Сhарtеr 18: Distrеss Signаl, Fishing
In the line оf sight оf Мu Shеngzhоu, Shen Feng, and Jiаng Сi.
The shit-grеen figure rаisеd а strаngе wеaроn аnd firеd at the Fоurth-Tier Zombie.
It wаs сleаr thаt thе strаngе weароn was pоwеrful, but it failеd to penеtratе the Fourth-Tiеr Zombiе’s skull.
Hоwеver, what hаppenеd nехt trulу astonishеd аll thrее men.
Thе shit-greеn figure seеmed cоmpletеly unconсеrnеd abоut thе energy сonsumрtiоn of the wеapоn in hand, rереatеdly aiming аnd firing at the jоints оf thе Fourth-Tier Zombie’s limbs.
First the right leg, then thе lеft shoulder…
In the end, thе Fоurth-Tier Zombiе wаs left with nothing but a bare head.
“That’s quite a unique way to kill a zombie,” Shen Feng remarked with a click of his tongue.
Mu Shengzhou took the binoculars and carefully observed the shit-green figure and the strange weapon in her hand.
After a moment, a faint smile curled at the corner of his mouth. “We’ve encountered this person before. It seems we all misjudged her.”
Hearing this, both Shen Feng and Jiang Ci were taken aback.
Jiang Ci took the binoculars for a closer look. Judging by the figure, the shit-green silhouette appeared to be a woman.
Then, he focused on the strange weapon in the shit-green figure’s hand. He had noticed earlier that the weapon looked somewhat… familiar.
After a while, he exclaimed as if suddenly realizing, “It’s that isolated girl we encountered when we first entered the Urban Ruins!
The weapon in her hand is that hand crossbow that looked like a toy.”
Shen Feng’s thought process was a bit slower. He blinked once, then again, before hesitantly saying, “The girl our boss saved by killing two zombies? Are you sure?”
“It’s her,” Jiang Ci confirmed Shen Feng’s guess.
“Heh, looks like our boss meddled unnecessarily. Turns out the girl didn’t need saving at all,” Shen Feng teased.
Jiang Ci also chuckled. “Not only didn’t she need our meddling, but it’s possible she wasn’t the one being isolated—she might have been the one isolating everyone else in that hunting team.”
At their words, Mu Shengzhou’s lips curved slightly upward. He said, “Think of a way to make contact with her.”
He had also noticed that the girl could move freely among the zombie horde because she was covered in corpse grass mud.
Corpse grass mud was highly corrosive, yet the girl showed no signs of skin ulceration.
This was certainly an important point of interest for him, but there was another crucial detail he couldn’t figure out.
If his guess was correct…
Mu Shengzhou glanced at the sun in the sky and said, “Use a mirror to reflect sunlight and send a distress signal. Reveal our location to her.”
The distress call was a pretense; the real purpose was to test her.
He wanted to gauge the girl’s reaction through the distress signal.
Jiang Ci was quick-witted. After a brief moment of thought, he understood Mu Shengzhou’s intention.
He immediately pulled a reflective mirror from his pocket, adjusted the angle, and aimed the reflected light at the eyes of the shit-green figure.
Three short, three long; three short, three long; three short, three long, repeating the pattern…
…
Amid the zombie horde, the Fourth-Tier Zombie had been whittled down to just a head by Mo Qianqian using the hand crossbow.
Even in this state, the zombie wasn’t dead yet. Its mouth opened and closed, still trying to lunge and bite Mo Qianqian.
Seeing this, Mo Qianqian smiled. Her progress since entering the Urban Ruins had been nothing short of remarkable.From initially turning pale at the smell of zombie decay to later vomiting when zombie heads exploded.
And now, she could calmly look at a ground full of rotting corpse pieces and chat face-to-face with the head of a Fourth-Tier Zombie.
A zombie with only its head left posed no threat to Mo Qianqian whatsoever.
But how to extract the Crystal Core made Mo Qianqian hesitate.
Given the defensive strength of this zombie’s skull, trying to split it open might cost her dearly…
After fiddling with it for quite some time…
Finally, Mo Qianqian pried open the zombie’s jawbone, drilled a hole through the upper palate of the Fourth-Tier Zombie, and managed to retrieve the Crystal Core.
