85: Chapter 85 Last Chance

On the Corpse Wasteland, the dense smell of blood had almost solidified, attracting more twisted figures wandering the desolate land.

The dozens of traitors, stripped of all protection, were torn apart by the tide of rotting Bizarre Monsters before they could even put up a decent fight, turning into shattered chunks of flesh and pulp that stained the ground red. The crunching of bones and satisfied roars formed a spine-chilling symphony of death.

Above the Fortress walls, ghost soldiers stood solemn, their cold armor reflecting the dim sky light. Inside the city, all survivors who witnessed this scene through surveillance formations or from afar felt a chill run down their spines, completely extinguishing any spark of rebellion that might have flickered deep within them. Lin Chen's rules were branded into everyone's soul in the most brutal and direct way.

However, amidst the messy pile of corpses, a puddle of “mud” showed unusual movement.

It was Zhang Hao.

He was naked, covered in sticky foul blood and dirt, his body riddled with bite marks deep enough to see bone. Especially his thighs and abdomen, where large chunks of flesh had been gnawed away, faintly revealing pale white bones and wriggling internal organs. Logically, he should have been dead beyond dead.

Yet, he was still clinging to a thread of life.

Intense pain like a tidal wave assaulted his nearly shattered nerves, but stronger than the pain was a bone-deep fear and... a strangely emerging, cold will to survive!

“No... I can't die... I can't die...” This single thought remained in his mind, repeating as if he were possessed.

Just as a rotting corpse, missing half its head, dragged its intestines and roared as it crawled towards him, its foul-smelling mouth about to bite his neck—

“Buzz!”

A faint aura, yet carrying a peculiar chilling fluctuation, suddenly burst forth from Zhang Hao’s shattered body!

That aura was extremely thin, like a candle in the wind, but it carried a pressure from the depths of the netherworld!

The crawling rotting corpse suddenly stiffened. Its murky, rotten eye sockets (if they could still be called eye sockets) turned towards Zhang Hao, and a hint of instinctive... fear seemed to flash within them? It let out a low roar, actually giving up the “food” at its mouth, turning around, and crawling towards another slightly more intact corpse.

Not just this one, but several other rotting corpses attracted by the scent of living humans also showed momentary hesitation and agitation after approaching Zhang Hao within a certain range, as if sensing something they detested and feared.

Zhang Hao himself was stunned.

He felt that inexplicable power surging within him, cold and dead, yet eerily compatible with his current dying state. He didn't know what was happening to him, but he knew that this thing might save his life!

The instinct to survive overwhelmed everything. He tried to focus his almost dissipated consciousness to touch and guide that cold power.

“Get... get lost!” He roared silently in his heart at another rotting corpse tentatively approaching him, simultaneously releasing that faint aura with all his might.

The muscles on the rotting corpse's face twitched, its steps halted, and it agitatedly spun in place, growling, and eventually, it actually slowly retreated!

It worked!

Zhang Hao was ecstatic, as if he had grasped a spider's silk in endless darkness! He didn't care to ponder where this power came from, only desperately squeezed his remaining mental energy, guiding the cold aura to envelop his shattered body.

Like an invisible film, it isolated most of his “living” aura.

The surrounding rotting Bizarre Monsters' interest in him significantly decreased. They were more inclined to scramble for those uncovered “fresh” chunks of flesh. Although a few sporadic rotting corpses still lingered near him, they no longer pounced directly to devour him as before.

He was temporarily... safe?

No! Far from enough!

Zhang Hao laboriously rolled his eyes, looking at the towering Underworld Fortress in the distance, like a primeval beast. The cold metal walls gleamed with a stark luster under the blood-red moonlight.

He couldn't go back! Lin Chen would never let him back!

That cold, mocking gaze in the office just now, that merciless expulsion, pierced his heart like an ice pick.

Despair surged again.

