Chapter 92 Sanctuary 6

Chapter 92 Shelter 6

*Ping!* The steel pellet whizzed out, heading straight for the zombie’s head.

But for some reason, the target zombie took two steps and raised its arm. The pellet struck its arm and bounced right off.

Su Han exhaled in annoyance. She had noticed since the first day of the game that only headshots counted as valid hits. Attacks on other body parts didn’t reduce the zombie’s stamina.

At the same time, the attacked zombie became enraged. It let out a furious roar and charged at Su Han.

Unfazed, Su Han continued firing.

One hit, two hits, three hits… Before the zombie could even cover half the distance, it vanished in a flash of white light.

Su Han scanned her surroundings and found that the other zombies paid no attention to their fallen comrade, still shambling about mindlessly. Relieved, she proceeded to clear them out one by one.

Half an hour later, all the zombies were eliminated.

Yuan Yuan stood silently by, not making a sound.

Su Han walked over to the barrels and opened one. Just as expected, each barrel held diesel. Each was 100 liters, and there were 40 in total.

After a quick calculation, she quickly formed a plan. She handed over two pieces of black bread and a bottle of milk, casually saying, “Job’s finished. Here’s your payment. You can head back now.” She had memorized the way here and didn’t need to travel back together.

“Thank you!” Yuan Yuan’s face lit up with a radiant smile as she took the food. Without hesitation, her footsteps pattering away, she dashed off, not looking back.

After waiting a while to confirm that Yuan Yuan had left and no one else was nearby, Su Han tossed all 40 barrels into her Portable Storage.

Considering the barrels were bulky and took up a lot of space, she simply packed them into one grid space.

**

A lucky survivor traded a crystal for a hundred pounds of rice!

The news spread like wildfire, sweeping through the entire shelter. In just one night, every resident in the outer ring had heard about it.

Many were burning with jealousy. “Why couldn’t I be the one to get such a freebie?”

Others were eager to try their luck, preparing to hunt zombies. They thought to themselves, *If someone else could get a crystal, surely I can too. Effort pays off.*

Then, another piece of news arrived—the lucky survivor from last night had entered the inner ring and secured a proper job (through connections), with wages enough to cover the basics. Unless something went wrong, they could now live comfortably in the inner ring for good.

The news lit a fire under the outer ringers.

A safe living environment, stable employment, generous pay—this was everything an ordinary person in the apocalypse could dream of! With just a stroke of luck, finding a crystal could flip their fortunes in a heartbeat!

It was like hitting the jackpot in the pre-apocalypse world—once you got lucky, everything you ever wanted was within reach.

They couldn’t wait any longer. The urge to strike it rich was overwhelming! They had to act now! Residents banded together or set out alone, actively searching for zombie traces.

Those with modest means dug pits, crafted wooden arrows, or fashioned spears. Those with some savings went straight to the exchange to buy bullets, then rented cars and peeled out in a hurry.

And so, a full-blown zombie hunt began.

**

“Dumbass, this way!” Yang Yongkang pulled a small stone from his pocket and chucked it at the zombie.

*Roar!* The zombie snarled and charged toward him.

“Finally, it’s following,” Yang Yongkang said, not batting an eye—in fact, his eyes gleamed with excitement. He had already set up traps nearby, just waiting for the zombie to blunder into them.

He’d been scared shitless at first. But after successfully luring and eliminating two zombies, he realized that as long as he kept the numbers down, a single zombie wasn’t half as scary as he’d thought.

Although the head is the only weak spot, and attacking other parts of the body is useless, zombies are slow-moving and brain-dead, so they’re easily tricked into traps.

As long as the target is trapped, there are plenty of ways to attack.

Yang Yongkang taunted the zombie as he led it on.

Soon, the zombie stumbled and fell into the pit.

Yang Yongkang grinned, took out a wooden spear, and stabbed at the zombie's head.

After several hits, the zombie dissolved into white light.

Yang Yongkang lowered his head to examine carefully, then grumbled in frustration after a while, "Still nothing..."

Still, he refused to give up. People had already told him that the chance of finding a crystal was low. As long as he kept hunting, he would eventually find one.

Picturing his life changing overnight if he found a crystal and gradually reaching the peak, he couldn’t help but grin foolishly, lost in his beautiful fantasy.

Then, out of nowhere, a zombie lunged at him from behind. Startled, Yang Yongkang tried to resist, but it was too late.

The zombie bit into his neck. Instantly, a layer of skin was torn off, and blood gushed out.

Clenching his teeth through the pain, Yang Yongkang thrust the wooden spear through the zombie’s head and struck hard at its neck.

Soon, the zombie dissolved into white light.

Yang Yongkang dropped to the ground, hanging on by a thread, his only thought being—he was finished.

**

Just past noon at 12 o’clock, a white-coated figure appeared in the outer area of the shelter and called out coolly, "The medicine is ready. Is anyone willing to try it publicly?"

He repeated the question three times, but no one answered. It wasn’t that there was no one around—there were plenty of onlookers—but nobody was eager to try the stuff.

For all they knew, it could spread the virus instead of curing it. Unless they saw the medicine work with their own eyes, the crowd stayed wary.

