Chapter 88: Zombie Starlight Energy

The newly promoted heroes were not much weaker than the veterans who had come before them. Most were first-tier evolvers, and some had even reached the second tier.

Though the destruction of the Northern Capital gathering site was shocking, the most important thing now was to kill the zombies in front of them.

After all, these zombies were not particularly strong, and each one killed earned a hundred Hero Points. Naturally, everyone rushed forward in a frenzy to hunt them down.

The battle lasted three hours. At last, the final zombie was hacked to the ground, and the air all around was thick with the stench of rot, nauseating to breathe.

In Qin Hao’s mind, the notification appeared that the mission had been completed.

He had slain the Voodoo Fiend and received five hundred thousand Hero Points. After that, he had personally killed another eight thousand zombies, gaining eight hundred thousand more Hero Points.

A single mission had netted him over a million Hero Points. Qin Hao had profited handsomely.

The other heroes had naturally gained much as well, enough for the newer heroes to improve considerably.

“I... my wound is infected. I’m not going to die, am I?” one of the heroes suddenly cried out in despair.

The others turned to look and saw that he had suffered a wound. It was now suppurating at a terrifying speed, and even his face had begun to take on a greenish tint.

In an instant, the surrounding heroes all retreated from him.

There had indeed been first-tier evolved zombies in the battle just now. Not only were they immensely strong, they feared neither death nor pain, and were even more frenzied than the hunting creatures.

Now that this hero had been infected, who could say he would not transform into a first-tier evolved zombie as well? None of them wanted to become zombies themselves.

Seeing everyone around him step back, the hero became even more desperate.

If he had known he too could be infected, he would have been more careful just now—perhaps he would not have fought so recklessly.

Who could have imagined that just after becoming a hero, he would die here?

“It’s all right. Since you know you’re infected, there’s a potion in the Hero Store that can dispel the Ancient Fiend virus.”

At those words, hope instantly returned to the hero. He hurriedly opened the Hero System store to search through it.

Some of the other heroes, who had not known this, also began looking. From now on, this world would become a world of zombies—what if one day they needed it too?

But very soon, the infected hero sank into deeper despair.

“This antidote costs a thousand Star Energy Crystals!”

Why not simply rob him outright?

He was a newly promoted hero. Even if he had once been an evolver, there was no way he possessed a thousand Star Energy Crystals.

At that moment, Zi Hui stepped forward. She drew upon the power of thought, condensing it into a beam of light that fell upon the new hero’s hand.

In that instant, the hero felt intense pain in the wound, as if it had been seared by flame. But after the pain came a tingling numbness, warm and soothing.

The black blood in the wound turned to black smoke and evaporated, and even the sickly dark-green cast of his face faded.

“It’s nothing serious, only a minor wound. In the future, you can seek treatment from a light-element wielder.”

The man lifted his head and looked at Zi Hui’s face, and for a moment he was spellbound.

“Zi Hui, I... can I join your Skyvault Base?”

“Oh?” Zi Hui looked at him and recognized him as the leader of a small gathering site. “If you leave, what will happen to the survivors in your base?”

The man had spoken in a moment of impulse, but now the more he thought about it, the more joining Skyvault Base seemed like an excellent idea.

The second disaster was clearly different from the first.

When the Claw Civilization invaded, the weakest hunting creatures numbered only one percent of humanity. In Demon City, with its population of twenty million, that had ultimately become two hundred thousand Fang Fiends, two thousand Serpent Fiends, and twenty Venom Demon Spiders.

Of course, those were only rough figures.

At one percent, humanity had still possessed enough living space. With sufficient caution, one might even go outside and never encounter a Fang Fiend or a Serpent Fiend.

But now, there were still fourteen million people in Demon City, and the invading civilizations had become four. Each civilization would dispatch hunting creatures equal to one percent of the population.

Even if distributed evenly, the Ancient Fiend Civilization alone would send one hundred forty thousand Flame Fiends, fourteen hundred Wind Fiends, and fourteen Voodoo Fiends.

A single Voodoo Fiend could create a tide of tens of thousands of zombies. What about fourteen of them?

And when zombies bit humans, humans became zombies in turn.

The entire city would likely be transformed into a living hell.

At a time like this, how important was a light-element evolver? In all of Demon City, who had awakened a light-element talent?

The only one this hero knew was Zi Hui.

But that alone was enough.

“Zi Hui, I know saying this is shameless, but under the current circumstances, if I don’t join you, I feel that both I and the people in my base have only one road left: death. Of course, the survivors I brought with me—I’ll take responsibility for them myself.”

To put it bluntly, this hero simply wanted to find a powerful backer.

And everyone now knew that the Northern Capital Base had already fallen. The heroes who followed Lu Shaohua were all dead. The newly promoted heroes did not understand exactly what had happened, but they did understand one thing clearly: only by following Zi Hui could they survive.

Zi Hui frowned slightly.

At that moment, Qin Hao walked over to them.

“Then let it be treated as establishing a branch base.”

The moment Zi Hui heard this, her brows relaxed.

“That works too.”

“That’s wonderful. Thank you, Zi Hui.”

“Zi Hui, can I join too?”

“I want to join Skyvault Base as well.”

Among the newly promoted heroes, fully half unexpectedly wished to join Skyvault Base.

“Let’s leave this for later, everyone. Afterward, you can contact my base commander, Li Lan. But right now, we still need to keep fighting and kill as many hunting creatures as possible—especially the Voodoo Fiends, and the zombies that have already been infected.”

Zi Hui did not handle internal base affairs anyway, and this was no place for lengthy discussion. It would only waste time.

There were still far too many hunting creatures in the city, and they needed to be cleared out.

“Burn the zombies first,” Qin Hao ordered.

Among the heroes present, nearly ninety already belonged to Skyvault Base. The moment they heard Qin Hao’s command, they immediately moved to help.

Qin Hao began setting the fire. Among the hundred-odd heroes present, three others also possessed fire-element powers. Together they helped him kindle the blaze and pour Star Energy into it, maintaining its fierce heat, while the others threw zombie corpses onto the pyre.

The bodies burned rapidly. With Qin Hao additionally releasing Star Energy to drive the power of the fire element, the mountain-like heap of corpses was eventually reduced to a pile of ash.

When the flames finally died out, Star Energy Crystals appeared on the ground.

Qin Hao picked one up and said, “The zombies were controlled by the Voodoo Fiends. The virus invaded their brains and formed Star Energy there. Their brains died, but at the same time emitted biological signals that allowed the zombies to fight. So a zombie’s weak point is the head. As long as you sever the connection between the head and the body, you can kill it. After death, the Star Energy condenses and can become a Star Energy Crystal.”

Zombies were not hunting creatures, and the Hero System did not recognize them. As a result, killing zombies did not increase Hero Points in the Calamity mission.

Qin Hao was afraid these people would be unwilling to hunt zombies, so he made this information public.

“Now show me your hero mission records. Let me look at your kill counts, and I’ll distribute the Star Energy Crystals accordingly.”