The entire process could be described as requiring immense effort…
Storing away the Fourth-Tier Crystal Core that refracted a faint red glow, Mo Qianqian felt a mix of joy and worry.
The joy came from the fact that Fourth-Tier Crystal Cores were quite valuable.
The worry stemmed from the fact that dealing with this Fourth-Tier Zombie had consumed a significant portion of her already limited supply of crossbow bolts.
When she killed the Fourth-Tier Zombie earlier, she had used 10 crossbow bolts.
The bone density of Fourth-Tier Zombies was extremely high, making those 10 bolts impossible to recover and reuse.
Now, her small backpack contained only 22 crossbow bolts left.
She sighed softly and was about to continue searching for survivors of the Grim Reaper Mercenary Corps when, at that moment, a glaring flash of light suddenly stung her eyes.
Alert, she looked up toward the source of the light.
The light was coming from a broken building’s window about a kilometer ahead of her.
The distance was too great for Mo Qianqian to see clearly.
Was it some reflective object over there being moved by the wind, reflecting light into her eyes?
But soon, Mo Qianqian noticed something unusual.
The reflected light followed a distinct pattern.
Three short flashes, three long flashes, three short flashes, three long flashes, three short flashes, three long flashes… repeating in this manner.
This was… an SOS emergency distress signal.
Mo Qianqian smiled. Based on the plot, if she guessed correctly, these sets of SOS distress signals were being sent by survivors of the Grim Reaper Mercenary Corps.
Truly, after searching high and low, here it was, found without any effort.
Now that she knew where the Grim Reaper Mercenary Corps was hiding, there was no need to rush over to discuss the deal.
She would let them wait for a while, dull their edge.
Whether it was negotiation or a transaction, these things couldn’t be rushed.
Whoever grew impatient first would lose.
These were lessons she had learned through many setbacks back in the 21st century.
Of course, while letting the Grim Reaper Mercenary Corps wait, she didn’t plan to idle around either.
During her earlier encounter with the Fourth-Tier Zombie, she had become acutely aware of the limitations of her Hand Crossbow.
Her Hand Crossbow was effective and reliable, but when facing Fourth-Tier or higher-level zombies, it fell somewhat short.
She was already deep in the heart of the Urban Ruins. Since she had encountered one Fourth-Tier Zombie, it was likely she might run into a second, or even higher-tier zombies.
She needed to prepare in advance.
With a plan in mind, Mo Qianqian slipped into a nearby building, cleared out the zombies inside, and began working on her preparations.
…
At the location of the Grim Reaper Mercenary Corps.
Jiang Ci was using a small mirror to repeatedly reflect the three-short-three-long light signal.
Shen Feng watched with some exasperation: “Do you think she’ll come over like this? Don’t scare her off.
I say we shouldn’t alert her yet. Wait until she gets closer, then I’ll go out and bring her over.”Hearing this, Jiang Ci’s expression became rather complicated. He didn’t really want to engage with this guy who had strength but no brains.
Instead, Mu Shengzhou, standing nearby, smiled and said, “She’ll most likely come. Besides, we’re the ones asking for her help. Using force wouldn’t be appropriate.”
Shen Feng cast a suspicious glance at Mu Shengzhou. “Boss, I remember you once said that if something can be solved with fists, there’s no need to waste effort on anything else.”
Mu Shengzhou: “…”
He was starting to understand why Jiang Ci didn’t want to deal with Shen Feng.
Could the current situation really be compared to back then?
Shen Feng picked up the binoculars and watched the movement of the figure in shit-green clothing.
After a moment, he widened his eyes. “Jiang Ci, it looks like you scared that girl into hiding. This is bad. It’s so far, and with so many zombies around, I can’t just go over and snatch her.”
Although Mu Shengzhou wasn’t using binoculars, his keen eyesight allowed him to clearly see Mo Qianqian darting into a building.
He suddenly chuckled softly. “That girl is quite interesting.”
Because of the girl’s reaction, his initial speculation, which he had only been about sixty percent sure of, now shot up to ninety percent.
Shen Feng looked at Mu Shengzhou with a puzzled expression.
Perhaps finding it amusing, Mu Shengzhou patiently explained, “Our first encounter with that girl might have been an accident, but now she’s most likely fishing.”