William Carter picked up a military tri-edged bayonet from the rack with some disappointment, tucked it into his waist, and slowly walked out of the armory, saying, “So there really aren’t any guns here. It’s truly a return to the age of cold weapons…”

Suddenly, a rapid and thunderous bell rang out. Copperhead’s face changed dramatically. He grabbed a standing guillotine from nearby and rushed out the door, shouting, “Hurry up! Today’s bell is especially urgent—our tribe might be in danger this time!”

William Carter followed Copperhead out of the armory with his fire axe, seeing that everyone in the tribe was busy.

The able-bodied men all grabbed their weapons and rushed out of their rooms, running toward the tribe’s walls. The women pushed out three ancient catapults from a relatively large warehouse, hurriedly loading larger stones onto them, ready to launch an attack at any moment.

Clearly, attacks like today’s had happened more than once or twice. The people were even more skilled than the militias from fifty years ago.

“What are you looking at? Hurry up! Get ready for battle!” Lauren Harris rushed past William Carter, shouting, “Get up on the wall! Today’s bell is the all-hands mobilization signal—the tribe is facing a life-or-death attack.”

“Life-or-death?” William Carter caught up with Lauren Harris in a few strides and asked, “Explain in detail.”

As she ran, Lauren Harris said, “Every so often, those zombies and mutant creatures come to attack us. The lookouts ring different bells depending on the number of enemies they see. Today’s bell is the death knell—it’s never been rung before…”

Before Lauren Harris could finish, a strong man standing on the wall let out a miserable scream and fell off. At that spot on the defensive wall, a zombie, its face covered in blood, climbed up, a chunk of fresh flesh it had just torn from the man still clamped in its mouth.

A nearby defender quickly filled the gap, chopping off the zombie’s head with a single stroke. But before he could celebrate, a jet-black zombie dog suddenly leapt up from outside the wall, biting down hard on the defender’s throat. Amid the defender’s screams, bright red blood spurted from his neck.

Another defender nearby smashed the zombie dog’s skull with a hammer, then, without hesitation, crushed the injured man’s head as well. Only this way could they prevent him from turning into a zombie after death—otherwise, the zombies would never be wiped out.

But with the first breach opened, a large number of zombie dogs began attacking a second gap. For a moment, there were even three zombies fighting people atop the wall, and countless zombie dogs charged inside the walls.

One zombie dog even rushed into a house, coming out with a small child it had bitten to death clamped in its jaws.

“David!” William Carter stopped running toward the wall and turned to dash back to his own room.

“Stop! The tribe is in danger right now!” Lauren Harris chased after William Carter, shouting loudly.

“Screw the tribe! David is my brother! Almost everyone here wants me dead! Why the hell should I risk my life for them?” William Carter charged toward his wooden hut without looking back. Suddenly, the ground not far ahead of him began to tremble.

People all around screamed and scattered in panic. Before William Carter could react, a massive black beetle over two meters long burst through the earth, blocking his path.

“Screee…”

The beetle opened its mouth and let out a strange cry, white, disgusting slime oozing from its jaws, its two black fangs writhing constantly, a foul stench wafting over.

The most shocking thing was that this beetle was clearly a cockroach! Yet it had mantis-like forelimbs, and its size was unbelievably huge!

“Watch out! Run! That’s a mantis-roach! It’s vicious and brutal, and its forelimbs are sharp enough to easily slice through a human body. Its carapace is extremely tough…” Lauren Harris shouted in alarm.

William Carter charged straight at the mantis-roach, roaring, “Get the hell out of my way!”

The mantis-roach let out another strange cry, its two sharp and powerful forelimbs just halfway raised when William Carter’s fire axe flashed with a dazzling silver light, chopping fiercely into the creature’s head.

White insect fluid sprayed from the mantis-roach’s brain, splattering William Carter with the strange, disgusting slime. The mantis-roach didn’t even have a chance to wail before its body crashed heavily to the ground, dead.

“Fuck you!” William Carter wiped a good amount of the white, disgusting slime from his face, grabbed his axe, and stomped over the mantis-roach’s body as he rushed toward his house.

The women hiding in panic nearby were all stunned, and Lauren Harris was momentarily frozen as well. The carapace on the mantis-roach’s head was said to be as tough as two millimeters of iron plate. Normally, it would take more than a dozen people working together to take down such a monster, but William Carter had finished it off alone in one blow.

“In the end, who’s the real monster…?” Lauren Harris softly asked herself.

William Carter dashed into his room without looking back, quickly slung the still-unconscious David Clark onto his back, tied him tightly with a bedsheet, and rushed out the door.