Bai Wen quietly slipped into a building, carefully eliminating the zombies inside before finally reaching the top floor.
Setting up his sniper rifle, he began picking off zombies in the distance. With the SCV by his side, he wasn't worried about wasting ammunition—collecting Crystals was now his top priority!
Shot after shot, zombies were taken down without understanding what was happening. Devoid of intelligence, they could only stagger around like headless flies, completely unable to locate Bai Wen, who was two kilometers away.
Once the zombies in the area were cleared, the SCV would rush over to collect the Crystals and gather materials, replenishing Bai Wen's ammunition supply in the process.
Only after exhausting his bullets did Bai Wen retreat to rest. To his delight, the drop rate for Crystals from the city's zombies was surprisingly high—within just an hour, he had obtained 12 Crystals.
Now, his total had reached 22!
He quietly descended the building and began searching the office for food and water. In the end, he only found some expired snacks, bottled water, and a few dried fruits.
The expired snacks were inedible, but the dried fruits could still stave off hunger. After finishing them, he lay down on the bed to rest.
The bed wasn't particularly comfortable, though. It seemed he needed to find a villa to serve as a temporary base.
The city's nights were eerily silent, interrupted only by the occasional growls of zombies. Bai Wen had long grown accustomed to these sounds—they no longer affected him.
But in the middle of the night, a faint noise reached his ears, jolting him awake. The pistol he always kept in hand was instantly raised.
The sound came from outside—had a zombie slipped in?
He quietly cracked the door open. Though the lighting was dim, the faint starlight and moonlight filtering through the window allowed him to barely make out a figure crouched nearby, rummaging through something.
"A person?!" Bai Wen was shocked. He hadn't expected to encounter another survivor here. But where had they been hiding? When he cleared the building of zombies during the day, he hadn't found any traces of anyone. Had they come in from outside?
He silently stepped out of the room and pressed the silenced pistol against the back of the stranger's head.
"Don't move," he said, his voice as cold as glacial springwater, making the person shudder.
Bai Wen spoke icily, "Stand up slowly. Hands where I can see them."
The person complied without resistance, raising their hands as instructed.
Bai Wen shoved them against the wall and began patting them down. He quickly found a dagger tucked at the small of their back, then checked under their arms before moving to the front.
Suddenly, his hand brushed against something soft—a fleshy mound. Startled, he instinctively jerked his hand away and took a step back.
"You're—" He barely got the words out before the stranger seized the moment of surprise, sweeping a leg backward with uncanny precision in the darkness. The kick sent Bai Wen's pistol flying, and in the next instant, the figure had already bolted out the door.
Bai Wen reacted just as swiftly. The moment his first pistol was knocked away, his second was already in hand. He fired two shots at the fleeing figure, but the stranger was clearly no ordinary person—they had already vanished without a trace.
Bai Wen picked up the gun from the ground and walked over to where the person had disappeared. He tucked the gun into its holster and raised his palm to examine it. The sensation he had felt earlier was unmistakable—it was a woman with a large build, and certainly no ordinary person. Otherwise, how would she dare to venture out searching for things on a night like this?
He hadn't expected to encounter a survivor so soon after arriving in S City. He just wondered what she looked like!
This place was no longer safe, so Bai Wen quickly gathered his belongings and relocated to a new hiding spot to rest.
By the next morning, the SCV had already produced a substantial amount of ammunition, fully replenishing what had been used the previous day. Bai Wen resumed his mission to eliminate Zombies, finding an optimal position to set up his sniper rifle. He began taking them out one by one while directing the SCV to collect Crystals.
By noon, he finally paused to rest, having acquired another 15 Crystals, bringing his total to 37.
He wasn't worried about running out of Zombies. After all, S City had a permanent population of five million, and including migrant workers, the number easily exceeded ten million!
After a quick meal, Bai Wen remembered his plan to find a comfortable villa to serve as a temporary base. He decided to halt his Zombie hunting for now and began searching for a safe and comfortable place to settle.
Familiar with S City, he soon arrived at an upscale villa district.
The area was eerily quiet, seemingly devoid of Zombies. However, Bai Wen remained cautious. He stealthily entered one of the villas, only to find it in complete disarray, with two long-decayed skeletal remains inside. The sight instantly killed any interest he had in staying there.
Just as he prepared to search a second villa, a sudden gunshot rang out—close by—immediately putting him on high alert.
"Survivors here too? SCV..." He quickly climbed to the third-floor balcony and pulled out his binoculars.
"Commander, the sound appears to have come from the villa to the northwest!" the SCV reported.
Bai Wen nodded and adjusted his binoculars in that direction.
The villa there was remarkably well-preserved. The ground-floor windows were reinforced with sturdy railings, and the curtains were drawn, obscuring the interior. However, the curtains on the second and third floors weren't fully closed. Through the gaps, Bai Wen could make out shadowy figures—likely survivors engaged in a heated argument, shoving each other in conflict.
"Grooowl—" A chorus of Zombie snarls erupted as a massive horde surged toward the villa, a dark tide numbering nearly a thousand. They had undoubtedly been drawn by the gunshot.
The people inside the villa noticed the approaching Zombies and froze in terror, their dispute forgotten. They rushed out onto the balcony, their faces ashen as they surveyed the scene below.
The Zombies quickly surrounded the villa, their excited growls and roars directed at the humans on the third-floor balcony. Though incapable of flight, they relentlessly battered the villa's security door, undeterred even as their heads split open. It was only a matter of time before the door gave way.
Bai Wen wondered—could the person he encountered last night be from this very villa?
Two male survivors stepped onto the balcony, pistols in hand, and fired at the Zombies below. Their aim was abysmal, and they soon ran out of bullets, leaving them screaming in frustration, utterly helpless.
Bai Wen set down the binoculars and picked up the sniper rifle, propping it into position as he adjusted the scope.
He aimed at the two men on the balcony!
Both were middle-aged, gaunt, and ferocious-looking. Bai Wen even spotted specks of blood on their shirt collars—proof that the earlier gunshots hadn't been accidental misfires.