Riding a motorcycle through the city’s lesser-used roads and highways, Rick quickly moved away from the city center, avoiding most of the traffic caused by the many vehicles stopped on the streets. And when he arrived at the launch base, the sight he saw was of a complete disaster. Thousands of zombies surrounded the place from all sides, part of the huge metal fence had already fallen, and all that remained intact were a few buildings in the surroundings and the aircraft launch site itself.
On top of this, military personnel continued to fire their firearms at the top of some watchtowers and other high places, while a flock of at least 200 mutant birds that looked like crows attacked the military and broke glass windows in suicide attacks, trying to enter the buildings.
If there was any doubt before, now Rick was certain. Something had changed, and the apocalypse was very different from before. The number of dead people that came from the Satellite Cities to the base, the flock of crows that shouldn’t even exist in this region, and the several zombies with red eyes in the middle of the horde. All of this caused the base that would last a few weeks to be destroyed on the first day.
His thoughts turned to his house, which was in a more isolated village and far from the satellite cities. Before, his family had been fine for the first week, but what now?
Forget spending the night in this place, he had to go in, fulfill his mission, and get out even faster. The military’s shots would continue to attract the dead from all of the more than 18 nearby Satellite Cities, turning this base into a dead zone...
Parking his motorcycle far from the base, Rick put it in his inventory, gripped his axe tightly, and started to make his way through the dead that were invading the base around the broken fence.
With precise and powerful blows, zombies were cut in half from the waist, others lost their heads or limbs, and powerful kicks knocked the dead out of their way. Survival points rose constantly through the notifications in Rick’s vision, increasing their numbers generously:
[Obtained survival points x1]
[Obtained survival points x3]
[Obtained survival points x1]
[Obtained survival points x2]
[Obtained level 1 mutant crystal]
[Obtained level 1 mutant crystal]
Along the way, Rick even cut two level 1 mutant zombies, extracting their crystals with his system ability and avoiding the laborious process of cutting them out in the middle of the horde or storing them whole in his inventory if he didn’t have the ability. His arrival also attracted some birds, but he dealt with them with ease.
Now inside the base, not knowing where to find the young salesman’s engineer brother, Rick followed the only direction he had available; the existence of 3 prototype space bracelets. And they were all in the same building. If they were there, then it must be an important location in the base. Running as fast as he could, Rick took a huge leap, jumping almost 3 meters high and entering through one of the larger broken windows. The mutant crow that broke it now lay in agony on the ground near the broken glass.
With a single, heavy stomp of his boot, the wounded crow on the ground was crushed into a pulp of black blood mixed with feathers like an insect, and Rick looked around the dimly lit area for any other threat.
Several bursts of gunfire continued outside the building, reminding Rick that his time here was limited. He headed towards the nearest bracelet and kicked open a door. Inside, a zombie was wearing one of the bracelets he was looking for. Wasting no time, he decapitated the zombie’s arm where the bracelet was, followed by its head. Putting the entire arm inside his inventory, he ran to the third floor of the building, where he sensed the location of a second bracelet.
[Space Bracelet Prototype Obtained!]
[System inventory has been expanded!]
It seemed that he didn’t need to touch the items directly, and just tossing them into his inventory was enough. Arriving on the third floor of the building, he finally saw the first signs of life. Several zombies crowded around a door, while several screams sounded from inside, trying to stop them from entering. Rick caught them from behind and quickly cut them down. When the sound of grunts stopped, Rick shouted:
"OPEN THE DOOR, IT’S SAFE NOW!"
As soon as the door was partially opened, five people squeezed in to look at the fireman and his bloody axe, confirming that the zombies were indeed dead.
"Are any of you named Ethan?"
Four of the five people turned their heads in the same direction, looking at a man in his 30s or 35s who wore prescription glasses, something extremely unusual* these days. At the same time, the system reacted, confirming that Rick had found his target. Completing the current quest gives you a new, rather unusual skill and two new, somewhat complicated quests...
[Find and Rescue Space Engineer Ethan]
New System Skill: Wall Building (+)
With the appropriate materials in your inventory, you can instantly build walls. Currently available walls: wooden wall and stone wall.
[Side Quest Completed]
New System Skill Obtained
Bonus Reward for Fast Completion Time: 1 Potion of Cure for the ZY Virus
Rick’s eyes lit up as he obtained a free ZY virus cure potion due to completing the mission quickly. But this made him wonder if there was any extra reward for the previous missions that he had left for the last day. But it was better not to think about that now. The good thing was that this extra healing would give him more points to make his first axe upgrade. He would have to test the new system skill later... But before that, he had new missions...