The wind had stopped.
Rain was pattering down.
The deep corridor of the tube building seemed to echo with ghostly wails, wave after wave, each cry higher than the last, filled with mournful resentment.
After switching the power supply, the voltage began to fluctuate somewhat, causing the light bulbs to flicker faintly, alternating between bright and dim.
Cheng Ye sat upright on his small bed, but at this moment he had no mind to pay attention to these sounds or changes.
The panel opened.
[Collector: Cheng Ye]
[Current Rank: lv.1 Trainee (7.1/100)]
[Life Level: 0]
[Skills: Mobile Shooting, Beast Instinct, Iron Body (Talent)][Temporarily Locked.]
[Evaluation: You are only one step away from the minimum standard of a Civilization Collector. Deep development of your life level will help you resist parasitic contamination from native organisms]
"Life level can resist parasitic contamination."
His gaze lingered on these words for a long time. Cheng Ye exhaled softly and closed the panel.
Within his sight, four weapons, two long and two short, were now placed on the bed, while the floor was piled with opened cardboard boxes.
The short ones were a Buffalo combat pistol and an Inspector defense pistol.
Both used 9mm ammunition, and he had already stored 40 boxes in advance, 24 rounds per box.
The long ones were enhanced versions created by Happiness City, modeled after the modern AA-12 automatic shotgun.
[Thunder-1 Automatic Shotgun]
It fired 12-gauge shotgun shells and could be fitted with micro-grenade launchers.
With a firing rate of up to 370 rounds per minute, due to its extremely fierce firepower, it required E-level clearance to purchase, with a price as high as 120 contribution points.
If ordinary residents wanted to buy its ammunition, due to its truly terrifying lethality, they would also need contribution points to purchase it.
But inspectors were different, they could buy it with Happiness Coins. He had purchased 1,500 Happiness Coins worth of ammunition at once.
This included 25 boxes of buckshot, 12 rounds per box, designed to destroy targets with area-effect strikes.
2 boxes of high-explosive rounds, 4 rounds per box, with fuses installed in the warheads. The safety would disengage 3 meters after leaving the barrel, with an effective range of 200 meters, capable of penetrating 8mm cold-rolled steel plates before exploding, with a blast wave kill radius of 2 meters.
Never mind Stand-In Starfish fusion bodies, even Corrupt Vine fusion bodies would have to avoid its edge.
Placed beside the Thunder-1 was a bullpup assault rifle modeled after the AUG-A3.
[Ranger-1 Assault Rifle]
Due to its modular design, it could change barrels and other accessories at any time, making it extremely adaptable. It was one of the excellent individual equipment pieces in Happiness City, priced at 45 contribution points.
Theoretical firing rate of 700 rounds, using 5.56 ammunition. He had also stockpiled 20 boxes of bullets, 50 rounds per box.
The two weapons alone cost a total of 165 points.
The bullet expenses reached 2,700 Happiness Coins.
Fortunately, the heavy rain in recent days had suppressed convoy traffic in and out. After the weather cleared, convoys entering and leaving Zone A came in an endless stream, generating nearly 50 points of terrifying income daily.
In addition, when Scopey had opened the warehouse to release people earlier, a total of four infected bodies had been discovered during inspections.
According to regulations, this income should be credited to the currently duty inspector.
However, Cheng Ye had not kept it all for himself, only taking 80%, which still netted him 52 points.
Adding everything up, in three days' time, he had earned a net profit of 157 points.
Following his usual pattern, he had shamelessly taken on another debt, finally managing to optimize his weapon configuration to the extreme.
"In terms of pure equipment, I'm not weaker than anyone!"
"As for courage, even less so!"
Cheng Ye took a long breath, countless emotions intertwining in his chest.
He couldn't quite describe what they were, perhaps anxiety, maybe excitement, or possibly agitation.
From that ordinary person who had been so scared his hands shook when firing a gun for the first time, to the inspector whose heart now surged with passion at the sight of firearms.
He had completely forgotten why he had been afraid back then.
As he consumed more bullets, something deep in his genes seemed to be completely awakened, making his heart race whenever he saw a gun, wishing he could pull the trigger and unleash a barrage.
Could this be something inherited in the bones of Eastern people?
Cheng Ye squeezed out a slight smile and turned to look beside the bed.
The protective suit custom-made by Great Wall Rapids Equipment Store was composed of flexible alloy armor plates for different body parts.
With just a light spray of the included special aerosol, the armor plates would tightly conform to the body, never falling off no matter what violent movements were made.
To remove it, another matching spray bottle had to be used.
While fusion bodies could withstand kinetic energy below 400j, his battle armor was no slouch either. Each section could withstand 240j of kinetic impact 16 times.
Although it wouldn't hold up against high-powered guns, at least stray bullets from ordinary small pistols would find it very difficult to harm him in the slightest.
It could be said that except for his head, he now had comprehensive protection with no blind spots.
"As for the head..."
