Chapter 200

Chapter 200: Beware of the Giant Bear – The Gate of Rebirth in the Apocalypse

Chapter 200: Beware of the Giant Bear

Gu Ning leaned against the vines, panting. She rarely sweated, but now her forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat.

Method also leaned against the wall to rest, gasping, “Are you okay?”

Gu Ning raised her slightly trembling hand and smiled bitterly, “Not great.” It wasn’t just her hand; her entire body was sore. Even with her extraordinary physique, she was feeling this way, so the others must be worse off.

It was already 4:30 in the morning.

A faint light was breaking on the horizon.

The cleared area was blocked off with earth walls, leaving only a few gaps. If they couldn’t hold on any longer, they could retreat behind these walls to rest.

They had killed at least 100,000 zombies. The ground was littered with dismembered zombie limbs, trampled into a pulp. Among the rotting flesh were crystal cores, something that would usually be irresistible. But in the heat of battle, there was no time to bend down and pick them up.

Looking around, it didn’t seem like the number of zombies had decreased much, which was utterly despairing.

After a brief rest, Gu Ning stood up first.

Just as she was about to return to the battlefield, a person flew over the earth wall and landed a meter in front of her. The heavy thud was accompanied by a few cracking sounds. The young man’s face was pale and filled with pain. He tried to get up but let out a scream—his bones must have been broken. Gu Ning quickly knelt to check his injuries, grabbing his hand. Her healing ability flowed from her palm into his body, easing his pain. He felt a cool stream moving through his body, and the pain lessened. He looked at Gu Ning in shock and awe.

The medics arrived, and Gu Ning instructed, “Be careful.”

The young soldier was carried away, still stunned by what had just happened.

As Gu Ning stood up, she heard a loud crash. An earth wall collapsed, sending dust and debris flying. Along with the wall, over a dozen soldiers fell in. They were dazed and hadn’t even gotten up when they were lifted into the air. Gu Ning’s sharp eyes caught the suction cups attached to their bodies. Without thinking, she sprinted and leaped, her incredible jump allowing her to grab onto the 2.5-meter-high wall. She jumped onto it and ran towards the direction the soldiers were being pulled. About ten meters away, she saw a massive meatball covered in tentacles, with a human-sized head barely protruding from its truck-sized body.

Gu Ning had encountered this type of mutated zombie before, even fought it twice. But this one had an unusually high number of tentacles—at least thirty or forty—waving wildly, chasing people. Once caught, they were immediately dragged back and shoved into its gaping mouth, swallowed whole. The skin of the creature looked like it was about to burst, with outlines of people visible beneath it…

Suddenly, a tentacle shot towards Gu Ning on the wall. She could clearly see the suction cups on the tentacle, making her nauseous. She blocked it with her knife, and the suction cup stuck to the blade. The tentacle tried to pull her back, but Gu Ning’s legs were firmly planted on the wall. She twisted the knife, slicing through the tentacle with a squelch. The suction cup fell to the ground.

But as Gu Ning cut one tentacle, three or four more turned towards her, lashing out menacingly.

Gu Ning didn’t want to waste time. Her special ability surged, and several vines burst from the ground, intercepting the tentacles before they could reach her. The vines tightly wrapped around the tentacles, preventing them from escaping.

Other vines rushed towards the soldiers being pulled away, wrapping around their legs and stopping the tentacles from dragging them further.

Meanwhile, a vine climbed up the wall and extended at a 90-degree angle towards the mutated zombie, creating a path. Gu Ning didn’t hesitate, running along it. Her speed was astonishing, and in a blink, she was close. She leaped from the vine onto the mutated zombie.

The zombie sensed danger and turned its tentacles towards Gu Ning, but more vines emerged, restraining them. Gu Ning landed on the zombie’s body, which felt like a water-filled balloon. Her feet sank into the flesh, making her uncomfortable. She tried to move but found her feet stuck. Looking down, she saw her feet sinking deeper into the flesh, like quicksand. A chill ran down her spine as she looked up and saw the zombie’s head staring at her, expressionless yet eerily unsettling.

This was the first time she had encountered such a situation. After struggling and sinking deeper, Gu Ning gave up and stabbed her knife into the zombie’s body. But the knife, which could cut through iron, only left a scratch on the zombie’s skin and got stuck. By now, her thighs were submerged.

Cheng Ming and Method saw Gu Ning’s predicament and were terrified, but they couldn’t break through the horde of zombies.

Vines wrapped around Gu Ning’s upper body, trying to pull her out, but the zombie’s suction was too strong. Gu Ning heard Cheng Ming and Method’s screams and felt desperate. Her lower body was already inside the zombie, surrounded by sticky fluid. She could feel the corpses inside, making her nauseous and terrified.

Her body continued to sink, and her legs felt a burning sensation, as if being digested. Even Gu Ning was frightened. But then, a flash of inspiration struck her. Her pupils contracted—not in fear, but in excitement and surprise.

In the next moment, Gu Ning suddenly disappeared.

The zombie felt its prey vanish halfway into its stomach, its gray eyes showing a hint of confusion.

A gust of wind made it look up instinctively. A figure descended from the sky, a cold, sharp blade aimed at its face. Before it could understand how its prey had escaped, the blade pierced through its face with a squelch, like a watermelon being split. The tentacles froze, then collapsed lifelessly to the ground.

