Chapter 283 Stella Cooper VS Arthur Lewis
In a shopping mall near downtown, a bunch of ragged survivors had gathered.
These folks were the big shots of Accraville City who had shown up for the trade fair, along with their crews.
The whole first-floor lobby of the mall was jam-packed with survivors.
"What's the deal?" Carlos, the general manager of Star Beauty Company, asked Ernesto, who had just come back from scouting.
As the leader of the Fierce Roar warband, Ernesto didn't usually go out scouting. With his driver skills, he could turn even a bike into a motorcycle, making him a natural scout.
Ernesto took a sip of water handed to him by one of his guys and then cursed, "Don't even get me started. You wouldn't believe the mess at the giant roulette now. Zombies, monsters, and mutated animals are all crammed in there, packed tight. No way we can get close enough to spin that thing."
Someone chimed in, "Don't those monsters fight each other?"
Folks living in Accraville City had seen the brutal battles between these mutated creatures, which were way more savage than human conflicts.
"No," Ernesto chuckled, then his face turned serious. "At first, they were fighting each other, but then they stopped."
"Ernesto, can you just spit it out already?" Someone said.
Raymond, who led The Young Mercenary Corps, was pretty strong. Their recent ranking had gone up, so he wasn't scared of the Fierce Roar warband and spoke more bluntly.
Ernesto glanced at Raymond, a flicker of killing intent in his eyes, and then smiled, "Because some... monster leaders showed up."
Everyone looked at Ernesto, waiting for him to continue.
Ernesto went on, "To the east, a huge flying monster I've never seen before appeared. It looks kinda like a dragon, but not as massive. Its wingspan is about 160 feet, and when it stands, it's roughly 60 feet tall. But it's just as fierce; it often swallows other monsters whole. This creature's forehead has a blue Magic Crystal."
Everyone gasped at this.
The top-tier mutated creatures in Accraville City had green Magic Crystals, which were already out of reach for these Accraville City elites. Now, a monster with a blue Magic Crystal had shown up. Was this a level five creature?
The whole hall, filled with hundreds of survivors, went dead silent upon hearing about the blue-level, enormous new monster.
Ernesto sighed, "I didn't dare get close, just took a look from afar. Besides this ugly black dragon, the south is overrun by a group of Mutated mice."
"Mutated mice?" A survivor blinked, "How strong can they be?"
Ernesto glared at the guy before saying, "Level four."
After everyone breathed a sigh of relief, Ernesto suddenly added, "But it has at least hundreds of level three Mutated mice under its command, over a thousand level two Mutated mice, and as for level one... I lost count."
Everyone imagined such a scene and felt a chill down their spines.
The once universally despised rats had now become formidable monster leaders. Rats had always relied on their numbers to win. But a group of Mutated mice with such high evolution levels was something they had never seen before.
"Scared?" Ernesto chuckled, then said, "A level four Mutated mouse is almost as big as a seven or eight-year-old human kid and looks very human-like. It can walk upright, sit on its butt, and annoyingly, it has a big fat belly. I..."
Ernesto didn't know how to describe it further and could only curse a few times.
"That Black Dragon might be a level five creature, and it has gathered quite a few monsters under its command, but even it doesn't dare to mess with these Mutated mice! Other mutated animals are also controlled by this Mutated mouse."
"Ernesto, from the way you talk, are there other monster leaders?" One of the survivors asked.
"Yeah!" Ernesto took another sip of water. "What I'm about to say next is the weirdest. To the west, besides the roulette, Mutated mice, and the Black Dragon, the area is crawling with zombies. And guess what? Their leader is actually a group!"
Everyone looked skeptical. Sure, high-level zombies had developed some smarts, but the idea of them working together was a stretch.
"No joke. In that group, the number of level four zombies is this many." Ernesto held up four fingers.
"Four level fours? That's insane!" Everyone exclaimed.
People started to get why the zombies, mutated animals, and monsters were coexisting. The balance of power among the three sides meant none could easily overpower the others.
"What puzzled me even more was that in this zombie leadership group, I saw two women, very beautiful women," Ernesto continued.
"Impossible!"
"Ernesto, are you messing with us? How could there be women among zombies?"
"Yeah, you must be mistaken. You know how we got driven out from there today. You were there too. Humans and zombies together? They'd definitely get eaten."
Seeing the disbelief on everyone's faces, Ernesto laughed, "I knew you wouldn't believe me. At first, I didn't believe it either. But then I took a risk and got closer. I found out that one of the women, with long gray hair, is a zombie! My gosh, I've never seen such a beautiful zombie, even more than..."
As he spoke, Ernesto looked up. There was a woman in a beige trench coat standing on the second-floor observation deck.
"Not as beautiful as Stella, but still very pretty." Ernesto had two people he didn't dare mess with in Accraville City. One was Chester, who was now gravely injured and possibly dead. The other was Stella, the president of Star Beauty Company.
"What level is it?" Everyone asked urgently.
"Level three, but I think it's about to reach level four. It was holding a level three black cat," Ernesto replied.
"And the other one?" By now, everyone was hooked on Ernesto's story and kept asking questions.
"The other one is a redhead. I say human because I saw very clearly that this woman's forehead had no Magic Crystal! Really, none. She's just a human!" Ernesto said.
People started buzzing, with various opinions. Most didn't believe Ernesto, thinking no human would hang out with zombies; they should be natural enemies. Some believed Ernesto, thinking that in the apocalypse, they'd seen many weird things, so a human with zombies wasn't that odd.
This even led to some minor skirmishes.
Suddenly, a giant leg bone was thrown out and shattered a decorative glass pillar in the hall.
"After all that talk, you still haven't said anything useful!" A burly man stood up from the crowd, his sheer height imposing.
"I just want to spin the roulette. Can you come up with a plan?" His voice shook the entire hall.
"And you, stop pretending to be elegant up there. Either come down and discuss a plan or get lost!" Arthur Lewis's words immediately caused a huge reaction. People from Star Beauty Company and Arthur's group stood up, facing off.
Stella on the second floor quietly watched below, showing no anger. She waited until the crowd calmed down before speaking slowly. "You've overlooked something."
Her voice was pleasant. Stella moved lightly and jumped down from the second floor without making a sound, her knees not bending at all. If she moved any slower, it would look like she was floating.
"Those mutated creatures must be fighting over something we don't know about." Stella walked up to Arthur, looked him in the eye, and asked, "And who are you?"
Arthur rubbed his head and laughed, "I'm Arthur Lewis!"
"After this is over, I'm going to kill you," Stella said.
Arthur laughed, "After this is over, I'm going to take you to my bed."
