"Ugh... ugh... Roar."
A robust zombie rolled its pale eyes, its mouth full of sticky fluid. Its physique was the largest among this group of zombies, and it was relatively intact, with only a wound bitten on its arm.
This zombie lunged forward, growling lowly as it clawed towards Lam Pham.
A silvery sword light flashed. There was no phwok sound; the sword entered as if cutting tofu, instantly slicing this zombie in half at the waist.
There were truly too many zombies.
After killing this zombie, from all around, from every direction, zombies pounced. For anyone else, this would be a dead end, a path with absolutely no chance of survival.
Lam Pham was terrifyingly calm. Frostmourne in his hand gave him ample courage. The three-dimensional attribute values on his panel were the key reason he could slaughter zombies.
Spinning on the spot, Frostmourne in his hand formed circular ripples. The speed of his swings was too fast, the force too heavy. The blade's friction with the air formed scorching airwaves, cutting down the lunging zombies.
Flesh, blood, and sticky fluids splattered everywhere.
[Kill Zombie] [Points +1] ...
There were truly too many zombies. At this moment, Lam Pham was like a general fighting bravely alone, standing amidst a sea of corpses, proudly defending the final position. Even though the enemy's numbers were countless, they still couldn't push him back, still couldn't shake the determination in his heart to protect this place.
"Ugh... ugh... Roar!"
Zombies have no fear, no timid emotions. Their craving for flesh and blood is the purest desire in the world. Wave after wave charged forward. With Lam Pham at the center, the surrounding zombie corpses piled higher and higher, almost forming a small mountain.
"Too many! You disgusting bunch, don't you have any rationality at all?"
Lam Pham continuously swung Frostmourne. He had never thought he would one day face so many zombies, without even a chance to talk or communicate.
The screeching sound from afar continued; that was the Screaming Zombie. It was one of the mutated zombies documented by the Desert Base, emitting special sound frequencies that could attract surrounding zombies.
Upstairs.
"Is there really still hope?"
Co Hang stared wide-eyed, hands gripping the balcony railing, completely dumbfounded. He had thought about the cruelty of the apocalypse, the terror of zombies, but seeing a massive zombie scene like in the movies with his own eyes, he was thoroughly shocked.
Once, he had watched a movie, "World War Z". There was a scene where the Wall of Hope city was breached.
At that time, he had thought, if he really encountered such a situation, he might as well just commit suicide; there was no chance of winning.
Now, a scene comparable to the movie unfolded before his eyes. He swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing. The fingers gripping the railing trembled uncontrollably.
Tran Hac hugged Phi Phi and Dinh Dinh tightly, not letting them see the situation outside. This wasn't something children should face. They clearly deserved a bright future, living carefree in the embrace of the motherland.
Vuong Khai's breathing was rapid. Terror and worry combined, making it hard for him to accept the scene before him.
They were just ordinary people. Even getting into a fistfight would make them tremble; how could they not be scared seeing this?
Suddenly.
A decisive voice, filled with absolute confidence, rang in their ears.
"Hope? What do you mean 'still hope'? What scenes haven't I, this old man, seen? Back when the country was broken, countless people said there was no hope. But as long as one person believes, then hope is still there."
"Look! He's still alive! He's fighting for hope, protecting our Duong Quang complex residence! And you're here sighing, asking if there's still hope? If Little Pham heard, what would he think? How would he see it?"
"A bird dies striving for the sky, undying for ten thousand years! Isn't it just one life? To fight for hope, even death is worthwhile!" (Translator's Note: The idiom "Người chim chết triều kiến, bất tử vạn vạn năm" is complex. It likely implies striving/ambition even in death, aiming for immortality/legacy. "A bird dies striving for the sky" captures part of the ambition.)
Old man Vuong's aura fully unfolded, his expression dominant and majestic, like a general on the battlefield facing thousands of enemy troops, yet still remaining unfazed, calm and composed.
When Lam Pham wasn't present.
Old man Vuong seemed to be the backbone of Duong Quang complex residence.
When gentle, like a warm spring breeze, like a kind neighborhood grandpa, making people feel comfortable and happy.
In low times, in moments of despair.
The old man was more like a sky-supporting pillar, holding up this piece of sky, sheltering everyone beneath him, telling them not to give up, to be full of hope for the future.
He hoped the young people before him could understand.
Hope wasn't just spoken words.
It needed to be in the heart, that anticipation within the heart.
"Old Chief, I understand." Co Hang raised his head, his eyes gleaming with a bright light – the radiance of confidence, of firm belief.
Old man Vuong patted Co Hang's shoulder with satisfaction.
He was very pleased that he could fully come to his senses.
For Old man Vuong, he was an elder of Duong Quang complex residence, and also a retired soldier. Others could panic, but he couldn't. Even if he truly panicked, he couldn't show it.
