Apocalypse: I Can See the HP Bar, Killing Monsters Drops Loot

Chapter 36: Tap Water Plant i

Translator: 549690339

Wang Tao finally understood why during the ten or so days he had stayed at home, he had never seen vehicles on the streets outside nor heard any noise. On the one hand, there were few survivors left outside. More importantly, these things truly had an incredible ability to attract zombies!

With a horde of zombies following the car, he couldn’t stop; and the faster he went, the louder the noise became, resulting in even more zombies following behind… This was a vicious cycle!

If the road had been clear, the zombies definitely wouldn’t have been able to catch up with the car. But there were obstacles everywhere on the road, severely hindering the driving speed. Especially when sometimes he had to ram through roadblocks, not only affecting the speed but also creating a huge amount of noise…

Seeing that the car was not getting any further from the zombie horde but instead more and more zombies were piling up behind, Wang Tao realized he might have been too rash. Driving a car now, even towards less populated areas, was still too dangerous.

However, the more dangerous the situation got, the calmer Wang Tao’s mind became.

“I can only try this!”

After coming to a small alley, he suddenly slammed on the brakes.

Then he grabbed his weapons, got out of the car, closed the door, all in one fluid motion.

Looking back at the dense crowd of zombies, he immediately ducked into a small alley.

These zombies had a clear target, which was Wang Tao. After Wang Tao ducked into the alley, they scrambled after him.

Inside the alley, Wang Tao zigzagged left and right; after about half a minute, although he couldn’t see the zombies due to the buildings blocking the view, he could hear movements all around him.

In Wang Tao’s right hand flashed a needle-free injector.

[Stealth Potion (Medium): Upon injection, it conceals one’s own scent, making it difficult for zombies to detect. Duration 1 hour, cooldown 12 hours. Friendly reminder: Best used during the day.]

Without any hesitation, he rolled up his sleeve, aimed the injector at his arm, and pressed the trigger.

“Pfft~”

A minor sting was felt, but Wang Tao didn’t even frown.

He saw an icon under his HP bar labeled “Stealth (Medium)” followed by two lines of text—

[Duration: 59:59]

[Cooldown: 11:59:59 (During cooldown, using the same type of potion is ineffective)]

Soon, Wang Tao felt his body growing colder and colder, his breathing slowing down, and his limbs feeling heavier and heavier.

“…This thing shouldn’t be toxic, should it?”

Feeling the changes in his body, Wang Tao was still somewhat anxious.

But fortunately, after about three to five seconds, his body temperature ceased to fall, his breathing became steady, and his limbs were only slightly numb. His movement was not greatly affected.

And the biggest change was the smell of decay emanating from his body… it was exactly like the scent of a zombie!

“To hide my own scent, it turns it into that of a zombie’s? Making the zombies mistake me for one of their own? Sounds about right…”

After Wang Tao injected the Stealth Potion, the zombie horde seemed to have lost their target, and the noise around decreased bit by bit, soon becoming silent.

Wang Tao gathered up his courage and went back to take a look.

He saw a large crowd of zombies standing idly in the alley, looking somewhat confused.

Wang Tao took a few steps closer, and the zombies showed no reaction.

Wang Tao took a few more steps closer, and still, the zombies had no reaction.

It was only when Wang Tao was about three meters away from the closest zombie that it finally turned its head, looking at Wang Tao with its cataract-clouded eyes.

Wang Tao was ready to run at any moment, but the zombie just looked at him and made no move.

When he was about two meters away, the zombie finally made a move. However, it wasn’t an attack, but a slow approach towards Wang Tao.

This didn’t seem like a zombie discovering a human, but more like a zombie perceiving something and wanting to come over to check it out.

Wang Tao didn’t dare to try again, given that there were still over a hundred zombies in the alley.

He ran off immediately, deliberately making some noise as he moved.

Upon hearing the sounds of footsteps, the zombies successively turned to look at Wang Tao’s retreating figure, but apart from a few that clumsily followed, the rest remained motionless.

“It seems that zombies do not rely on a single sense to hunt for prey, but rather a combination of senses to make a comprehensive judgement… Now that the ‘human scent’ on me has vanished, as long as I don’t make too much noise, these zombies should lose interest in me…”

He emerged from another alley and returned to the vicinity of his pickup truck.

Not a single zombie was around the pickup truck—they had all been lured away. Wang Tao got into the vehicle and started it.

Hum-

The truck gave off a buzzing sound.

This time he didn’t dare to drive too fast; the pickup was new, and it wasn’t very loud at low speeds. Moreover, since he no longer had any human smell, he figured he probably wouldn’t attract too much attention from the zombies…

Sure enough, after slowing down, he became a lot safer.

Some zombies, even if they saw the truck pass by, would chase it for a couple of steps and then, losing interest, stop. Perhaps from their point of view, they saw a zombie driving a truck?

Having wasted so much time, the air drop had already landed.

Thankfully, after landing, the air drop would emit a red smoke, and there were no tall buildings in the vicinity to obstruct the view, making the smoke quite visible.

“It’s in the northern direction, I can take the outer ring road!”

Looking at the red smoke, Wang Tao immediately drove towards the outer ring.

On the outer ring road, there were significantly fewer abandoned vehicles, and naturally, fewer zombies.

Wang Tao slightly increased his speed and even purposefully ran over a couple of stray zombies.

[Received: Blade xi]

[Blade: Crafting material]

[Received: Can xi]

[Can: Crafting material]

He acquired two new crafting materials and gained 10 HP.

Once he confirmed it was temporarily safe, Wang Tao finally had time to check out the loot from the Screaming Zombie he had earlier run over.

[Screaming Potion (small): After consumption, for the next 10 minutes, you can produce a piercing and prolonged scream. Cooldown: 12 hours. Friendly reminder: Screaming may cause some degree of damage to the vocal cords, it is advised not to speak for the rest of the day.]

“It’s a great item! Zombies are sensitive to sound, and at a crucial moment, it might even lure them away! Despite some side effects, nothing too serious!” Wang Tao instantly thought of many scenarios where he could use the Screaming Potion, even set a trap, scream to attract the zombies and then kill them one by one…

But now was not the time for daydreaming, he quickly checked the position of the smoke.

“Over there… that should be the water treatment plant location! I can turn there at the T-junction up ahead…”

“Hm?”

However, after turning at the fork, Wang Tao suddenly heard some rustling noises coming from the forest across the road.

He glanced sideways and his pupils suddenly contracted.

All he could see was an enormous shadow, over three meters tall, flickering in and out of the trees. He couldn’t make out its specific features, but he could see those red-glowing eyes and…[10000/10000]

Ten thousand HP!