Chapter 13 – The Tragedy of Xiang City (Seeking Favorites)

Chapter 13 – The Tragedy of Xiang City (Seeking Favorites)

“Cultivation?” Many people were puzzled by this familiar yet fresh term.

Cheng Yang explained, “Indeed, it’s cultivation. Although this world has been gamified, it’s still a real world. So, the concept of killing monsters to gain experience points and level up directly doesn’t exist here. To enhance one’s strength, one must cultivate, specifically by activating the basic cultivation skill in your skill list. There’s a limit to this cultivation—only four hours per day. Exceeding this limit won’t yield any additional benefits. Therefore, it’s crucial not to waste your daily cultivation time. Of course, you’ve all gained a certain amount of spiritual energy, which can boost your cultivation speed. The upper limit for spiritual energy is 1,000, and it doubles the cultivation speed. With the current Level 1 basic cultivation skill, it consumes 10 points of spiritual energy per hour. Whether to use spiritual energy for cultivation is up to you.”

Cheng Yang didn’t suggest that everyone contribute their spiritual energy to upgrade the profession statues. Firstly, because everyone had worked hard to earn it, and forcing them to donate it didn’t sit right. Secondly, he believed that for the short term, killing the surrounding demonized creatures would suffice to meet the profession statues’ upgrade requirements.

“Additionally, cultivating inside a wooden hut increases your cultivation speed by 10%. Each room accommodates five people. The extra rooms will be reserved for future arrivals,” Cheng Yang concluded.

No one objected. Given the dire circumstances, having a place to stay was already a blessing. The only exception was Pang Shan, who occupied a house alone. As the only female, it was impractical for her to share a room with a group of men. Once other female combatants arrived, they could share the space with her.

“Yang, now that we can change professions within the base and gain the ability to fight demonized creatures, what about the people in the city?” Yu Kai suddenly asked.

Cheng Yang glanced at the sky and replied, “There are profession statues in the city too, but right now… I doubt anyone has reached those bases yet.”

…

Cheng Yang was right. Xiang City was in complete chaos.

Faced with monsters that had appeared out of nowhere, humans were being slaughtered mercilessly. Even former athletes or martial arts champions were no match for these creatures.

However, humans weren’t entirely defenseless. Although all electrical devices had ceased to function due to the altered laws of the world, firearms and other non-electric weapons, including rocket launchers, still worked.

But Xiang City didn’t have heavy weaponry like rocket launchers. At most, there were rifles and submachine guns. The city’s military garrison was outside the city, and the police didn’t possess such powerful weapons.

The Xiang City government took ten minutes to mobilize the police from the nearby Public Security Bureau, some of whom were armed. They planned to use these forces to stabilize the situation, but before they could act, a sudden catastrophe disrupted their plans.

Nearly ten demonized creatures appeared on the ruins of the city hall and immediately attacked the gathered crowd.

The situation terrified everyone. Some police officers opened fire, but after emptying their handguns, they found the monsters still alive and kicking. Although not all bullets hit their targets, three or four bullets had struck the creatures, yet they remained unharmed. This outcome was unacceptable.

In the moment of hesitation, the monsters charged into the crowd, unleashing a massacre.

Ultimately, the humans prevailed due to their numerical advantage and the use of firearms. They observed that each monster had to be hit by fifteen or sixteen bullets before dying.

The resilience of these creatures was astonishing. They didn’t yet realize that the difficulty in killing these monsters was due to the world’s transformation. Ordinary firearms now had an attack power of only three points, and even sniper rifles didn’t exceed six points. Killing a monster was no easy task.

Before they could study the monsters in detail, another wave appeared. The police, now experienced, immediately opened fire.

But they soon discovered a critical issue: they had no spare ammunition. They might manage to kill this wave, but who knew if more monsters would appear later?

There were only two options: find a place to hide or return to the ruins of the Public Security Bureau and dig through the debris to retrieve the buried ammunition.

Without heavy machinery, digging through the ruins was nearly impossible. The higher-ups quickly decided to hide first and assess the situation later.

