With one person short, they could only play Landlord.
Li Ang's card skills and sleight of hand were strong. In the past, Chen Daozai could win 37 million with just 20 yuan, so it wasn't a problem for Li Ang to win 5 million with 200,000 happy beans.
After several rounds, the other two players were soundly defeated. They grumbled to themselves about whether Hammer had stepped in dog shit that day, while also feeling a depressing anxiety rising within them.
Feng Tieyi slapped his cards on his hand and glared at Li Ang. "With seventeen cards, you can wipe me out instantly? You can annihilate me?! If you can wipe me out with seventeen cards today, I! Will! Eat! This deck of cards right here and now."
Li Ang coolly tossed all his playing cards onto the newspaper in the middle. "Bomb. Plane."
Seventeen cards, an instant wipeout.
Feng Tieyi stared hard at the poker cards laid out on the newspaper, about to explode in anger, when he suddenly heard an extremely faint CLICK.
He instinctively turned his head toward the distant assembly hall platform.
The white-haired corpse, sitting upright in the coffin, was slowly rising in an eerie manner.
It stepped out of the low coffin, lightly hopped down from the platform, and silently approached the three players engrossed in their card game.
Zombies, born from the resentful and foul energies of heaven and earth, gain strength from resentment and feed on blood.
According to collections of strange tales like *Zi Buyu*, *Xuzi Buyu*, and *Observations from the Thatched Cottage*, zombies can be classified into Purple Zombie, White Zombie, Black Zombie, Green Zombie, Hairy Zombie, Flying Zombie, Wandering Corpse, Crouching Corpse, Unchanging Bones, and even the Drought Demon and Hou.
The Purple Zombie is a regular deceased human. White and Black Zombies grow hair on their bodies, can stand upright, and move freely.
Green and Hairy Zombies are agile, capable of leaping and bounding as if flying, impervious to ordinary fire, and even unafraid of sunlight.
Higher-level Flying Zombies can cast spells, fly through the sky, and travel a thousand miles at night.
As for Unchanging Bones and even higher-level Drought Demons, they have become legendary monsters that leave no vegetation in their wake.
The White Zombie in front of them, though a lower-level zombie, was not something an unarmed human could contend with—for ordinary people, stiffening with fear upon encountering a monster is the norm.
The White Zombie leaped down from the platform and walked over at a slow pace, the entire process unfolding in utter silence. Feng Tieyi was about to scream but suddenly remembered the companion who had hurriedly left earlier, and his expression changed.
According to the bizarre beliefs passed down in the village, when encountering a reanimated corpse, the living should not speak loudly. In fact, they're best off not even breathing, lest the resurrected corpse smells the breath of the living and pounces fiercely, crushing and strangling them to death.
Feng Tiebing, sitting opposite Feng Tieyi, saw his companion's changing expression and instinctively turned his head. He, too, saw the reanimated zombie.
The two usually got along well, but now they were so scared that they dared not warn Li Ang, who had his back to the zombie. They simply threw down their cards and stumbled toward the door to escape.
Perhaps, in their secret little minds, they hoped Li Ang, with his back to the White Zombie, would serve as a meat shield to temporarily fend off the reanimated zombie...
Li Ang, sitting in the innermost position, watched as all his companions left the assembly hall. He stood up unhurriedly, patted the dust off his clothes, turned around, and faced the zombie.
This unfortunate woman, starved to death by her own son, still couldn't find peace even in death.
Her whole body was covered with long white hair. These fine, fluffy mycelial strands spread wantonly from the gaps in her shroud, gently swaying with every gust of air.
Underneath the white hair, her skin was an iron-blue color, the taut flesh covered in wrinkles like snakeskin.
Her face, the only part not completely covered by white hair, was horrifically ferocious. Her eye sockets were hollow, and her mouth gaped open, revealing no teeth, only pale gums.
As if sensing the breath of the living, the White Zombie extended her arms and advanced toward Li Ang with deceptively quick steps.
"Sigh..."
Li Ang let out a long sigh. He lifted the Kalashnikov assault rifle, pressed the buttstock tightly against his shoulder, tilted his neck slightly to the right to align his right eye with the sight, took a step forward with his left foot, bent his left knee, braced himself with his right foot, and shifted his weight forward.
A textbook-perfect rifle standing shooting stance.
