35: Chapter 35 The Dice-Rolling Maniac

Lin Yan walked in the lead, his pace neither fast nor slow, his mind going over the gains from just now.

[Dice-Rolling Madman × 2] — There is a chance for normal monsters to drop an Attribute Forger upon death.

He knew exactly what this bond meant; every ordinary zombie he killed had the potential to drop an Attribute Forger for him. One Forger added at least 1 stat point, and if he was lucky, a Gold-tier one could add 5. If every single one had a chance to drop stat points, then farming zombies wasn't a mission—it was a windfall.

A massive windfall.

Su Hao was the first to lose his patience.

"Brother, where you came from... what were the zombies like when they first appeared?" he asked, his tone sounding a bit probing, "Were they the same as they are here?"

Lin Yan replied offhandedly: "About the same."

Su Hao's floodgates opened.

"Two years ago, when the zombies first appeared, it was actually okay. The government organized evacuations, the military set up checkpoints outside, and we ordinary people just ran or hid as we were supposed to. Later, people started awakening abilities—fire, ice, electricity, all sorts of things—and everyone felt there was hope."

He paused, his voice dropping.

"Later, the zombies started to change too. They ran faster, grew stronger, and some even evolved strange abilities. Ordinary bullets were like tickling them; they couldn't penetrate anymore. The military lines were overrun, the city fell, and we survivors were trapped in the ruins, living like rats."

Zhao Ming chimed in, his voice muffled: "Bullets ran out a long time ago. Even if we had them, they wouldn't pierce the skin of those mutants. All we can use now are axes, machetes, and shields—all welded together from scrap metal picked up in the ruins."

"Can't you make them yourselves?" Lin Yan asked.

Sister Chen, leading the way, didn't even turn her head: "There are a few on the Armory Island, and they can make bullets. But that amount? To fight zombies? A waste. It wouldn't even be enough to fill the gaps in their teeth. Their bullets are never fired at zombies; they keep them to use on their own people."

Su Hao sneered: "Those people on the Armory Island, their gun barrels never point outward."

Lin Yan didn't ask again; he understood. The survivors of Winter City had lasted two years not because of weapons, but by toughing it out.

After walking for a while longer, Sister Chen asked: "What are your plans next? Are you coming back with us to rest and regroup, or..."

Lin Yan looked at the outline of the city in the twilight, his tone flat: "I'm going to the City Center."

Everyone's footsteps stopped simultaneously.

"The City Center?" Su Hao's voice rose, "Brother, do you know how many zombies are in the City Center? Millions! They're all packed into those ruins—on the streets, in the buildings, in the subway stations—they're everywhere. Not hundreds or thousands, but millions!"

Zhao Ming also frowned: "And the zombies in that place aren't scattered; they're in nests. Hundreds of thousands gathered in one district—you kill one, the sound travels, and all the zombies nearby swarm toward you. Have you ever seen a zombie horde? It's like a tsunami; they can trample concrete roads to pieces."

Shen Bing walked up from behind, staring into Lin Yan's eyes: "And there's a Tyrant in the City Center."

"A Tyrant?"

"No one has seen what it looks like; those who have are all dead." Shen Bing's tone was very calm, "We only know it's far stronger than a Licker and can even control ordinary zombies. For two years, not a single survivor who entered the City Center has come out alive."

"Before, we had many survivor settlements. Although ordinary zombies were numerous and mutant zombies were powerful, they lacked intelligence, so we could barely survive by hiding. Ever since a Tyrant evolved, these survivor settlements in Winter City have been wiped out by the Tyrant one by one."

Lin Yan nodded, his expression unchanging.

Millions of zombies, and every single one had a chance to drop an Attribute Forger. Killing one meant one more chance to grow stronger; killing ten thousand meant ten thousand chances.

To him, the greatest treasure in this Dungeon wasn't some hidden resource point or a boss drop; it was those dense, endless swarms of zombies, every one of which could bring him permanent stat points.

"I must go," Lin Yan said.

"I need to grow stronger."

He paused, and for once, offered an explanation: "The way I grow stronger is different from you. You kill zombies to survive; I kill zombies... to become stronger the more I kill. The more I kill, the faster I grow. Millions of zombies piled up there—to me, that's not a death trap, it's a mine."

The group fell silent simultaneously.

Su Hao was anxious: "Brother! I know you want to kill zombies to get crystal cores to grow stronger, but you won't live long enough to use them! If tens of thousands of zombies rush you at once, even if you were made of iron, they'd grind you into dust!"

Sister Chen also stopped, turned around to look at Lin Yan, her scarred face exceptionally serious in the twilight.

"Su Hao is right. Zombie crystal cores can indeed help people grow stronger. Shen Bing's ice ability was trained from only being able to freeze her fingers to being able to seal off roads now, all by relying on crystal cores, but that was just a few hundred in quantity," she shook her head, "Going to the City Center to get crystal cores isn't growing stronger; it's suicide."

In Winter City, everyone knew that the crystal cores inside zombie heads were good things. They could enhance abilities, had a chance to turn an ordinary person into an ability user, and could make an ability user even stronger.

Shen Bing was able to train her ice ability to its current level within two years by relying on crystal cores dug out of zombie heads, one by one.

But hunting zombies was never a cost-effective endeavor. The stamina consumed, the weapon wear and tear, and the risk of infection when killing a single zombie barely balanced out the reward of the crystal core dug out.

Dealing with ten at once meant running at a loss, and dealing with a hundred was basically gambling with one's life. Therefore, the survivors of Winter City only killed zombies to survive; no one would take the initiative to go find swarms of zombies to kill.

Let alone going to the City Center to face millions of zombies.

That wasn't hunting; it was suicide.

Shen Bing looked at Lin Yan for a long time. She remembered his sudden change in speed in the pump room. Going from unable to catch up to a Licker to being faster than one—only ten seconds had passed in between.

What this man said earlier, "The more I kill, the faster I grow," wasn't bragging; it was literal. He could indeed grow stronger during combat, in a way that no one in Winter City could understand.

"I understand you want to grow stronger," Shen Bing's voice wasn't loud, but every word was spoken with great seriousness, "but the City Center is different. You have no time to catch your breath, no route for retreat, no support. All your stamina and abilities will be drained bit by bit. When you are out of ammunition and food, the Tyrant will appear."

She paused.

"You are strong, stronger than anyone we've ever seen. But you are not a god. You will get tired, you will get hurt, you will make mistakes. In a place like the City Center, one mistake is all it takes."

Lin Yan listened to everything everyone said, without refuting or explaining.

"Return to the safe house tonight to rest," Sister Chen didn't try to persuade him further, "Decide for yourself tomorrow."

Lin Yan knew everything they said was true—the danger of the City Center was real, the millions of zombies were real, the zombie hordes were real, and the Tyrant was real. But with millions of zombies piled up there, and every single one potentially bringing him permanent stat points, that temptation was simply impossible for him to refuse.

What others saw as a dead end, he saw as countless Attribute Forgers glowing on the ground.

This trip to the City Center, he was definitely going.