Chapter Ninety-Two: Delving Deeper-Monster Summoning Handbook(Drowning in the intoxicating maze of illusions)

"The force is too great. You need to learn control."

"Just smash its body. There’s no need to hit the head. A zombie smashed into a heap on the floor is utterly worthless."

"What kind of attitude is that? How can you talk to me while tossing the hammer onto the ground?"

"As long as you control your strength... five bags—no, ten bags of chips, all right?"

Seeing the only surviving test subject lying on the ground, Fan Li walked over with his katana in hand.

The zombie’s limbs had already been shattered by the hammer, and a massive裂口 had opened across its chest. It lay on the ground, and with every weak groan, foul blood poured out in torrents. As for its eye sockets, they had been broken the moment they met. Two bloody streaks ran down its face, giving it a pitiable, almost unbearable look.

"Too miserable."

As he sighed, Fan Li drove the blade through its skull and freed it from its suffering.

Behind Fan Li lay a field of zombies, though it was now hard to recognize any human form in them. Most had been smashed into grotesque twists, with severed limbs scattered everywhere.

Only after Ellie had blasted apart more than a dozen zombies did she finally learn, with great difficulty, how to control her strength and leave the last shred of life so that Fan Li could collect the slaughter points he needed.

[311/500]

Fan Li was trying to squeeze even more value out of his employee.

Compared with facing the zombies himself, having to adjust his condition and painstakingly collect slaughter points, letting the monster cripple the enemy first and then moving in to finish them off was unquestionably a faster method.

People need time to get used to one another. The same was true for a human and a monster.

Only after a long period of adjustment had Fan Li finally reached this day.

But intention and reality were never in alignment.

For monsters, there was no such thing as holding back. Whether Ellie or the Butcher, once they struck, it was as if a mountain had come crashing down upon an egg; they were wholly committed to slaughter.

They had no mercy, and naturally they did not understand what counted as a light injury, because in their minds, enemy equaled dead thing equaled food.

Just now, Fan Li had gone to considerable lengths to teach her what it meant to leave someone with a breath left in them, but even so, he still felt he had to rush in and finish the job, or the zombie might very well die on the spot from continued damage to its brainstem.

Ellie’s iron hammer was stained with reeking putrid blood, and some skin and hair still hung from the welds. Even when it was merely held in the hand and not swung, it gave off a powerful sense of pressure.

By now, Fan Li had already gone deep into the factory. The surroundings were pitch-black, but he possessed night vision, so it did not affect him much; his field of view was only a little grayish-white.

A rapid series of footsteps sounded. Fan Li stopped in place and saw, ahead of him, a group of zombies in work uniforms drifting toward him. Blood dripped from their bodies, and their faces bore wounds of varying degrees of rot, making them look terrifying beyond measure.

They had caught the scent of a living human, and their expressions began to turn savage. Some zombies were so agitated that they even started chewing their own tongues, foul blood seeping from their mouths and soaking through their clothes, creating a brutally shocking sight.

"Do you remember what I just told you? You only need to hammer the chest and stomach. Without my command, you are not allowed to hit the head, understand? The head! The place where you eat!"

Fan Li gave a brief pre-battle pep talk, then said to Ellie, "No effort, no reward. You need to learn to feed yourself."

Clang.

Facing the zombies, Ellie showed no fear at all. Her small body dragged the hammer forward as she charged straight at them.

The battle ended even faster than Fan Li had imagined.

He walked over. Sixteen zombies; ten survived. There were still some accidental kills, but to have done this well was already excellent.

[Slaughter points +1]

Fan Li was like an emotionless machine, ending the zombies one by one with his blade.

On the other side, clouds of black mist rose from the heads of the slain zombies, then were inhaled by Ellie. As before, the zombies’ flesh began to wither, gradually becoming mummified corpses.

Slaughter points were similar to souls. Fan Li had run experiments and found that Ellie could not draw those black mists from the zombies he himself had cut down.

Fan Li gave Ellie a long look. He strongly suspected that Ellie had long since understood what he meant, but still deliberately held some zombies back so she could have a bite for herself.

Absorbing the zombies’ essence in battle while also taking credit from Fan Li in exchange for chips and a whole range of other snack supplies—double-dipping from both sides. As an employee, Ellie was even more "excellent" than Fan Li had imagined.

Of course, when the water is too clear, there are no fish.

As the boss, as long as Fan Li got the meat, he did not mind letting his employee have a few mouthfuls of broth.

At the very least, he still had to show some generosity.

"Move!"

A killer needed no rest. Since Fan Li had said he would cleanse this factory, he would certainly see it through.

The factory was not small, but the apocalypse had already been here for a month. Add to that the suffocating monster they had encountered earlier, which had cut off part of the zombie horde, and the zombies they met along the way were mostly scattered and sparse, not the sort of scene where dozens or even hundreds would swarm together.

Suffocation.

That was the name Fan Li had given the monster covered in heads all over its body. It seemed to possess some kind of intimidation ability; the moment he saw it, even Fan Li felt his throat being gripped, unable to breathe smoothly.

Having a name meant another entry had been added to the monster compendium.

Fan Li continued onward. When he reached the entrance to a workshop, he suddenly heard some unusual noises coming from inside.

Tap.

They did not sound like footsteps, but more like someone drumming their fingers on a table.

Deeper in the factory, the surroundings were unnaturally quiet, as though there were no zombies nearby at all. Fan Li raised his katana, told Ellie to walk in front of him, and the two of them entered the workshop one after the other.

The workshop was large, with rows of machines arranged neatly around the perimeter, and Fan Li could not locate the source of the sound.

Tap.

The sound of fingers striking a tabletop still echoed on and on, not stopping just because a stranger had appeared.

Fan Li looked around and searched the workshop. Several minutes passed. When he had searched the last few rows, he stopped. In his line of sight, a figure was sitting before one of the machines, fiddling with something without pause.

Ellie tugged on the hammer and was just about to charge forward, practically ready to say, "Chips!"

Fan Li held her back.

An unfamiliar environment, a blurred figure, an unreadable face. In the apocalypse, caution had to be maintained at all times. Fortunately, Fan Li had a foolproof method for identifying whether something was a zombie.

He took a step forward, his voice calm and unhurried, and asked softly, "Excuse me, are you human?"