Apocalypse: I Can See Health Bars

Lin Fan steeled himself. He braced his spear against the ground to push himself up, letting the zombies behind him hoist him until he was standing on top of the horde.

He had to be careful not to hurt any of them, lest he draw their attacks. And so, he trod lightly on the shoulders of countless zombies,

making his way to the densest part of the horde.

'Just as I thought, there's another armored vehicle...'

An armored vehicle, similar to the one that had passed by earlier, was trapped tightly in the middle of the horde.

But this steel fortress, weighing dozens of tons, stood like a black reef in the endless tide of zombies, keeping the creatures of flesh and blood at bay.

Standing high up, he surveyed the area. In the distance, the park's perimeter wall and trees looked as if they'd been obliterated by a massive explosion. Thick tree trunks were snapped and thrown about. Only a few stumps remained, glowing with dark red embers and billowing black smoke.

In the middle of the stumps was a strange, deep pit. It was impossible to tell if it was from the explosion or something else entirely.

Several plant-like branches, each as thick as Lin Fan's thigh and resembling the remains of giant pythons, stretched from the edge of the pit to the feet of the horde. But they all lay limp on the ground, seemingly lifeless.

As far as he could see, there were no high-HP monsters, no Mutated Zombies—nothing but a dense sea of health bars showing [300] and [500].

Only then did Lin Fan take a few steps forward. Like a falling leaf, he landed silently on top of the armored vehicle.

Unfortunately, it wasn't until Lin Fan was on top of the vehicle that he discovered a problem. The top of the rear hatch had been forcibly pried open by some immense force, creating a gap dozens of centimeters wide. Several bizarre tentacles, looking both animal and plant-like, stretched from beneath the horde, snaked into the compartment, and vanished into the darkness.

Even with his enhanced night vision, Lin Fan still couldn't see what was inside the vehicle through the gap.

The potion he'd taken had also dulled his sense of smell. Only the faint scent of engine oil and a sour, acrid odor drifted out, giving him no clues about the situation inside.

Frowning, Lin Fan crouched at the edge of the vehicle and poked his spear through the gap. With a twist of his arm, he tapped the spearhead against the inside of the hatch, producing a soft CLANG.

Suddenly, eerie blue emergency lights flickered on inside. A sliver of blue light shot out from the torn gap in the hatch, illuminating Lin Fan's face.

"A person...?"

A voice—old, hoarse, and tinged with surprise—rang out from inside the vehicle the moment the lights came on.

'There's someone inside!'

Lin Fan's eyes widened. 'So that gunshot wasn't for himself?'

"A person! Who are you?"

Lin Fan leaned over the edge of the vehicle, speaking softly into the hatch.

"Quick! Kill me!"

The voice instantly grew frantic, roaring with a hoarse cry.

A RUSTLING sound came from inside, and a pale hand suddenly appeared in Lin Fan's line of sight!

The man had actually struggled his way to the edge of the hatch!

The man's words echoed in Lin Fan's mind.

'He didn't say "save me"...'

'...but "kill me"?'

He took a deep breath, his gaze turning grim as he peered into the compartment.

A withered figure crawled into view, stopping just below the gap in the hatch.

His hair was white and his skin was slack and shriveled, swimming in an oversized military uniform. When he reached the edge of the hatch, he pushed himself off the floor and flipped onto his back.

Lin Fan's eyes widened in horror at the scene before him...

A thing like a plant branch, or maybe a tentacle, was buried deep in one of his eye sockets, visibly squirming.

Several more were stabbed into his chest, pulsing rhythmically.

Seeing this, Lin Fan instinctively aimed his spear at the man's head, not daring to let his guard down for a second.

"How did you... never mind... Take this!"

The old man leaned against the hatch and, mustering all his strength, threaded the epaulet he was clutching onto one of the small wings of Lin Fan's spearhead.

He paid no mind as the sharp blade sliced open his pale palm, but strangely, not a single drop of blood flowed from the wound.

"Take this... If you get a chance to see Ye Qingzhou... tell her for me... my mission... is complete... The hope... is hers now..."

