36: Chapter 36: Accompanying

Returning to the Safe Zone, the sky was completely dark.

The two wounded were carried to the beds by Zhao Ming and Su Hao. Their injuries had mostly recovered, and Sister Chen dug out emergency medical supplies to re-bandage them.

She marveled inwardly at how many tricks this man still had; a bottle of potion that looked like a drink had actually pulled two half-dead people back from the gates of hell, more effective than healing-type abilities.

Shen Bing leaned against the load-bearing pillar, seemingly hesitating about something, her eyes following Lin Yan the whole time.

Shen Bing walked over from the pillar and stood in front of Lin Yan.

"I want to go to the City Center with you."

The rooftop went quiet for a moment.

Lin Yan looked at her: "Why?"

Shen Bing's voice wasn't loud, but every word was clear.

"I know your goal isn't just ordinary zombies and mutants, but the Tyrant. If the Tyrant doesn't die, Winter City has no future. Settlements like ours, looking like we can hold on for now, are actually just struggling on death's door."

"Every time the Tyrant destroys a settlement, it becomes smarter and stronger. Once it gathers all the mutants under its command and finds the time to sweep through the districts one by one, no one will survive."

She paused, looking into Lin Yan's eyes.

"You are going to the City Center; I won't stop you. But I want to go with you, not because I want to get stronger, but because I want to help you, even if it's just a little bit."

"If... if even you can't kill the Tyrant, no one else in Winter City can do it. You are the only person I've ever seen who might be able to."

Lin Yan didn't speak; he started pulling things out from his belt.

Handfuls of zombie crystals, grayish-white, thumb-sized, emitting a dim fluorescence in the dusky light. There were at least four hundred crystals on the table. From the old commercial street to the residential area to the Sewage Treatment Plant, he had killed his way through, collecting every crystal dropped by ordinary zombies without throwing a single one away.

"Absorb all of these tonight," Lin Yan said. "Boost your ability as much as you can."

Shen Bing froze for a moment, then the corners of her mouth curled slightly.

"Don't you want these crystals yourself? You could also..."

"I can't use them," Lin Yan interrupted her. "My method is different from yours. These crystals offer me negligible improvement. You take them and use them; with more strength tomorrow, we have a better chance of surviving."

He wasn't lying; for him, crystals were just things to sell to the Federation for a few Star Coins.

Shen Bing looked at him for a long time, then picked up the crystals one by one.

"Okay."

Sister Chen put down the bandages in her hands and walked over. She didn't look at Shen Bing, but at Lin Yan.

"We can't help with the City Center business," she said in a flat tone, but every word was spoken with force. "It's not that we don't want to help, but going would only be a burden to you. But it's not that we don't support you. Uncle Zhou has drawn the map for you, and you should take all the supplies you can. If you can come back alive, we will wait for you here. If you can't come back..."

Uncle Zhou brought over two bowls of treasured liquor, handing one to Lin Yan and one to Shen Bing. As the old man handed over the bowl, he pressed down hard on Lin Yan's shoulder, said nothing, and turned to leave.

---

The next morning, before the sky was fully light.

When Lin Yan woke up on the edge of the rooftop, Shen Bing was already standing next to the blast door.

"Let's go." Lin Yan stood up.

Sister Chen handed him a marked map, on which several circles were drawn in red ink, marking the locations of supply points and mutant activity areas previously scouted by the reconnaissance team. Although they hadn't entered the core area of the City Center, these markers on the periphery could help him avoid quite a few detours.

The two went down the fire escape on the side of the rooftop, walking along the edge of the ruins toward the City Center. On the rooftop behind them, Sister Chen, Zhao Ming, and Su Hao stood behind the guardrail, their three figures stretched long in the morning light. No one waved, no one called out; they just stood there, watching the two figures disappear into the shadows of the ruins.

---

The ruins in the direction of the City Center were clearly different.

The further they went, the denser the broken walls became, the remnants of buildings standing on both sides of the road like giant tombstones. The rubble on the ground was covered by a layer of dark gray powder; stepping on it made no sound—it was bone powder formed after bones had been crushed. The stench of decay in the air was so thick it felt like someone had stuffed a wad of wet cotton in one's throat.

