Chapter Nineteen: Tactical Adjustment

The effects triggered by the pig leg bone were still ongoing. Although Yang Xueli had successfully advanced, her usefulness had diminished; to be precise, when facing current zombies, the difference between ordinary survivors and evolvers was negligible.

In fact, the larger population of ordinary people now held the advantage.

“What is that thing in your hand? Why does it feel like it helped me a lot in advancing?” Yang Xueli stood on the outskirts of the corpse mountain, calling loudly to Lin Lei.

The scent released by the pig leg bone exerted an irresistible attraction on Yang Xueli, akin to a starving person suddenly smelling the aroma of food. The key was, even normal people would salivate upon smelling this, let alone those who were hungry.

Whether zombies, evolvers, or mutant beasts, all were different genetic mutations caused by viral invasion, differing in direction but still fundamentally reliant on the virus. Faced with this special lure concocted by the system, none could resist.

Fortunately, Yang Xueli was a rational human; otherwise, she would have gone mad like the zombies.

Of course, if a zombie or mutant beast managed to advance to the fourth level, achieving a leap in their lifeform, they could resist such temptation. This was why the system’s prompt stated it was only effective against zombies below level three.

“It’s just a bait item, unable to increase your cultivation. I only have three here, each lasts ten minutes, extremely difficult to craft—a trump card, really,” Lin Lei explained.

He feared the people of Niutou Mountain might misunderstand, so he tried to elevate the value of the pig leg bone.

If Lin Lei admitted he could produce these in bulk, then the fierce battle and the sacrifice of several survivors at the start would seem like child’s play.

Even with the system in hand, Lin Lei worried about angering the group.

“So what can I help you with?” Yang Xueli asked.

Initially, Lin Lei had rushed her to advance, and she thought she was needed to deal with level-three zombies. Now it seemed Lin Lei had already devised a plan, so Yang Xueli wasn’t sure how she could help after advancing.

Clearly, Yang Xueli misunderstood, but Lin Lei wasn’t about to correct her. After some thought, he tossed the laser greatsword to her and instructed, “Go find your brother. Bring everyone here to me. Clear out the corpse tide as quickly as possible.”

Since he had deployed the pig leg bone, he couldn’t just wait for them to kill each other—Lin Lei decided to add fuel to the fire.

Though she still didn’t understand what calling reinforcements had to do with her advancement, Lin Lei entrusting her with the strongest weapon was proof enough of the task’s importance.

“Maybe he’s worried about my safety and wanted to strengthen me!” Yang Xueli mused.

A woman in love is easy to fool, indeed...

While Lin Lei’s fierce battle had turned into fishing, Yang Chunxi’s side was still roaring with gunfire, with two level-three zombies nearly driving them to disaster.

Yang Chunxi acted swiftly, sending all evolvers to tie up one power-type level-three zombie, while he himself faced off against the speed-type one alone, barely stabilizing the situation.

But misfortune never comes alone—their ammunition was running low.

At the start of the battle, Lin Lei had supplied them with ammunition, together with their own reserves, totaling more than fifty thousand, nearly sixty thousand rounds. That should have been more than enough for twenty-three thousand zombies, but in actual combat, ammo consumption was never a simple calculation.

In the previous battle, with only three thousand zombies divided into several waves entering the valley, they could aim one-on-one, shoot calmly, even go down to fight with knives, so ammo usage was low.

This time, with so many zombies, they had to kill them quickly to prevent them from piling up and breaking through the defenses.

So they switched from single shots to bursts, and with targets hard to distinguish, sometimes a single zombie would be hit by dozens of bullets—ammunition consumption was terrifying.

“Damn it! We can’t keep fighting, we need to retreat immediately!” Another evolver was torn apart by the power-type zombie in the distance, and Yang Chunxi was tempted to withdraw.

The main problem was the two level-three zombies completely disrupted his plans. Even he could only barely hold one; the longer the fight dragged on, the worse their odds.

He knew that battles always cost lives, but in such an obviously disadvantageous fight, he wasn’t foolish enough to persist.

Just as Yang Chunxi was about to order a retreat, a flash of light approached from afar, moving as fast as Yang Chunxi at full tilt.

“When did Xiao Xue get so fast? Is it the effect of that laser sword?” Yang Chunxi glanced quickly and immediately recognized who it was.

Whatever the case, solving the immediate battle came first. Knowing the alloy dagger couldn’t penetrate, Yang Chunxi put it away and went at it barehanded, waiting for his chance to slip behind and lock the zombie’s arms, immobilizing it for a short time.

At that moment, Yang Xueli arrived wielding the laser longsword, and with a single slash beheaded the zombie. The siblings worked in perfect harmony, then attacked the second level-three zombie nearby, again resolving it easily.

“Xiao Xue, you’ve advanced to a level-three evolver!” After two collaborations, Yang Chunxi couldn’t help but notice the change in Yang Xueli’s level.

“A’Lei helped me advance,” Yang Xueli admitted.

“A’Lei? Which A... you mean Lin Lei? Calling him so intimately, you’ve got that kid wrapped around your finger!” Yang Chunxi said excitedly.

Lin Lei was a legend, and Yang Chunxi had been wondering how to keep him close—never imagining his own sister had done it.

“Can you act normal, brother? What do you mean, I’ve got him wrapped around my finger!” Yang Xueli retorted angrily.

“All right, all right, whether you got him or he got you, your brother will always be on your side. If he ever dares bully you, I’ll fight to the death to get justice for you,” Yang Chunxi vowed.

“What nonsense!” Yang Xueli’s cheeks flushed deeper.

“Ah, brother, it’s your fault for distracting me—I almost forgot the important matter!” Yang Xueli recalled Lin Lei’s instructions and hurriedly said, “A’Lei has a way to deal with the corpse tide easily. He sent me to tell you all to lead the zombies over to him.”

“He has a method? Good, because I’m out of options here. Let’s go to his side!” Yang Chunxi didn’t doubt her at all.

Someone who could turn a level-one evolver into a level-three so quickly—if he claimed to have an easy way to handle the corpse tide, why should Yang Chunxi doubt him?

“Huh? These two level-three zombies aren’t disappearing? Why aren’t they vanishing automatically?” Yang Chunxi had never successfully killed a level-three zombie before and didn’t know if they were truly dead.

He also didn’t realize that the automatic recycling mechanism only worked for level-one and level-two zombies.

“Not sure, but in this state, they shouldn’t pose any threat. Why don’t we take them with us and ask A’Lei later?” Yang Xueli now blindly worshipped and trusted Lin Lei; if her brother didn’t know, Lin Lei surely would.