Thud~
Thud!
Smack!
...
Yue~
A series of dull thuds echoed, accompanied by Pu Guangqiang's suppressed retching.
Fortunately, he was clever enough to cover the zombie's head with a plastic sheet in advance.
As the pickaxe broke through the skull, the red and white matter only sprayed onto the dark asphalt road.
Ignoring the bloody mess that resembled a smashed watermelon, from above, it almost had a Van Gogh impressionist vibe!
Hey, who knew Pu Guangqiang was a painter! Only, he's painting with a hammer and pickaxe!
However, Gu Chengyuan was destined not to appreciate this post-apocalyptic dark artwork.
He felt a strong sense of physical discomfort, his whole body tingling, limbs cold, and even a bit nauseous.
But he didn't turn away; instead, he forced himself to keep watching.
As if wanting to imprint the scene deeply into his mind!
The apocalypse would only get harsher! If he couldn't adapt, even with the system, he'd be eliminated!
With a shotgun slung over his shoulder, Pu Guangqiang used the extra plastic sheet to sift through the red pulp, and suddenly shouted.
"Commander, I've found an unknown crystal in the zombie's head!"
Before handing the crystal to Gu Chengyuan in the armored vehicle, he deftly took out a canteen from his waist pouch and carefully rinsed the crystal twice.
Gu Chengyuan took the crystal and curiously examined it.
The crystal was a perfectly shaped rhombic dodecahedron, exquisite and transparent.
About the thickness of a pinky finger, with faint gray mist inside, seemingly flowing, giving it a dreamy feel.
"Tsk tsk~ It's beautiful!"
"This is the real blood diamond! Grown from flesh, consecrated with blood!"
System!
Seeing this, Gu Chengyuan's thoughts were mostly confirmed, and he quickly summoned the system panel.
As expected, a red dot lit up near the system credits box, with a new conversion function.
Gu Chengyuan chose to convert.
Ding!
Discovered "Inferior Creature Crystal Core" x1
Would you like to convert?
"Convert!" Gu Chengyuan didn't hesitate, only a small thrill of verification.
Ding!
Conversion successful!
Credits +5
The credits on the panel now totaled 7.
Then Gu Chengyuan ordered two members of the Security Team, led by Pu Guangqiang, to search the fallen zombies and crack open their skulls one by one.
Before long, Pu Guangqiang eagerly brought over five more cleaned crystal cores.
Gu Chengyuan carefully examined each one, finding no size difference, as if they were molded.
But the gray mist inside varied slightly in depth!
For the subsequent conversions, Gu Chengyuan didn't choose to convert them all at once but did so individually.
Ding~
Credits +2
Credits +3 New chapters come out on g.com first.
Credits +5
Credits +3
Credits +1
Now, Gu Chengyuan had 21 credits.
Through this test, he found that the amount of credits from conversion was related to the depth and thickness of the gray mist in the crystal core.
The darkest and thickest core converted to 5 units of credits.
While the lightest, nearly colorless core only converted to one unit of credits.
He gently tossed the fully transparent spent crystal core to the back of the armored vehicle.
"Security Squad, disperse and maintain a safe distance! I will now shoot the crystal core!"
Once the three members of the Security Squad moved to the sides of the vehicle, Gu Chengyuan unlocked the safety on the 191 Assault Rifle and switched to single-shot mode.
Both elbows propped on the roof armor, forming a stable triangle, he leaned down, bracing the stock against his shoulder, and adjusted the gun.
Using the 3x QMK-171 White-Light Scope mounted on the Picatinny rail, he locked onto the zombie crystal core on the ground.
Consciously aiming, unconsciously firing.
Bang~
With a gunshot, the pinky-thick crystal core shattered instantly, leaving only faint traces of glass-like debris.
"It seems these zombie crystal cores aren't as indestructible as described in previous novels!"
"But this means that clearing zombies might result in significant losses!"
For instance, light weapons might accidentally hit the crystal core inside the zombie's head.
Not to mention heavy weapons like grenades or potentially cannons in the future.
Such massive weapons could clear dozens or hundreds of square meters with one shot!
Thus, using heavy firepower, while highly destructive, actually yields very low returns, potentially even losses!
Therefore, Gu Chengyuan decided that unless necessary, he would use light weapons for clearing, as early development was crucial, and every resource was precious!