Chapter 385: Chapter 385: Shaking the Four Directions
Lin Xinghai glanced at the excited group and said coldly, "Don’t celebrate so soon. We’re not out of danger yet! If we don’t leave now, we’re going to get boxed in by the Zombie hordes rushing over."
His words were like a bucket of cold water, instantly calming the euphoric group down.
At this point, no one could be bothered with their fatigue and injuries. They immediately followed Lin Xinghai and hurried downstairs.
After they walked out of the mall’s main entrance, sure enough, they saw Zombie hordes in the distance, rushing toward them down the street.
They would arrive in one or two minutes at most.
Cold sweat broke out on many of their foreheads, and they silently thanked their lucky stars.
The group followed Lin Xinghai into an alley behind the building and soon vanished into the darkness.
...
At that moment, on a rooftop across from the mall, ten powerful individuals stood quietly.
They watched Lin Xinghai’s group depart, their eyes filled with a complex mix of awe, shock, and even some confusion and disbelief.
When the rescue squad received the order to come, they were briefed on the situation. Learning that two teams were besieged by over 3,000 Zombies in the mall was daunting, even for them.
With so many Zombies, if the teams inside collapsed, it would happen in an instant. This placed extremely high demands on the speed of their rescue.
They had even simulated several crisis scenarios and developed corresponding contingency plans.
When Lin Xinghai’s group fought their way from the first to the second floor, the members of the rescue squad were actually quite satisfied.
After all, to not only hold out for so long under the assault of over 3,000 Zombies but also to mount a counterattack was already outstanding.
At the time, however, they merely thought the examinees were excellent. They didn’t believe the group actually had the ability to change the situation.
They figured the group was only holding on thanks to their few remaining bullets and by pushing themselves to the limit with their Superpowers.
Moreover, "Seed No. 1" was also in there, which was likely another key reason they were able to hold on.
But both bullets and Superpowers would eventually run out. Based on their assessment, reaching the second floor was probably the examinees’ absolute limit.
Yet, they waited and waited. Zombies kept dying, but according to their Perception, the group of examinees was retreating in an orderly fashion, showing no signs of faltering whatsoever.
When the team retreated from the second to the third floor, having already taken out more than half of the Zombies, the members of the rescue squad finally started to grow uneasy.
Putting themselves in the examinees’ shoes, they realized that even they, as battle-hardened veterans, probably couldn’t have lasted this long in the same situation.
After all, the group had a very limited supply of ammunition, and they were only the Optimized—theoretically on the same tier as High Level Zombies.
Under such circumstances, relying on Superpowers and melee weapons to kill eight or ten High Level Zombies while besieged by a massive horde would have already been an incredible feat.
However, they had observed that the proportion of High Level Zombies in the horde attacking the mall was terrifyingly high—there were over 800 of them.
Logically speaking, those 800 High Level Zombies alone should have been enough to crush any team in the assessment.
That wasn’t even counting the support from over 2,000 Intermediate and Ordinary Zombies. No one would have thought the examinees could escape, let alone defeat the entire horde.
Yet the impossible had happened, right before their very eyes.
The group had actually managed to kill all 3,000-plus Zombies. And in accomplishing such a monumental feat, not a single person had died. There wasn’t even anyone seriously injured.
It felt like watching a praying mantis try to stop a chariot, only for the mantis to actually flip the vehicle over. The whole thing felt surreal.
"Captain, when we get back, can you get the combat footage from the information department? I want to see how they did it," a member of the rescue squad suddenly said after a long silence.
"Mhm," the Body Shaping Realm expert leading the team agreed with a slight nod.
In fact, his own curiosity was just as strong as any of his team members’.
...
And at this moment, the rescue squad wasn’t the only group in shock.
At this moment, 99% of the examinees in Dong’an City who couldn’t fall asleep were staring blankly at the Communication Wristwatches in their hands.
In fact, the constant roar of battle since nightfall had made it impossible for many examinees to sleep soundly.
After all, sleeping in a place as perilous as the city proper was something not even many veteran, battle-hardened Mercenaries would attempt, let alone a group of examinees.
Everyone knew just how dangerous the city became at night. Even if they couldn’t get back to a Shelter, they were supposed to at least leave the urban area and spend the night in the outer wilderness.
Unable to sleep, these people would periodically pull out their Communication Wristwatches to glance at the Points leaderboard.
They wanted to see how many more unlucky people had been disqualified.
At first, they were all in the mood for some schadenfreude. After all, as long as they weren’t the unlucky ones, everyone else was a competitor. Each person eliminated was a good thing for those who remained.
But that mentality had changed half an hour ago, when the Points behind the first-ranked Lin Xinghai’s name began to shift.
The very first moment everyone saw Lin Xinghai’s Points change, they were delighted.
It meant his hideout had surely been discovered by Zombies, and a fight had broken out.
Being discovered by Zombies at night was incredibly dangerous. Some even began to hope he would suffer an unexpected and humiliating defeat.
After all, at night, a Zombie’s Speed, attack power, and bloodlust were all enhanced, and they became extremely active.
It was possible that being chased by one horde would quickly attract a second, and then a third. No matter how strong someone was, it was entirely possible for them to be chased to death.
For this very reason, the moment Lin Xinghai’s Points started jumping, he became the center of attention.
Even many of the top-tier prodigies who had been resting were quietly woken up by their teammates on night watch.
Then, as they all watched with a hint of anticipation, the Points behind Lin Xinghai’s name kept jumping. With nearly every refresh, they increased by hundreds.
At first, everyone was patient. They figured Lin Xinghai must be going all out, so they weren’t surprised to see his Points increase by several hundred with each refresh.
As they saw it, there were two possibilities: either Lin Xinghai would quickly eliminate the horde and retreat to safety, or he would attract more and more hordes until he was eventually surrounded and killed.
Then, they waited... and waited. Gradually, they all began to stare blankly.
Because Lin Xinghai seemed to be maintaining a terrifying kill rate. In just five minutes, he had gained nearly 2,000 Points.
To put that in perspective, the person currently ranked tenth on the leaderboard only had just over 2,000 Points in total.
All their hard work for an entire afternoon was equivalent to just five minutes of Lin Xinghai’s.
Then, as everyone stared on, questioning their very existence, Lin Xinghai’s Points continued to skyrocket.
Half an hour later, after he had gained over 10,000 more Points, the number finally stopped increasing.
"What in the world did he do? Even cheating isn’t this absurd!" Yan Feijie, second on the Points leaderboard, muttered under his breath, his eyes glazed over.
