Chapter Forty: The Green-Skinned Zombie

Qin Fei cleaned up the corpses of zombies scattered across the ground and within the deep pit. Among some of the zombies, he found several bags containing items their owners had cherished during their lifetimes. The contents were diverse: chocolate, donuts, nut drinks, and even a handgun with no bullets left. Most of the bags, however, held coins. In this world, the vast majority of people still favored cash above all else. Now that Baishui River Camp had been overrun by zombies, those coins were essentially useless, so Qin Fei simply stored them away for the time being.

Some of the food salvaged from the bags was still edible. Besides clearing corpses and organizing the spoils of battle, Qin Fei spent the entire day repairing the defenses of his shelter. He took the surplus lime from the previous batch of fired bricks and remade it into cement. With this cement, Qin Fei reinforced the concrete pillars supporting his elevated platform.

The advanced engineering skills he gained after leveling up filled his mind with knowledge about electrical equipment. With sufficient materials, he could now craft almost any kind of electrical device. He planned to add some electricity-powered defenses around his shelter.

To acquire electronic components, Qin Fei explored a nearby waterworks facility. The waterworks housed various electronic devices likely untouched by survivors—no one in the apocalypse wasted time on pointless endeavors. Few people in this world understood electricity, and even those engineers at camps usually specialized in only a single aspect: some could build generators, others could wire circuits, or fashion electric traps. Gathering such specialists together was nearly impossible, so the survivor camps couldn’t construct comprehensive electrical defenses. Thus, these abandoned machines lay unused, and compared to food, electronic components held little value.

The waterworks, including its underground spaces, had three levels. The basement was a reservoir, surrounded by operation valves and pipes connecting to the river. The town’s daily water usage was enormous, so the pipes were thick—about the diameter of a basketball. Years of contact with water had left them rusted and useless to Qin Fei. Besides, he dared not venture into the basement; in the game, such places often housed mutated zombies.

The two above-ground floors contained rooms filled with electronic equipment, mainly used to control the water pumps.

Qin Fei’s target was to dismantle these electronic devices. But the first-floor entrance had been barricaded with wooden beams and iron plates, surrounded by two rows of chevaux-de-frise and a ring of barbed wire. Nearly every window was sealed in the same manner. Entering from the first floor was impossible.

The waterworks had a water tower, with an iron framework connecting to the second floor. Qin Fei planned to climb the tower and cross over via the iron structure. The tower had iron stairs, heavily rusted and groaning under his weight. As he climbed, a sudden pounding resounded from within the tower—was there a zombie inside?

Qin Fei reached the top, opened the lid, and found a zombie soaking in the tower’s water, the stench of decay rising sharply. At its feet was a crate labeled “Labor for Life Sealed Transport Box,” with a picture of a worker holding a wrench. Qin Fei hadn’t intended to investigate, but the sight of the crate changed his mind.

He drew his iron crossbow, killed the zombie with a single arrow, then jumped down and split open the crate with his axe.

[Impact Driver: Ideal for dismantling cars, air conditioners, and other machinery.]
[No. 5 Battery: Provides power for various devices.]
[Nail Gun: The best tool for repairing and upgrading walls. With enough nails, it makes a decent weapon.]

Qin Fei hadn’t expected these to be construction and dismantling tools. In the apocalypse, both were highly practical and rare. The battery and tools were sealed in clear plastic bags; despite soaking for so long, they remained as good as new.

He already had a wrench and screwdriver in his pack, suitable for basic dismantling, but the impact driver was far more efficient. Similarly, the nail gun’s speed surpassed hammers and screwdrivers.

After retrieving the equipment from the water tower, Qin Fei followed the iron framework to the second-floor rooftop. There, several air conditioner units lay abandoned. These appliances could be dismantled directly for wires, switches, threaded fittings, and other parts. Qin Fei didn’t start immediately, instead creeping toward the stairway entrance.

As he suspected, two zombies leaned against the corridor, dormant. Qin Fei raised his iron crossbow, killed them from a distance, then took out the impact driver and began taking apart the air conditioners.

To build an electrical defense system, he needed many parts. The components salvaged from two air conditioners were far from sufficient.

He proceeded into the second floor of the waterworks. Zombies sprawled in the corners, while the rest of the space was filled with instrument panels and control consoles. Guided by the system’s yellow markers, Qin Fei quickly cleared the zombies on this level.

He drew the impact driver and began dismantling the electronics around him. The tool’s noise was loud, quickly waking the zombies below. Soon, howls and frantic pounding echoed from the first floor. But it was broad daylight, and the zombies moved sluggishly. Even if one or two managed to reach Qin Fei, their numbers posed little threat.

Moreover, the stairs from the first to the second floor appeared to have been blasted away, making passage impossible. Qin Fei was relatively safe, so he paid no mind to the zombies below, letting them rage undisturbed. He devoted himself to dismantling the devices.

After about an hour, a zombie suddenly burst from the corridor—a grotesque figure glowing green from head to toe. Its coloration wasn’t due to rot or viral infection, but an eerie radiance.

This was a variant from the “Seven Days to Die” game—a mutant spawned by intense nuclear radiation.

Green-skinned zombies could run even in daylight. Their resilience and regeneration were formidable.

The green zombie rushed at Qin Fei, closing the distance in a flash. Qin Fei’s heart leapt into his throat. In the game, just seeing these creatures was terrifying; facing one directly, the horror was overwhelming, and his heartbeat quickened.

With lightning speed, Qin Fei grabbed a thunder tube from his spatial backpack. It was a weapon he’d bought from the female doctor—a rather underpowered close-range shotgun.

In that instant, Qin Fei’s senses sharpened; he fired a shot at the zombie’s head. Surprisingly, his aim was dead-on. The thunder tube expelled a spray of small stones—weak, but at such close range, they forced the green zombie to stagger backward and collapse onto the floor.