If the group of novice rookies like Cheng Tian and his group had any advantage upon entering the Demon World Village, it was undoubtedly the Instance spawn point, which was about 5 meters higher than the ground level.
Because it was a standalone, elevated, small-hill-shaped Graveyard, there were only about a dozen Tombstones here. The Zombies did indeed emerge from beneath these dozen or so Tombstones, but they subsequently left behind empty dirt pits, and no more Zombies materialized out of thin air.
Clearly, the resurrection of Zombies requires reasonable conditional settings, and the general situation of only one corpse per grave became the reasonable rule limiting the number of Zombie spawns.
The Demon World Village was indeed a high-difficulty Instance for novices, but the Chosen Space had one core rule that the novices did not yet know.
That was, the Space would not design a certain-death Instance or mission for Players; no matter how perilous or difficult it appeared, there would inevitably be some way for Players to utilize to clear it.
Cheng Tian and his group had already noticed that empty graves would not spawn Monsters, so the idea of breaking out while other unlucky souls were being eaten was immediately abandoned.
Evidently, the current situation was the Instance giving Players a show of force; to use more game-like terminology, this was actually a "Monster Tide." In plain language, this meant Monsters would surge toward Players like a tide, surrounding and annihilating them.
Those who have played games like Survival, Plague, or Dark Tide should be able to understand the meaning more clearly.
However, a tide rises and falls; this is what a tide is. This meant that as long as they could survive this first wave of surging Monster Tide, they would likely gain some breathing room afterward.
Therefore, the elevated small hill, being easy to defend and hard to attack, was clearly the more advantageous choice under the current circumstances.
Currently, among the novice Players, only Cheng Tian and One-Ear, who had been awakened, possessed combat capability; the others were either injured or dead.
Even those who fled in panic down into the lower Graveyard failed to fulfill even the role of "Bait." After their screams vanished into the Zombie Horde, all the Zombies they had chain-triggered turned around and began surging toward the location where Cheng Tian and his group, who were thinking "Killing one is breaking even! Killing two is a profit!", were located.
It couldn't be helped; the intense fighting made the vital energy of Cheng Tian and the other one surge visibly. To the Zombies full of dark Magic Power, this was as conspicuous as a torch, and they came following the scent.
At this moment, the advantage of the elevated Terrain of the small hill manifested.
The Zombies of the Demon World Village indeed had an advantage in straight-line pursuit, but their stiff, unbending, decaying joints inevitably caused them to slow down when facing obstacles, slopes, or vertical ladders.
They clearly could not Replicate the corpse-piling seen in *World War Z*; even if they managed to climb up by stepping on corpses, what awaited them was only Cheng Tian's whip maintaining a safe distance.
With just one whip, a Zombie would be killed and purified by Holy Damage.
Although the Demon Breaking Whip is a Close Combat Weapon, its attack range far exceeds that of ordinary swords, spears, or Axes, allowing it to hit Melee Enemies while maintaining a safe distance.
Then there was the implicit Reinforce granted by the Simon Template, which made his whip almost always hit the mark.
However, there is a counter-intuitive key point here: the reason Cheng Tian could Kill one Zombie per whip was entirely because he was not equipped with a formal Weapon, only using the whip that came with the Template Armament.
The armament that comes with the Template is, in a sense, very much like cosmetic gear in an online game—it provides extra Attributes outside of regular Equipment. This is why the Vampire Killer's extra Holy Damage is the key point; the Weapon Damage of only 1-1 is better than nothing.
If Cheng Tian were to equip One-Ear's One-handed Axe, the Vampire Killer's "extra Holy Damage per hit" would also stack onto the Axe, but because the Weapon types differ greatly, the original 10 points of extra Holy Damage would likely be reduced to a pitiful one or two points. Once the One-handed Axe's minimum Weapon Damage was triggered, it might take two or even three hits to Kill a single Zombie.
