Chapter 3: 7 Days to Die
"System, assign points!" Wu Shou took a deep breath.
Without pausing, he directly opened the 'Strength' attribute tree.
With 2 points, he invested in the most fundamental attribute under the tree—Strength. With the remaining 1 point, he chose the combat skill—Skull Crusher.
[Attribute: Strength]
[(Weakling) Level 1/10, slight increase to Strength and headshot chance.]
[(Scrawny) Level 2/10, slight increase to Strength and headshot chance.]
(Image Here)
[Skull Crusher Level 1: Bruiser (Specialize in using heavy weapons like Sledgehammers to destroy enemies and objects.)]
(Image Here)
"Hah—" Wu Shou let out a long, slow breath.
The moment he finished assigning the points, he felt a surge of power course through him from the inside out. A fire ignited in his heart, and the days ahead seemed to be filled with hope and light.
"Good. Let's do this!" A fire burned in Wu Shou's eyes. "To fight my way out of a mountain of corpses on the very first day of my new life... this deal is worth it!"
'Swoosh!'
Wu Shou gripped the entrenching tool with both hands, brought the handle around in a horizontal swing, and smashed it into a walker. Its head instantly burst open like a watermelon, splattering him in the face.
"I didn't expect the first hit to trigger a headshot. Those 2 points in Strength weren't wasted."
Seeing how effective it was, Wu Shou felt even more motivated.
Sweeping the shovel left and right, he struck six more times in quick succession, knocking the walkers closest to him to the ground.
[+300 XP Gained]
[+300 XP Gained]
A normal walker gave 300 experience points. He had killed 10 to reach Lv. 1, which was 3000 XP. Based on the 1.05 multiplier, leveling up from Lv. 2 to Lv. 3 would require 3150 XP, meaning it would happen when he killed the 11th walker.
Calculating this in his head, Wu Shou glanced at the entrenching tool, which was now nearly broken, and cursed inwardly. His eyes fell on the horse's corpse in the distance, which had been almost completely devoured, leaving only a massive skeleton. An idea formed in his mind.
He jammed the broken end of the shovel into the eye of a walker blocking his path and followed up with a side kick. Empowered by his two points in Strength, the walker was sent tumbling backward, knocking down two or three others with it.
Stepping directly onto the walkers' chests with his combat boots, Wu Shou took three quick strides and leaped over to the horse's corpse.
Seeing a walker still stubbornly licking the bones, Wu Shou kicked it away, creating an opening in the surrounding horde. He strode forward, grabbed the horse's leg, raised his boot, and stomped down hard!
'CRACK!'
A loud, crisp snap echoed out.
At the same time, Wu Shou shouted inwardly: "Craft!"
A strange power quickly transformed the horse bone, tempering it into a weapon. This was a basic function of the 7 Days to Die system. When he looked again, a bone club had appeared in his hand.
[Horse Bone Club: Quality 1]
[Durability: 300]
The large, rounded thigh bone of the horse had been fashioned into something that looked like a giant club. Held in Wu Shou's hand, it gave off an indescribable sense of pressure.
Seeing the ignorant beasts continuing to swarm him, Wu Shou gave a bloody, savage grin.
"Using a shovel as a club can't compare to a real one."
Wu Shou casually swung the horse bone club at a nearby walker and, with what seemed like no effort, landed a headshot. The walker's head instantly exploded into pieces, and the force of the blow sent the two walkers next to it tumbling to the ground as well.
"One kill, two knockdowns. This attack range, this crit damage... awesome!"
Gripping the horse bone club, Wu Shou felt increasingly satisfied. It was as if this club was naturally made for crushing walker skulls.
"But I can't stay here for too long..." Wu Shou casually picked up the bag of weapons Rick had left behind.
He glanced at the bottom-left corner of his vision. The capsule-shaped icon had already started a countdown. When it reached zero, that would be when he was fully infected.
[1:55:31]
...
[1:55:24]
...
[1:54:47]
Time was slipping away quickly, but luckily, Wu Shou was already near the alley.
With one more horizontal sweep, he knocked over the walkers that had gotten close, turned, and climbed up the fire escape.
Standing firm on the metal ladder, sweat pouring from his pores, Wu Shou gasped for breath and looked back.
"Hah—you want to bite me that bad? Maybe in your next life."
A smile played on Wu Shou's lips. After venting his rage, his mood was exceptionally good. All his previous frustrations had vanished. This real-life mode was truly exhilarating; the ancients weren't lying.
Especially now that he had activated the 7 Days to Die system, Wu Shou finally had something new to look forward to in this dark, apocalyptic world.
"But in this situation, where am I supposed to find antibiotics? It's not the first day of the apocalypse anymore. Important supplies have probably already been taken by people nearby..."
Wu Shou pondered this as he continued climbing the fire escape.
"Wait, people nearby?"
Wu Shou's eyes lit up.
Speaking of people nearby, Wu Shou could indeed think of a group. And if it was them, they would definitely have antibiotics. But then Wu Shou looked at himself and hesitated again.
He was only Lv. 2. Even with a bag full of guns, he probably couldn't force that group to hand over their antibiotics. He might even lose the bag of guns in the process.
"I can't go alone. I need at least one other person, someone brave enough, who will never back down, and who would be willing to go with me right now..."
Thinking of this, Wu Shou couldn't help but speed up, his boots clanging as he ran towards the roof.
Arriving on the rooftop, he saw three walkers blocking the iron door to the roof access. He went up, kicked one over, and swung his horse bone club in a wide arc.
'Squelch—Squelch—Squelch—!'
Three consecutive, viscous sounds rang out.
Wu Shou was getting more and more skilled. Clubbing walkers wasn't much different from clubbing pigs and cows.
Shoving the walker corpses aside, Wu Shou pressed his face to the gap in the iron door to look through.
Not far away, he saw Merle, holding a hacksaw to his own cuffed hand, tears and saliva streaming down his panicked face.
'I never thought I'd see Merle with an expression like that. If I had a phone, I should really take a picture to show Daryl,' Wu Shou thought with a private smirk.
But to prevent Merle from actually cutting his own hand off, he called out through the door.
"Hey! Anyone there?"
'Gasp!' Merle's head snapped up at the sound, looking toward the iron door with disbelief.
"Someone's here! I'm here! Help me!!"
"Oh—fuck! I'm not gonna die, I'm not gonna die!"
Merle shouted excitedly at Wu Shou, then looked up at the sky, laughing and crying at the same time, like a little baby boy who'd never been in a fight. If his little brother saw him like this, it would probably become a shadow Merle could never escape for the rest of his life.
Wu Shou swung the horse bone club, shattering the door lock, and leaned against the frame with a teasing look.
"Were you just crying?"
Merle's face still had clear tear tracks on it. With Wu Shou's arrival, his face was now flushed red and white.
"Gimme a break, man. If you were in my spot, you'd be cryin' too," Merle said, not even trying to hide it. He wiped his eyes, shrugged, and sneered.
"Fair enough. If I were trapped and just waiting for walkers to come eat me, I wouldn't be doing any better than you," Wu Shou said. He raised the horse bone club high, signaling for Merle to hold the handcuff taut.
'CRACK—'
The horse bone club struck squarely on the part of the cuff looped around the pipe. Under Wu Shou's heavy blow, the handcuff snapped open, and Merle was free.
"We'll find a way to get that half off your wrist later. For now, let's get out of here."
Wu Shou tossed the gun bag into Merle's arms and looked around. Walkers were already slowly approaching, drawn by the noise.