Doomsday Lord Ch. 13 | The Situation in Xiāngyáng

Cultivation? The crowd was filled with questions after hearing that familiar but out of place word.

“Although the world has become like a game, Players will not level up automatically after killing monsters. Instead, using the Core Skill of your class allows you to cultivate. Whenever you use your Core Skill you draw in energy from the world. So far you’ve used it to restore your Health and Mana but it can do more than that.” Chéng Yáng explained, “If your Health and Mana are both full, the energy you draw in strengthens your body. On its own, the effects are slow, but if you absorb a Soul Fragment the effect doubles. Every factor of ten above that will also double the efficacy. If you absorb ten Soul Fragments you’ll cultivate four times as fast, if you absorb a hundred, eight times as fast. You can only use your Core Skill for four hours each day, resetting at midnight. So be sure not to waste the time you’ve been given.”

Chéng Yáng didn’t ask them to donate the Soul Fragments they had to Phoenix Village. Each one was paid for with their sweat and blood. He had nothing he could give them in return right now and leveraging the safety of the Settlement would only earn their resentment. Besides, their strength was his, so letting them use their Soul Fragments to cultivate was beneficial to him.

“The buildings near the south gate are called Cultivation Chambers. Cultivating is thirteen percent faster inside one and they’ll also double as your residence from now on.”

Chéng Yáng then divided them into groups of five and assigned each group a Cultivation Chamber. Although it was a bit forceful, no one minded. Even having a roof over their head was something to be grateful for, much less a room and bed of their own. Only Páng Shān lived alone. She was the only girl in Phoenix Village and had refused to sleep near a bunch of older men but promised to share a Cultivation Chamber once more women joined the Settlement.

“Yángzǐ,” Yú Kǎi suddenly asked. “We were able to become Players, but what about the people in Xiāngyáng?”

Chéng Yáng looked north.

“There’s a Safe Zone in Xiāngyáng with a set of Class Statues, but I’m afraid no one will have had the chance to use them yet.”

---

Just as Chéng Yáng remembered, Xiāngyáng was still in a paralyzed state.

When facing monsters the citizens of Xiāngyáng could only obediently be slaughtered. Even if you were a former star athlete or martial arts champion you were equal under the monsters’ jaws. Your carefully honed skills would be useless.

Of course, humanity wasn’t completely defenseless. Everything with a circuit board had been turned into scrap, but most guns still worked.

Xiāngyáng’s police force was armed, but wasn’t militarized so they didn’t have high munition weapons like RPGs. They were limited to semi-automatic rifles and pistols, but it was better than nothing.

The Xiāngyáng municipal government was extremely efficient and in just under half an hour had been able to assemble the majority of the police force. Their original plan was to calm the public and provide emergency services. However, the appearance of monsters forced them to change those plans.

Nearly ten monsters had spawned in the ruins of the town hall where the police were gathered, attacking them immediately. The police fired back just as fast, riddling the monsters with bullets. However, even after expending entire clips, some of the monsters were still standing. Their response hadn’t been particularly organized, but the bullet holes on the creatures bodies were clear to see. How were they still alive!?

The opening left by the police’s need to reload allowed the monsters to fatally wound a few of them only to die soon after themselves.

The police didn’t know it, but in game terms, their pistols only dealt three damage, two after subtracting most monsters’ Damage Resistance Attribute. Even armor penetrating rifle rounds would only deal six or so damage. Modern weapons were impotent when facing monsters.

The police adapted quickly to the realization that each monster needed over a dozen bullets to kill. They organized into groups of four to consolidate fire. After that, they didn’t lose a single officer and started to take back the area surrounding the town hall.

Unfortunately, they ran into two big problems. The first was that any area they cleared wouldn’t stay cleared. New monsters would quickly spawn and attack them from behind. The second was that they were burning through their ammunition at an alarming rate! Before long they wouldn’t even be able to defend themselves, much less the city.

Their only options now were to either secure a temporary base of operations using the ammunition they still had, or dig their reserves out of the rubble of the Public Security Bureau. There was no telling how difficult the latter would be without machinery so the top brass made the decision to fortify a nearby underground parking lot and wait. If they could hold on until a rescue force arrived they would have a chance to survive this. At this time, the national military held the weight of everyone’s hopes.

Although the earthquake had leveled every building on Earth, only the above ground floors were affected. Anything below ground remained intact so long as the nearby terrain remained mostly unchanged.

Around the world, underground facilities like the parking lot used by the Xiāngyáng would become the last refuge of humanity. Although it was still possible for monsters to spawn there, they would only kill one or two people before their instincts drove them to the surface.

Although most monsters near a Safe Zone would be driven to the far edges of the area surrounding it, a minority would instead be drawn to the Safe Zone itself. Although they couldn’t enter, they formed an impenetrable wall around it, stopping humans from entering as well. The only people currently inside were those that were there since before the earthquake.

Unless Chéng Yáng’s actions had created a butterfly effect, the military would find out about the Safe Zone early tomorrow morning then break through the monsters’ encirclement the day after. Only then would the citizens of Xiāngyáng have the chance to become Players.

Similar to Xiāngyáng, most major cities would be recaptured within two or three days of the earthquake.

That would be the beginning of a new era!

---

Chéng Yáng spent ten minutes with the group reviewing team battle tactics but he could tell their hearts weren’t in it. All they could think about was rushing out to save their families.

It was inevitable. The powers they received made them feel invincible and other than Liú Hào, none of them had suffered a serious setback. They’d seen one of their own die, but they believed that together anything was possible.

Except for Yú Kǎi, everyone else left the Settlement. Although Chéng Yáng would have preferred to leave a Mage like Féng Jié, none of them were willing to give up the chance to save their family. Although Yú Kǎi would run out of arrows quickly, it was fine since Chéng Yáng never planned to visit Xiāngyáng. The group would be back within the hour.

They jogged in three rows: the Knights and wolves at the front, the Druids and Mages in the middle, and the Rangers at the back. Chéng Yáng walked about ten meters ahead of the rest of the group, leading the way.

The group followed what remained of the highway. Although the terrain in the area had changed a lot, the modifications mostly affected elevation. Even though the asphalt looked like it had been blasted apart by a missile, it was easy enough to follow.

For the next few weeks it would still be usable as a landmark, but by the end of the month it would be nearly indistinguishable from the rest of the terrain. Vegetation growth had massively increased after the apocalypse, so huge trees would soon break the rest of the road to dust and hide that it ever existed.

It didn’t take long for them to encounter their first monster: a rat-like humanoid creature carrying a knife called a Raatma.

The monster screamed as Chéng Yáng’s Magic Missile blasted apart its flesh. Then, before either could do anything else, the Raatma exploded into a pile of viscera as over a dozen attacks ripped through its flesh.

The group cheered at their swift victory, but Chéng Yáng clicked his tongue. What they’d done had been an enormous waste of resources, especially for the Rangers who still hadn’t fully recovered from the training exercise earlier today.

Despite that, Chéng Yáng stayed silent. They knew what the most effective strategies to fight were but had disregarded them. They would learn an painful lesson tonight on why those strategies were so important.

The blood they shed tonight would also serve to instill fear in their hearts towards monsters. Something they gravely needed.

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