Conversely, because Cheng Tian only used the cosmetic whip, the 10 points of Holy Damage were not attenuated. This allowed him to Kill a full-health Zombie with a slight overflow of damage, eliminating the need for follow-up hits, greatly saving Stamina Consumption while also avoiding the danger of being counter-attacked during continuous attacks.
Zombies struggling to climb the slope, highly efficient and low-Consumption single-target Kills, One-Ear intermittently covering the gaps, plus appropriate maneuvering—this wave, which represented the show of force and also a crude screening mechanism, was visibly decreasing in number, replaced by empty grave mounds.
However, this situation did not last until the end of the Zombie Horde; an accident occurred after all.
Cheng Tian, covered in sweat, swung his whip again, and the Zombie's head exploded without suspense. But then, a metal Crate, faintly glowing and exhibiting a Black Iron color, actually popped out of the headless corpse and rolled down the slope.
A Crate dropped!?
A game where people could die naturally also had the rule of Monsters dropping items. The Zombie group, being the weakest and most fragile bottom-tier Organism in the entire Demon World Village, had finally dropped its first Treasure Chest, which was one of the basic manifestations of the Chosen Space item drop rules.
However, this lowest-tier Black Iron Treasure Chest did not have any rules regarding "Loot Pick Up Protection."
This was actually one of the means by which the Chosen Space openly encouraged Conflict among Players.
The "Novice Trial" Entry explicitly forbade killing among Players, but in reality, if one did kill another, it only reduced the rewards, not truly stripping away the right to kill.
And as Strength increases and evolution Accelerates, when Players will develop the thought of "I don't want Beef"... that truly varies from person to person.
Cheng Tian remained very composed, only glancing at the rolling Treasure Chest before ignoring it further. The priority for safety was clearly higher for him; even opening a Treasure Chest had to wait until all Monsters were cleared.
Furthermore, Cheng Tian, whose mind had recalled a certain setting of the Demon World Village, held a vigilant Thought in his mind.
One-Ear also saw that the Treasure Chest had rolled to the outer edge of the remaining Zombie group, within reach with a little effort, but he had no thoughts about it. His thought process was very simple and direct; knowing the game's Loot drop rules, he believed this Treasure Chest was dropped by Cheng Tian and should belong to him, having nothing to do with him.
But at this critical juncture, someone actually slid down the dirt slope!
It was One-Ear's roommate, the Phone Guy, who survived because he made the correct choice to huddle near Cheng Tian and One-Ear, despite having no Weapon.
Carrying the fear of facing Zombies, the resentment of being a complete drag, and envy toward Cheng Tian and One-Ear, coupled with the fact that neither of the two had any desire to Pick Up the Treasure Chest, this kid hesitated for about 5 seconds before activating.
The Phone Guy also wanted to slaughter enemies like Cheng Tian!
At this time, the attention of most of the Zombie group was still focused on Cheng Tian and his group, and the Crows had temporarily vanished due to being whipped away. So, when the Phone Guy landed, no Zombies were immediately swarming him, and he successfully touched the Black Iron Treasure Chest, but...
With a 'peng' sound, the Black Iron Treasure Chest, which the Guy had touched, automatically sprang open, releasing a cloud of grayish-black smoke.
When the smoke quickly dissipated, a Humanoid Creature wearing a blue tailcoat, a blue top hat, a crimson cloak, and holding a Gentleman's Cane, with a face resembling the stereotypical hook-nosed Vampire, emerged directly. This startled the Phone Guy so much that he froze on the spot, his whole body trembling.
But the one in the tailcoat showed no hesitation. It opened its cloak, waved its cane, and a Magic Missile composed of a Hexagram shot out directly.
The Phone Guy failed to execute any Dodge Action and took the full impact.
Instantly, smoke covered the Guy's entire body.
But when the smoke cleared, the Guy's figure was gone, replaced by a highly anthropomorphic white Char Aznable.
"Quack!?"
The Phone Guy Char Aznable was ruffled.