The opportunity arrived quickly. In early March, just as the RV upgraded to Lv6, more than fifty ability users appeared in a massive wave outside.
It was clear that these ability users did not come from a single organization. They were scattered, operating independently, but had temporarily joined forces to try to take over Youzhuang.
They approached from two directions, one from the south and one from the north along barely passable mountain paths, and by the time they neared each other, the fighting had already begun.
Sound-based abilities rippled out from the south, sweeping across everyone’s eardrums and causing dizziness and disorientation.
Xin Xiaoru activated the RV’s loudspeakers: “All non-ability users, return to the hotel. Those who cannot leave, ability users, assist them.”
Quickly, ability users gathered scattered people on the two mountain peaks and carried them back to the hotel one by one. Xin Xiaoru flew the RV to the more remote fields, picked people up, loaded them into the RV, and then delivered them back to the hotel.
By now, everyone could see the smoke signals rising from the watchtowers in the sky. Following the prearranged team assignments, they moved toward the south and north directions.
Since the southern approach was closer to population-dense areas like Yicheng, Xin Xiaoru decided to take He Guying and four other relatively strong combat teams south first.
A poison-mist user worked with a wind-type user, blowing the toxic cloud along the path of the sound-wave attack.
The RV could expend stamina to boost defense and resist the sound waves, while the wind-type users tried to push the poison cloud away.
However, the mountain air echoed in all directions, and all participants were only around second-level ability users. They couldn’t blow the poison cloud directly over the ridges. Even when the cloud was dispersed temporarily, it bounced back off the mountains or was pushed back by wind-type users on the RV side.
Meanwhile, the poison-mist user kept escalating the attack, filling the clear valley with increasingly dense purple fog.
After several rounds of long-range probing and defense, both sides finally closed to the point where they could see each other.
Ice blades and metal spikes struck toward the RV, which quickly dodged and, using the poison fog for cover, stopped halfway up a slope in a blind spot. Zhao Changyue and the others without long-range abilities donned gas masks, slipped out of the RV, and moved stealthily through the forest, soon disappearing into the depths of the trees. The RV ascended again, continuing to advance toward the enemy.
The ambush began.
About thirty ability users gathered on the southern side, covering their mouths and noses. Wind-type users managed to create a small area free of poison, but everyone was affected to some degree, eyes and noses irritated, tongues and limbs numb, symptoms varying but clearly showing poisoning.
Those with long-range attacks spotted a corner of the RV, and as soon as it entered range, they struck quickly. Yet the RV cleverly used terrain and fog to appear and disappear, making it extremely difficult to hit.
Moreover, the ability users who had lived comfortably in the mountains since the apocalypse had never experienced real combat. Their battle experience, mentality, and ability levels should have been inferior, but in the few long-range clashes, they realized… they actually couldn’t beat the opposing side.
How was this possible? They were already considered cunning and strong outside, weren’t they?
The long-range attackers on both sides continued clashing, while the sound-wave user kept harassing constantly.
These long-range ability users were protected in the middle, occupying a good position, and were rarely targeted by the RV’s occupants. But as the two sides drew closer and attacks grew more frequent, the long-range fighters realized their teammates could no longer fully shield them.
They weren’t as mobile as the RV, had limited space to maneuver, and once the RV’s offensive pushed them back, their formation gradually fell apart.
As soon as the formation broke, many close-combat ability users suddenly appeared, ambushing the poorly defended.
Within just ten minutes, five of them fell to these sudden attacks.
When the attackers’ attention shifted to the ambushers, they discovered that many of them were actually children. Before they could even register the shock, attacks from the RV-based ability users rained down from above.
Thus, what had started as a confident assault by the outsiders, leaving the Youzhuang residents anxious, ended completely within two hours, including travel time and cleanup.
Youzhuang achieved a total and decisive victory.
Ability users, unlike zombies, don’t die unless critically injured; as long as they’re not decapitated, they can slowly recover and continue fighting. Injuries are injuries, but if vital areas are damaged, death is certain. Killing a ability user is far easier than killing a ability user zombie.
Xin Xiaoru had initially worried that many, especially children, would develop severe psychological trauma from killing ability users. But once the battle began, she realized some of the children were even fiercer than the adults.
At birth, humans are neither inherently good nor evil. Without education or discipline, actions are guided either by instinct or by imitation.
Before the RV rescued them, the children had relied on instinct to survive, killing and mimicking those who had tried to take their limited resources.
Anyone who threatened the little stability they now had would face their wrath.
Take Song Weiyu, for instance. Xin Xiaoru had never seen her strike so ferociously, not even when killing zombies outside. Now, with “bad guys” knocking at the door, she became a small, reactive beast, wanting to tear everyone apart.
By contrast, the adults, who had more thoughts and hesitations, acted more cautiously, and a few supportive, low-profile ability users even managed to escape their attacks.
Some managed to escape, but Xin Xiaoru didn’t bother. She needed the fierce reputation of Youzhuang’s ability users to spread. A few ran only a few dozen meters before being caught by Youzhuang’s child ability users, one slash, and they were dead. Even Xin Xiaoru was a little surprised.
She couldn’t help but wonder: children who had already faced life and death before their minds were fully mature, what kind of people would they become as they grew up?
Ability users had crystal cores in their heads. Xin Xiaoru had special cases like Song Weiyu handle the extraction as efficiently as possible, breaking open the skulls to retrieve the cores, then distributing them fairly according to each person’s contribution.
Back in Youzhuang, everyone celebrated. They brought out all kinds of food, even slaughtered a pig and a dozen or so chickens and ducks. For a while, the feast was lively and chaotic.
Xin Xiaoru sat atop the hill, looking down at the traces left by the battles to the south and north.
It wasn’t enough. Youzhuang still wasn’t strong enough.
Today it was fifty attackers, tomorrow it could be five hundred, five thousand. Just in the Yicheng base alone, there were over five thousand ability users. If someone could gather that many people to attack, could they really defend themselves?
She popped open a can and drank a whole can of pineapple beer in one gulp.
Suddenly, her mind caught sight of the RV’s next mission:
【Upgrade Requirement: 2,000 guests with five-star ratings.】
【Upgrade Reward: Incorporate 0.1 square kilometers of land into the RV hotel’s protection area. The protected zone can hide or obscure coordinates; any non-designated personnel approaching within 10 kilometers of the area will lose visual perception and be unable to see through dense fog.】
【This upgrade reward has no alternative options. Do you confirm this reward?】