CH : 26 Killing Hunter Types and Novice Village

If they stayed in Havenstead City, in terms of 100,000 zombies, even if one zombie evolved the ability to command the other zombies, or a zombie specialising in Spirit or Luck. All of them would die without having a place to be buried and their stronger bodies would roam the world as walkers.

In addition, the Searching for Novice Village mission was very tempting to Ethan. He wanted to get the rewards first and then immediately evacuate.

Luke, who was a person of few words, came up and said: "I agree with Ethan. We're surrounded by zombies, but are currently safe. Once there are intelligent zombies, we will be the first to be eliminated because of our aggressive hunting of their kind."

Grace frowned and thought for a moment, then said to Ethan: "Okay! Tell me about your plan."

***

The Volvo truck drove near Havenstead Bridge, and the roaring sounds of the truck attracted the two Hunters. The two Hunters were like cheetahs, hurling towards them.

As the two Hunters moved, the truck also began to retreat.

Ethan sat there, quietly watching the situation.

He observed that the two Hunters did not stay at the bridge, but after rushing out for 500 meters, they returned to their post. Compared to pursuing the enemies, it seems that guarding the gate was more important.

Ethan, noticing the two Hunters turned around, immediately said: "Go back!"

William once again drove the Volvo truck near Havenstead Bridge.

Seeing the truck returning, the two Hunters came hurtling towards them once again.

"Reverse!"

Ethan, Grace, and Luke took the loaded containers of gasoline and diesel and crazily poured them out on the road. Julia and Luna also squeezed in, throwing the bottles filled with gasoline and diesel out the back of the truck.

The Volvo truck driven by William, then began to retreat.

This time under the command of Ethan, the truck got very close to the bridge, so that two Hunters would quickly rush out and approach them.

As the Hunters rushed out of Havenstead Bridge, droplets of gasoline and diesel splashed as they sped through the road.

After seeing that the two Hunters had covered 200 meters, Ethan immediately lit up a homemade torch and threw it at them.

The torch fell on the gasoline soaked ground, and immediately began to burn.

The flames burned along the road, and quickly caught up to the two Hunters. The Hunters with gasoline and diesel on their limbs were engulfed by the flames.

In the midst of the fire, one of the bottles filled with gasoline and diesel exploded, blowing thick smoke into the sky.

"Are they dead yet?" Grace stared at the flames and hoped that the two Hunters had been incinerated.

Immediately from the flames, came the sound of explosions. The two Hunters were burning and the odor wafted through the air. The two Hunters rushed out despite this.

Different from the normal zombies, Hunters have evolved vision, smell, and pain sensation. They would not die when hit by bullets, but they can feel pain. The pain can help them avoid fatal damage unlike the ordinary zombies, and were not as stupid to get beheaded without evading.

Julia looked up at the still burning body of the two Hunters, her eyes filled with horror: "How can this be? They actually didn't die?"

If ordinary people were in those kinds of flames, in a sea of flames they would have long been charred.

William looked at the two burnt Hunters, feeling extremely tensed, and stepped on the pedal hard.

"Luna, use your skill, attack the Hunter's head!" Ethan said while facing a Hunter.

Luna nervously nodded, then pointed toward one of the Hunters, and unconsciously started chanting a mysterious mantra that she did not understand.

Luna mantra chanting lasted for 20 seconds. A strange magic flame then appeared before her fingers out of thin air.

The next moment, a fist-sized red fireball flew toward the Hunter's head.

The ball was too fast, and the Hunter only had time to move away slightly. The fireball struck the Hunter's body.

As if hit by a rocket artillery, the hunter's right shoulder was instantly blown off by the fireball. The blast was so powerful that it pierced through without dispersing and flew directly to the ground.

"Such powerful magic!" Ethan was slightly surprised. The magical power released by Luna was greater than he had expected, but the drawbacks of the magic release were also very obvious. The cast time was too long so Luna could only cast a limited number of times.

After releasing the fireball, Luna became somewhat sluggish.

"Stop the truck!" Ethan shouted in a deep voice.

William stepped on the brakes, causing the Volvo truck to come to a stop.

Once the truck stopped, Ethan, Grace, and Luke took their Type 79 submachine guns, then quickly jumped down from the back.

The Hunters quickly headed towards the trio, they were within 40 meters.

The trio immediately pointed their gun at the Hunters and started wildly shooting.

The shower of bullets caused the two Hunters' bodies to be full of bloody holes, but they chose to continue advancing.

