Chương 180: The Hunting Loop

The round trip only took about half an hour. The zombie horde's spread wasn't particularly fast, but the three scouting the horde had retreated a few hundred meters just to be safe. Seeing Vince and Evelyn return, Raven, holding a pair of binoculars, hurried over to meet them on the roof.

"Why are they killing ordinary zombies?" She quickly glanced at the dust-covered Evelyn, then turned to the even dirtier Vince and asked.

"I mean, sure, every dead zombie is one less zombie in the world. But they've only killed a few dozen so far. What's the point?" Vince could tell she was incredibly curious. She had likely sensed that there was some unknown path to growing stronger hidden within their actions.

"Just like you said, every dead zombie is one less to deal with... What else are we going to do with our free time? It's not like mutated zombies are easy to find." Vince had no intention of giving her a straight answer. After all, explaining an upgrade path that was completely alien to ordinary Awakened would be pointless. Instead, he just gave her a sanitized version of their motives.

"Combat skills are honed strike by strike. If they don't practice by killing these things one by one, how are they supposed to fight a mutated zombie when they actually run into one? Flail their arms around like a turtle?"

"..." From the moment she woke up in the apocalypse, Raven had been inside the Quarantine Zone. Ever since Awakening, she had fought exclusively with firearms. Mutated zombies were either gunned down by heavy machine guns or flattened by howitzers. She had practically never fought a zombie with cold weapons. Even after the convoy left the Quarantine Zone, they either bypassed zombies entirely or took them out from afar with suppressed rifles. Close-quarters combat was an absolute last resort.

And even then, they used suppressed pistols. As a result, Vince's talk about "honing combat skills" didn't really resonate with her. To her, instead of grinding like this, it made more sense to just go to the firing range. Their entire tactical doctrine was built on a single, universal rule: never engage in unnecessary close-quarters combat with mutants. Every tactic was designed around destroying targets efficiently from the safest possible distance, using the minimum amount of ammunition.

Slaying zombies one by one with a melee weapon seemed utterly pointless when facing a global horde numbering in the hundreds of millions. So, she remained thoroughly unconvinced by Vince's "skill honing" excuse.

"Raven, stay here and keep watch. If the horde makes any unusual movements, notify us immediately..." Evelyn didn't know if this was Vince's true motive or just an excuse, but since he said it, there was no need to press the issue.

"We're over a dozen kilometers from the gas station. I'll have Wyatt and Holden fall back and set up relays. The walkie-talkies have an effective range of about four to five kilometers, so establishing three relay stations in between should be enough." She pulled off her gas mask, walked to the edge of the roof, and looked at Vince. Vince pulled out his walkie-talkie, scanning the area for Claire and the others.

"Claire... where are you guys?"" Kzzzt... You guys are back? We're inside the building. There's barely anyone in this residential complex, not even inside the apartments..." Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. A few seconds later, Claire's voice crackled through the radio.

"We're coming out..." Thud —A crisp sound echoed in the distance as three figures leapt from a third-story window of a high-rise, landing nimbly on the lawn. Vince took a look. Everyone's Health Bar had increased by over twenty points. It seemed this half-hour grind had been quite fruitful. Vince waved at them, then grabbed Evelyn and jumped from the roof down to the street. A moment later, Claire's trio emerged from the storefronts to rendezvous with them.

"Dage! Look!" Zoe thrust her bloodstained little hand out to Vince. Opening her palm, two crystals sat conspicuously within. Vince reached out and took them. One [Sharpness Crystal], and one [Hardening Crystal].

"Woah, impressive. Those Bone-Spur Zombies didn't rough you guys up too much, did they?" Two crystals with a 10% effective channel structure meant they had taken down two 1, 000 HP mutated zombies. And since none of their Health Bars had dropped, it meant the trio had killed two mutants flawlessly, taking zero damage. While Zoe and Claire had killed mutants before under his supervision, this was their first time operating entirely independently.

Achieving such a result proved their teamwork was already highly proficient.

"Pfft, tiny mutated zombies can't hurt us!" Hearing Vince's surprise, Zoe immediately placed her hands on her hips, tilting her chin up smugly.

"Though, Claire's shield did take a beating..." She pulled Claire forward, lifting her arm to show Vince the small buckler. The originally smooth metal surface of the buckler was now marred by several scratches and a deep gouge, but thankfully, it hadn't been pierced. System materials really did have guaranteed quality—last time, an iron wok had been skewered clean through by a Bone-Spur Zombie.

As their HP pools increased, the protective benefits of their makeshift tire-tread armor were far outweighed by the restriction to their mobility. So, they were all just wearing regular casual clothes now, aiming to maximize their agility. Claire was currently dressed in sleek, functional athletic wear, her already short hair tied back with a headband. The outfit perfectly highlighted the clean lines of her slender waist and long legs.

Holding a shield in one hand and a spear in the other, she looked like a battle maiden walking straight out of a movie screen. The splatters of gore decorating her fair skin created a stark contrast, forcibly blending her usual gentle elegance with a newfound, steely resolve. It formed a breathtakingly thrilling aesthetic. The incredibly gorgeous kind.

"How's the impact? Can you handle the force?" Vince looked at Claire, a bit worried about her using a shield to block a mutant's attacks. Sure, it could block the strike, but the kinetic force would still transfer through. He wasn't sure if her arm could take the punishment.

"Don't underestimate me. I'm fine!" Claire handed her spear to Zoe and wiped the sweat from her forehead with her free hand. Usually, Zoe was in charge of hauling her weapons, while Seth had to carry his own.

"It's just the shield..."

"As long as you're fine, the shield doesn't matter... Heh, I'll repair it for you when we get back." Vince gently rubbed her cheek with the back of his hand, only to accidentally smudge a streak of black soot across her face. He quickly pulled his hand back, grinning sheepishly.

"Were those... two crystals just now?" Evelyn walked over. She had seen Zoe hand something to Vince, and a quick glance confirmed they were zombie crystals. Previously, their chances of recovering crystals were abysmally low. Either the mutated zombie was blown to pieces by a grenade—sending the fingernail-sized crystal flying to who-knows-where—or they were sniped from within a horde, making retrieval impossible.

As for hunting mutants indoors at close range, having too few people meant insufficient firepower, and having too many meant no room to dodge, easily leading to casualties. Because of that, the few crystals she possessed were essentially bought with human lives, or obtained through sheer dumb luck by rummaging through a bisected corpse. Seeing this three-person team actually go room-to-room to fight mutated zombies in close quarters, and casually walk out with two crystals in such a short time...

it made her breath catch slightly. Awakened were already incredibly rare. A dedicated squad of Awakened formed explicitly to hunt mutated zombies was something she had never even seen before. Witnessing it firsthand, she never expected the efficiency to be this absurd. Furthermore, the crystals they obtained could be fed back into the team to further boost their strength. Repeating this process created an incredibly natural, terrifyingly effective positive feedback loop...

If only we had thirty people, three hundred people... or even thirty thousand people doing this...

"Yep, two crystals. But I can't give them to you. I have a use for these..." Vince said casually as he pocketed the loot.

"I wasn't asking for them..." Evelyn shot him a look, suppressing the tidal wave of shock in her heart. She glanced up at Raven, who was still on the distant rooftop monitoring the horde, completely oblivious to the exchange down below. If she were here right now, she would finally understand exactly where her disagreement with Vince went wrong.