Chapter 14: Silent Town
At 1:55 PM, the last player arrived on a three-wheeled cart like those used for collecting scrap.
Several people’s faces flashed with a hint of disappointment.
They thought he wasn’t coming, and one less person meant one less competitor.
However, seeing the opponent’s rundown human-powered scrap collecting cart that seemed like it could fall apart at any moment, they let it go.
As the time on the public screen jumped to exactly 2 o’clock, the instance officially began, and all players were randomly scattered throughout Silent Town.
The sky instantly darkened, and the entire town was shrouded in shadow.
The instance map unfolded on the light screen, with Wishing Star icons nearby, total: 20, each worth 10 points.
Red dots only appear on the map when within ten meters of other players.
Other than that, there are no other markers.
Silent Town stands at the foot of the mountain, not very large, traversable in over an hour if there were no monsters.
The map shows hospital, supermarket, residential area, but the scene before them exudes the desolate aura of doomsday everywhere.
Those billboards have been severely corroded and faded by rainwater, stained with large patches of yellowish-black marks.
Once the five-second safety period ended, monstrous roars came from all directions.
Besides the familiar normal infected, there seemed to be something else.
Feeling the cold wind swiftly cutting through from above, Yu Jiang hurriedly hugged her head and hid behind the wall.
A pair of huge wings swept through mid-air, its hard beak and claws instantly tearing open the body of another small bird.
[Mutated Vulture: Massive in size, agile and ferocious, but rest assured, there aren’t many in Silent Town.]
Really?
Yu Jiang heard a player’s scream; outside the convenience store, a man who didn’t dodge in time was nearly snatched into the sky, and when he escaped, his head had several bloody claw marks.
He even shouted out loud, attracting a zombie from the convenience store that was twice as burly as a normal infected.
And behind it, a zombie wearing a level 3 helmet!
The player swung an iron rod, the zombie was fine, the level 3 helmet just dented a bit, but he was done for.
Less than a minute later, he was surrounded and eliminated by death.
Player count: 29
The instance channel chat was chaotic, with someone sending voice messages reporting position for help.
“Holy crap! I got hit by a big zombie, lost 30 health points, and my arm is dislocated!”
“Help! I don’t want to play anymore.”
“There’s a Wishing Star and three zombies in the second floor restaurant at the 3 o’clock direction, anyone come help me escape, the Wishing Star is yours.”
“Real or fake? I’m heading there now.”
Yu Jiang neatly skewered two normal zombies with a wooden stick, then delivered finishing blows.
She hadn’t seen a Wishing Star yet.
Killing a normal zombie only gives 5 points, too slow, and fatigue value will rise quickly later.
At this pace, she could only get 100 points, no need to think about ranking, let alone taking time to scavenge things.
She had to find a way to gather a batch of zombies.
Her disadvantages in agility and stamina meant she had to be extremely cautious to pull this off without mistakes.
Yu Jiang entered a two-story wooden house and climbed from the sloped roof to the roof of the adjacent three-story building.
She raided the house along the way, nothing useful, but she took the cream-yellow lace tablecloth.
And a household folding ladder.
The elite monsters in Silent Town—burly ones and helmet zombies, plus the most troublesome mutated vultures that control the airspace—are extremely sensitive to sound.
She planned to use this and the terrain to lure a batch of monsters into a dead end.
At this moment, an announcement popped up in the instance channel.
[Congratulations to player ‘Purple Butt Can Do It’ for finding a super lucky star, +100 points, mission completed, exited instance.]
Everyone who saw this message was dumbfounded.
“Damn! I’m going all out against these lucky people!”
“Got 100 points in just over ten minutes, why exit, everything left is profit.”
Yu Jiang sighed lightly; luck is also a form of strength.
Exiting is the safest; these lucky people tend to attract hate, and the instance doesn’t say you can’t rob things.
The roof underfoot was dilapidated from age, unsteady when stepped on, recent rain made the air misty, and moss made it slippery.
Yu Jiang crouched to reduce drag and used the roof to obscure her body, observed the nearby situation, then moved to a suitable spot to leave the roof.
In this house’s second-floor nursery, a glass jar sat on the windowsill.
Inside the jar was a paper folded star emitting faint fluorescence.
10 points!
The window was locked from inside; she couldn’t open it and had to enter through the room door.
Inside was a level 3 helmet, level 3 armor zombie; the wooden stick couldn’t pierce it, and hitting the head didn’t reduce health points.
It pounced as soon as the door opened, carrying Yu Jiang tumbling down the stairs.
[Your foot seems twisted, health value -10]
[Health points -30]
[Warning! Player health points remaining: 35]
Yu Jiang first used the zombie as a meat shield, then strangled its neck in place, switched to crowbar to salvage its level 3 helmet for composite plastic fiber *1, cloth *1.
Then stabbed a knife into its eye socket, immediately used a healing potion, health points at 45.
Just a twisted ankle, luckily no injury to tendons and bones, which would require bandage and splint to heal.
Yu Jiang wiped the disgusting blood from her hands with a nearby torn curtain, went upstairs to get the Wishing Star.
Her current points: 40.
Killing the rugby helmet zombie gave 15 points.
Yu Jiang rubbed her ankle, preparing to continue the plan, but as soon as she stepped out, she encountered players.
It was the one nicknamed Yuan, accompanied by two male players.
“We’ve been squatting in the adjacent house for so long, lured away the door zombies, and you just come in to pick up bargains.”
Yuan looked righteous, “I won’t make it hard for a woman like you; you’ve already got the zombie points, hand over the Wishing Star.”
Yu Jiang irritably frowned, “You’d better not survive the three-day punishment period.”
Otherwise, she’d have to kill them again if she saw them later.
Earlier, she preferred taking dozens of health points from the zombie hit rather than using hallucinogenic powder; of course, it was saved for players.
Just as she was about to act, a rusty tetanus arrow whistled through the air, embedding in the grass in front of Yuan.
No one expected the sudden change; Yu Jiang looked up to see Golden Miner holding a crude bow beside a grass pile to the side and rear.
Immediately after, a lighted, singing toy spinning top was thrown by her.
The loud sound quickly spread through the air.
The three male players stared stunned at the agitated monsters around, then turned hateful glares to Golden Miner.
This is a sneaky player in the grass!
“Don’t just stand there, run.” Golden Miner frantically signaled Yu Jiang with her eyes.
“I’m not helping you; I just couldn’t stomach it. I had just beaten an elite monster half dead, they came with numbers to steal kills and took my arrows—I only had 5 total!”
Yu Jiang saw her running direction would hit a dozen zombies ahead, quickly grabbed her and headed down another small path.
“No idea what’s up, monsters everywhere in this area, especially that iron gate in the opposite alley that someone closed.”
Yu Jiang didn’t say it was her who closed it; she returned the arrow she picked up earlier and pointed to the right-side fork.
“Keep going this way; those houses haven’t been searched, and the monsters inside have been pulled out.”
Golden Miner paused, “What about you?”
Yu Jiang looked to the left side, “I’m going that way.”
Golden Miner nodded; everyone needed to find Wishing Stars, better to split up, “Thanks for the info.”
“Thanks for helping me earlier too.”
After splitting, Yu Jiang took the knife to find those three people.