The Hunters were blazing fast, their bodies flashing a couple times before appearing in front of Ethan, with a claw outstretched, trying to grab him.

When Ethan activated the Shadow Step skill, his agility increased tremendously, to the point where it was on the same speed as the Hunters. He then held the Stinger Pistol up toward the Hunter and fired.

The Hunter premonition of danger was extremely sharp. The moment that Ethan took out his Stinger Pistol, gave birth to a feeling of extreme danger, so the Hunter twisted its body slightly.

With a loud bang of gunfire, the Hunter's right shoulder and arm was completely blown off from its body. If it did not make an attempt to avoid in advance, the gun would have blown off its head.

Under great impact, the Hunter was thrown backwards. As it was flying back, it opened its big mouth, and its tongue like a sharp arrow shot towards Ethan's head.

At this time, Draugr, who was standing besides Ethan, got in front of him. The Hunter's tongue immediately pierced into the body of Draugr.

While Grace activated her High Speed Movement skill and Weapon Enhancement skill. The Imitation Tang Sword was covered in a layer of blue light. As a master of martial arts, she took advantage of the situation that appeared before the Hunter, striking the Hunter's leg with her sword.

The Hunter swung its tail while in mid-air, aiming for Grace's head. Grace's head would be crushed if it was hit.

In this time of crisis, Grace bent her body slightly, sword twisting, and slashed at the Hunter's tail.

The Imitation Tang Sword enhanced by the Weapon Enhancement skill was very powerful. The sword cut off the Hunter's tail like it was tofu, splattering blood on Grace.

Luke had used this time to change the Type 79 submachine gun's magazine. He began to shoot wildly at the escaping Hunters, emptying the magazine after 20 shots.

Most of the bullets missed. Only a few hit the Hunter but did not cause much damage. Standing beside him was Mortis keeping him safe by distracting the other Hunter. 

Draugr grabbed the Hunter's tongue. Taking advantage of it while it was in mid-air, Draugr used his strength to pull the Hunter towards Ethan. 

Ethan calmly stood there without moving. Coldness flashed in his eyes and he was extremely calm. When the Hunter was pulled in front of him, he quickly brought the Stinger Pistol up to the Hunter's head and pulled the trigger.

With a loud bang, when the Hunter's head was shot by Ethan's gun, foul blood splashing everywhere. A big ball of white light flew into Ethan.

A skill book, a red gem, four white treasure boxes, and 200 Survival Coins appeared next to the dead Hunter.

{You have been promoted to level 15 ...."}

{You have been promoted to level 16 ...".}

After killing the Hunter, two sweet sounds of levelling rang out in Ethan's head.

"Distribute all to Agility!"

Ethan decided to put all four stats points into Agility, then quickly rushed forward.

The Hunter that got its shoulder blown off by Luna, at this moment, badly beating Mortise with like a speeding cheetah.

Luke was raining bullets at them from time to time, as he pointed toward the Hunter and a light flashed from the ring on his hand. Afterwards a yellow light fell upon the ground. A three meter tall spike rose out of the ground, piercing towards the Hunter.

The Hunter's reaction was extremely fast, coiling its tail around the spike. Relying on its tail to stop, it escaped unharmed escaping from clauths of both Luke and Mortis.

The Hunter released its tail from the spike and jumped down.

Ethan rushed at the Hunter like an arrow, aiming his Stinger Pistol at the head of the Hunter and pulled the trigger.

The Hunter has already seen the Stinger Pistol's power. It smacked its tail on the ground and flew to the side.

With a loud bang, a big hole appeared on the right side of the Hunter. With crushed bones, shattered internal organs, foul blood splashed everywhere.

Ordinary creatures that receive such damage would have died long ago. However, the Hunter was still not dead, with its tail curled around the spike. The Hunter shot towards Ethan like an arrow, aiming a claw at his heart.

At this time, Draugr who was beside Ethan wielded his axe, creating a sharp wind which cut the Hunter into two pieces. The foul blood and entrails splashed all over Ethan.

A big ball of white light flew into Draugr's body, raising its level.

Scattered around the Hunter was a green treasure box, a skill book, four white treasure boxes, and 200 Survival Coins.

After the two Hunters were killed, Ethan heaved a sigh of relief. Their options had run out. If they had not gotten rid of the two Hunters, they would have all died there.

Ethan picked up all the items that were dropped by the two Hunters.

