Skullcrusher’s Hand

"No!" The zombie doctor's crimson eyes displayed human-like anger. Interestingly, it could still feel anger and suppress its emotions. Clark fell into silent contemplation.

Hesitation? Clark's heart twitched. If this zombie possessed intelligence, it would naturally know that it would die if it couldn't provide any value. So, what was it hesitating about?

Clark deliberately showed impatience and applied slight pressure with the spiked hand, pretending to be ready to take action. In the next second, he would crush its head.

"It has something!" It sensed Clark's intent to kill, and in its urgency, it managed to utter a few words.

"What is it? Speak quickly, or I'll kill you. Also, take off the glove, or I'll chop off your hand," Clark threatened.

"No, I'll die if I take it off!" Fear flashed in its eyes, and it instinctively protected its right hand.

"Not taking it off means you die now!" Clark's killing intent intensified, and the room seemed to grow colder. Anger had reached its peak, and it seemed unable to suppress its desire for flesh and blood any longer.

"Roar!" The zombie doctor's hand, wearing the glove, suddenly lunged at Clark's chest in a bizarre, explosive motion. Rather than the zombie exerting force, it was as if the glove was propelling its entire body towards Clark.

"Crack." Clark's expression remained unchanged as he swiftly twisted its right hand, breaking it. He kicked, and the burst of force shattered its knee, revealing a pale bone stub.

The gap in strength between a first-level mutant and Clark was not something a glove could bridge. Clark picked up the severed hand from the ground and directly removed the glove. Ripples of blue patterns occasionally emanated from the glove.

"Ding! Obtained blue equipment: [Skullcrusher's Hand] (Fine)

[Skullcrusher's Hand] Blue Fine: Equipment Level Requirement: Level 1 (First-level)

"Equipment Attributes: Strength +5.

"Additional Effect: ? ? ?

"Equipment Evaluation: This equipment is missing a critical component. Perhaps you can find a way to complete it. Unleash its true power.

"After completing the equipment, its quality will be upgraded from Fine to Epic."

In the central part of the glove, where something should have been embedded, Clark couldn't wait any longer. He directly put on the glove. A muffled groan. The glove tightened abruptly on his right hand, adhering tightly to his flesh. At the same time, a surging power flowed from the glove into his heart.

"Ding! Strength attribute +5." 

Clark's expression brightened. It was only the third day since the start of the apocalypse game, and he already possessed such strength. The rate at which he was becoming stronger was almost unbelievable. He clenched his fist tightly, and the sound of bones cracking echoed in the air. With one punch, he could probably directly shatter a light armored vehicle. The feeling of getting stronger was intoxicating.

Clark looked at the blank space where the glove was missing, feeling puzzled. Critical component? True power? It was difficult to imagine what effect completing this glove would have, but it truly lived up to its reputation as the apocalypse equipment that countless LJ City players had praised and longed for in their previous lives.

While Clark was deep in thought, the zombie doctor's eyes flashed with fear. Despite the pain and the loss of its legs, it ignored the agony. Without hesitation, it quickly clawed at the window ledge, attempting to escape from the office.

Clark sneered. Trying to run? With a powerful force, he reached for the zombie's head, effortlessly applying enough force to "pluck" it off. Even in this condition, the doctor-turned-zombie instinctively continued to claw at the window ledge. For a zombie, as long as its brain wasn't destroyed, any injury was inconsequential.

"Three seconds, tell me where the missing component for the glove is."

Countdown to death. The zombie doctor's resentment in its eyes turned into fear. With intelligence came the fear of death.

"I'll tell you! To save people and the item... it's in the building next door!" Under the threat of death, its speech sped up involuntarily.

Clark's heart trembled. Save people? In the building next door? Wasn't that the building where Lynn's mother was? The adjacent inpatient building might not have as many zombies as here, but it wouldn't be too few either. Compared to the open hallway structure in the Emergency Surgery Department, the danger level in the densely packed rooms of the inpatient building wouldn't be lower.

"Why is it there? Are you trying to trick me into going there?" Clark asked in a low voice, ignoring the mention of saving people.

However, upon hearing the zombie doctor's words, he also became convinced that even if the critical component wasn't there, there was likely something significant in that building. When he entered the room, the zombie doctor had been facing that building all along.

"I request that you refuse... It's there... my child. The glove... his gift! The item... is there!"

Inside the room, Clark wiped the sticky substance from his hands with a piece of cloth. A mixture of red and white filth stained the pristine ceramic, a vague reminder of the exploded head of the zombie doctor.

"Clark!" Arnold said with some anger, a trace of compassion in his eyes. With the zombie doctor no longer able to command, the force of the zombies outside pounding on the door had diminished. At least for the time being, there was no danger of the zombies breaking in.

"He mentioned that he had a child somewhere, right? I think he was willing to give us the glove; he just wanted us to help him find his child. Why did you have to kill him? He didn't want to become a zombie either. I think..."

Clark dropped the white cloth from his hand and looked at Arnold. He wasn't surprised that Arnold was upset about him crushing the zombie doctor's head. Arnold had a fundamentally kind nature, evident from the fact that he led a group of old, weak, sick, and disabled survivors.

"Do you think I'm too ruthless, devoid of humanity?"

"Even though we were planning to go to the building next door to find his child anyway, he would have willingly given us the glove and even told us where the other component was. So, I don't think we should have killed him," Arnold continued.

Clark and Arnold locked eyes, and Arnold felt he was right. "Yes! I believe he was still human! He just wanted to find his child!"

"Human?" Clark chuckled softly and walked to the cabinet in the corner of the room. "A zombie is always a zombie. From the moment he turned into one, he lost his humanity. You underestimate the horrors of the zombie virus."

Clark reached into his judgment field, shrouded in black mist. He opened the cabinet, and a pile of white bones spilled out, rolling to Arnold's feet.