NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 9: Survivors
Chapter 9: Survivors
"Do you have anyone to testify for you?"
A witness?
I don’t even know what happened, and now they need a witness?
After thinking for a moment, he said, "The owner of this house should be able to testify for me."
Better drag the landlord into this.
After all, he didn’t know many people here, and besides the landlord, no one else came to mind.
"What were you doing before nightfall?" the guard continued to ask.
"I was in my room exercising."
"Have you noticed any suspicious people recently?"
"No!"
The guard leaned slightly, glancing into the room before saying, "We need to search your place."
Wu Heng glanced back at his room, feeling there was nothing to hide, and stepped aside, "Go ahead."
The leading guard nodded, and another guard walked inside, beginning to check the room.
The room was small, with few belongings.
Any special items were kept in the zombie world, so Wu Heng wasn’t worried about anything being found.
Looking back at the guard standing outside, he asked, "Did something happen?"
The guard’s expression didn’t change as he casually replied, "A body was found in the crowded district last night, killed in a brutal manner."
Oh...
Someone died, no wonder.
Solving crimes in the crowded district was pretty straightforward.
The traces at the scene, the suspect's story, and the testimony of nearby residents could all be used as evidence.
But if the act was done discreetly, it would be hard to solve.
On the other hand, if the evidence pointed to you, even if you didn’t do it, it would be difficult to prove your innocence.
They could just arrest and execute you, with no place to appeal.
And for Wu Heng, being a necromancer already made him a subject of special attention in the city. When something like this happened nearby, he was bound to be interrogated more thoroughly.
Others might just be questioned, but they had to search his place.
"No leads?" Wu Heng asked again.
"Besides some potential dangerous individuals, we can’t rule out the possibility that a wanted criminal has entered the city," the guard replied, glancing at him.
Oh, come on...
That’s a loaded statement.
At this moment, the guard searching the room came back out, shaking his head slightly to indicate he found nothing.
The guard at the door didn’t linger, just advised, "If you find any clues, you can report them to us. There will be a reward."
"Alright."
He agreed verbally but didn’t take it seriously.
With his limited skills, he could barely handle a zombie, let alone a murderer.
In this world, he might not even be able to beat a woman.
The guards didn’t say much more, moving on to the next house to inquire and advise on safety.
Wu Heng locked his door and headed to a nearby tavern for a meal.
……
After eating, he directly went to the zombie world.
Wu Heng led his skeleton warriors to the last unit’s iron door.
Opening the door, the same cold, pungent stench hit him.
As soon as he stepped through the door, sounds of growling and running came from below.
Three zombies stumbled their way up.
Seeing the skeleton army, they let out excited roars.
"Attack!" Wu Heng ordered, pointing his spear forward.
Clattering!!
The skeleton warriors charged at the zombies, their cleavers swinging, filling the air with the sound of meat being chopped.
The zombies were quickly killed under the barrage of cleavers.
【Experience gained: +8.】
【Summon - Skeleton Warrior experience: +5.】
【...】
【Your level has increased to Level 3, Intelligence +1, Charisma +1, slight increase in mental strength.】
As the third zombie fell, Wu Heng’s level rose to three.
His intelligence and charisma had increased.
It didn’t seem like these attributes were increasing randomly; otherwise, one of them wouldn’t always be intelligence.
But he still hadn’t figured out the logic behind the increases.
Standing beside the corpses, he used Raise Skeleton, and three skeletons rose to join the ranks.
"Move forward!"
Wu Heng ordered again, and the skeletons continued their march downward.
The number of zombies in the stairwell wasn’t large, so the skeleton warriors faced little pressure.
They cleared their way down to the first floor, confirmed the door was closed, and began opening doors one by one, clearing zombies and looting.
Clearing this last unit was easier than the previous ones.
There were no mutated zombie dogs, and the unit door was shut.
The whole stairwell was cleared in half a day.
The skeleton warriors easily dispatched lone zombies, and larger groups were handled without much difficulty.
Wu Heng’s confidence grew a little.
It seemed zombies weren’t that hard to deal with after all.
But despite clearing the entire building, he didn’t find a single survivor.
This made him wonder if the zombie outbreak spread through the air or some other method.
And maybe he was the last person left in this world.
Maybe that teddy, still fond of its pre-zombie habits, was his only fellow resident now.
……
Stepping out of the building.
The skeleton warriors began hauling the loot while Wu Heng stood on the roof, casually directing them while pondering his next move.
The entire building’s zombies had been cleared out.
To continue gaining experience by killing zombies, he would have to venture outside.
There were about fifty or sixty zombies gathered below; the number didn’t seem large.
But once the fighting started, zombies from all directions would be drawn in, making the battle exponentially more difficult.
If things went wrong, he could lose all his skeletons and even put himself in danger.
Aside from charging out directly, there was another option.
He could build a ladder from the rooftop to the adjacent building, then continue clearing units one by one.
This would be much safer.
Looking at the gap between buildings, it was about five or six meters.
If he could find a long enough plank or order a custom iron ladder from Blackstone Town, he could cross over.
The height was risky, but it was still more reliable than charging into the zombie horde.
The only uncertainty was whether the stiff skeleton warriors could cross safely.
From the sixth floor, a fall would shatter them.
With this in mind, he went downstairs to find a climbing rope, intending to measure the distance between the buildings.
Just as he was about to throw the rope across.
Bang—Crash—Thud, thud, thud!
A series of loud crashes echoed from the west road.
Looking up toward the sound.
He saw a bus with a post-apocalyptic look, violently ramming through zombies and wrecked vehicles.
It barreled forward, smashing everything in its path.
The sides of the bus were reinforced with sturdy iron plates, and the windows were barred with thick iron rods.
Through the gaps in the rods, he could see iron spikes skewering any zombies that tried to climb on.
Behind the bus, a massive horde of zombies was giving chase.
More zombies were constantly being drawn in by the noise, rushing out from nearby complexes to join the pursuit.
Their numbers swelled, forming a massive horde like something out of a movie, a sea of the undead.
Even from a distance, the sight of the horde filled him with terror and suffocating dread.
Damn!
Wu Heng quickly ordered his skeletons to stop all movement and stay away from the edge.
He kept his eyes locked on the bus smashing through everything.
Survivors!
There were still survivors trying to escape.