Chapter 83: Dead Rising (V)
It was still dark when the car pulled into the base.
Nie Shuangshuang ran really fast. She arrived at the base first. When Liu Shanheng, the current highest commander of the base, heard the news she brought, he couldn't believe it at first.
"You encountered three level five zombies... and killed them all?"
After working with Jie Fangcheng for a long time, Nie Shuangshuang has become accustomed to facing such questions.
She simply reached out and threw out the crystal cores of three level five zombies.
She peeled the crystal core herself.
After all, Jie Fangcheng had no doubt about the people who went with her. It was a good thing that he saw Nie Shuangshuang didn't vomit when she peeled the crystal core.
Wei Yuan and Tao Youyuan also stepped back three meters and showed great courtesy. They bowed to each other and they could get married if they bowed again.
Nie Shuangshuang still couldn't bear it, so she went over, took a knife, and peeled it in no time.
At this time, three sparkling crystal cores the size of a baby's fist were placed in front of him. Liu Shanheng stared at them blankly, and when he blinked, two lines of tears actually shed.
How many years have passed... He hasn't seen the crystal core of a level five zombie for a long time since the death of all the level five mutants. Humans have been hiding, from human bases everywhere to the establishment of thirteen large bases. Now the ground bases are no longer in use, and humans have moved to underground life.
It has been many years since we have achieved such a victory against zombies.
"Oh!" Nie Shuangshuang was also overwhelmed by this scene. She came quickly and disappeared just as quickly.
Waiting for Jie Fangcheng and the others to come back, Nie Shuangshuang squatted in the corner of the wall at the entrance of the base.
Jie Fangcheng was curious: "What are you doing here? Counting ants?"
Nie Shuangshuang stood up, her expression still a little serious.
"You don't understand."
Jie Fangcheng sneered.
Once we entered the underground base, we saw lights on in every house. Countless people were standing quietly at the door, their eyes shining brighter than the lights themselves.
Jie Fangcheng paused.
After all, he had seen big scenes before, so he looked quite calm at this time.
When Liu Shanheng came over with red eyes, he looked straight at Jie Fangcheng.
Xie Fangcheng took two steps back and patted Zhang Daoan on the shoulder.
"I leave it to you."
After saying that, he turned around and ran, and soon met up with Nie Shuangshuang.
Nie Shuangshuang glanced at him: "What are you doing out here?"
Jie Fangcheng sighed: "You don't understand."
The two men stood at the gate of the base, one on each side, like two door gods. After waiting for half an hour, Wei Yuan finally came out of the base.
"Let's go." He looked at Jie Fangcheng with a strange expression, and then at Nie Shuangshuang.
Nie Shuangshuang said bluntly: "What's with that expression?"
Wei Yuan shook his head: "Nothing."
Only after they returned to the base did they understand what Wei Yuan's expression meant.
The underground base was bustling with activity. The pairs of eyes that had been looking at Jie Fangcheng with hope just now were gone, and everyone was busy preparing something.
As one of the most popular team leaders, Qi Chanyang greeted Jie Fangcheng warmly upon seeing him: "Brother Jie!"
After saying hello, Qi Chanyang described to the two of them what had just happened.
Tao Youyuan and his group of more than 100 people entered Base 13 as "the last survivors of a small human base."
This is also normal. Although the thirteen large human bases basically accommodate almost all the surviving humans, there are still some small human bases in remote mountainous areas or far away from the thirteen bases.
However, as time goes by, humans' strength decreases and zombies' strength increases, such small bases have become less and less.
It has been many years since we have seen humans who escaped from the destroyed small base. Liu Shanheng originally had high hopes for these new companions. After all, these people are quite strong, and there is even Tao Youyuan who can fight against level 4 zombies.
But soon, Liu Shanheng discovered that these people...what they did was really not very likable.
These people are too goal-oriented and don't look down on the people who originally lived in the base.
And what is completely different from other people in the base is that they are always very self-centered and do things in a casual manner, as if... the plight of mankind's struggle has nothing to do with them, and they don't care about the fate of mankind. They only care about whether they can live a stable life in this base and whether the mission they are doing is dangerous.
As for the future development of mankind? It is not important, their own lives are the most important.
