92: Chapter 92 Thorns' Counterattack Displays Divine Power

"Damn! Case solved!" Chen Ze slapped his thigh in excitement; everything clicked into place instantly.

Shanghai Li Yunlong: "No wonder every time I listed a heart of the fortress, it was snapped up instantly! So that anonymous seller was you!"

Dong Mingyu: "Heehee! You found me out. Let me count… I must have bought six or seven from you, right? Mr. Li Yunlong has really helped me out a lot!"

He finished chatting with Dong Mingyu.

Chen Ze sent a message to the profiteer Old Gao. Since they were old acquaintances, they finalized the trade in just a few short sentences.

It had to be said, this guy Old Gao was truly rich; he didn't even blink when trading ten e-grade beast cores.

Just like Dong Mingyu, Old Gao didn't have a large amount of spare survival coins on hand, so he chose to use supplies to cover the price difference.

This time, Chen Ze didn't want random junk; he exchanged everything for e-grade wood.

He didn't know what method Old Gao used, but regardless, 180 units of e-grade wood arrived within half an hour.

With this, Chen Ze's upgrade materials reached a new high.

e-grade wood * 201, e-grade steel * 47, e-grade stone * 42.

"No rush to upgrade the Fortress yet!"

From last night to now, his Fortress rating had forced its way up from C+ to B+, skipping two major tiers directly.

Even with his toes, he could tell that tonight's zombie siege would be extremely violent!

Right now, he had to further strengthen the Blockhouse's defense.

Thinking this through, Chen Ze pulled up the forging table panel.

[Ding! Consume 100 e-grade wood to build 100 e-grade crossbow bolts?]

"Yes!"

As soon as he spoke, the forging table began to rumble, and the wood was rapidly cut and shaped by the machinery.

After just a moment, one hundred e-grade crossbow bolts were sitting quietly in the system's temporary storage.

(The author also knows that building an e-grade automatic crossbow directly is more cost-effective, but he doesn't have beast tendons right now, and this item shouldn't appear in the Trading House, so he can only craft crossbow bolts.)

"With these one hundred crossbow bolts, plus the 60 that came with the two crossbows, it should be enough to handle tonight's zombie horde, right?"

Chen Ze moved his mind, and the two e-grade automatic crossbows instantly assembled onto the small platform outside the Blockhouse's observation window, like two loyal death servants!

"Awoo! Awooo!~"

The shrill, low growls layered over one another, and the ground trembled with the dense, chaotic sound of stomping feet. Tonight's zombie siege had officially begun.

Inside the Blockhouse, the group gathered by the top-floor observation window, gazing into the distance with heavy expressions.

They saw countless scarlet eyes approaching rapidly; that speed was definitely not something f-grade zombies could compare to.

[Ding! Detected a large number of e-grade zombies approaching. Please respond in time!]

[Monster Information: e-grade zombie]

[Monster Description: Appearance is similar to f-grade zombies, but their destructive power, speed, and intelligence have all increased significantly!]

"They're all e-grade zombies, and the number is definitely over two hundred!"

Chen Ze took a deep breath, his heart instantly tightening.

The price for pushing his Fortress rating from C+ to B+ in one go was now laid out completely before his eyes.

He immediately assigned tasks in a deep voice, his tone brooking no argument.

"Fatty, come with me to the second floor to defend! Yalan, Mengmeng, Uncle, you all stay on the top floor and try to attack with the hand crossbows!"

He paused, then gave a solemn instruction.

"Remember, even if you can't help, absolutely do not come down without permission. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Understood!"

Wang Yalan responded immediately, an f-grade hand crossbow already appearing in her hands.

Beside her, Li Mengmeng and Duan Linhai were witnessing a zombie horde of such terrifying intensity for the first time.

Looking at the sea of scarlet eyes flooding in from below, their bodies stiffened slightly, and their hands and feet trembled.

"Got it, Boss!"

"Understood, Brother Chen Ze, we definitely won't cause you any trouble!"

By the time the two of them arrived on the second floor, the zombie horde had completely entered the optimal range of the e-grade automatic crossbows.

Chen Ze didn't order the crossbows to attack immediately; he wanted to test the passive effect of the s-grade Thorn Counter-Damage.

[Detected that the Fortress is under attack. Current durability: 1895/1900]

[s-grade talent Tycoons Armor activated. Current durability: 1895/1901]

Because there were so many zombies, about half could attack the Blockhouse simultaneously.

But even so, the Blockhouse's durability continued to drop steadily at a rate of sixty to seventy points per minute.

"Damn, the destructive power of these e-grade zombies is too fierce! Brother Ze, how are we going to fight them?"

Fatty had already drawn his e-grade spear; as soon as Chen Ze gave the order, he would definitely be the first to rush out.

Chen Ze patted him on the shoulder and spoke calmly.

"No rush, it's not our turn to deal with these small fry yet!"

Fatty looked puzzled and scratched the back of his head.

"We're not fighting? Are we just waiting for them to stand by the wall and die on their own?"

"Heh, you actually got it right, kid!"

Hearing this, Fatty was even more confused and could only crane his neck to look down below the Blockhouse.

He saw dozens of e-grade zombies packed densely against the outside of the perimeter wall, their sharp nails frantically scratching at the Blockhouse's outer wall. The ear-piercing scratching sounds rose one after another.

But whenever a zombie's body touched the wall, dense, earthy-yellow thorn barbs would suddenly shoot out from within the wall.

Like dormant vipers suddenly striking, they viciously pierced through their rotting flesh.

The foul-smelling blood flowed slowly down the thorn barbs, falling to the ground and pooling into a puddle of filth.

The zombies in the front row were covered in bloody holes in less than half a minute. Their movements gradually stiffened and slowed, their roars grew weaker, and finally, they collapsed straight at the base of the wall.

The zombies behind turned their rotting heads, their scarlet eyes seeming to search for the culprit attacking them.

But clearly, their intelligence wasn't enough to figure this out.

After a brief pause, they were driven by their instinct for destruction, stepping over the piles of their companions' corpses and rushing up one after another.

The backlash played out as expected; a new batch of zombies wailed and fell to the ground, meeting the exact same fate as the former.

In less than ten minutes, a pile of zombie corpses half a person high had already accumulated at the base of the wall, and the foul stench drifted through the windows into the second floor.

"Good heavens, what's up with those barbs? Why do they automatically attack the zombies?"

As Fatty spoke, he suddenly seemed to think of something; his eyes instantly widened, and he stuttered a little.

"Bro... Brother Ze, don't tell me you absorbed Uncle's counter-damage talent?"

Chen Ze raised an eyebrow, revealing a smug, punchable grin.

"Congratulations, you got it right!"

"Damn!"

Fatty gasped, his face full of shock.

"Brother Ze, I used to think you were abnormal enough, but looking at it now, our Blockhouse is even more abnormal than you!"