Chapter Fourteen: The Main Force of the Corpse Tide

The battle lasted about half an hour, followed by sporadic gunfire mopping up the stragglers.

Since the number of zombies was not large and their movement speeds varied, most of the time the group alternated between fighting and resting. Occasionally, when they encountered small groups of zombies, the team of Evolvers would even switch to melee weapons to save ammunition.

Lin Lei, through the Data Processing Center, learned that in this engagement, they had eliminated 2,716 first-tier zombies and 591 second-tier zombies. So far, there was no sign of any third-tier zombies.

Adding the zombies he had picked off earlier and those lurking around the supply depot, the total recoverable contribution points had already exceeded seventy.

While the group was taking a break, Lin Lei, as promised, resupplied them with ten thousand rounds of various types of ammunition.

After tallying up, the two hundred or so people had fired less than eight thousand rounds in total. So, not only did they gain two thousand rounds in profit after resupply, but they also collected a huge pile of zombie corpses, which could be exchanged for either ammunition or food—truly valuable spoils.

For a first collaboration, both sides were thoroughly satisfied.

“It’s been quite a while now; I doubt there will be any more zombies coming,” Lin Lei remarked after waiting another twenty minutes.

“They probably won’t come. The main body of the horde is still five or six kilometers away, and since we set up our ambush in this valley, the gunfire echoing out through the mouth of the valley will be distorted. With zombie intelligence, there’s no way they can pinpoint the source,” Yang Chunxi explained. “But don’t worry—our brothers have nearly finished resting. We’ll set out soon and try to lure in another wave before nightfall.”

Having just tasted the sweetness of success, even if Lin Lei wanted them to rest longer, they probably wouldn’t agree.

“Do you need remote support?” Lin Lei, aware of the difficulties in luring zombies, offered to continue helping—after all, the more zombies they killed, the more he earned.

Yang Chunxi pointed to a wooden box not far away and said, “No need. Last time was an accident. This time, I brought all our best gear. There won’t be any slip-ups.”

The most troublesome zombies to deal with during luring were the second-tier speed types, and these were also the most valuable. If Lin Lei got involved, they’d miss out on a significant profit.

Yang Chunxi's "best gear" was a box of homemade remote-controlled explosives. Setting out from the valley, they planted one to three bombs every five hundred meters, covering each with a heap of gravel.

Intent on pulling off something big, for this second attempt, Yang Chunxi took a third of the personnel and nearly half the weapons and ammunition.

As soon as contact was made, a fierce barrage of fire erupted, lasting a full ten minutes. Those left behind in the valley even thought the main battlefield had shifted elsewhere.

“Recovery marker has met the requirements. System is initiating automatic recovery. Resources are being recovered… Recovery complete. This cycle, you gained 100 contribution points. After deducting a 5% recovery fee, you receive 95 contribution points,” the system suddenly announced.

“In just ten minutes, I earned thirty contribution points!” Lin Lei was surprised.

He quickly connected his consciousness to the system space and, after checking, found that in those ten minutes, he had actually earned forty-five contribution points, not just thirty.

Less than a thousand first-tier zombies had been killed, but over seven hundred second-tier zombies had fallen.

There was no helping it—second-tier zombies moved fast, but under concentrated fire, they died just as quickly.

Remote explosives continued to detonate in succession. Yang Chunxi’s group fought and retreated, taking a whole hour to lure the zombies into the valley.

This time, however, there were casualties among the survivors. Every member of the Evolver squad, including Yang Chunxi, was injured, and they lost one first-tier strength Evolver and one second-tier speed Evolver. Among the ordinary survivors, five were lost—a casualty rate of one in ten.

“There’s no war without death. The supplies of our fallen brothers will be handed over in full to their families. If they have none, as per custom, the supplies are given to the Niutou Mountain Management Committee as reserve stock,” Yang Chunxi said, seemingly unfazed by the loss, and simply instructed Lin Lei not to skim from the fallen brothers’ supplies.

“Also, this time we lured more zombies than before. Exchange all the zombies we’ve killed so far for ammunition,” Yang Chunxi said.

Lin Lei had spent five contribution points to establish the Data Processing Center precisely to ensure that, during resource distribution, no one would get shorted by his oversight, thereby keeping everyone's morale high.

He was thorough in his considerations, and the data he gathered was both precise and detailed. However, he overlooked one point: during intense combat, no one else had the attention to track their kill counts.

So, after the battle, the group would do a rough tally. When they compared it with Lin Lei’s numbers, they found his figures far exceeded their own estimates.

Thus, after some discussion, they decided to use Lin Lei’s data as the standard. Instead of exchanging resources individually, everything would be handed over to the Niutou Mountain Management Committee for unified exchange and distribution. Merits and rewards would be settled after the battle.

Since rewards would be based on merit, in the end, not all the resources would go to the frontline fighters—just like with their scavenging teams: whatever they brought back, at least half had to be handed over. Otherwise, why would the settlement shelter them or assign tasks?

This effectively made Lin Lei the second-hand dealer and Yang Chunxi and the rest of the Niutou Mountain Committee the third-hand dealers. Of course, that was their internal business, and Lin Lei had no say in it.

But in that case, what was the point of spending five contribution points to set up the Data Processing Center? All he needed to do was record his own kills; the rest would go straight to Niutou Mountain anyway!

He was used to being played by the system by now.

After tallying up, between the first battle and this zombie-luring operation, the people of Niutou Mountain had killed 3,652 first-tier zombies and 1,386 second-tier zombies. All exchanged for ammunition, that came to 45,980 rounds.

After deducting the 10,000 rounds already delivered, Lin Lei handed over another 35,000 rounds, rounding off the remainder to soothe his battered spirit.

After passing the ammunition to Yang Chunxi, Lin Lei finally had time to observe the situation in the valley.

“My god! Is this just ‘a bit more’? It looks like the entire horde has been drawn here!” Lin Lei exclaimed in amazement.

With more manpower, they could focus fire to the point where even second-tier zombies were instantly killed. The longer the battle lasted, the more zombies were drawn in.

With remote explosives going off in succession, the blasts continually guided the horde’s path. This time, there was little chance of the zombies getting lost.

The valley road was narrow, and the number of zombies was immense. Packed together like sardines in a can, they were pressed so tightly that Lin Lei saw one zombie’s head squashed flat. Though it was clearly dead, it never fell but was instead carried forward by the unstoppable tide.

“It’s a pity I can’t sign a gifting protocol with zombies. Otherwise, just the ones crushed in the crowd would net me a tidy profit,” Lin Lei muttered to himself.