53: System Update

Qin Shilei's mind stirred, and he directly attached a small amount of vital energy to his Seven Star Sword.

A flickering lightning bolt danced on the Seven Star Sword.

Qin Shilei thrust it casually, feeling it was easier to penetrate the zombie's body.

Moreover, the lightning on the sword also increased its lethality against the zombies.

After testing his newly acquired move, Qin Shilei returned to the dirt truck and switched to a rocket launcher to bombard the zombies below.

Not long after An Qian and the others finished eating, they also returned to Qin Shilei's side.

Looking at the surging zombies, Zhang Xiaoli frowned and asked, "Qin Ge, these zombies are endless. Can we hold them off?"

They had been fighting for over four hours continuously, and the army's artillery had also been bombarding for over four hours.

It was just that the zombies outside the defense line seemed endless.

Looking out, there was nothing but zombies.

The dark, oppressive mass was truly despair-inducing.

"While the defense line hasn't collapsed yet, let's get more crystals. That way, we can increase our chances of survival."

Qin Shilei did not directly answer Zhang Xiaoli's question, only encouraging everyone to dig for more crystals.

Although he didn't know the military's troop deployment, he clearly felt that the roar of the artillery had become sparse.

After four hours of high-intensity combat, the military's ammunition might not be as abundant.

Once there was no artillery suppression, it would be much harder for everyone to defend.

Furthermore, zombies knew no fatigue and feared no death, while humans needed to rest, eat, and sleep.

All factors indicated that holding Ningan City was a slim hope.

"If everyone works together, there's always hope," Zhang Qiang said, pointing to the non-military personnel appearing on both sides of their defense line. "More and more civilians have been participating in the defense recently."

An Qian scornfully said, "Participating in the defense, my foot! They're just doing it to pick up more crystals."

Qin Shilei looked up at those people.

He saw that they rarely actively killed zombies, only simply defending. Once the nearby zombies were cleared out by the military's guns and cannons, they would immediately jump off the defense line and run to that spot to break skulls and extract crystals.

Just then, their group of five jumped outside the defense line again and ran to a spot more than ten meters away.

Two of them bent down to dig for crystals, while the other three slaughtered the zombies approaching them.

"Hurry, there are more and more zombies. We can't hold them off much longer!" The leader urged his companions who were digging for crystals.

"Boss, let's retreat first. We'll come back next time," a man in a white shirt kicked over the zombie in front of him and turned his head to shout.

The group had been down for less than two minutes when they had to choose to retreat, only collecting a mere thirty to forty crystals.

Just as they were about to run back inside the defense line to absorb the crystals, a Mutated Zombie, crawling on all fours like an animal, quietly approached them.

"Ah!"

Before they could react, the Mutated Zombie suddenly accelerated, ambushing the man in the white shirt from the side and tackling him down in one blow.

After biting the first person to death, the crawling Mutated Zombie turned and lunged at another person.

"Mutated Zombie, everyone be careful!"

The leader shouted a warning.

But just as his words fell, another person was also bitten to death by the crawling Mutated Zombie.

"Run!" This Mutated Zombie was too ferocious. Their only thought now was to run faster than the others.

However, the crawling Mutated Zombie was even faster. When they were still seven or eight meters from the defense line, two more people were killed.

Qin Shilei originally thought that since the other party dared to run outside the defense line to pick up crystals, they should have some skill, and he shouldn't steal their kills. He didn't expect that in less than two seconds, four people would be successively bitten to death.

With a thought, a short bow appeared in his hand, and he nocked an arrow and drew the string in one fluid motion.

The sharp arrow flew rapidly towards the crawling Mutated Zombie.

The Mutated Zombie saw the incoming arrow, abruptly stopped its forward lunge, twisted its body, and ran towards another person on the right.

What it didn't expect was that the sharp arrow curved and shot towards its head again.

To avoid the arrow, the crawling Mutated Zombie turned again.

However, the sharp arrow also turned again, its arrowhead always pointing at its head, and it was already less than three meters away from it.

"Ho ho."

The crawling Mutated Zombie shrieked, raised its right hand, and slapped hard, knocking the arrow to the ground.

"Oh?"

A look of surprise appeared on Qin Shilei's face.

This was his first miss since he started archery.

"Let's see how many arrows you can block."

Qin Shilei's right hand blurred into a phantom, and a series of sharp arrows flew rapidly towards the crawling Mutated Zombie.

Five arrows per second, three shots per arrow—all of Qin Shilei's archery techniques were employed.

Every arrow aimed at the vital spots on the crawling Mutated Zombie's head.

"Roar!"

Under the threat of death, the crawling Mutated Zombie's speed was pushed to its limit.

It moved left and right, leaving a trail of afterimages within a five-meter radius, yet it still couldn't shake off the tracking arrows.

"Puff, puff, puff!"

Although the crawling Mutated Zombie swatted away more than ten arrows at the last moment, three arrows still struck its eyes and cheek.

The crawling Mutated Zombie, hit by three arrows, was still not dead and turned to run into the distance.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Countless more arrows chased the crawling Mutated Zombie and embedded themselves in its head.

No matter how strong its life force was, it could only collapse powerlessly after being hit by so many arrows.

Qin Shilei stepped, arriving beside the crawling Mutated Zombie's corpse like lightning.

With a wave of his hand, he used Thunderbolt Thrust to clear the surrounding ordinary zombies, then broke open the crawling Mutated Zombie's head, pulled out a blue crystal, and picked up the qingtong treasure chest nearby.

He returned inside the defense line again.

The two surviving individuals walked over and thanked him, "Thank you for saving us."

Qin Shilei said calmly, "You're welcome. Do you still want to pick up crystals?"

The leader shook his head and said, "Sigh, we're going to find a hidden place to hide. We really don't dare to risk it again."

They had been here for two hours, hadn't picked up many crystals, but had lost four brothers. He planned to act like a coward, betting that the zombies wouldn't find him after entering the city.

Qin Shilei had originally intended to hire them to help pick up crystals, but seeing that the other party was focused on finding a place to hide, he said no more.

"Ding, system update complete."

"1. Added a national chat channel. Each message sent consumes five crystals, sending an image consumes ten crystals, and sending a video consumes fifty crystals. 2. Cultivation techniques, combat skills, and other rewards will now appear in treasure chests. 3. Zombie corpses will refresh after one day."

Qin Shilei took a moment to open the chat channel and found it bustling.

"Zhong Ying, are you still alive?"

"Someone actually advanced to the Bronze Realm. I wonder if they're from our country."

"I'm only Iron Four-star, still a long way from the Bronze Realm."

"It must be a black-hearted capitalist exploiting his subordinates to advance to the Bronze Realm so quickly."

"Great God of the Bronze Realm, where are you? Please come and save us, our city is about to be destroyed by zombies."

"Don't be silly, no matter how strong an individual's power is, they can't deal with zombies like locusts."

"I, Ye Litian, will surely become the Lord of Blue Star!"

There were people looking for relatives, asking for help, and more often, exclaiming that someone had already advanced to the Bronze Realm, hoping to cling to their coattails.

Sending messages required crystals, yet these people didn't seem to feel bad about their crystals at all.