The Z Gene - Chapter 5：City of the living and the dead

As Daniel entered the city he could see tens of thousands of undead fighting with the living guards of the city, fortunately, most of the city guards were mutated people who had their strength enhanced, they either had bulging ugly muscles or multiple arms some other people with multiple eyes were staying behind them giving them orders, there were also people with big ears who were listening for any nearby crises.

Daniel walked in with the cat known as Ropego on his shoulder, some people looked at him weirdly then continued defending behind some barriers. They made sure to not let the zombies eat each other it seemed they already experienced the power of an enhanced zombie first hand.

The guard who let Daniel in followed after him and said:

“Before we let you inside the inner city we will have you to defend here for at least a few hours, we might grant you residency depending on your contribution.”

Daniel smiled towards the guard while the cat Ropego sneered inwardly towards the guard. Daniel walked towards the barrier and was ready to jump over it while the guard stretched his hand out seemingly trying to stop him but he was too late, Daniel already jumped over the barrier in the middle of the zombie horde then started killing them madly.

A punch in the head destroying it fully, a quick hit in the chest ripping the ribcage open and then collecting the heart, decapitating then taking the spine to use it like a whip, many techniques that made some onlookers pale at them started to be unleashed in Daniel’s hand. He was as brutal as he could get against the zombies and why wouldn’t he be? They were practically dead and a plague to the living, fortunately, they didn’t get to eat any living person flesh making them awaken more of their instincts or else they would have started eating each other way earlier and a catastrophe would have been created.

There were way more zombies here than the small village Daniel was in before, they could create an all-mighty zombie if one of the zombies ate all of them.

Unknown to Daniel such a zombie was waiting in the middle of the outer city with its eyes closed after he started to lose his rationality he suddenly stopped himself from eating to stabilize his mind before he continued to eat.

Daniel was pretty much a meat grinder at this point as tiny suction holes appeared on his palms which absorbed all of the blood of the zombies, his power increased more bit by bit, what lacked in quality made it up in quantity.

In a distant city, Costil was doing the same thing after he killed all of the zombies absorbed them and got his way into the inner city he would create his church there!

Daniel didn’t know anything about Costil’s plans if he knew he would have surely tried to dissuade and stop him from trying to do that. Daniel killed about one thousand zombies an hour after ten hours of nonstop killing which didn’t tire him much due to the absorption of blood he killed forty percent of the zombie population!

The other guards stopped from defending a long time ago and observed with widened eyes not knowing what to say, all they thought was what kind of mutation did Daniel have to have so much strength and stamina?

Suddenly out of the middle of the city a howl could be heard, the strengthened zombie woke up feeling all of his prey being killed and absorbed by someone else, the meat would be useless to it if it was a dried husk.

The zombie suddenly moved out of his position as spider cracks appeared where he stood previously, a cutting wind appeared near Daniel which he barely dodged. Daniel narrowed his eyes as the zombie appeared near him and attacked him immediately not letting him put any kind of guard up.

The sudden surprise attack took Daniel of balance and he fell as the punch struck him directly in the chest making him cough up a mouthful of blood. His guard was down due to the ease he slaughtered so many zombies, he thought all of the zombies didn’t evolve and they were just vegetables he could cut and consume at will, unfortunately for him, he was wrong!

Daniel tried to get up but the zombie wouldn’t have any of that, a lot of his food was already useless so he wouldn’t let him kill anymore, the zombie wanted to devour him and get his power! He could feel that Daniel’s body was full of untapped power that would make him evolve beyond what was possible for him if he only ate normal or mutated people.

The zombie pounced on Daniel and exclaimed in a low voice:

“You will make me complete!” Daniel was creeped out by that statement and tried to punch the zombie in the jaw which he failed to do as the zombie dodged the punch, however, by dodging he gave Daniel an opening which could be exploited, he swiped his leg at the zombie’s shin which took him off his feet and made him fall. Daniel got up and pounced over to the zombie starting to hit him in the head with a barrage of punches which made his head a bloody mess.

But the zombie didn’t die, he started to regenerate his hideously deformed face and bit at Daniel’s hands. The bite drew blood from Daniel’s hard hands the zombie’s teeth were sharp.

The zombie started to lick off the blood with his long tongue as a sudden transformation happened to him, his skin started to crack and turn from a green and gray combination to a white complexion his eyes started to return to an intelligent glint that he had before he overate meat.

The blood of the Z Gene user’s was a great supplement to zombie’s as it would speed their digestion period, whenever a zombie was in his digestion period their intelligence would drop by quite a lot and there would only be instincts that governed their actions, this zombie was lucky enough to stop himself before he became a mindless animal and he entered in his digestion period.

Now with the help of Daniel’s blood, his digestion period was over and his power surged by inestimable amounts!

The zombie now turned man chuckled as he easily pushed Daniel off him, he still wore rags but now he looked like a young man in his twenties, the strange thing was that his hair was deep red unlike the black before, also some strange tattoos could be seen if you would observe closer under his ragged clothes.

The man did a bow to Daniel then said:

“Thanks to you now I have gained a new lease on life, of course, my thanks to you would be devouring you fully! My evolution would be complete after I ate you, I can feel it in my genes, they are screaming at me to devour you.” After he said that his face turned serious as he took a fighting stance, his fist was in front of him as his other arm was behind his back, Daniel didn’t know any fighting style so he just rushed headlessly to duke it out with the man.

