Chương 6: Night of Death

It was another Black Iron Treasure Chest! Nyx immediately opened it, the familiar light flashing past him, as the notification rang loud. [Acquired Gold x5, Glass Plates x100, Universal Bullets x400, Modification Card x1, Assault Rifle (M416) x1] Nyx's eyes lit up at the last two items. He quickly retrieved the modification card from his inventory. The card materialized in his hands with the exact texture of a Pokemon card, except a bit thicker. Reading the words on its surface, his excitement calmed down a bit.

"Modification: [Recoil Removal] … not exactly a bad item." Although he'd hoped for something broken, like infinite bullets, or durability, or maybe even ballistic correction to improve his aim. Those probably came rarely. Either way, it was his second Black Iron Treasure Chest and he'd already gotten a modification card.

"It's like opening TCG booster packs of Pokemon—the more you open, the higher the chances of getting a rare one." Either way, it wasn't exactly a bad mod card; depending on how much of the recoil was removed, his aim would certainly improve. He got back into the armoured car, closed the windows, and retrieved the assault rifle next, applying the card directly to it. No drastic changes appeared on the assault rifle visually.

So, to check whether it had indeed taken effect, he fired a few shots into the distance, before switching it to full auto and firing thirty rounds within a few seconds. Amazingly enough, the card had indeed taken effect—he didn't feel even the lightest pushback from running it full auto. Next, he boarded his car and drove back toward the place he'd initially arrived at. The Humvee and machine-gun guy had already gone too far, and wasting more time chasing them would only drain his own fuel for no reason.

"Previously, my E-Bike recharged its electricity on its own, so the consumption was negligible." But this bike, as he checked the meter, was already consuming a decent chunk. It was no electric bike, and its weight, along with additional electrical mechanisms like the back camera and mini monitor, only worked to increase its fuel consumption.

He drove his car back to the initial location, and by the time he'd bought some food with one gold and satiated his hunger, the sunlight overhead had already lessened considerably. And by the time he'd reached his starting area, the sun had fully set. Nyx parked his car next to a bush and turned off every one of its lights, and anything that could make sound. He waited for several minutes in the deep darkness.

The whole plain, even though it had already been quiet during the daytime, felt several times quieter for some reason. Nyx flinched in his seat as a notification in bold red letters suddenly popped into his vision. [The first night has arrived.] As if following some command from the underworld, the quiet plains erupted with howls of the dead. Nyx immediately felt the ground vibrate, guttural sounds of hunger coming from all sides. Shit, and here I thought there wouldn't be many zombies around here…

[Retreat into the safety of your vehicles, cling onto it for dear life, or burst into the fires and blood of battle.] His heart pounded intensely in his chest, as a sensation of extreme loneliness and isolation washed over him. The sounds of wails and sprinting came from all around. Tentatively, he looked to his left, and immediately something slammed into his armoured racer's window. Blood and gore splattered across the glass as the claws of the dead scratched at it.???

I didn't even make a sound—how'd they find me? Like one ant calling the whole colony after finding a fragment of sugar, the zombies nearby all scrambled toward his car the moment the first one started slamming against his side windows. Their numbers multiplied soon after, as more zombies reached his car and began smashing at the glass. Nyx felt conflicted and unsure of what to do. Rolling down the side windows and shooting would thin their numbers and reduce the damage to his vehicle.

But that would also draw in more zombies. While he weighed his next move, the plains around him erupted into gunshots and full-auto fire. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Straight ahead, he could hear the bark of Glock 20 handguns. From his left came the rattling burst of submachine guns.

"Shit, don't tell me they've broken through those survivors' vehicles." He glanced at his own window. Although it was still holding up so far, he could see micro-cracks forming at the edges. He took a deep breath and drew his assault rifle from his inventory, the cold, heavy weight of the weapon materializing in his hands. The gunfire around him had already intensified, and he noticed the steady, intermittent pop of the handgun to his front had gone quiet. He checked the survivor count.

[90093/100000] He shook his head—it hadn't even been an hour, and nearly a thousand lives had already been snuffed out just like that. With each passing second, the gunfire around him grew louder. He aimed his muzzle toward the window on his left and leaned back in his seat, pulling slightly away from it. Since the gunfire around him wasn't drawing the zombies in front of him away, it only made sense to deal with them himself.

