Crazy Dave's Backyard

Shen Jin felt that Yang Ao was quite similar to him.

For example, both of them paid attention to mental health in the apocalypse.

Compared to material shortages, the severity of psychological issues was often overlooked.

The group had played until two in the morning last night before going to sleep, greatly easing the gloomy atmosphere that had been weighing on their hearts.

"So, after the fun comes life."

Shen Jin sighed and led Yang Ao down a small path.

With Shen Jin's villa at its center, the underground passage had branches extending north, south, east, and west. They were the main arteries of underground transportation, all fitted with voice-activated sensor lights.

But there were also some narrow side paths that Shen Jin had dug for other purposes.

For instance, this one they crawled through led directly to a small farmhouse courtyard north of the villa.

"Click~"

After some probing, Yang Ao crawled up from underground. Once he confirmed there was no danger, Shen Jin followed him up.

"This is the transit point for our operation!"

"But boss, what exactly are we doing this time? You still haven't told me."

"Uh... I've named this operation 'Crazy Dave's Backyard.'"

Yang Ao only half understood, but he did not ask further. He just had to get to work.

Before the apocalypse, the place where they stood had been a farmer's residence. The Zombies inside had long since been buried in the courtyard by Shen Jin.

The two climbed the ladder in the courtyard and went up to the roof.

The roofs of rural single-story houses were generally rather high.

They were more than four meters tall, something nearly unimaginable in a residential complex!

So despite being a single-story house, the view was still pretty good. Looking down over the surrounding fields was no problem.

Since he had passed through here before, Shen Jin's system map had already recorded the local terrain.

Shen Jin could see the distance from here to the villa. He marked it on the map and circled an area of one thousand square meters.

There were three single-story houses and a two-story building within that area.

"This time, we're fighting on the ground!"

"Alright!"

The mission required that no Zombies appear within the designated area for three days, so they first had to clear out every Zombie.

They could not see clearly from underground, and constantly burrowing back and forth would have been an enormous undertaking.

It was not that Shen Jin had not considered raising himself five meters into the air and building a suspended stone bridge horizontally, laying blocks beneath his feet as he walked.

But!

A basic move in the game simply could not be pulled off in reality!

When he connected the fourth block, the stone bridge became extremely fragile without support beneath it. The moment someone stood on it, it would snap.

So the two could only advance on the ground.

From the roof, they surveyed the distribution of Zombies in the area. This place was clearly far from the city and factories, and as village farmland, the Zombie density was very low.

It suited Shen Jin's requirements perfectly.

"Here, put these on. Let's go!"

Shen Jin handed Yang Ao a set of iron armor, an iron helmet, iron leggings, and iron boots.

After they both changed into them, they instantly became Iron Men. They looked clumsy, but system-crafted items were not very heavy and fit snugly.

Their mobility and agility did not drop by much, though the load was considerable and severely tested their endurance.

"Crash, whoosh~"

Following the route Shen Jin had planned on his map, the two began enclosing the land.

Shen Jin was responsible for building the stone walls, while Yang Ao kept watch and killed Zombies.

To stop Jumping Zombies from getting in, Shen Jin built the stone walls directly up to six meters!

Without anything to use as a foothold, even Jumping Zombies would not be able to get in.

Shen Jin had brought an entire load of stone today, a full twenty-four stacks!

One thousand five hundred and thirty-six blocks!

Each stone block covered one square meter. That many blocks were enough to enclose a space of one thousand square meters.

Yang Ao held a sword in each hand and constantly patrolled the surroundings, preventing Zombies from launching sneak attacks.

Although the two were fully equipped and ordinary Zombies could hardly bite through their armor, once they were knocked down, it would be difficult to get back up!

A single Zombie was not frightening. What was frightening was a crazed horde of them.

Before long, the two had built the northernmost wall. Thirty-three meters long and six meters high, the all-stone wall looked extremely impressive.

"Brother Jin, it kind of feels like the Great Wall!"

Shen Jin smiled. It really did. A miracle that had taken tens of millions of people in ancient times to construct could now be replicated by him alone!

Pickaxe, master of construction!

"Brother Jin, stop. I feel like something's coming!"

Shen Jin looked around and saw no Zombies within his field of view, but he chose to play it safe. Yang Ao might be a goofball, but he never raised false alarms.

"Come here. Stand beside me and jump with me!"

Shen Jin placed stone blocks beneath their feet, stepping on one foot with the other as they quickly rose higher!

They reached the height of the six-meter wall.

A Zombie covered in green fur, its body hunched as it ran on all fours, was sniffing its way toward them.

The two really had not spotted it from below earlier.

"Roar~"

"It's a Jumping Zombie that evolved agility. Get ready to fight. This is perfect—we can see whether it can jump up six meters."

The last Jumping Zombie Shen Jin had seen had been on the first floor of Wanyu Group. Back then, it had not evolved so thoroughly, and there had only been patchy green moss on its body.

This guy had grown green fur outright!

"A Jumping Zombie? Damn, Brother Jin, the moment you open your mouth, it's straight-up Plants vs. Zombies."

Though they kept talking, their bodies remained on guard, each with an Iron Sword in hand.

"Urgh! Roar~"

The Jumping Zombie's face had rotted away, and its eyes had nearly rolled white, but it had already locked onto the two through sound and smell.

Shen Jin took out a bottle of perfume and sprayed them both.

A cheap, pungent scent instantly surged up, packed with chemical additives and not a trace of anything natural.

"Holy shit! Brother Jin, the Zombies might not be able to eat me, but this smell is going to take me out."

"It disrupts the Zombies' sense of smell so they can't lock onto our location."

Shen Jin had tested this before. Powerful, pungent odors severely interfered with the Zombies' ability to locate targets.

But Shen Jin rarely used it, because the smell would also draw nearby Zombies over.

He only used some when they had to fight Zombies at close range like this.

Whoosh!

The Jumping Zombie stood beneath the wall, sniffed around, then leaped into the air!

Its speed was simply terrifying!

It jumped four meters from a standing start!

Then fell back down.

The two waited above for a while. The Jumping Zombie kept trying to jump up, but it could never reach six meters.

It could only roar helplessly below.

"Roar!"

Another enormous Zombie roar came from the other side, much deeper and louder than the Jumping Zombie's!

"Oh no, another Mutated Zombie! I'd say it's most likely an Iron Bucket Zombie that evolved strength!"

Although Yang Ao had never fought a Mutated Zombie, he had heard Sun Can mention them. He knew those strength-type Zombies had tough hides, thick flesh, and immense power, making them even more troublesome than Jumping Zombies!

If the Jumping Zombie was an assassin, then the Iron Bucket Zombie was a tough, durable warrior.

"Brother Jin, let's go down and deal with the Jumping Zombie first!"

Shen Jin nodded grimly. "I'll lower us to five meters. Stab the top of its head."

If they waited for the Iron Bucket Zombie to arrive, this wall made of a single layer of stone blocks probably would not hold!

Shen Jin smashed down with his pickaxe, lowering both of them and the adjacent wall to five meters. At the same time, he expanded the platform under their feet and casually made a backrest.

It was to prevent them from accidentally falling while fighting the Zombie. This was five meters up!

Falling from here would mean at least a broken bone.

"Roar!"

The Jumping Zombie once again leaped over four meters high!

Shen Jin leaned back and shouted:

"Now!"