51: Haozan Crystal Core

Half an hour later, Qin Shi Lei and his group arrived at the north side of Ningan City again.

The roads here were also fortified with defenses built by military personnel.

Everyone climbed a tall building and looked into the distance, seeing a vast, dark expanse of zombies continuously approaching, stretching as far as the eye could see.

Further in the distance was a river with a bridge leading to the other side.

Qin Shi Lei suggested, "Let's go to the west first to kill zombies and accumulate some crystals to make ourselves stronger."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Qin Shi Lei took out bulletproof vests and cotton armor, allowing everyone to choose what suited them best.

As soon as Zhang Xiaoli got the battle skirt, she eagerly ran into a room to change.

When she reappeared before everyone, they all felt a sense of awe.

Zhang Xiaoli, dressed in a Emerald Green battle skirt, was like an elf from the forest, agile and elegant.

The form-fitting battle skirt perfectly showcased her well-proportioned figure.

Except for a helmet and gloves, it protected over eighty-five percent of her body.

Qin Shi Lei even tried it out, and when he slashed at it with twenty percent of his strength, only a shallow sword mark appeared on the battle skirt.

Zhang Qiang and An Qian's mother changed into a bulletproof vest, while An Qian and Xie Haimei both changed into cotton armor.

In fact, these cotton armors were likely made by armor enthusiasts; although their defense was not as good as bulletproof vests, they were more beautiful than ancient cotton armors.

An Qian and Xie Haimei both exuded a heroic spirit after putting them on.

After equipping themselves, everyone returned to the west side of Ningan City.

“Boom, boom, boom.” “Tat, tat, tat.”

The sounds of artillery and gunfire were incessant.

The defensive line here was the first to be constructed and was mostly complete.

Relying on various buildings and abandoned cars, a simple defensive line was built at the city's edge.

Soldiers stood on buildings or on top of trucks, using machine guns to sweep or artillery to bombard dense groups of zombies.

For those zombies that broke through gaps in the defense, they used rifle single shots.

"Why are you back here again?" The officer from earlier recognized Qin Shi Lei's group at a glance and asked, looking up.

"Hello, Sergeant, we request to help defend Ningan City," Qin Shi Lei said.

The Sergeant next to him glanced at Qin Shi Lei and said disdainfully, "I think you're probably here to take advantage. We've killed a lot of zombies; if you're brave enough, go outside the defense line and pick them up."

Qin Shi Lei calmly replied, "Sergeant, you can assign us a section of the defense line, and we guarantee it won't fall."

"As for the crystals, of course we want them. But we certainly won't take advantage of you or pick up your spoils."

"Alright, then you'll be responsible for the fifty-meter defense line from the upper left road to the three buildings above," the officer thought for a moment and quickly assigned Qin Shi Lei and his group a position.

The road was blocked by several horizontally placed dirt trucks, the windows of the buildings were reinforced and sealed, and the passages between buildings were also blocked by furniture and miscellaneous items.

However, some smarter zombies still climbed over the tops or under the bottoms of the trucks.

According to the officer, Qin Shi Lei and his group were to eliminate the zombies that crossed the defense line.

Qin Shi Lei and his group jumped onto the bed of a dirt truck and looked out.

The shoulder-to-shoulder zombies were truly daunting to behold.

There were zombie corpses on the ground nearby and in the distance, all killed by artillery or firearms, but the continuous surge of zombies meant that the military soldiers had little chance to run outside the defense line to collect spoils.

The Sergeant from earlier thought that Qin Shi Lei and his group were there for these zombies' crystals, which was why he sarcastically remarked that Qin Shi Lei wouldn't dare go down to retrieve them.

"Let those soldiers see how we collect crystals," Qin Shi Lei said with a smile.

An Qian, holding a rocket launcher, fired a rocket every two seconds, killing anywhere from a few to twenty or thirty zombies.

Qin Shi Lei, holding a short bow, shot three arrows per second, killing three zombies.

Xie Haimei, holding a compound bow, shot one arrow per second, wounding or killing one zombie.

