Chapter 27 - Base Leader Duties

The speed of the third level mutated zombie was very fast. It only took one minute for it to appear within everyone's sight. It was not only fast, it was also very cunning. It was passing through a large number of clumsy first level zombies in a flash, and in such a dense group of zombies, it was extremely difficult to catch it, let alone aimed at it.

The three first-order ability users that Yang Qi found for them were usually good at hunting, but they had never really fought hard in the zombie wall. So, looking at the zombies surging forward like the tide, all three of them felt numb and timid.

At the moment of life and death, a single mistake would lead to a complete loss

The three men's hands shook a few times when they changed their magazines. It was a glaring hole in their flawless co-operation. The zombie tide, which was originally contained at 30 meters away suddenly surged forward nearly ten meters.

Wu Ye almost instinctively pulled the trigger, the heavy machine gun spewed out a long tongue of fire, and the zombie fell to the ground. The three people were horrified to see that every bullet Wu Ye fired was accurately embedded in the zombie's brain. Motherf*****, he unexpectedly used a heavy machine gun to produce the effect of a sniper gun.

That was UNSCIENTIFIC!

War weapon.

The three people couldn't help but think of this terrible title in their mind. However, since the battle of life and death was just around the corner, they didn't have the heart to think about anything more, but they suddenly had a little more energy in their hearts. Their shooting skills have recovered to the peak level, and with the help from Wu Ye and Yang Li Na, they would restrain the zombies.

In just a moment, the new zombie was nearly a hundred meters away.

"Qian Xin, pay attention to persevere your ability! 3, 2, 1..." Qin Wuhua counted down to 1, and the golden sniper bullet rushed out of the barrel. If it's possible to put the scene in slow motion and make it look like a special effect from the movie, then you could see several circles of electric light on the golden copper bullet shell. The circle of light swam on the shell, and at the moment of impact, you would swear that there was a slight inaudible sound coming out.

The cunning mutated zombie seemed to smell the danger as it suddenly hid itself behind a group of zombies. If it had thought like a human being, then it would have been smug that it had managed to wisely dodge a bullet.

The three people got distracted as they watched the new zombies hid itself, their heart losing hope as they despaired.

However, the next moment, a strange scene happened

The bullet actually turned a corner. Another point to note was the fact that it also accelerated!

Paralyzed, it's simply more deranged than a zombie.

The third-level mutated zombie was heavily knocked to the ground by the force of inertia, and despite being mostly made from iron and steel, it's temple was slightly more fragile than the rest of its body, enabling the high-speed rotating sniper bullet to chisel it out. The strong current that was carried by the sniper bullet then directly burned all the nerves in its brain. For ten seconds, the third-level mutated zombie's whole body convulsed violently before it died completely.

However, at the next moment, something even more inexplicable appeared.

Some of the zombies who were crazily attacking people actually stopped, turned around, and ran to the dead third-level mutated zombie. They had a scuffle and even fought with each other in order to get to the dead third-level mutated zombie.

What's going on here?

There must be something weird behind every abnormality. And this. This was abnormal behavior.

Under Qin Wuhua's command, Yang Qi and Yang Li Na retracted their abilities at the same time. Then Ji Yun stepped on the gas pedal deeply and crashed the truck into the zombies before he pressed the push button on the truck, and suddenly a few meters long mechanical arms grew from the back of the truck. The arm fished amongst the zombies and tightly tied the third-level mutated zombie before the arms shrank back as it lifted the zombie body and let it be slammed down into the truck's open-topped container.

Seeing that the amount of the zombies around her was too high, Yang Li Na put her hand to the truck's body. The truck then flashed golden as a half meter long thin knife grew out of the truck wheel; coupled with the ever accelerating speed, the heavy truck became a 'human' eating weapon as the zombies close to the truck were all cut off.

Ten minutes later, the truck was parked in a safe area with fewer zombies.

The battle just now seemed quick and easy, but truthfully, it wasn't.

In such a short time, Yang Qi and Yang Li Na had spent at least half of their available power.

Qin Wuhua himself had attached ⅓ of his power to the sniper bullet, and the precise control he needed to do it had consumed most of his brain power.

In order to control the trajectory of the sniper bullet, Qian Xin was almost drained of power, spending 200% of his concentration on that task only. And now, after the battle, he didn't even have the strength to speak.

The three first-order peak ability users had also not recovered from the shock, holding their water bottle and drank from it in a daze.