Just like Lam Pham couldn't fail.
Otherwise, Duong Quang complex residence would cease to exist.
...
"My heavens! Non-stop, non-stop! You bunch, someone is giving birth and you still come looking for trouble? Are you all lacking intelligence?"
Frostmourne in Lam Pham's hand drew arcs of silver light, the gleam of the blade, constantly cutting down zombies. Some zombies were knocked to the ground by the impact, but instead of choosing to lie flat, they erupted with unimaginable willpower, being trampled by other zombies, yet still reaching out, wanting to grab Lam Pham's ankle and bite fiercely.
With his three-dimensional attributes reaching such figures.
Lam Pham's senses were extremely sharp. Lifting his foot and bringing it down, one stomp crushed the crawling zombie's head. Sticky fluid splattered all over his shoes. He couldn't bother with these things.
The number of zombies was already frighteningly large.
Even though the speed at which he swung Frostmourne was pushed to the limit, zombies always surged forward.
Even though the apocalypse had arrived, he was always full of hope for the future. But the current number of zombies made him doubt – just how many people in the entire Hoang city had turned into zombies?
Were they countless?
Listening carefully, filtering out the zombie screeches, he could hear the pregnant woman shouting, mustering her strength, wanting the child in her belly to come out sooner.
At this time, the clear sky was covered by dark clouds. The day gradually dimmed, a shadow enveloping the sky, adding several degrees of oppression to the current atmosphere, making the savage zombies even more ferocious and terrifying.
"This is clearly a battle for light, yet even the dark clouds want to cover the light?"
Lam Pham swung his sword even faster. The edge of Frostmourne directly formed an absolute safe zone. As the number of zombies increased, he had no choice but to grab a zombie's head and spin continuously, using the zombie's body to smash the surrounding approaching zombies.
Thick blood splattered.
Flesh and organs burst all over the ground.
The street, once painstakingly cleaned by Lam Pham, was dirty again. He didn't want to see this scene, but there was no way around it because this battle was unavoidable.
"Lam Pham! The screeching zombie over there is the culprit! These zombies were all summoned by it! Kill it, and you can reduce the number of zombies!"
At this moment, Co Hang climbed onto the roof of the security room, mustering all his strength, shouting towards Lam Pham. His voice was very loud, still standing out amidst the roar of the zombie horde.
This was all he could do.
He was a soldier, but also flesh and blood. Killing one zombie might be a display of physical quality, but facing two, three, or even more zombies, he didn't think he had any hope of survival.
"Understood! Go back inside and hide!" Lam Pham said while swinging his sword.
Co Hang didn't want to distract Lam Pham and quickly left.
Lam Pham listened carefully, indeed hearing the tide-like screech from the distance. With a low growl, he swung Frostmourne in his hand horizontally, cutting the surrounding zombies in half at the waist, forming a brief absolute safe zone. Suddenly leaping, he jumped incredibly high, looking at the zombie columns on both sides of the street.
Not as long as imagined.
Immediately after.
He saw the Screaming Zombie on the second-floor roof of the shop, locked onto its position, landed rapidly, one stomp directly crushing a zombie on the spot, swept his sword horizontally, again forming a brief empty period, leaped up, and descended towards that zombie's direction.
He wanted to kill that zombie.
Upstairs.
Vuong Khai's eyes widened, watching Lam Pham leap so high. He wanted to shout in amazement – that was it, absolutely it! Before, Bro Pham must have carried him just like this, leaping over the zombie tide.
It was just that I closed my eyes and didn't see it.
At this moment.
The Screaming Zombie saw Lam Pham approaching with his sword. It instantly stopped its summoning screech, instead growling lowly, turning to flee into the distance.
"It's all because of you! You caused the results of my several days of hard work to be completely overturned! Cleaning is very hard work!"
His foot landed, thump, kicking up a circle of dust. He turned into an afterimage, covering the distance. Frostmourne in his hand drew a beautiful silver arc.
Pfft!
Slashing down from the top of the head, in an instant, the Screaming Zombie was cleaved in two.
[Kill Screaming Zombie] [Points +3]
He paid no attention.
Turned and charged back into the zombie horde, continuing to protect the community's safety. Without the Screaming Zombie's sound attraction, he just needed to kill this group of zombies.
Slash!
Chop!
Sweep!
He was like an emotionless self-defense machine, continuously reaping the zombies before him.
Zombies, to ordinary people, were indeed terrifyingly difficult to resist.
But in Lam Pham's eyes, this group were just unfriendly fellows.
He disliked unfriendly zombies or people. Everyone was clearly living with great difficulty, very uncomfortably; why continue to cause trouble for others?
After a while.