Soon, the zombies in their section were cleared, and the distant zombies were obliterated into fragments by the rocket launcher before they could even arrive.

Zhang Qiang and Zhang Xiaoli jumped down from the dirt truck together and began the work of extracting crystals.

"Oh, I almost forgot I have a pet tree."

Zhang Xiaoli slapped her forehead, suddenly remembering that she could release her pet to help kill zombies.

She went to a distant green belt, and with a wave of her hand, the willow tree was released, quickly rooting itself in the soil.

With one branch and dozens of willow twigs remaining, the willow immediately wrapped around the surrounding zombies like an octopus.

Once entangled, the willow twigs would grow countless sharp thorns that pierced into the zombies' bodies.

Various nutrients and the crystals in the zombies' heads were absorbed by the willow twigs.

The willow, having received ample nutrient replenishment, began to sprout countless tender buds and rapidly grew tiny new willow twigs, which then slowly grew larger, developing into a tree trunk.

"You're doing great, my little Willow, keep it up! I hope to see you grow into a Willow God soon."

Zhang Xiaoli encouraged her pet, then continued to dig for crystals.

After watching Qin Shi Lei shoot arrows for a while, Xie Haimei suddenly walked over to him and said, "Qin Dage, I absolutely admire your shooting accuracy, but I have some questions about your shooting technique."

Qin Shi Lei smiled and said, "Do you think my shooting stance is very unconventional? It's my first time handling a bow and arrow since the apocalypse. Can you teach me?"

"To have only just started learning archery so recently, and without any guidance, yet achieve perfect shots every time, Qin Dage, you truly are a natural Arrow God."

Xie Haimei exclaimed with admiration on her face.

After speaking, she unreservedly began to impart archery techniques to Qin Shi Lei.

Supported by his powerful physical prowess and without needing to worry about accuracy, Qin Shi Lei's learning of these archery techniques was immediate.

Before long, his firing rate increased from a maximum of three arrows per second to five arrows per second.

He also learned the technique of shooting three arrows simultaneously from one bow.

Suddenly, his speed at killing zombies at least doubled.

Below, Zhang Qiang and Zhang Xiaoli's speed in extracting crystals simply couldn't keep up with the speed at which Qin Shi Lei and the other two killed zombies.

Xie Haimei thought for a moment, put away her compound bow, and jumped out to help dig for crystals.

An Qian was the main force in blasting zombies, while Qin Shi Lei primarily focused on eliminating any missed zombies to prevent them from affecting Zhang Qiang and his group's crystal extraction.

Watching crystals enter Qin Shi Lei's team one by one, the soldiers on either side were filled with envy.

"Sergeant, we also really want crystals to strengthen our bodies."

"Just kill all the zombies in front of you, and there will be so many crystals you could bury yourself in them."

"Sergeant, can you say something more reliable?"

"Or you can go down and dig for crystals now, as long as those zombies don't bite you."

"Then I take back what I said."

The Sergeant who had earlier mocked Qin Shi Lei, seeing Qin Shi Lei and his group efficiently acquiring crystals, felt his cheeks flush and turned away from Qin Shi Lei's side.

An hour later.

Zhang Xiaoli and his group returned to the dirt truck with seven or eight thousand crystals.

"An Qian, give me the rocket launcher. You and the others go absorb the crystals. Don't forget your aunt's share."

Qin Shi Lei took the rocket launcher and began to bombard the area below.

After leaving three or four thousand crystals for Qin Shi Lei, An Qian and the others returned to a bus behind the defense line to absorb the crystals.

Allowing An Qian's mother to also absorb crystals was not to make her go to the battlefield and kill zombies. It was only to improve her physical fitness so she could run faster if they needed to escape.

More than an hour later.

An Qian and the others had all reached seven or eight stars, and they returned to the dirt truck, taking over the rocket launcher for defense.

Without Qin Shi Lei's firepower support, their speed in digging for crystals slowed down considerably, as they constantly had to guard against surrounding zombies.

Meanwhile, Qin Shi Lei returned to the bus to break through to the Bronze Realm.