16: Chapter 16 Horde of Zombies

Qu Ling's solemn voice came, and in an instant, the entire squad sprang up like a spring, looking in the direction Qu Ling pointed.

About a hundred meters away from their patch of withered grass, on a sandy-yellow gravel slope, a horde of about twenty-odd zombies appeared.

The zombies were covered in foul blood, with large chunks of rotting flesh, and their bloody mouths wide open.

They let out low roars from the depths of their throats like a hungry beast, their figures staggering and wobbling as they walked toward the patrol route the group was traveling on.

[Zombie Collection Progress 5%]

The moment he saw the zombie horde, a prompt for cataloging zombies immediately appeared before Wang Ting's eyes, and a trace of joy flashed across the depths of his eyes.

Zhao Hu's expression was calm and composed as he reacted quickly, immediately issuing instructions to the six members of the squad.

"Qu Ling, continue to observe the surrounding situation and be careful of monsters suddenly rushing out. Ren Chuan, Dong Hu, Feng Bo, the three of you set up a firepower point to snipe this zombie horde; be careful all of you. Xiang Nan, Wang Ting, the two of you pay attention to covering both sides. Fire immediately if you spot any problems, and don't let other monsters get close."

The crowd agreed in response and immediately entered combat readiness. The entire patrol squad quickly followed the tasks assigned by Zhao Hu, pointing their gun barrels in the corresponding directions with gazes as sharp as falcons.

Everyone held their breath, watching the zombie horde wobble closer, gradually closing in from a hundred meters apart to within a range of dozens of meters.

Although they were separated by a long distance, these zombies seemed to be able to detect the scent of humans, and they were accelerating their approach bit by bit.

[Zombie Collection Progress 6%]

Prompts regarding the zombie collection progress occasionally appeared before Wang Ting's eyes, reminding him that the Monster Collector inside his body was gradually collecting information on the zombies.

A trace of joy arose in his heart; the more monsters collected, the more monster points he would obtain, and each additional monster meant more traits and items.

'If there weren't so many dangers, having more monsters would truly be for the better.'

He narrowed his eyes slightly, sweeping across the ferocious appearance of the zombies. His breathing gradually adjusted, and feelings of excitement and tension slowly took over his heart, suppressing that sense of exhilaration deep down, replaced by a gradual earnestness and seriousness.

The zombies got closer, and their speed was not slow.

With a bang, Zhao Hu fired.

With a single shot, he pierced the head of the foremost zombie, dark red blood splashing onto the ground like thick jam, as if a jar of jam had been knocked over.

Following closely behind, gunshots rang out one after another, echoing across this gravel wilderness.

Ren Chuan, Dong Hu, and Feng Bo fired one after another. The rifles in their hands were steadily held, basically getting one zombie per shot, rarely missing the target.

As if enraged by the gunshots, roars came from the bloody mouths of the zombies, and their pale eyeballs stared fixedly at the source of the sound, accelerating their speed significantly in an instant.

More than twenty zombies rushed toward the group. Their originally wobbling, almost falling steps now turned into a beast-like charge; although not matching a human's 100-meter dash, this speed was much faster than ordinary limping zombies.

'So fast!' Wang Ting gasped inwardly. 'We can't let our guard down; this thing is completely different from the zombies in the movies.'

At this moment, Zhao Hu and the others decisively opened fire, shooting in crossfire. The zombies were hit in the head while charging forward, collapsing to the ground with a thud as foul blood seeped into the soil.

Gunshots continued to sound, and the zombie horde rapidly dwindled in numbers, leaving only a scattered 4 or 5 in the blink of an eye.

As the zombies continuously decreased, everyone had just breathed a sigh of relief when Wang Ting's nostrils twitched slightly, and his expression changed abruptly as he caught a hint of a special scent.

'This earthy smell... It's a Sand Scorpion!'

He had smelled this scent outside the cafeteria of the Shelter. Although he had only smelled it once, under the trait of Corrupted Olfaction, the scent had long been engraved in his memory.

He suddenly looked to the front left, about thirty meters away. At an inconspicuous dirt mound covered in withered grass, a sound seemed to come from the gravel.

[Sand Scorpion Collection Progress 10%]

He immediately reacted: this monster, the Sand Scorpion, was buried underground, preparing to hunt their group of people.

'That bastard sure knows how to hide. If we hadn't noticed and walked in that direction later on...'

Coldness flashed in his eyes, and then he decisively raised his rifle. With a bang, a cloud of gravel was stirred up in the desert, the dirt mound twitched, and gravel slid down, revealing a ferocious carapace along with gushing crimson blood that soaked the surrounding sand.

At this time, the surrounding sandy ground began to wriggle. One, two, three, four—a full four Sand Scorpions rushed out of the gravel layer, charging toward them with their scorpion claws brandishing, moving extremely fast.

'It's this kid again. Such keen perception.'

Zhao Hu swept his peripheral vision and discovered that it was Wang Ting who had made a move. He had spotted the Sand Scorpions even before the observer Xiang Nan did, which was quite extraordinary.

He couldn't help praising him in his heart. Xiang Nan, Qu Ling, and the others, who had reacted by then, also wore looks of astonishment.

Bang, bang!

Zhao Hu called out to open fire and shoot the Sand Scorpions, and both Xiang Nan and Qu Ling joined in.

