Chapter 51: OP Garlic (V)
Though Wang Tanzhi thought this, the Zombie Werewolf was not of the same opinion. It wouldnât even consider whether the player was afflicted with Chuunibyou or not; it was only concerned with strength.
Despite being a relatively unintelligent Gatekeeper BOSS, it was able to recognize the potential threats. The Zombie Werewolf turned around to focus on the two slowly approaching targets who were still some distance away. It vigilantly watched them. Clearly, these two were tough.
Going off on how they addressed each other, Lilâ Tan was able to guess that they wereăMatchless General Pan FengăandăHua Xiong Beheader of Thousandsăfrom the team. Because all the players were separated at the start of the Scenario, and each playerâs name and title were no longer visible (The Team Log only displayed a playerâs name, level, and their status: alive or dead), Lilâ Tan didnât know what their titles were and was unable to use that to guess who was who.
âThese two⌠two Generals,â Lilâ Tan addressed the two of them rather awkwardly, âThere are numerous Blood Wolf Zombies down here. It would be better for us to draw the mini-BOSS upâŚ. Wah!â Right in the middle of speaking his mouth suddenly dropped open and let out a cry of astonishment.
Donât worry, he wasnât bitten. However, in the garage behind him there were five or six zombies that had already begun to shamble closer; they had yet to reach Lilâ Tan. Actually, you donât even need to worry about those monsters. They were blocked by the boom barrier banisterâŚ. And, because they were morons and didnât know how to climb over or get past it, they were just pushing against it with their ribsâŚ.
The reason Lilâ Tan shouted was because he saw something unbelievable.
Though the figure of General Pan leaping high into the air, mountain axe lifted high in the air, then landing heavily and the blade of the axe sinking wasnât particularly fast, the angle of execution and his movements were enough to stop the huge Zombie Werewolf from dodging.
The creature howled and brandished its claw to block the blow. But the instant the weapon in Matchless Panâs hands cut at the monsterâs arm, the weapon suddenly sped up. The cold blade of the axe flashed, then swift as lightning, quicker than a meteor, it caught the arm and blood was spilt, cleanly cleaving the arm in two.
The Zombie Werewolfâs huge arm was cut off just like that and sent splattering away. But before the Zombie Werewolf could let loose a miserable howl, Hua Xiongâs spear had already made contact; his strike was even faster. It was faster than the eye could see, blood suddenly blossomed forth: the monsterâs knee had been pierced. The left arm was sent flying by the axeâs blade and the right knee was skewered by the spearâs head.
The Zombie Werewolfâs body was originally top-heavyâits upper body tall and stockyâso after suffering those two blows, it just immediately lost balance and tilted to the right, toppling heavily onto the ground.
The next moment, a cold metal gleam reflected in the wolfâs eyes. With a bang, the mountain axe fell to the ground, leaving a spurt of blood in its wake. Soon after, a wolf head awkwardly rolled down along the slope.
Lilâ Tan stared completely dumbfounded. These two men just dealt with a mini-BOSS in a mere three moves. It was difficult to imagine that they were only two levels higher than him with that kind of strength.
âAghâââ The low groans of the Blood Wolf Zombies behind him made him turn back around.
Lilâ Tan turned back to find that tens of zombies more had already gathered behind the banister. And further into the darkness he saw (that) the parking garage was teeming with more shadows, the shadows of countless zombies.
âYoung Brother, how about you follow us back to the surface for now?â asked Pan Feng.
Lilâ Tan immediately responded, âYes, yes⌠letâs first find someplace without monsters.â He hurriedly made his way up. When he passed by the Zombie Werewolf, he couldnât help but shoot another glance at the corpse of the headless monsterâŚ.
Feng Bujue who had left the âstrongholdâ was also headed towards Allerbmu Corp.âs towerâhe knew heâd have a higher chance of meeting his teammates if he headed that way. Right now, he only hoped that Lilâ Tan and the other two teammates werenât stupid enough to blindly rush into the building to their deaths before he could meet up with them.
He wasnât in any rush to save the Main Missionâs objective: Dr. Ashford. Frankly, it wouldnât even matter if the Doctor were dead. The System never indicated that theyâd fail the Scenario if the Doctor died. In Team âSurvivalâ Mode, the only way to fail is for all the players to die. The death of a plot character would at most increase the Scenarioâs difficulty or change the plot lineâs ending.
During the time Feng Bujue was alone, heâd already killed approximately over fifty Blood Wolf Zombies. In fact, if he wanted to, he couldâve killed even more. It was only because he wanted to do all sorts of âexperimentsâ to test those monsterâs reactions that he took up a bit more time.
After these repetitive actions, his Shooting Proficiency rose from F to E, but his Fighting Proficiency was still E rank. It seemed his march on the monsters with non-weapon-like weapons to remove their heads would not raise his Fighting Proficiency to rank D. He would need to revise his tactics.
Feng Bujue couldnât help but recall Rain and thought of that clean and efficient skill she so confidently and leisurely displayed. Right now, he couldnât execute that kind of movement. Maybe once could, his Fighting Proficiency would finally increase to D.
Of course, fighting with those monsters who were as slow as crawling crabs wouldnât help him train this sort of skill. At the very least the monsters would have to be equal to him in strength or even a bit stronger as opponents. Only then might they be able to help him raise his Fighting Proficiency.
At the moment, the most pressing thing Feng Bujue had to consider what was the most efficient way to be able to equip ăEcho Armoră. Right now, he knew that increasing his General Proficiency to C wouldnât be easy, but the part about getting his Equipment Proficiency to D was worth a try. After all, there was only a one rank difference for the latter.[1]
All along his trek, he kept thinking of how to take advantage of the amount of freedom in the Scenario to gain even more benefits. He also would avoid any monster along the way if he could. Heâd reach Allerbmu Corp Tower soon; it looked to be about only a few more blocks until heâd arrive.
It was around this time that Feng Bujue noticed that the number of surrounding zombies had increased, and⌠he saw a few dead ones.
And so it was with great interest that this guy carried out an âautopsyâ of the zombieâŚ. He first crouched by one of the corpses and studied the bashed in skull and the fluid that flowed out of it, carefully examined the wound, and even somewhat inspected the other wounds on its body, just like how a police detective would search a horrifying scene of crime.
âHn, the wound was incurred by a baseball bat, rightâŚ.â he muttered to himself, âFirst a strike to the front, then circled to the side and rear for two consecutive hits⌠could it be Lilâ TanâŚ?â He stood up, picked up his pipe wrench, and smoothly smashed to the floor a monster that had approached him from the side.
âBut a baseball bat is a rather easily obtainable sort of weapon. That âNames Are Really Difficult to Chooseâ seems like heâd have a lot of them,â[2]Â he pondered, âand I canât rule out the possibility that the two other players could also be using baseball bats.â
With this in mind, he continued forward. Who wouldâve thought that before heâd gone even several steps that heâd see, a distance away, seven or eight corpses all within close proximity to each other, all of which had been beheaded. These heads still moved but because they did not have any trachea, they couldnât make any sounds. The chopped off heads could only lie where they had fallen and open their mouths, their jaws unceasingly making chomping movements.
âHmâŚthis shouldnât be his doingâŚ.â
[1]In case anyone forgot, heâs talking about the requirements to equipping Echo Armor.
[2]Subtle diss here since Atobe-sama and his buddy seemed to only collect crap weapons before.