17: Don't answer! That's bait from hell.

The air suddenly became eerily quiet.

Chen Du stood on the shore holding his axe, his gaze sweeping over the group of girls.

One, two, three... thirty-three.

Why was one missing?

"Where is Zhao Mengmeng?" Chen Du's voice was as cold as ice shards.

Zhou Qian, who was frantically tying the belt of her grass skirt, froze. Her eyes dodged his as she pointed toward the bushes to the southeast.

"Just now... just now she said she saw an injured little bunny and seemed to have chased after it..."

"A bunny?" Chen Du's eyelids twitched violently. "In a place like this where corpses are used as fertilizer everywhere, you think there'd be a herbivorous bunny?"

"Idiot!"

Chen Du cursed, gripped his axe, and charged... toward the southeast, deep into the dense forest.

Rotting fallen leaves had accumulated into a thick layer, feeling soft and slimy underfoot.

"Be good, don't run... Big sister has a carrot here..." Zhao Mengmeng crouched low, a loving smile on her face.

Beneath a withered tree in front of her, a snowball of white fur was shivering.

Its ruby-like eyes were watery, its long ears drooped, and its hind leg was bleeding.

"Oh my, how pitiful..." Zhao Mengmeng's heart was melting, her savior complex overflowing.

She had completely forgotten Chen Du's warning for everyone to get onto the shore.

In her eyes, Chen Du was just a cold-blooded tyrant with no human touch.

To be guarded against such a cute little animal—his mind was simply dark!

"Don't be afraid, big sister is a good person. Big sister will bandage you up."

Zhao Mengmeng slowly leaned in, reaching out to pull that soft, warm body into her embrace.

It felt warm and fluffy, still trembling slightly.

Zhao Mengmeng's cheeks flushed with excitement, and she couldn't help but shout behind her: "Hey! Everyone, come look! I caught it! There really is a bunny!"

"We can keep it as a pet. It's so well-behaved, it seems like it can even understand human speech..."

Right then.

Li Yaozhi suddenly stopped in her tracks.

The crystal pendant on her chest began to spin counter-clockwise!

This was a terrible omen!

She screamed at the top of her lungs toward Zhao Mengmeng nearby: "Throw it away!! Throw it away quickly!!"

"Huh?" Zhao Mengmeng looked up blankly, completely confused. "Study Committee Member, why are you being so mean? It's just a..."

Before she could finish her sentence.

The warm baby in her arms suddenly became scalding hot.

"Screee——!!!"

A shrill shriek that absolutely did not belong to a mammal exploded right against Zhao Mengmeng's chest!

A scalp-numbing scene occurred.

That cute, snow-white bunny actually split open from its spine!

Revealing a mass of crimson flesh inside, covered in bluish-purple veins!

The lump of flesh had no facial features!

There were only a dozen or so eyeballs of various sizes rolling frantically, along with a circular mouthpart filled with barbs that split all the way to where ears should be.

What kind of godforsaken bunny was this!

This was clearly a tumor monster wearing a painted skin!

"Blegh——"

Zhao Mengmeng's brain stalled from the sudden, horrific sight.

The tumor monster suddenly lunged, its suction-cup-like mouthpart opening wide as it went straight for Zhao Mengmeng's neck!

"Get your head down!!"

Whoosh——!

A silver light arrived with a whistling sound, tearing through the air.

It was Chen Du's fire axe!

This axe strike was thrown with full force, grazing Zhao Mengmeng's scalp as it flew past and slammed hard into the tumor monster.

Pfft!

As strands of hair fluttered down, stinking green blood splattered everywhere!

It was like a foul water bag bursting open!

The tumor monster was sent flying by the massive kinetic energy, crashing into a withered tree trunk.

It was still twisting frantically, letting out a miserable cry like a baby's wail.

"Waaaaah——!!"

Only then did Zhao Mengmeng react, falling back onto her butt in the rotting mud.

The tumor monster's miserable cry seemed to be some kind of signal to attack.

Thump, thump, thump... dull impact sounds came from underground.

"Retreat! Everyone get back! Forget about that idiot!" Chen Du grabbed the paralyzed Zhao Mengmeng and threw her toward Tang Ran.

"What... what the hell is that noise?" Tang Ran stared deep into the forest, her long legs trembling.

