Watcher

After defeating the Mario Brothers, the new owner of the water tower, Kirk, officially took his place.

Just as he had expected, the location was high up, spacious, with a wide field of view. Using binoculars, Kirk could even see things over 2,000 meters away with perfect clarity.

Kirk received a system prompt: "You have occupied an ideal high ground, established a Watchtower, and begun executing your mission." He started scanning the surroundings. Over two hours passed quickly, and everything remained calm; nothing happened.

Kirk began to organize his thoughts. Now was the time to figure out what to do next. His current stats were very ordinary. Even after completing that hidden main quest with its generous rewards, he could only reach the level of an average person. (Kirk: This pit is too deep!) He had no special skills or hidden talents.

He heard from Little Fatty that his own hidden talent was [Abnormal Metabolism], with a much faster basal metabolic rate than others, exceeding 2000. The downside was that he ate a lot and got hungry quickly; if he didn't eat, his stats would temporarily decrease. However, the benefits were also obvious: stamina recovery speed was 25% faster than ordinary contractors, and poison duration was reduced by 25%. He heard that the most powerful talent belonged to Ma Ruiqi. This woman possessed [Talent Charm], which allowed her to pass checks requiring a charm roll with a +5 bonus. Combined with her high charm, conquering men was almost effortless! No wonder Rick was so infatuated with her that he wouldn't even listen to his wife, Laurie.

In the space, one thing was certain: contractors without unique advantages and strengths would find it difficult to survive, whether in a team or going solo. So, where were his advantages? What was his role? Ranged DPS? Melee DPS? Tank? Support? Scout? Kirk fell into deep thought, feeling rather lost.

Until a gunshot broke the silence.

Kirk quickly located the direction of the gunshot. These inexperienced newbies who went out to grab guns, food, and women had indeed stirred up a big mess!

At the 3 o'clock position, Blondie was running in a panic, with several Affies, male and female, behind him, no longer looking arrogant, running faster than rabbits in their haste!

Blondie clutched a bag, which presumably contained the guns and ammunition they had collected. In fact, unlike a certain otaku who was often kited by walkers, their speed should have been faster than ordinary walkers. However, due to psychological factors and the surrounding walkers, Blondie and the others were in disarray. The last woman couldn't run anymore and was pounced on by a walker. Kirk couldn't hear what she was shouting from so far away.

Then, she was brutally eaten alive. She wasn't dead yet, but piece by bloody piece, flesh was torn from her body by the walkers and eaten before her crying, tear-streaked face!

The woman was so terrified that she went mad. She screamed for a full minute before struggling to stop. When she died, only half of her body's flesh remained.

Kirk's heart chilled as he watched. That woman was a contractor like him, but when she was eaten by the walkers, she was no different from the first man he saw eaten when he first entered the space.

Contractors were nothing special; they were just rotten meat in the bellies of walkers.

The principle of misfortune never coming alone was once again verified. At the 6 o'clock position, on a town road, a group of walkers also emerged, madly chasing a group of people. From the familiar round human figures running at the front, it looked like Little Fatty and his group.

They went to grab food, only to be treated as food themselves.

Kirk watched the spectacle and suddenly realized the seriousness of the problem. Both groups of rookies were quite weak. When encountering danger, they probably wouldn't think not to lead the walkers back to the car camp. Looking at the terrified and pathetic state of Blondie's group, they had already been scared witless by the screams of their eaten companion. They were afraid of losing their legs and would consider it too slow to reach the camp. Expecting them to remain rational was unrealistic. Sally's group wasn't much better.

So, he fired a warning shot. Rick, Shane, and others ran out from the camp. Kirk gestured towards the 3 o'clock and 6 o'clock directions, then mimed a large group of walkers. Rick's face turned grim, and he nodded in understanding before withdrawing.

Kirk knew this was the space's arrangement; the plot characters couldn't provide direct support. Whether they could escape back depended on their fate.

At this moment, gunshots rang out again from the highway. Kirk went to investigate.

It turned out to be Ma Ruiqi's large group of "lone heroes," leading a horde of zombies along the highway like madmen. Among the walkers chasing them, Kirk surprisingly saw fully armed Riot Police Walkers! Kirk knew they had actually found the prison! But tragically, the rookies who were supposed to attack the prison had been pushed back and brought the threat home!

Three waves of walker armies were simultaneously heading towards this small car camp!

"No wonder they released 4 branch missions. So, if the first 3 missions fail, they have to rely on the 4th mission. What a rip-off." Kirk couldn't help but complain.

So, he had to fire another warning shot, sending the bad news back to the camp.

Soon, the camp was in chaos, with the plot characters preparing to fight.

Kirk observed the highway again. It was actually the best escape route for the plot characters, but it was now swarming with walkers. Ma Ruiqi, wearing high heels, stumbled and fell while running. A middle-aged man was running in front of her. Ma Ruiqi had always had a good relationship with him, and without hesitation, she ran back to pull him.

Then.

Then!