Bullets quickly cut through the hot air, instantly piercing the bodies of the two Sand Scorpions on the left, shattering their carapaces and sending flesh and blood flying.

Zhao Hu raised his hand and fired two shots, directly killing the Sand Scorpion on the right, also blowing its head off with a single shot.

The sudden appearance of the Sand Scorpions slightly disrupted everyone's rhythm, and the remaining two zombies had already rushed to a place less than 20 meters in front of the group.

[Zombie Collection Progress 43%]

'These two are mine.'

Looking at the still-growing collection progress, how could Wang Ting hold back? Like someone snatching credit, he aimed his rifle at the two zombies and violently pulled the trigger. Bullets hit the zombies in response, and several of them pierced through their heads, blasting out a spray of blood.

With a bang, a bullet passed through the body of the last zombie, making it stumble. Wang Ting fired two more shots in succession, finally hitting the zombie's head with one shot and completely killing this zombie.

At this moment, the prompt before his eyes suddenly lit up:

[Zombie collection successful, gained 50 monster points]

[Sand Scorpion collection successful, gained 75 monster points]

'Done!'

Great joy arose in Wang Ting's heart. He suddenly gained 125 monster points, and with two more monsters collected, it meant ten more things available for exchange.

At this time, the monsters were all killed, and the smell of gunpowder smoke lingered over the withered grass slope, mixed with the scorching air, making the smell quite unpleasant.

Everyone carefully stood up, vigilantly scanning the surrounding environment. The dirt mounds, grass patches, and gravel piles were all silent, and no other abnormalities were seen, which finally allowed them to relax slightly.

Zhao Hu's large hand landed on Wang Ting's shoulder, a grinning smile on his face: "Your observation skills are top-notch; you might as well take Xiang Nan's position outright. None of us noticed those Sand Scorpions ambushing there."

Although he said that verbally, Wang Ting was clear that the reason they didn't notice wasn't because they were incompetent, but rather that the Sand Scorpions likely arrived in this area before them.

If they had really started moving, or gotten closer to them, Xiang Nan would probably have been the one to fire directly.

He was able to sense that something was wrong more acutely because he had first smelled the scent of the Sand Scorpion, along with the collection prompt.

Wang Ting grinned, showing a big smile: "My sense of smell is just relatively sensitive."

He told the truth, but Zhao Hu didn't take it to heart.

No matter how sensitive a person's sense of smell was, could it possibly compare to a Rot Soil Hound?

He thought to himself inwardly: 'This kid seems to have a keen intuition towards monsters. When we were in the Floor World, he was also the one who hunted the most Rot Soil Hounds.'

"Clean up the battlefield and drag those Sand Scorpions over. Be careful of potential monsters around, and don't get stained with the zombies' blood and flesh; processing those things in the wild is too troublesome."

Ren Chuan nodded: "Understood, Captain Zhao. Even dogs wouldn't touch things like zombies."

Zombies could be said to be one of the most cannon-fodder ordinary individuals among low-level anomalous entities.

Compared to the extraordinary materials that Scarecrow monsters might drop, the drop rate of zombies was simply outrageously low.

Rather than counting on extraordinary materials to appear within the bodies of these twenty-odd zombies, it was better to see if these few Sand Scorpions had such things on them.

In the wilderness, when income and risk are not proportional, the decision of trade-offs is often even more important.

There were a total of five Sand Scorpions killed. The one closest to the group was shot by Wang Ting, and the remaining four were killed by Xiang Nan, Zhao Hu, and the others respectively.

When the five Sand Scorpions were dragged in front of the group, the positions pierced by bullets on their hard sandy-yellow carapaces appeared particularly abrupt, and the penetrating damage made those areas flesh and blood blurred.

This part probably can't be eaten anymore.

Such a thought couldn't help rising in Wang Ting's mind.

Although it was a bit of a pity, even if a part of them was difficult to process because they were beaten into a bloody mess, a full five Sand Scorpions together weighed around one or two hundred catties. This quantity was already quite a lot.

Xiang Nan grinned: "These five Sand Scorpions are really not small; they are all adult individuals. This time we can actually earn some contribution points."

Among the five Sand Scorpions, the smallest was about one meter or so, but it was also an adult individual. The largest had a body length of nearly 1.3 or 1.4 meters, which was only slightly smaller than the one Zhao Kun killed.

"Remove the poison glands and tail hooks, and then Xiang Nan, Qu Ling, Wang Ting, Dong Hu, Feng Bo, each of you carry one on your back. Ren Chuan and I will look after the front and back. We need to go back quickly; there are a bit too many monsters in this place."

Zhao Hu looked at the Sand Scorpions thoughtfully, but he couldn't be happy. This place was closer than where Cheng Nuo's squad had an accident, meaning that the source causing the monsters to constantly migrate was approaching them.

Everyone's expressions turned solemn, and they nodded, quickly clearing the battlefield and heading straight toward Scarecrow Town.

Their figures disappeared at the border of the arid wilderness, and the scorching air whipped up a strong wind, rolling gravel to cover the remains of the zombies.

Long after, a rustling sound came from beneath the withered ground. With a swish, the ground sank in, and the zombie bodies instantly vanished into the earth, with the sound of chewing faintly drifting over...