Vikram was returning to his territory when, just a few kilometers away, he heard an unusual cry.

"What’s going on?" Vikram murmured.

He had only momentarily neglected his Bio Detector, and now the area around his motorcycle was filled with flashing red dots.

These flashing dots represented all non-human organisms.

The information displayed on the detector showed an entire row of creatures rapidly approaching their position.

It was impossible for ordinary creatures to appear in such large groups at the same place and time.

At least, Vikram had never encountered such a situation during all his previous hunting trips.

So if this was happening now, there was only one possibility.

Combined with the strange sounds he had just heard, Vikram was almost certain, there was a group of zombies ahead.

He temporarily stopped twisting the throttle with his right hand and stared at the Bio Detector, his expression turning solemn.

"If they have come this far, they can also reach my territory. I need to finish them here," Vikram murmured as he stepped off the bike.

Looking at the zombies’ ugly, rotting faces and their slow, shambling movements, he realized that although they currently seemed weak, once they started appearing in massive numbers, they would become a serious threat.

It was almost certain that the Wasteland World would soon face a massive zombie outbreak.

The zombies were gathered at the intersection of a small path ahead. If he didn’t want to take a huge detour, this was practically the only way home.

To get back safely without leading them toward his territory, he had only one choice.

He had to kill these ghastly creatures one by one.

It was worth noting that the zombies weren’t just standing there blankly. The roar of the motorcycle had already alerted them, and they were steadily advancing toward him. He had no time to waste.

"Phantom, clean them up," Vikram ordered without even looking back, then sat back down on his motorbike.

As soon as the Phantom Druid heard the command, it disappeared from its spot. In the next instant, it began appearing near the zombies one after another.

With every blur of movement, one zombie fell dead.

Not even a minute had passed before many zombies started dropping to the ground one by one.

Seeing this, Vikram whistled in satisfaction.

However, he quickly realized he had celebrated too soon.

He had thought that these zombies would still be the unremarkable Rare or Exquisite grades. He would soon easily and happily resolve this small nuisance.

"Roar—" A slightly sharp, piercing cry echoed across the wasteland.

A zombie suddenly burst out from the horde ahead. In the blink of an eye, before Vikram could even react, its sharp claws had already descended toward him.

"So fast!"

At that moment, only one thought flashed through Vikram’s mind, this speed was terrifyingly fast.

It was faster than any zombie he had ever encountered before. Even the Zombie Leader he had defeated earlier couldn’t compare to this speed.

"Clang—"

A sharp metallic collision rang out, followed by a piercing noise.

Vikram barely had time to think as he endured the sudden attack.

The Phantom Druid looked back and found that the monster had already vanished from sight.

Left in its place was Vikram, holding his blade in a defensive posture with a grave yet slightly puzzled expression on his face.

He looked grave because the monster’s speed far exceeded his imagination. He estimated that the creature’s Speed attribute was at least 52 points or higher.

This meant that even with his current physique, he couldn’t outpace this sudden zombie.

He was puzzled because, despite its terrifying speed, the pressure the zombie exerted when it attacked wasn’t particularly great. He even felt that its Strength was only slightly higher than that of an ordinary Exquisite-grade zombie.

He had easily repelled the attack, and now the zombie stood not far away, glaring at him with covetous eyes.

Only now did Vikram have the chance to take a proper look at the creature’s appearance.

[Mutated Zombie (Blue-Purple) —A mutated zombie on the verge of becoming an Epic-level creature. While its strength was not inferior to that of an ordinary Exquisite-grade zombie, it possessed extremely high speed. It had also gained a certain degree of intelligence and no longer acted purely on instinct.]

[Stats: Strength: 27, Speed: 52, Stamina: 40, Reaction: 25]

Compared to ordinary zombies, this incredibly fast monster had a slender body. In fact, ’thin’ could no longer adequately describe it, its entire body seemed to consist of only an extremely thin layer of skin clinging to its skeleton.

It was covered in rotten flesh, but the flesh hadn’t wasted away; it had simply decayed. Compared to its unnaturally slender body, its head and feet appeared extremely exaggerated.

It had three thick necks supporting a head several sizes larger than a normal person’s, making it look precarious and grotesque. Its feet were even more striking, far larger than those of a professional basketball player back on Earth.

Despite its entire body exuding an aura of oddity and imbalance, its speed genuinely surpassed Vikram’s. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

If not for the considerable distance earlier, which had given him a moment to react, he would have been utterly unable to block that attack.

He subconsciously swallowed, his gaze shifting to the back of the mutated zombie. By now, the Phantom Druid had already finished off the other ordinary zombies and was moving toward the mutated one.

"Let me handle it," Vikram said, stopping the Phantom Druid. He looked at the mutated zombie with an interested gaze.

"You want to fight me? Then let’s fight."

Saying that, he raised his blade and stared at the creature.

