After pondering for a long time, Zhang Xiaoqiang finally made the decision to continue chasing. Even if he could not catch up to Gus, he could wait for him in the front. With that thought in mind, he chose the city with the least population and prepared to go around the periphery.
In the opposite direction of where Zhang Xiao Qiang had left, Gus was currently pulling out his right hand that only had 3 fingers left from the head of an S2 zombie. Beside him, there were over 10 zombie corpses, surrounding him like petals of a flower.
During the day, Gus's true appearance was revealed to the world. The current Gus was two meters tall, and he was still wearing his leather robe. The hem of the robe was raised from his calves to his knees, changing from a long robe to a long robe, revealing his two black and skinny calves. Gus's appearance had also changed. He was no longer as handsome as before, nor was he as terrifying as after being burned by the flames. He looked like an African, and on his dark cheeks, there were all sorts of strange patterns, as though he was tattooed. If one were to look closely, they would realize that they were not tattoos, but rather, after he lost his facial skin, countless of protruding dots formed on his muscles. When these dots were connected together, it looked like a tattoo.
The one-way night vision goggles from yesterday were gone, exposing his blood-red pupil without any cover. The pupil was like the pupil of a lizard, and the white of the eye could not be seen. It seemed to be inlaid with blood-red crystals. There was a thin slit in the center of the crystal, and the slit seemed to be made of countless fine golden sand. As his eyes moved, the golden sand also became vivid, sometimes gathering and sometimes dispersing, occasionally revealing a small blue dot the size of a green bean hidden in the sand. It was the original color of his pupil, as if his pupil was infinitely compressed to form a small dot.
The biggest change was his right hand. His right hand originally only had a few finger bones, but now it was covered by a layer of black cuticle, making it look like a frog's foot. The three slender fingers looked extremely strange, like the hands of aliens in science fiction. The hand that was left with only three fingers was extremely agile, and with a light pull, it was pulled out from the S2 zombie's head like a knife pulling out butter. When the dead S2 zombie fell to the ground, Gus opened his palm, revealing a yellow walnut-shaped brain.
The brain was the brain of an S2 zombie, it was not big, only a little bigger than a duck's egg. Towards the brain in his hand, Gus seemed to be very excited, he opened his mouth wide, revealing his sharp teeth that were filled with red flesh, and sucked the brain into his mouth. He closed his eye and enjoyed the strange taste. The group of S2 zombies beside him could see that all of their heads had been ripped open, and the brain was pulled out.
After eating the brain in his hand, Gus licked his palm as if he had not had enough. His cold and gloomy eye continued to sweep around him. Suddenly, over a hundred evolved zombies pounced out from the building beside him, baring their fangs and claws as they pounced towards Gus.
Gus's eye suddenly widened, revealing the blue color that was hidden in the golden sand. After that, it disappeared with a flash, showing an expression of disinterest. He waved his right hand, and the air in front of him suddenly formed a 10 meter long distortion. In the next moment, the distortion suddenly accelerated, and swept past the dozens of zombies.
"Boom …."
The sturdy building exploded into a cloud of white dust, and at the same time, the dozens of zombies' upper bodies split apart like cucumbers being split in half. Following that, two huge air blades pierced through the chests of the remaining zombies, slicing them and the building behind them into pieces ….
Zhang Xiaoqiang did not think that the route he chose would be different from Gus. He also did not know that Gus had completely transformed into a beast. Only a beast would like to eat the brains of zombies. He also did not know that other than the hatred he had for Zhang Xiaoqiang, Gus could not remember anything else. He could not remember his identity as the second apostle of the New Era, he could not remember the nobility of his Juncker bloodline, and at the same time, he could not remember that he was still a human.
This city was obviously one of the more frequented cities by the New Era. At the edge of the city, there were large patches of bones and streets that had been cleaned up. Of course, the main goal of the New Era wasn't to clean up the city, they were only searching for resources and eliminating some threats.
Walking on the empty streets, looking at the shops that had been looted, Zhang Xiaoqiang was immersed in an indescribable feeling. His mind was blank, as if he was hypnotized by the image of the shops. All this time, he had been fighting to rebuild civilization, but this goal was not what he truly wanted. It was all forced by various external influences.
In the beginning, what he wanted was very simple. He wanted to be like a hamster, hoarding a large amount of resources and living in seclusion with the people he cared about. No matter how the outside world developed, they would always be able to live a simple and wealthy life. This kind of life was what he had always dreamed of, and it was also what he desired as an otaku.
With the passage of time, too many things had happened in the past two years. Countless life and death situations, millions of zombies, and the appearance of various forces, creating a storm of blood among the survivors. Countless people had died, either from killing each other, dying in his hands, or dying in the mouths of the zombies.
One after another, the forces had witnessed his rise. He stepped on the corpses of countless people and led more people to climb to the top. He did not know when it started, but he became someone who could casually take the lives of others. He did not know when it started, but he enjoyed the respect and fear of others.
Countless blood and flames made him gradually mature, but at the same time, he lost himself. Survival, at the beginning, his goal was only survival, and it was still the same now. But above survival, it was the continuation of civilization, the revival of China, and the invasion of foreign enemies. He did not know when it started, but Zhang Xiaoqiang's biggest enemy had changed from zombies to the new era, and from mutants to his own kind.
When he left the grassland army and wandered outside, he had already begun to reflect on himself. He reflected on everything he had done. It was just a vague concept, just a momentary loss, causing him to constantly question himself in his heart. At first, he could not understand it, but when he was forced to the brink of death by Gus, he finally understood one thing.
He, Zhang Xiaoqiang, was not a natural creature. He was also a human, an ordinary otaku before the apocalypse. He did not have the temperament of a natural leader. Everything he had was exchanged with his own hands, blood, and pain. From a nobody without a foundation to a leader with two forces and millions of people, it was not that he was stronger than others, it was just that he was luckier than others.
When he encountered the New Era and was shocked by the powerful forces that gradually surfaced in the New Era, the strong heart he had built before was on the verge of collapse. When he encountered an opponent who was stronger than him in terms of military strength, technology, productivity, and individual combat ability, he panicked. At the same time, he finally recognized himself. All of his confidence and pride were gone. He was still himself, that otaku who hid at home and was out of touch with society.
Walking on the empty street, he remembered the moment when he first walked out of his house. His mood overlapped at this moment, and many things that he had forgotten resurfaced in his mind. Although he had more powerful abilities, better weapons, and he had the mentality to ignore the type 3 zombies, at this moment, he was no different from the otaku who had just walked out of his house.
The new era, Hubei, Inner Mongolia, China.
These terms repeatedly echoed in his heart, setting off a storm in his mind. What should he do in the future? How could he find a path for his followers in the new era? How could he free China from the apocalypse? How could he create a new world for his descendants?
The more he thought, the more his head hurt. The streets were filled with bones, and the bones made a crisp sound under his feet, waking him up from his thoughts. At this moment, he realized that he had entered the depths of the city, and in front of him, there were hundreds of zombies. The zombies were like shells that had lost their souls, standing quietly at the end of the street like wooden piles.
Seeing those zombies, Zhang Xiaoqiang turned around and was ready to leave. Through the electronic eye, he saw a bright red color on a tall building in the distance. The building was very far away from him, at least three kilometers away. Ordinary people would not be able to see this far. Even if the bright red color was so eye-catching, it was just a red dot in the eyes of ordinary people. However, Zhang Xiaoqiang could clearly see that it was a woman standing by the window. The woman's red dress was fluttering in the wind, and her waist-length hair was also dancing in the wind, giving people a different kind of beauty.