The Zombies Came Flooding In

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

The graveyard where Cheng Tian and the others currently stood was the spawn point for these risen dead. Any grave mound could have a mindless zombie crawl out of it, one that would instinctively attack any living thing.

Once Green Skin finished the tutorial and left on the spot, the players had officially begun their journey through Demon World Village. The main quest had also started its Countdown, so naturally, they had to start Monster Grinding as well.

Among all the Action-Adventure Games on the NES platform, Demon World Village was one with an exceptionally high monster spawn rate. It gave players no chance to catch their breath, spawning monsters every moment without pause—the most vicious kind of Monster Grinding.

Just as Green Skin had said, Demon World Village was dangerous enough that it should never have been assigned to beginners.

It took the zombies less than ten seconds to break through the soil with one hand and completely crawl out of their graves. The small hill, which had originally held just over a dozen trembling players, suddenly had an equal number of zombie monsters.

The zombies' bodies were severely decayed and rotten. Their joints could only be described as barely hanging together, and maggots could clearly be seen writhing in their ears, mouths, and empty eye sockets. Yet these corpses, which obviously should not have been able to move normally, had regained the ability to act under the drive of Evil Power, harboring immense hatred and hostility toward all living beings.

Some swung their blades at them, some stood frozen in place, and some fled in blind panic.

The unlucky college student Green Skin had used as an example to establish his authority—thus becoming One-Ear—now had a blood-soaked strip of cloth wrapped around his head. He had torn it from his own clothes.

Unexpectedly, rather than keeping his distance from Green Skin after that, he had immediately clutched his ear and approached with a grim face the moment Green Skin offered him a loan.

Young people could not hide much emotion on their faces. Fear and hatred toward Green Skin were plainly intertwined in his expression, but that did not stop him from trading his Talent Information for a very plain-looking axe.

Even Green Skin had been somewhat surprised at the time, but he still traded the axe to One-Ear. He had even looked forward to the youngster showing some Guts and burying the axe in him the moment he got hold of a weapon.

Unfortunately, the veins on the back of One-Ear's hand bulged as he gripped the axe handle, but in the end, he swallowed his anger and obediently withdrew from the crowd, huddling shoulder to shoulder with his dormmates as they whispered among themselves.

"Die, damn you!!!"

One-Ear raised the Hand Axe high and brought it down hard on a zombie that had just crawled halfway out of its grave. He was obviously venting the rage and hatred he did not dare direct at Green Skin.

At that moment, a faint glow actually appeared on the surface of the Hand Axe One-Ear had raised.

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

When wielding a machete or axe-type weapon, you may consume 3 MP to unleash a Fatal Chop at a target, increasing weapon damage by 10%, with a moderate chance of inflicting "Bleeding" and "Dismemberment"; against Ancient Tree, Treant, and Tree Spirit-type units, all effects are increased by 100%. Skill cooldown: 15 seconds.]

Before the already low-health zombie could squeeze a hoarse roar from its throat, the axe split it from the crown of its head to its hip joint, cutting it neatly into two.

A sharp enough axe + a fragile enough body + skilled enough force = a perfect kill.

As a child raised in the mountains, One-Ear knew his way around chopping things with an axe. This axe, clearly a little heavier than the machete he was accustomed to using, was even more handy than he had expected.

It had to be said that Green Skin was pretty decent. The Cold Weapons he used to offer 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 one of the major equipment-producing dungeons: the PC game Diablo II.

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

That Wood Chopping Slash had not only triggered the weapon's maximum damage, but also the "Dismemberment" Special Effect, instantly killing the already frail zombie.

However, just as he secured the Monster First Kill, a zombie hand missing one finger suddenly clamped down on his left ankle.

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

But what One-Ear could do did not mean everyone else could do the same.

A large number of Rookie players meant the zombies' targets would be spread out. More importantly, not everyone had the courage of One-Ear, who was holding back a bellyful of rage, to face moving, rotting corpses head-on.

The earlier calm had only existed because of Green Skin's intimidation. Now that there was no external force suppressing them and no Leader capable of uniting everyone had emerged, chaos was inevitable.

