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

But Su Mu didn't immediately set off to find the elite monster. He found a relatively secluded spot on a street corner, squatted down, opened the map, and compared the coordinates of the elite monster marked by the system with Lin Yuwei's distress call coordinates.

The two coordinates do not coincide, but they are not far apart. The straight-line distance is approximately two kilometers.

Su Mu remained silent for a moment, organizing his thoughts in his mind.

First, this area is perfect for grinding experience. The monsters are generally level six or higher, matching his current level, and he gets a 20% experience bonus. Although the experience is temporarily stored in the pool, the monster levels in normal areas are too scattered, ranging from level one to ten. It's extremely difficult to find an area with an average level of five or higher.

Secondly, there is a 20% experience bonus.

This number may not seem like much, but it adds up to a considerable amount.

Moreover, this bonus accumulates with the number and type of monsters killed, meaning the more monsters you kill, the higher the bonus.

Finally, we'll have to deal with the level 10 green elite monster.

It wasn't that he hadn't fought opponents of this caliber before. That twenty-meter-tall special giant was a level ten green-grade monster, which he took down in less than ten seconds.

And most importantly

Yesterday on the cable car, that costumed monster burst out of the thick fog and took away 53% of his cable car's durability with a single blow. He was helpless at the time and could only accelerate forward, hoping that he could get through the barrier before the thing's second attack landed.

He won the bet. But it was luck.

If that costumed monster had been a little stronger, if the barrier had been a little farther, if he had made a slightly slower choice back then... if any of those "ifs" had come true, he might already be a corpse that has fallen from a hundred meters in the air.

After that incident, he told himself that he could not push himself into that kind of desperate situation again.

If you always hesitate and rely on luck, you'll eventually die because of some "what if".

So this time, he wants to take the initiative into his own hands.

So this time, he wants to take the initiative into his own hands.

The priorities for action are simple.

First, find the level 10 green elite monster, kill it, and unlock the experience pool. Then, while on your way to rescue Lin Yuwei, farm some more monsters.

The order cannot be changed.

If you grind monsters and accumulate a pool of experience, only to find that the elite monster is too strong to defeat, or you can't find it no matter how hard you search the entire Dark Zone, then all your previous efforts will have been wasted.

Time was wasted, energy was exhausted, and in the end, you're left empty-handed and have to slink away from the area...

However, if you kill the elite monsters first, the situation is completely different.

Kill it to unlock the experience pool; all experience gained afterward is real, every single point is yours immediately. If you encounter monsters on the way to rescue Lin Yuwei, kill them; the experience will be added directly to your character sheet, so don't worry about wasting your time.

Even if he encounters any unexpected situations on the way... such as the elite monster being stronger than expected, leaving him in poor condition after defeating it; or Lin Yuwei's situation being more troublesome than anticipated, requiring a lot of time and resources... at least he doesn't have to worry about the experience in his experience pool going to waste.

As for Lin Yuwei...

She hasn't contacted him since sending him her SOS message. There are no unread messages on his communicator, and his private chat is silent; the latest message is still from a few hours ago: "Help me. I've sent you the coordinates. The artifact is yours."

Su Mu had tried to contact her. Since entering the Dark Zone, he had sent her several messages, asking about her situation... where she was trapped, what monsters were around, how many people were still alive... but he received no reply.

The message was sent, but it disappeared without a trace. There was no "read" status, no "typing..." notification, nothing at all.

Knowing Lin Yuwei's personality, if she had the energy to reply, she definitely would. That woman was as shrewd as a fox; she knew that in such a life-or-death situation, information was crucial. She wouldn't remain silent without a reason.

So either she's in an extremely dangerous situation and can't possibly check her communicator, he needs to get there as soon as possible.

But "as soon as possible" does not mean "blindly".

Su Mu stood up, sheathed his spear, and dusted himself off. Direction... Lin Yuwei's SOS coordinates. Route... Follow the main road of the Dark Zone, trying not to detour, but not deliberately avoiding monsters either. Kill those blocking the way, detour around those not in the way, maintaining speed.

He stepped into the deeper darkness.

There were more survivors in the Dark Zone than he had expected.

He had seen several groups of people in less than twenty minutes.

Some hid inside buildings, peering out through gaps in the curtains; some squatted at the alley entrance, quietly exchanging supplies; some were fighting monsters, struggling and looking disheveled.

Su Mu neither approached them nor deliberately avoided them. He simply walked on, passing by as he was meant to, like a gust of wind passing by.

Their reactions varied. Some saw him and immediately shrank back into hiding, barely daring to breathe; some stared at him for a few seconds, then lowered their heads and continued with their own business; some tried to call out to him, but opened their mouths and ultimately said nothing.

Su Mu ignored them.

These people are likely survivors who were trapped here before this area even existed... They descended from the cable car and landed directly in this dark zone, where they were surrounded by monsters and couldn't escape. Their levels are generally low, and their equipment is poor; they've survived this long not because of strength, but because of luck and a willingness to survive.

Su Mu wouldn't take them with him. It wasn't that he was cold-blooded, but rather that he could travel quickly, quietly, and discreetly on his own. Taking anyone else along would only be a burden.

Time slipped away little by little with each footstep.

Another hour has passed.

Su Mu traversed the streets of the Dark Zone, casually dispatching dozens of monsters blocking his path. Zombies, corpse-eating vines, corrosive sludge, two-headed ogres... he had killed almost every common monster species in the Dark Zone.

He noticed a phenomenon.

The monsters here are not only of higher level than those outside, but their most distinctive feature is their "bizarre" nature.

Those zombies have different weaknesses than those outside. Outside, you can just shoot the head, but in the dark zone, some zombies can still move even with their heads smashed, so you have to destroy their spines; some can still crawl even with their spines broken, so you have to burn their hearts; and some can still bite even without their hearts, so you have to smash their entire bodies to kill them completely.

If it weren't for his ability to pinpoint weaknesses, allowing him to hit vitals with every shot, figuring out the distribution of these monsters' weaknesses would have wasted a lot of time and bullets.

Even so, Su Mu still felt that something was wrong.