Wu Ye was also a little tired. It was mainly his heart that was tired though. Others only saw that he was using a heavy machine gun to shoot the zombies head like using a sniper gun, but they didn't know that in that process, every time he aimed, predicted, and shot, he would consume a lot of his brain power and focus.

And, while the second young master's expression remained indifferent on the surface when he saw the three ability users looking at him with clear approval in their eyes, deep inside his heart he was very satisfied, and silently gave his dashing appearance 32 likes.

Today's mission had just begun though. According to Qin Wuhua's plan, they would hunt enough new zombies before the zombie tide came tonight. After all, should they missed this opportunity, when the time came, the battlefield would eventually move to the base wall. In that kind of melee, the chance of getting a shot at the new type of zombie was too slim.

At the beginning, the three new ability users thought it was impossible when they heard Qin Wuhua's plan.

Capturing five new zombies in one day? How was that possible? Did he know how many second-order ability users who were being chased by the new zombies? How many zombie hunters who were torn to pieces by them in the matter of minutes without their team? The three of them were here only for the sake of the high commission.

In addition to the minimum commission they would get, Wu Ye had also promised them that should they capture a new zombie, they would be given an extra 500 nuclei each. And, if they caught five, they would be given 5000 nuclei directly. Now, after seeing Qin Wuhua's fighting power and novel methods, they no longer thought about the 5000 nuclei in their hearts. Instead, they wished that they'd be able to stay in the team.

Because they had a premonition in their hearts that this team, which didn't even have a name yet, would one day rise to fame sooner or later.

Yang Qi and Yang Li Na exchanged a look between each other and knew that these three people had the same thoughts as them. It's a pity that Wu Ye and Qin Wuhua had not declared their position on this matter. These days, they have been working with them constantly and got paid based on commission at a clear price. From this fact, it was obvious that they had no intention of recruiting them. However, if this mission could be successfully completed and they managed to get the tax-free store reward, Wu Ye would probably need some extra manpower.

"Ji Yun is in charge of surveillance. The ability users should seize the time to absorb the crystal nuclei and restore their power as soon as possible. We will continue to move one hour later." Qin Wuhua said in a cold voice, solemn and dignified, making people instinctively feel like they want to surrender.

"Yes!" Qian Xin replied, seemingly returning to the time when he once worked with the devil instructor. Thankfully, his reply was not too loud.

It's not the first time for Yang Qi and Yang Li Na to work with Qian Xin. They already knew a little about his loud voice. And the three new ability users in there were also not shocked.

Second young master Wu was so proud of his younger brother. If he could also awaken his ability, he would have even more face.

Wu Ye found a corner to sit down. Then he summoned out the control panel, which showed that his task of killing the third-level mutated zombie had failed.

[System, this is not fair. When others contribute, you deduct my points, and that's fine. It's fair I admit. But now that I had clearly worked hard and contribute, I once again is not counted to the completion of the task.]

The electronic sound of the system when it replied to Wu Ye did not fluctuate:[Because the third-level mutated zombie is not hunted directly by the host. Therefore, the kill is not recognized and bound by the system. It can't be counted as host's task being completed and therefore can't be counted as points.]

Wu Ye usually was not keen enough to catch the fact that there seemed to be other meanings in the system's words, but this time, he was keen enough. He asked:[Wait a minute, what do you mean by 'the binding was not recognized by the system'? Can you still bind them to Wuhua and the others?]

[Each time the host unlocks a level from the gene-chain, it can bind one comrade-in-arms. The host can do this up to nine times. During the task, the system can convert the contributions made by the comrade-in-arms into the host's account. In return, the comrade-in-arms can enjoy the skills provided by the system.]

After hearing this, Wu Ye's eyes became clear and bright. He wagged his big tail and asked:[Is it a free skill?]

The system's reply was cold and exuded nobility:[Dream on.]

[You mean I still have to spend points and crystal nuclei to exchange those skills for them?]

[That's right.]

In the higher universe, there were many kinds of methods available for humans to practice, but there is no free lunch in the world. Who was willing to show his own secret skills to outsiders?

The cosmic mercenary system itself was a wartime product. At that time, a large number of qualified and powerful soldiers were urgently needed in the protracted racial wars. And for the battle at that level, the soldiers were not only required to be able to drive a spaceship and mecha robot, but also needed the soldiers to possess a strong combat strength.

The only way to obtain strong combat strength was to practice cultivation. Therefore, the cosmic mercenary system was developed by the government. And the government had included numerous skills that it had gotten through various measures into the system.

