Chapter 29: The Crucible

To save fuel, Fang Heng pedaled his bicycle slowly back toward the prison.

Coincidentally, as he was leaving, he saw two players walking toward the camp from a distance.

Zhou Yi and Lu Yu also spotted Fang Heng at the same time.

Before Lu Yu could speak, Fang Heng had already turned off into another fork in the road.

The two looked at each other.

"Was that guy just Fang Heng? The pro?"

"Must be him."

Zhou Yi nodded and said, "A pity. I looked him up online, and it seems his reputation isn't great. I'm afraid bringing him into the company might cause trouble. Otherwise, even if I had to drop a few million, I'd recruit him..."

"What are you thinking? Even with a few million, he might not be willing to join you."

"What's wrong? Am I that unlikable? You're losing your bonus next month."

"The company still has bonuses? Why have I never received one?"

Zhou Yi and Lu Yu bickered back and forth, using the banter to relieve stress.

They had worked hard all day, pushing themselves to the limit to complete a reconnaissance mission.

During the process, Zhou Yi had even encountered a sudden zombie ambush.

If Lu Yu hadn't been quick-witted, Zhou Yi might have lost his life.

Zhou Yi rubbed his face and said, "Once this mission is complete, we can buy earth bombs. It's a bit late today; we'll go blow up the prison tomorrow."

"Once the outer barbed wire is blown, it'll take two or three days for the zombies inside to scatter. We can use that time to gather more supplies and reinforce the shelter."

Lu Yu nodded, turning serious.

"By the way, how is the recruitment for our company going?"

"I interviewed a few professional players, all Level 5. I've already signed contracts with them."

Zhou Yi was going all-in to build an empire in this server, not hesitating to invest massive amounts of capital.

"However, since the new server just opened, they have to wait another week before they can teleport in. It won't be that fast."

The two continued their conversation as they walked into the Doomsday Merchant camp.

What... what's going on?

The moment they stepped into the Doomsday Merchant camp, Zhou Yi and Lu Yu both fell silent.

They stopped in their tracks and exchanged a look.

The camp was filled with piles of messy wooden planks, scattered everywhere.

Several NPC laborers were busy transporting them.

Where did all these planks come from?!

When they came here this morning to collect tasks, the place was clearly empty.

Lu Yu approached the Doomsday Merchant to inquire about the situation.

"Wirtel, why are there so many planks in the camp?"

"A survivor brought them to me. That kid is quite impressive."

Wirtel was in a very good mood today. He answered with a smile while checking his ledger and counting supplies.

"With these planks, our camp's upgrade plan can be put on the schedule very soon."

Zhou Yi and Lu Yu were even more bewildered.

A player!!

So all these planks were brought by a player?!

Impossible!

It's only been a few days since the server opened!

Never mind players—what guild would have the capacity to collect this many planks in such a short time?

Only a behemoth like the Federal Government could possibly do that.

While Zhou Yi was still in shock, Lu Yu instinctively thought of something.

He swallowed hard and whispered to the Doomsday Merchant.

"Wirtel, that player you mentioned... could his name be Fang Heng?"

Wirtel put down his ledger and looked up at Lu Yu.

"Oh? You know him too?"

It really was Fang Heng!

That terrifying pro!

...

The sky gradually darkened.

During the day, Liao Bufan and the others had cleared the entire first floor of Building No. 3 and had even organized a relatively clean room for everyone to rest.

Old man Jimmy seemed to have something to do today and logged off early.

"Finally, I can stop living in constant fear."

Liao Bufan took a swig of beer, stretched, and stuffed another piece of roasted meat into his mouth.

The taste...

Was absolutely divine!

Liu Lin was sitting in a corner by the window.

She was tinkering with the two furnaces Fang Heng had just exchanged for today, adding firewood and iron scrap into them.

Furnaces could melt iron ore and iron scrap by burning wood to produce iron ingots.

Iron ingots were the foundation for crafting advanced materials in the zombie apocalypse game.

For example, the nails that were in short supply when building shelters.

At this moment, Liu Lin deeply felt the power of Fang Heng's talent skill.

It had only been a few days.

In the previous server, Server No. 7, she remembered that even the fastest guild took a full half-month just to complete basic iron ingot production.

And Fang Heng.

In less than a week, he was already preparing for mass production!

Thinking about it felt like a dream.

Originally, after learning they had been forcibly pulled into a new "server," Liu Lin had been very anxious.

But as things stood today, everything was going exceptionally smoothly.

As long as they didn't encounter hostile players, the prison could provide them with enough safety.

A few zombies scratching at the door all night wouldn't be able to break through the outermost layer of barbed wire.

The zombie apocalypse new server, which everyone spoke of with dread, seemed to have become exceptionally easy.

Liu Lin's gaze unconsciously drifted toward Fang Heng.

All these changes originated from him.

After eating a little, Fang Heng began browsing his game logs.

After nightfall, he had arranged for the zombies to go around the prison cutting down trees early on.

Only cutting, no transporting.

He found the zombies too slow at walking, especially when carrying weight.

To increase efficiency, Fang Heng had the zombies cut the trees directly, and he would have Liao Bufan help collect the logs tomorrow during the day.

Even if passing players found the logs tomorrow, how much could they actually take?

While Fang Heng was planning tomorrow's actions, Liao Bufan coughed to draw everyone's attention.

"By the way, Boss, now that we have nails and logs, we have enough resources for the shelter. Where do you plan to build it?"

The game provided hundreds of different shelter construction blueprints.

Players could use blueprints to build a shelter directly, modify them, or even scrap them and start over.

Each blueprint required different materials.

The larger the planned area of the shelter, the more materials it would consume.

Fang Heng already had a plan for Liao Bufan's question.

"In the basement."

In the game, digging three feet underground was the safest method.

Zombies couldn't dig.

Of course, if it reached the late game and the shelter's defensive capabilities were strong enough, he could slowly expand toward the surface.

Fang Heng's current architectural layout was to use the existing prison as a foundation for the shelter.

In fact, the outer buildings of the prison were already an extension of the shelter; they just hadn't been recognized by the game system yet.

But the most core and important part had to be built in the basement.

This was for safety.

"Uh, but there are... spider zombies there."

Liao Bufan shrank his neck.

He had heard Fang Heng mention it.

The basement was incredibly dangerous.

There were countless spider zombies there.

Ordinary players were no match for them.

Just hearing about the sheer number of spider zombies made Liao Bufan's spine go cold.

"I've already thought of that."

Once the flamethrower arrived tomorrow afternoon, he could try to make a move through the basement passages.

Fang Heng suddenly thought of the Police Notebook quest.

That hidden quest had just reached its second stage, which required dealing with high-difficulty spider zombie swarms.

The difficulty was quite high.

This meant the rewards must be excellent as well.

For instance, the first stage rewarded a handgun.

Not to mention the evolution crystals that dropped after killing spider zombies!

Thinking this, Fang Heng looked at Liao Bufan.

"The roasted meat tastes good, doesn't it?"

Liao Bufan nodded.

It was hard for him to deny that.

"Then come help tomorrow afternoon. We'll go to the basement together to deal with the zombies."

"No way? Boss, are you serious?"

(End of Chapter)