The whole nation is trying to survive on the cable car; I'm choosing one of three options at ea

The zombie struggled to pull itself out, but the mud seemed alive, crawling up its calves and dissolving flesh to reveal bare white bones. The zombie let out a muffled roar before being swallowed by the mud.

A few seconds later, the silt dispersed, leaving only a skeleton riddled with corrosion.

Su Mu's pupils contracted slightly.

【Corrosive Sludge (Lv5)】

[Race: Elemental Creature]

【property:???】

He had never seen this kind of monster before.

No, it's not just this kind of silt.

On the trees lining both sides of the street hung a plant he had never seen before. The branches of those plants drooped down like willow branches, but at the end of each branch grew a fleshy "flower bud" the size of a fist. The surface of the flower bud was covered with fine veins, pulsating slightly like blood vessels.

The remains of a two-headed ogre hung on one of the trees. The branches were wrapped around the remains, and the "buds" at the ends were stuck into the flesh of the remains, sucking something in with each thud.

【Corpse-Eating Vine (Lv6)】

[Race: Plant]

【property:???】

Su Mu shifted his gaze from the strange plants to the distance along the street.

In the very center of the crossroads, three goblins rode on the backs of a creature he had never seen before. The creature resembled a wolf, but was much larger, covered in dark green scales, with long limbs and claws deeply embedded in the cracks in the pavement. Its eyes were a ghastly white, without pupils, and its mouth stretched to its ears, revealing rows of fine, sharp teeth.

The goblins riding on their mounts wore simple leather armor, held spears and short bows, and emitted sharp, almost communicative cries. They paused at the crossroads for a few seconds, then spurred their horses to gallop to the other side of the street, the sound of hooves echoing through the empty street.

【Scaled Beast (Lv6)】

[Race: Mutant Beast]

【property:???】

Goblin cavalry.

Su Mu's brows were furrowed tightly.

The monsters in this dark zone were not only two or three levels higher than those outside, but also completely different in type. Outside, he mostly encountered zombies, giants, and corrupted creatures; although there were mutated beasts, their numbers were few. Here, almost every monster was one he had never seen before.

It's eerie. And dangerous.

Su Mu did not rush to delve deeper.

He stopped in front of a building, leaned against the wall, and maximized the detection range of his area awareness. A blurry map appeared in his mind, marking the distribution and movement patterns of the surrounding monsters.

He needs to choose a path to take.

But first he needs to figure out one thing... just how strong are the monsters in this area?

Su Mu's gaze swept across the street, and he quickly locked onto a target.

Su Mu's gaze swept across the street, and he quickly locked onto a target.

There was a cake shop at the corner of the street. The glass window was broken, and the broken glass was scattered all over the ground, faintly glowing in the darkness.

The store was pitch black, and you couldn't see anything clearly, but there was a zombie lying on the ground next to the window.

The zombie looked very weak. It was thin, with grayish-white skin, and lacked the dark green markings commonly found on monsters in the Dark Zone. It looked no different from the ordinary zombies outside.

But Su Mu frowned.

Because there were no other monsters around that zombie.

Logically speaking, such a seemingly weak prey should have been eaten by other monsters long ago in a place like the Dark Zone. But it was still lying there unharmed, surrounded by a clean environment... no carrion vine branches, no traces of corrosive mud, not even a drop of blood.

This is illogical.

Su Mu did not approach rashly. He took out a grenade from his backpack, pulled the safety ring, held it in his hand, and then quietly walked towards the zombie.

The distance is getting closer and closer.

Ten meters. Eight meters. Five meters.

The zombie remained motionless, as if dead. Su Mu's finger was already on the pin of the grenade.

Just then, a voice suddenly rang in his ear.

"Su Mu...! Help me...!"

Su Mu's steps abruptly halted. The voice was sharp and urgent, carrying a trembling of despair, as if someone was desperately shouting their last syllable at the brink of death.

Like Lin Yuwei.

Su Mu subconsciously looked up, his gaze following the direction of the sound. At the far end of the street, about a hundred meters away, a blurry figure stood at the boundary between darkness and light. Long hair was loose, the figure was slender, and the moonlight illuminated a small, pale outline of the profile of the face...

So alike. Absolutely so.

But Su Mu did not move.

His fingers moved off the grenade's safety ring, gripped the gun handle again, and his gaze shifted from the figure back to the zombie in front of him.

Because he was thinking... if it were Lin Yuwei, that woman would never directly cry for help in such a dangerous place. She would contact him through the channel, send coordinates, send screenshots of the strange object's attributes, and use her usual shrewdness—so clever it makes people grit their teeth—to package "help" into a transaction.

Instead of like now, screaming randomly in the dark like an ordinary, frightened little girl.

Su Mu switched the grenade from his left hand to his right, pulled the pin, and threw it at the zombie lying in front of the cake shop.

"boom......!"

The explosion erupted at the end of the street, the shockwave overturning nearby trash cans and street signs. Shards of glass flew through the flames like countless shooting stars streaking across the night sky. The zombie was blasted away, crashing into the opposite wall, sliding down, and collapsing to the ground, motionless.

But the cry of "Help me" didn't stop.

No, it wasn't that it hadn't stopped... it started ringing again from another direction. This time it was closer, clearer, as if someone was standing right behind him.

Su Mu suddenly turned around, pointing his gun backward.

There was nothing there.

Only darkness.

The zombie he had blasted away was now getting up from the ground.

It didn't die. Its grayish-white skin was cut in several places by shrapnel, and dark green blood flowed down the wounds, but its movements were not affected in any way. The way it got up was strange... instead of using its hands to support itself like a normal person, it bent its limbs backward like a spider, "supporting" its body off the ground.

It raised its head and looked at Su Mu.

On that rotting face, the mouth was moving.

"Help me...!"

Su Mu's pupils contracted slightly.

It wasn't the sound... it was the shape of its mouth opening and closing, perfectly synchronized with the cry for help. And with each opening and closing of its mouth, Su Mu felt something vibrating slightly in his brain, like someone drumming deep within his consciousness, one beat after another.

The cries for help didn't come from outside; they echoed in his mind.