The courtyards and Main Square outside the base were empty, strangely enough. I thought there would be a few zombies wandering around at least, but there was nothing in the exterior. Then again, there wouldn't be any zombies running around during this time of the day.
The sun had risen high up by now, and any undead that might be present would be too lethargic to move around. Most likely they would be hiding inside the darker and cooler interior of the military base, dormant until night fell.
Without hesitating, I crossed the courtyard and hurried toward the main doors of the military base. I stopped at the barracks, but Wang Yang waved his men on.
"We're heading to the armory," he told me. "We need ammunition."
"Good idea. I'll check the place out for any zombies and wipe them out. That will make future expeditions safer. Before that I'll escort you guys to the armory and make sure the way is clear first…just to be safe."
"Thanks. We'll be counting on you."
As it turned out, the route to the armory was largely clear. There were no enemies there, only trails of blood. But no corpses…then again, given the type of monsters we were facing, any leftover corpses would have either turned into zombies or be consumed by the undead or mutants.
"The rifles are still mostly intact, and they still have plenty of ammunition," one of Wang Yang's men reported.
"Excellent. Grab as much as you can, load up. We'll be needing them."
"Yes, sir!"
"I'll check out the rest of the base and wipe out whatever nests of undead I find," I told Wang Yang. He nodded.
"Do you need assistance?"
"Not at the moment." I shook my head. He grinned, amused, and then waved me away. He probably thought that regular people like them would only be a hindrance to my expedition. I wouldn't go as far as to say that, but…yeah.
"Good hunting, kid."
I set off for the barracks and shot a few zombies that were hiding in there. Hidden under beds, draped about over furniture or lying on the floor, they looked up wearily when I stepped into the rooms, almost resembling soldiers who had just returned from a mission or exercise.
I knew exactly how they felt. That didn't earn any mercy from me, though…just sympathy, and I shot them in their heads before they could muster any sort of resistance. These were just easy pickings, nothing much I could do about that. At least I was slowly and steadily adding to my Kill Count.
That all changed when I went to the training hall – an enclosed space for conducting lessons or other indoor activities. By then, I was so inured to killing off stragglers lying about in the small rooms of the barracks that I didn't expect to run into an entire horde of undead.
"Uh oh."
There were three warrior-category mutants along with the horde of zombies gathered inside the hall. As usual, they were mostly dormant, but the moment I stepped inside, they came to life. It was only natural – the warrior ranked mutants were a lot stronger than the minion-class zombies. They could shake the day-induced lethargy off a lot more easily.
The trio were hulking humanoid brutes that resembled zombie trolls more than the aberrant or grotesques that I had faced before, but armed with claws or a few multiple heads. One was incredibly armored, looking more like a biological tank than a giant zombie, with seemingly reptilian scales covering its body.
They looked at me, bellowed, and charged. Their immense bulks meant that they ended up trampling many of the smaller zombies underfoot, flattening them into blood and mats of torn flesh. I watched them come at me, and then summoned my plasma rifles. They didn't take too much time to charge up, spewing hot plasma and annihilating one of the three warrior class mutants before they even realized what had hit them. The one with two heads blinked and fell, its heads and a huge chunk of its torso suddenly gone.
On the other hand, the armored mutant was unfazed, simply stunned by the bright flash of plasma and extreme heat. The third mutant, a hulk with claws, snarled and shielded its bleeding eyes, but I obliterated it with a second volley from my hovering plasma rifles.
My Kill Count jumped by 100 immediately. Excellent. At this rate, I could boost each of my stats by 20 at least. Add the dozen or so zombies I had dispatched in the barracks, and the third mutant…
"Whoa!"
Damn, I shouldn't have counted my chickens before they hatched. Jumping away to avoid getting pulverized by the armored mutant, I fired at it with my plasma rifles. To my surprise, it actually survived the first bombardment, losing only the arm it raised to shield itself.
Roaring, it lowered its cauterized stump and struck with its other arm. I was forced to dive to the side and dodge another crushing blow. Firing another volley from my plasma rifles, I destroyed its shoulder and several armored plates. Winded, the mutant stumbled, but it was still very much alive.
The mutant was tenacious, if anything.
"I need to go for the head," I grumbled, but the armored mutant was moving way too quickly for me to draw a bead. I muttered a curse under my breath, but didn't stop moving. I had to jump away to avoid yet another massive punch from the armored mutant that reduced the concrete to debris. I could see downstairs through the hole it had created, slightly obscured by a thin screen of dust that spiraled downward slowly.
The armored mutant continued to pummel my location, shrugging off the next blast. Fortunately, my plasma rifles incinerated one of its legs, causing it to crash down. Even so, its momentum sent it sliding across the slick floor of the training hall and squashing a few zombies beneath its bulk.
Bellowing, it raised its head to growl defiantly at me while I landed a few meters away, mostly unscathed. I met its gaze evenly, and this time I took my time to line up a good shot. My plasma rifles spat, and the armored mutant's head was completely destroyed.
