Half an hour later, Qin Shilei and the others arrived at the north side of Ning’an City again.
The road here was also blocked by military personnel who had set up defensive lines.
The group climbed a tall building and looked into the distance. It was still a dense mass, a seemingly endless horde of zombies constantly approaching.
Further away, there was a river, and a bridge across it led to the distance.
Qin Shilei suggested, "Let's go to the west first and kill zombies to accumulate some crystal cores and make ourselves stronger."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Qin Shilei took out bulletproof vests and padded armor, letting everyone choose suitable gear to wear.
As soon as Zhang Xiaoli got the combat skirt, she rushed into the room impatiently to change.
When she reappeared before everyone, they were all stunned by her beauty.
Clad in a vibrant green combat skirt, Zhang Xiaoli looked like a forest sprite, agile and elegant.
The form-fitting skirt perfectly showcased her voluptuous figure.
Aside from the helmet and gloves, over eighty-five percent of her body was protected.
Qin Shilei even tested it; with twenty percent of his strength, his saber left only a shallow scratch on the combat skirt.
Zhang Qiang and An Qian’s mother put on bulletproof vests, while An Qian and Xie Haimei each donned a padded armor.
In fact, these padded armors were likely made by armor enthusiasts. Although their defensive capabilities were not as good as bulletproof vests, they were more aesthetically pleasing than ancient padded armor.
An Qian and Xie Haimei exuded a heroic aura after putting them on.
With their equipment in place, the group returned to the west side of Ning’an City.
"Boom boom boom." "Taka taka taka."
The sounds of cannons and firearms were incessant.
The defensive line here was the first to be constructed and was already largely established.
Relying on various buildings and abandoned vehicles, a simple defensive line had been built at the city's edge.
Soldiers stood on top of buildings or truck roofs, using machine guns to sweep the dense zombie hordes or bombarding them with artillery.
For any zombies that managed to breach the defensive line, rifles were used for precise shots.
"Why have you come back here again?" The officer they had met earlier recognized Qin Shilei's group and asked, looking up.
"Greetings, Officer. We request to help defend Ning’an City," Qin Shilei replied.
A non-commissioned officer next to him glanced at Qin Shilei with disdain and said, "I think you're here to take advantage. We've killed many zombies. If you have the guts, go outside the defensive line and pick them up."
Qin Shilei said calmly, "Officer, you can assign us a section of the defensive line, and we guarantee it won't fall. As for the crystal cores, of course, we'll take them, but we certainly won't take advantage of you or scavenge your spoils of war."
"Fine. Then you'll be responsible for the fifty-meter defensive line from the upper left road to the three buildings above." The officer thought for a moment and quickly assigned Qin Shilei's group a position.
The road was blocked by several horizontally placed earth-moving trucks, and the windows of the buildings were reinforced and sealed. The passages between the buildings were also blocked by furniture and miscellaneous items.
However, some of the smarter zombies managed to climb over the truck roofs or crawl under the vehicles.
According to the officer's instructions, Qin Shilei's group was supposed to eliminate these zombies that had breached the defense line.
Qin Shilei's group jumped onto the carriage of an earth-moving truck and looked out.
The tightly packed zombies were intimidating at first glance.
On the ground, both near and far, were the corpses of zombies, killed by artillery or gunfire. However, the never-ending wave of zombies left the military personnel with few opportunities to venture outside the defensive line to collect their spoils.
The non-commissioned officer just now had mocked Qin Shilei, assuming they were only there for the zombies' crystal cores and were afraid to go out and retrieve them.
"Let those soldiers see how we collect crystal cores," Qin Shilei said with a smile.
An Qian, holding a rocket launcher, fired a rocket every two seconds, killing several to twenty to thirty zombies.
Qin Shilei, wielding a short bow, shot three arrows per second, killing three zombies.
Xie Haimei, holding a compound bow, shot one arrow per second, injuring or killing one zombie.
