12: Chapter 12 It wasn't me who started it!

Lin Xiao swung his axe, dealing with the Glutton first, as well as the Level 1 zombie that had just crawled out from the hole.

Then, he walked toward the fat man with the distended abdomen.

The fat man could no longer move and could only stare at Lin Xiao with his grayish-white eyes, emitting a threatening "he-he" sound from his throat.

Lin Xiao effortlessly dodged his slow lunging bite while splitting open that bloated abdomen with a single axe strike.

The internal organs, carrying immature spores, spilled onto the ground with a "splat."

The fat man stopped making sound.

But for safety reasons, Lin Xiao delivered another axe strike to the fat man's face.

Finally, he stood behind "Old Liang."

That swollen head was still trying to gnaw on the ankle trapped within it.

Lin Xiao raised his axe, like smashing a ripe watermelon.

Bang!

The skull shattered, and a large amount of murky liquid and brain matter splattered out.

The mutant stopped moving completely.

Seeing this, the thin man hurriedly used his last bit of strength to break free from the zombie's restraints and fled back to the corridor of Carriage 6.

Lin Xiao didn't stop him.

Thinking about what would happen later, he couldn't help but hum softly.

The corpses all over the floor gradually sank into the floor.

Light orbs and stardust flew over one by one.

【 Wood * 2, Scrap Iron * 1, Glass * 4, Rusted Parts * 2 】

【 stardust * 10 】

...

【 Obtained: Simple Leather Armor 】

【 Type: Armor 】

【 Level: 1 】

【 Defense: 8 】

【 Durability: 14 / 14 】

【 A simple piece of armor barely sewn together from old leather; it's usable, and at least it's better than nothing! 】

Hm?

It actually dropped a piece of equipment!

Although it was only of white quality, it was still quite good.

Faint sounds of fighting were coming from the corridor of Carriage 6.

"It was you guys who wanted to steal the kill first," Lin Xiao said, shaking the filth off his axe and muttering to himself, "And I didn't kill those people either."

Fair and reasonable.

He carried his axe and strode into Carriage 6.

Swarms of zombies were gathering in the front half of the carriage.

Several passengers were working together, luring zombies into the corridor. As they passed a room, the people hiding inside would open the door and take the opportunity to hack at the zombies' heads.

The kiting tactic was indeed viable, but the efficiency and fault tolerance were too low.

At this moment, the thin man who had escaped death instinctively rushed toward the passengers luring the monsters.

"Behind, Brother Liang and the others, they all... *cough cough*..."

"Are you sick? Don't block the way! Can't you see I'm luring monsters? If you mess this up, watch out, or Brother Tao will beat you!"

One of the passengers turned around to curse in frustration, but ended up locking eyes with a pair of grayish-white, swollen eyes.

The next second, the corridor was in chaos.

"Ah..."

Under the pincer attack, three or four corpses were already lying on the ground in no time.

Some were gnawed beyond recognition, while others had abnormally swollen body parts.

Meanwhile, the door to the third room of Carriage 6, which was Long Tao's territory, was tightly shut.

Inside the room.

Long Tao and his two remaining teammates gripped their weapons tightly, holding their breath as they listened to the commotion outside.

"Brother Tao, something's wrong. Why hasn't anyone knocked to give the signal yet?" A yellow-haired lackey's voice trembled.

According to their previous plan, someone was supposed to lure the zombies to their door, and then they would suddenly open the door to attack.

But the pre-arranged knocking signal never sounded.

"Damn it!" Long Tao's expression was ugly. "Wasn't it going quite smoothly before? Could something have gone wrong?"

"Water, Brother Tao, I want water..."

A weak and painful cry came from the bed behind him.

Yang Yu was lying there, his face as pale as paper.

His severed wrist was only haphazardly bandaged with dirty cloth strips, oozing black-red blood.

Without medicine or medical treatment, blood loss and infection were slowly draining his vitality.

"Shut up, you piece of trash!" Long Tao roared irritably. "If you make another sound, I'll throw you out to feed the zombies!"

