Chapter 16: Survivors: Luring the Monsters

Inside a room, eight men and three women stood or sat.

From time to time, they pulled out phones that looked like scrap iron to check them, their expressions filled with exhaustion and unease.

One man had his right arm wrapped entirely in bandages made from torn sheets.

The colors were garish and chaotic, yet even so, an indescribable stench drifted out.

Not a single person around was willing to approach the injured man.

The injured man was also sensible enough to shrink into a corner alone, his left hand supporting his right arm, his face full of pain.

"Click!"

The main door of the house opened, and a short, burly man entered.

A man in a gray shirt immediately stepped forward and said, "Brother Biao, how is it outside? Is there any official rescue?"

Brother Biao sighed: "What rescue personnel? It's as quiet as a ghost city outside. I barely managed to slip out not far before I spotted a zombie, which scared me into rushing back immediately."

Upon hearing this, everyone let out sighs of despair.

They had all come from all corners of the land to make their fortune together, never expecting to encounter the apocalypse.

Now that communications were cut off, everyone worried about their relatives far away.

Where was there any mood left to make money?

Besides, given the current situation, phones couldn't even be connected; how could they possibly make money?

Seeing everyone in such a state, Brother Biao encouraged them: "Everyone who came to this place is a brother or sister. As long as we help each other, we will surely overcome this difficulty."

A young man wearing glasses also took the opportunity to say: "Rather than waiting to die here, why don't we all go hunt zombies together?"

"Each time we get 10 points of experience. As long as we kill 100 of them, we can promote to Level 2."

"Later we can even reach Level 3, Level 4, Level 20. By then, we will be the rulers of this world; whatever we want, we will have. Money will just be numbers to us."

Silence. Silent silence.

The rest of the crowd looked at the glasses-wearing young man's speech, utterly speechless.

Someone muttered quietly: "Still talking about killing zombies? It's more likely we'll be killed by them. Just look at what happened to Xiao Wang and the others."

These words reached the ears of the glasses-wearing young man, making his face turn red with anger: "Kong Junxiong, you coward! You're tall and burly, yet you treat zombies like rats."

The tall Kong Junxiong mocked: "Luo Gu, you like to play the hero? You must have gone crazy reading novels. Take a good look at Xiao Li's arm; whether it can be saved is still uncertain."

"You!"

The young man with glasses, Luo Gu, spat fire from his eyes. He rolled up his sleeves and began muttering incantations.

Before the apocalypse, he might have feared the tall Kong Junxiong.

But now, almost all living people had opened their status panels, their attributes were completed, and even the thin and small him possessed strong power.

Moreover, Luo Gu had been appointed as the noble Mage; why should he fear Kong Junxiong?

"Oh, you want to release a little fire again to scare people? With your IQ, how do you have the face to be appointed as a Mage?"

Kong Junxiong was not intimidated by Luo Gu. As a Warrior who had been appointed, he had as high as 16 points of health. As for Luo Gu's little fire, it would at most drop one or two points of health.

With just one charge, he could knock Luo Gu flat on his face.

Seeing that the two sides were about to fight, Brother Biao quickly stepped out to stop them.

"Alright, alright, we are all brothers. Don't let this small matter hurt our harmony."

"Little Luo is right; we cannot stay here forever. We need to save ourselves."

"But Junxiong is also right; zombies are indeed very dangerous. Previously, we were careless and suffered heavy losses. Xiao Wang and the others unfortunately passed away, and Xiao Li was seriously injured."

"So we must make full preparations. It would be best to design some traps to lure zombies over, ensuring our own safety while leveling up as quickly as possible."

Hearing Brother Biao's words, everyone agreed one after another, and Luo Gu and Kong Junxiong also took the opportunity to back down.

They were not fools,

and they also realized that continuing like this was absolutely untenable.

If they were still ordinary people as before, perhaps they wouldn't have such initiative.

But the appearance of the status panel and the completion of attributes, plus some people having opened combat classes,

all of this brought them a glimmer of hope.

This scene was not only playing out here; similar scenes were spread across the globe.

The surviving humans began to exercise their subjective initiative to fight for survival.

"Bang!"

Fang Shi struck a flying zombie again.

At this moment, he held a steel rod with both hands, swinging it so densely that not even air could pass through amidst the horde of zombies.

One by one, zombies moved their decaying bodies, claws and teeth bared, charging toward Fang Shi.

Even though every zombie that approached was beaten until its bones were broken, tendons snapped, spine bent, and head tilted.

Yet not a single zombie retreated.

As undead creatures, they naturally possessed no emotion of fear.

Correspondingly, they loathed the scent of the living and craved the flesh of the living, wishing to devour and swallow them whole into their bellies.

As time passed, zombies even further away moved at the sound.

Gradually, they formed a dense encirclement.

This disturbance also woke the survivors hiding in their homes.

They cautiously poked their heads out and looked toward the window.

At first, the survivors thought that so many zombies gathering meant the arrival of rescue personnel.

Later, they discovered it was actually a single person charging and slaughtering through the horde of zombies.

