The Zombies' Enthusiasm Surged Like a Tide

Zombies, or rather, ghouls, were the first type of demonic enemy everyone entering Demon World Village had to face.

The graveyard where Cheng Tian and the others were currently located was a spawn point for these resurrected beings. Every grave mound had the potential to spawn a ghoul, devoid of reason, only capable of instinctively attacking any living creature.

After Green Skin completed his guidance and left on the spot, the players had officially begun their journey in Demon World Village. The main quest's countdown had started, so naturally, it was time to grind monsters.

Looking at action-adventure games on the NES platform as a whole, Demon World Village was considered one with a very high monster grinding rate. It didn't give players any time to breathe, spawning monsters every single moment, an unending and most ferocious grinding method.

As Green Skin had said, the danger level of Demon World Village was already too high to be assigned to beginners.

From one hand breaking through the soil to the entire body emerging from the grave, these ghouls took less than 10 seconds. The small hill, which initially had only about a dozen trembling players, now had an equal number of ghoul monsters.

These ghouls' bodies were severely decayed and rotten. Their joints could only be described as "lingering connection." Maggots could even be clearly seen crawling in their ears and eye sockets. Yet, these corpses, which clearly couldn't move normally, had gained the ability to act again under the influence of evil power, harboring immense grudge and hostility towards all living beings.

In response, some swung their blades, some stood frozen, and some panicked and fled blindly.

The university student, who was unfortunately chosen by Green Skin as an example to establish prestige and thus became One-Ear, had his head wrapped in blood-soaked cloth strips torn from his own clothes.

But what was unexpected was that this guy didn't distance himself from Green Skin because of it. Instead, when Green Skin promised a loan, he immediately covered his ear, put on a stern face, and approached him.

The young man's face couldn't hide his emotions. One could see a mixture of fear and hatred towards Green Skin, but this didn't stop him from exchanging his talent information for a very simple axe.

Green Skin was a bit surprised at the time, but he still exchanged the axe with One-Ear. He even somewhat expected the young man to show some guts and perhaps attack him with the weapon once he got it.

Unfortunately, One-Ear's hand, gripping the axe handle, had veins bulging. In the end, he suppressed his anger and honestly retreated from the crowd, whispering quietly with his dorm mate.

"Die for me!!!"

One-Ear raised the hand axe he held high and heavily chopped at the ghoul that had half its body still emerging from the grave. The posture clearly showed him venting the rage and hatred he dared not direct at Green Skin.

At this moment, one could see a faint radiance emanating from the hand axe One-Ear held high.

[Wood Chopping Slash: E-rank Talent / Lv1, Innate Skill, Active Skill. Having honed this path for ten years, you possess considerable talent in chopping.

When wielding a cleaver or axe-type weapon, you can consume 3 MP to unleash a Fatal Chop on your target, increasing weapon damage by 10% and with a medium chance to inflict "Bleeding" and "Maim" effects; against Ancient Trees, Treants, and Tree Spirits, there is a 100% full effect bonus. Skill cooldown is 15 seconds.
]

The ghoul, which already had low health, didn't even have time to let out a hoarse roar from its throat before it was split perfectly in two, from the crown of its head to its hip joint, by the axe.

A sufficiently sharp axe + a sufficiently fragile body + sufficiently skillful force = a sufficiently perfect kill.

As a child from the mountains, One-Ear was quite experienced in chopping things with an axe. This axe, which was clearly heavier than a cleaver, felt even more comfortable to wield than he had imagined.

It had to be said, Green Skin was quite decent. The cold weapons he used for his dead loans were not ordinary industrial products but genuine equipment and items from other dungeons.

The axe in One-Ear's hand was a blank weapon from Diablo II, a PC Game, one of the major dungeons that dropped equipment.

[Hand Axe: White Normal / Lv1, Hand Axe. Equipment Requirement: None. Weapon Damage: 3-6. Durability: 28/28.]

This Wood Chopping Slash not only triggered the maximum weapon damage but also activated the "Maim" special effect, causing the ghoul, which was not very sturdy to begin with, to die on the spot.

As he took the Monster First Kill, One-Ear's left wrist was suddenly grabbed by a zombie hand missing a finger.

In an instant, every hair on One-Ear's body stood on end.

However, what One-Ear could do didn't mean everyone else could.

A sufficient number of rookie players meant the zombies' attack targets would be dispersed. More importantly, not everyone had the courage to face rotting corpses that moved, like One-Ear, who was holding back his breath.

