The Zombies Came Like a Tidal Wave

Zombies, or rather, undead, were the first type of monster every newcomer to Demon Village had to face.

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

After Greenie finished his introduction and left on the spot, the players officially began their journey through Demon Village. The main quest countdown had also started, so naturally, they had to start grinding monsters.

Among action-adventure games on the entire Famicom platform, Demon Village was the type with an absurdly high monster spawn rate. It gave players no chance to catch their breath, spawning monsters every moment without ever stopping.

Just as Greenie had said, Demon Village was dangerous to a degree that absolutely should not have been assigned to beginners.

From a single hand breaking through the soil to an entire body crawling out of a grave, these zombies took less than ten seconds. The low hill, which had originally held only a dozen or so trembling players, now had an equal number of zombie monsters.

The zombies' bodies were severely decayed and rotten, their joints connected by little more than strands of flesh. Maggots could clearly be seen crawling from their ears, mouths, and eye sockets. Yet these corpses, which should not have been able to move at all, had regained the ability to act under the influence of evil power, and they bore immense hatred and hostility toward every living being.

Some swung their blades at once. Some stood frozen in place. Some fled in blind panic.

The unlucky college student whom Greenie had used as an example to establish his authority, thus becoming One-Ear, already had blood-soaked strips of cloth wrapped around his head. He had torn them from his own clothes.

Yet unexpectedly, instead of keeping his distance from Greenie after that, the guy immediately clutched his ear and approached him with a stiff face as soon as Greenie offered loans.

Young people could not hide much emotion on their faces. Fear and hatred toward Greenie were clearly tangled together in his expression, but that did not stop him from trading his talent information for a very plain axe.

Greenie had been somewhat surprised at the time, but he still traded the axe to One-Ear. He had even been a little curious whether the young man had any guts, perhaps enough to swing the weapon at him the moment it was in his hands.

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. He stood shoulder to shoulder with his dorm mates and muttered quietly with them.

"Die, damn you!!!"

One-Ear raised the one-handed axe high and brought it down heavily upon a zombie that had only just crawled halfway out of its grave. He was obviously venting the rage and hatred he did not dare direct at Greenie.

At that moment, a faint glimmer of light appeared over the surface of the one-handed axe One-Ear had raised.

Woodchopper's Strike: E-rank Talent/Lv1, Talent Skill, Active Skill. After spending ten years immersed in this craft, you possess considerable talent in chopping and cleaving.

When wielding a hatchet or axe-type weapon, you may consume 3 MP to deliver a lethal cleave against a target, increasing weapon damage by 10%, with a medium chance of applying "Bleeding" and "Dismemberment." Against Ancient Trees, Treants, and Tree Spirits, all effects are increased by 100%. Skill cooldown: 15 seconds.

Before the already low-health zombie could squeeze a hoarse roar from its throat, it was split from crown to hip by a single axe strike, cleanly divided into two.

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

As a child of the mountains, One-Ear knew his way around splitting things with an axe. This axe, which was clearly heavier than the woodcutting blade he usually used, also felt even more natural in his hands than he had imagined.

It had to be said that Greenie was fairly decent about this. The cold weapons he used for his usurious loans were not ordinary industrial products, but genuine equipment items from other instances.

The axe in One-Ear's hand was a basic weapon from Diablo II, one of the major PC-game instances that produced equipment.

Hand Axe: Common White/Lv1, One-Handed Axe. Equipment Requirement: None. Weapon Damage: 3–6. Durability: 28/28.

This Woodchopper's Strike not only triggered the weapon's maximum damage, but also activated the "Dismemberment" effect, instantly killing the already fragile zombie.

However, even as he claimed the first kill on the monsters' side, a zombie hand missing one finger fiercely grabbed 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.

With so many rookie players, the zombies' targets were naturally scattered. More importantly, not everyone had the courage of One-Ear, who was holding in a breath of anger and could face a moving, rotting corpse head-on.

The earlier calm had only existed because of Greenie's intimidation. Now that there was no outside force suppressing them and no leader capable of organizing everyone, turning into a disorganized mob was inevitable.

The half-drunk older guy was the first to fall beneath the zombies' bites.