He gripped his metal baseball bat tighter, feeling increasingly uneasy.

So, out of curiosity, he quietly cracked the wooden door of the room open, squinting his eyes to peek outside.

At this moment, Lin Xiao had just finished dealing with the zombies in the corridor.

He was carrying his axe, wiping the filthy blood off his face.

He heard the door of the nearby room open.

He looked up and flashed a bright, sunny smile toward the other person.

"Good morning!"

However, Long Tao, who was peeking through the door gap, widened his eyes in horror.

The corridor was littered with corpses lying every which way.

The walls were almost completely stained through with black and red blood.

And amidst the corpses stood a man in a gray hoodie, with his back to the dusty side window.

Outside the window, the sky was transitioning from deep blue to a pale, whitish gray.

On the distant horizon, a ray of cold dawn light struggled to pierce through the clouds, penetrating the glass and outlining his tall, sharp silhouette.

The man held a logging axe in his right hand.

As the carriage swayed, the not-yet-fully-congealed black blood slowly dripped down the curve of the axe blade, one drop at a time, hitting the wooden floor with a dull "patter" sound.

Just then, the man seemed to notice something.

He raised his left hand and, with the back of his hand, wiped the half-dried bloodstains on his cheek almost roughly.

Then, he lowered his eyes and looked over, his mouth slowly pulling into an arc, revealing a... hair-raising smile!

"Ah!!!"

Accompanied by a scream, the sliding door of the room was slammed shut.

Tsk, the people in Carriage 6 are so rude!

Lin Xiao continued walking forward, carrying his axe.

After walking just two steps, two more zombies emerged from the spawn point in Carriage 6.

At the same time, a group of people walked over from the opposite side.

Leading them was a lean young man holding a pair of gleaming, large gardening shears; it was Chen Pingan.

Two teams, two spawn points, met head-on in the narrow corridor.

Chen Pingan saw Lin Xiao, then looked at the blood-dripping axe, a flash of wariness and understanding crossing his eyes.

He suddenly grinned, revealing white teeth: "Yo, Brother Lin? What a coincidence. You're here for, uh, morning exercise too?"

Lin Xiao also smiled, the killing intent on him diminishing significantly: "Yeah, got up early and came out to stretch my muscles."

The atmosphere froze for a moment, then the two looked at each other and smiled.

"Then..." Chen Pingan stepped aside, making a gesture of invitation, pointing to one of the zombies that had just spawned and was looking around blankly, "Brother Lin, you go first?"

"One each." Lin Xiao didn't stand on ceremony and walked toward the one on the left.

"Straightforward!" The gardening shears in Chen Pingan's hand turned and lunged toward the right, making a "click-clack" sound.

The battle broke out instantly and ended just as quickly.

Both were capable and efficient fighters.

For the next hour or so, Lin Xiao and Chen Pingan's team tacitly guarded their respective sides, efficiently clearing out the zombies at the spawn points.

Occasionally exchanging a few words about resource market prices, the atmosphere was strangely harmonious.

Until Jiang Wanwan sent a private message saying that more and more zombies were gathering outside the door of Room 01, and the banging on the door was getting louder.

"I'll leave this one to you too; someone at home is urging me."

Lin Xiao dealt with the zombie in front of him with one axe strike and said to Chen Pingan.

"How could I be so rude!" Chen Pingan said politely, though his gardening shears moved even faster.

"It's fine, pleasure working with you." Lin Xiao waved his hand.

Before turning to leave, he mentioned casually, "Oh, right, zombies drop equipment. Although the probability is low, if you keep fighting, you might get a surprise."

Chen Pingan and his group's eyes lit up instantly: "Really? Oh, thank you for the reminder, Brother Lin!"

Watching them work even harder, Lin Xiao smiled, turned, and walked through the corridor of Carriage 6, which was filled with a faint smell of blood.

It was much quieter here than before; many room doors were tightly closed, and suppressed sobbing or arguing could be faintly heard from inside.

Long Tao's Room 03 was even more deathly silent.

Heh, in a collapsed order, might makes right!

Without strength, there is no voice!