When Qin Shilei returned to the office building he had just left, he found that Wu Lian had already extracted the crystal cores.
He thought to himself, "It seems having subordinates is quite good. If it were me, it would take half a day to extract them all."
After giving Wu Lian some crystal cores as reward, Qin Shilei had them leave to continue killing zombies.
By evening, both the 007 Legion and the 018 Legion returned.
That day, Qin Shilei went out to rescue three times.
Although some time was wasted, he also obtained seven bronze treasure chests.
His 007 Legion had 29 members killed by zombies, and An Qian's 018 Legion had three more.
Qin Shilei took out some food and instructed, "Take this food to the families of the teammates who sacrificed themselves."
Everyone looked at the pile of food in front of their commander with surprise.
The food was enough to feed dozens of people for two months.
They never expected their commander to have such consideration for his subordinates.
This was just a team forcibly assembled by the military. Not only did they not exploit a single crystal core from the individual soldiers, but instead, the commander personally paid for the welfare of the families of fallen comrades.
Seeing everyone momentarily stunned, Qin Shilei thought they were dissatisfied with the amount. He said with a cold face, "What? Do you think it's not enough?"
"No, no, on behalf of their families, I thank the commander."
Several commanders quickly expressed their gratitude.
However, some members of the legions began to consider formally joining Qin Shilei's team.
In the apocalypse, death could come at any moment. If they followed a commander who would look after their families after their death, it would be a great blessing. They could also depart with peace of mind.
Qin Shilei did not expect that his spontaneous action would make some members of the team feel a sense of loyalty.
On the first day of the 007 Legion's establishment, although 29 people were lost, everyone's strength improved to varying degrees.
There is strength in numbers.
The two-star and three-star members, through cooperation within the platoons, also advanced to one or two stars. A small portion of the five and six-star members also upgraded. As for the seven and eight-star members, they received some bronze treasure chests, and their strength also increased. If they continued like this, everyone might have a chance to advance to the Black Iron realm. But was this truly the case? That remains to be seen.
After a day of hard work, it was time for Qin Shilei and An Qian's favorite activity: opening treasure chests.
First, An Qian opened her own bronze treasure chests. There were no particularly good items, the best being a green scroll.
Ice Ball (Green): Cast an ice ball at the target, which can freeze them for three seconds.
An Qian happily put away the scroll and then began opening treasure chests for Qin Shilei.
Blue, blue, still blue. For more than ten consecutive chests, the best items were all blue.
"Open this one."
Qin Shilei took out the bronze treasure chest dropped by the Tyrant.
An Qian took a breath before solemnly opening the treasure chest.
Suddenly, three beams of light, red, green, and white, emanated from the chest.
The white light was a half-roasted whole sheep, which was perfect for tonight's dinner.
Spirit Potion (Green): Increases or restores spirit power.
Qin Shilei drank it casually and felt his spirit power increase slightly.
Blood Soul (Red): Absorbs the opponent's life force upon attack to restore the host's stamina; additional effect: Unstoppable Bleeding; Additional Skill: Blood Backflow.
Unstoppable Bleeding: Wounds caused by Blood Soul are harder to heal and produce significant bleeding effects.
Blood Backflow: Can cause blood to flow backward throughout the enemy's body, with a range of ten meters and a cooldown of two hours.
The Blood Soul sword body glowed with a dark, purplish hue, as if it had drunk the blood of countless beings.
Henceforth, the Shocking Swan Sword could be relegated to a backup sword, allowing it to be nurtured with peace of mind. Qin Shilei eagerly anticipated how stunning the Shocking Swan Sword would be when it was finally unsheathed.
After opening treasure chests for Qin Shilei, An Qian left the room to open treasure chests for Zhang Xiaoli and the others. Qin Shilei repeatedly asked An Qian to open treasure chests for him. Zhang Xiaoli and the others finally noticed something unusual. After some questioning, they learned about An Qian's high luck and all requested her help in opening their treasure chests.
After An Qian left, Qin Shilei proceeded to refresh the attribute entries for Blood Soul.
[Do you wish to refresh attributes?]
[Refresh.]
Pursuit (Green): Has a thirty percent chance to strike again when hitting an enemy.
Soul Absorption (Green): After killing an enemy, absorbs their essence, spirit, and energy to increase the host's strength. (Use this attribute with caution, as it may lead to adverse consequences.)
Combo (Red): Has a thirty percent chance to trigger a combo when hitting an enemy, equivalent to the effect of the previous attack.
Qin Shilei looked at the Soul Absorption attribute with a burning desire, but the note in parentheses immediately stopped him from fixing this attribute. Combo and Pursuit seemed similar. However, one was green, and the other was red. The only difference was that Combo added the phrase "equivalent to the effect of the previous attack." Could a combo triggered during the Seven Star Falling Sky technique also have a sevenfold bonus? With hopeful expectations, Qin Shilei chose the Combo attribute.
He then went to the rooftop to refresh the second attribute entry for Xiao Qiang's advancement to the Black Iron realm. Three attribute entries, white, blue, and red, appeared on Xiao Qiang.
Fertile Physique (White): Makes it easier to conceive offspring.
Rodent Predator (Blue): Possesses a stronger bloodline suppression against rodents, making it easier to capture and kill them.
Soul Communication (Red): Enables soul-level communication with primate species.
After Qin Shilei selected the Soul Communication attribute, a voice suddenly appeared in his mind.
"Master, I want to eat cooked crocodile meat."
Qin Shilei tried to communicate with Xiao Qiang: "Okay, I'll make you a big pot later. Can you understand what I'm saying?"
Xiao Qiang nodded. "I always could, it's just that you're too stupid to understand my bird language."
"@#￥￥￥￥@#"
Qin Shilei said with a displeased face, "Only bird people can understand bird language, this is not me being stupid."
Xiao Qiang said aggrievedly, "I'm not a bird person, yet I can understand our bird language and your human language."
"Alright, stay here and guard our villa well. I'll go down and get you some crocodile meat."
Qin Shilei couldn't be bothered to argue with Xiao Qiang about the bird language issue.
...
For the next three days, Qin Shilei and An Qian led their legions to kill zombies in the gatehouse area. Other legions were also risking their lives to slaughter zombies within Nanzhuang City in an effort to retake it.
On the fourth day, when Qin Shilei and his group arrived at the gatehouse area again, they noticed some changes. The number of zombies on the streets seemed to have decreased. Suspicious, Qin Shilei rode on Xiao Qiang and flew forward to scout. After flying for two to three kilometers, he discovered that the streets below were densely packed with zombies. Looking further, he saw that the roads in the distance were also filled with zombies. Had the zombies from the office buildings and other structures all moved into the streets? Could this be a counterattack controlled by a zombie king?