Just as he had muttered to himself earlier, before being selected, he had drunk at least half a kilo of baijiu and two dozen beers. Even though the gunshots had briefly sobered him up, and his speech was indeed clear, the connection between his brain and body still suffered an unavoidable delay.

The man could certainly hold his liquor, but his alcohol-numbed cerebellum did not care about any of that.

And those seemingly frail zombies contained enough evil, dark magic to animate rotten corpses. They could shatter even Arthur's magical Knight Armor in one blow, much less an ordinary person with no protection at all.

Facing a zombie's claw strike, the half-drunk older guy, who had not managed to trade for a weapon, instinctively raised his arm to defend himself.

He blocked the claw, but the arm concealed beneath his long sleeve, whose muscle mass could not be seen, suddenly bent backward at the joint. It had clearly been broken!

This pain was obviously beyond what alcohol could suppress.

Then, naturally, there was no then. The zombie's teeth had already sunk into the crying man's neck.

The older guy's talent was actually quite good. It was called "Alcoholism," a D-rank passive skill that reduced pain after drinking, increased physical critical-hit chance and resistance to mental attacks, and could even restore a small amount of health. It was quite a useful talent in early instances where recovery methods were scarce.

In particular, resistance to mental attacks was a rare attribute even among D-rank talent and skill pools. Saying he had a promising future would not have been an exaggeration.

Unfortunately, long-term alcoholism had left his physical condition worse with every passing year. And judging by the zombies swarming over him and biting wildly, it would not be long before he looked just like the dead Arthur.

The girl holding a basic baseball bat from Streets of Rage III on the Sega Mega Drive screamed continuously at high volume as the zombies attacked, wildly swinging her bat around and smashing at anything in reach.

Against zombies, the effect of a light blunt weapon was nowhere near that of a proper sharp weapon. The result spoke for itself.

The instant she was bitten, the girl let out an octave-higher scream, followed by increasingly weaker cries of, "Save me! Save me!" But nobody could spare any attention for her now.

Those two at least attempted to defend themselves or fight back. A considerable number of people, however, made even worse decisions in their panic.

Six people took advantage of the zombies being occupied with the half-drunk older guy and the baseball-bat girl, who were being bitten until blood sprayed everywhere. They clumsily slid down the gently sloped dirt incline, which had a height difference of about five meters, trying to find a way out in the more open graveyard. What awaited them, however, were graves whose monster spawns had been triggered in a chain reaction.

And it was not just zombies clawing their way from the earth. Several Red-Eyed Raven monsters perched on tombstones and dead trees also joined the attack on the players after letting out hoarse cries.

Zombies were not entirely without weaknesses. Their limbs were stiff, and they were poor at turning. By using tombstones for cover and constantly changing routes, there might still have been a slim chance of survival.

...But Red-Eyed Ravens, with beaks as sharp as knives, were far harder to evade.

The hoarse calls of Red-Eyed Ravens, the hollow roars of zombies, and the shrill screams of humans began to weave together and circle above the graveyard.

A complete wipe was only moments away.

Then, at that very moment, an extremely sharp and abrupt sonic crack suddenly rang out.

Crack!

The zombie whose lower half was still in the grave had caught One-Ear off guard, dragged him to the ground, and crawled halfway onto him. It opened its rotted, hollow teeth, about to bite the terrified One-Ear. Then its body suddenly froze, and its head completely separated from its body, rolling forward in a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree spin before landing on One-Ear's face.

Not far from One-Ear's side, Cheng Tian—Cheng—once again raised a long whip from who knew where and snapped it forcefully.

Crack!

This time, what burst apart was a Red-Eyed Raven with a blade-like beak that had been preparing to dive down and injure someone!

At that moment, Cheng Tian had killed two monsters with two whip strikes, and his eyes shone frighteningly bright.

In the personal information log that only Cheng Tian could see, a block of messages was rapidly scrolling past.

Detected: You have entered an instance related to "Demon Village" for the first time—

S-rank talent "Game Expert" activating—

You have successfully loaded the native Protagonist Template from the Castlevania blueprint—"Vampire Hunter/Simon Belmont."