy platoon leader shouted. "The battalion's reinforcements won't arrive for at least ten minutes. What if they rush into the village at the foot of the mountain if we run away?"

Liu Meng was taken aback, then gritted his teeth and said, "Damn it, you're right! I'll drag these monsters here even if it costs me my life!"

After saying that, he picked up his assault rifle and opened fire on the monsters on the hilltop.

Unfortunately, Liu Meng's accuracy was pitifully low in his current state. His closest shot was several meters away from the target, and only the flying rock fragments caused negligible damage to the monsters.

After a brief moment of confusion, the two recruits beside him reacted immediately—one soldier ran to the vehicle and pulled over the heavy machine gun on the roof, while the other soldier pulled out the ammunition boxes from the cargo compartment.

As soldiers in the garrison, even new recruits are elites selected from hundreds.

The roar of the vehicle-mounted heavy machine gun rang out, instantly splattering blood all over the monsters—a large caliber is still a large caliber after all. Even if it couldn't completely annihilate these monsters, the damage it inflicted was still real. For a time, the monsters were suppressed and forced to retreat step by step.

However, Liu Meng's expression did not relax at all. Although the vehicle-mounted heavy machine gun could effectively suppress the monsters, and there were several boxes of machine gun ammunition on the vehicle, they did not bring any spare barrels. Even if they used alternating long and short bursts to suppress the monsters, they could only fire one and a half boxes of ammunition before the barrels would overheat and deform and become unusable.

"Ask the battalion headquarters how long it will take for reinforcements?!" The deputy platoon leader had already run out of rifle bullets. He threw his rifle on the ground, drew his pistol, and slowly retreated down the hillside while firing.

"The battalion deputy commander is already on his way with the 2nd and 3rd companies! The 1st company has gone to the village to evacuate civilians! Reinforcements will arrive in five minutes at most! As for the drones, they'll be over our airspace in three minutes!" a communications soldier shouted. "Old Lu, you guys get down here quickly! The heavy machine gun can only hold you off for another ten seconds at most!" Liu Meng shouted to the deputy platoon leader, "Be careful not to get hit by the drone bombardment!"

"Understood!" The deputy platoon leader practically tumbled down the hillside, but just then, the group of strange creatures on the hilltop suddenly turned and ran off in the northeast direction.

“That’s not the direction of Kuqiao Village or the camp headquarters.” Liu Meng frowned slightly. “Strange…did they know our reinforcements were coming, so they ran away?”

"Who knows! Hiss—" The deputy platoon leader grimaced as he tied the tourniquet, glancing up at the group of strange creatures that had run off into the distance. "Have the support troops split into two groups. One group will chase after these strange creatures, and the other will search the mountain area... Regardless of whether the squad leader and the others are dead or alive, we at least have to find them, and also check the strange noises coming from inside the mountain..."

The deputy platoon leader suddenly stopped mid-sentence, his eyes wide as he stared at what was behind Liu Meng.

The soldier who had just rolled down the hillside with Liu Meng and tragically died was now getting up from the ground—although his head was still folded behind his shoulder at an odd angle, his body was staggering towards them step by step.

"Zombie transformation? The memes of these monsters can trigger zombie transformation!" The deputy platoon leader quickly realized what was happening, grabbed a rifle from a soldier next to him, and repeatedly pulled the trigger at the zombie soldier!
"Oh no!" Liu Meng seemed to remember something and slapped his thigh hard.

"What's wrong?" the deputy platoon leader asked hurriedly.

"The direction those strange creatures fled... that's a graveyard!" Liu Meng said.

"Isn't cremation the norm now? The ashes can't turn into corpses, can they?" the deputy platoon leader asked, bewildered.

“It’s an old cemetery, full of earthen burial graves, although it’s been there for many years…” Liu Meng murmured, “but I’m not sure… whether those bone fragments can still emerge from the ground.”

The zombie warrior fell again under the barrage of bullets, but his body was beginning to mutate. His limbs twitched and his waist and abdomen arched high, as if something was trying to tear his body open and crawl out.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!" The deputy platoon leader cursed three times in a row, then took a can of gasoline from the vehicle and poured it over the zombie warrior's head.

"Brother, may you rest in peace!" The deputy platoon leader took a deep breath, lit a lighter, and threw it away.

With a "boom," flames taller than a person instantly rose up on the body of the mutated corpse.

(End of this chapter)