Marvel's Death Merchant

"Here! Rick!" Jie Liang raised his hand, knocked down two zombies, cleared a path, and jumped off the tank.

Rick got up from the ground, took out his large revolver, and quickly met up with Akira.

Jie Liang tossed Rick an M9 and led the way, heading towards an alley where Rick could escape.

In the original film, Rick escapes into the tank and seals the entrance. The walkers outside the tank all turn to fight over the killed horse, so the number of walkers on the other side of the tank gradually decreases, allowing Rick to escape with just a pistol.

But at this time, the streets were teeming with walkers. Some hadn't given up on Rick, their prey, and now with the addition of Jie Liang, the walkers were even more frenzied. Looking around, the alley leading to their target was completely filled with walkers, with only gaps between them wide enough to squeeze through sideways.

Mustard and Rick unleashed their full potential, firing repeatedly, each shot felling a walker. After only a few shots, Rick ran out of ammo in his revolver, then put it away and switched to his M9.

With two people and two guns, they killed more than a dozen zombies in a short time, but there were still at least twenty zombies between them and the alley. Even after they used up all the bullets in their guns, they still wouldn't have enough!

In this situation, every minute and every second is precious; a delay of even one second could mean the difference between life and death! They simply didn't have time to reload!

The immense pressure made Jie Liang's heart pound wildly. All he could think about was how to fight his way out. His obsession kept building up, as if something was about to burst out!

Suddenly, Jie Liang felt a surge of power coursing through his body, and he felt completely refreshed. His body, which had been pushed to its limits, seemed to have broken through some barrier and suddenly gained liberation—he could jump higher! Move faster! He could hear more clearly! He could see farther!

Akuta's finger, which was about to pull the trigger, suddenly blurred, and a long, strange gunshot echoed between the buildings.

In less than a second, Jie Liang emptied the remaining ten bullets in his magazine, and the ten zombies opposite him fell backward in unison, a truly spectacular sight!

If you examine them closely, you will find that each of the ten zombies has a bullet hole right in the center of its forehead.

Rick glanced at Jie Liang in surprise, momentarily forgetting to continue firing.

"Don't stand still, shoot, advance, charge into the alley ahead!" Jie Liang sternly ordered Rick.

Rick quickly snapped out of his daze, ran past Jie Liang, and continued shooting at the zombies in front of him as he ran.

Then, Akira pressed his thumb on the gun handle, took out the magazine, and with a series of afterimages, pulled bullets from his body and loaded them into the magazine. The whole process took less than five seconds!

After loading the magazine, Jie Liang walked step by step behind Rick, his gun hanging by his side. Whenever a walker that Rick couldn't defeat tried to get closer, a short gunshot would ring out, but Jie Liang's hand remained hanging by his side as if he hadn't moved at all!

Rick shot and killed the last walker blocking his path, and was about to turn and escape into the alley when he suddenly saw a figure blocking his way. Rick instinctively raised his gun, about to pull the trigger.

"Don't shoot. I'm alive!" a short Asian man shouted, raising his hands. He was Glenn, the Korean character from the original film!

"Follow me, I know the way!" With their lives hanging by a thread, Glenn frantically led Rick and Jie Liang into the alley.

"Hurry! Hurry! Move faster!" Glenn jumped first onto the metal ladder installed on the left-hand building and climbed upwards using both hands and feet. Rick followed closely behind.

By this time, the zombies had already followed them into the alley.

Jie Liang calmly waited for Glenn and Rick to climb the ladder, then slowly raised his right hand and pointed at the walkers entering the alley.

Another long, eerie gunshot rang out, and Jie Liang once again emptied his M9 in a second. A dozen or so zombies fell backward without a sound, leaving the alley empty.

Then, Jie Liang jumped onto the ladder and climbed to a metal platform on the third floor. There, Glenn and Rick were panting and looking at him with strange eyes.

“It’s just a little trick,” Akira said to them with a smile, “nothing to make a fuss about!”

"You guys are something else!" Glenn exclaimed, looking at Rick's uniform. "Like something out of an action movie! The new sheriff riding a horse, bringing his superhero friends to maintain order?"

“That’s not what I’m after,” Rick said breathlessly.

"Fine, whatever, you're all pretty stupid anyway!" Glenn said bluntly.

“My name is Rick.” Rick extended his hand and introduced himself. “Thank you for your help.”

“My name is Akira. I’m glad to see a yellow-skinned face. You’re Asian, aren’t you?” Akira said casually.

“Yes, I’m Korean.” Glenn looked at Rick and Jie Liang, hesitated for a moment, and then extended his hand to shake theirs. “My name is Glenn.”

Just then, the area below the ladder was already crowded with zombies. One zombie grabbed onto the ladder and was trying to climb up.

"Oh no, we should continue," Glenn said in a panic.

The three looked up and saw that the vertical ladder above had no safety netting and stood alone, leading straight to the distant rooftop.

"The good news is—if we die, at least we'll die from a fall!" Glenn told a joke that wasn't funny at all.

Glenn led the way up the ladder, Rick followed closely behind, and Jie Liang brought up the rear.

The building was over ten stories high. Halfway up the metal staircase, Jie Liang mustered his courage and looked down. The zombies on the ground were now only the size of rats. The straight walls stretched all the way to the ground, without any protrusions. The metal staircase was only supported by thin steel bars, making him feel like he was suspended in mid-air, helpless and vulnerable, as if he could fall like a leaf at any moment. Jie Liang's legs went weak.

Fortunately, Glenn led them to an open window next to the ladder; otherwise, Akira Makoto wouldn't have been confident he could climb to the roof.

Glenn led them across the entire building, through a small door, to the other side. On this side was a small, unrailed concrete overpass leading to a nearby building. Below the overpass was another alley, its entrance blocked by a bus, with only four zombies wandering within.

