Four hours later, outskirts of Raccoon City, a crossroads littered with corpses.
"There’s a Storage Box not far ahead, but there are two Beta-type Hunters and three Lickers watching it. So, here’s the question, should I make a detour to go there?"
Zhang Yanhang was only about a hundred meters away from the room with the Storage Box, really close, so now he kind of wanted to go.
"Since I’ve come all this way, and it’s only a hundred meters, I’d feel like I’m letting myself down if I didn’t go."
Although he had been working continuously for ten hours, Zhang Yanhang felt his condition had slipped a bit, yet fighting two Beta-type Hunters should still be no problem, even with another three Lickers thrown in.
"In that case, let’s go."
Zhang Yanhang made up his mind and quickly ran towards a small supermarket by the road. According to his Perception, both Beta-type Hunters and three Lickers were currently holed up in the innermost storeroom of the supermarket, which meant that taking them out with a long-range grenade throw like last time was definitely not going to be possible.
"Hmm? Is that beef jerky?" As soon as Zhang Yanhang entered the supermarket, he spotted a row of bagged beef jerky on a shelf not far away. Unfortunately, although the outer packaging was intact, his Perception scan revealed that the beef jerky inside had already molded and spoiled, rendering it inedible.
This is also a major reason Zhang Yanhang couldn’t find normal food, as ordinary packaged food generally doesn’t have a long shelf life and lacks good sealing. By the time he found it, it had already become inedible, whereas only well-sealed canned food could still be safely eaten inside.
But the problem is, canned food is genuinely terrible to eat, especially the canned food from Raccoon City, which are all from the 1990s and have flavors completely out of touch with modern tastes—mostly they were genuine culinary nightmares.
Apart from pork and beans which had pork on the label but contained no actual pork in the stewed canned product, what Zhang Yanhang mostly found was various kinds of instant soup cans.
This was a type of canned product not seen within the Empire; it usually contained some small amounts of vegetables and minced meat, and then a thick soup made mostly with a lot of starch thickening, probably due to too much starch, the texture felt like a big glob of snot and it even clogged your throat.
Overall, the taste was quite anti-human, and probably only the people of the United States with their monotonous diet might enjoy such a thing.
So, Zhang Yanhang’s attitude towards the various canned foods he found was always one of respectful avoidance unless he’d starve to death otherwise, he would choose to never taste that flavor for the rest of his life.
Zhang Yanhang carefully scanned the various foods inside the supermarket, but sadly, found nothing edible, "Wait, didn’t I come here looking for the Storage Box? Why have I started looking for food all of a sudden? Is it because I haven’t eaten for almost thirty hours?"
Zhang Yanhang walked up to the iron door of the storeroom at the innermost part of the supermarket and kicked it open.
The loud noise produced by kicking open the door echoed in the cramped storage room, immediately drawing the attention of three Lickers and two Beta-type Hunters inside, all of whom turned to look toward the entrance.
Although he could take this chance to spray the room with his M4A1 or throw a grenade inside, Zhang Yanhang mainly wanted to test whether his current defensive power could withstand the attacks of the Beta-type Hunters, and if it couldn’t, how much damage one attack could cause him became a crucial indicator.
Because the core area was filled with Tyrants and Beta-type Hunters, spaced very closely together, if he killed one, the others would surely swarm him; it would then be a test of his survival skills. Thus, if the damage inflicted by the Beta-type Hunters was minimal, he reckoned he could hold on a bit longer before having to run.
One of the Lickers atop the roof launched the first attack, its mouth gaping in a hiss, as a crimson tongue shot out aimed straight for Zhang Yanhang’s eyeball.
Zhang Yanhang’s body flashed with blue light as his Energy Shield instantly switched to outward display mode. He reached out with his right hand to grasp the Licker’s tongue and forcefully yanked it downward, causing the previously ceiling-clinging Licker to crash harshly to the ground.
Before Zhang Yanhang could move in to finish it off, another Licker crawling on the adjacent wall pounced straight at him. He could clearly see the creature’s wide-open mouth filled with yellow tartar-covered teeth, bloodstains mingling among them.
If not for the odor-blocking property of the energy shield, Zhang Yanhang felt he would already be "enjoying" the ’fresh breath’ emanating from the Licker.
Zhang Yanhang braced the Licker’s mouth with both hands and jerked it open, Crack! Accompanied by the sound of dislocating joints, the Licker’s lower jaw along with a large chunk of neck muscles were brutally torn apart by Zhang Yanhang.
Watching a nearby Beta-type Hunter preparing to strike with its clawed right arm, Zhang Yanhang repositioned the Licker’s jaw, possibly a bit reversed this time, as its sharp teeth deeply embedded into its own exposed, deformed brain.
[Successfully killed First Tier Two-star Monster ’Licker (ordinary)’ ×1, Soul points +6.]
After confirming the death of the Licker in his hands, Zhang Yanhang casually tossed its corpse towards the Licker he had just thrown to the ground, Bang! A muffled sound of a body collision ensued, causing the previously struggling Licker to be flattened again.
Taking advantage of the moment Zhang Yanhang was disposing of the body, the Beta-type Hunter raised its right arm and delivered a Death Claw strike infused with Armor Penetration Damage directly towards Zhang Yanhang’s head.
The energy shield on his body flickered with blue light, causing ripples, and Zhang Yanhang’s body shook slightly. However, he immediately returned the attack expressionlessly with a sun fist straight to the Beta-type Hunter’s lizard-like head.
The Beta-type Hunter, being a legitimate Biological Weapon developed by the Umbrella company, had relatively high intelligence and attempted to block Zhang Yanhang’s onslaught with its hand. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel✦fire.net
A loud bang sounded as the Beta-type Hunter’s right arm, along with its upper body, exploded into a mess of flesh that splattered across the surrounding walls and the floor.
[Successfully killed First Tier Three-star Monster ’Beta Type Hunter (ordinary)’ ×1, Soul points +10.]