Chương 5: Scavenging a Frozen Muta

"What the hell is that?" This unprecedented monstrosity of flesh and blood was infinitely more horrifying than the jump-scare zombie through the peephole! As disgusting as zombies were, they were still just moving corpses. You could get used to them. But this thing...

"Something's off. Let me take another look..." Steeling his nerves, he cracked the freezer lid open again. His other hand gripped the bone-cleaver so tightly his knuckles turned white, ready to strike at a moment's notice. As the lid lifted, the light revealed a bizarre, pitch-black entity with contorted limbs standing atop a torn body bag, its head reared back. Vince squinted, carefully identifying it. It was one of the three dogs that had died earlier. The black Rottweiler.

Only now, its head had inexplicably split into four distinct flaps, each lined with jagged, razor-sharp teeth. Its entire skull had warped into a grotesque, terrifying maw. As the freezer remained open, white vapor spilled over the edges, and the humid room air quickly formed a layer of frost over that repulsive, crimson mouth... Right above its head, a red Health Bar hovered menacingly. [285/500]!

"This..."

"It's frozen solid..." Vince grabbed a nearby metal IV stand and poked the monster. It felt like hitting solid rock; it was completely frozen through. To think that even after being turned into an ice sculpture, this thing isn't dead. It still has more than half its HP! Thank God I can see Health Bars. Otherwise, seeing it frozen stiff, I might have completely lowered my guard. If this thing had ambushed me, I'd be dead ten times over.

Vince immediately cranked the freezer's dial to the minus 40-degree deep-freeze mode and slammed the lid shut to chill it even further. Taking advantage of the time, he sprinted back upstairs to his apartment, grabbed a handful of broken ceramic tiles, and hurled them one by one at the windows of the opposite building! The sharp cracks and shatters of breaking glass echoed progressively further down the block. Stimulated by the noise, the zombies on the street began shambling toward the distant intersection.

The misdirection worked. As the street zombies wandered off, Vince let out a long breath and jogged back down to his clinic. Rummaging through his packed box, he pulled out his electric angle grinder.

"The zombies are lured away. Cutting some frozen meat shouldn't make too much noise..." Right now, this was the only tool he had that could deal rapid damage to a chunk of minus 40-degree frozen meat. Vince plugged in the angle grinder and flipped open the freezer once more. He needed to terminate this monster permanently while it was still immobilized. The mutant remained frozen in its previous posture.

Only after confirming it truly couldn't move did Vince dare to carefully inspect the interior of the chest freezer. The body bag beneath its feet had been shredded, and the other two bags were also torn open, the corpses inside bearing obvious bite marks. Deep gouges lined the inner walls of the freezer. It was clear the mutant had tried to escape, but by the time it "awoke," its body was already mostly frozen, trapping it until it turned into a complete popsicle.

Fortunately for Vince, this presented a golden opportunity to score a free kill. Zzzzt—! Vince squeezed the trigger. The high-speed abrasive wheel bit into the monster's crimson, flower-like maw as easily as a buzzsaw through wood. Bits of frozen meat splattered against his apron, and a nauseating scent of scorched flesh penetrated his surgical mask. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. [-1] [-1] [-1]...

Before long, one of the "petals" of the maw was sawed completely off, and the monster's HP dropped to [253/500]. Just as I thought. Same as the zombies. Simple localized tissue damage only chips away a tiny bit of health. However, since the monster's head had completely split open, Vince couldn't pinpoint its exact weak spot. He had no choice but to start from the top and grind his way down. Keeping a close eye out for any signs of thawing, Vince meticulously amputated the entire maw.

The monster's HP now sat at [126/500]. Vince temporarily closed the lid. Just to be safe, he needed to let it freeze a bit longer; after only two or three minutes of exposure, water droplets were already forming on the beast's body. Sitting on top of the freezer, Vince processed this new information. The outside world isn't just infested with zombies; there are mutated animals, too. This 500-HP zombie dog in my freezer might be an anomaly, or it might be the new normal.

Either way, it means the outside world is exponentially more dangerous. Mutated animals... maybe even mutated plants... Vince slapped his cheeks hard, forcibly halting his spiraling thoughts.

