Chương 123: EXP Share?

CLANG— A crisp, drawn-out ring echoed through the stairwell like a struck bell, violently vibrating against Vince's heightened senses until his ears ached. But under Zoe's telekinetic control, the ringing quickly muffled out. The Strength-Type Mutant Zombie that had just lunged forward smashed both its fists into the iron wok, caving in the bottom, but she still managed to block the strike perfectly.

Seizing the split-second opening, Claire thrust her spear from the flank, driving it ruthlessly into the mutant's head! [697/1000]!

"Not a crit! It's still up..." Vince saw that while Claire's strike dealt solid damage, it missed the actual weak point. The moment the words left his mouth, a short spear levitated into the air and viciously plunged into the flesh just below the zombie's "head"! [622/1000]!

"Still not the core! Again! Aim lower!" Under the girls' relentless, coordinated assault, the 1000-HP mutant's Health bar finally hit zero. It crumpled to the floor. Vince, in turn, received the dropped potions and materials.

"Phew... Dage, these mutant zombies are ridiculously hard to kill!"

"It's not that they're hard to kill. You guys are just noobs." Vince roasted Zoe without mercy.

"Plus, against this tier of infected, standard steel pipes have a terrible damage cap..." When dealing with mutant freaks that easily pushed two meters tall, a four-centimeter diameter pipe barely registered. Even if you poked a hole in them, unless it was a direct hit to the core, the effective DPS was trash. All the way up to this point, Vince had relied heavily on his Crystal abilities, or sheer dumb luck, to take down mutants.

Aside from the Bone-Spike variants, almost none of these mutated zombies kept their weak points in their heads. Some had cores in their chest cavities, others in their abdomens. Earlier today, Vince had run into an even more ridiculous one: a Hardened Mutant Zombie whose weak point was literally hidden in its ass. Of course, to Vince, it didn't really matter.

Weapons buffed with Impact Energy practically one-shot these 1000-HP mobs anyway, unless he was intentionally grinding his skills or letting his mana pool regenerate. But he couldn't personally execute every single mutant zombie in the city. He had no idea where the massive wandering horde of mutants had disappeared to, but an organized zombie flash mob was definitely not good news for humanity.

Cody was so sore he couldn't even lift his arms, so Vince had dispatched him and Seth over to Ben to help process the rescued residents and clear standard zombies from the stairwells. So, with three flagged rooms left, Vince called in Zoe and Claire. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. The narrow hallway couldn't fit a massive squad anyway. The plan was simple: power level the core team first, then snowball that strength outward.

"Who got the last hit just now?" Vince asked, staring at the women's HP readouts.

"The last hit? Uh... me, I think?" Claire hesitated as she thought back.

"Zoe was mostly playing support. I'll let her take the next one."

"No need..." Vince cut her off.

"It looks like both of your stats went up..." The reason he was questioning it was that at a passing glance, both of their HP bars seemed larger than before. But he had been so hyper-focused on the mutant zombie's health pool during the fight that he had completely forgotten what their base stats were when they arrived.

"Wait a second..." Vince muttered aloud, holding back the second half of his thought. Internally, his gears were spinning. Why does it feel like my own HP went up too? Not counting the one they just dropped, he had killed eight 1000-HP mobs today, one slightly over 1000, and two absolute trash-tier ones whose max health was lower than his own... No, wait, he had to factor in that 2000-HP Big-Arm Zombie too... How much base health was that supposed to yield?

Regardless, his status readout currently sat at [895] HP, while Claire was at [181] and Zoe was at [229]. The math was getting too muddy. Vince silently memorized their exact values, lifted his spear, and ruthlessly butchered the mutant zombie's chest cavity open. He dug around until he exposed the fleshy sac containing the Crystal, which now sported a fresh puncture wound.

"Zoe, fish out the drop like last time," Vince instructed, prying the sac completely open before stepping back.

"Ugh... fine." Hearing she had to dig out another one of those slimy, disgusting rocks, Zoe couldn't help but grimace. But knowing how crucial these items were to Vince, she suppressed her gag reflex, reached into the gory wound, and after a few seconds, pulled out a multi-faceted Crystal. Vince stashed the loot into his inventory and waved them forward.

"Let's move. Next stop." With Vince leading the breach, the trio rapidly cleared the final three rooms. Luckily, all three contained mutant variants. Even better, one of them was an 1800+ HP Bone-Spike Mutant Zombie. Right as the beast shredded the iron wok and was about to blitz the two women, Vince drove his spear home, abruptly ending its short, miserable life. Double-checking his hit list to ensure no room was left uncleared, Vince led the girls back downstairs.

"How do you guys feel?" Vince asked, wiping zombie gore off his hands with a scrap of rag.

"My telekinetic force is definitely stronger, and the range feels wider..." Having tossed the shredded wok, Zoe controlled a short spear with her ability, floating it steadily forward. It reached nearly five meters away before it seemingly hit the boundary of her range and started to drop. She quickly took a step forward, bringing it back into her zone of influence, and caught it mid-air with her power.

"I feel like my physical strength ticked up too. It feels like... the equivalent of grinding ten normal zombies?" Claire weighed her spear in her hands, silently gauging the new strength in her arms and comparing it against the passive stat growth she used to get from regular kills.

"Your instincts are pretty spot-on..." Vince remarked.

"Claire, raise Ben on the radio. Tell him to send Hank over with a plasma cutter and some welding gear." He tossed her the walkie-talkie from his pocket. Catching it, Claire tuned it to Ben's channel and began relaying the request. Meanwhile, Vince led the two of them back toward the RV parked outside the clinic. Checking their visual overlays, Claire's HP had grown to [190], and Zoe's had climbed to [238]. A flat +9 HP increase for each of them.

Meanwhile, Vince's own HP bar had jumped to [930], and his Energy pool had spiked by a hundred, maxing out at [300]. Hmm... All three of their health pools had definitely scaled up. Vince had watched the combat log closely. On the second 1000-HP mutant, his HP had gone up by 10 points. But the catch was, Zoe had secured the killing blow. That kill had given both Zoe and Claire a +3 HP boost. The third mutant—the 1800+ HP one—was executed by Vince.

He got +25 HP from the kill, while the other two got a +6 HP assist bonus. The fourth, a 1000-HP mutant, mirrored the first: the girls got +3 HP each, and Vince took +10. What the hell? How is this EXP system working? Vince had never actually partied up with them to farm mutant variants before. Wait... That wasn't entirely true. He had teamed up with Claire to take down the child Bone-Spike mutant in Room 401. But back then, she wasn't Awakened yet, nor did she have a green Health bar...

Was this shared progression mechanic tied to the green HP UI?