This made Liu Shanheng dislike these people very much, but he had to be nicer to them because of their strength.
Among the one hundred new companions, the one who liaises with the base management is a man named Yi Zenan. Although he has average strength, he has a good brain.
However, Liu Shanheng disliked him the most among these new members.
Because although this guy pretends to be very approachable, he is actually very arrogant. Relying on his smart brain, he often makes comments about the situation in their base and always asks indirectly where other bases are.
Liu Shanheng and other team leaders once tried to ask this very smart man some questions, such as telling him about the base's previous development history and the current difficulties they were facing, to see if he had any insights.
But soon after, Liu Shanheng stopped talking so much to this kid.
People don't care at all!
Yi Zenan is only interested in how to get better in the base and really wants to be the commander of everyone.
Because of this previous experience, even if Jie Fangcheng proved his strength, Liu Shanheng's first thought was not "there is salvation", but in this situation, with this kind of foreign aid, how to make this foreign aid willingly help mankind.
Yes.
Although they all look like humans, Liu Shanheng hasn't considered them as companions for a long time.
At this time, a strange face appeared, and this face was left to communicate with Liu Shanheng. Liu Shanheng was still thinking about how to start the conversation, but the other party came over and shook hands with him in a very gentle manner.
"Hello, Li Tao."
"Oh, hello." Liu Shanheng calmed down and was about to say something when the other party spoke in a serious tone.
"Time is running out, and you have seen the strength of my companions. Do you have any plans on how to end this apocalypse?"
"Ah?" Liu Shanheng was stunned for a moment, then immediately nodded, "Yes. When the Level 5 Psychic was still here, we tried to formulate a plan to kill the zombies, but because the zombies' strength grew too fast, we had to give up later."
He hesitated for a moment: "I have seen Mr. Xie's strength. Is he... willing to help us?"
"certainly."
Then a player and an NPC started a meeting there. After Yi Zenan returned to the base, he felt a little calmer.
Although he didn't dare to speak in that sarcastic tone, after Zhang Daoan and Liu Shanheng finished their discussion, he couldn't help but ask: "Are we really going to listen to these NPCs?"
Zhang Daoan glanced at him and said, "They have been fighting zombies on this land for more than 230 years. Their understanding of zombies and their judgment of the intelligence are many levels higher than those of us outsiders. They also know more about their own situation than we do. Even the most arrogant person would not think that just because he has been here for a month, he can make up for the efforts of so many people for more than 200 years, right?"
"Effort? Didn't they work so hard and still get to this point?"
"We can't help it. This is a problem with the game settings, not their brains. Now with strong foreign players, things will naturally be different."
Yi Zenan's face turned grim: "According to what you said, if it weren't for Jie Fangcheng and you guys, other players wouldn't be able to clear the level, right?"
This is a question that Tao Youyuan and Wei Yuan have always wanted to ask.
The highest clearance rate of this level 3 book is 14%, which means that fourteen players have cleared it.
If you don’t have the terrifying strength of Jie Fangcheng, you can’t pass the level. The difficulty of this copy is not just level three.
"Of course not." Zhang Daoan looked at him, and also glanced at Tao Youyuan and Wei Yuan who were waiting for his answer, and reminded them, "The condition for clearing the dungeon is to survive for a month, not to end the apocalypse. It's still very simple to just survive for a month."
"Easy?" Even Tao Youyuan couldn't help but say, "You don't know, this instance is really hard to solve. When everyone first came in, they thought it would be easy to survive a month. Of course, if the base hadn't suddenly decided to fight the zombies to the death, this instance wouldn't be that difficult. But how can we get the base to cancel this plan?"
Zhang Daoan's answer was quite brief.
"The easiest way is to give the base hope or go to another base."
Not to mention Tao Youyuan and Wei Yuan, even Yi Zenan frowned and couldn't understand it at all.
"What's the meaning?"
Zhang Daoan looked at them.
"On the third day after you entered the game, a new clue appeared, saying that there was a vaccine in the Smile Building, right?"
"Yes. But that was fake news. Many players and NPCs went there, but not only did they not find the vaccine, but there were also level 5 zombies nearby, so more than half of the players died."
"It's not fake news, it should be true."