Lam Pham swung habitually, the sword hitting empty air. His body leaned forward. Hmm... looking around, it turned out there wasn't a single zombie left standing before him.
Corpses piled up everywhere.
Flesh, blood, and sticky fluids were all over the ground.
He looked down at his own condition. Frostmourne's original color was indistinguishable. His shoes, pants, and clothes were all stained with zombie blood.
There was zombie blood on his face too.
He stood quietly in place, not moving. Standing amidst the sea of corpses, surrounded by countless fragmented bodies, like a Demon God returned from hell.
"Waa... Waa..."
Listening carefully.
He seemed to hear the cry of a baby.
Not seemed like, it was the cry of a baby.
"Bro Pham! She gave birth! The baby is born! It's a boy!" Vuong Khai cried tears of joy, shouting from upstairs.
As his voice carried down.
A ray of sunlight pierced through the dark clouds, shining down.
Lam Pham, carrying his sword, looked up at the sky, a smile appearing on his face.
For him.
This battle of protection held great significance.
The radiance of hope will ultimately triumph over evil.
He did it.
Relying on Frostmourne in his hand, he truly protected Duong Quang complex residence.
The community's iron gate opened.
Old man Vuong and the others appeared at the entrance. Seeing the scene outside, everyone stood stunned for a long time, unable to recover. They were shocked by the scene before them. Seeing it with their own eyes, the impact was terrifying.
Lam Pham smiled, "Old Sir, was my five thousand salary as a security guard worth it?"
Old man Vuong, for the first time, realized little Pham's ability was actually terrifying to this extent. Recovering his senses, looking at little Pham's hopeful, sunny smile, yes, this was still the little Pham in their hearts, still the little Pham full of hope for the future. He killed so many zombies to protect Duong Quang complex residence, to allow the pregnant woman to safely give birth to her child.
What was there to be shocked about?
What was there to fear?
"Haha, worth it! Totally worth it! Your professional spirit is truly admirable!" Old man Vuong gave a thumbs up. "Nice..."
"Chopping was tiring, countless of them. Luckily Co Hang reminded me about that zombie attracting others, otherwise, who knows how many more there would have been," Lam Pham looked towards Co Hang gratefully.
Co Hang felt what he did was merely a trivial matter, just smiling and nodding.
Little did he know, the zombies in the small vicinity had already been called away by the Screaming Zombie. Even if it screamed desperately, it couldn't call many more zombies.
Old man Vuong reached out, wanting to pat Lam Pham's shoulder.
Lam Pham took a step back, "Old Sir, don't touch. I'm covered in zombie blood right now, sticky, extremely dirty. I'll go back and wash up first."
"What dirty or not dirty? Don't look down on this old man. Back in the day, I also rolled around in piles of dead bodies. That scene was definitely no less intense than this," Old man Vuong said.
Lam Pham smiled, then thought of the shotgun placed in the corner, "Just now encountered a few not-so-good people. Holding a shotgun is very dangerous, so I took their shotgun. Thinking of handing it over to the police station later. Old Sir, help me keep it safe for now."
Only then did Old man Vuong notice the shotgun in the corner, also somewhat surprised, but understanding. Our country's gun control is very strict, but some people still privately keep shotguns and other weapons. Now, under apocalyptic conditions, someone possessing a shotgun wasn't a bizarre thing.
"Okay." Old man Vuong picked up the shotgun. Back when he participated in the war, he used the Type 79 submachine gun. He felt very nostalgic. Although this was a shotgun, it was still a gun.
Room 704.
Shower room.
Water sprayed from the showerhead, cleansing his body. The sticky zombie blood had a foul smell that made one feel nauseous just smelling it.
The filth flowed down the drain.
Because of adding points.
Lam Pham's physical quality had improved to an extreme limit.
While rinsing off, he looked at the interface.
"So many points. Just like playing a game. The game involves guts, rewards obtained after gaining guts. My killing zombies was to protect the light, protect hope. Getting points is reasonable, no problem."
"Add points, add points, add points."
He really liked adding points.
There was a feeling of choosing how to reasonably distribute the three dimensions.
Looking at the interface.
[Name]: Lam Pham. [Strength]: 605. (Superhuman) [Stamina]: 487. (Superhuman) [Speed]: 428. (Superhuman) [Points]: 0.
He could feel the changes occurring in his body, as if every inch of skin and muscle came alive, constantly compressing, like a compressor turning an iron-box sized block of plastic neatly into a fist-sized plastic block.
A strange comparison.
Looking at the text in the parentheses after the interface values, it was still superhuman.
He wasn't very interested in these.
Now his mind was full of thoughts about what to do with the street environment. So many, really so many zombie corpses, blood, sticky stuff everywhere. Thinking of this made his head ache.
