The whole nation is trying to survive on the cable car; I'm choosing one of three options at ea

The zombie was establishing a mental connection with him.

No, it's not just this one.

Su Mu's peripheral vision swept across both sides of the street. In the darkness, gray-white figures were emerging from every corner. Some crawled out of the sewers, some squeezed out from the gaps in the roller shutters, and some climbed out of the second-floor windows. Their movements were slow and stiff, but all in the same direction... rushing towards him.

Twenty or thirty of them. Densely packed, they filled the entire street.

Their levels weren't high. Most were level 5, a few were level 6, and the highest one... the one standing at the very back of the zombie horde, a size larger than the other zombies, wearing a tattered military cap... was level 7.

But Su Mu did not notice their rank.

It's their positioning. It's not the kind of mindless, headlong zombie horde that charges forward, but a layered, coordinated encirclement... The zombies in the front row walk in the middle, the zombies on the flanks walk on the sides, and the "military cap zombie" in the back row stands still, its mouth opening and closing as if giving orders.

They are employing tactics.

Su Mu took a deep breath and did not hesitate.

He summoned a spear from the void and charged towards the horde of zombies.

The first shot swept across, sending the three foremost zombies flying in the middle. The second shot thrust, piercing the skull of a zombie, and with undiminished force, pinned it and another zombie behind it to the wall. The third shot, a counter-attack, smashed the skull of a zombie lunging from the side.

Afterimages exploded behind him, a dense barrage of gunfire spreading across his field of vision like a peacock's tail. Each afterimage precisely struck a zombie, the ricocheting attacks bouncing wildly through the horde, spreading like ripples through the dense mass of corpses.

One zombie fell. Two. Five. Ten.

Screams, roars, and the sound of bones shattering mingled together like a frenzied symphony. Dark green blood splattered everywhere in the street, on the walls, on the ground, and on Su Mu's body.

The zombie in the military cap finally moved. It opened its mouth and let out a sharp, whistling screech. The remaining zombies, as if receiving some kind of command, stopped spreading out to surround Su Mu and instead charged at him head-on.

Su Mu raised his left hand and fired several shots from the M500, causing the first few zombies to fall to the ground. He then swept his right hand across with his spear, the tip cutting through the air in a silvery arc, slicing through the zombies that lunged at him.

When the last zombie fell at his feet, the zombie in the military cap turned and ran.

Su Mu didn't give chase. He raised his M500, aimed at the back of the zombie's head, and pulled the trigger.

"Bang......!"

The bullet hit its target precisely. The zombie's head exploded from the impact of the bullet. The body lurched forward two steps, collapsed onto the road, slid more than a meter away, and lay still.

[Defeat Lv7 Dark Zone Zombie Commander, experience points +5.3.]

[24 Lv6 Dark Zone Zombies defeated, experience points accumulating...]

Su Mu holstered his gun, stood still, and gasped for breath. It wasn't because he was tired, but because the pace of the battle had been too fast... From the first shot to the last, it was less than ten seconds, but he had used almost all of his skills.

He glanced at the experience bar.

no change.

No, it's not that there's no change... it's that the experience wasn't added directly. A new number has appeared on the system panel, below the experience bar, marked in light green:

Dark Zone Experience Pool: 45.2

[Experience Bonus: 20%]

[Currently available for extraction: No (Requires defeating a special elite monster in the Dark Zone)]

Su Mu stared at the line of text for two seconds, his brows furrowing slightly. He opened the battle log and scrolled down line by line.

【击杀Lv6暗区丧尸×1，基础经验+1，暗区加成+20%，夜晚加成+20%累积经验池+1.4。】

[Kill 1 Lv6 Dark Zone Zombie, Base Experience +3, Dark Zone Bonus +20%, Cumulative Experience Pool +1.4.]

......

[Defeat 1 Lv7 Dark Zone Zombie Commander, Base EXP +4.4, Dark Zone Bonus +20%, Nighttime Bonus +20%, Cumulative EXP Pool +5.3.]

[Current Dark Zone EXP Pool Total: 45.2.]

[Note: If you do not defeat the Dark Zone Special Elite Monster (Lv10 Green - Dark Zone Core Species) when leaving the current area, all experience points in the Dark Zone experience pool will be forfeited.]

[Tip: Participating in kills will unlock experience pools. The more types and numbers of monsters killed, the higher the experience bonus, currently at 20%.]

Su Mu's pupils contracted slightly.

The rules in this area were far more complex than he had anticipated.

First of all, the monsters in this area do indeed have an experience bonus...20%, which is quite considerable. A level 6 ordinary zombie only gives 1 experience point outside, while a level 6 commander gives a little over 5 points, several times more than the same level outside.

But these experiences don't come directly to you.

They're locked in something called the "Dark Zone Experience Pool," which can only be unlocked and retrieved by killing a specific level 10 green elite monster. If you don't kill that monster before leaving the area, all the experience will be forfeited... a complete waste.

This means that the design logic of this area is very clear: you can fight monsters inside, but the experience you gain is only "temporarily stored". To take it away, you must challenge the elite monster.

For the weak, this is hell.

Because you spent so much time grinding, but in the end you couldn't beat that elite monster, and all your efforts were in vain.

For the strong, this is a sacred place.

Because you have enough time to grind experience here, build up the pool to a terrifying number, and then extract it all at once... as long as you can defeat the elite monsters.

And that elite monster was a level 10 green monster.

Su Mu quickly calculated in his mind. He wasn't unfamiliar with level 10 green-tier monsters. That 20-meter-tall special giant was a level 10 green-tier monster, and he took it down in less than ten seconds.

Although he benefited from the gravity of jumping from above during that battle, his attributes have increased significantly since then... He hasn't yet extracted the forty-odd experience points in his experience pool, but after grinding all night, his level has already risen from mid-level six to nearly level seven.

Level 10 green, he can fight.

......