"How is that possible?" Yi Zenan retorted, "We've analyzed it. There has been no progress in vaccine research over the years. Although there may be a major change in clues after the players arrive, it doesn't make sense no matter how you think about it. The vaccine did not appear in the base, but instead appeared in the zombie pile. This is unscientific!"
"Because many people won't be in the base." Zhang Daoan looked at him. "If you want to study zombie vaccines, you need zombie viruses and zombies. But because of the infectious nature of the zombie virus and the current simplicity of the human base, it is very difficult for humans to prevent the virus from spreading among normal humans. Therefore, the few remaining scientists moved the research institute underground some distance away from the human base."
"You're right. The sudden appearance of several level 5 zombies in the zombie city does indicate that there are clues nearby... Perhaps the underground laboratory was exposed, and the human breath attracted many zombies. If it was the third day after you entered this instance, I guess the clue existed, and that was the vaccine for the zombie virus. Scientists finally developed a vaccine, but they didn't know what went wrong. They only had time to put the vaccine in the Smile Building and spread the news. If you were strong enough and united at that time, you might really be able to bring the vaccine out."
"You... these are all guesses!" Yi Zenan blushed.
The vaccine news was fake, and he told all the players this guess. As a result, he successfully stopped a small number of players and prevented them from "dying" together.
This naturally includes Tao Youyuan, the strongest player.
But if this news is true, if they could have gone to the Smile Building together at the beginning...
"Is it a guess? You can ask Captain Liu later. He should be willing to tell you." Zhang Daoan just glanced at the time. He seemed to have something else to do, so he just pointed out another clue, "If it is not really certain that there is something there that can change the fate of the entire human race, why is the base frantically sending people there?"
Yi Zenan was still shaking his head in disbelief, but Tao Youyuan had already believed it.
He was silent.
Indeed, during that period, regarding the mission to search for vaccines in the Smile Building... Liu Shanheng and his team had approached him, hoping that Tao Youyuan could take his stronger companions to take a look there.
But after analyzing that it is easy but difficult, Tao Youyuan refused.
The Smiling Building is obviously very dangerous. So many players died after going there, and there is no way to tell whether the news about the vaccine is true or false.
Shortly after Tao Youyuan refused, Liu Shanheng and others gave up for some unknown reason.
Soon after giving up, the “Spark Sustainment Plan” was launched.
They received the mission to fight a final and life-threatening battle with the zombies.
Does this sound like a decision made after hope is dashed?
"What about... going to other bases?" Tao Youyuan asked. "Xiao... it's easier said than done. All the major bases have moved underground. In order to better hide their auras, the bases are built very deep, and the entrances are quite hidden. Without a map, you can't go to other bases at all, but the person in charge of the base will not give you a map easily."
After he finished speaking, Zhang Daoan handed him the thing in his hand.
Tao Youyuan was stunned after opening it.
"map……"
"If you have enough strength, you can go find a virus vaccine. If you don't have enough strength, you can go find the commander on the third day of entering the dungeon and tell him that although you are not strong enough, you are willing to go to other bases and ask for help from other bases. Bring the masters from other bases to find a vaccine together. This vaccine is not only the hope of Base 13, but also the hope of all mankind. This is easy to think of, right?"
"No!" Yi Zenan suddenly shouted, "You are using the result to infer the reason! How could we know that these things would happen at the beginning? If I had known earlier, how could I have made this choice?"
Yi Zenan's voice was too loud, and the busy NPCs around him all looked at him, but they just glanced at him, and then those who needed to prepare to set off prepared to set off, and those who needed to rest quickly rested.
"The clearance rate of the dungeon is 14%." Zhang Daoan asked, "With such a low maximum clearance rate, you should be more alert when entering the dungeon. You can pass the dungeon by doing some repetitive, simple, non-dangerous work every day? Don't you have a clear understanding of the severity of this game? There are thirteen remaining human bases. Base No. 1 is in the middle, and the other twelve bases guard it. Base No. 13 is the last base to be moved underground. And didn't you notice that there is no minor in this base? With so many so-called clues, you should be able to see at a glance that it is very likely that you will sacrifice yourself here with the entire base, right?"
He was too lazy to explain to these people. He really didn't know what to explain about this situation that he could see through at a glance.