Soon, the zombies in their section were cleared, and those approaching from a distance were blown to pieces by rocket launchers before they could even reach the defense line.
Zhang Qiang and Zhang Xiaoli jumped off the earth-moving truck and began the task of extracting crystal cores.
"Ah, I almost forgot I have a pet tree."
Zhang Xiaoli patted her forehead, suddenly remembering she could release her pet to help kill zombies.
She went to a distant green belt, waved her hand, and the willow tree was released, quickly rooting itself in the soil.
With a remaining branch and dozens of willow twigs, the willow tree, like an octopus, began to entangle the surrounding zombies.
Once entangled, the willow branches would sprout countless sharp thorns that pierced the zombies' bodies.
The nutrients from the zombies and the crystal cores from their heads were absorbed by the willow branches.
Fueled by ample nutrients, the willow tree began to sprout countless young shoots and rapidly grow fine willow branches, which then gradually grew larger, developing into a trunk.
"You're doing great, my little Willow. Keep it up! I hope to see you grow into a Willow God one day."
Zhang Xiaoli cheered on her pet before continuing to dig for crystal cores.
Xie Haimei watched Qin Shilei shoot arrows for a while before walking up to him and saying, "Brother Qin, I'm absolutely impressed by your shooting accuracy, but I have some questions about your technique."
Qin Shilei smiled and said, "Do you think my shooting posture is not standard? This is my first time holding a bow and arrow since the apocalypse. Can you teach me?"
"To achieve perfect accuracy in such a short time and without any guidance, Brother Qin, you are truly a born archery god."
Xie Haimei exclaimed with admiration.
After speaking, she wholeheartedly began to impart her archery skills to Qin Shilei.
With his powerful physique supporting him, and without needing to worry about accuracy, Qin Shilei's learning of these archery techniques was immediate and effective.
Before long, his shooting speed increased from a maximum of three arrows per second to five arrows per second.
He also learned the technique of shooting three arrows simultaneously with one bow.
Instantly, his zombie-killing speed at least doubled.
The speed at which Zhang Qiang and Zhang Xiaoli were digging for crystal cores could not keep up with the rate at which Qin Shilei and the others were killing zombies.
Xie Haimei thought for a moment, put away her compound bow, and jumped out to help with the crystal core extraction.
An Qian was the main force in bombarding the zombies, while Qin Shilei mainly targeted any stray zombies to prevent them from interfering with Zhang Qiang and the others digging for crystal cores.
Watching the crystal cores pour into Qin Shilei's squad, the soldiers on either side looked on with envy.
"Officer, we really want crystal cores to strengthen ourselves."
"As long as we kill all the zombies in front of us, you'll have so many crystal cores you could bury yourself!"
"Officer, can you say something reliable?"
"Or you can go down and dig for crystal cores now, as long as the zombies don't bite you."
"Then I won't say another word."
The non-commissioned officer who had previously mocked Qin Shilei felt his cheeks burn as he watched Qin Shilei's group efficiently acquire crystal cores. He turned and walked away from Qin Shilei's area.
An hour later.
Zhang Xiaoli and the others returned to the earth-moving truck with seven to eight thousand crystal cores.
"An Qian, give me the rocket launcher. You and the others absorb the crystal cores, and don't forget your mother's share."
Qin Shilei took the rocket launcher and began bombarding below.
An Qian and the others left three to four thousand crystal cores for Qin Shilei and then returned to a bus behind the defensive line to absorb them.
The reason for letting An Qian's mother absorb crystal cores was not to have her fight on the battlefield, but simply to improve her physical condition so she could run faster if an escape became necessary.
More than an hour later.
An Qian and the others had all advanced to seven or eight stars and returned to the earth-moving truck, taking over the rocket launcher to maintain the defense.
Without Qin Shilei's firepower support, their speed of digging for crystal cores slowed considerably, and they had to constantly be wary of encroaching zombies.
Meanwhile, Qin Shilei returned to the bus to attempt to break through to the Black Iron realm.