Maybe the noise from the other battles would mask his own and keep the whole horde from piling onto his doorstep.

"That's probably why more and more people out there are choosing to open fire instead of letting their car's durability tank." [Car Durability: 99%] He breathed a sigh of relief at the number, but at the same time, the damage accumulated in just ten minutes of assault had already cost him a percent. That was alarming too.

"I can't afford to let these things chip away at my vehicle." He cracked the window, and as the glass slid down, bloodied hands of the dead shoved inside, clawing at him. Nyx braced his gun and opened fire, full auto. It was like firecrackers going off, bullets slamming into rotten flesh with wet, squelching sounds as metal tore through meat and debris sprayed in every direction. The familiar death-confirmation notifications rolled in.

But Nyx's heart hammered faster—he leaned closer to the window, and the zombies, in turn, abandoned every other part of the vehicle to converge on his open window instead. Nyx steadied his focus and firmed his trembling grip on the gun, holding it stable. This time, he didn't let them get their hands inside. The instant one showed up at the window, he pulled the trigger, bullets tearing through the barrel and punching holes through their faces.

When the rifle clicked empty and went into reload, he drew the Glock 20 and flipped that to full auto too. It took him nearly ten minutes to kill enough that a small pile of corpses formed outside his Armoured Racer. The number still coming for his vehicle thinned to the point that none approached voluntarily to get gunned down anymore. Still, he rolled the window back up and checked his inventory. His gold had climbed to six pieces total. After breakfast, he'd had only four remaining.

"That means in this short time I've already gunned down twenty of them." Of the thousand-plus Universal Bullets he'd started with, he'd burned through several hundred taking down those twenty walkers.

"Not very efficient of me," he huffed, steadying his breath. The onslaught of these crazed fiends had made him lose his composure and fire excessively; his heart still slammed against his ribs. After a minute, he opened the regional chat to check in, since the gunfire around him hadn't let up at all—if anything, more of it kept rolling in from further out across the plains. Regional Chat [Someone help!!! Help me!!] [H-how'd they find my vehicle??! I swear to god I hadn't made a beep!] [Damn it! They run at fifty kilometers per hour! My dilapidated motorcycle can't keep up!] [Holy fuck, fifty kilometers? Which mf named them walkers again? Bastard, do you not have eyes? How are these walkers!? Shit, there goes my windshield!] Nyx chimed in to share some of his experience. [Guys, there's no point keeping your vehicle switched off and sitting still. Kill all the zombies in your area and leave, or if you can't do that, just start the car and head for a spot with fewer zombies.] [Hey boss, you seem to be handling this well, can you help me out here? My ammo's about to run out!] [Thanks for the advice boss, I'm getting out of this shithole right now, heading for the mountains on my mountain bike! Hopefully there's less of them up there!] [Guys… guys help… help…] [Shit, this thing! What is this?! It smashed through my window in one hit! Fuck!] [I've said this before—anyone alone should group up. Even if you have to pay a fee, at least you'll survive! My group, Green Ghost Fleet, is hiring. Anyone interested, come to the foothills of the Northern Stone Mountain range. Don't forget to bring a few gold coins and a working gun! By the way, our boss has a heavy battle tank.] [Here come the capitalist motherfuckers, profiting off people's misery.] [My group is also hiring—coordinates are the Misty Mountains to the south. We've got a Humvee and a Gatling gun with infinite bullets. Requirements: a functioning vehicle, at least ten gold, and a gun.] Nyx switched off the chat and focused on driving through the open plains, running over any and all zombies in his path. Inwardly, he sighed—the grouping up had already begun. It wasn't unexpected that those with advantages would try to form parties and claim leadership positions. Still, he hadn't expected them to launch recruitment campaigns in the middle of everyone's desperation.

"They're more ruthless than I gave them credit for." Just then, his radio crackled as someone came through. [Anyone strong around here! Please help! I'm on a Polaris RV and my undercarriage's clogged up with zombie corpses! It's slowly grinding to a halt. Please help!] Nyx heard several replies come in for the guy's call, most of them from other vehicles also fleeing hordes of zombies, the sounds of wailing and gunfire bleeding clearly through their radios.

[I've got a machine gun and a fully armoured sedan—I can come rescue you, but it'll cost you at least ten gold!] Nyx's face turned dark at the blatant exploitation of someone's vulnerability.