"Even if we don't mention this, you, as humans, have entered this dungeon, and all of humanity has reached a critical juncture of survival... The building is about to collapse, and a hundred tiny individuals actually think they have the ability to protect themselves?"
Zhang Daoan shook his head helplessly.
"You really are... a foolishly arrogant person."
After saying this, Zhang Daoan turned around and left.
He did think that the best remaining way to clear this dungeon was for Jie Fangcheng to clear it directly, but clearing it did not mean that he could play it at will.
After all, these people are right about one thing.
This copy is too large.
With such a large base, it would take Jie Fangcheng about two hundred years to chase the high-level zombies on foot.
We need to help him reduce the scope of the high-level zombies and then seek help from some external forces.
This is a very tedious and meticulous job.
Well, I need a helper.
At this time, Yi Zenan's face was already red and he didn't know what to do. Wei Yuan and Tao Youyuan were each given the task of leading a team to conduct an investigation nearby.
Nie Shuangshuang: "...So my mission is to run around the thirteen human bases and scout for any advanced zombies nearby to avoid causing large-scale human casualties?"
"Yes." Qi Chanyang was still cheerful, "Brother Li said that only you can do this job, and you are fast."
As he spoke, Qi Chanyang handed her a walkie-talkie and an instrument that could detect nearby high-level zombies, feeling a little envious.
"This kind of reconnaissance runs to many places, and they are all near human bases, so the points must be quite a lot."
The game calculates the player's contribution to the dungeon not only by counting the player's killing of monsters, after all, killing monsters is considered a contribution to the military value, and the contribution of intelligence value must also be counted.
Like investigating a new place that no one has ever been to, this kind of work seems simple, but you never know where you might pass by a place with important clues.
The system is not that smart. Just like what Zhang Daoan is doing now, players all know that he has made a great contribution, but the system doesn’t know.
The system will only sense who is the first to discover the key clue.
Like the task that Zhang Daoan assigned to Nie Shuangshuang now, Nie Shuangshuang runs around, and as long as she passes by the storage place of key clues, even if she does not come into contact with the key clues, it will be counted as a contribution by the system.
She was confused: "I always feel like he's targeting me. Is it just an illusion?"
Regardless of whether it was an illusion or not, this mission was indeed quite interesting, and Nie Shuangshuang was soon ready to leave the base in high spirits.
Jie Fangcheng was depressed: "You all have jobs, why should I go there?"
As they were talking, Zhang Daoan came out of the room, saw Jie Fangcheng, walked over, and took out a hamburger from his system backpack.
"Want to eat?" he asked.
Jie Fangcheng said "this is not good" and took it over the next second.
Zhang Daoan is quite considerate.
"Why don't you go inside and eat? There's water on the table."
"Okay." Jie Fangcheng said and went into the house.
Nie Shuangshuang watched from the side with her eyes wide open.
Only props can be put into the system backpack. Things like the pancakes made by Aunt Li definitely cannot be put in because the raw materials used are made by the players themselves.
Yes, the game has been developed for so many years, and players have fully utilized their own blood characteristics. As early as more than 40 years ago, they opened up farmland and livestock farms in the suburbs. Soon, some players who studied engineering set up food processing plants.
It is precisely because of the materials and techniques obtained by these players themselves that professional players are able to survive without investing any money.
But if you want to put food into the system backpack, you can.
Because in the player lobby, various material packages are also sold in the system's physical store, but the prices are ridiculously expensive.
For a burger like this, Nie Shuangshuang, who loves to experiment, bought the ingredients and asked someone to make it. The ingredients alone cost more than 8,000 points, and the burger he made didn't have any special properties and the taste was just average.
The most terrifying thing is this kind of thing. One hamburger takes up an entire system backpack. It can be said that it has no use other than taking up a slot in the system backpack.
The initial dungeon takes three days, and the longer ones can take more than a hundred days. In addition, there is basically no situation where you cannot get food in the dungeon, so except for players who are mentally ill and relatively wealthy, few people will prepare such things.
How come this guy with such a good brain also prepared hamburgers?
As if he saw through her doubts, Zhang Daoan just smiled politely: "I think I should get used to being summoned suddenly so often, so I prepared some food."