{3rd Degree Item: Magic Gem. This is a magical gem; it is necessary for upgrading weapons.} 

{Level 3 Skill: Devil Flame. Activating the skill will consume 5 SP and 5 SP. After the skill is activated, 2 SP and 2 SP will be consumed every 10 seconds. The Devil Flame's power is dependent on the user's Spirit, Stamina, Strength, and Vitality.} 

[Note: I'm going to just call Stamina Point: SP, from now on. SP is Spirit Point. I would have called it SP, but MP is a more common terminology in RPG systems.]

{Level 3 Skill: Plant Manipulation. Activating the skill will consume 3 SP and 3 SP. After the skill is activated, 1 SP and 1 SP will be consumed every second. The power of manipulation is dependent on the user Spirit and Stamina.} 

Ethan opened the green box, a ball of green light surged out, condensing into a 2 meters long green spear engraved with strange patterns.

{3rd Degree Item: Green Devil Spear! The spear is extremely sharp; it can cut through gold and Stone.} 

Ethan opened the white treasure boxes one by one. Between the light flashing, eight white treasure boxes had just turned into two Imitation Tang Swords, while the rest dissipated into thin air. Voiding his luck. 

Ethan looked at the four treasures dropped by the two Hunters, thinking for a moment, and then chose the Devil Flame and the Magic Gem: "I want the Devil Flame skill book and Magic Gem."

The skill books and items dropped by the two Hunters were high quality. Ethan had to carefully consider before making a choice.

Luke looked at both the skill book and the Green Devil Spear, then said to Grace: "You can choose first!"

Grace checked out the Green Devil Spear and Plant Manipulation skill for a while, and finally looked up at Luna while holding the skill book and said: "I want this, you guys can have the rest."

Luke stored the Imitation Tang Sword behind him, and quietly picked up the Green Devil Spear.

Ethan looked at the bizarre gate on the other side of the bridge, his eyes flashed with a burning desire and said: "I will go over there to complete a mission. Wait for me here."

After he finished talking, Ethan, Draugr, and Mortis set off toward the other side of Havenstead Bridge.

There were vehicle's wreckage everywhere, even the guardrails were broken and shattered. Everywhere was stained with black blood, but there were no zombie's corpses. Even in the vehicles, there were no zombies.

Ethan rushed all the way, looking at the strange sight, and thought in his mind: "Did the two Hunters eat all the zombies?"

Ethan did not think too much about it, and quickly rushed to the other side of the bridge.

The bizarre gate with the particles of light appeared before Ethan. He could not see the boundary of those particles of light. He saw an ocean of zombies crowded together in those particles of lights. A crowd of hundreds of zombies paled in comparison. Ethan could only feel helplessness, even though he had leveled up many times and had two great helpers.  

[Note: Its like the particles of light encompassed a huge area and within that is the gate along with an ocean of zombies probably on the other side.] 

The uncountable numbers of ocean of zombies was covered in a mysterious force, and did not pay attention to Ethan getting closer. Otherwise, Ethan would not dare get even half a step closer to those particles of light.

Ethan stepped towards the bizarre gate, his body abruptly disappearing before everyone.

With a flashed of white light, Ethan emerged in a bizarre, fantasy style place, brimming with strange symbols.

{Congratulations! You are the first to complete the novice quest: Searching for Novice Village Havenstead. You have been awarded 1,000 Survival Coins as your quest reward. Additionally, as the first to complete this quest and uncover the existence of Havenstead, you've earned a special bonus: a treasure raffle prize. You will spin the prize wheel, with potential rewards ranging from 2nd Degree to 6th Degree treasures.}

As the message echoed in Ethan's mind, a flash of light enveloped him. Suddenly, a large, round roulette board appeared before his eyes, glowing with an otherworldly energy. Each segment of the roulette was gilded with gold, etched with numbers from 1 to 999, shimmering under an unseen light.

{Please select the number you want!} 

The message reverberated in his mind once more, urging him to make a choice. 

Ethan scrutinized the roulette board, trying to discern a pattern or clue that might guide his decision. The numbers gleamed, each one holding the promise of something valuable, something powerful. But there was no clear sign, no hidden message that stood out to him.

"Of course," he thought, his mind racing. "This is the System of God and Devil." 

He considered his options, then a smirk crossed his face. "If it's about the divine and the diabolical, then the choice is obvious."He hesitated for a moment, feeling the weight of the decision. 

This could be a turning point, the difference between mere survival and true power. With a deep breath, he made his choice. "It has to be either 666, the number of the Beast, or 777, the number of divine completion." 

His mind wavered between the two, the symbolism of each number playing on his thoughts.