15: Chapter 15 Monster Individual Levels

The Supplies Room was one of the names people used for the warehouse; members of the Supplies Group placed items that residents of the Shelter could use here for everyone to exchange.

Of course, if someone had good items or temporarily useless materials in hand, they could also trade them here for energy blocks or contribution points.

This was a wooden building, square and dilapidated.

Right in view were completely open left and right folding doors, with a rickety wooden table placed at the very front, and a member of the Supplies Group sitting behind the table.

Behind the member were several rows of wooden cabinets holding some simple items, such as daggers, soap, clothes, shoes, and so on.

There were not many items, nor were they particularly precious, but they were all things that could be used in daily life.

In addition, there was a row of canned goods, rumored to be produced by Jumu City, filled with cured meats.

The taste seemed pretty good, but they were a bit expensive, costing three contribution points.

These things were provided to members of the Guard Team to improve their quality of life.

Some were traded from other Shelters, while a portion, such as clothes, came from the hands of the Supplies Group.

The wasteland had no money to serve as wages; to maintain the operation of the entire town, it was necessary to make some distinctions in treatment, such as food and daily necessities beyond energy blocks.

There was another entrance inside the shop, and behind it was the real warehouse.

Only members of the combat group could exchange for the items inside.

Wang Ting came to the Supplies Room holding a metal piece engraved with 10 contribution points.

"Brother Zhou, I am here to exchange for some private equipment. I am going out on a mission."

The lean uncle whom Wang Ting addressed as Brother Zhou raised his head. "So fast?"

Zhou Chao raised an eyebrow, thinking of the recent rumors outside the town, and he said, "Go inside, I will take you to take a look."

He led Wang Ting inward.

The warehouse inside was still guarded by someone.

At a glance, there were actually quite a few weapons; rifles and pistols were placed on the table for maintenance, and a large amount of ammunition was piled nearby.

"The town does not forbid private equipment. Sometimes handy private equipment is the key to saving your life, but rifles are not allowed to be exchanged as private equipment. If you snatch them yourself outside, that is a different story."

Not banning weapons was not because they didn't want to, but because they couldn't.

Even though Zhao Kun and Fan Da were powerful, their subordinates would not completely hand over their safety to others.

Guard Team members without weapons, relying purely on physical fitness, might not be able to withstand the siege of rioters.

The reason rifles were not allowed to be exchanged was that rifles were very expensive.

Even if Scarecrow Town could trade supplies, the rifles here were limited—fewer than a hundred in total, not even enough for everyone to have one.

Wang Ting nodded, his gaze sweeping over the remaining things.

"I only have 10 contribution points."

Wang Ting got straight to the point, stating his contribution points.

Zhou Chao gave a grunt of acknowledgment and pondered for a moment.

"Pistols require 50 contribution points, and bullets are counted separately at 5 contribution points per magazine. For 10 contribution points, that means a crossbow or a machete."

"Patrol or exploration?"

"Patrol."

"If it's a patrol mission..."

Zhou Chao walked up to a metal rack and took down a machete slightly shorter than a forearm.

The sharp blade gleamed with a metallic luster.

"Patrol missions are different from exploration missions; there isn't a huge demand for using pistols, and the danger level is slightly lower. But sometimes a machete can better protect you instead."

"However, it also depends on your usage habits; some people prefer military entrenching tools."

"I will take the machete."

Wang Ting only pondered for a moment before nodding and agreeing.

"When your strength is a bit stronger, you can actually exchange it for an alloy machete. Its durability is much better than this one."

Zhou Chao grinned widely, then handed the machete to Wang Ting.

After Wang Ting exchanged for his supplies, they began their patrol mission the next day.

Zhao Hu's main squad was divided into three sub-squads, led respectively by him, Li Jinming, and Sun Hui.

Li Jinming and Sun Hui were his deputies, and both were outstanding in terms of strength and experience.

Under the scorching sun, the roads of Scarecrow Town were cracked with fine, spiderweb-like fissures.

A puff of dust rose from the compacted dirt road.

The surrounding wall was dilapidated yet towering, and sections of razor wire wrapped around the five-meter-high concrete wall.

Guard Team members stood in the passageway on the inner side of the wall, holding weapons and vigilantly scanning the situation around the town, occasionally using binoculars to observe whether the vagrants wandering around the town had any unusual movements.

Wang Ting and Zhao Hu mustered at the main gate.

The metal gate was about three meters high and four meters wide, welded together using large metal pillars as a framework.

The thick iron plates had traces of rust, but they were firmly welded to the metal skeleton, forming a heavy gate.

"Check your weapons well. Once you step out of this gate, you must be responsible for your own life."

The gate opened with a creak.

The friction sound between the metal pivots made people feel even more irritable under this blazing sun.

Heat waves blurred the distant vision, and gravel rolled across the muddy-yellow earth with the hot wind.

The withered and sparse grass rustled, and not far away, a gnarled, menacing withered tree had fallen onto the cracked ground.

Wheel ruts extended all the way into the distance along the rusted metal gate, disappearing into the gravel-covered expanse.

"Keep up. You guys are more familiar with the wasteland than I am; most places are in this ghost of a state."

Zhao Hu walked at the very front, his lean cheeks bearing a bit more sternness, and one hand tightly gripping the rifle in front of him.

Wang Ting was in the middle of the team, holding a rifle he had just collected from the armory and two magazines, with his own equipped machete at his waist, following the team as they walked outward.

