Chapter 38: Chapter 38: Soaring Green Pillar of Light
The zombies were still jumping into the pit one after another. The sight infuriated Faye Yardley, but she was powerless to stop them.
Even her most powerful long-range attacks were nothing more than a minor nuisance to them.
If they lost the protection and barrier of this building, they would soon be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
So, even if they suspected something was wrong, all they could do now was protect themselves and kill as many zombies as they could.
Kill, kill, kill!
Perhaps this was the essence of combat—to end war through war.
The ones that could climb didn’t just scale the building to the roof.
So after dealing with the few zombies that had already reached the rooftop and the ones close behind, Faye Yardley and Gavin Donovan left the rooftop, shut the door, and headed straight downstairs.
When they reached the 12th floor, they found zombies inside, listening for sounds as they searched for the stairs to go down.
Without a word, Gavin Donovan charged forward, and Faye Yardley followed, wielding a brand-new longsword.
Faye Yardley had discovered that stabbing a zombie’s eyes with a spear and then extinguishing its Soul Fire was too time-consuming. For her, it was far more efficient to just cleave their heads off with a longsword.
So she had traded her spear back for the longsword she had previously given Gavin Donovan.
This was no time to worry about kill counts; whoever was closer got the kill.
As they rushed down, they continued to eliminate the scattered zombies that had crawled inside.
When they finally regrouped on the 7th floor, they saw Zachary Pierce blocking the stairwell alone while Colby and Ford held the left and right corridors, trying to keep zombies entering from other areas from interfering with him.
Seeing Faye and Gavin come down to join them, they couldn’t help but show their relief.
Faye Yardley didn’t waste a single word, rushing to Zachary Pierce’s side and starting to kill.
Without her needing to say anything, Zachary Pierce shifted his position slightly to give her a better angle to attack.
...
Outside, after at least a hundred thousand zombies had jumped into the massive pit in the ruins of the Municipal Science and Technology Museum, the pit began to faintly glow with a pale green light.
The three High Level zombies, who looked more human than the others and were positioned in a triangle around the museum, exchanged a look. Two of them then jumped into the pit, while the remaining one glanced back at the 15-story office building behind it.
It suddenly unleashed a sharp, piercing soundwave from its mouth. Soon, all the remaining zombies that hadn’t yet jumped into the pit collectively changed direction and swarmed toward the 15-story office building.
This time, the swarming zombies were filled with a boundless rage, as if blaming the few "insects" for disturbing their evolution and upgrade.
The last zombie leader looked at the office building, its glass walls now shattered everywhere, and a cold sneer appeared on its face. Its gray-white eyes showed not a flicker of emotion.
It turned its head to see the pale green light in the pit forming the shape of a pentagram. If it didn’t leave now, it would miss its chance. So, after leaving its final command, it took a leap and jumped into the center of the pentagram.
The pale green rays of light connected, and then a blinding pillar of green light shot into the sky.
At the same time, five green pillars of light erupted across the city, soaring into the clouds as if to connect with the void itself.
The green light from these pillars grew brighter and brighter. Even though it was daytime within the Dungeon, the green radiance was still bright enough to pierce through everything.
Even in the corridors of the office building, Faye Yardley and the other four could feel it clearly.
And the brighter the light became, the more agitated and furious the zombies grew, their attacks becoming even more ferocious.
This left the five of them with no time to rest and no spare mental energy to think about anything else.
Faye Yardley once again entered that state where she grew stronger the more she killed, her eyes beginning to turn red.
The five green pillars of light shone for about three minutes before vanishing in an instant, as if they had never been there at all.
But eighty to ninety percent of the zombies in the city were now gone.
The zombies that were left behind were all extremely agitated, even turning on each other.
The already ravaged city now looked even more devastated, and the remaining zombies only made it seem more desolate.
With her killing intent ignited, and empowered by the Seed of Hope within her heart, Faye Yardley seemed even more tireless than the zombies.
She fought on and on, and if not for the pile of corpses and shattered zombie skulls blocking her path, she would have charged straight into the horde to slaughter to her heart’s content.
Her progress was astonishingly fast. Her skill with the longsword grew more refined, flexible, and lethal through real combat.
Even though this longsword had killed far more zombies, its edge hadn’t dulled like the previous one’s, proving it to be much more durable.
While their team was still tackling Dungeon 3, the original novel’s protagonist, Logan Langdon, had just synthesized Dungeon 1. Staring at the Invitation Card in his hand, he raised an eyebrow but didn’t immediately decide to go in himself.
’Besides needing to weigh the pros and cons, my own safety is my top priority. My haul from opening boxes today wasn’t bad, and I even got a better weapon. Maybe this solo Dungeon is worth a try.’
’How hard can a solo Dungeon be?’
Looking at the Invitation Card, Logan Langdon weighed the risks and rewards.
’But it’s already late, almost midnight. Maybe I’ll set out tomorrow after the treasure box fishing period ends. Who knows, maybe tomorrow’s boxes will contain a backpack expansion blueprint.’
BEEP BEEP BEEP...
"Mr. Langdon, I’ve looked into it. The spears and sanitary napkins Eleanor Jonas is selling were indeed made in a production workshop. I saw the blueprint for the production workshop in the last bonus Dungeon, but I never thought someone would actually exchange for it."
"Mm. It’s an exchange for dungeon points, right? How many points did you see it cost last time?"
"It cost 2,000 points for one blueprint. You have a chance to get blueprints from Iron Treasure Boxes, but our probability of fishing up an Iron Treasure Box is already low, so the chance of getting a blueprint from one is even lower."
"Alright, keep an eye on the trading market. If one appears, buy it instantly. Also, have you contacted everyone in the top ten of both leaderboards?"
"Everyone except for Zachary Pierce and the anonymous one. We’re still negotiating terms with some of them."
"No rush. It’s not too late to talk after they prove they can maintain their rank in the next cycle."
After ending the call, Logan Langdon looked at the Invitation Card in his hand, his decision made.
Faye Yardley was in a complete killing frenzy. Not even the notification for completing the second-round mission could make her pause for a second.
Despite her high agility, she rarely dodged, preferring to meet attacks head-on.
By now, the other four had established a rotation, allowing one person to rest at a time, eating and drinking to restore their stamina and recover some Spirit.
After all, none of the four had Faye Yardley’s seemingly endless energy. They could only envy her absurd condition.
As time passed, Colby and Ford also completed their second-round missions, receiving an absolute defense shield and a ring that added 2 agility points, respectively.
But they were most envious of Zachary Pierce, who had actually gotten a Talent Stone to awaken a Talent. ’What happened to "personal equipment"?’ they wondered. ’Why was his reward different?’
And then there was Faye Yardley, fighting like a goddess of slaughter. Who knew what she had received?