The previous calm was merely due to Green Skin's deterrence. Now, without external force interfering and suppressing, and without a leader appearing to unite everyone, disunity was inevitable.

Half-Drunk Bro was the first to fall to the zombies' gnawing.

Just as he had muttered to himself earlier, before being chosen, he had drunk at least a jin of baijiu and two dozen beers. Even though the gunshots had briefly sobered him up, and his speech was indeed very clear, the connection between his body and brain inevitably had some delay.

Bro's alcohol tolerance was indeed good, but his cerebellum, already numbed by alcohol, didn't care about any of that.

And that seemingly frail zombie contained evil Dark Magic potent enough to animate rotting corpses. It could shatter Arthur's Magic Knight Armor in one blow, let alone ordinary people with no protection?

Facing the zombie's claw attack, Half-Drunk Bro, who hadn't managed to switch weapons, instinctively raised his hand to defend.

The claw attack was blocked, but Bro's arm, its Muscle Size hidden beneath a long sleeve, had its Joint Reverse Twist, clearly indicating it was broken!

This pain was clearly beyond what alcohol could numb.

And then, naturally, there was no "then." The zombie's teeth had already sunk into Bro's neck as he cried out.

Bro's talent was actually quite good, named "Drunkenness." It was a D-rank Passive Skill that allowed him to reduce his own pain after drinking, increase his Physical Critical Chance and Mental Shock Resistance, and also recover a small amount of health. It was quite useful in Early Game Dungeons where Recovery Methods were scarce.

Especially the Mental Shock Resistance attribute, which was rare even among D-rank talents and in the Skill Pool. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it Promising Future.

It was a pity that long-term alcoholism had made his Physical Condition worse year by year. And judging by the zombies swarming and gnawing, Bro would likely end up like the deceased Arthur before long.

The girl, holding a Blank Baseball Bat from the MD Sega Platform's Streets of Rage III, screamed continuously at a high frequency while wildly swinging the bat at the approaching zombies.

For zombies, the impact of a Light Blunt Weapon was nowhere near as effective as a proper Sharp Weapon. The outcome was self-evident.

The moment she was bitten, the girl let out a shriek an octave higher, followed by a weaker and weaker "Help me, help me." But now, no one could spare her attention.

The two above at least had defensive or resistant actions. However, a considerable number of people made even worse decisions in their panic.

A total of Six People took advantage of the zombies being occupied with Half-Drunk Bro and the baseball girl, who were bleeding everywhere from being bitten. They slid clumsily down a dirt slope with a height difference of about 5 meters but a shallow angle, attempting to find a Way Out in the more open graveyard. However, what awaited them was Chain Triggered monster grinding from graves.

And it wasn't just zombies breaking out of the ground. Several Red-Eyed Crows perched on tombstones and Withered Trees, after letting out hoarse chirps, also joined the ranks of attacking players.

Zombies weren't entirely without weakness; their limbs were stiff and they weren't good at turning. Using tombstones as cover and frequently changing routes might offer a slim chance of survival.

...But the Red-Eyed Crows, with beaks as sharp as knives, were hard to dodge.

The hoarse chirps of the Red-Eyed Crows, the guttural growls of the zombies, and the piercing screams of humans began to intertwine and circle in the sky above the graveyard.

Wiped out, in an instant.

However, just then, a very urgent and abrupt sharp air explosion suddenly sounded.

Bang!

The zombie, half of its body still in the grave, had unexpectedly dragged One-Ear to the ground, its body half-crawled over, its rotten, empty mouth opening to bite at the terrified One-Ear. Suddenly, its body froze, and then its head completely separated from its torso, rolling 360 degrees to land on One-Ear's face.

And not far from One-Ear's side, Cheng Tian, or Cheng Tian, once again raised a long whip he'd somehow acquired, cracking it hard.

Crack!

This time, it was the Red-Eyed Crow, with a beak like a knife, that was about to dive down and injure someone, that exploded!

At this moment, Cheng Tian, who had dispatched two monsters with two whips, had eyes that shone terrifyingly.

In the personal message log, visible only to Cheng Tian, a flood of information scrolled by.

[Detected your initial entry into the Demon World Village related instance--]

[S-Rank Talent "Game Master" is activating--]

[You have successfully loaded the Original Protagonist Template based on the Castlevania blueprint—"Vampire Hunter/Simon Belmont".]