[1/100]...

A yellow health bar. He was human, all right.

He only had 1 HP left, but countless red threads were wrapping around his health bar, which was on the verge of turning completely red.

He wasn't some monster in disguise. Although it was clear he wouldn't make it, he was definitely human.

"Alright."

Lin Fan pulled back his spear, removed the epaulet from its wing, and stuffed it in his pocket. He nodded at the man, then asked calmly,

"What was that gunshot about?"

"My old friend didn't save a bullet for himself... I helped him... It's stopping me... I can't... kill myself..."

The old man's gaze seemed to look past Lin Fan, toward the night sky behind him, as he answered.

"...Alright. Anything else you want to say?"

Lin Fan didn't know who this Ye Qingzhou was, but he figured she must have been in the convoy that just passed. Thinking it over, he put two and two together.

'This man before me... is a hero.'

Hearing his words, the old man's single remaining eye suddenly fixed on Lin Fan's face. Sensing the meaning and resolve in his tone, the old man suddenly smiled with relief.

But before he could even let out a second chuckle, the tentacles squirmed and burrowed deeper inside him, causing his entire body to convulse in agony...

"COUGH, COUGH! You're... a good kid... You and Qingzhou... you two might get along... Do it... before it takes control of me..."

'Control?'

Lin Fan looked at the tentacles on the old man, listening intently to his words.

'Looks like the monster didn't kill him for a reason. I can't delay any longer.' Lin Fan's gaze hardened. He lowered his spear through the gap again, aiming for the old man's head.

In the faint blue light, Zhou Chaoxian's one remaining eye clearly reflected the tip of Lin Fan's spear.

He could faintly see a blurry, vibrating ripple of energy gathering on the spearhead, emitting a soft white glow.

For some reason, he suddenly felt a wave of warmth from the white light.

"Kid... If you get the chance... for me... blow that thing to hell..."

Watching the energy on the spearhead solidify, feeling the aura of death it contained, Zhou Chaoxian's gaze traveled up the shaft to the young face above as he made one last, defiant request.

The tentacles in his body, as if sensing this destructive power, began to thrash violently, squirming nonstop!

They tried to inject final despair and chaos into his mind, to corrupt his will.

But he stared intently at the pure white light, driving all other thoughts from his mind.

It sensed his will. He sensed its fear.

"Do it!"

The old man gritted his teeth. A line of blood trickled from his one remaining eye, and a deathly gray began to creep across the eyeball.

Lin Fan lightly touched the old man's forehead with the tip of his spear, a silent farewell.

Though he couldn't bear it, he decisively unleashed the restrained shock energy!

THUMP!

The shock energy erupted with a muffled thud. The old man's body was instantly blown to pieces, and each fragment then dissolved into a bloody mist that filled the compartment.

'No matter who he was or where he came from,' Lin Fan thought, 'to be laid to rest here with this steel behemoth must have been his final wish.'

[-1119]!

The instant the body exploded into a bloody mist, the tentacles inside him were also shredded to pieces by the force of the impact!

Like severed pipes, the stubs of the tentacles writhed at the hatch opening before rapidly retracting along the wall, leaving a trail of blood in their wake!

'The tentacles? That much damage?!'

He had no time for grief or surprise. A sudden sense of crisis gripped him as a faint, tingling numbness swept over the back of his neck.

He whipped his head around. Two thick, bizarre branches shot out from the deep pit and reared up in mid-air like cobras. One swept horizontally while the other chopped down vertically, both striking fiercely at the armored vehicle!

'There really was something in that pit!'

'And what was it? Did I even need to ask? An old friend, of course!'

Those two bizarre "branches"—or rather, tentacles—were as thick as water buckets and hundreds of meters long!

'So that's what took the damage from my attack!'

'But the two tentacles aren't coming directly for me. That means my stealth is still working!'

'The monster doesn't know my exact position, so it's just sweeping the whole area!'

"This..."

Lin Fan's mind raced. Watching the two "giant snakes" get closer and closer, he decisively retracted his spear and leaped straight toward the front of the armored vehicle!