Chapter 31: Conditions for Advancing to Tier 2

After leaving the Cafeteria, Yang Bin continued leading Chen Hao and the others in search of Special Zombies.

There were noticeably more Special Zombies today than yesterday.

In just over half an hour, they killed two more.

Yang Bin ate both crystals. Combined with the previous three, that made five total-yet the second corner still hadn't lit up.

Worse, each crystal was less effective than the last. The boost from this most recent one was barely worth mentioning.

Yang Bin's brow furrowed. He had a sinking feeling the next one would do nothing at all.

"Bin-ge, still not lit up?" Chen Hao asked.

"No. Let's try one more and see," Yang Bin said.

"Sure." Neither of them objected. As far as they were concerned, Yang Bin getting stronger was the same as all of them getting stronger.

The group resumed their search. Before long, they found another Special Zombie.

But the numbers around it were a problem-forty to fifty in total.

Chen Hao's Way of Assassination came out again.

He burned through his energy twice in succession, picking off over twenty zombies from stealth. The remaining twenty-odd were put down by brute force.

They took some injuries in the process, but Hu Wenliang patched them up quickly.

Yang Bin dug out the crystal. Under the expectant gazes of the other two, he swallowed it.

"How is it, Bin-ge? Lit up?" Chen Hao asked immediately.

Yang Bin shook his head.

"Still not working?"

"It's not that it's not working. It's completely ineffective now," Yang Bin said with a bitter smile.

"Ineffective?!"

"Basically zero improvement."

"How is that possible?" Chen Hao and Hu Wenliang both frowned.

Yang Bin thought for a moment, then something clicked. "I think I know what's going on."

"What?"

"If I'm right, lighting up the second corner requires a Tier-2 Crystal," Yang Bin said.

"A Tier-2 Crystal?"

"The kind we saw outside the Cafeteria."

"That makes sense," Chen Hao agreed.

"So we need to go after it?" Hu Wenliang said.

"Let's check if there are Tier-2 Zombies anywhere else first. That place... unless we have no other choice, don't touch it. People will die," Yang Bin said.

"Got it."

They resumed searching.

Over the next stretch of time, they ran into several more Tier-1 Zombies. The crystals went to Hu Wenliang and Chen Hao, boosting their strength considerably.

But they never found a Tier-2 Zombie.

The Cafeteria had thousands of zombies and only one Tier-2 among them. Finding another elsewhere was never going to be easy.

"Bin-ge, I don't think wandering around like this is going to cut it. We should find somewhere high up-might be easier to spot one from above," Chen Hao said.

"Oh-right. Let's go. Zhongyuan Building!"

Zhongyuan Building was the school's landmark structure and its tallest. Students were normally never allowed up there.

The group made their way over carefully. The main entrance was locked tight.

That didn't stop them. An iron pipe jammed into the lock, a quick twist, and it popped open.

"Let's go."

They shut the door behind them and headed up.

Zhongyuan Building had eighteen floors. There was an elevator, but it wasn't operational outside of open hours. They'd have to climb.

Fortunately, with their enhanced bodies, eighteen flights wasn't much of a challenge.

They reached the rooftop. The view opened up instantly-the entire campus spread out below them.

"Damn. A spot this good and we didn't think of it sooner," Yang Bin muttered, annoyed at himself.

"We didn't need it before. Finding it now isn't too late," Chen Hao said with a grin.

Yang Bin nodded, then activated True Vision Eye and began scanning the zombies across campus.

The vantage point was excellent, but the distance to the ground was significant. Trying to pick out mung-bean-sized crystals inside zombie skulls from this height-the Mental Energy drain was enormous.

Yang Bin had barely started before dizziness hit him. He stopped immediately.

"Damn, the consumption up here is brutal," he said, rubbing his temples.

"No surprise. We're high up and everything's far away."

Yang Bin rested for over ten minutes, then stood and tried again.

After three attempts, he finally spotted one-a Tier-2 Zombie below a dormitory building.

"Found it. Let's go kill it."

"Let's go."

They rushed downstairs. Yang Bin led them straight to the dormitory, and there it was.

Its appearance was similar to an ordinary zombie, but something about it was different. It moved with a subtle alertness the others lacked.

"Eleven zombies total. I'll engage the Tier-2 one head-on. You two clear the rest as fast as you can, then come help me," Yang Bin said. Against a Tier-2 Zombie, he genuinely wasn't confident.

"Got it."

"Go!"

They charged.

The moment they broke cover, the Tier-2 Zombie spotted them. It rushed forward immediately.

Yang Bin met it head-on, driving his iron pipe toward its skull.

Chen Hao and Hu Wenliang split off, angling toward the ten ordinary zombies behind it.

Just as the pipe was about to pierce the zombie's head, it tilted-just slightly.

It didn't dodge completely. The pipe still connected. But that small movement sent a chill through Yang Bin.

Every zombie they'd killed before had been brainless. No awareness of incoming attacks. You could stab them from any angle without resistance.

This one tried to dodge.

That was a very bad sign.

This was only a Tier-2 Zombie. If higher orders were even more aware-killing zombies was going to get exponentially harder.

The pipe pierced the skull, but only partway. The zombie wrenched its head free, then lunged at Yang Bin with its jaws wide open.

Yang Bin switched from thrusting to swinging, cracking the pipe across the zombie's head.

Blood sprayed from the impact. The zombie barely flinched.

Yang Bin glanced down at the iron pipe in his hand. It was bent.

A dry laugh escaped him.

Time to retire this thing.

As his strength grew, a hollow iron pipe simply couldn't keep up anymore.

The zombie didn't care about the state of his weapon. It lunged again.

Yang Bin dodged sideways.

It missed and came right back. Its reaction speed was at least double that of a Tier-1 Zombie.

The pipe was useless for stabbing now, useless for swinging. All Yang Bin could do was block.

But the Tier-2 Zombie hit like a truck. Every clash drove him backward.

Within moments, Yang Bin was on the defensive with almost no room to counterattack. Wounds opened across his body one after another.

Then Chen Hao and Hu Wenliang finished off the remaining zombies and rushed over.

With three of them working together, they finally stabilized the fight.