Chapter 164 It Could Be Consumed
The collapse of the third line of defense, followed by the next two, left everyone in shock.
Suddenly, a bunch of evolved zombies showed up, making the defenses look like a piece of paper easily destroyed by these powerful mutants.
Even with evolved humans fighting back, it was useless.
By the time all five defense lines outside the community fell, nearly two hundred survivors were dead, including four evolved fighters.
Michelle, Candice, Jack, Lucy, and even the injured Natalie were battling hard at the community gate, covering the retreat.
William's team managed to stabilize things a bit. With the sharpness of the Edge of the Moon and their skills, they were a real threat to the evolved zombies.
No mutant could take two hits from the Edge of the Moon, not even the tough ones. White-grade weapons were just too much for them.
Once everyone was inside, the team pulled back too.
The zombie horde flooded in like a tidal wave, swarming the area outside and then pouring into the community area.
That's when the traps at the entrance kicked in.
Gear shrapnel, wooden traps, elastic steel wires... these simple traps started taking out zombies left and right. In such a dense horde, getting injured or falling was a death sentence as the zombies behind trampled over them.
"Too few, too few," David muttered, watching from a building.
If he had more time and materials, he could've made better traps. But given the circumstances, this was the best he could do. The traps did a lot of damage, but David wasn't satisfied.
"These traps are so simple, but why didn't we think of them before? Some of them are pretty clever," one of David's assistants said, impressed by the designs William had shown them.
"Different goals," David said, clenching his fist. He was lucky William let him tag along today, but he wasn't allowed to fight, which frustrated him. "We used to make stuff for money. The person who designed these traps did it to kill."
The assistants exchanged glances and fell silent.
David wasn't the same anymore. The once timid and kind-hearted guy was gone, replaced by someone eager for battle.
The apocalypse had changed people, especially David, who would become the future father of Magic Crystal weapons.
"Let's go, time to leave!" David said, leading his assistants and some of Marcus Rodriguez's gunmen out of the community area and back to the base.
Just as David left, the battle inside the community began.
Compared to the open ground outside, the fight inside was more complex, giving humans more ways to fight back.
The unfinished buildings became perfect platforms for combat.
Once the zombie horde entered the community, they were funneled into different paths by wooden stakes, stones, abandoned cars, sandbags, and other obstacles, creating a maze with dozens of entrances. The horde couldn't push through these barriers and had to split up.
Hundreds of people were waiting in ambush between these obstacles.
Long steel rods with sharp spearheads became the best weapons. The survivors just had to jab their weapons through the gaps into the zombies' eye sockets. The zombies were packed so tightly they could barely move, and a spurt of black blood meant they were dead.
This almost playful way of zombie-killing boosted the survivors' morale.
Everyone knew each zombie meant wealth, and collectively, it could mean an Evolution Elixir.
No one could resist that temptation.
So, a disgusting scene unfolded. Some people stopped killing zombies and started using knives to dig out Magic Crystals from the corpses, causing the kill rate to plummet.
"What the hell are you all doing? Kill the zombies, now! We can talk about Magic Crystals later!" Donovan shouted, furious.
He was on a massive bulldozer, swinging an iron rod to kill zombies. Seeing people behaving this way made him furious, his face red and body trembling.
William had made it clear before he left: they needed to kill the zombies quickly to prevent the pressure from increasing and to ensure the fortifications held out longer.
If they couldn't kill these monsters effectively, the numbers would eventually overwhelm them.
But everyone who was still ordinary, overlooked the risks and were distracted by the allure of evolution.
The battlefield became chaotic. Evolved fighters angrily scolded their teams, and some hot-tempered ones even killed a few people. Under such high pressure, the survivors resumed fighting.
But in a short time, a large number of zombies had rushed into the community. More powerful mutants joined the battle, and with such numbers, the fortifications began to collapse, and one team after another was swallowed up.
William, with Iron Corpse and pill, sped through the desolate streets of Hope Base.
He took a curved path, cutting into the attacking zombie horde.
There, he found the shadow he had been looking for.
William never believed that a team inexperienced in fighting mutants could eliminate the hundreds of thousands of zombies outside Hope Base. The key to victory still lay with him.
The Mind Parasite's target was William, and William's target was it!
The Mind Parasite was terrifying; one misstep and it could control you, turning you into its nutritious meal and discarded skin on its path to evolution. But ever since William guessed its existence, he had a new plan.
Previously, he only wanted to make a fortune using Hope Base's vast human resources. But after discovering the Mind Parasite, his plan changed.
His ultimate goal was no longer a massive amount of Magic Crystals but the Mind Parasite itself.
Maybe no one in the world knew about its existence, and even fewer knew that this terrifying creature, while fearsome, also had something highly coveted.
Just like the Essence Stone, it could be consumed.