Half-Drunk Bro was the first to fall beneath a zombie's bites.

Just as he had muttered to himself at the start, he had downed at least a pound of baijiu and two dozen beers before being chosen. Though the gunshots had briefly sobered him up, and his speech was indeed clear, there was still an unavoidable delay between his brain and body.

Half-Drunk Bro's alcohol tolerance was certainly impressive, but his alcohol-numbed cerebellum did not care about any of that.

And though the zombie looked frail, it contained Evil Dark Magic powerful enough to animate a rotting corpse. Even Arthur's Magic Knight Armor could be shattered in a single blow, let alone an ordinary person with no protection at all.

Faced with the zombie's Claw Attack, Half-Drunk Bro, who had not managed to trade for a weapon, instinctively raised his arm to defend himself.

He blocked the Claw Attack, but the arm whose muscles had been hidden beneath his long sleeves suddenly bent backward at the joint. It had clearly been broken!

Even alcohol could not hold back that pain.

And naturally, there was no afterward. The zombie's teeth had already sunk into Half-Drunk Bro's neck as he screamed in pain.

Half-Drunk Bro's Talent had actually been pretty good. It was called "Alcoholism," a D-rank Passive Skill that reduced pain, increased Physical Critical Chance and Mental Shock Resistance, and restored a small amount of health after drinking. It was quite a useful Talent in an Early Game Dungeon lacking recovery methods.

In particular, Mental Shock Resistance was a rare attribute even in the D-rank Talent Skill Pool. Saying he had a promising future would not have been an exaggeration.

Unfortunately, years of heavy drinking had left his physical condition worse with every passing year. And judging by the way the zombies swarmed over him and tore at him, it would not be long before he looked just like the dead Arthur.

The girl holding a Blank Baseball Bat from the MD Sega Platform's Streets of Rage III screamed loudly, rapidly, and without pause as the zombies attacked, while wildly swinging her bat around.

Against zombies, the striking power of a light blunt weapon was nowhere near that of a proper sharp weapon. The outcome was obvious.

The instant she was bitten, the girl let out an even shriller scream, followed by increasingly feeble cries of, "Save me, save me!" But no one had the capacity to care about her now.

Those two at least tried to defend themselves or fight back. A considerable number of others made even worse decisions in their panic.

Six people took advantage of Half-Drunk Bro and the baseball-bat girl being bitten bloody by the zombies, clumsily sliding down the gently angled dirt slope of the small hill, which had a height difference of roughly five meters. They tried to find a way out in the more open graveyard, but what awaited them was the Chain Trigger of graves spawning monsters.

And it was not just the zombies crawling from the earth. Several Red-Eyed Crows perched on tombstones and Withered Trees joined the attack on the players after letting out hoarse cries.

The zombies were not entirely without weaknesses. Their limbs were stiff, and they were not good at turning. By using tombstones as cover and frequently changing routes, there might still be a chance to survive.

...But the Red-Eyed Crows, with beaks as sharp as blades, were much harder to avoid.

The hoarse cries of the Red-Eyed Crows, the hollow howls of the zombies, and the shrill screams of humans began to intertwine and swirl above the graveyard.

A total party wipe was only moments away.

But at that moment, an extremely sharp and abrupt sonic boom suddenly rang out.

Crack!

The zombie whose lower half was still inside the grave had unexpectedly dragged One-Ear to the ground. Half of its body had already pressed down on him, and it opened its rotten, toothless mouth to bite the terrified One-Ear. Then its body suddenly froze, and its head completely separated from its body, rolling in a forward 360-degree spin until it bumped against One-Ear's face.

Not far from One-Ear's side, Cheng Tian raised a long whip he had somehow acquired and snapped it forward again.

Crack!

This time, the Red-Eyed Crow with the blade-like beak, which had been diving down to attack, exploded!

At that moment, Cheng Tian, who had killed two monsters in two strikes, had eyes shining frighteningly bright.

In the personal message log that only Cheng Tian himself could view, a string of notifications flooded the screen.

[Detected: This is your first entry into a Demon World Village-related dungeon—]

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

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