Qin Shilei’s mind moved, and he directly infused a small amount of Yuan Qi into his sword.
A moving lightning bolt flickered on the Seven Star Sword.
Qin Shilei casually thrust it forward, finding it easier to penetrate the zombies' bodies.
Furthermore, the lightning on the sword inflicted a certain degree of additional damage to the zombies.
After testing his newly acquired skill, Qin Shilei returned to the armored vehicle and switched to using a rocket launcher to bombard the zombies below.
An Qian and the others, after finishing their food not long ago, also returned to Qin Shilei's side.
Looking at the surging horde of zombies, Zhang Xiaoli frowned and asked, "Brother Qin, these zombies are endless. Can we hold them back?"
They had been fighting continuously for over four hours, and the army's artillery had also been bombarding for over four hours.
However, the zombies outside the defense line seemed to be inexhaustible.
At a glance, there were only zombies and more zombies.
That dense, dark mass was truly despair-inducing.
"While the defense line hasn't collapsed yet, we should acquire more crystal cores. Only then can we increase our chances of survival."
Qin Shilei did not directly answer Zhang Xiaoli's question, only encouraging everyone to dig for more crystal cores.
Although he was unaware of the military's troop deployment, he could clearly sense that the roar of artillery fire had become sparser.
After four hours of intense combat, the military's ammunition might have become less abundant.
Once the suppression from artillery shells ceased, everyone would have to fight much harder to defend.
Moreover, zombies did not know fatigue and had no fear of death, while humans needed rest, food, and sleep.
All factors indicated that holding Ning'an City was a slim prospect.
"If we work together, there will always be hope," Zhang Qiang said, pointing at the non-military personnel appearing on both sides of their defense line. "More and more civilians have been participating in the defense during this time."
An Qian scoffed, "Participating in the defense, my foot. They're just here to grab more crystal cores."
Qin Shilei looked up at those people.
He saw that they rarely took the initiative to kill zombies, merely defending. Once the zombies in their vicinity were wiped out by the army's gunfire, they would immediately jump off the defense line and rush to that spot to crack skulls and retrieve crystal cores.
Just then, their group of five people jumped off the defense line again, running to a spot more than ten meters away.
Two of them bent down to dig for crystal cores, while the other three slaughtered the approaching zombies.
"Hurry, the zombies are getting more numerous, we can't hold on much longer," the leader urged his companions who were digging for crystal cores.
"Boss, let's retreat first. We'll come back another time," a man in a white shirt said, kicking a zombie in front of him before turning to shout.
In less than two minutes after going down, the group had to choose to retreat, having only collected thirty to forty crystal cores.
Just as they were preparing to run back within the defense line to absorb the crystal cores, a zombie that was crawling on its hands and feet, like an animal, quietly approached them.
"Ah."
Before they could even react, the crawling zombie suddenly accelerated, launching a surprise attack from the side on the man in the white shirt, knocking him down with a single strike.
After biting the first person to death, the crawling zombie turned and lunged at another person.
"Mutated zombie, everyone be careful!"
The leader shouted a warning.
However, as soon as he finished speaking, another person was also bitten to death by the crawling zombie.
"Run." This zombie was too ferocious; their only thought now was to run faster than others.
But the crawling zombie was faster. When they were still seven or eight meters from the defense line, two more were killed.
Qin Shilei had initially thought that those who dared to venture outside the defense line to collect crystal cores must have some skill, and he shouldn't interfere. Unexpectedly, four people were killed in succession in less than two seconds.
With a flicker of his mind, a short bow appeared in his hand. He nocked an arrow and drew the string in one fluid motion.
The arrow flew rapidly towards the crawling zombie.
Seeing the incoming arrow, the crawling zombie forcefully halted its forward momentum, twisted its body, and charged towards another person on the right.
What it didn't expect was that the arrow would curve and shoot towards its head again.
To evade the arrow, the crawling zombie changed direction once more.
But the arrow also turned again, its arrowhead consistently aimed at the zombie's head, and it was now less than three meters away.
"Gurgle."
The crawling zombie let out a shriek and raised its right hand, swatting the arrow to the ground.
"Huh."
A hint of surprise flickered across Qin Shilei's face.
This was the first time he had missed a shot since he started shooting arrows.
"Let's see how many arrows you can block."
Qin Shilei's right hand blurred into a phantom, and a barrage of arrows shot towards the crawling zombie at high speed.
Five arrows per second, three arrows per shot; Qin Shilei unleashed all the archery techniques he knew.
Every arrow targeted the vital spots of the crawling zombie's head.
"Roar!"
Under the threat of imminent death, the crawling zombie unleashed its ultimate speed.
It darted left and right, leaving afterimages within a five-meter radius, yet it couldn't escape the pursuit of the arrows.
"Puff puff puff!"
Although the crawling zombie managed to swat away over ten arrows at the last moment, three arrows still hit its eyes and cheeks.
Despite being hit by three arrows, the crawling zombie was still alive and turned to flee into the distance.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!"
Countless more arrows chased after the crawling zombie and embedded themselves in its head.
No matter how strong its vitality was, after being hit by so many arrows, it could only collapse powerlessly.
Qin Shilei took a step, his movement as swift as lightning, and arrived beside the crawling zombie's corpse.
With a casual gesture, he used "Shocking Thunder Thrust" to clear the surrounding ordinary zombies, then cracked open the crawling zombie's head, retrieved a blue crystal core, and picked up the nearby bronze treasure chest.
He returned to the defense line.
The two surviving individuals walked over to thank him. "Thank you for saving us."
Qin Shilei said calmly, "You're welcome. Do you still want to collect crystal cores?"
The leader shook his head. "Alas, we're going to find a hidden place to hide. We really don't dare to risk it again."
They had been here for two hours, hadn't collected many crystal cores, but had lost four brothers. He planned to become a shrinking turtle, gambling that the zombies wouldn't find him if they entered the city.
Qin Shilei had originally intended to hire them to help collect crystal cores, but seeing their resolve to find a hiding place, he said no more.
[Ding, System Update Complete.]
[1. Added National Chat Channel. 2. Skills, combat techniques, and other rewards will appear in treasure chests. 3. Zombie corpses will be refreshed after one day.]
Qin Shilei took the opportunity to open the chat channel and found it to be extremely lively.
"Zhong Ying, are you still alive?"
"Someone has actually advanced to the Black Iron realm. I wonder if they're from our country."
"I'm only Plastic Two-star, still a long way from the Black Iron realm."
"They must be a black-hearted capitalist who exploited their subordinates to advance so quickly to the Black Iron realm."
"Great God of the Black Iron realm, where are you? Come save us, our city is about to be destroyed by zombies."
"Don't be foolish. No matter how strong an individual is, they can't deal with locust-like hordes of zombies."
"I, Ye Litian, shall become the Lord of Blue Star!"
There were people searching for relatives, crying for help, and more commonly, lamenting that someone had already advanced to the Black Iron realm, hoping to latch onto them.