But at this moment, a cold, emotionless voice directly sounded deep in his mind, like a system prompt, yet with Lin Chen's unique, chilling tone:

“Zhang Hao.”

“It seems you, this piece of mud, still haven't completely dried on the wall.”

“I'll give you one last chance.”

“Single-handedly clear all Bizarre Monsters lingering at the entrance of 'Weeping Valley' on the eastern edge of the Corpse Wasteland.”

“Mission accomplished, you may crawl back.”

“Mission failed, or if you attempt to escape...”

“You will experience a taste a thousand times more painful than being gnawed by rotting corpses.”

“Time limit: 24 hours.”

The voice stopped abruptly.

Zhang Hao's whole body trembled violently, his pupils constricted to pinpricks!

Lin Chen! It was Lin Chen! He knew! He had been watching all along!

An indescribable chill rushed from his tailbone straight to the top of his head, making him almost go mad on the spot.

More terrifying than death was Lin Chen giving you a glimmer of hope, then making you struggle in despair!

“Weeping Valley...” Zhang Hao had heard of that place; it was a famous dangerous area in the Corpse Wasteland. It was said to contain even more terrifying Bizarre Monsters, and even rotting corpses were reluctant to approach that area. The Bizarre Monsters lingering at the entrance were definitely not comparable in strength to these ordinary rotting corpses with only instinctive desires to gnaw!

With his current shattered body, going there would be suicide!

But... if he didn't go, he would immediately face a punishment more terrifying than death!

“Ahhh—!!!” Zhang Hao let out an extremely suppressed, beast-like growl. His remaining hand desperately dug into the mud beneath him, his fingernails tearing, bleeding profusely.

He had no choice!

Either die in the mission, or... seize this sole chance at survival!

“I can't die... I want to go back... I want to be Master Lin's most loyal dog... I want to live!!” The frantic thoughts sustained him, and the cold power inexplicably surging within his body seemed to become a little more active due to its owner's strong obsession.

Gritting his teeth, he used his still-movable arm and one barely supporting leg to drag his almost gnawed-through body, inch by inch, like the ugliest maggot, laboriously crawling towards the east, in the direction of “Weeping Valley.”

Behind him, he left a winding trail mixed with blood, mud, and despair.

On the city wall, Lin Chen stood with his hands behind his back, indifferently watching the faint but stubbornly flickering red dot on the light screen representing Zhang Hao's life signal, and his worm-like crawling trajectory.

Su Qingyu stood quietly a little behind him, wanting to speak but hesitating.

“Do you think I'm cruel?” Lin Chen asked faintly, without turning his head.

Su Qingyu was silent for a moment, then gently shook her head: “No. You gave him a chance. In the apocalypse, a chance is ten thousand times more precious than pity.” She paused, then whispered, “I just... don't understand why you would still give him a chance?”

Lin Chen's lips moved almost imperceptibly.

“A well-trained, fearful vicious dog is always more nether talisman-saving than re-taming a wild dog of unknown origin.”

“Moreover,” he looked profoundly in the direction Zhang Hao was crawling, especially sensing that faint, peculiar fluctuation, different from both living people and ordinary Bizarre Monsters, “if waste is utilized well, sometimes it can become... a surprise.”

“Send word, the Fortress is to enter Level One combat readiness. The commotion at 'Weeping Valley' might attract some interesting things.”

“Yes.” Su Qingyu's heart tightened, and she immediately accepted the order, turning and quickly departing.

Lin Chen still stood there, the blood-red moonlight stretching his shadow long across the cold city wall.

In the Corpse Wasteland, Zhang Hao's crawling continued. Every meter forward was accompanied by excruciating pain and the difficult struggle to integrate with the cold power within him. In the distance, the blurry outline of “Weeping Valley” was already in sight, and faintly, there seemed to be sounds more heart-stopping than the roars of rotting corpses carried on the wind.

Did his “last chance” lead to hell, or... another completely different dead end?

No one knew.