[Hostile faction Zhao Kewu's subordinate, Plague Witch Alice, has launched a malicious attack against natural persons under your authority. This is considered a declaration of war against your faction. Once she enters the area within 25 kiloters of your Pioneering Card's radius, she will be locked by the Pioneering Card.]
[Your small city base has been occupied. A total of 724 natural persons have all been infected with Level 2 Blood Plague. Situation critical.]
[Within 25 kiloters, Plague Witch Alice has not currently been detected.]
—
Several cold lines of text appeared silently. Li Wei didn't react. He simply gazed into the distance with calm eyes. As expected — the distinguished guest was troubleso. But that was fine. He was equally confident.
"Help us!"
"Save us!"
"..."
Outside the walls, the natural persons were wailing and screaming, so with blood streaming from their eyes. They climbed onto the buses, trying to scale the walls — forr base leadership, middle managent, ordinary workers, all the sa now. The survival instinct was overwhelming. No one was talking about detonating the nuclear plant anymore?
Because the whip wasn't on your backs before, was it, you lords?
"Back! Everyone back! Don't co any closer! Damn it all!"
On the wall, Grant roared, eyes bloodshot. Then, unable to hold himself back, he raised his crossbow and blew the head off a fat, pot-bellied old man in the crowd below.
That had been a mber of the underground base's committee — a city councilman from fifteen years ago.
One of the hardliners who had repeatedly threatened to detonate the nuclear plant and take everyone down with him. Reportedly slept with the detonator on him.
And now you're not detonating anything? Before, when you were strutting around treating ordinary people like dirt, you threatened detonation because you weren't infected. Now you've got Level 2 Blood Plague and you're running here begging for help? Save you? Not a chance.
Grant's action was a spark.
Because nearly eighty percent of the combat squad mbers had once fled from the small city camp, or gotten out early when they sensed sothing wrong, or been expelled two months ago.
Who among them hadn't personally experienced or witnessed sothing terrible?
People like that — killing them was just killing them.
In a short ti, twenty or thirty forr base leadership figures and their enforcers were cut down below the walls.
Death finally sobered the rest. They were forced to stop climbing. Under shouted commands, they slowly backed away.
"Everyone stay calm! Listen to orders! Level 2 infection — the Lord can treat you. I'm Grant. You all know . A few months ago I was forced into an experint by those fat pigs and beca a Level 2 infected too. I'm standing here just fine now..."
Grant bellowed, and then steadied himself. He began controlling the situation — not just below the walls, but also managing the emotions of his allies on top of them. He had already sensed sothing was wrong.
Benjamin, Santiago, Xavier, Mark, and the others were also working hard to control the situation. Throughout all of this, Li Wei didn't intervene once.
Zhao Guozhu and Zhao Xuanxuan, as player units, only served as high-level fighters — they didn't enter the command structure.
This would be the Freeman soldiers' true test of independent command. And a real test of the squad leaders.
Slowly, the situation did stabilize. Only the acrid stench of decay and blood hung heavy in the air, creating a faint unease. Sothing wasn't right.
Thud.
Soone collapsed — convulsing violently, gasping — and then spat black blood and died.
But just seconds later, a column of fla erupted from his mouth and nose. Level 3 Fire-type Ability User. He had made it.
And this scene was playing out everywhere at once. Chaotic magical particles fernting inside their bodies, causing twisted transformations — granting them a fragnt of magical power, but at a price.
This was how Magic Zombies were born.
Boom.
A fireball hit the wall. And that beca the signal for the Ability Users to charge — because in the mont of first awakening to Level 3, the hunger for natural human blood and the last fragnts of reason would drive them to a frenzy.
This was Plague Witch Alice's purpose.
Once, Li Wei had used natural human blood to lure mutant creatures into besieging Scar Glenn's fortress. What she was doing now was essentially the sa — dirty, but effective.
And she had clearly gone all in. At least twenty units of magical energy must have been expended.
In monts, the seven hundred-odd natural persons had transford into two or three hundred Level 3 Ability Users. No need to drive them — the scent of natural human blood was enough to send them into a frenzy.
The stronger the natural person, the faster the mutation. The thin, malnourished ones — the ones who had been beaten and abused and treated like livestock — fared considerably better. The chaotic magical particles in the Blood Plague toxin simply couldn't form a resonance within their bodies.
So the battlefield split cleanly down the middle.
The base's upper tier was wiped out in the first wave. But the enforcers — well-fed, broad-shouldered, the ones who had done the dirty work — beca Level 3 Ability Users first.