After he said this, Nie Shuangshuang's expression became a little embarrassed.
Is this boy hinting at her?
Nie Shuangshuang explained: "It's all because of Brother Jie. He didn't even notice it and just agreed... Ahem, um... have you eaten?"
"Not hungry." Zhang Daoan smiled, "I've been waiting in the restaurant for more than an hour. I guessed that you might have encountered an unexpected situation, so I ordered a meal."
"Oh oh oh." Nie Shuangshuang was thankful, "It's fine after eating it, it's fine after eating it."
Before she finished speaking, Zhang Daoan continued with a smile, "I took two bites, and then a white light flashed before my eyes, and I was summoned here."
Nie Shuangshuang: “…”
Nie Shuangshuang collapsed: "Brother, I was wrong! But you can't blame me, right? It was Brother Jie who invited you!"
Before she finished her words, Jie Fangcheng vaguely heard someone calling him from inside the room. He opened the door and poked his head in: "Who called me?"
Zhang Daoan took out a cup of Coke from his system backpack and asked, "Want to drink?"
"Isn't this inappropriate?" Jie Fangcheng took it and said, "Hey, have you eaten?"
Zhang Daoan said calmly, "I have eaten."
"Oh oh." Jie Fangcheng retracted his head and the door closed again.
Zhang Daoan looked at Nie Shuangshuang.
Nie Shuangshuang was very happy: "How about... when the dungeon is out, I will transfer your meal points to you?"
Zhang Daoan nodded politely: "Thank you."
"..." Nie Shuangshuang asked from the bottom of her heart, "But why do you only care about me and me? Brother Jie is the culprit, right? "
"He didn't get any points." Zhang Daoan stated the fact calmly.
.
Nie Shuangshuang set off with the dashboard intercom and a lot of complaints in his mind.
She discovered that Zhang Daoan looked like a very gentle man. In the previous instance, he wanted to share the spoils with so many players, and now he wanted to share it himself. He was really... uh, thrifty.
In the base, Tao Youyuan, Wei Yuan and others also set out with some stronger psychics.
Zhang Daoan's plan was simple.
The existing human bases are all together, and with these bases as points, they spread outward step by step like radiation.
Nie Shuangshuang and other people with faster speed acted as scouts to determine the location of the high-level zombies.
Jie Fangcheng served as a pioneer, clearing out the high-level zombies step by step.
Human NPCs and other players serve as the main force to clear out the largest number of low-level zombies.
There is also a solution to the problem of Jie Fangcheng's slow speed.
"We have only one plane left that can serve as his personal vehicle, but we don't have many parachutes."
Zhang Daoan just nodded.
After Jie Fangcheng finished eating and drinking and listened to the plan, he was very satisfied.
No need to run, just rush forward and there will be high-level zombies attacking you. What a dream!
As for the parachute...
"Oh, I don't need a parachute."
Liu Shanheng: “Ah?”
What if we don't have a parachute?
Although this plane is a fighter jet, because the zombies are evolving too fast, many of them have even developed the ability to jump. The zombie with the strongest jumping ability known so far can jump thirty meters high, so the height of the plane must be controlled above fifty meters.
Fifty meters!
Even if everyone has superpowers now, no one can jump from a height of fifty meters and survive.
But soon, Liu Shanheng saw the first person who jumped from fifty meters.
Nie Shuangshuang found the first level five zombie on the dashboard and she quickly passed the message.
"Area 12-4, 704, there's a big zombie over here!" Nie Shuangshuang couldn't help but say on the intercom, "Damn, this thing is so disgusting, it looks like a toad... OK, the toad has found me! I'm running away!"
"Coming right up!"
Nie Shuangshuang led the zombie forward at a very fast speed, and brought a few level four zombies along on the way.
She was already fast, and when she was leading these zombies she was afraid they would run away, so she even had to stop and wait sometimes.
Soon, Nie Shuangshuang heard the sound of propellers coming from the sky.
On the plane, Liu Shanheng kept giving instructions like a logistics chief.
"I believe in Mr. Jie's ability, but these zombies will generally evolve into superpowers after reaching level five. Each superpower is different, so you must be careful. Oh, yes, you can use this parachute, right? You..."