"Heh, truly ignorant of the heavens' height and the earth's depth, another madman," a young woman with disheveled hair sneered coldly.

She could least tolerate these fools, not only disturbing her rest.

If they were to gather the shamblers downstairs, how would her boyfriend find things then?

"Xiao Xi, do not speak so; the person below is not a madman. Look at him wielding the staff, each time he strikes the shamblers flying; how great must that strength be."

A man with a square face and a full countenance of sternness said softly.

The young woman snorted coldly: "I am not a fool, how could I not know. But you must also see, as the shamblers gather, each time he strikes them flying, they are blocked by the shamblers behind."

"If this continues, with shamblers densely packed all around, where will he find the strength to strike them flying again? In the end, he will only be besieged and die; in two days, I have seen many such fools."

The square-faced man still wanted to say something, such as that the man below not only possessed great strength but also rich experience, with first-class movement, and so on.

But after looking at the woman's cold expression, in the end he said nothing.

He changed the subject: "Xiao Xi, you have not yet opened your attribute panel; perhaps next time we go out, you follow behind me, and I will control a shambler for you to kill."

Xiao Xi hugged the square-faced man's arm and coquettishly said: "Zhai Yan, I don't want to; just seeing the face of a shambler makes me feel nauseous."

"Those smells make me even more uncomfortable; besides, having you is enough for me."

Zhai Yan felt the softness at his arm, and his heart was utterly swept away.

Before the apocalypse, a goddess who had been cold and unyielding to him had become so intimate with him in just two short days.

Then, could they sleep in the same bed tonight?

Thinking of this, the thought of earnestly persuading her further faded.

What if the goddess gained strength and no longer relied on him?

The apocalypse is truly good for me.

Fang Shi, seeing the ever-increasing number of shamblers, showed a Heavy and Solemn expression on his face.

The current situation was not caused by him.

He had always acted with extreme caution, even when going out to hunt shamblers.

If he could lure enemies one by one, he would absolutely never kill them in groups.

Even if his strength was formidable, he would not do so.

Doing so, while certainly efficient, would, once trapped in a besieged situation, bring not only danger but also reduced efficiency.

Just like now, shamblers were everywhere in all directions.

Fang Shi basically found it very difficult to find an opportunity to deal a killing blow.

"Blunt attack activated."

"Successful attack on target; you dealt 7.5 damage to the target 【(Strength 15-10)/2 + Club 6 (1d8) - Natural Armor 1】."

The shambler before him had already been beaten until his chest was sunken; if only Fang Shi could step forward and deliver two or three more strikes.

He could finish off this shambler.

But Fang Shi simply did not have such an opportunity.

Every time he wanted to kill a shambler, other shamblers would attack, with one after another of their hideous claws reaching out.

Fang Shi was forced to withdraw his attack and provide aid.

After attacking for half a day, he had consumed great stamina, and the results were poor.

This was the predicament of group combat.

It was all that stupid woman's fault!

Previously, Fang Shi was hunting shamblers when he was seen by surrounding survivors.

One female survivor, for some reason, ran outside, and incidentally brought along a large group of shamblers.

Fang Shi could naturally guess the newcomer's thoughts; nothing more than seeing his formidable strength, being chased, and running over to beg for help.

But such behavior was absolutely foolish.

The gathering of numerous shamblers instantly swallowed this female survivor.

Amidst a series of shrill screams, she died in extreme agony.

And Fang Shi, because of this foolish behavior, found himself surrounded.

A few beads of sweat slid down his forehead, and he felt a slight soreness in his arms.

Fang Shi had already realized it was time to run away.

The reason he had persisted before was mostly due to greed for experience points.

After promoting to Level 2, the experience required for leveling increased to 3000.

At the same time, the experience gained from each shambler dropped to 5 points.

This meant Fang Shi needed to kill 600 shamblers to reach Level 3.

What concept was this?

To reach Level 2, Fang Shi had spent a full day, only killing seventy or so shamblers.

Six hundred; even with a slight improvement in his strength, it would still take at least four or five days.

The bulk of this time was spent on searching, luring enemies, and resting.

The residential area where Fang Shi lived had a permanent population of only around ten thousand.

Those on the streets numbered no more than a thousand; the vast majority stayed at home.

Compared to the efficiency of picking locks and breaking doors, Fang Shi preferred to clear the streets first.

But even so, he was far from satisfied.

Such efficiency was truly too low, completely unable to cope with the crisis three days later.

Three days later, creatures from another world would descend.

The surviving humans were once again massacred, with barely one in a hundred left alive.

To speak the truth, those who managed to survive were all just lucky.

Even Fang Shi, who had been reborn, could not be certain of passing through with one hundred percent success.

The only way was to rapidly increase his level.

The stronger the power, the safer one is.

Even without that survivor drawing aggro, Fang Shi would still strike.

The difference was that he would adopt a safer method, not putting himself in such a wretched state.

Very well, let it be so.

Fang Shi cast one last glance at the rotting face of the zombie.

His muscles swelled throughout his body; exerting his full strength, he swung the steel rod in a circle, driving back the zombies around him.

Then he turned and began to climb the wall of the shop.