The battered, ground-down lower tier scrambled backward in panic, desperate not to be caught in the crossfire.
That group numbered around three or four hundred. They could be saved. The suffering they had endured had, in this mont, beco their lifeline.
The battle erupted imdiately.
On the walls, four squads ford up — shields forward, pressing the line, creating a moving wall of shields alongside the wall's battlents.
Behind the shield wall, two rows of spearn thrust rapidly, driving back and killing the more agile Ability Users.
On either side of the shield wall, ten-ter gaps were held by Benjamin, Santiago, Grant, Mark, and the other heavy hitters — Three-Star Enchanted Greatswords and horse-chopping blades unleashed in full.
Four squads, four positions. With rear crossbow suppression, outnumbered nearly six to one, they held the line and controlled the field.
Of course, Zhao Guozhu and Zhao Xuanxuan's presence also served as decisive anchors.
Inevitably, so Level 3 Ability Users consud enough to rapidly evolve into Level 4.
Even those Level 4 Ability Users who made it onto the wall didn't cause a catastrophic breach — because by then, reserve forces with long spears had entered the field, and the elite soldiers from the four combat squads had begun pushing forward. Level 3 and Level 4 were manageable.
But then the mutation happened.
Three thumb-sized rats appeared from nowhere — and at that precise mont, leaped into the mouths of three Level 4 Ability Users. Each rat carried roughly five units of magical energy.
Magical energy flooding the body — like consuming a supre tonic. They began transforming directly toward Level 5.
The first to complete the transformation was covered in sharp reverse-barbs and scales, hands and feet in beast form, a massive tail growing from its back — clearly an Agility-type predator. It shot onto the wall in a single leap, ready to start a massacre.
At that mont, nothing in the field could stop it. Not Zhao Guozhu, not Zhao Xuanxuan — their speed wasn't sufficient.
It had to be said: Plague Witch Alice really knew how to play this ga.
But — it didn't matter.
The instant the Level 5 Ability User left a blur in the air, Li Wei was already on the rooftop a hundred ters away, bow raised, firing five arrows in three seconds.
Three-Star Sniper Armor-Piercing Arrows. Three life cores destroyed — including the last one that had barely begun to form.
The two Four-Star Enchanted Sniper Armor-Piercing Arrows sat in front of him, untouched. This kind of opponent didn't deserve them.
A flash of golden light. The first Universal Gold Card dropped.
But at the sa mont, the second Level 5 Ability User completed its transformation. With a roar, it beca a colossal stone giant — over six ters tall.
A thunderous blow. Over a dozen Level 3 Ability Users in its path were reduced to pulp. And it carried a strange blood-red ring around its body — anything covered by that ring, flesh or otherwise, would be consud as fuel for its growth. No need to eat anything directly.
This was one of the Plague Witch's most powerful trump cards.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Fists the size of small cars slamd into the wall. Even a Level 3 wall, even with the outer stone buffer absorbing much of the force — the entire wall shook violently. Even the camp building behind it began to tremble.
On the wall, soldiers and Ability Users fighting in close quarters went down in waves.
Fortunately the wall was wide enough — the main body plus the auxiliary log platform behind it. Otherwise many would have fallen off entirely.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The Level 5 Stone Giant pressed its advantage, fists hamring relentlessly. Nothing could stop it. Every Ability User within fifty ters was nearly dead. Even two of Li Wei's soldiers were caught in the shockwave.
In a short ti, the outer stone buffer — though it had absorbed most of the force — was completely demolished. The main wall itself had begun to show massive cracks.
And the stone giant seed to be evolving by the second — growing stronger. Its back had begun sprouting vivid, grotesque tumors — like stone mushrooms growing from its spine.
"Fall back! Everyone clear this zone!"
"Armor-piercing bolts! Prepare armor-piercing bolts!"
Grant, Benjamin, Santiago, Xavier, and the others commanded the retreat — scrambling, undignified, but alive.
Because the shockwave from each of the stone giant's blows hit like a hamr to the back of the skull — enough to black out your vision.
The Ability Users were down to a few dozen, all fleeing at a distance.
The Level 2 infected who hadn't transford into Level 3 had already run more than a kiloter away.
As for Li Wei — he still hadn't moved. He hadn't even preemptively killed the third Level 5 Ability User still in its incubation state.
Because the person he was waiting for had not yet arrived.
For now, this was only a contest across the distance.
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