Seeing Lillian Liu's forehead beaded with sweat, Ian Song handed her an Evolution Crystal.
Less than five minutes after swallowing the Evolution Crystal, Lillian Liu told him that her depleted energy had already been restored.
Hearing this, Ian's mind stirred. If Lillian Liu kept taking Evolution Crystals during combat, did that mean she could become an inexhaustible source of firepower?
With that thought, Ian decided it was necessary to test her a bit more.
So, he drew in another batch of zombies for her to kill.
After she unleashed more than thirty fireballs, Ian handed her another Evolution Crystal to swallow.
An hour later.
Ian stopped the test, since Lillian Liu now looked utterly exhausted. Even though she still had plenty of energy left in her body, her aim with the fireballs was now way off.
So Ian guessed that casting fireballs must also consume her Spirit.
Over the course of that hour, Lillian Liu killed more than three hundred zombies—her combat power had already surpassed Helen Guo.
Helen Guo can kill a little over two hundred zombies in an hour, which is already impressive—after all, swinging a sword takes strength, and zombie skin is ridiculously tough.
He gave Lillian Liu half an hour to rest.
Afterward, Ian made the two thugs lead the way to the Haigang Survivor Base.
The Haigang Survivor Base was more than twenty kilometers away. Even carrying Jewel, Ian kept up a fast pace, and since Lillian Liu was now a Mutant Human, she recovered quickly after a short break—so she was moving fast, too.
But the two thugs couldn’t keep it up after more than two hours of walking.
Ian had zero sympathy for them. With about three hours left until sundown, he figured that once it got dark, zombies would get way more active. If they got mobbed by a huge swarm, things would get really ugly.
Finally, at 6:10 p.m., the group arrived outside the Haigang Survivor Base.
This place used to be a steel mill, with tens of thousands of workers.
After getting his hands on the armory’s weapons, Zeke Guan organized a two-hundred-man team and spent ten days wiping out every zombie inside the base.
At the same time, they dug dozens of crisscrossing trenches about a hundred meters from the steel mill’s main gate. But between all those trenches, there was a single winding road just wide enough for a car to get through.
Each trench was five to six meters deep. If a zombie fell in, it was almost impossible for it to climb out—though if a tier-four S-Type Zombie came along, with crazy jumping power, those trenches might not work so well.
Still, it was an effective way to stop zombies.
The base’s main gate had clearly been reinforced—it looked ridiculously thick and heavy.
In front of the gate, eight men in camouflage stood guard, rifles in hand.
When Ian’s group approached, all eight men’s eyes lit up with a strange gleam.
"Stop right there!"
All eight rifles swung up, aiming straight at Ian and his companions.
Just then, Ergou—the thug—spoke up: "Gentlemen, these three are survivors looking to join our base. Could you let them through?"
"So you two are from the base?" One of the guards raised an eyebrow, staring at the two thugs.
"Yeah, me and Sanwa are both from here. Three days ago, we went out together to look for food!" Ergou explained.
"Anyone who dares go out looking for food’s got guts! Show me your IDs!" the guard barked.
Ergou and Sanwa obediently handed over their IDs—which, as it turned out, were actually issued by the base.
After checking their IDs, the guard handed them back and said bossily, "You two can go in."
"Officer, what about them?" Ergou asked.
"The hell do you care? Mind your own business, or I’ll give you a bullet to chew on!" the guard snarled.
Ergou and Sanwa both looked at Ian.
"You two go on ahead," Ian told them. He’d kept these two thugs alive just to lead him to the base. Now that they’d arrived, he had no more use for them.
"Thanks!"
Both of them thanked Ian in unison, then darted into the base.
"You three want to join our base, huh?" The guard stared at Ian’s group, his eyes lingering on Lillian Liu with a sleazy glint.
Ian nodded. "That's right. Please, big bro, could you make things a little easier for us?"
"Making things easy is possible, but that depends on whether you guys know how to behave!" The 'soldier' grinned slyly. In truth, none of the eight were real soldiers—they were all Jason Gao's men.
"What do you mean by that?" Ian asked in a low, serious voice.
The man cursed again. "Hell, you don't get it? You're really dumb, kid. I'll spell it out for you: if you want to join our base, hand over everything you’ve got!"
"But we don’t have anything!" Ian spread his hands helplessly.
"You want to join the base with nothing? You think we're running a charity? But..." The man's tone paused, his gaze glued to Lillian Liu, greed plain in his eyes. "But if you let this woman keep us company for a while, I’ll let you all in!"
Lillian flushed bright red with anger and snapped, "Shameless!"
"Forget it, let’s go!"
Ian said to Lillian. He’d come here for two reasons: to contact the base leadership, and to see if they’d discovered the secret of Evolution Crystals.
He hadn’t achieved the first goal, but the second was already clear—thanks to his clairvoyance, he’d seen that aside from a few exceptions, everyone here was just an ordinary person. Obviously, they hadn’t figured out the crystals’ secret.
Hearing Ian say he was leaving, the 'soldier' sneered, "Hell no, you think you can just walk away? Not happening! Boys, surround them!"
Immediately, all eight men moved fast, boxing Ian’s group in.
"You sure you want to do this?" Ian stared at the man, his voice calm but now laced with killing intent.
"So what if I do? What can you do about it?" The man sneered.
"You're a bad man!"
Jewel, cradled in Ian’s arms, suddenly glared at the thug and spoke up.
"Heh, this little girl’s pretty cute too. Perfect for Third Master—he loves this kind of thing! Grab them!"
As soon as he finished, the other seven lunged forward, swinging their rifles at Ian.
"Courting death!"
Ian’s voice was ice cold. These bastards actually dared target Jewel—that completely enraged him.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"
Eight streaks of silver shot from his hand, followed by a series of dull thuds—the coins punched straight through each thug’s forehead.
"Let’s go."
Ian didn’t spare the fallen men a single glance. He strode off in the opposite direction from the base.
Just then, a military jeep rolled up from a hundred meters away and stopped at the edge of the trenches. A short-haired woman in leather armor, exuding a heroic aura, jumped out.
Her gaze swept over the eight corpses at the gate, surprise flickering in her eyes, then locked onto Ian. She barked, "Who are you people?"
More than ten burly men in camouflage jumped out of the jeep, aiming their rifles squarely at Ian.