I Live on the Land in Global Games

Chapter 21 - 21 20 Flames21: Chapter 20: Flames 21: Chapter 20: Flames Old Zhu and his two colleagues, as usual, lured the zombies to the entrance of the driving school building.

The trio, in perfect tacit understanding, swiftly dragged the clutter blocking the stairwell in an attempt to seal the passage.

Crouching, they failed to notice the pair of slender yet strong hands above them, firmly holding a plastic basin filled with vegetable oil.

With a forceful push, the hands tilted the basin, spilling the liquid all over the people in the stairway.

“What is this?”

“Where did this fire come from?”

“Damn, it’s oil!”

“Ah, it hurts so much!”

They could no longer focus on the still unsealed stairwell entrance; like ants thrown into a hot pot, they jumped and rolled around frantically.

The more chaotic it became, the less effective their attempts were.

The objects initially blocking the stairway, mostly wooden tables and chairs gathered from various places, had absorbed quite a bit of oil and ignited upon contact with fire.

As a result, one person trying to extinguish the flames on himself carelessly stepped into thin air, tumbling down the steps and inadvertently opening the not yet fully sealed passage, clearing a “grand avenue” for the approaching zombies.

Zombies moved stiffly, having a much harder time climbing steps than humans; but motivated by the scent of blood ahead, they strugglingly crawled closer.

Watching the one who initially fell descend into a pile of zombies, while the other two were also grabbed by the ankles and dragged down, Mu Ying and the others, holding the oil basin, went down to face the zombies directly and forcefully splashed it out.

The painfully screaming victims barely needed any explanation, but the intense pain made them unable to speak.

Mu Ying unleashed the Fire Burning Skill, and the exploding flames rapidly spread through the zombie crowd.

[You have killed a zombie, gained Slaughter Experience x1, copper coin x3]

[You have killed the player Zhu Anping, gained Slaughter Experience x1, copper coin x45]

[You have killed the player Li Jun, gained Slaughter Experience x1, copper coin x45]

[You have killed the player Zhao Zhongxing, gained Slaughter Experience x1, copper coin x45]

...

A series of notifications appeared as Mu Ying waited for the fire to die down and checked the adventure record.

Killing a person was just like killing a zombie; both provided Experience and copper coins, with the Experience being about the same, but the copper coins were significantly more.

Mu Ying figured that this drop must be all the copper coins the players had; it seemed they had also killed quite a few zombies, and having not gone to the camp to spend the money, it all ended up as Mu Ying’s gain.

As the fire subsided, a few zombies from the back row, less affected by the fire, began climbing over the bodies of their peers towards Mu Ying and her group.

“Wait until more zombies climb up, and I will bind them, then you start attacking,” Mu Ying said to Zheng Jing and Nie Ying.

The two nodded knowingly, gripping their weapons tighter; they already knew that killing zombies could grant them “superpowers.”

Having endured humiliation, they had quickly grown stronger; if they wanted to protect themselves in the apocalypse, they needed to activate their “superpowers.”

With no plants or soil in the stairwell, Mu Ying’s entanglement technique was somewhat weakened, but fortunately, there were only three zombies left, and the staircase hindered their movement, so she successfully controlled them.

“Quick!”

No sooner had Mu Ying spoken than Nie Ying and Zheng Jing charged forward, each taking one, while Mu Ying herself smashed the last one dead with a hoe.

“Don’t rush to look at the Player Manual just yet—after zombies die, they drop copper coins.

The ones you two killed will have their drops belong to you.”

With that, Mu Ying went down to search for the dropped copper coins.

She already knew from reading the adventure record that this haul was significant—exactly 167 coins.

Adding the 40 copper coins obtained on the way, it made exactly 2 silver coins and 7 copper coins.

The coin purse shrunk slightly, but the amount of money had increased.

The third floor’s resting room was like a nightmare for Nie Ying and her companion, so they chose the second floor’s cafeteria as their resting place for the night.

Just like she had done with Dong Xiaogang before, after briefly pointing out some precautions, Mu Ying let them choose on their own.

Saving people was not because she was exceptionally kind; it was just for her own enjoyment and she had the spare capabilities, so it wasn’t much of a bother.

It was a win-win situation, with experience and copper coins to gain—why not do it?

She didn’t seek any repayment from others, so after saving people, she didn’t extend any unnecessary kindness.

Thus, to Nie Ying and Zheng Jing, Mu Ying seemed like a kindly and intelligent young woman when she had saved them, but she became much quieter after the zombies were killed.

After a few brief reminders, she hardly spoke, creating a significant distance between them.

Actually, Mu Ying had always been like this—she saved people for her own happiness and naturally did so in her preferred manner.

She had little curiosity about other people’s affairs and didn’t want to talk much about her own; what conversation could there be among strangers with no understanding of each other?

Fortunately, Nie Ying and Zheng Jing were adults.

They felt that Mu Ying was somewhat reclusive, but out of gratitude, they saw her through a favorable lens, which didn’t make them feel uncomfortable.

After reading through the attributes explanations, without hesitation, they discussed their attributes with her, seeking her advice.

Nie Ying’s superior attributes were agility and constitution—12 for agility, 11 for constitution.

Zheng Jing’s superior attribute was perception, with 12 points.

Mu Ying roughly explained the capabilities of each profession to them, although she didn’t know much herself.

Eventually, Nie Ying chose the Wanderer based on her superior attributes, while Zheng Jing, influenced by Mu Ying, chose between the Priest and the Druid and picked the Druid.

Mu Ying had the deepest understanding of Druids, so she explained this profession in the most detail.

She still only knew that Priests had a level 0 Healing Magic spell, which she’d learned from Liu Luoluo, and since Liu Luoluo hadn’t learned more, Mu Ying naturally didn’t know what it was exactly like.

There was a huge distance between knowledge and ability; having chosen their professions, the two immersed themselves in the sea of knowledge.

Mu Ying was the same; she was now learning the Cleaning Technique.

Previously, at the camp, she could boil water to clean herself, but now that she was traveling, that wasn’t feasible, making this level 0 Magic spell quite useful.

She had already mastered several level 1 spells, so learning a level 0 Magic spell came naturally to her, and even the speed was much faster.

Zheng Jing first learned the Light Brightness Skill, but before she could produce even a tiny bit of light, Mu Ying was already able to cast the Cleaning Technique reliably.

She even used the two as practice subjects, helping them clean the dust and dirt off their bodies, which made them much more comfortable.

“Ah, I’m starting to doubt my abilities—why is there no reaction at all?”

Zheng Jing said dejectedly.

While Nie Ying had begun running around the room getting used to her abilities, Zheng Jing hadn’t seen any changes in herself.

“I also took a long time with my first spell; take it slow.

Moving from zero to one is always the hardest,” Mu Ying comforted her, “Besides, there are fewer plants in town, and the natural power is much thinner than in the forest, which might also be affecting your communication with natural power.

Why don’t you try Summoning an Animal Companion first?

Learning Skills might be a bit easier.”

Zheng Jing nodded.

Who wouldn’t want to try out magical power?

Since she couldn’t learn the spell right away, summoning an animal companion also sounded great.

Yuan Gungun had already been petted by the two girls—who doesn’t love a national treasure?

Zheng Jing too wanted a fuzzy little companion, but she didn’t want a helpless cub; she lacked the confidence to even protect herself, let alone an animal companion.

She hoped her animal companion would have sufficient combat capability to protect both herself and her.

The creature that appeared in the Summoning Array was much more imposing than Yuan Gungun—a fully grown grey wolf.