Ma Ruiqi unexpectedly stabbed the man in the thigh with a dagger, snatched his assault rifle, agilely got up, kicked off her high heels, and ran for her life. Where was the difficulty she had just experienced in running? This woman's agility was clearly not low!

The man roared, but due to his leg injury, he was caught by the walkers and fell to the ground...

Kirk saw Blondie abandon his female teammate to fend for herself, and he saw Ma Ruiqi's despicable act of betraying her teammate. He shrugged, giving up the idea of rescuing them immediately, and aimed his M16-5.56mm assault rifle towards Little Fatty's 6 o'clock position.

The M16 in his hand had a range of 800 meters, with an additional 500 meters reserved for his own escape. The walkers advancing 300 meters meant he had that much time to shoot. Kirk himself hadn't mastered [Basic Large Firearm Mastery], so he couldn't talk about accuracy. Fortunately, the walkers were as numerous as flies in a toilet; he just needed to shoot randomly, and he would always get some kills.

Honestly, standing leisurely on this high point and watching others struggle and flail in the water was a rather enjoyable thing!

A walker was about to catch up to Little Fatty when a bullet struck it. The walker was sent flying and couldn't get up for a long time.

Little Fatty was so moved he almost cried. He had almost been eaten alive. Afterward, he came to thank Kirk specifically, curiously asking, "Brother, you're really skilled! You can use a pistol and an M16. Where did you learn these skills, or did you comprehend them yourself?" Kirk shamelessly replied that he hadn't mastered the M16 shooting skill. Fatty turned pale with shock and asked why he was so accurate, even daring to shoot at a walker just over a meter from his backside. Kirk even more shamelessly said he was just shooting for fun, with no pressure, and it was a no-responsibility rescue. Killing walkers was even better; if he accidentally hit Fatty, it would be a release from the suffering of being eaten alive. Fatty almost vomited blood and died.

Seeing Kirk continuously firing from the water tower, this group's morale surged, and they ran even faster!

After emptying two magazines, Kirk saw that Little Fatty and his group had basically escaped and were beginning to provide covering fire in other directions. Although Blondie wasn't very honorable, and Ma Ruiqi was a venomous woman, they were still part of their own forces. With The Governor still lurking nearby, a significant loss of team strength was not in his interest.

Kirk continued to empty all four magazines. Only when the walkers reached within 500 meters did he calmly descend the water tower. Although he hadn't mastered the relevant shooting skills, the walkers were so dense that his random firing still resulted in over 40 kills.

His covering fire also helped the other two groups escape, somewhat slowing down the walkers' advance. Thus, they managed to escape into the camp, more or less intact.

As Kirk ran into the camp, the space prompt appeared: "Contractor No. 4444, you have completed the Dangerous Watcher Mission. Based on your performance, you are rewarded with 1000 Survival Points, 2 Basic Attribute Points, and 2 Skill Potential Points. Killing walkers rewarded you with 136 Survival Points. You have obtained 10 Team Contribution Value. Team Contribution Value can be used in three ways:

1. Purchase team items, weapons, and equipment from Laurie; 2. Purchase skills from any team member from the team's plot characters; 3. Influence team decisions to a certain extent by approaching Rick."

The team gathered for a headcount. This operation actually resulted in the loss of 3 people, all rookies. All three mission groups failed. Blondie had abandoned the gun bag on the roadside; failure. The food and water Sally brought back were insufficient; failure. Ma Ruiqi's group found the prison but was repelled; failure. These people gained nothing and instead had to thank Kirk for saving them. Kirk remained very low-key, saying he was just lucky and it was a trivial matter, not worth mentioning.

The two women with insufficient combat power remained at the camp and dutifully completed the nursing home nurse mission, gaining some fixed rewards, which was actually more than these reckless and thoughtless individuals.

Another team meeting was convened. This time, the usually boisterous rookies remained silent. Rick and the other plot characters discussed the situation and concluded that since the three main roads were surrounded by walkers, it was impossible to escape by car. They had to first withstand the attack from the three directions of walkers and simultaneously send someone to retrieve the gun bag to strengthen their forces.

The space issued another mission: "Due to your reckless performance, most missions have failed, and the team is now in danger. Please choose another branch mission:"

1.

Assist the plot characters in defending the camp.

2.

Assist in retrieving the abandoned gun pack to strengthen the camp's forces.

Blondie and his group didn't pick up the mission to retrieve the gun pack, merely staring at everyone with cold eyes.

Kirk had made up his mind to learn combat skills from Morido; this was a rare opportunity. He chose to assist in defending the camp, tossing the empty M16 to Rick and standing beside Morido. He had already drawn enough attention, and retrieving the gun pack would make him a target. He understood the principle that the tallest tree catches the wind.

However, the Korean snorted and stepped forward, going to complete that mission with the agile Green. It seemed the previous failed mission had cost him significantly.

Rick organized everyone to form a simple perimeter with cars, reinforcing it with wooden and steel plates, distributing firearms and ammunition, and assigning personnel to defend in shifts. Fortunately, it was daytime, and the walkers' activity was limited. The plot characters were quite capable, so the chances of successful defense were high.