Cheng Ye had also acquired suitable equipment, a protective helmet similar to a motorcycle helmet.
But after trying it on, he felt somewhat hesitant.
The helmet would severely limit his field of vision, especially peripheral vision on both sides, making it very difficult to watch all directions.
Moreover, after putting on the helmet, the mobile shooting technique he had obtained from Master Tian would also see a noticeable decline in effectiveness.
"Let's see how things go first. If they're easy to kill and pose little threat, I won't wear it."
"But if there's danger, I must put it on!"
Cheng Ye calculated in his mind, but his hands didn't stop moving.
He reached over to grab the Cyclone Spike beside the bed. Orange-red light glowed faintly, flashing briefly in his pupils.
If dealing with large plant infected bodies, such as Corrupt Vines, the Cyclone Spike's effectiveness would be minimal.
But from the beginning, his purpose in choosing this weapon had been very simple.
To kill people.
Just one strike would be enough to make the opponent lose combat capability.
When dealing with humanoid infected bodies, this Cyclone Spike remained useful. Whether puncturing starfish tumors or causing fatal wounds, it was much safer than hacking and slashing with a blade.
"Later, when I'm stronger, I can switch to a more powerful cold weapon."
Through threaded rotational connection, the Cyclone Spike had been joined with the spear shaft forged from black stone, becoming a triangular spear about 1.45m long.
The spear shaft conveyed a warm, smooth sensation, but when gripped firmly in his palm, it provided just the right amount of friction, bringing immense peace of mind.
Ding.
The defense communicator suddenly rang. Cheng Ye immediately grabbed it to look.
Time: 20:00 sharp.
As expected, the second wave of message restrictions for some residents had finally been lifted!
"Three and a half hours left."
Cheng Ye murmured as he stood up, moving sideways to the window.
The street outside still maintained its surface calm, with no signs of chaos erupting yet.
Even when occasional gunshots rang out, they stopped abruptly and were quickly drowned out by the sound of rain.
"No chaos, this is the best possible situation."
Crazy thoughts surged in his heart.
Although Ding Yishan had already explicitly forbidden inspectors from Zones A, B, and C to go out through the defense communicator, and the inner city's broadcasting station had also sent a second message strictly prohibiting personnel from wandering between the three zones to prevent infection spread.
But whether it was Liu Bi's instructions, or the experience he had "obtained" from Lee Matteo and Miao Yang.
All three had clearly told him that if there was danger nearby, such as infected bodies in the tube building, proactively attacking to quickly clear them was the best choice. Hiding at home would only allow the infected bodies to spread further, ultimately brewing into a small-scale infection tide.
Liu Bi and Miao Yang might be hot-heads, but even Lee Matteo, that slacker, had said so, so there must be truth to it.
But the reason it was called crazy was that at this moment, what he was thinking wasn't about proactively attacking within the tube building.
But rather, "Go to Tianyuan Mall!"
As the place most likely to erupt into an infection tide in Zone B-7, if he could scout the threats in advance, it would be of great assistance to his actions after the infection tide broke out.
In his plan, if the buffer zone fell into chaos after the second wave of message lifting, he would immediately abandon this idea.
But now, the streets remained calm.
So before the third wave of complete message lifting, when everyone returned to their buildings.
Right now, with sparse foot traffic on the streets, the infection probability was actually at its lowest. This was the optimal window of opportunity for action.
"Let's go!"
Cheng Ye turned back to the bed and began putting on his battle armor.
Special spray adhered evenly to the inner lining of the armor plates. With just a light press against the skin, the plates stuck like magnets, their flexible material perfectly conforming to every joint.
When the last armor plate was fastened, the cold metallic touch immediately brought a heavy sense of security.
On the back, the battle armor came with two clips for mounting long guns.
He placed the weapons up and pulled, and the two long guns were firmly secured in an "X" shape.
The two short guns were smoothly tucked into waist holsters, then he took out a custom black hood and wide raincoat.
Under the hood, only a pair of eyes remained visible.
Looking at the reflection in the glass, although it appeared bulky, it had completely shed any sense of normal humanity, adding several degrees of lurking behemoth power.
If walking through the rainy night, it would truly have the feel of a rainy night killer.
Opening the door, he happened to run into the middle-aged man who had brought him water that day. Discovering a black shadow looming in front of him.
The middle-aged man was startled. Looking up, he felt his breathing stop for two beats.
"You, you're going out?"
"Mm."
Cheng Ye nodded with a hoarse voice. As he walked past, his gaze glanced at the middle-aged man's trembling hands.
The other party had already gripped the most common defense pistol in the buffer zone, clearly startled.
However, just as the two were about to make contact, the middle-aged man steeled himself and reminded, "It's not very safe outside now... the message, did you receive it?"
Cheng Ye was stunned for a moment, said nothing, and as he walked past, reached out to pat the middle-aged man's shoulder.
"Don't go out tonight. You're good at enduring hardship, but this kind of thing... leave it to the young people."