What the—
The scene in front of him gave Li Wei the distinct feeling of having thrown an alarm clock into a zombie nest. His heart was pounding — and just look at what these "friends" had turned into.
One had beco a four-to-five-ter stone giant. Another had transford into a living fla. One was suddenly covered head-to-toe in reverse spines. Another was wreathed in frost, projecting the unmistakable aura of an ice archer. Then there were the ones covered in hard scales like so kind of hybrid crocodile, the ones with horns growing from their heads, the ones with tails, the ones with rabbit ears, the ones that had gone full cat, the ones covered in fur like werewolves — every shape and variety imaginable.
The five Ability Users from two days ago were among them. The one who'd led that group imdiately shouted out.
"Everyone, everyone! Calm down — these are friendlies! Friendlies!"
"Friendlies? Ha — I thought so blind mutant beast had wandered in looking for a al!"
"These people look unfamiliar. They're not Fla Territory wilderness rcenaries, are they? Better not let any of those finicky, feeble natural humans sneak in."
"Right, right — Darwin said it: survival of the fittest. The age of natural humans is over. Now it's our ti!"
"Wait, what are they wearing? Looks like ancient armor — kind of ridiculous—"
"Ridiculous nothing. If you don't know what you're looking at, don't run your mouth. These people probably got lucky and found a secret vault. I've heard those can have magical equipnt inside. I heard soone opened one at the edge of the sea — it was full of powerful elixirs, scrolls, and gear!"
...
In an instant, the place turned into a market. Every voice talking over every other voice. What was going on — did they not have a single leader?
Li Wei had actually guessed right. After the initial shout of "friendlies," everyone just... kept talking. Endlessly. You said your thing, I said mine — a roaring, cacophonous ss of accents and topics, all at once. Strangely fascinating.
Li Wei's group of five stood there staring at each other, deeply confused, until Leon felt sothing was off. 'We can't just stand here listening — we need to blend in.'
But the mont he opened his mouth and got half a syllable out, the entire crowd fell silent. Every Ability User who'd been talking a mont ago suddenly stopped. Every head and every pair of eyes turned to stare at Leon — all at once. The effect was deeply, profoundly unsettling.
Leon didn't dare breathe, convinced he'd done sothing wrong.
Then, a few seconds later, the Ability Users erupted in laughter — howling, slapping their knees, doubling over. Soone shouted, "Ha! Frost Territory wilderness rcenaries — you people really don't have a sense of humor! We were joking!"
Leon could only manage an awkward smile. He tried to say sothing else — and imdiately the crowd went silent again, every head snapping to look at sothing in the distance, as if they'd received so kind of signal. Then, just as abruptly, they returned to normal.
"I say — we've got enough people now, haven't we? Then let's move. Rescuing survivors — our sacred duty!"
One Ability User shouted it, and imdiately drew a chorus of agreent.
Once the first group started moving, the rest followed noisily. But interestingly, as soon as any one of them said sothing, it was as if a floodgate opened — everyone would pile on in the sa direction, talking endlessly.
Taken individually, none of them seed strange. They spoke coherently, logically. But put them together in numbers and they seed to interfere with each other — like channels bleeding into each other on a radio. Deeply bizarre.
So this was the nature of Magic Zombies?
Li Wei's group of five fell in step behind them. Perhaps because their own magical radiation values were high enough, not a single Ability User bothered to test them.
Along the way, Li Wei occasionally cast concerned, affectionate glances at his "obsessive little sister" — the devoted older brother act.
In reality, he was watching this high-level powerhouse to see how she'd handle things.
The situation was getting complicated. Li Wei was honest with himself: he couldn't manage this alone. That's why he'd brought this heavy hitter along — to anchor the situation.
Surely she wasn't going to watch her "brother" bleed out and do nothing.
Did she want a violation? A serious violation?
She'd failed a cross-dinsional mission and taken heavy losses. She'd co here to recover — and now instead of recovering, she was bleeding out. Any reasonable person would know what choice to make.
Worth trying, at least.
Li Wei smiled to himself. He'd had Leon get him two One-Star Agility Cards earlier, and he'd already used a Bronze Clearance Token to synthesize a Two-Star Agility Card.
At the critical mont, he'd activate it. Combined with the Dog Butcher title, his total Agility would hit 28. That still ant subtracting 6 Encumbrance from the Noble Crest Armor, but even so, his evasion and movent speed would be dramatically improved — especially in deep mountain terrain, which was exactly where a Hunter and Woodcutter's stats shone brightest.
Li Wei was willing to bet that in this kind of environnt, his 25 Agility would outperform soone with 30 Agility who lacked those Destiny Grids.
Of course, if soone in this group had both Hunter and Woodcutter Destiny Grids maxed at 50, then Li Wei was just unlucky.
But were any of these Ability Users that impressive? They were mostly three-star. A few might be borderline four-star — but the bulky, thick-skinned lee type.
Either way, Li Wei had prepared for the worst — and that worst-case scenario assud his obsessive little sister would rather take a serious violation than lift a finger to help him.
