Chapter 231: Scheming
Boulders and fireballs rained down from the sky. Faye Yardley and the others had to dodge them while also watching out for sneak attacks from low-level zombies.
After a while, only fireballs were left falling. It seemed Cole Kensington had already taken care of the zombie with the rock-throwing superpower.
’So fast. I hadn’t even found where that zombie was, and he’s already dealt with it.’
Zachary Pierce said, "Look after yourselves and take cover. I’ve spotted the zombie with the Fire Ability."
With that, he sprinted straight toward the zombie.
While dodging fireballs, Faye Yardley was also killing the horde of zombies that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
What had been just a few stragglers had suddenly turned into a massive swarm.
She had a suppression effect on Undead System creatures, so many zombies would subconsciously avoid her and attack Finn Ford and Caleb Colby instead.
"Holy crap, where did all these zombies come from? Aren’t we in the suburbs, not even in the city proper yet?"
Caleb Colby complained as he relentlessly thrust his spear.
’Zombies,’ he thought, ’it feels like the more we kill, the more of them there are!’
Faye Yardley hadn’t expected to run into so many zombies so soon after entering the Dungeon. For an area on the edge of the city, this number of zombies was abnormally high.
And because their overall strength had increased, the strength of even the low-level zombies had increased as well.
It was obviously impossible to reap the Dungeon’s rewards with ease.
The system was damn cunning in that regard.
Wielding Light Wound, Faye Yardley charged directly into the zombie horde. Even with their increased strength, they were still no match for her.
The sharpness of Light Wound made killing zombies as easy as slicing vegetables for Faye Yardley.
’These are basically points served up on a platter. It would be a waste not to take them.’
Points +1, +1, +2, +1...
The sound was intoxicating, spurring her to kill with even more vigor.
It wasn’t just Faye Yardley; Caleb Colby and Finn Ford had also charged into the horde.
As for the zombies with superpowers, so what? They had superpowers, but the team had martial prowess.
Faye Yardley wasn’t just slicing and stabbing with Light Wound; she would also occasionally fire her Arm Crossbow.
Unfortunately, after using up all the Arrows, the Arm Crossbow had to be reloaded manually. It would be perfect if it could automatically connect to her pack and refill the empty slots.
’Why is there no end to the zombies?!’
They just kept coming.
The group had already been fighting at this high intensity for over twenty minutes, but the zombies seemed endless.
"Sister, something’s not right here. We should leave this area first." By now, Cole Kensington had fought his way to Faye Yardley’s side, protecting her as much as he could—though so far, she didn’t look like she needed his protection at all.
The five of them were now close to each other, slowly forming a back-to-back circle.
The others naturally heard Cole Kensington’s words. Although Zachary Pierce and the others were here for the points, they had no intention of working themselves to death.
"Let’s head to the building on the side and find a defensible corner, just like before. Yardley, you find a spot."
Faye Yardley didn’t object. "Okay, then everyone follow my lead in a bit."
With that, Faye Yardley chose a direction to the right and started fighting her way toward the side of the road.
The others began to move slowly with her.
They couldn’t move fast even if they wanted to. The main problem was the zombies—they felt no fear or pain, and their numbers were despairingly large.
"Man, it’s so hard just to break through. You guys okay? Seems like there are a few zombies with superpowers mixed in, too. So annoying. They keep hitting us with sudden lunges, vines grabbing at our feet, and whatnot."
Faye Yardley didn’t want to complain, but she couldn’t help feeling a surge of frustration after struggling for so long to clear a path.
「Outside the Dungeon」
Gregory Yardley truly hadn’t expected his favorite youngest son to have rescued his mother, but not him.
His raft had been upgraded to Level 4 with his youngest son’s help and was now a hundred square meters, but to him, it still felt far too cramped.
According to his youngest son, once his eldest grandson returned from the Dungeon and saw how poorly his grandfather was living, he would surely take him in to live a life of comfort.
After a night had passed, seeing the conversations on the national channel and the rankings on the leaderboards, he had come to agree with his youngest son.
He just never imagined that his granddaughter, Faye Yardley, whom he had always looked down on, would be so capable.
’Too bad she’s an ungrateful brat.’ He had been able to see her choice quite clearly when she had rejected him.
She had rejected him without a second’s hesitation.
’Hah. Just like her mother’s bloodline. Callousness runs in her veins.’
’Why isn’t my eldest grandson back yet?’
’With so many people in the world, the guild my eldest grandson founded is The First Guild. Following him is definitely the right choice.’
He never even considered that Ethan Yardley might not take him in.
’No matter what, I used to help restrain his younger uncle and aunt, as well as others in the family. Otherwise, how could a young man like my grandson possibly have protected such a large inheritance by himself? It would have been carved up and divided long ago.’
’Blood ties aside, for that reason alone, the two siblings ought to respect and provide for me.’
He completely and subconsciously ignored the facts. Before her death, his daughter-in-law had placed all her assets into a trust, leaving the family no opportunity to meddle. It was only after Ethan Yardley graduated from college that the trust transferred the inheritance to him personally.
He even believed that everything his daughter-in-law owned should have belonged to his eldest son, and what belonged to his eldest son was as good as his own.
’If Ethan Yardley doesn’t take me in after he gets out of that... whatever that Dungeon is, I’ll definitely ruin the siblings’ reputations.’
At this moment, Faye Yardley was completely unaware of her grandfather’s schemes. If she had known, she probably would have been even more motivated to kill zombies.
"Yardley, you rest for a bit. Take over for Ford in half an hour."
Two cars were parked in front of the dilapidated house, which Faye Yardley had specifically taken out to use as a barricade against the zombies.
"I can keep going. You guys rest first."
This truly wasn’t false bravado; Faye Yardley’s current physical condition was simply better than that of Caleb Colby and Finn Ford.
The four basic Attributes of those two hadn’t even broken 20 yet.
Meanwhile, she was on the verge of breaking 30 in all her Attributes.
After the latest leaderboard update, she still firmly held the number one spot on both lists. This time, however, the reward wasn’t a flat increase to Strength; instead, she gained two points of Luck Value.
Her Strength had decreased by two points, and she felt her damage output had weakened. Her Spirit also dropped by two points, but that sensation wasn’t as distinct as the loss of Strength.
’Could the increase in my Luck Value be the reason there are more zombies in this Dungeon?’
Zachary Pierce didn’t hesitate or argue; he directly told Caleb Colby to step aside for a short break, adding, "The rate of new zombies spawning is slowing down."
"Yeah, we should be able to wipe out this batch before nightfall."
After her reply, Faye Yardley once again turned herself into a ruthless killing machine.
Killing the zombies wasn’t difficult, but the intensity of the battle was a bit high.
Cole Kensington discovered that the Faye Yardley in combat was a completely different person from the one he knew outside.