Lathering up with shower gel, scrubbing armpits, scrubbing crotch, rinsing clean, finishing the job. Men showering is just like that, extremely fast, not troublesome at all.
If pressed for time, resolved in two minutes. Unlike women showering, which starts at half an hour minimum.
Grabbing a bath towel to dry his body.
Walked naked into the master bedroom, put on underwear, changed into a clean set of clothes.
The security uniform was too [dirty implied].
Putting it in the washing machine, he was afraid of dirtying the machine. Could only painstakingly hand wash, hang it outside the balcony, waiting for the gentle breeze to dry the clothes.
Room 603.
When pushing open the door, everyone was there. Ly Mai was changing the dirty bedsheets and quilt.
He saw Duong Tue lying there, her face pale, forehead still sweaty. Had to say, being a mother was truly great.
In the past, women couldn't carry water, cried over a small cut, but during childbirth, they were tougher than men, stronger even. It could even be said, this wasn't something a human could normally endure.
"Thank you."
Duong Tue already knew. That she could give birth to the child wasn't just thanks to them, but also the most important person – Lam Pham, who brought them to Duong Quang complex residence.
Lam Pham smiled, "No need for thanks. As the security guard, I have the responsibility to protect the safety of the homeowners."
Nhan Ny Ny looked at Lam Pham with eyes like seeing a god. She had peeked at the situation downstairs. One look, and she was so scared she almost collapsed onto the ground.
As far as the eye could see were zombie corpses, like a scene from purgatory, striking deep into the soul.
At this moment, Lam Pham's mood was extremely cheerful.
Duong Quang complex residence officially welcomed a new life. Not just a simple life, but more like a kind of hope, a future. Like a shot of strong heart stimulant injected into everyone's hearts, letting everyone understand that hope is always there. As long as we carry hope in our hearts, then there's nothing we can't do.
He missed the past community.
Missed the past Hoang city.
Therefore, he had always been striving forward.
Lam Pham looked at the baby lying beside Duong Tue, revealing a smile, "Duong Quang complex residence has gained a new life. Have you thought of a name?"
He liked children.
Previously, when strolling in the residential area, he would always encounter children affectionately calling him uncle, even inviting him to play games together. Facing these sensible and polite children, how could one not like them?
Grandpa Tu said, "She said we saved her and her child, asked us to name him. But we didn't agree. A name follows a child for a lifetime. We think it's still best for her to name him herself. This represents her entirely; it can't be so casual."
Lam Pham nodded, "Mm, grandpa Tu makes a lot of sense."
Everyone looked towards Duong Tue. Facing everyone's gaze, Duong Tue pondered, finally nodding slowly.
"Then let's call him Jiujiu. His nickname is Jiujiu, we won't think about the formal name for now." (Translator's Note: "Jiujiu" (久久) means "long, long time" or "forever" in Chinese, implying hope for longevity. Keeping it as is, as it's a chosen name.)
Co Hang knew Duong Tue was still thinking about the man who abandoned her and her child. He shook his head, not saying anything. This kind of thing wasn't easy for anyone.
"Uncle Lam, Phi Phi sister and I were very brave! Not scared at all! Grandpa Vuong even said he'd buy us test papers! I especially like studying!"
Dinh Dinh happily went to Lam Pham's side, proactively seeking credit. Children, ah, always like to show how brave they are. For brave deeds done, they won't keep it buried in their hearts, liking to tell adults, liking to receive adults' praise.
Beside her, Phi Phi's eyes widened.
She had a bad feeling; the thing she feared most might finally happen.
Lam Pham patted Dinh Dinh's head, "Really? So brave? Grandpa Vuong wants to reward you with test papers, then Uncle will also buy you and Phi Phi a set of test papers as a reward."
"Thank you, Uncle!" Dinh Dinh jumped happily, went to Phi Phi, pulled her hand, "Phi Phi sister, Uncle wants to reward us too! Aren't you happy?"
Phi Phi already wore a mask of pain in her heart, forcing a smile, "Phi Phi... thank you, Uncle."
She didn't want it, she didn't want it! How she missed the life before! Although she studied before, it wasn't like this!
Competition, it's really too competitive! (Translator's Note: "Quyển" / "卷" (juǎn) is internet slang for intense, often internal, competition or pressure, especially in academics or work.)
She now wanted to sing a song for Dinh Dinh.
Listen to me say thank you, because of you, the four seasons are warm...(Translator's Note: This is a reference to a real Chinese song often used sarcastically online to express annoyance or forced gratitude.)
That's right, just this song. After listening, you'll understand my, Phi Phi's, feelings.
Lam Pham was very gratified.
Suffer anything, but don't let the children suffer.
He might not be able to buy expensive gifts for the two children, but study materials, test papers were no problem. Even if he had to move bricks for a day, he would save money to buy test papers for these two good children who loved studying.