Number One Dungeon Supplier

When they emerged from the subway station, it took them a little orienting to understand that they were currently at a penthouse. The subway exit eventually disappears as if to indicate that they are not going back unless the time is up. 

Then again, the rules did indicate clearly that they were going to be respawned in the 'checkpoint' or hideout when they were killed. To some people who were smart in terms of gaming knowledge, they shamelessly asked whether this could be used to their advantage such as killing themselves so that they would return to the initial hideout.

Jin was quick with his reply and stated that yes, such a function could be abused but he did state that there was a penalty in terms of Zombie World Raid Points. As long as they were willing to take the penalty, they could die and return to the hideout. Of course, he did not make such a harsh penalty for dying or else, it would be somewhat unfair. 

The penalty was an incremental function. The first death would not incur any penalty but the subsequent death would. There was also a time limit that needed to be fulfilled to reduce the penalty back to zero. And as usual, there was an incremental function to the penalty as well. The first death will result in a 30 minute penalty, the second death would incur an hour penalty. With this in place, the penalty was meant to tell the rest not to be too reckless in their fights. 

And the only way to exit it fully was to shout a unique safe word which the Pandarens had to designate prior to the raid. It was a new safety feature to break out from the immersion and Jin was testing it to learn whether it was useful or not. What was the frequency and usage of such an emergency exit phrase and this would be a useful raid to test it out. 

But to the current group, it was not an issue as they were not planning to exit the place and make full use of the time they had been given. As Yinn and the rest were the first to make the penthouse the hideout, they purposely gave vague information that a ton of zombies were lurking in the building and they could clear it right here and now or skip everything to explore the area.

It was a freedom of choice kind of raid. This was because the objective of the Zombie World Raid Instance was to clear and establish perimeters that would allow humans to live peacefully. This was not possible with their current group size and the number of zombies that were in the area. 

Even if they could clear the area now, there was no guarantee that the zombies would not come back again. So the whole situation looked like it was a futile scenario. However, Jin had emphasised that there was indeed a definite number of zombies in that world. Whether the Pandarens could clear it or not was up to them. 

And that was what Xiong Da and the remaining Raid Team had to do. They decided that since this was their first raid, they would clear as many zombies as they could to make sure that when subsequent teams arrived to use the same hideout after Xiong Da and others left, they would have an easier time.

Was it supposed to work as a noble sacrifice? Not exactly. If what the Grey Bear Squad had said was true, it meant that there was a whole boatload of points waiting for them to be taken. Why would they want to miss such an opportunity when presented to them? 

That was exactly the whole point of being the first raid team to enter into this Zombie World Raid Instance. And so they had to monopolise this opportunity to their fullest abilities. 

"The coast is clear to exit," Diaz said as she scanned the surroundings. Compared to the time when they had exited the Zombie World with a bunch full of zombies attempting to tear them from limb to limb, it was indeed a different sight to behold. The corridors were rather empty with a few zombies lying at the corners and so the Pandawans took this opportunity to kill them as stealthfully as possible. 

"So, the stairs or the lift?" Yue Han asked and everyone pointed at the obvious: the Stairs. No one wanted to be stuck in a lift and cause a perfect opportunity for the zombies to notice the sound of the lift moving and potentially overwhelm the lift area. And that was not the worst case scenario as the zombies caused the lift to overload and break the lift's weight. 

A moment's worth of respite will have long term repercussions to handle. If the building was truly cleared, the lifts could be used in the future. But then even if Yue Han wanted to use the lift, was there any power to it? That was something that they did not consider until they tried it out themselves. Even so, the raid team did not try it out as the majority group had decided to move via the stairs instead.

But the moment they opened the stairs, they noticed that there were already a bunch of zombies lying in wait. It seemed as if they had been alerted by the noises the cultivators had made when they killed the zombies even though they had been rather careful with the killing.

Yet, the zombies were perceptive to the sounds mainly due to the fact that it had always been quiet all this while until the arrival of the raiding team. The sudden emergence of their footsteps echoed the change in environment which led the zombies to run with their instincts.

Still, the fights were quick despite the zombies knowing that their target would be appearing from the corridor. Bu Dong slammed himself at the zombies through the stairs while Diaz and Yinn annihilated the ones that were coming up with a few shots. This cleared the way quickly for the group to move to the next lower floor.

At that point, they rushed in to make sure that no zombies blocked the door so that their group could fan out. "Haha. I am sorry to underestimate the number of zombies in this building." Yue Han said as the groups of zombies stared straight at them through the corridor.

"We will take care of this," Diaz said as she revealed a gatling gun from her storage ring and immediately dispatched the zombies with a string of bullets. their bodies broke into pieces with the strength of the bullets ripping through their weakened flesh but the numbers were disrupting how things would go. 

Bu Dong did not think that gatling gun could be that deadly until he realised that there was some form of chi being imbued into the weapon as well, allowing the bullets to be as deadly as they were seeing. "Wow, they are cultivators too? Not many cultivators would go with the way of the gun." Bu Dong sent a telepathy message to Xiong Da.

"Maybe, they are just using their chi to power up the guns. Nothing special." Xiong Da replied back telepathically.

"Did you not sense it? Their chi presence was basically zero. Even someone as strong as Boss Jin, you could feel his pressure and strength no matter how he tried to hide it if you forced your own senses. But these mercenaries... Their chi was almost invisible. I thought being able to sense Boss Jin's chi was already an achievement, but their chi presence... it's another level of its own."

"Now that you mentioned it, the amount of chi strength they portrayed via their chi is not proportional to the power output that was being displayed. In addition, the sounds were also muffled..." Xiong Da added until they realised something odd.

The gatling gun that Diaz was using was not pouring out empty shells at all. With a focused zoom, Xiong Da could finally see that the bullets used were different from the common bullets he had seen before. Sure, he was not an expert when it came to guns but he believed that he saw enough variation of bullets to understand how certain guns worked.

"It looks like it's a modified gun, not the usual one we were used to." Xiong Da stated as he used the bullets as a reference. Bu Dong had to focus his chi on his eyes to ensure that they could see what Xiong Da was talking about.

"Man, you are right. It's the weapons that made a difference," Bu Dong said telepathically and decided to ask Yinn bluntly about it. 

"Those weapons? They are not for sale at all. Most that we carried are custom made by Jin's craftsmen."

"Are you kidding, Jin sell these kind of weapons? How did I not know that at all." Bu Dong replied and wondered if these were the norm for those operators who were special to Jin. But for now, the killing continued from room to room, floor to floor.