Chương 20: Dwindling Numbers

Nyx reopened the status panel, and this time decided to allocate fifteen of his twenty free points to strength, while pouring the rest into agility. Status Name: Nyx Race: Human (D-Rank) Level: 5 Base Attributes Strength: 26 (+20) Agility: 17 (+5) Vitality: 9 Endurance: 13(+10) Toughness: 11 (+10) Willpower: 14 (+5) Free Points: N/A Title: The First Slayer Skill: Usurper (Unique) He parked the vehicle to the side and stepped out of the car, then retrieved the Anzio 20mm.

The difference in his strength was immediately noticeable. Previously he could barely lift the rifle; now he could hold it almost effortlessly. He also felt a distinct tightness in his muscles, like he'd just come out of the gym after an hour of lifting dumbbells. The feeling hadn't been immediate, but after a bit, he fully noticed the change in his body. He tried firing a shot at the zombies coming toward him, rifle in hand instead of braced on the ground.

As he fired, a crisp bang rang out, striking the zombie square in its side and practically bursting it apart. The recoil made Nyx lean back a bit, but not hard enough to knock him off balance. Taking a deep breath, he holstered the weapon and got back into his car, while the zombies swarmed over to claw at his window glass.

"This is really something, huh. The growth's drastic—and we haven't even gotten the chance to head to the forest and kill monsters for levels yet." Though, it probably wasn't quite as drastic as he'd been imagining, since levels didn't seem to come easily. To gain his first level, he'd had to defeat a literal boss monster, and that had only granted him a single level. Either way, the night was young, and there was still money to be made.

Since Julius had already reached tier three on his vehicle, it wouldn't be long before others caught up. He twisted the throttle of his bike and turned toward the misty mountains where the Heavenly Fleet's quarters lay. It would've been safer to just farm wolves and zombies with his own gun, but it was far more lucrative to steal an entire fleet's harvest.

What he could kill in a single night would probably earn him a few hundred gold—and that was accounting for a plentiful supply of zombies and zombie wolves, which wasn't always guaranteed, since the numbers tended to thin out after heavy kills. As he drew closer to the mountains, he noticed loud, ear-splitting sounds coming from the far south—so extreme it felt like his eardrums would split open. He quickly bought a decent pair of noise-canceling headphones from the exchange.

Yeah, those things dropped from the chests too. He'd been confused about why, but now he understood.

"They're intentionally making noise to attract more zombies, huh." Nyx took the long way around, since the closer he got to the mountain's foothills, the denser the zombie and zombie-wolf attacks became. As he swerved around one, a wolf slammed headfirst into his vehicle, its teeth nearly digging through the glass as a crack spread across it. He wrenched the wheel into a sharp turn, flinging the creature off.

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"So that's their specialty." He'd wondered what made these wolves special—they were tougher to shoot down than the walker zombies, sure, but still not as hard as the sprinters. But their jaws and fangs had enough force to crack a maxed-out window. Just to take stock of the damage they were causing, he opened the regional chat while driving up the mountain toward Heavenly Fleet's flank. Regional Chat [What are these things dawg? The fangs of this wolf just dug through my vehicle's level two armor! I'm literally driving through the plains with it stuck by my door now!] [Lol, that's funny, not gonna lie.] [You laughing now, but once you see one cracking your ass level one windows like nothing and biting your head off, then we'll see where that laughter goes.] [Fr, I literally just saw one of these zombies crack through someone's windshield, climb in, and come out with the vehicle owner's head in its mouth. I threw up seeing that.] [Hmph, I'm not broke like y'all—my vehicle's level two, with a level two tempered window.] [Damn, how are y'all upgrading your vehicles so fast man? I'm still stuck with a tier one vehicle with only the upgraded body.] [How are you even surviving than? The number of survivors across the plains already dropped below fifty thousand. You should be dead.] [I found a good spot inside the mountains to hide behind…] [Fr? Can I DM you bro? I'm in a similar situation, it would really save my life.] [Sure… I guess.] [Forget all that man, have you seen the demon Green Ghost Fleet's captain slew? A freaking level 70 wolf!] [Huh, that's nothing—just a while ago, I saw Heavenly Demon facing off against another level 70 zombie wolf, all by herself!] [Is she one of those time looping MC you often see on novels or something.] [For real, hearing about her makes me feel like a side character.] Nyx rechecked the survivor counter to verify their claims, while simultaneously contacting the Arcane Archivist to confirm whether Heavenly Demon had really been facing off against a level seventeen wolf by herself. [46879/100000]"Shit, no way this many people have already died…" More than half of them were gone already.

"It's only the second night—why are they so hell-bent on wiping us out this fast?" Nyx felt a deep sense of despair at the declining number. From what he'd seen, the more people around, the better it was for everyone. That much was clear from the appearance of the giant zombie wolf, which had taken the Green Ghost Fleet's entire crew to bring down. Sure, the final blow came from an overpowered war tank, but the wolf had already been worn down by everyone else before that.

Shaking his head, Nyx refocused on the task at hand. He made his way to the back of Heavenly Fleet's camp, moving slowly and carefully toward the cliff's edge. From above, he could see the situation unfolding below—and the scene astonished him. Nearly fifty cars sat parked in the rear, with a massive wall of sandbags forming a barricade riddled with gaps for gunmen to lay down a barrage of fire against the oncoming waves of wolves and walker zombies, which numbered well past five hundred.

The difference between Heavenly Fleet and Green Ghost Fleet lay in their formation. Green Ghost Fleet had deployed only a handful of people inside the barrier to fend off any zombies that got too close for the gunmen to shoot. Heavenly Fleet did the opposite—they kept groups both inside and outside the barrier. Those outside wielded cold weapons, cutting, slicing, and battering down anything that came near them.

Looking more closely, it was easy to see why: the waves of zombies bearing down on them far outnumbered what Green Ghost Fleet had faced. A handful of melee guards wouldn't have been enough. Their numbers were also double that of Green Ghost Fleet. Nyx didn't immediately activate his unique skill and instead just observed, picking apart each piece of their preparation one by one. They'd clearly made countermeasures for his arrival.

He spotted snipers through his goggles, perched atop trees, with more stationed far to his left. Scanning the sky for a moment longer, he noticed something small hovering overhead.

"A drone." He hadn't seen those on the exchange, hadn't seen them listed anywhere. Large shields formed a barricade separating their first line of defense from the second.

"Something's off. How'd they accumulate enough resources to recruit this many people?" These weren't just average Joes either—the frontliners with cold weapons fought like literal demons, mowing down zombies and zombie wolves with ease, and when bitten, they simply shrugged it off. The drones and varius constructed equipments also seemed like they'd been made by someone rather then dropped from a loot box.

"No fear of catching the virus either." He quickly contacted CabbageGod, and as he suspected, the guy had sold a large batch of his special produce to them, vastly reducing the virus's effects. He checked the exchange, and sure enough, the vials of antiviral potions that had remained unsold were now gone.

"So they're going to hammer the zombie hordes—with CabbageGod's special produce boosting their immunity, they won't be affected right away. And they can just inject a small dose of antiviral serum into each frontliner afterward to keep them alive." They'd also made sure to post ample guards—nearly five—to watch for anyone trying to sneak in and steal their loot. Taking in all this elaborate preparation, Nyx couldn't help but admire Heavenly Fleet.

"Sucks for you though, because I have no intention of leaving empty-handed." He smiled, and contacted Julius.