Chapter 89
“How am I supposed to collect the nuclei?” Luo Xun’s mouth twitched as he referred to the ma.s.sive crime scene.
Yan Fei lifted the metal object covered in unknown liquid and softly looked at Luo Xun. “Not urgent, we’ll work slowly.”
The metal that made patties out of the zombies temporarily turned into fortifications. The couple hand in hand wearing rain boots walked in and started digging out crystal nuclei.
The corpse pieces were still quite large despite being smashed with slabs of metal. There were a few unbroken heads with moving mouths and most of the level two zombies were directly killed. It was a bit pitiful for these zombies that could spit water and fireb.a.l.l.s to be so suddenly killed without a struggle.
On the other hand, Li Tie and the others used the variety of junk in the bank (all sorts of rubbish that no one wanted) to add to the fortifications, making then higher.
Suddenly, a few people heard a bang and rumbling as the whole street began to shake!
“Earth, earthquake!”
“No way?! Earthquakes even during the apocalypse?”
“Who said there can’t be earthquakes after the apocalypse?”
“Wait, what is that?”
The group started in surprise as a huge metal ball the size of two or three cars rolled around.
“…It’s not going to roll all the way over here, right?”
After seeing the big iron ball come to a stop without hitting the bank, Li Tie and company finally calmed down.
“…Maybe?”
“That is too close for comfort.”
Yu Xinran leisurely stared with wide eyes and stayed in place without blinking. Song Lingling squeezed the girl’s shoulder and stayed for a bit before standing beside Xu Mei.
Xu Mei also had a helmet on, which did not show her shocked expression. Although she knew that Yan Fei’s ability was very strong but who knew he would do something so showy. Who would imagine this bowling like scene.
After another 10 minutes, a series of loud sounds came but this time everyone was more calm. They stopped to look at the movement but were not surprised. They calmly watched without batting an eyelid as unlucky zombies were knocked over like bowling pins.
Sure enough, Luo Xun and Yan Fei came back after a few minutes.
“It never occurred to me that there would be so much metal on the street. We had to split it into two parts.” Luo Xun laughed and climbed past the fortifications.
Yan Fei climbed in as well with a calm expression as if the two iron ma.s.ses had nothing to do with him.
The second metal ball looked bigger than the first, the group could see the second from behind the first metal b.a.l.l.s.
Luo Xun did not care about their expressions and patted Wu Xin’s shoulder. “We found an electrical shop over there, with fridges and freezers. We’ll take several when we go back.”
Luo Xun was not the only one who needed those, Li Tie also needed some. Once the vegetables were picked they needed to be placed in the fridge or they would lose their freshness in a few days.
“…Yes.” Wu Xin nodded and turned to his friends, what were they going to do with those metal b.a.l.l.s?
Yan Fei did not wait for them to speak, he absorbed some nuclei and commanded the metal b.a.l.l.s to deform. The metal spheres under his control instantly formed a set of walls that combined with the previous fortifications! Except for an entrance.
“Ready to dig traps.” Yan Fei checked around and confirmed the nearby zombies had been mostly cleared away.
He squatted next to Yu Xinran.
“Want to help uncle dig a hole together?”
Little Ran nodded and looked excitedly at the steel wall that had appeared – she also wanted to do magic!
Li Tie and friend’s expressions looking at the wall were interesting, unfortunately they were all wearing helmets so no one could see their faces. So it turned out the metal was for this…
Luo Xun asked from the side, “Are you afraid out here?”
The zombies were frightening to the people hiding on base who dared not come out. Not to mention the little girl was only six years old!
The little girl shook her head with the helmet on. Pulled it off to reveal her face, her expression was very normal though she looked curiously at the group. Luo Xun was sure she would not have any problems, Yan Fei nodded beside him.
It was true that children, like adults were naturally afraid of the zombies before entering the base, but what if they were all around? Although it was disgusting to see the zombies catch and eat people, but after a while people would get desensitized.
Children and adults alike most feared the dark and unknown. Seeing the zombies in the day revealed their natural habits. But at night…if someone jumped out and scared them, they could be reduced to tears.
Standing behind the fortifications, Yu Xinran would see moving zombies from a distance without the fear. Luo Xun would shoot down any zombie that ran towards them, before she would see the gruesome appearance. How would she be afraid?
The little hand stretched out from the fortifications and the metal plates blocked the girl’s hand from activating her ability.
“See the big circle that uncle just drew? Turn the ground into sand.” Xu Mei whispered beside Yu Xinran.
The little girl nodded and pressed down on the ground with bright eyes. Layer by layer, in waves the ground immediately underwent desertification!
Yu Xinran had been living with Xu Mei and Song Lingling for more than half a month. The two women had not gone out of base recently – they had a lot of nuclei in hand and Li Tie gave them some vegetables everyday, along with the points they got after the mission. It was enough for the two women and young child to stay at home for half a month.