Jie Fangcheng had been scolded all the way, and when he finally saw Nie Shuangshuang, he immediately opened the door and jumped down without looking back.
Liu Shanheng: “???”
"Hey! Don't be so impulsive!!!"
Liu Shanheng immediately looked down through the open door.
With a loud "bang", Jie Fangcheng fell straight to the ground, then he drew out his two swords, rushed towards the level 5 zombies, and solved them with just two slashes. He also chopped down the level 4 zombies that surrounded him.
The [Phoenix Feather] blade in his hand was flowing with a fiery light, and it seemed as if a ray of lightning and fire was set off in the dark night forest.
He looked so relaxed, not like he was fighting dangerous zombies, but rather like he was cutting vegetables in the kitchen.
After cutting, Xie Fangcheng habitually swung his sword, and the remaining liquid on the knife "popped" onto Nie Shuangshuang's face.
Nie Shuangshuang: “…”
Even Liu Shanheng on the plane could hear Nie Shuangshuang's furious roar clearly.
"You want to die! You slapped me in the face, don't you know that? I don't know if this thing will cause acne on my face!!"
Jie Fangcheng was speechless: "Sister, you're not even afraid of kissing zombies, so why are you afraid of this?"
"You can kiss as a last resort!! As a last resort!!! Who would kiss a zombie for no reason??? Who would want to come into contact with a zombie's fluid for no reason?!!... Wait! Why is there a fork on your magic robe???"
"Maybe I was careless just now..."
“I’ll kill you ahhhhhhhhh!!!”
Without saying anything, Jie Fangcheng used his legs to push hard.
With him as the center, the entire earth instantly broke into pieces, forming a deep pit.
Xie Fangcheng jumped directly onto the ladder hanging from the plane, climbed up quickly and wiped the sweat off his face.
"Go, go."
His expression was much more frightened than when he saw a level 5 zombie.
Liu Shanheng broke out in a sweat.
This girl is really scary in another sense.
Nie Shuangshuang roared but she had not forgotten her mission. She was so angry that she even seemed to move faster. She moved among the thirteen bases, cursing and looking for the next high-level zombie.
By the time the sun rose from the east and the first ray of sunlight shone on Base No. 13, all the high-level zombies near the thirteen existing human bases had been wiped out.
The only remaining plane moved higher and higher, and Liu Shanheng came into sight of thirteen bases.
Since the day the "Spark Survival Plan" was established, everyone has been prepared to sacrifice.
——Including Base No. 1, known as the Spark.
Base No. 1 is the largest human base and the first base to move underground. To date, the base has been dug two kilometers downwards, but human habitation is only in the top one thousand meters. There are no humans in the deepest layer, only a large number of books and materials, recording thousands of years of human history and the epic battle between humans and zombies for two hundred and thirty years.
Everyone is prepared. No one knows what the final outcome of this war will be, and the source of fire to be sustained has never been human beings themselves.
It's civilization.
They are the results that prove the survival of the human species. These books and materials prove that there has been prosperity and also piles of bones on this land. There has been an intelligent race who have gone up to the sky, descended to the blue sea, soared in the wild, lived on land, and witnessed countless sunsets and sunrises.
The zombies are evolving so fast that no one knows what kind of enemy they will face in the end. Perhaps in the end, these zombies will evolve the ability to fly and hide underground, and all the preparations made by humans will be futile in front of them.
But at least they will fight to the end.
Liu Shanheng had always believed that this was the final destiny of mankind.
But now he lowered his eyelids and looked at the ground.
There are only some low-level zombies wandering around in the ground base that has long been out of use.
Liu Shanheng knew that they would soon take back the first piece of land owned by mankind on earth.
Liu Shanheng took a deep breath.
He took out a walkie-talkie and issued instructions to all human commanders deep underground.
"All bases, the current commander of Human Base No. 13, Liu Shanheng, is here to issue a general notice: Areas 1-13, level 5 zombies and most level 4 zombies have been cleared. All bases are requested to send psychics to clear the low-level zombies on the ground. I and the 13th base psychic, Jie Fangcheng, are currently patrolling the area. If there is an emergency, we will provide timely support."
"Please stay safe, and may we... may humans, meet again at dawn."
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