The white-coated man scowled and was about to speak when someone interrupted, "Why not use him as a guinea pig?" With that, he waved his hand.

Immediately, people carried a stretcher forward, bringing the patient to the white coat.

The patient was Yang Yongkang.

At this moment, his face was ghostly white, lips turning blue, his whole body trembling. His wound crusted over in seconds, reeking faintly—clearly, his condition was dire.

The white coat nodded. "He’ll do." He helped Yang Yongkang sit up and slowly fed him the medicine.

As soon as the medicine entered his mouth, color flooded back into Yang Yongkang’s face. The bluish tint on his lips faded, and his wound rapidly healed.

Before long, his breathing steadied, and he lay on the stretcher as if asleep.

After a careful examination, the white coat solemnly announced, "He’s fine now. With some rest, he’ll recover fully."

The crowd erupted in shocked murmurs. The onlookers stared wide-eyed, unable to believe what they were seeing.

But as if that wasn’t enough, the white coat tossed out another shocker: "The first three residents who bring in crystals will each receive a bottle of this medicine. There are still two spots left—good luck, everyone."

The crowd’s eyes lit up with hunger, filled with fervor. A medicine that could cure the virus was worth way more than a hundred pounds of rice! What could they swap it for at the trading post?

...That math was way above their pay grade!

But one thing was certain—the stuff was pure gold.

"Only two spots left." Someone immediately muttered and hurried away, seemingly intent on racing the clock to hunt zombies and claim one of the spots.

Su Han watched, sighing quietly. No matter how hard these people tried, they would never obtain the crystals. They exerted all their effort, desperately hoping for luck, but in the end, it would all be in vain.

"How's the progress?" Without her noticing, Zhong Rui had appeared beside his female companion.

"Found several barrels of diesel. Enough to torch the whole shelter," Su Han replied quietly.

"Good." Zhong Rui nodded approvingly.

"What about you? Any updates?" Su Han asked.

"The exact number of people in their team is still unknown. Rumor has it they’ve agreed to sell the antidote and trade with the exchange, but the exact timing hasn’t been set. Their story is that the progress of crystal acquisition determines the progress of potion production—totally unpredictable," Zhong Rui said softly.

"Sounds like they plan to trade after clearing the zombies and confirming their exit," Su Han analyzed.

"Given how this group has operated so far, I’d say the chance of an honest deal is zero. More likely, they’ll rob and run, then quickly escape the scenario."

"That way, they complete their supply mission without having to pay for the Vitality Potion."

Zhong Rui nodded. "Possible."

After a moment of thought, Su Han frowned. She looked at her companion skeptically. "Where did this intel come from? Is it reliable?"

"The fat manager at the exchange told me," Zhong Rui said calmly.

Su Han grew even more puzzled. "Why would he tell you?"

Zhong Rui smiled faintly. "I pretended to be a researcher conducting virus experiments and gave him some meds under the table as a personal gift. He spilled everything he knew. That guy’s morals were always flexible—no surprise he couldn’t keep secrets."

No matter how loyal the fat man was to the exchange, he couldn’t resist the temptation of easy money. With medicine worth its weight in gold, the little favors Zhong Rui offered were more than enough to buy his silence.

"He just believed you were a researcher?" Su Han found the man a bit naive.

Zhong Rui remained cool as ever. "I had all kinds of medicine on hand. That was proof enough."

Su Han was momentarily speechless. She found she had no rebuttal.

Zhong Rui looked out across the wasteland and sighed leisurely. "Since they plan to restock after clearing the zombies, there’s no need to rush. We still have plenty of time."

**

On the second night, no one came forward with crystals to trade.

At 9 a.m. on the third day, the system’s mechanical voice announced, "Shelter I22 (player’s current server) has 986 players, 3,123 NPCs, and 40,149 zombies remaining."

That night, the second and third lucky individuals emerged, managing to trade for a hundred pounds of rice and a potion each.

At 9 a.m. on the fourth day, the system’s mechanical voice announced, "Shelter I22 (player’s current server) has 972 players, 2,675 NPCs, and 27,632 zombies remaining."

The numbers of residents and zombies were plummeting fast. Meanwhile, players were also gradually being affected.

"Clear zombies, scavenge supplies, trade at the shelter. If you’re lucky, you might even get crystals and food rations—pretty routine. But routine is reliable, routine works. If they kept changing things up, people would go crazy." A player who had only found the shelter on the third day, unaware of the truth, mistook the scam for part of the game’s mechanics.

"Compared to running around searching houses and finding nothing but useless crap, hunting zombies seems easier. On one hand, it reduces late-game pressure. On the other, if you get crystals, you can haul in food supplies—enough to eat and stockpile." Another player, failing to see through the deception, readily accepted the idea of crystals in zombie brains. Then, working from flawed information, he naturally arrived at flawed conclusions.

"The bold hack up zombies for meat, the timid scrounge for leftovers. The game offers two branching paths—pretty flexible. We can search carefully while clearing zombies along the way. Doesn’t hurt to do both." A cautious player made his decision, aiming to balance risk and reward.

The more lies were told, the harder it became to separate truth from fiction.

By now, most players had accepted the premise of the crystals and were actively strategizing. Only a handful remained silent, having their own plans.