Because Xu Mei and Song Lingling were ability users, they could easily teach how to manipulate energy and master their range and so on. Although the intensity and scope was larger, but there was a large amount of crystal nuclei set aside for her. Yu Xinran had a good time playing with the sand.
The ground sharply surged, before long the area circled was all turned into sand. They did not know how deep the little girl made the pit, but at present it was enough for a wave.
Yes, time to use it.
Luo Xun’s eyes flashed and he pointed not far ahead. “Yan Fei, blood bag!”
Zhang Yi got five blood bags from work this time. Yes, this time he brought out five! Had he not said that if all went well this time, they would fight more zombies?
Yan Fei wrapped the blood bag in metal and threw it from the bunker. He remotely punctured the bag, spreading the blood all over the ground.
“Roar, Roar!” Zombies shouted from afar.
“Zhang Yi, Xu Mei, get ready!” Luo Xun’s voice made the two step forward.
Song Lingling sat with Yu Xinran at the back on a chair from the bank, helping the girl absorb crystal nuclei.
The smell of
of blood outside attracted a large number of zombies. They growled and rushed in their direction. Li Tie and the others lifted their crossbows and started the first round of attacks – first kill the scattered zombie vanguard.
Later when there were more and more zombies, the shooters would retreat and Zhang Yi and Xu Mei would step forward.
“Burn it!” Luo Xun pointed at Xu Mei after Zhang Yi had prepared.
Xu Mei raised her hands, a small ball of fire flew towards the bunker near the sand. At the same time Zhang Yi summoned winds that did not extinguish the flames but also mixed the sand and flames together…
How scary were combination attacks? One just had to look at the wind of fire with gravel to know!
Whether it was the combination of just fire and wind, or the combo of fire and sand, or the mix of wind and sand was already beyond one’s imagination. Not to mention today’s triple combination?
*Boom, Rumble* The red sandy whirlwind slammed into the ma.s.s of zombies! As long as the wind did not snuff the flames, Zhang Yi could direct the winds to mow down zombies!
After the wave of attacks, Luo Xun looked at the various zombies in front of them and sighed. “Effect was unexpectedly good…” He only thought of the mixed attack after learning of the girl’s ability. Who knew the effect was so good and cleared out a large wave of zombies at once?
“It’s really unexpected, we did not even have to use the trap we dug out.” Yan Fei smiled as he raised a hand and fired metal shards at the zombies launching attacks.
“You two rest, absorb crystal nuclei for the next round. Li Tie, you’re up. I’ll check the pit…” Luo Xun ordered as he looked outside the bunker.
Zhang Yi had used almost all of the sand, but the hole was not deep enough.
He turned to Song Lingling holding Yu Xinran and asked. “Yu Xinran, can you still continue to make sand?”
The little girl nodded vigorously and sweetly said. “I ate! Can make lots more sand!”
Seeing her hands had some crystal nuclei, then what she just said, Luo Xun smiled and patted her head. “Good, uncle and aunt will all rely on little Ran!”
The little girl ran to the gap, the defenses that Yan Fei created had not moved.
The soil at the bottom of the pit started to change, under Yu Xinran’s control the earth once again turned into sand. How deep was the pit? It could not be measured at the moment but it must be deep. The first layer Yu Xinran had made was already pretty deep, it was estimated that two or three times would be enough to met Luo Xun’s pit requirements.
The blood bag from before was still playing a role as Yu Xinran continued to deepen the pit, some more zombies appeared. The zombies came from a little further, attracted by the scent of blood.
A few at the front were unexpectedly fast.
Seeing the speed zombie in front, Luo Xun said lowly, “Get ready, there’s a speed type zombie.”
Yan Fei had replenished the mental power used to make the large metal fence. He prepared – had not used up all the metal and the rest would come in handy.
A few zombies quickly ran towards the group. They discovered that there was food in this direction and not far away. Something in the gap had a mouthwatering scent, halfway over the zombies s.h.i.+fted positions and moved towards the gap.
*Pong, pong*
gap.
*Pong, pong* Loud noises sounded, the three speed zombies suddenly b.u.mped into a plate of iron because their speed was too high.
Luo Xun and the others clearly saw Yan Fei control the stack of metal and created a metal wall over the raiding zombies. Checking after the sound was made revealed three imprints in the metal!
Yan Fei immediately formed metal needles and pierced the zombies stuck in the wall! He clenched his fist, the needles twisted together and the three zombies were crushed to death!
Luo Xun took a deep breath and looked brightly at Yan Fei. His lover was very ferocious! But this kind of cruelty was really attractive!
The group of zombies led by the three speed zombies also had a few long range ones like fire and water types. This kind of long distance zombie the students could handle for now so under Luo Xun’s command, they changed groups.