Zombies also started to become more numerous.

Lin Yan's kill count jumped rapidly. Ordinary zombies posed no threat to him; the bone spurs of the lickers claw popped out when he clenched his fists, and every punch brought up a spray of foul blood and minced meat. Shen Bing's frost was only used to protect herself; she didn't participate in the front-line output, saving her energy for later.

One, two, five, ten. Ordinary zombies posed no threat to Lin Yan; a few punches smashed a skull into pieces.

[Ding! Successfully killed a Level 6 zombie, gained experience: 30 points!]

[Attribute Forger triggered! Please select one of the following three attributes—]

[Constitution Fragment: +1 Constitution] [Strength Fragment: +1 Strength] [Agility Fragment: +1 Agility]

Lin Yan took a moment to choose Constitution, his fists not stopping.

Forty or fifty zombies, cleared in less than ten minutes. Lin Yan shook off the minced meat from his gloves and continued walking forward.

The second wave, the third wave followed one after another. Lin Yan's kill count jumped rapidly: every dozen or so kills, an Attribute Forger option would pop up, cycling through Constitution, Strength, and Agility. He chose Constitution every time, occasionally choosing Strength; he didn't need to add any more Agility for now.

[Kill Count: 478 / 500]

[Kill Count: 489 / 500]

[Kill Count: 498 / 500]

Lin Yan's kill count jumped to 498. Ahead was another open plaza, densely packed with at least sixty or seventy zombies. Casually killing two zombies, a cold system prompt suddenly rang in his mind.

[Total zombie kills reached 500, Evacuation Point has been activated.]

[Evacuation Point coordinates have been marked; the host can head to the Evacuation Point at any time.]

Lin Yan didn't even look at the direction of the Evacuation Point light pillar; he stepped into the plaza and cleared out the sixty or seventy zombies.

[Kill Count: 568 / 500]

[Attribute Forger x7, all selected for Constitution and Strength.]

By noon, Lin Yan's kill count had jumped to just over six hundred, and he had opened nearly a dozen Attribute Forgers in total.

Ahead was an open plaza, and faint sounds of fighting were coming from it—the crisp sound of metal clashing, the roar of explosions, and people shouting.

Lin Yan quickened his pace, bypassing a collapsed overpass pier, and the scene before him made him pause.

At the intersection on the other side of the plaza, three people were being besieged by zombies.

They weren't survivors from Winter City; Lin Yan could tell at a glance. Although their equipment wasn't luxurious, the craftsmanship and material of their breastplates, greaves, and weapons were on a completely different level from the equipment Sister Chen and the others welded from scrap metal. The short blade in one person's hand glowed with a pale green light—that was the luster only green-quality equipment had.

Awakened, people who had entered this Dungeon just like him.

It wasn't ordinary zombies besieging them; in the middle of the zombie horde, a behemoth was waving two thick arms, flipping a overturned car like a toy.

Meat Mountain.

[Monster: Meat Mountain · Elite]

[Level: 9]

[Health: 12500]

[Physical Attack: 400]

[Magic Attack: 400]

[Physical Defense: 600]

[Magic Defense: 500]

[Type: Elite mob, huge in size but slow in movement, will cause a large-scale violent explosion after death. Possesses the skill "Explosive Throw"—throws ordinary zombies to cause an explosion, dealing 500 points of magic damage.]

The three people were almost at their limit. A boy holding a shield was blocking at the very front; the surface of the shield was already cracked, and his arm was bleeding. A teenager holding a short blade was trying to attack the Meat Mountain from the flank, but there were too many ordinary zombies, and he had to cut down several with every step forward, consuming his stamina extremely quickly.

At the very back was a girl with a ponytail, her hands glowing with a pale green light, healing the two in front. But her healing light was clearly weakening; her mana was almost exhausted.

The Meat Mountain picked up a zombie and threw it toward the position between the three.

Lin Yan moved.

Speed at full capacity, he streaked across the plaza like a grayish-white lightning bolt. The thrown zombie was still in the air, but Lin Yan had already kicked it away. The zombie crashed into the nearby wall and exploded; the shockwave of the explosion was mostly blocked by Lin Yan's body.