The purpose of the cosmic mercenary system was to cultivate iron-blooded warriors. Of course, the skills collected by the government at a great cost couldn't be shown to others in vain. Therefore, the more advanced the skill you wanted was, the more enemies you need to kill. Frankly speaking, points were actually contribution values. The greater the contribution, the greater the reward, and with the reward, the soldiers would finally embark on the road of the strong.

Even after the war was over, the cosmic mercenary system was still active in the black market trade. The reason was because there were functions in the system whose value couldn't be measured. However, since the system was created through many cutting-edge technologies and merged with trace of the universe original law, it couldn't be deciphered by the hackers irrespective of how skilled they or their group were.

So, regardless of everything, regardless of their identities, if one wanted to get anything from the system, they could only exchange for it through points. At the same time, the skills that were exchanged would be directly passed on by the system without the receiver being able to put into words what the skill was, only able to understand it intrinsically. This was the confidentiality agreement that the government initially promised to the original owners of the skills.

Now, Wu Ye simply didn't realize the real value of the system, and simply regarded the system as an existence that could shuttle him through the world and the place where he could exchange for magical things.

[System…...]

System:[?]

[You're forever deceptive!]Wu Ye finally growled, unable to help his frustration.

[Hmph!]

Wu Ye still wanted to nag to the system. However, it stopped him with just one word.

[When will you pay back the credits you owe the system?]

The second young master Wu immediately changed the subject, feeling guilty as he did so.[By the way, do you know why those zombies rushed to the dead zombie just now?]

The dead zombie, naturally, referred to the third-level mutated zombie.

[The malignant D-virus infectee is not trying to rush at the dead body, but trying to devour the dead zombie's crystal nuclei to complete its own evolution.]

When he heard that explanation, Wu Ye's only thought was that it was unfathomable:[What? Those zombies can evolve through absorbing crystal nuclei as well? Will they kill each other then?]

[The nature of the D-virus will not allow them to do so. However, once the malignant D-virus infectee dies, other malignant D-virus infectees can sense the existence of the crystal nuclei. Then they will search for the source of the crystal nuclei and will devour the energy within to accumulate enough energy for its own evolution.]

Wu Ye suddenly thought of the zombies he had killed in the zombie wall in order to increase his points previously, but where he didn't take out a single crystal nuclei from them.

T/N: Precisely my thought my dear.

[Is it because of me that these third-level zombies were born?]Wu Ye's face suddenly turned pale when he thought of those who were killed by the third-level zombies, the siege that Lan Cheng base is currently going to face caused by the third-level zombies, and the sea of refugees corpses that was piled up outside Lan Cheng base. All these thoughts made Wu Ye's heart feel heavy.

Those, those are all living beings.

[Only a few of them are.]The system stated in its own impersonal and objective way.[The evolution of the D-virus is an inevitable process. Before long, there will be even more advanced malignant infectees. The host does not need to blame himself for this.]

Listening to the system's words made Wu Ye feel a little bit better, but his mood was still very low. So, he asked the system.[Do you have anything that can isolate the orange crystal?] The system certainly wouldn't lie. Besides, if he didn't put the orange crystal away, they'd be in big trouble later.

As soon as it heard the question, the control panel changed its surface, showing an ugly iron box on it. There was a description accompanying the box: Low Level Isolation Box (Small), 500 points, 500 first-level crystal nuclei.

Then the system timely offered an explanation:[The low-level isolation box can isolate the energy emanating from third-level and below crystal nuclei from being felt.]

[...]He, with his negative points, didn't dare to speak.

[You can buy it on credit first.]

[System! You're so kind!]If the second young master had a long tail, it must be wagging right now.

System: Why is the chip hot again? It must be that damn cunning virus again!

The system quickly synthesized the low-level isolation box, which was put into the canvas bag next to Wu Ye before it hurriedly went back to check and kill the virus.

There were many things in the big canvas bag such as spare guns, bullets, grenades, field knives, car repairing tools, and so on. So, it was only after searching for a long time that Wu Ye found a square 'iron box' that was slightly larger than his fist.

Damn it! The system is really deceptive!

Second young master Wu, who was not familiar with the work, was fuming as he took a field knife, spending a long time prying open the zombie's skull. Once he managed to pry the zombie's skull open, he took out the orange crystal from its head.

This orange crystal was obviously a circle larger than other crystal nuclei he had seen. The crystal was clear and lustrous. The warm and pure orange color the crystal had made it looked as if a bunch of sunlights were imprisoned in it.

Anyway, the crystal nuclei that was needed to save Ah Li had been settled.

Wu Ye put the orange crystal in the isolation box, then meditated cross-legged as he practiced the "Basic Breathing skill".