Industrial Cthulhu doesn't believe in the end times.

Chapter 137 A Blessing for Victory

"Ding!"

Pei Che's blade was faster than his own reaction; before he could even see what it was, he swung it at the approaching black shadow.

The blade collided with his arm, but it felt like striking a stone, producing a crisp sound.

"What the hell? There has to be a mini-boss at the end of the level, right?"

Even Pei Che was startled by this sudden, deadly attack. Once his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he could see his opponent clearly.

It was a zombie with skin as blue-gray as iron, perhaps due to some rare superpower that made its skin extremely tough.

After several exchanges of blows, only a series of clanging sounds were heard, clearly indicating that conventional attacks were simply insufficient to break through the opponent's defenses.

"You're Astro Boy?" Pei Che said with a hint of heartache as he looked at the steel knife in his hand, which had already chipped at the blade.

In close combat, it was quite obvious that the mutated zombie's strength had reached the third tier.

For humans, the third tier means a significant boost to mental attributes. Zombies also receive some benefits in this regard, though not as noticeably, but they are still much more agile than before.

It's roughly equivalent to evolving from a single-celled organism to the level of a general animal. The attack mode is no longer a completely mindless charge, but has some tactics such as probing and ambushes. Although it is still very immature and clumsy, the level of danger has indeed increased a lot.

Of course, Pei Che was quite confident in a one-on-one fight against someone of the same level, not to mention he had teammates around him.

The girl behind Pei Che raised the modified crossbow in her hand, and a bolt, carrying tremendous force, passed by Pei Che's ear and headed straight for the zombie's face.

The zombie didn't dodge at all. With a "thud," the arrow pierced its flesh, only causing it to stagger. The zombie moved freely despite the short crossbow bolt, seemingly unaffected.

Within just a few steps, a single stumble gave his teammates room to react. Beside Pei Che, a tall man wielding a crowbar struck repeatedly, seizing control of the battle and steadily suppressing him.

Pei Che took a half step back, gathering his strength and fully mobilizing his abilities. He seized the opportunity and thrust the knife forward.

"Crack!"

With a screeching sound, the tip of the knife was slammed into the zombie's mouth. The steel blade rubbed against the zombie's teeth, even sparking.

The blade pierced through the back of the zombie's head, drawing a spurt of foul blood. This was a fatal blow, and the zombie immediately stopped moving and collapsed to the ground with a thud.

The little girl behind Pei Che clicked her tongue twice and giggled, "Wow, there's also Shen Hou..."

"You're quite ill too."

Pei Che rolled his eyes and tried to pull out the knife, but found that the blade seemed to be welded into the zombie's mouth, stuck and unable to move.

"How come this zombie is so tough? If we take its bones off, they could be used as new materials, right?"

“It’s probably ruined by now.” The teammate holding the crowbar handed over another one: “Use mine, I think this crowbar is better.”

"Okay, I'll return it to you when I get back."

A level-three zombie fell to the ground in the blink of an eye thanks to the coordinated efforts of the group, but they were far from happy.

The presence of zombies behind the locked door speaks volumes.

"Let's look around... just in case."

Ruan Mingyue and her team cleared out the surrounding zombies and, after confirming there was no threat, entered the room. One of the team members found a relatively clean spot, bent down, and listened for a moment with his ear pressed to the ground. He then stood up silently without saying anything.

The granary was quite large, with many facilities and rooms. The group searched it one by one and dealt with a few more zombies, but the miracle they had hoped for did not occur.

"Old Pei!"

Just as everyone was about to give up, someone suddenly shouted, "They're here!"

Pei Che quickly went over, and the other teammates who hadn't noticed also gathered around.

"What did you find...? What's wrong? Are you alright?"

The first teammate to speak was the girl holding the crossbow. Her face was gloomy, and her eyes were red and tears were welling up.

"See for yourselves."

She said something and stepped aside. Pei Che and the others looked into the room behind her. The floor was soaked in blood, but there was no trace of a corpse. On the wall, there were two lines of words written in blood.

"Our regimental headquarters has only fifteen men left, and we are now trapped in this encirclement. We have run out of ammunition and water."

"We are now determined to put up a final resistance, to fight to the death, and we wish for victory."

Even in such an environment, the handwriting was very neat. Seeing the words, one could imagine that the person who wrote them must have been a serious, meticulous, and cultured individual.

Upon seeing these two sentences, the team members fell silent. Pei Che suddenly opened his mouth and took a few breaths, feeling a little short of breath.

Were we too late after all?
"This was expected. Let's go, we still have to go to the armory, there's a better chance there are people there."

As someone said this, Pei Che nodded, and just as he was about to turn around, he suddenly added, "Let's take a picture of this wall. The blessing of victory has to be carried out by someone."

Thanks to the surge in production capacity before the apocalypse, film cameras were not uncommon in the shelter, and some of them carried them with them. After taking the photos, the group formed a battle formation again and walked out of the granary one by one.

The armory was a bit far from here, and the squad felt somewhat tense on their way.

"Hey guys, what's wrong with Fatty? Were we really letting him run away on his own?"

Suddenly, Pei Che blurted out this sentence.

"Do you think everyone is like you?"

"It's probably been attacked by zombies."

"So you're all just making fun of each other, huh? Let me make some fun of you too..."

The teammates chatted amongst themselves, their expressions remaining largely unchanged, but their steps became somewhat lighter.

Ruan Mingyue turned her head and secretly gave Pei Che a thumbs up.

Teams like theirs are always active in the most dangerous places. If they don't have a mentally resilient, almost neurotic, mentality, then it's only a matter of time before they are defeated in such a disaster.

There were zombies blocking their way, but they were dealt with relatively smoothly. After all, everyone was careful and cautious, and they did not cause a large-scale zombie horde. Soon, they saw the armory in the distance.

Similar to the previous grain depot, the gate here was also tightly closed. The difference was that this was a fortress-like building. The gate was sturdy and heavy, splattered with blood, and there were even scratch marks on the steel door.

There seemed to be more zombies around, but most of them were wandering aimlessly in a certain area. The zombie lord had already left the place, and there was no trace of high-level zombies among the horde.

The silent fortress did not respond to the arrival of the group.

"Can anyone really survive in a place like this?"

"Whether it's true or not, we're here now."

Pei Che stared intently at the gate: "We should take a look first before making a decision."

(End of this chapter)