Chapter 21: The Compact Crossbow

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“Uh!”

Qin Zhong was rather curious about what good things Sun Xiaoyan had prepared for him. As for supplies, since he was alone for the time being, he was not lacking anything yet.

After waiting a while, Qin Zhong suddenly saw a faint glow flash across his phone. A woven plastic sack appeared on the ground in front of him.

“Hm?”

When he lifted the sack, Qin Zhong found it surprisingly heavy. Opening it, he discovered four crossbows inside. Their pitch-black bodies absorbed the light without reflecting it, and at a glance, it was obvious that they were no ordinary weapons.

His eyes lit up at the sight of the crossbows. He immediately took a fancy to one of the compact models. Holding it in his hands, Qin Zhong examined it carefully, running his fingers over its cold, smooth frame. Genuine delight filled his heart.

This was a fine weapon. Though it lacked the power of a firearm, it had the advantage of being completely silent. Unlike guns, it would not make enough noise to attract zombies.

The only pity was that it would have been perfect if the crossbow had come with a scope. After all, he was no professional marksman.

“How is it? Qin Zhong, I paid a great deal of money to buy these from a collector.”

“Not bad. Thank you, Miss Sun—no, Xiaoyan. You really went to a lot of trouble!”

At that moment, Qin Zhong did not hold back his gratitude. These few crossbows would indeed be of considerable help to him.

“Oh, and there are these as well. They’re enough supplies for one person to last ten days.”

As soon as Sun Xiaoyan finished speaking, several black backpacks appeared in front of Qin Zhong in another flash of ghostly light from the phone.

Qin Zhong opened one of them and found it filled with high-energy food. The other backpacks contained much the same sort of supplies. In one of them, he even found several bottles of Moutai.

At the sight of the Moutai, Qin Zhong’s face brightened. He hurriedly opened a bottle and, without bothering to find a glass, took a long drink straight from the neck.

The fiery liquor flowed down his throat and into his stomach. The familiar aroma of alcohol, absent for so long, seemed to ease the fatigue weighing on his entire body. After taking several gulps, he finally remembered that he ought to thank Sun Xiaoyan.

When Qin Zhong picked up the phone, he discovered that the call had somehow disconnected. He smacked his lips. It seemed he would have to wait until next time to thank her.

The next moment, Qin Zhong walked outside the roast-duck shop, a bottle of liquor in one hand and a crossbow in the other. He planned to find a few targets and test the weapon’s power.

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Just as Qin Zhong was looking around for a target, he spotted the swaying silhouettes of two zombies behind a row of counters ahead.

Click.

It was his first time using a crossbow, and he had not yet gauged the proper distance. His first shot flew noticeably too high. Startled by the attack, the zombie turned its head in confusion and let out several howls. Seeing no one, it soon resumed walking as if nothing had happened.

Seeing this, Qin Zhong quietly advanced several more yards and concealed himself behind a row of shelves before taking careful aim again.

Click.

This time, the bolt did not miss. A steel ball struck one zombie squarely in the head. The other zombie watched its companion collapse, but with its limited intelligence, it had no idea what had happened. It merely stood there in a daze, becoming a perfect target.

Holding his breath, Qin Zhong fired another steel ball and dispatched the second zombie. He was extremely pleased with this formidable weapon. Although it was not as powerful as a firearm, it was far more practical under the present circumstances.

The woven sack Sun Xiaoyan had sent him contained three more crossbows, six bottles of steel balls, and enough bolts to last him for quite some time.

…

Qin Zhong thought it over. There was no need to hurry to the wildlife park, so he decided to use the zombies in the shopping mall to practice his aim. He could also reclaim the entire mall from them while he was at it.

Although he wanted to reach the wildlife park as soon as possible, haste would accomplish nothing. He had to make adequate preparations first; otherwise, the road to the wildlife park would become a road to his own death.

After finishing his practice, Qin Zhong returned to the roast-duck shop and went to sleep. He secured the door, and under the soporific influence of the alcohol, soon drifted off.

Early the next morning, Qin Zhong opened several cans to fill his stomach, took three bottles of steel balls, and packed them into his backpack. He then hid the other three crossbows and the remaining supplies in the roast-duck shop.

Taking his long saber with him, Qin Zhong left the shop and resumed his unfinished search of the mall from the previous day.

He had spent the entire day before searching the southern section of the rooftop. Now that he possessed such a formidable weapon as the crossbow, he should soon be able to reclaim the eastern, western, and northern sections as well.

More than half a day passed in this manner. Once the rooftop had been cleared, Qin Zhong began working downward. Before long, the zombies on the eighth and seventh floors had all been eliminated. But the farther down he went, the more zombies he encountered, and the greater the difficulty became.

By that day, Qin Zhong had finished clearing the seventh floor and descended to the sixth. The moment he reached it, he saw that the taekwondo studio directly opposite the stairwell was filled with wandering zombies. A rough count put their number at no fewer than seventy or eighty.

Apparently, on the day the great disaster occurred, some customers had been unable to escape. They had rushed inside to take shelter, never imagining that the outbreak would occur within the studio itself, trapping every one of them.

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The moment Qin Zhong came down the stairs, the zombies spotted the living human and began surging noisily toward the entrance. Suddenly, there was a loud crack, and the two broad glass doors collapsed. The mass of zombies immediately poured out.

The unexpected turn of events startled Qin Zhong. He quickly ran along the sixth floor’s circular corridor, putting some distance between himself and the zombies behind him.

Over the past few days, Qin Zhong had used his long saber and crossbow to kill zombies every day. His aim was not yet perfect, but through repeated combat practice, he could now kill one zombie with roughly three steel balls on average, maintaining a success rate of about thirty percent.

As for the long saber, the more often he used it, the more natural it felt in his hands. Although Qin Zhong knew no formal swordsmanship, the long blade possessed considerable force when swung, and he could almost always kill a zombie with a single strike.

Seeing so many zombies pour out at once, Qin Zhong adopted the kiting tactic he had learned from video games. He lured the zombies into motion while continuously firing steel balls at them.

Before long, zombies began dropping one after another as his steel balls flew. Qin Zhong would fire several shots, then flee a short distance, keeping the horde trailing behind him in relentless pursuit.

Though it looked easy enough, being chased by seventy or eighty zombies with blackened, gray faces, protruding cheekbones, and deeply sunken cheeks still sent shivers through Qin Zhong.

One lap around the circular corridor covered nearly three hundred meters, not much shorter than a regulation soccer field.

As he moved, Qin Zhong kept glancing back at the zombies following him. Judging by his estimation, after another one or two laps at most, every zombie would be dead.

With that calculation in mind, Qin Zhong remained vigilant but did not panic.

Before long, he reached the center of a terrace along the circular corridor. The terrace was not large, and several glass tables stood against one side of the passage.

On one of the tables sat two unopened cans of iced black tea. At the sight of them, Qin Zhong immediately felt his mouth go dry. He picked up a can and opened it.

Tilting his head back, he let the chilled, sweet tea flow down his throat, instantly relieving his thirst. After two more generous gulps, the can was empty.

While Qin Zhong paused to drink, the horde closed in considerably. The nearest zombies were only seven or eight meters away. Qin Zhong raised the crossbow again. At such a short distance, even with the zombies moving at a decent pace, he could practically guarantee a hit every time.

As the steel balls flew, two more zombies quickly collapsed. The rest advanced several more meters. Just as Qin Zhong was calmly maintaining his rhythm and kiting them along, something completely beyond his expectations happened.