Everyone’s eyes widened, not just because of the zombie’s sudden death, but because a massive gray bear appeared out of nowhere in the zombie horde. The bear was enormous, its four legs like a truck, and if it stood up, it would be as tall as a two-story building. No one knew when it had appeared—it was as if it had just emerged from the ground.

The bear seemed confused, looking around before its gaze settled on Gu Ning, who was panting heavily.

Everyone on the wall and the ground was captivated by the bear. It turned its head towards Gu Ning.

“It’s over,” everyone thought, their hearts racing.

Third Brother’s horrified voice echoed in their ears, “Retreat! Back to the base!” Not just the bear, but the entire zombie horde was being drawn towards them, including mutated zombies and beasts.

Gu Ning, startled by the stares and Third Brother’s shout, turned around and her face changed.

Cheng Ming and the others, retreating towards the base, shouted at Gu Ning, “Run!”

Thousands of zombies were surging towards them.

But Gu Ning, standing on the dead mutated zombie, seemed frozen, staring at the giant bear.

As the bear slowly walked towards Gu Ning, crushing zombies under its feet, Third Brother and Jia Daozhang were terrified, shouting into their mics, “Gu Ning, run! Get back to the base!”

But Gu Ning seemed deaf to the outside world, just watching the bear approach.

“Gu Ning!” Method stopped retreating, killed two zombies in front of him, and jumped onto the wall, running madly towards Gu Ning.

Cheng Ming also stopped retreating, summoning dozens of wind blades that shot towards the bear.

The wind blades hit the bear but only shaved off some fur, not even scratching its skin.

One blade even struck the bear’s forehead.

The bear roared in anger, a sound that shook the earth.

The mutated beasts and zombies in the horde were intimidated and slowly backed away, but the low-level zombies kept coming.

Method, close to the bear, was blown off the wall by the roar.

“It’s over, Gu Ning’s just standing there like a log,” Jia Daozhang said, his heart in his throat, wishing he could rush down and pull Gu Ning away.

Third Brother also clung to the wall, his heart tight.

No one noticed Xiang Xu looking at the scene, not as horrified as the others, but with a flicker of doubt, as if he had noticed something unbelievable.

Everyone, except those still fighting zombies, was captivated by the scene below, holding their breath. They imagined Gu Ning being bitten in half by the mutated bear, their hearts in their throats.

But they were too far to see Gu Ning pinching her nose in disgust as the bear approached.

“It stopped!” someone on the wall exclaimed.

Everyone saw the bear stop about three meters away from Gu Ning.

“Wait,” Jia Daozhang leaned forward, trying to see more clearly. “Is Gu Ning gesturing something?”

“Get the binoculars!” Third Brother took the binoculars and saw Gu Ning gesturing wildly at the bear.

The bear seemed to be mesmerized, just staring at Gu Ning as if trying to understand her gestures.

“This is weird,” Jia Daozhang said, still nervous but his heart no longer racing. Suddenly, a thought struck him. He looked at the bear and said to Third Brother, “Doesn’t this bear look like the one we saw in Jinyong?”

Third Brother reflexively replied, “No way, that one was only half this size.”

As soon as he said that, the bear opened its mouth. Third Brother thought it was going to bite Gu Ning, but the bear just roared at her. Gu Ning gestured even more vigorously, looking like she was performing a ritual dance. Everyone was confused.

Was Gu Ning communicating with a ferocious mutated bear?

Even stranger, the bear seemed to be paying attention instead of biting her in half.

“Hold your positions, let’s see what Gu Ning is doing,” Third Brother ordered through the mic, stopping Method and Cheng Ming from rushing over.

They couldn’t imagine what Gu Ning was saying to the bear.

“Help me kill all the zombies here, and all the fish in the sea are yours—1000 cans of fish!” Gu Ning had been startled by the bear’s sudden appearance, especially since it was much larger than before. But when she saw the bald spot on its paw where she had cut it, she realized it was the bear she had “raised” in her space. She had long since believed the bear wouldn’t try to kill her. Seeing it had been brought out of her space, she decided to make a deal. After much gesturing, she finally got her point across.

Seeing a group of zombies crawling towards Gu Ning, the bear impatiently swatted them dead, leaving everyone on the wall and the ground dumbfounded.

What happened next was even more astonishing. The bear extended its paw towards Gu Ning, and without hesitation, she jumped from the dead zombie onto the bear’s paw. The bear lifted its paw, and Gu Ning climbed onto its back.

“My God!” Jia Daozhang was speechless.

Everyone, whether on the wall or the ground, was speechless.

Gu Ning had climbed onto the mutated bear’s back—and the bear had helped her up!

Were their eyes playing tricks on them? Was this a hallucination?

“Am I dreaming?” Jia Daozhang muttered.

“Yes,” Xiang Xu said, his eyes shining with excitement. “I saw Sister Gu Ning riding this bear!”

Except for Xiang Yi, no one knew about the private conversation between Xiang Xu and Gu Ning. Xiang Xu had once seen a vision of Gu Ning riding a massive creature, but over time, both had nearly forgotten it. Now, seeing Gu Ning on the bear’s back, the vague image in his mind became clear, overlapping with the scene before him.

Before anyone could recover from the shock, the bear suddenly charged through the zombie horde like a heavy truck, plowing through them. Wherever it ran, it cleared a path, crushing low-level zombies, evolved zombies, mutated zombies, and beasts alike. It was a massacre.

Watching the bear effortlessly achieve what they had struggled and sacrificed so much for, everyone’s hearts were in turmoil—but more than that, they were filled with overwhelming joy.