"I've told you countless times, my sharing vision with the crow has a time limit, and it's exhausting!"
"The crow just now was killed by that woman. It's not that easy to connect with another crow!"
Blood-Eyed Crow's tone was impatient.
"Hey, hey, I say, Dog-Head Bat, why are you so nervous?"
Rhino-Armored Bear, lying on the ground, looked at Dog-Head Bat with a lazy expression.
"Unlike you hulking brutes with thick hides that bullets barely harm, I win with tracking ability and intelligence!"
"Especially you, Rhino-Armored Bear, with your reinforced rhino armor, bullets just bounce off you!"
"Those three explorers all had guns, and one of the women was a very good shot, capable of taking down the crow I was sharing vision with..."
Dog-Head Bat glared at Rhino-Armored Bear irritably.
"Hmph, intelligence? Only those lacking strength need to win with intelligence!"
Rhino-Armored Bear sneered, casually reached out, and ripped off a piece of nearby hard granite. He lightly squeezed it, and the granite shattered.
"Hmph!"
Dog-Head Bat snorted and said nothing.
"Damn it!"
Suddenly, Blood-Eyed Crow's voice rang out.
"What's going on?"
Rhino-Armored Bear, usually so laid-back, suddenly looked quite serious.
This was because he saw clear astonishment, even a hint of fear, in Blood-Eyed Crow's expression.
"Wolf Claw is dead!"
Blood-Eyed Crow replied in a low voice.
"What happened?"
"Was he killed by those three explorers?"
"I knew it, those three guys..."
Dog-Head Bat was interrupted by Blood-Eyed Crow halfway through his sentence.
"No!"
"Wolf Claw wasn't killed by those three explorers. Based on the scene, he was drained of his spinal fluid and had his head eaten by a Licker!"
Blood-Eyed Crow shook his head.
"What's the situation?"
"Wolf Claw might not have much of a brain, but he should know better than to go to places in Zhanbi City where Lickers are known to be!"
"After all, he injected enhancement serum. To Lickers, that stuff is like drugs to an addict!"
"And Lickers have their fixed hunting grounds, so how could he have been killed by one?"
Rhino-Armored Bear frowned and added,
"Wolf Claw is a horny idiot. When he sees a woman, he forgets everything else."
"He won't regain his senses until that thing between his legs calms down!"
"He probably saw a woman, went completely reckless, and ran straight into a Licker's territory."
Dog-Head Bat was indeed dismissive, showing no concern for Wolf Claw's death.
Rhino-Armored Bear cast a cold glance at Dog-Head Bat, but said nothing. Instead, he looked at Blood-Eyed Crow questioningly, "Did the core laboratory have another leak, causing the Lickers to mutate?"
"Probably not. I didn't see any commotion among the zombies near the core laboratory, nor did I see any other Lickers!"
Blood-Eyed Crow shook his head and continued, "What's even weirder is that the Licker I found near Wolf Claw's corpse is dead, but those three explorers are nowhere to be found..."
"What?"
...
Evening.
Ye Feng and Ling Xi found a room on a higher floor and decided to rest temporarily.
"Ling Xi, do you know what's going on with Xiao Xiao?"
After Ling Xi had examined Xiao Xiao, Ye Feng asked.
"It seems she used a power that exceeded her current body's capacity, which caused her to collapse from exhaustion and faint."
Ling Xi's delicate brows furrowed as she replied.
"Power that exceeds her body's capacity? What is it?"
Ye Feng was somewhat curious and bewildered.
"I don't know either."
Ling Xi gently shook her head.
"Big brother, where is this? What happened to me?"
At this moment, Xiao Xiao, lying on the bed, opened her eyes and looked at Ye Feng with confusion.
"Uh... after you killed that Licker, you fainted?"
Ye Feng briefly described the situation.
"Me? A Licker? I killed that big monster?"
Xiao Xiao looked at her hands, a look of disbelief on her face.
"Yeah!"
Ye Feng nodded, still finding it hard to believe himself.
"Big brother, I really... Gurgle~"
Xiao Xiao was about to say more when her stomach rumbled loudly.
"Let's eat something first!"
After the fight, Ye Feng was also feeling a bit hungry.
Soon, Ye Feng and Xiao Xiao began to chew on bread, while Ling Xi observed the surroundings with binoculars by the window.
"The bullet holes on the stone tablet at the village entrance were likely left by the guards fighting zombies back then."
"And the scratches on that smooth, large wall we were confused about earlier were probably left by Wolf Claw!"
"Those zombies with large heads, thick legs, and mutated eyes were caused by the leakage of enhancement serum from the core laboratory..."
After observing for a while, Ling Xi put down her binoculars and analyzed.
"Indeed. According to Wolf Claw, the things in the core laboratory are far more valuable than the enhancement serum!"
"And those zombies that mutated further due to the enhancement serum seem to have prioritized attacking Wolf Claw and his group who had injected the serum!"
"This is also why they spread the word that this place, Zhanbi City, has a lot of treasure chests and enhancement serum!"
"They wanted to lure explorers to help them attract zombies, especially those with strength or agility enhancements!"
Ye Feng chimed in, "It seems this Zhanbi City is quite troublesome!"
"Ding~ Detected a complete Survival Coin. Do you wish to absorb it?"
Suddenly, the system's voice sounded.
"Whoa, it's finally here."
Ye Feng had been wondering why the system hadn't reacted earlier.
He quickly stuffed the half-eaten piece of bread into his mouth and took out the Survival Coin he had recently disassembled from a silver treasure chest. It had the number 800 on it.
"Absorb!"
As Ye Feng spoke, a beam of light flashed, the Survival Coin in his hand disappeared, and his daily refreshed Survival Coin quota increased by 400, bringing it to 1000.
"Ding~"
"Detected host's first opening of a silver treasure chest, receiving an additional reward: 8000 Survival Coins~"
The system's mechanical voice sounded again.
"Whoa, that's a lot!"
Ye Feng was overjoyed.
This meant he had a substantial emergency fund. If the [Shop] refreshed with good items and 1000 Survival Coins weren't enough, he could use this.
Afterward, Ye Feng took out his Barrett M82A1, unloaded the M33 standard rounds, and loaded NM173 AP-S armor-piercing rounds.
This was because Wolf Claw had mentioned that there was someone in their group named Rhino-Armored Bear, who had armor that bullets couldn't penetrate.
Ye Feng surmised that this armor might be similar to the scales that grew on Lickers.
And the NM173 AP-S armor-piercing rounds were far more powerful than the standard rounds that had penetrated the Licker's scales. At a range of 1000 meters, they could penetrate 11mm of steel plate!
"Ling Xi, Xiao Xiao, come here for a moment. Next, we need to..."
...
Meanwhile,
On a high slope northeast of Zhanbi City, Rhino-Armored Bear, Blood-Eyed Crow, and Dog-Head Bat were looking nervously at a hawk-nosed middle-aged man.
"Cro... Crocodile Boss... you... you're back!"
Dog-Head Bat forced a smile and greeted the hawk-nosed middle-aged man.
"Where is Wolf Claw?"
The hawk-nosed middle-aged man did not respond. He scanned the surroundings, his expression displeased.
...