Before the Meat Mountain could turn around, Lin Yan had already pressed against its side.

The bone spurs of the lickers claw popped out, the dark red light of Blood Burning Strike lit up on his fists, and the damage stored by the blood rage ring had been accumulating through Blood Burning Strike since he started clearing zombies in the morning—

Ten thousand points of stored damage, poured in with a single punch.

"Boom!"

The fist smashed into the Meat Mountain's waist, blasting a huge depression into the fat and muscle, and dark red body fluid spurted out from the rupture. The Meat Mountain's massive body tilted to one side, the heavy footsteps causing the ground to tremble slightly.

One punch didn't kill it. A second punch followed closely, smashing into the same spot.

"Boom!"

A hole was punched through the Meat Mountain's waist, and body fluid and minced meat sprayed out from the back. It let out a muffled roar, its massive body swayed twice, and it collapsed with a crash.

[Ding! Successfully killed a Level 9 Elite Meat Mountain, gained experience: 450 points!]

The Meat Mountain's corpse began to swell, and dense cracks appeared on its surface.

"Back off!" Lin Yan shouted, kicking the Meat Mountain's corpse toward the densest direction of the zombie horde.

"Boom!"

The violent explosion blew dozens of surrounding zombies into fragments. The rubble kicked up by the shockwave hit Lin Yan's back, most of the impact absorbed by the Licker armor.

The three Awakened were knocked to the ground by the shockwave of the explosion, but no one was injured. They climbed up from the ground, looking at the large crater in the center of the explosion, then turned to look at Lin Yan standing in front of them.

The boy holding the shield reacted first. He was panting, his voice still tinged with lingering tension: "Thanks, brother, almost lost our lives here."

The teenager with the short blade looked up and down at Lin Yan's equipment: lickers claw, Licker armor, Fire Scale Boots—all green gear, not low quality.

"Big boss, what... what level are you? Too fierce!" the teenager asked.

"Twelve." Lin Yan didn't hide it.

This person was level twelve, killing a Meat Mountain with two punches—that thing they had been fighting for nearly half an hour without even scratching the surface.

Lin Yan didn't give them time to continue being surprised.

"Which one of you has detection abilities?" he asked.

The girl with the ponytail walked out from the back, the pale green light in her hands having dissipated. Her breathing was still a bit rapid, but her tone was steady: "I do. C-rank Scout Talent, can detect the distribution of monsters and resource points in the surrounding area."

Lin Yan looked at her. In this ruined city with zombies everywhere and limited visibility, this ability was his eyes.

"In the direction of the City Center, what can you detect?"

The girl's eyebrows twitched. She didn't ask what he wanted to do, just closed her eyes and activated her talent. A few seconds later, she opened her eyes, her tone tinged with a hint of uncertainty.

"Walking toward the City Center, there are energy fluctuations of at least two resource points within a five-hundred-meter radius. But there are at least two waves of zombie hordes in between, each with over a hundred."

Lin Yan nodded.

"Lead the way. You guys open the ordinary resource points, I'll clear the zombies. Once we get to the City Center and help me find the BOSS, you guys can retreat; I won't stop you."

The three of them looked at each other. The boy holding the shield was named Ma Chen, the teenager with the short blade was named Han Yi, and the girl with the ponytail was named Song Shiyu. They weren't from the same Safe Zone; they were temporarily grouped in this Dungeon, exactly the same situation as when Lin Yan met Zheng Tong and his group in the Rift Wasteland.

Ma Chen looked at Lin Yan, then at Shen Bing, and finally at Song Shiyu and Han Yi, nodding.

"Okay. Anyway, we need to grind monsters, following you is at least safer."

Han Yi wiped the blood from his short blade on the sole of his shoe, grinning: "The thigh of a big boss who killed a Meat Mountain with two punches—would be a waste not to hug it."

Song Shiyu didn't speak, but her talent had been reactivated. Pale blue perception ripples spread outward from her feet, and she was the first to take a step toward the City Center.

The five of them continued to move toward the City Center.