'Such a dry smell of gravel, and the smell of blood...'

The trait of Corrupted Olfaction gave Wang Ting a different sensory experience; beneath this piece of wasteland, blood had seeped deep into the ground.

Beneath the wall, they had killed zombies, Lizard Hounds, Carrion Spiders... and of course they had also killed people, including those vagrants who wanted to break through the checkpoint.

Patrols all had a set route.

Centered around Scarecrow Town, extending outward along the main road for about three kilometers, climbing up Sea-buckthorn Slope, and then following the path to make a large semi-circle before returning inside the town.

The entire route was about thirty kilometers.

Patrolling, observing, and returning required at least 14 hours, so previously it was done in phased patrols with three shifts.

As for the current journey, even with the division, it was estimated to take about 4 hours of travel time, not to mention observation time; most of the day would pass by.

"These 3 contribution points are really not easy to get."

Fine sweat seeped out.

Xiang Nan in the team squinted slightly at the sun, his mouth slightly dry, scanning the surrounding environment.

The entire team had been walking for more than an hour, and the scorching sun baked people's skin until it felt burning hot.

"Do you want more contribution points?"

Zhao Hu glanced at him and said ungraciously, spitting out a mouthful of saliva mixed with sand.

"The number of zombie hordes and Lizard Hounds has increased. Cheng Nuo has been investigating this matter over the past two days, but there has been no result."

"Captain Zhao, logically speaking, apart from Sand Scorpions, other anomaly entities generally only operate in Projection Lands, and the number that spreads out is limited."

Everyone rested under a patch of withered grass.

Ren Chuan, an old member of the team with a resolute expression, couldn't help speaking up at this moment.

"Anomalous riots, special climates, bandit methods, or the appearance of stronger monsters—generally speaking, these are the few reasons that can cause monster anomalies."

"However, over the past two days, the two reasons of anomalous riots and special climate influences have basically been ruled out."

An anomalous riot took the Infinite Building as its core.

When anomalies were left unsuppressed and transcendental energy accumulated to a certain extent, it would trigger a special phenomenon, usually accompanied by monster restlessness, the descent of anomalies, and so on.

The rules of anomalous riots were not yet completely clear.

It seemed that every Infinite Building had different rules, but what accompanied them was a large-scale abnormality of transcendental factors.

The commotion of such riots was usually not small; even if they were not transcendents, they could still observe changes in the environment.

The same applied to anomalous climates; the impact caused by transcendental factors in the environment also included global climate abnormalities.

Just like the current Tieling Wasteland, it was said that long ago, this should have been a green forest outside the city.

The two were difficult to deal with and might even reach the level of natural disasters, but they were also easier to investigate.

Zhao Hu was also secretly glad that it wasn't these two, otherwise it would be a huge trouble.

"Sand bandits?"

Ren Chuan frowned slightly.

"If it's those scum, I'm afraid the escort mission will be dangerous. If the goods are robbed, we will probably have to venture into dangerous Floor Worlds for our explorations over the next few months."

"Yeah, Boss Zhao and the others are also worried about this. However, Boss Fan deduced that the probability is not high; it's too early to make a move now."

The goods had not yet been transported outward; those hyena-like things would definitely not make a move so easily.

"Does that mean the most likely possibility is a powerful anomaly entity, such as an intermediate anomaly entity?"

With a swish, six pairs of eyes immediately landed on Wang Ting, and those gazes were truly very strange.

"Hahaha," Zhao Hu burst into laughter.

"You kid really think highly of us. If it really were an intermediate anomaly entity, let alone us, even the surrounding Shelters would be finished."

"Are intermediate anomaly entities very strong?"

"It's not strong; it's terrifying. They are monsters that can easily tear apart steel and destroy city walls."

"Although not every anomaly entity has powerful combat capability, intermediate anomaly entities are benchmarked against Tier 2 transcendents."

Transcendent.

Wang Ting had heard of this concept more than once, but after all, he was not a native resident of the doomsday, so he didn't really have a profound understanding of how powerful transcendents were.

Zhao Hu looked at the sky.

"Let's rest for another ten minutes, and I'll just explain it to you. This is what we didn't have time to finish during training."

"According to the legends passed down from Jumu City, anomaly entity monsters are divided into low-level, intermediate-level, and high-level."

"The Scarecrow, Rot Soil Hound, and Sand Scorpion you've seen can actually only be considered ordinary individuals of low-level anomaly entities."

"Ordinary individuals, elite individuals, and leader individuals—this is the division of monster combat power, our human classification of them."

"For ordinary individuals, weapons like bullets, knives, and arrows can still threaten them and kill them."

"Generally speaking, even if humans engage in hand-to-hand combat, they are not without a chance of winning."

"The overall evaluation of their hazard level is still similar to that of ordinary small and medium-sized beasts."

"Elite individuals see their combat power often greatly enhanced."

"You can understand them as elite predators in the pack—greater danger, stronger combat power."

"Wanting to suppress them would probably require the cooperation of several squads and the use of some heavy weapons."

"What about leader individuals?"

Zhao Hu paused slightly, thought about it, and then said, "Encirclement and annihilation with heavy weapons, plus a certain amount of artillery suppression, can deal with them."

"But more often than not, we still rely on transcendents."

"We suspect that it's possible one or several elite individuals of low-level anomaly entities ran out from the Infinite Building."

"Captain Zhao, there's a situation!"