He pulled the trigger. The bullet spiraled down the rifling and shot out.
A 7.62mm caliber rifle bullet, flying at 850 m/s and carrying 1,980 Joules of muzzle energy, would leave a small entry hole in a human body and carve out a bowl-sized exit wound.
The frailty of flesh and blood far exceeds ordinary imagination; even Mammoths and Tyrant Dragons could not withstand a 7.62mm bullet at such close range and remain unharmed.
RAT-TAT-TAT.
Flames spewed from the muzzle. In six seconds, Li Ang emptied all twenty-nine bullets from the magazine into the White Zombie's head, torso, and limbs.
With only one bullet left in the magazine, Li Ang held the gun in his right hand and took a fresh magazine from his waist with his left. He then used the new magazine to depress the magazine catch on the rifle. Once the catch released and the empty magazine loosened, he pushed the new one forward, dislodging the spent magazine, and seated the new one.
This one-handed tactical reload took only two to three seconds, saving significant time compared to a traditional reload. It even eliminated the need to pull the charging handle to chamber a round, greatly enhancing sustained firepower.
The 7.62mm bullets were relentlessly pumped into the White Zombie's body. Dull thuds echoed in the spacious rural assembly hall, accompanied by the crisp tinkling of falling bullet casings, composing a symphony heavy with the scent of iron and blood.
The tremendous muzzle energy forced the White Zombie back. Its grey-white hair, along with a large piece of scalp, was sheared off by the rifle bullets, exposing a pale cranium streaked with red and white gore.
However, on the parts of its body covered in white hair, the 7.62mm bullets were hindered.
The seemingly fluffy and soft white hair acted like a highly effective Bulletproof Vest, gripping the copper-cased bullets tightly, preventing them from penetrating any further.
Tufts of white hair even extended from the zombie's throat, blocking bullets attempting to pass through its mouth.
Completing the task was naturally not going to be so easy. Li Ang, already mentally prepared, put his AK-47 back into his backpack. With his right hand, he drew the double-barreled Shotgun he had made from motorcycle parts, and with his left, a homemade grenade fashioned from a soda can.
BANG! The double-barreled Shotgun sprayed the White Zombie with a dense swarm of small steel ball bearings, shattering its numb, lifeless, pale eyeballs.
The White Zombie's body shuddered violently from the heavy blow. The next second, a shrill, desperate roar echoed through the mountains!
The zombie charged forth, its long, ashen hair trailing behind it, fluttering sideways with the sudden burst of speed, resembling a phantom.
So fast...
The thought flashed through Li Ang's mind as he instinctively kicked off the ground and shot away like an arrow released from a bow, narrowly avoiding the zombie's air-rending claws.
In that Flint Stone instant, Li Ang clearly saw the zombie's pitch-black fingernails: extremely long and sharp. If I get scratched even once... I'll probably be cut in half at the waist.
Retreating, Li Ang rolled hastily across the ground. After regaining his balance and standing up, he continuously pulled the Shotgun's trigger, unleashing a barrage of pellets. Simultaneously, with his left hand, he yanked the pin from the soda can grenade and hurled it toward the zombie. He then quickly took cover behind a pile of chairs at the side of the assembly hall.
The soda can, tightly bound with duct tape, traced a graceful arc through the air and landed in front of the White Zombie.
The White Zombie reached out, snatched the soda can, and squeezed it ferociously.
BOOM!
A towering blaze erupted. A visible shockwave swept across the entire assembly hall with irresistible force, grinding every table, chair, and bench in the corners to splinters.
Inside the soda can, a dense mass of steel ball bearings, nails, and metal fragments burst into lethal blossoms in the air. Accompanied by sharp whistling sounds as they tore through the air, they embedded themselves into every corner of the hall.
Li Ang, taking cover behind the tables and chairs, peeked out. Amidst the swirling dust, a figure still stood.
"HRRGH... HRRGH..."
A deep, guttural sound arose from the center of the hall as the zombie stepped out of the smoke and dust. The flesh on its palm had been completely stripped away, leaving only white bone exposed.
Yet, tufts of hair, as if alive, were climbing up the zombie's arm, attaching themselves to the wounds on its palm and repairing the damage.
The white hair on its body was rapidly turning black before his very eyes, even sprouting spots of emerald green at the roots.
From White Zombie to Black Zombie, and even toward Green Zombie—it was evolving.