Chapter 299 Cooperation to Make Money
The witch, with her black cat chilling on her shoulder, jumped through the window, her eyes locking onto William with a look that was way too human for a zombie.
William couldn't shake the feeling that only a human could have such a complex expression.
She clung to the window, her instincts on high alert.
This William was a whole different beast from the one she knew before. Back then, she could chase him around with her cat, but now, he had leveled up way beyond her, and her sharp senses screamed danger whenever he was near.
It felt like he could end her with just a flick of his wrist.
She despised this sense of helplessness, as well as the stark contrast compared to before.
"We help... you, you give us... blood," she said, her voice more natural than the Red-haired iron corpse's, but still kinda stiff.
William twirled the bottle of The Blood of Evolution between his fingers like a pen, clearly annoying both the witch and the Red-haired iron corpse.
"Help me? How exactly have you helped me?" William asked, a playful tone in his voice.
He stood up, and the witch instinctively leaned back. The black cat on her shoulder bristled.
Right now, William was putting a ton of pressure on them.
Only the Red-haired Iron Corpse stepped forward, likely because she was 'created' by William, she had no reservations.
"I got out of the Poppy roulette wheel thanks to a level-five Battle Pet and the survivors around me, not you," William said. "The deal was you'd help me escape, and I'd give you The Blood of Evolution. But you didn't help me, so why should I give it to you? This drop is just payment for that three-star Evolution Elixir. You need to get that."
"I can't," the witch struggled with the human language. "I... did help, stopped... them from attacking you."
She was talking about the time when Yangos and the mutated animal camp clashed after the first roulette spin, and some Zombie Kings tried to attack the human camp. The Red-haired iron corpse and the witch did slow them down a bit with mental communication.
"Since you've gained wisdom, you should know that it didn't really change much," William said.
"Your... Battle Pet is not right," the witch stammered.
William's eyes narrowed.
The witch, forgetting William's overwhelming presence for a moment, straightened up and said, "Your... Battle Pet... is fake, I... can sense it."
Being a mentally mutated zombie, she had the potential to see through Darryl's Deceptive Shapeshifter profession. William didn't expect her to catch on, especially with only a level-three evolution.
William's gaze shifted to the witch's forehead, where the black Magic Crystal had streaks of green.
The witch and her black cat immediately got ready for a fight.
The Red-haired iron corpse looked between the witch and William, hesitated, then locked its gaze on the witch, making her even more nervous.
Even though the mental link between the Red-haired iron corpse and William had become more equal, if it had to choose, it would naturally side with William. It always sought to be close to William, whereas with the witch, it is merely a collaboration.
Despite their mutual killing developing something like friendship, it couldn't surpass its bond with William.
"You, you can't..." the witch's gray hair floated as she prepared for battle. She hadn't expected things to go this way. She thought William needed her, that their agreement would hold, but now it seemed she was wrong.
She indeed had evolved a high level of intelligence, but she still didn't get humans. Not only did she fail to understand the basis of cooperation, but she also let slip that the Battle Pet was fake.
Some secrets, once spilled, could get she killed.
Thorny vines started creeping from the Red-haired iron corpse's fingers, quickly covering the walls around the witch with sharp, menacing tendrils. But the witch didn't dare to fight back like she usually would because William was right in front of her. One wrong move, and she'd be toast.
William was a bit taken aback by the Red-haired iron corpse's new trick and got curious about how it came back to life.
"We're not completely out of options for working together," William suddenly grinned and pulled out another bottle with a drop of The Blood of Evolution.
The witch looked shocked.
"You see, there are still plenty of spins left on the Poppy roulette wheel, and funny enough, I'm running low on Magic Crystals."
"Captain Bryant, will this work?"
"We've been sitting here for over half an hour and haven't seen a single zombie."
"Honestly, I think Captain Wright might be off his rocker."
"Everyone, shut up," Wayne growled. Whether the comments came from his team or not, he didn't care.
"Don't say what shouldn't be said, don't think what shouldn't be thought, just wait!" Wayne added.
Everyone went quiet, but doubts lingered.
They were in a small square, with about a thousand people from the small alliance hiding in the surrounding buildings, ready to ambush zombies.
But they'd been waiting for a long time without seeing any, which was weird for their usual hunting methods, so it was inevitable that they harbor some suspicions.
Then, a faint zombie roar made everyone go silent. In the distance, the first zombie appeared.
A small horde of about a thousand zombies, led to the square by the witch. She then vanished into a building while the horde got slaughtered.
No surprise there; the surrounded horde was wiped out by an equal number of survivors.
William stood on a rooftop, flanked by Darryl, Basil, Sasha, and the somewhat antisocial Red-haired iron corpse. Moments later, the witch showed up too.
This was a three-way deal between William, the witch, and these small factions. The witch used her mental mojo to lure some zombies here, and then these small factions would kill them, getting one-fifth of the Magic Crystals.
Why only one-fifth for the ones doing the work? Because not everyone could just sit and wait for zombies to come to them to be killed.
The witch looked pissed. Her evolution type meant she communicated with other zombies rather than bossing them around like other Zombie Kings, so she could only control a few, and they weren't high-level, at most level two. But still, these were her kind. Helping humans kill her kind didn't sit well with her.
But for the sake of evolution, Intelligence was utterly defeated in the face of instinct.
By the end of the morning, five waves of zombie hordes had hit the square, each about a thousand strong, totaling five thousand, mostly level-one zombies with a few level-twos.
This efficiency freaked out the survivors.
In one morning, they raked in five thousand Magic Crystals, with only three deaths and a few dozen injuries. Compared to the haul, the losses were tiny.
These survivors had never imagined killing zombies could be this easy, and they felt a mix of fear and respect for William, who could even team up with zombies.
But even with this efficiency, William wasn't satisfied. "We need to speed up; we don't have much time," he said.
William knew the longer they waited, the more things could go wrong. If the witch could figure out the level-five Battle Pet was a fake, Yangos would too. He wanted to use this time to spin the Poppy roulette wheel again, which would make things easier.
"Looks like it's time to find some powerful mutated beings to take down," William murmured.
