“If you like throwing rocks so much…”
Lin Mao sneered coldly.
“Then take it back!”
With a powerful swing of his left hand, the massive boulder shot backward at an even greater speed.
BOOM!!!
The giant rock slammed directly into the mutant zombie’s chest and exploded into countless fragments.
The Corpse King staggered backward two steps.
Its chest visibly caved inward as black blood splattered across the ground.
“ROOOOAR!!!”
The zombie king stared at Lin Mao in shock, as though it had never encountered a creature stronger than itself before.
But the intense pain left me no time to think.
The monster wildly smashed both fists into the earth, causing the ground to tremble violently.
“Looks like this is all you can do,” Lin Mao mocked with a grin.
He slowly raised his right hand.
“Lightning.”
CRACK!!!
A pillar of blue-white lightning as thick as a barrel tore through the sky and struck the zombie king directly on the head.
Yet the Corpse King merely howled in pain.
Electricity surged wildly across its body, but the monster still continued charging toward them stubbornly.
“Oh?”
Lin Mao raised an eyebrow.
“You’re tougher than I expected.”
He swung his arm downward again.
Three more bolts of lightning crashed from the heavens.
The entire forest was swallowed by blinding white light.
When the brightness finally faded—
The zombie king’s flesh had become charred and cracked.
Black smoke poured from its body.
One of its legs had completely carbonized.
Yet even then, its undead instincts still drove it forward.
“Your vitality is pretty impressive.”
Lin Mao snorted coldly and clasped both hands together.
An invisible giant force instantly locked onto the zombie king’s legs, pinning it firmly in place.
At the same time, Lin Mao floated high into the air.
Lightning gathered continuously in his hand until it condensed into a blazing spear of thunder.
Sharp explosive sounds echoed around it.
“Go.”
The lightning spear shot downward like a streak of light.
PIERCE!
It tore straight through the zombie king’s chest.
Front to back.
A massive burnt hole appeared in the creature’s torso.
Wen Rou could even see the scenery behind it through the opening.
The giant zombie froze.
Slowly, it lowered its head toward the hole in its chest.
A trace of disbelief flashed across its eyes.
Then—
Its enormous body collapsed heavily onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Silence.
Only the sound of wind rustling through leaves remained.
Li Ruyue stared blankly at the smoking corpse below before looking back at Lin Mao.
Just how powerful was this man?
Even the military would probably struggle against a monster like that.
If Lin Mao had wanted to earlier—
The entire shelter probably wouldn’t have survived even one of his lightning strikes.
Thinking of that, Li Ruyue felt even more certain she had made the correct choice.
In the apocalypse—
Strength was everything.
As long as someone possessed enough power, obtaining resources became easy.
But if that was true…
Then what exactly could she offer Lin Mao?
“Lin Mao, are you okay?” Wen Rou hurried over and asked softly.
“I’m fine,” Lin Mao replied while exhaling deeply. “Just used a bit too much energy.”
But his eyes shone brightly with excitement.
“Come on,” he said eagerly. “Let’s check the loot.”
Using telekinesis, Lin Mao slowly lowered the three of them back to the ground.
The earth scorched by lightning was still extremely hot.
Li Ruyue could only remain farther away while watching Lin Mao and Wen Rou approach the corpse.
The zombie king’s body still emitted smoke.
Surprisingly, the air wasn’t filled with the usual rotten stench.
Instead, the smell of burnt flesh dominated the area.
Lin Mao reached out and touched the corpse.
The next second—
The enormous body instantly turned into ash.
In its place remained an ancient-looking territory token and five bottles of high-grade Awakening Fluid.
Boss rewards?
【Territory Token
Required item for establishing a shelter. Symbol of authority for a shelter leader.】
【High-Grade Awakening Fluid
Allows the user to awaken or upgrade their talents.】
Lin Mao’s eyes lit up instantly.
He recognized the territory token immediately.
When the mysterious system first selected shelter leaders, Song Leyi had received something similar after becoming the temporary leader.
The token allowed shelter management, trading through the communication channel, gathering information, and various system functions.
Only someone possessing this item could truly be considered a shelter administrator.
As for the Awakening Fluid—
That was genuinely priceless.
Once Wen Rou and Li Ruyue awakened their abilities, his shelter would immediately possess three high-level combatants.
A true elite shelter.
Returning to the cave shelter, Lin Mao immediately bound the territory token.
【Bind Administrator: Lin Mao?】
Without hesitation, he selected yes.
【Ding!】
【Binding Successful】
【Shelter No.071821 (Unnamed)】
【Administrator: Lin Mao】
【Level: 1】
【Additional Buildings: None】
【Shelter Population: 3】
【Survival Points: 1000】
The interface was incredibly barebones.
But the huge amount of survival points from killing the Corpse King more than made up for it.
Normally, killing a single zombie only rewarded 2 survival points.
But now he possessed a full 1000 points.
A massive fortune.
And survival points were extremely valuable.
Usually, just 2 points could be exchanged for enough supplies to feed one person for three days.
Back at the old shelter, Lin Mao had relied entirely on scavenging and hunting to feed the entire class.
But now—
Shelter upgrades and construction could simply be purchased directly with survival points.
【Upgrade Shelter Level 1 → 2】
【Required Survival Points: 500】
Without hesitation, Lin Mao immediately upgraded the shelter.
In an instant, the entire cave transformed.
The messy bonfire area became neatly surrounded by stone.
The crude bedding made from branches and leaves transformed into soft blankets and mattresses.
A small wooden restroom even appeared near the cave entrance.
It was connected directly to the river below the mountain.
Both girls stared at the changes in shock.
Especially Wen Rou.
Her excited jumping made Lin Mao’s eyes drift repeatedly toward her chest.
In the end, he simply handed both girls their daily food and water before returning deeper into the cave to study the shelter system.
…
“Can anyone on the mainland tell me when the Blood Moon will end?”
“Freshly killed wild chicken this morning. Trading for medicine.”
“Any handsome guys willing to give me food? I’ve been starving for days~”
“Post a selfie first, little sister. If you’re pretty, your big brother will feed you.”
The communication channel was chaotic.
People exchanged information, traded supplies, and chatted endlessly.
In this world where entertainment barely existed and communication was difficult, the channel had become one of the few ways people could relieve loneliness.
Lin Mao casually created a random username before browsing the messages.
At this point, too much time had already passed since the channel’s creation.
Most people no longer shared useful information freely.
If someone wanted intelligence—
They needed to offer something first.
Without hesitation, Lin Mao posted a bottle of mineral water as a reward.
In exchange—
He wanted answers to three questions.
The moment the trade appeared—
The entire channel exploded into chaos.