Unfortunately for him he immediately got counter punched in the head at extremely high speeds making him see stars for the first time since he woke up in this world.

Of course, besides the dizziness, nothing major happened to him his skull was extremely hard. The man widened his brown eyes at Daniel being unharmed then he jumped directly at him ready to drill his hand into Daniel’s chest.

Daniel grabbed his opponent’s arm then tried to throw him on the cracked pavement below but his opponent used the throw to get behind Daniel and started to choke him!

The Z Gene started acting making Daniel’s need for oxygen to go to the minimal almost nonexistent, Daniel smirked to himself while the cat Ropego appeared behind the red-haired man and slashed at his neck directly!

The cat cut the main artery on the back of his neck as the man started bleeding he let go of Daniel and made some space between both of them. He didn’t see the cat when Daniel fought with the zombies so he thought he was alone.

The man put a hand over the back of his neck as the injury sealed at high speeds leaving a crust over it which peeled itself afterward to show a fully healed skin.

Ropego scoffed at the sight, he didn’t know how much an evolved zombie healing factor would be but now he knew that if he didn’t decapitate him he wouldn’t die. Of course, it wasn’t at a level of perverse regeneration like the Z Gene users it was a few tiers below it.

Ropego motioned with it’s paw to Daniel then started to instruct him:

“One foot back one foot forward one fist up the other under, yes just like that, I know you don’t know how to fight I will teach you how to right now, what a better occasion to do it besides with this strong opponent right here!”

Daniel took the stance that Ropego instructed him in, it was a normal boxing stance, Ropego started with the basics Daniel had no prior training with fighting techniques so going first with boxing would be the best for him to create a good foundation.

The red-haired man shook his head then threw himself right back into the fight, only a few seconds passed since his wound healed and he disengaged the fight, suddenly a fist appeared near his face which took him off guard. Ropego’s voice could be heard:

“Good job kid, that was a good jab!” The red-haired man sweatdropped, that punch almost took his head off his shoulders!

As Daniel never learned how to fight properly he couldn’t use one hundred percent of his strength potential much of it being wasted, but now his power increased by a lot, only that small jab of his could have ended the red-haired man’s life there.

As Daniel started to do some light boxing exercises as per Ropego’s instructions wind blades from his fists were starting to attack the red-haired man from afar!

The red-haired man started to dodge fairly easily but as Daniel started to increase his tempo he started to grow strained!

He couldn’t let Daniel get better at boxing or his death was near! Of course, it was too late for him to stop him already though.

Daniel nodded to himself while Ropego said:

“Ok you are ready this opponent shouldn’t be anything for you now, even though you only learned the basics of punching with your extremely hard body it should be fairly easy for you to defeat him.”

Daniel dashed at the red-haired man immediately ready to punch him into oblivion, Daniel’s speed was already high enough to threaten him so now that he dashed properly with good footwork he became even quicker!

The red-haired man tried to block the fist as he put his arms over himself in an x position he took the blow directly absorbing the impact but both his arm bones cracked and snapped under the stress of the punch!

They started to mend themselves immediately afterward but the punch hurt him a lot. The red-haired man put both hands upwards then dropped to his knees. Daniel narrowed his eyes and stopped himself from punching his head into a meat patty on the ground as the red-haired man said in a sincere tone of voice:

“I’m giving up please don’t kill me, I just got revived I don’t want to die again! Let me go and I will be your follower or slave or anything please just don’t kill me!”

Daniel looked at the red-haired man with narrowed eyes but Ropego appeared on his shoulder and said:

“Take him in you would need followers in the future you can’t be everywhere to stop zombies and other hazardous things from happening to people.”

Daniel nodded his head at Ropego’s words but then said:

Ropego grinned then said:

“I have a technique which will make him one hundred percent obedient to you, just listen to me.”

Daniel nodded his head to Ropego then moved towards the red-haired man and put a hand on his head, out of his hand a drop of indigo-colored blood appeared which entered his forehead, the man shuddered as he realized he was somehow now bound to Daniel’s life! If Daniel wanted to he would be able to drain him of his blood or kill him whenever he wanted!

Ropego nodded his head, Baidoa’s techniques were useful even normal people could use them after extensive training, of course, Z Gene users could learn them instantly due to their adaptability, the technique didn’t need comprehension of any kind just continued repeated use that could be skipped by the power of the Z Gene.

The red-haired man started kowtowing towards Daniel and he said:

“Silvester greets master!”

Daniel nodded his head at Silvester and made him rise then told him:

“Help me finish all of the zombies here then we can enter the inner city, also no eating without my permission!”

With the strength of the two of them and Ropego’s help from time to time, they cleared all of the zombies then got back.

The guard from before had wide eyes and he tried to say something but his mutterings couldn’t be heard.

Silvester grunted and was ready to impale his hand through the man but Daniel put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a fierce look which Silvester replied with a sheepish smile and scratched the back of his head.

After the guard got his wits back he invited them in to the main city with an extremely frightened look on his face.

Dabo’s figure could be seen entering the outer city.