Disregarding the risk of viral infection, Vikram charged directly at the mutated zombie.

Although the zombie possessed some intelligence, it was still limited. Facing Vikram’s direct charge, it stopped dodging and charged back at him in response.

It met his long saber with its sharp claws.

Fortunately, the zombie was ultimately lacking in strength. In a direct confrontation, it was no match for Vikram. He easily deflected the clawed arm once again.

While the mutated zombie’s old momentum was exhausted and new strength had yet to emerge, Vikram’s left hand, hidden at his waist, moved.

The already loaded bullet shot out the moment he subtly pulled the trigger. "Puff!"

He could clearly hear the sound of the bullet striking flesh. The shot hit the zombie squarely in the waist.

The mutated zombie immediately pulled away from Vikram the moment it was hit. It created some distance, lowered its head, and inspected the wound on its abdomen. Although creatures like this didn’t feel pain, being shot seemed to genuinely enrage it.

It crouched down, adopting a four-legged stance. Its hideous face locked onto Vikram with pure hostility.

Then, using the ground for leverage, it launched itself forward with explosive force. Its speed was so great that deep indentations were left in the frozen ground where it had pushed off.

Vikram had thought the injury to its abdomen would slow it down somewhat.

Now, it seemed he had overthought it.

At this moment, the mutated zombie’s speed as it rushed toward him had not only not decreased, it had actually increased due to its new four-legged running posture.

Fortunately, Vikram was prepared this time. Although he still couldn’t match its speed, his reaction time was sufficient to block the attack.

"If I can just block this one more attack and then hit its leg..."

Before he could finish the thought, his long saber and the mutated zombie’s sharp claws clashed violently once again.

The sharp long saber and the zombie’s virus-laden claws collided in the air, emitting a teeth-grinding sound.

It seemed to know it couldn’t overpower Vikram head-on; during their exchanges, each time the sharp claws would touch and immediately withdraw.

It wasn’t until Vikram abandoned his defense and actively applied pressure that, in their fifth exchange, he finally repelled it for a moment.

Looking at the zombie retreating under his continuous force, Vikram thought, ’Good opportunity.’

The desert eagle in his left hand was about to pull the trigger again.

"Vik... Watch out," he heard Divya’s warning from the side.

Coming back to his senses, he was shocked to find that the Mutated Zombie in front of him had already disappeared.

Realizing something was terribly wrong, he widened his eyes and instinctively tried to turn around.

However, the pain from his back clearly told him it was too late.

"Swish!"

Blood splattered; unlike his usual kills of other creatures or Survivors, this time it was his own blood flowing.

The most critical thing was that the attacker was clearly a strangely shaped zombie.

If he didn’t handle it well, Vikram could very likely be infected and mutate.

Vikram’s back was severely injured, and under the force of gravity, his body involuntarily began to fall to the ground.

But the zombie, after landing a hit, seemed to have no intention of leaving.

It even extended its other sharp claw simultaneously, continuing to strike at Vikram’s head.

It was clearly planning to kill Vikram outright.

But just as he again tried to attack, however, it unexpectedly found a normal human arm on its rotting, fleshy forearms, appearing out of nowhere.

Lowering its head, the Mutated Zombie’s vision only saw Vikram, whose eyes were red and teeth clenched in fury.

This time, he was truly enraged; even during his previous battle with the Zombie Leader, or in the Cameron Town, he had never been infected by its virus.

Now, he was actually brought down by such a minor monster that hadn’t even reached the Epic-level.

He now only blamed himself for being too concerned with achieving a flawless victory, which had instead become a shackles on his combat power.

Since he was already scratched, he no longer cared about infection or anything else.

He directly reached out and grabbed its arm, even casually tossing aside the long saber he had been using to fight the zombie earlier.

He clenched his right fist and, under its astonished gaze, threw a punch.

The force of the punch was extremely domineering, almost whistling with a fierce wind that could sting the skin.

This time, he held nothing back, but his speed was still somewhat slower than this Mutated Zombie.

The monster still managed to block with its other ungrasped hand, fist meeting palm.

Just as it thought this human’s attack was nothing special, the force of the punch, upon hitting its palm, showed no sign of stopping.

Under the astonished gazes of himself, the Mutated Zombie’s blocking hand was directly pulverized into a mess of flesh by the impact of Vikram’s punch.

Yet even so, the punch did not stop, and under the zombie’s unreadable expression, it accurately struck its large forehead.

"Puff!"

The Mutated Zombie’s head, like a watermelon, shattered into countless flying pieces of rotten flesh.

Along with its foul-smelling, viscous blood and brain matter, it splattered onto the ground of the Wasteland World, adding a crimson stain to the snowy white world.

And the Mutated Zombie’s body, due to its head shattering, fell straight onto the snow, with no possibility of rising again.

Only Vikram remained, his eyes still glowing red.