"Stop overthinking. Back to work." He had to finish this quickly. If the power went out now, he'd be in serious trouble. He resumed grinding, cutting down layer by layer. As he reached the thicker sections of the torso, the limited diameter of the angle grinder's wheel made it impossible to cut straight through. Vince had to act like an ice sculptor, carefully carving the mutated dog apart block by block. Now I really feel like an evil scientist, dismembering corpses left and right...

Finally, as he cut into the twelfth chunk of the fourth layer, the steady stream of [-1] [-1] [-1] suddenly spiked to [-10] [-10] [-10]! Within seconds, before Vince even finished severing that specific chunk, the mutated dog's HP plummeted to zero. [0/500]. Simultaneously, a translucent loot bundle materialized over the mangled carcass. With a thought, Vince deposited it into his inventory.

[Acquired: Canned Meat x1] [Acquired: Scrap Metal x1 (Crafting Material)] [Acquired: Feral Potion (Small) x1] [Feral Potion (Small): Slightly enhances the user's strength, reaction speed, sensory acuity, and overall recovery rate. Duration: 10 minutes. (Repeated use within 1 hour yields no effect).] [Potion Can be consumed directly from the inventory for immediate effect.]"Canned food? Nice! But what the hell is a crafting material? And a potion? I can buff myself now?"

Looking at the drop list with a mix of confusion and excitement, Vince materialized the scrap metal and the potion in his hands. The scrap metal was exactly as named—a messy, one-kilogram lump of jagged iron. Since the system explicitly labeled it a 'crafting material,' it would definitely come in handy later. And the potion... It was a white, single-use auto-injector. The name Feral Potion (Small) hovered faintly above it, with the detailed description floating in smaller text below.

With a thought, the scrap metal vanished from his hand, leaving only the auto-injector. Vince understood how auto-injectors worked. Even if the design of this specific one was a bit unfamiliar, he knew the drill: press one end against the muscle, hit the button on the other end, and the medicine would be shot into the body via a needle or a high-pressure jet. Except..."

'Can be consumed directly from the inventory'... what does that mean?"

"Use?" he muttered softly, feeling a bit awkward as he held the syringe.

"... Fuck." He stared at the potion for a solid two seconds. When absolutely nothing happened, he suddenly laughed at his own stupidity. It literally said it had to be used in the inventory! With another thought, the syringe vanished from his hand, appearing in the pitch-black space connected to his consciousness. As he focused his attention on it, the potion began to emit a faint glow.

"... Use?" he thought silently. The glow suddenly flared brighter...

"Wait, stop, stop!" He hurriedly halted the process. Luckily, his mental command had been hesitant, so the potion didn't activate instantly. He only had this one potion; he absolutely couldn't waste it here!

"This thing... is absolute gold!" He had no idea why food and water in the inventory couldn't just be teleported directly into his stomach, yet potions could be used straight from it. But he knew for a fact that if his intent had been just a little bit firmer, it would have activated the potion's effect. This meant he wouldn't have to go through the physical motion of pulling it out and injecting it mid-fight. Just as the description said: use directly from the inventory for immediate effect.

It was basically an instant, full-body buff. Sure, it had a one-hour cooldown, but in a life-or-death crisis, this thing was a get-out-of-jail-free card! Checking his own Health Bar, he saw it had grown again! [120/120]! Another ten-point increase! He had spent an hour grinding away at a frozen block of meat, but considering the zero risk involved, this was basically free XP and loot! He actually felt a bit disappointed that the other two dog carcasses didn't have Health Bars.

It seemed not every animal that died from the disease would mutate. Or, perhaps, they just froze solid before the mutation could trigger. Just to be safe, Vince spent another hour methodically dismembering the remaining two corpses, thoroughly eliminating any potential threats. He closed the freezer and piled some heavy junk on top. He wasn't going to use this freezer for food ever again anyway, so it could serve as their coffin.

Vince found a rag to wipe the frozen gore off his angle grinder, picked up his box of tools, and headed out the door towards his apartment. It was getting late. He planned to head home, eat something, craft some proper weapons, and then pay a visit to apartment 402 to see what kind of loot he could scavenge!