Fortunately, although the earthquake had destroyed all buildings, it hadn’t flattened them entirely. There were still plenty of places to take cover. Soon, the once-crowded ruins were deserted as everyone sought hiding spots. The remaining police, after killing the monsters, also found places to hide.

This wasn’t just happening at the city hall ruins. Most of Xiang City’s inhabitants chose to hide. They knew hiding wasn’t entirely safe, but it was better than being exposed to the monsters. At least this way, they could survive longer.

If they could hold out until reinforcements arrived, they might have a chance to survive. Their hope rested on the military.

Meanwhile, the massive light screen in the city center still enveloped the area, surrounded by numerous demonized creatures. However, these creatures couldn’t enter the light screen and were confined to the periphery.

Attempting to enter the light screen now would be extremely dangerous, almost a suicide mission.

With his past life’s experience, Cheng Yang knew that by tomorrow morning, someone would discover the light screen. It wasn’t until noon the day after, when the military outside the city entered Xiang City and, with countless firearms, breached the monster’s defenses, that humans could enter the light screen.

This wasn’t unique to Xiang City. Almost all major cities worldwide were only secured by humans two or three days after the disaster.

That would mark the beginning of a new era.

…

After spending over ten minutes answering questions, Cheng Yang selected a group to accompany him outside the base’s walls.

The drivers and laborers Li Wanshan had brought wanted to return to Xiang City with Cheng Yang, but he refused. For now, a small team of about ten people was safest in the wild, as they wouldn’t attract too much attention. Even if something went wrong, Cheng Yang’s strength could ensure their safety.

Moreover, Cheng Yang had no intention of returning to Xiang City, as it was an impossible task for them at the moment.

He promised to return and take them to the city if he found a safe passage, which finally convinced the others to stay.

Cheng Yang took sixteen people with him, four from each profession, ensuring a balanced team. However, this left the base without a single summoner. Fortunately, summoners only had the skill to summon shadow wolves, which were melee attackers and wouldn’t be very effective within the base.

The sixteen-person team wasn’t large. Four summoned shadow wolves guarded the front and rear, four warriors protected the flanks, archers stayed on the outer perimeter, and three mages occupied the core position.

All of them were drivers or laborers brought by Li Wanshan. Cheng Yang didn’t take Yu Kai and the others because their desire to return to Xiang City was too strong.

Cheng Yang led the group, which wasn’t particularly dangerous for him. With 40 points of life force, 2 points of attack speed, and 2.2 points of movement speed, he could dodge attacks and counter effectively in the shortest time.

They followed the road, as the earthquake had caused significant vertical changes in the terrain but no lateral shifts. As long as they stayed on the road, they wouldn’t get lost.

The asphalt road was now in ruins, as if bombarded by heavy artillery.

This wasn’t the worst. Cheng Yang knew that in a month, the trees on either side of the road would overgrow, making travel even more difficult.

After walking about a hundred meters, a half-human-sized rat appeared on the road ahead and charged at them upon spotting Cheng Yang.

Cheng Yang didn’t hesitate. He hurled a magic missile at the rat’s head, knocking it to the ground. His attack wasn’t enough to kill it instantly, and the rat quickly got up and charged again.

The other ranged attackers didn’t stand idle. Three magic missiles and four arrows flew toward the rat. Three missed, but the rest hit, causing the rat to howl in pain.

When the rat was twenty meters away, Cheng Yang launched another magic missile, and the rat fell dead. Some faint light points flew into Cheng Yang and the others who had hit the rat.

Before they could relax, a whistling sound came from above, and a silk thread shot toward Cheng Yang.

“Spotted Spider!” Cheng Yang recognized the sound instantly. He extended his left arm to intercept the silk thread while raising his staff with his right hand, firing a magic missile at the treetops.

A dull thud echoed, and everyone looked up, horrified to see a spider the size of a washbasin, its silk thread as thick as a pinky finger, attached to Cheng Yang’s arm.