In reality, it probably wouldn't co to that.
Even after he'd already burned one of her Five-Star cards.
Because if Li Wei died and the Pioneering Card was still on him, the entire branch storyline would fail and everyone would be sent ho.
Right — the Pioneering Card could only be transferred during the Month-End Summary, based on Family Contribution rankings. It couldn't be moved at any other ti.
They pressed on. The terrain grew steeper, the trees denser. The road into the mountains was solid, though a few sections had been washed out by mudslides — nothing that stopped them.
The Ability Users moved at a brisk pace. Li Wei's group kept up easily.
Deep in the mountain forest, Li Wei noticed a remarkable number of one-star and even two-star trees — massive canopies blocking out the sky, clearly sowhat mutated themselves.
There were even ordinary small birds, rabbits, pheasants, and deer here. That fit his theory: deep mountain forests had a significant advantage in resisting magical radiation — perhaps because the trees absorbed it.
He'd spotted hundreds of one-star and two-star trees along the way. The ratio was staggering.
And the air here was noticeably better — thick with a rich, living vitality.
So — were there herbs in this deep mountain forest that could counter Blood Plague? If so, could they be made into Anti-Blood-Plague Potions that would lower the radiation levels in these Ability Users?
Li Wei glanced at his obsessive little sister. As soone on the sa level as Hathaway — did she know how to make them?
To his mild surprise, the obsessive little sister seed to read his aning and gave a slight shake of her head.
What?!
She could read his thoughts?
Noticing the flicker of alarm in Li Wei's eyes, Li Yue's lips curved into a faint smile. 'Laugh it up.'
Li Wei quickly steadied himself. Impossible — there was only one explanation: Li Yue was simply too experienced. She only needed to read his expression and body language to guess what he was thinking. It wasn't that many possibilities anyway.
And just then, Li Wei felt a sudden, strange sensation — like the crosshairs of a sniper rifle settling on the back of his head. The next second, he "accidentally" tripped, dragging Li Yue down with him. The two of them tumbled like rolling gourds, taking Zhao Xuanxuan down as well. Leon and Thomas barely scrambled out of the way in ti.
Almost simultaneously, a burst of gunfire rang out. Real gunfire — the kind from sothing with serious stopping power, like an anti-materiel sniper rifle.
"Bang, bang, bang—"
The massive reports echoed through the valley. The Ability Users at the front of the group had bright red blooms of blood erupt from their heads and chests.
The snipers clearly knew the Ability Users' weak points. Two rifles per target — one for the head, one for the heart, both firing at the sa mont.
What a price in blood and loss it must have taken to accumulate that knowledge.
The effect was devastating.
In those few monts, nearly half of the roughly forty Ability Users were killed outright. The surviving half couldn't be killed so easily.
"ROAR!"
Three Ability Users bellowed and transford into four-to-five-ter stone giants. Sniper rounds hitting them felt like scratching an itch.
The remaining Ability Users sheltered behind the stone giants and launched their counterattack — so hurling fireballs, so firing ice arrows, so shifting into beast forms.
In monts, the natural human ambushers began taking casualties too.
But the ambushers weren't looking for a prolonged engagent. They imdiately abandoned their positions and fell back quickly.
"Natural human brothers — we an no harm! We hope you'll put down your weapons and return to the negotiating table. You must acknowledge that Ability Users are the future of humanity."
"Kill, kill, kill — split the naturals evenly."
"Don't run, natural humans — big brother loves you!"
The surviving Ability Users howled and charged — but rather than imdiately chasing the ambushers, they frantically "split" the CPUs and GPUs of their fallen companions among themselves.
Interestingly, three-star Ability Users didn't drop Universal Gold Cards when they died.
But after dividing up the GPUs, the survivors showed a very noticeable power increase. Several of them seed to jump directly to four-star-minus level — roughly equivalent to the Mutant Rat King.
Fewer in number, but apparently stronger.
And four-star Ability Users had a certain artistic flair. One of them composed a verse on the spot.
"Charge, charge, charge — into the mountains we surge! Smash the Gatling gun, save the natural ones!"
"I love natural humans — I'm a little fla, and when I co for you, you have to co with !"
Truly... beyond description.
Li Wei's group of five followed behind, feeling the pressure mounting.
Should they act now? Or use the chaos to slip away? Their goal wasn't to "split" the natural humans — it was to negotiate with them. Maybe even bring them back to the Scavenger Camp eventually. But that was looking increasingly difficult.
Because the natural humans had a cannon.
Small caliber, but still.
"Whoosh — BOOM!"
One shot landed on a stone giant, cracking it with dozens of fissures. One more hit would probably finish it.
But there was no second shot. The natural humans apparently only had one cannon.
"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!"
A Gatling gun — or so other heavy machine gun — opened up in a frenzy, trying to shred the stone giant before it could regenerate.
No good. In just ten seconds, the stone giant had fully healed. Their bizarre, surging life force was simply that extraordinary.
And with the cannon's first shot, the natural humans' fortress finally ca into view.
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