42: Chapter 42 City Center

[hextech system detects that the host has killed a hidden BOSS, triggering 1 additional Hextech selection opportunity.]

[This additional selection comes with a 20% high-quality probability bonus.]

[Generating Hextech options...]

Three light screens glowing with brilliant silver appeared out of thin air before Lin Yan.

[Current Hextech quality: Silver tier.]

[Available Hextech:]

Hextech #1: Heart to Object — Increases your maximum HP by an amount equal to half of your Mana.

Hextech #2: Erosion — Applies a defense-shattering effect when dealing damage to enemies. Each attack stacks 1 layer, up to 25 layers. Each layer shatters 20 points of physical and magical defense, lasting 5 seconds.

Hextech #3: Speed is King — Deals additional damage to targets slower than you, up to a 30% increase.

Lin Yan looked them over and chose #2. He mainly needed to deal with Dungeon BOSSes later, and at full stacks, Hextech #2 could shatter 500 points of dual resistance, allowing him to steadily increase his damage.

As for Speed is King, he knew it would only be maximized if the opponent was a target that couldn't move at all.

After arriving at the City Center, the appearance of the ruins had completely changed.

It was no longer the desolation of an occasional zombie popping up between broken walls, but a pervasive, overwhelming density that made it hard to breathe.

The remains of buildings looked as if something had burst them open from the inside; concrete rubble and twisted steel bars littered the entire street, cars were crushed into iron discs, and lampposts were twisted like pretzels.

Dark red liquid seeped from cracks in the ground, feeling sticky underfoot, as if stepping on the blood vessels of some giant creature.

The zombies had changed, too.

Their density had multiplied several times over, with gray-white figures blanketing the entire street like a moving ocean of gray and white.

Their movements were faster and more frenzied than the zombies on the outskirts; the moment they heard a sound, they would all turn their heads in unison, thousands of gray-white eyes locking onto the target simultaneously before pouncing together.

Moreover, the zombies had become more restless. Lin Yan noticed that it wasn't just a matter of numbers; their behavioral patterns had changed.

Although the zombies on the outskirts were attracted by sound, they were slow to react, had short pursuit ranges, and were easy to shake off.

The zombies in the City Center seemed to have been injected with extra energy by something; their speed had increased by at least 30%, their pursuit range had doubled, and they would actively flank from the sides or crawl out of gaps in the ruins to intercept.

"Too many Awakened from the outside have come in," Han Yi said, panting while cutting down a zombie that pounced on him. "There aren't enough zombies on the outskirts, so they're all crowding into the City Center. One person needs to kill five hundred to activate the Evacuation Point, which means two thousand for a four-person team. Where are they supposed to find that many zombies to kill on the outskirts?"

Song Shiyu crouched behind a broken wall, her perception ripples spreading outward. Her complexion wasn't good—not from overexerting her ability, but because the density of zombies in the City Center was causing her sensory system to operate in a state of overload.

"Three hundred meters ahead, at least six hundred. Two hundred meters to the front left, about four hundred. On that plaza to the rear right... at least a thousand," she opened her eyes, her tone tinged with helplessness. "They're everywhere; there's no way to avoid them."

Ma Chen planted his shield on the ground and let out a heavy breath. "That's why those Awakened are all pushing into the City Center. Once the zombies on the outskirts are killed off, they have no choice but to come in. The five-hundred-kill threshold is right there; they can't leave if they're even one short."

Lin Yan didn't join the discussion. He stood on a protruding piece of concrete, his gaze sweeping across the ruins ahead.

The skyline of the City Center was more fractured than the outskirts; several half-collapsed high-rises stood like the broken skeletons of giant beasts against the gray-yellow sky.

Sporadic gunfire and explosions could be heard in the distance; that was the sound of other Awakened in battle.

"How many more do you need?" he asked.

Ma Chen and Han Yi exchanged a glance. Song Shiyu spoke first. "I'm short by about one hundred and twenty." She was responsible for reconnaissance and healing, so her kill count had always been the lowest.

Han Yi wiped the blood off his short blade. "I'm still short by about sixty."

Ma Chen flipped his shield over to look at the new scratches on its surface. "About eighty."

The three of them combined were short by less than three hundred. Lin Yan's kill count had long since surpassed nine hundred. The five-hundred threshold no longer mattered to him, but for them, every extra kill brought them one step closer to home.

"I'll help you finish grinding before tonight," Lin Yan said. "Then we'll find a safe place to spend the night."

No one objected.

For the next hour, Lin Yan swept through all the zombie groups on the outskirts of the City Center with an almost crushing dominance.

Following Song Shiyu's detection, he went wherever there were zombie groups, one punch per kill, one every few seconds.

Ma Chen, Han Yi, and Song Shiyu followed behind to mop up.

Song Shiyu's kill count was the first to be completed. She stood on a cleared patch of ruins, closed her eyes to confirm the system prompt, and when she opened them, the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.

"That's enough."

Han Yi's kill count was also completed after an hour. He sheathed his short blade, let out a long breath, and leaned against a broken wall without moving, as if he had released all the exhaustion he'd been accumulating for days in one go.

Ma Chen was the last one to finish. He crouched on the ground, looked at the cracks on his shield, ran his fingers over the edges of the fissures, then stood up and strapped the shield back onto his back.

"It's full," he said.

The sky had turned completely dark. Song Shiyu closed her eyes and scanned the area, then pointed in a direction. "There's a half-collapsed shopping mall over there. The entrance to the underground parking lot is blocked, but the space inside is large, and there are no signs of zombie activity. We can use it to spend the night."

The five of them stepped over gravel and bone dust as they walked toward the shopping mall.

The mall's glass curtain wall was completely shattered, and the first-floor lobby was mostly blocked by collapsed floor slabs. The entrance to the underground parking lot was blocked by concrete, leaving only a narrow gap.

The underground parking lot was large. The air had a damp, musty smell, but no stench of rot, indicating that no zombies had entered here for a long time.

In the corner, some dust-covered cardboard boxes and plastic buckets were piled up, and some rusty tools and scrapped car parts were scattered on the ground.

After a day of fighting, everyone rested against the walls. Shen Bing sat next to Lin Yan and took a bite of her rations.

"What do you plan to do tomorrow?" she asked. Her voice wasn't loud, but the parking lot was so vast that the echoes dragged out every word.

Lin Yan leaned against the wall and took off the lickers claw to inspect it. The tips of the bone spurs were slightly worn, but still within an acceptable range. He put the gauntlet back on and clenched his fist; the sound of the bone spurs extending was exceptionally crisp in the parking lot.

"Keep going deeper. The core area of the City Center has even denser zombie groups, and there are Tyrants." His goal had never been just five hundred zombies.

No one said, "You're crazy." After fighting side-by-side for the day, they had accepted Lin Yan's logic. It wasn't that this person wasn't afraid; it was that he truly had the ability to do things others couldn't.

Shen Bing just gave a soft "Mm," swallowed the last bite of her rations, and closed her eyes while leaning against the wall.