Another 50 to my Kill Count. Excellent. I breathed a sigh of relief and finished off the remaining zombies, which brought my Kill Count up to about 250 total. 267, if I was to be more accurate, but yeah, that was good.
Settling down on a broken piece of wall, I then conjured the system and began distributing my points from my Kill Count. This was quite the impressive haul, and I figured I should quickly improve my stats while I still had the time.
I didn't know when I might accidentally run into another enemy, after all. It was possible that we might encounter a Commander-ranked mutant out there in the wilderness. Well, unlikely, given that the authorities back in the fortress-city had just used one of their precious cruise missiles to nuke a commander-ranked mutant not too long ago. But I wasn't one to take things for granted. I hadn't survived this long by being careless. I shuddered when I remembered the gigantic tentacles and the slug-like body of the colossal mutant that emerged from the remains of Bai Zeng research facility.
Gosh, was it only just yesterday? It felt like a lifetime ago.
Without much thought, I assigned 50 points to each of my stats, drastically bumping my Strength, Endurance, Agility, Willpower and Spirit up to 100 each. That was double my stats previously. Honestly, I didn't feel any different from earlier, despite doubling each of my stats. Shaking my head, I tested out my reflexes, but they seemed the same as before.
"Oh, well…"
I put the rest of the points into my Abilities. It looked like I needed 500 to unlock level 3 of my Hades Ability, but I decided not to go for that now. Instead, I chose a new Ability that might be useful to me, especially in my desire to survive this post-apocalyptic world.
There was no need to invest too many points into a single Ability just yet – 500 was way too much. I wanted to be a bit more balanced and hoped that I could…
"Ah…"
I wanted to bang my head against the wall. This was a great chance to test out my newly attained Abilities and I blew it. What was the point of having the ability to summon death hounds but not use them? Bloody hell, this was what happened if I didn't write across consecutive days. I forgot what I wrote in my own story.
Well, not that anyone was reading this trash of a story. I was on the verge of giving up right now, but I decided to push on for just a bit further.
Just a bit, and then I could finally drop it and be free.
Returning to reality, I rose to my feet, stretched, and jogged toward the cafeteria. This time, I summoned my death hounds and set them loose on the blob-like mutant that occupied the cafeteria. I smiled when I saw the three of them rip the mass of flesh apart, avoiding its trunk-like limbs and many teeth to pounce on weak points and sink their fangs in.
While they worked on the warrior-class mutant, I shot the zombies that were in the cafeteria – and there were a lot more than I thought there would be. Then again, this was the cafeteria – a place filled with food. I guess it wasn't strange that the zombies would gather here and make it their nest. Probably to eat and rest.
The mutant roared and thrashed about, forcing my more agile death hounds to jump away and evade its attacks. The blob-like body sported many limbs all of them as thick as pillars and dealing out powerful blows that smashed the tables and chairs into pieces. The cafeteria was already a mess, and the mutant was adding more to the wreckage.
I watched it, wondering if it had mutated from a zombie that had gorged itself on a large supply of food. While my death hounds were steadily ripping chunks out of it, reducing its once wobbly mass to a smaller carpet of flesh, I decided to help them.
Summoning my plasma rifles, I destroyed the blob-like mutant with a single volley. My death hounds retreated at my mental command and slunk away into wherever they came from before I summoned them. I didn't know where they came from. Another dimension?
This evolver Ability bordered on magic…
"Phew…"
That gave me about 70 points, which allowed me to get like 92 points for my second Ability. Almost there, but not quite there yet. Just 8 more points. If only there were still a few zombies leftover…
"Whoa, what happened here?"
Turning around, I saw Wang Yang stepping into the cafeteria along with the rest of his subordinates. They were all sporting bulging bags, stocked full with ammunition, grenades and other weapons. Hong Xia nodded at me in greeting, but didn't say anything because Wang Yang was approaching me. Apparently it wasn't his place to speak – that role belonged to his boss.
"You slaughtered quite a lot of the zombies. As expected of an evolver, eh?" Wang Yang was grinning. I shrugged.
"Yeah, it's my job. You guys got all the ammo and weapons you need?"
"A lot more than we expected. All thanks to you." Wang Yang grinned, and then gestured for his subordinates to move into the cafeteria. He issued orders swiftly. "Check the place for food. Grab as much as you can. Don't worry if you can't fit them all in your bags. With the place cleared, we can return tomorrow to pack up more food."
"Yes, boss!"
The subordinates fanned out to search the place, warily treading over the corpses of the undead I had slain. I watched them go, still on standby in case another enemy showed up. Fortunately, it appeared that I had taken out all of them.
I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Just 8 more zombies…oh, well. I was sure I could make up that number on the return journey. I shouldn't complain – just today, I had earned a lot more Kill Count points than I expected.
Hopefully I could unlock a second Ability by the end of today…