Suddenly!

The surrounding ground suddenly exploded, soil churning.

Five stiff yet swift figures burst out of the earth!

They wore Qing Dynasty official robes that had rotted into strips, and their skin was bluish-purple.

Their fingernails were pitch-black and curved like hooks, each half a foot long.

The scariest thing was their way of moving—a single light hop carried them several meters!

Zombies?!

The sacrifice notebook in Chen Du's mind vibrated frantically, and a line of small text appeared:

[Encountered Hostile Creatures!]

[Name: Mutated Iron Corpse]

[Level: Lv.3 (Elite Mob)]

[Traits: Bronze Skin and Iron Bones, 50% physical damage reduction; Corpse Poison, will turn into a zombie after infection; Pack Hunting Instinct, there's usually more than one~~]

[Weakness: Corpse-Anchoring Point between the eyebrows.]

"Lv.3?! What the hell?" Chen Du sucked in a breath of cold air.

These guys were actually all elite mobs? And five of them showed up at once!

"Roar——!"

The leading Iron Corpse let out a low growl, eerie green ghost-fires burning in its hollow eye sockets.

It kicked off with its legs and pounced toward Zhao Mengmeng like a cannonball.

"Help... help! Chen Du, save me!" At this moment, Zhao Mengmeng was incapable of doing anything besides screaming.

"Dammit! What a fucking top-tier burden!"

Chen Du cursed inwardly, but his body moved faster than his brain.

Since he was going to be the captain, he couldn't just watch his crew members die—at least not so pointlessly!

He snatched up his fire axe and pushed off with his feet!

Clang——!!

The fire axe slammed hard into the Iron Corpse's arm, actually producing the crisp sound of metal clashing!

A massive recoil force traveled up from the web of his thumb!

Chen Du felt as if he had hacked into a solid steel plate; his entire right arm went somewhat numb.

Fortunately, this strike knocked the Iron Corpse half a meter off course.

Its sharp claws grazed past Zhao Mengmeng's tube top.

If it had been just an inch closer, this stupid woman might have turned into sashimi!

"What are you all standing there for? Watching a show?"

Chen Du shook his numb wrist and roared at the terrified girls behind him: "If you don't want to die, do something! Pick up stones! Pick up branches! Use anything that can kill!"

"Even if it's just chip damage, you better grind down their health bars for me!"

This roar snapped everyone back to their senses.

"Let's do this! I haven't even been in a relationship yet!"

Tang Ran roared, her Fervorization talent activating.

Her athletic muscle lines bulged prominently!

She grabbed a stone the size of a millstone and hurled it over!

Although it didn't cause any fatal damage, it successfully hindered the Iron Corpse's movements.

"Shoot for between the eyebrows! That's the weakness!" Chen Du reminded them.

Xia Xin hid behind a tree and nervously raised her slingshot.

Snap!

A pebble shot out, hitting one of the Iron Corpse's eye sockets.

It failed to penetrate.

The Iron Corpse was enraged and charged toward Xia Xin with a roar.

The scene became extremely chaotic.

The girls each turned into madwomen.

Some poked randomly with branches, some threw mud, some ran around screaming... "Don't scatter! Back to back! Don't show them your backs!"

Chen Du observed the situation.

He noticed that these zombies seemed to have some sort of tactical coordination between them.

They weren't mindless beasts.

Could someone be controlling them?

Chen Du's heart chilled.

He thought of movies he'd seen before—Xiangxi Corpse Drivers!

Just then, a sudden change occurred.

The Corpse King, which had been lurking at the very back and was also the largest, suddenly leaped!

It didn't attack Chen Du or Tang Ran, who were at the front drawing aggro.

Instead, it leaped directly over the defensive line!

Not good! This Corpse King actually has a brain! It's planning to take out the backline first!

"Nuonuo! Run!!" Xia Mo screamed in terror.

She wanted to activate Shadow Meld to save her, but she was entangled by another Iron Corpse.

An Nuonuo looked up blankly as the sunlight above was suddenly blocked by a shadow.

While that terrifying Corpse King was still in mid-air, its claws were already swinging down.

At the tips of its pitch-black nails, a drop of dark green Corpse Poison was slowly falling.

It was falling straight toward that cute, dazed little face!

"Get out of the way!"