"Did you set up the roadblock at the alley entrance?" Rick asked Glenn as they crossed the overpass.

“It was someone else—it must have been before the walkers took over this place,” Glenn explained. “The people who set up the roadblocks certainly didn’t expect there to be so many walkers.”

Next, Glenn led Rick and Jie Liang down the rooftop shaft into the building. After passing through several offices, they returned to the outside and went down a tiered metal staircase leading to the alley they had just seen. (To be continued...)

Chapter 179 Conflict

"I'm back, with two living people and four walkers," Glenn reported into the walkie-talkie.

The three of them went down the metal stairs into the alley.

Two walkers in the alley were startled and rushed towards them. Rick reached for his gun, but was stopped by Jie Liang.

With a loud "bang!", a door at the base of the building opposite opened, and two burly men, fully encased in combat armor and wielding baseball bats, rushed out. The two men swiftly approached the walkers, swung their bats, and knocked both walkers to the ground.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Glenn led Jie Liang and Rick into the open door.

The two burly men smashed the zombie's head to pieces, then fled back quickly and slammed the door shut.

Inside the door was a warehouse. Besides Glenn and the two people who had rushed out of the warehouse to meet him, there was a black woman and a white woman.

After Jie Liang and Rick escaped inside, the white woman suddenly rushed over, pushed them onto the shelf, and pointed a gun at them.

"You bastards, you two idiots!" the woman shouted angrily. "I should have shot you both dead!"

"Excuse my rudeness, ma'am, killing two people with one shot? I seriously doubt your marksmanship!" Jie Liang mocked this impulsive and brainless woman without any politeness.

"Don't be impulsive, Andrea, put down your gun!" a white man who had removed his armor urged. Akira recognized this man from the files in his mind; his name was Morales. The other man with a baseball bat was black, called T-Zai. Both were somewhat overweight, with round faces, clearly not powerful figures.

“Okay, calm down,” a thin Black woman calmly advised. She was Jacqueline.

"Don't get excited? Are you kidding me?" Andrea said excitedly. "These two idiots have ruined us!"

“Andrea! I told you to put the gun down!” Morales commanded.

Andrea remained unmoved, glaring at Rick and Jie Liang with hatred.

“Fine. Go ahead and shoot!” Morales said to Andrea.

Andrea finally had no choice but to put down her gun.

"We're doomed!" Andrea cried out in despair, "All because of you two idiots!"

"I don't quite understand." Rick looked at the group with a puzzled expression, clearly not knowing what was going on.

"Come and take a look." Morales pulled Rick through a corridor, with the others pushing Jie Liang closely behind.

"We're just here to find some necessities."

"Do you know how to find it? You have to be alive!"

"Do you know how to survive? You have to keep a low profile!"

"Are you making such a big show of firing guns, as if you're filming a gunfight movie?"

They walked through a corridor and arrived in front of the building. It was a department store that opened onto the street. The place they had entered from, on the right side of the building, was the department store's warehouse. Through the glass windows, they could clearly see the situation on the street—a dense, seemingly endless horde of zombies swarmed outside the windows, incessantly pounding on the tempered glass. They were more frenzied than fans who stayed up all night for an Apple phone launch!

"The gunshots attracted them all!" T-boy complained unhappily.

“You’re practically ringing the dinner bell for them!” Andrea cried in despair.

The tempered glass in the shop window had cracked from the zombies' pounding, and one of the zombies even found a rock and started smashing it wildly at the cracked area.

"Oh my God!" T-boy was so frightened that he backed away. The others obviously didn't dare to stay any longer and retreated into the department store.

"What were you two doing outside just now?" Andrea asked, puzzled.

“I wanted to get the helicopter’s attention,” Rick said sheepishly, knowing it was all his fault for galloping around town on horseback.

"A helicopter? That's ridiculous! Where would a helicopter come from?" T-boy complained, pouting his thick lips.

"I think you're hallucinating," Jacques said, looking at Rick like he was an idiot.

“I definitely saw it!” Rick was unhappy about being questioned without cause.

The group looked at Jie Liang, who was traveling with Rick, and Jie Liang nodded to confirm that it was true.

"T-boy, use the walkie-talkie to call and see if you can contact anyone else," Morales ordered.

"Others? People from the shelter?" Rick asked with concern.

“Yeah, right!” Jacques scoffed. “A shelter, my foot! Are you expecting some delicious food to be waiting for us?”

"No signal," T-Zai said after adjusting the walkie-talkie. "We should try going up to the rooftop."

Just then, a gunshot rang out from upstairs.

"Oh no. Did Dixon fire the shot?" Andrea exclaimed frantically.

Jie Liang knew trouble was brewing. Moore Dixon was a brute, a violent brute. Right now, he was excitedly shooting at walkers!

"What is this madman doing!" Morales shouted.

"Hurry up, let's go up and take a look," Jacques said anxiously.

The group turned and ran towards the stairwell. Gunfire continued.

"Come on!" Glenn called to Rick and Jie Liang to come with them.

The group struggled to climb the stairs to the rooftop. It was summer, and the sun was shining brightly; they were soon drenched in sweat.

"Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?!" Morales was the first to rush onto the rooftop, yelling at a tall, muscular white man.

Mor chuckled stupidly at Morales's reprimands and continued firing into the street.

"Oh my God!" Andrea exclaimed in a frenzy.

Mohr stopped firing and turned around.

“Hey! I mean, shouldn’t you be a little more polite when talking to someone with a gun?” he said, brandishing his light sniper rifle. “Huh? Don’t you even know that?”

After saying that, Dixon burst into wild laughter.

"Hey, we're almost out of bullets, and you're still wasting them! Should we summon more zombies?" T-boy shouted excitedly at Moore.