Luo Xun also picked up his crossbow and loaded the special ammunition with mushroom juice and squatted beside Yu Xinran. The little girl was hard at work creating sand with a serious face.
Metal wind, fire, the three people stood near the perimeter. Yan Fei used metal s.h.i.+elds to block zombie attacks while the attack was preparing. This way, since the metal plates were made from separate pieces of metal and not connected to the walls…no one, including Yan Fei would be harra.s.sed by lightning type zombies!
Yan Fei raised an eyebrow in surprise, before when building the wall he would occasionally get jumped by a lightning zombie. He did not think that as long as he used mobile s.h.i.+elds the problem would be avoided. He thought that lightning powers were definitely the nemesis of his own metal powers, even remote operations may be affected.
Now that he had such a result, he waved a hand. The s.h.i.+eld previously playing a protective role turned into countless needles and flew towards the group of zombies!
The wind rose with dozens of small fireb.a.l.l.s going straight ahead. When the burning air hit the zombies pierced with needles, the heat worsened the wounds – metal and fire could also be used to together to increase lethality!
On the other hand, Luo Xu lifted his crossbow and aimed at the mouth of an injured but still attacking level two zombie with an arrow treated with mushroom juice.
The arrow accurately flew into the zombie’s mouth and pierced the head. The red liquid splashed all over the head and mouth. With a hissing sound and some faint white smoke mixed with that from the burns, the level two strength type zombie moved two steps then fell to the ground!
Luo Xun smiled widely and hit a zombie that had escaped the flaming steel needles. His current crossbow was enough to deal with tough skin zombies!
Now Luo Xun could be sure that so long as they used this weapon, even if future zombies rose to level four or five, they could use the crossbow to break the skin before injecting the liquid into the body for a killing strike. He now knew that the mushroom juice would corrode the skin from the outside or inside.
Luo Xun had already experimented with the new ammo while the fence was being built but it was not a formal battle against the enemy. How was standing on a wall sniping at clueless enemies a real fight?
Now, they had thoroughly verified the power of the poisonous mushrooms.
Several people quickly cooperated, Yan Fei specially opened a gap in the metal wall for Li Tie’sfor Li Tie’s group for a wave of zombie attacks. When the second wave of zombies had been almost eliminated, Yan Fei once again attacked after absorbing some nuclei. A number of zombies once again ran towards the group!
This time the zombies were consistent, they were further away but were attracted by the sound and smell of blood.
Li Tie and the others started shooting from the top. Yu Xinran completed a round of desertification and Song Lingling helped her absorb crystal nuclei to replenish mental energy.
There were more and more zombies outside, gradually some were pushed into the pit Yu Xinran had made. Some actually walked straight in!
“Alas, the pit is not deep enough.” Luo Xun looked sadly at the half buried, struggling zombie. He turned and waved at the group. “One more time!”
Sand, wind and fire three way joint attack was combined with Yan Fei’s metal needles. The sand was the same, the needles conducted heat better, the wind was faster. The metal needles were so fast that the weight increased. Zhang Yi could only accelerate and randomly steer, not control like he could with sand.
However, even if the needles did not hit the target, Yan Fei could control them for subsequent attacks. This did not require Zhang Yi’s manipulation.
Round after round, almost all the zombies in the area near the pit were cleanly killed by the team. As the sky began to dim, w.a.n.g Duo who was on guard suddenly shouted from the second floor. “Convoy! More than 10 cars, followed by a lot of zombies!”
“Everyone rest to restore strength, get traps ready.” Because the timing of each team’s mission was different, the return time would generally not be the same.
If anyone else went out to collect nuclei like Luo Xun’s team, the best choice would be not to occupy high ground – to slowly whittle down the zombies. Though it was possible that they would quickly get surrounded by zombies, what would happen when ammunition ran out and ability users needed to replenish with crystal nuclei?
The best option would to do as they had done – occupy a road near the base and place traps. In addition to clearing out the nearby zombies, they could also deal with zombies lured over by other convoys.
In general, teams with completed missions were anxious to return to the blockade and would not make traps and such to kill zombies. In time, the team would have hoped that there were zombies left over to deal with themselves.
Those in the city were also anxious to get out and complete tasks, would not delay and waste time harvesting unrelated objectives.
Luo Xun’s group stayed there for nearly a day, three convoys had already returned to town in the area. The zombies behind them were also all cleared up so it was a win-win method.
Sure enough, when Yan Fei threw another blood bag, half the zombies after the convoy switched targets. The cars that were pa.s.sing by the intersection were not quite sure why some of the zombies would suddenly leave. But this was advantageous to them so the team stepped on the gas to rush back to base, no one could afford to investigate.
Luo Xun had also deliberately selected this intersection, not many people would pa.s.s by since most would prefer to choose more direct, wider streets. Thus their behavior was noticed by few people.
Plus, they only went out once a month, so they did not have to worry about their homes being robbed by the greedy.