Chapter 89: Scouting the horde
That same morning, just an hour after breakfast, Selene, Reymond, and Gwen stepped out of the hotel.
"Why did you ask me to come along?" Gwen asked as she picked an arrow from her quiver.
Selene walked at the front, her steps measured.
"I simply don’t want you to get too attached to that guy in case he dies."
Her words stunned Gwen and Reymond, and they couldn’t help but gasp in surprise.
"Hey, Selene. It’s harsh to assume he’ll die," Reymond said in a soft, chiding tone.
She glanced at him and shrugged, "Do you think he won’t? He’s too brazen, and quite unlucky too. Almost every time, he’s the one falling into life-threatening situations."
Against this, Reymond couldn’t argue and fell silent. Truly, Leon had been the one facing life-threatening situations the most among them all.
"But still, I don’t think he’ll die. Leon is strong, and so is his desire to live," Gwen said softly, nocking her arrow on the bow.
Locking her gaze on a pair of pale hands crawling out from an alley, she waited for a few seconds, then released the bowstring.
The arrow shot forward with a sharp sound and pierced into the skull of the zombie just as it emerged.
[You have slain a Level 10 Mutated Zombie!]
Selene glanced at the zombie, then her brows furrowed.
"I’m thinking of something," She said.
Reymond’s ears immediately perked up, "What’s that?"
She turned to him, "You said you saw a zombie horde around the Hudson River, right? We should go check them out."
Instantly, Reymond’s expression paled, "No way. You’re being suicidal. There are too many zombies there. I couldn’t even get close."
Still, Selene was unconvinced, "I’m not saying we should hunt them. The information you gave is too vague, and I need to confirm some things by myself. I’m only bringing you two because I don’t want you to get worried."
"Ugh..." His expression darkened as he tried to find a good reason to make her change her mind, but he failed.
He glanced at Gwen for help, but the girl only nodded and said, "It’s fine. We’re just scouting, aren’t we?"
Closing his eyes, Reymond eventually sighed in defeat. He placed a hand on the hilt of his sword, then nodded.
"Alright, we’ll have to be careful."
The three of them immediately headed towards the river, taking down the stray zombies they saw on their way.
"Surprisingly, we haven’t seen mutated beasts in a while. Could it be that they’ve grouped together too?" Gwen asked, holding an arrow that was already knocked on her bow.
Reymond walked beside her, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.
Only Selene walked at the front, seemingly carefree. However, the subtle twitch of her fingers told a different story of alertness and readiness.
"That’d be too deliberate," She answered her friend. "I’d wager that most of them have been consumed by the zombie horde."
Reymond’s grip tightened on his sword, "That’s harsh. Although they’re mutated beasts, Little West has made me change my view of them slightly."
Remembering that big mutated cat, Selene nodded, "You’re right. Zombies and their infection only worsen things."
"Wait a moment. There should be some kind of cure for the zombie infections, right? I mean, if we reach an absurdly high level—maybe Tier Fifteen or something, can we still get infected and turned by a bite?" He asked curiously, his lips curling into a frown.
The question made Selene ponder for a moment, then she nodded, "It should be possible. Mana is the ultimate existence in this kind of world. So, as long as we grow stronger and gain a higher control of mana, we should be able to resist the infection."
"Well, I hope that’s true. It’d really be terrible if we could still get infected," Reymond sighed in relief, then spotted four zombies staggering towards them from behind. He pulled out his sword slightly, but Selene stopped him.
"No need."
When he looked at the zombies again, they had collapsed to the ground—dead.
Reymond’s eyes widened, "You learnt a new skill?"
As far as he knew, Selene’s ability was somewhat complicated, and she only learnt new skills the longer she practiced her old ones.
"I did. It’s more mana-efficient than the ice spikes," She answered, raising her right hand. Floating right above her palm was a bullet made of ice.
Reymond stared in surprise and curiosity, "This looks too much like a real bullet. Isn’t the Star Stream a kind of medieval system?"
This time, Gwen answered him, saying, "I have a theory. I think the Star Stream is merely trying to incorporate our own inventions into its own. Take the Combat Gears for example, they look too much like casual clothes, don’t they?"
Reymond and Selene agreed with her, as it made sense.
"That’s good. At least it won’t be hard getting used to the treasures," He said in a low voice, visibly relieved.
They walked for a few more minutes until Reymond asked them to stop. Pointing at a tall skyscraper, he said, "That is the building I scouted the area from. Let’s get closer and see if you can get a better view."
The three of them immediately stepped inside the building and began climbing the stairs. It was stressful as expected, but as evolvers, they weren’t daunted by such a small stress.
In ten minutes, they had finally arrived at the rooftop of the skyscraper.
"Whoa... I’ve never been anywhere this high in my life," Gwen remarked as she shifted nervously on her feet.
Selene didn’t say anything because her gaze was already locked onto the sea of flesh in the distance.
"Wha...?" Gwen gasped in surprise as she finally set her eyes on the zombie horde. Numbers couldn’t define them. They were just too much, stretching for hundreds of meters along the Hudson River while being densely packed.
"Yeah, that’s them," Reymond’s lips twitched.
"Looks like 90% of Manhattan became zombies. This is really startling," Selene said in a grim tone, her eyes narrowed.
She tried to find the end of the zombie horde, but the other skyscrapers blocked her view.
So she pointed to a skyscraper closer to the horde.
"Let’s move there to get a better view."
