"How long will this take to learn?"
"Let's see, I'm not sure, but I studied it intermittently for several months. However, I only learned the basic operations, much like driving a car. Some people just drive, and that's my current level."
"That sounds difficult. Maybe I should..." Qin Ye immediately began to back out. If it took half a year to learn, he feared something dangerous might happen to the town, and he wouldn't be able to stay by Li Qiang's side. Although he couldn't make much of a difference against zombies, he still felt a sense of responsibility.
"What? You think it's too difficult already and want to retreat?"
"No, it's just that the time seems a bit long," Qin Ye said truthfully.
"I can understand that. Brother Lu, you don't know, but if it weren't for Qin Ye in this town, so many of us wouldn't have survived."
"Oh? I was curious about that. I saw you killing zombies outside the city earlier, and you were all going for the zombie crystals. Don't you lack survival supplies?"
"No, we do lack them, but our main focus is on killing zombies. As long as we have enough food, our first priority is to go out and kill small groups of zombies."
Then, Li Qiang explained the situation in the town to Lu Heng in detail.
It turned out that when the apocalypse first arrived, the town, like other areas, had people hiding for a while. They then discovered that no troops were coming to their rescue.
After all, the military had limited personnel, and with such zombie riots erupting globally, many areas couldn't be fully managed.
Therefore, the military didn't send anyone to rescue these small towns, and they had to organize themselves into many small teams to fight the zombies.
As living supplies dwindled, their initial focus shifted to finding food and clean water.
However, the zombie virus was too peculiar. As long as humans were scratched by a zombie and infected, they would quickly turn into zombies.
Those without the ability to resist almost all fell, becoming part of the zombie horde.
Qin Ye's parents were also scratched by zombies during an outing to find food. Qin Ye was forcibly kept at home by his mother and did not accompany them on their food-finding trip.
After waiting at home for a day, Qin Ye realized that his parents might never return. As a high school student, he hated himself at the time.
Why hadn't he gone with his parents to find supplies? He didn't even know where his parents had met their end.
After a few more days at home, finally unable to bear the hunger, he walked out of his house with a cleaver left by his father.
His only thought was to survive, to live well in the apocalypse for his parents.
But it wasn't that easy. A high school student, a flower in a greenhouse, well protected by his parents, he was terrified when he saw a zombie up close.
Wielding the cleaver, he hacked wildly.
A brief moment of frenzy allowed him to kill a few zombies.
Then he hid in a stairwell, the cleaver clutched tightly in his hand, and the soreness in his arms reminding him that this was the apocalypse, a world overrun by zombies.
He slept through the night, and when dawn broke the next day, he heard footsteps outside the stairwell.
The door to the stairwell was also pulled open from the outside. Qin Ye, hiding inside, looked at the approaching figure with terror.
But fortunately, the figure was not a zombie, but a human – Li Qiang.
After that, he stayed by Li Qiang's side. Li Qiang took him to kill zombies and find food everywhere.
Their team also gradually expanded.
Only after he could calmly face zombies did Qin Ye remember the novels he had read.
There were also apocalypse novels, and many zombie novels mentioned that there were things inside zombies that could help humans upgrade.
He shared this information with Li Qiang. Li Qiang and the others didn't believe him at first, but as they split open the zombies' heads, they did find crystals inside.
Qin Ye was the first person to consume a crystal. Under the disbelieving gazes of everyone, he washed the first crystal clean and put it into his mouth.
Discovering that the crystal was not infected, and he did not turn into a zombie after consuming it, he then boldly began to consume more crystals.
But when he upgraded to Tier 1 and became an ability user, a natural prompt within his body made him realize that what the novels said was true.
He excitedly showed his discovery to Li Qiang and the others. It was only when they saw the faint green light that suddenly appeared in Qin Ye's hand that they truly accepted Qin Ye's words.
As a qualified novel fan, Qin Ye offered many suggestions to Li Qiang.
He proposed that zombies might evolve, so they also needed to hurry up and upgrade. The only way to upgrade was to obtain more crystals from the zombies' bodies.
In subsequent activities, Li Qiang's team made obtaining crystals their primary objective. After securing enough food and water for a period, they began to frantically collect crystals.
They gradually became the strongest team in the town.
Later, with Qin Ye providing a basis from the storylines described in many apocalypse novels, they began to build a shelter.
Using this as a foundation, they gradually merged various shelters of all sizes within the town and took in the survivors.
Under the leadership of Li Qiang and Qin Ye, the town gradually overcame the threat of zombies, and they finally carved out a safe area.
This was the place where they were currently living.
"Yes, you have done very well. Many survivors in other places are not as fortunate as you are in the apocalypse."
"Other places are not as good as ours? I thought everyone had developed similarly," Qin Ye said with some surprise, as apocalypse novels were quite popular in the past.
"Heh, I guess your base is thanks to you, a novel fan. Otherwise, everyone would be searching for food and neglecting the matter of upgrading, letting the zombies get the upper hand, and eventually being devoured by them."
"But we've worked so hard, and the highest level everyone has reached is stuck at Tier 6. The zombie levels are still too low; we've absorbed quite a few crystals, but they're not very useful."
"Indeed, but to have reached this point, with everyone's level being around Tier 5 or 6, is already very difficult to achieve."
"Heh heh..." Qin Ye chuckled foolishly.
"I'll help you reinforce the outer city walls and also help raise the levels of your core personnel to prevent high-level zombies from launching surprise attacks on you."
"There are high-level zombies too? Where?" Qin Ye was a bit excited. They hadn't found any zombies above Tier 4 around the town.
"I'm not sure, but high-level zombies have appeared in some regions."
"How high in level?"
"The highest is estimated to be around Tier 10. Once zombies reach Tier 5, they will consciously kill their own kind, upgrading by absorbing their fellow zombies' crystals."