Entering the Zombie Tide (III)

Chapter 39: Entering the Zombie Tide (III)

The sensation of being transported this time made Li Wei feel as though he had jumped from a building more than ten stories tall. Only when his feet touched the ground did his sight and hearing return.

He squinted and saw Zheng Yutong a few meters away. Their eyes met, and they nodded to each other.

They weren't the only ones there. The place looked like a rooftop, and it was packed with people. Just by looking around, Li Wei estimated there were several hundred of them.

With his Eye of Perception, Li Wei immediately realized that everyone on the enormous rooftop was a reincarnator from Shadow Street. The highest-ranked among them had numbers around Zheng Yutong's—114—while there were far more people with higher numbers. Most of them were ranked above 10,000, and had the lowest possible rating: F1.

"How can there be so many people?" Everyone who had entered this scenario had the same thought. Only a handful of veterans, including Li Wei, knew that the difficulty of a game mission was proportional to the number of participants. With so many people taking part, it was clear the mission wouldn't be easy.

"Everyone, everyone, please be quiet!" The man ranked 114 stepped forward first. He had evidently cultivated deep inner strength or undergone some kind of enhancement, because his resonant voice drowned out the racket of hundreds of people.

Li Wei wanted to see what this number 114 had to say.

When everyone had quieted down, the veteran smiled warmly. "I'm sure you're all 'players' from Shadow Street. That's right! I think we're players; it's just that the games we play are a little dangerous. There's still some time before the mission begins, and as one of you, I'd like to share some information with everyone..."

At the mention of information, most people strained to listen. Li Wei narrowed his eyes. The veteran had clearly achieved his aim and drawn everyone's attention. But what exactly did he want to say?

"What I want to say is that the mission worlds here are full of danger. It's no exaggeration to say that the death rate doubles for missions after the preliminary trial. And the difficulty of a mission is proportional to the number of 'players' taking part. To be honest, this is the first time I've encountered a mission with several hundred participants. I'm sure you're all smart people; this mission is definitely the most difficult one in history..."

The crowd erupted. The newcomers had clearly never heard anything like this before, and most looked terrified. Only a few seemed excited. Li Wei watched them and shook his head helplessly. They really had no idea what they were getting into!

Number 114 was right. This mission was bound to be extremely difficult. But why tell everyone? Did he really think all these strangers would sincerely band together to complete it?

You could never know what people were thinking!

Besides, the Guardian—the Yellow Paper—might well assign each person a different mission, or even opposing ones. Number 114 hadn't mentioned that at all.

"With the difficulty this high, we need to band together if we want to survive and complete this game... Oh, right, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Shao Yang, number 114. You could say I'm a veteran!"

When he gave his number, the newcomers looked astonished. On Shadow Street, anyone ranked within the top 3,000 was considered a veteran with some real strength. Those ranked within the top 1,000 held an extraordinary status among newcomers. They had plenty of points, powerful weapons and equipment, and special skills. Any one of them could wipe out a whole group of newcomers.

This friendly man was actually such a powerful figure, and he was so modest, too. He immediately won over most of the crowd. Some of the young women even gazed at him admiringly. That was no wonder. In a mission where you could die at any moment, having a strong, handsome prince to protect you was probably every woman's dream.

"For all those reasons, I'm going to form a team. Anyone who wants to join can sign up. I'll provide my teammates with basic weapons, food, and protection for free. As long as we stick together, I'm sure we can get through this mission. Then you'll have enough points to strengthen yourselves!"

It was a flawless speech, aimed straight at everyone's deepest fear: not surviving the mission. A large number of people immediately wanted to join the veteran's team.

Seeing that he'd achieved his goal, the veteran named Shao Yang took out a scroll and asked those who wanted to join to sign their names and numbers on it. Li Wei glanced at the scroll and saw that it looked very much like Zheng Yutong's Team Contract scroll.

At least a hundred people signed it, though plenty of others held back to watch. A few veterans, Li Wei among them, had no interest in it at all. It didn't take much thought to figure out that the scroll must impose strict conditions on its members. They could very well end up as the scroll owner's slaves. But what did other people's lives have to do with him? The most important thing was to survive.

"Hey, brother, why don't you join us? There's strength in numbers!" Seeing Li Wei, Shao Yang assumed he was a newcomer and spoke to him amiably.

"No, thanks. I already have a teammate." Li Wei turned him down as politely as he could. At the same time, the Eye of Perception revealed every detail of Shao Yang's attributes in Li Wei's crimson eyes.

Strength: 21 points. Agility: 15 points. Stamina: only 14 points. His mental power, however, was an astonishing 32 points. Fortunately, Shao Yang didn't have any perception-type skills. Otherwise, things could get troublesome.

Even so, his high mental power gave him several decent skills.

Shift Displacement: Instantly move to any place the caster has previously visited, as long as it is in the same plane. Costs 17 mental power.

Mind Impact: Costs 5 mental power. Uses mental force to attack an enemy within a range of 15 meters. Extremely powerful.

That was incredible! No wonder he was a veteran with such a high ranking. Just those two special skills surpassed everyone else's skills here. Even in terms of combat strength alone, he could stand alongside Zheng Yutong.

Seeing those two special skills, Li Wei felt the urge to kill him and take the Skill Book he dropped. But he held back. This wasn't the right place, and he wasn't necessarily a match for Shao Yang.

Shao Yang wasn't annoyed when Li Wei turned him down. He just smiled and moved on to look for other people. Taking the opportunity, Li Wei tried to see what lay below the rooftop platform, but the mission hadn't begun yet. All he could see was a hazy expanse of fog.

Thanks to Shao Yang, people on the platform began forming teams in groups of two or three. Li Wei had originally wanted to keep his connection with Zheng Yutong secret, but now he could only smile helplessly and walk over to the beautiful woman.

Remembering that he hadn't given her the gun he'd upgraded with Stacking, Li Wei quickly took out a handgun that had been upgraded three times. It looked like an Uzi Submachine Gun, but was far more powerful. Unfortunately, it didn't have unlimited ammunition.

(There'll only be two updates today. This afternoon, Xiao Lantian sent seven 12,000-word bonus-update votes. An Hei agonized over it and, after much thought, decided to accept. There'll be a major update tomorrow, so this is all for today. If I complete the mission tomorrow, you readers should give me lots of rewards! Many thanks!)