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

"I have a plan," he said.

Bai Liuxi looked at him.

"He doesn't dare fight us because we're all together," Su Mu said. "What if we split up?"

Bai Liuxi frowned slightly.

"You split into several groups and keep your distance. If he sees this, he'll think he has an opportunity and won't be able to resist making a move."

"And then?" Zhao Cheng's voice drifted over from the side. "After he made his move, we were too far away to provide support in time."

"So it can't be too far," Su Mu said. "Three hundred meters. At your and my speed, we can get there in ten seconds. At his speed, he can't kill anyone in ten seconds... if that person can survive the first ten seconds."

Bai Liuxi was silent for a moment, then nodded. Three hundred meters was a delicate distance. Far enough that hunters would feel they had an opportunity; close enough that they could arrive at the battlefield at a crucial moment.

But she shook her head, a hint of uncertainty in her voice: "Who will be the bait? Me? Lao Wei? Zhao Cheng? He won't make a move if he sees any of us acting alone. He knows our strength, he knows he can't kill us in ten seconds."

"I'll do it." A voice rang out from the side.

Everyone looked toward the source of the sound.

Xiao Jiu stood up from the ground. His face was still streaked with tears, but the fear in his deep brown eyes was gone, replaced by something Su Mu had never seen before, something deeper than hatred.

"The person he most wants to kill is me." Xiao Jiu's voice was still a little hoarse, but every word was spoken very steadily. "Not because I'm bait. It's because he knows me."

Bai Liuxi's lips moved slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but ultimately she didn't.

Xiao Jiu looked at her, her large eyes calmer than someone who looked like a child: "Captain, I'm the most suitable. Each of you has a more important task than me. Lao Wei has to tank, Zhao Cheng has to deal damage, A Qi has to monitor, and you... you're the captain. I only have a broken flowerpot; if it breaks, it breaks."

He glanced down at the shattered flowerpot on the ground. Deep purple petals were scattered among the pebbles and soil, some crushed, their sap seeping into the earth. The plant's stem protruded from the broken pot, its roots still entwined with clumps of soil, trembling slightly in the moonlight.

Xiao Jiu squatted down and scooped the plant, roots and all, out of the broken flowerpot, holding it in his arms. The plant's roots seemed to come alive when they touched his palm, gently wrapping around his fingers.

"It can still live," Xiao Jiu said.

Bai Liuxi looked at him, remained silent for a few seconds, and then nodded.

"Okay." Her voice returned to its usual calm, but Su Mu noticed that her clenched fist was only now slowly loosening.

Su Mu put away his spear and walked to Old Wei's side.

"Let me try out your gun," he said.

Old Wei glanced at Bai Liuxi, who nodded. Old Wei took a short-barreled rifle off his back and handed it to Su Mu. The gun's design was unlike any firearm he had ever seen... It was shorter, the barrel was thicker, and there was a palm-sized energy display panel on the grip, displaying several strings of numbers.

Su Mu took the gun, aimed at a zombie wandering across the street, and pulled the trigger.

"Bang......!"

The bullet struck the zombie in the chest, exploding into a cloud of dark green blood mist. The zombie swayed but did not fall. It turned and lunged towards Su Mu.

Su Mu fired another shot. This time it hit the head. The zombie's head exploded from the impact of the bullet, the body lurched forward two steps, then collapsed to the ground, motionless.

[Killed a Lv5 Dark Zone zombie, experience points +0.14.]

Su Mu frowned. Judging by its appearance, this gun's firepower was even less than his M500. But with Lao Wei's strength and skill, he could deal significantly more damage with this gun.

"This gun..." Su Mu handed the gun back to Lao Wei.

"The system is training you." Bai Liuxi's voice came from the side. She clearly saw Su Mu's confusion. "You survivors have the cable car as your trump card, and the time the system has given you is an 'adaptation period.' During this stage, you rely on the system's equipment, skills, and rules. And the effect we use is the real effect."

She paused.

"These weapons, without the system's support, will be greatly reduced in power. Only those of us who 'don't have the system' can unleash their true potential. The system seems to be intentionally cultivating different directions in each batch of survivors... You rely on the rules, we rely on ourselves."

Su Mu remained silent for a moment. This explanation did indeed resolve the question that had been troubling him... Why did the same gun have such drastically different power in the hands of different people? It wasn't a problem with the gun, it was a problem with the people. The system was assigning different "growth paths" to different groups of survivors.

He returned the gun to Old Wei and summoned his own spear from the void.

It's still best to use your own weapon.

After they finished discussing their plan, they began to disperse.

Bai Liuxi walked at the front, with Su Mu following about twenty meters behind her. Lao Wei and Zhao Cheng walked on the other side of the street, keeping parallel to Bai Liuxi. A Qi did not participate in the dispersed operations; she found the roof of a three-story building, set up monitoring equipment, and was responsible for providing intelligence support from a distance.

Xiao Jiu walked at the very front.

The distance between him and Bai Liuxi was not three hundred meters, but nearly eight hundred meters.

This distance was suggested by Bai Liuxi. At 300 meters, the hunter wouldn't make a move... He's too cautious; he wouldn't jump into a trap knowing it's a trap. 800 meters is a distance that would make the hunter feel there's an "opportunity."

Xiao Jiu walked alone on the empty street, clutching the plant he had rescued from the broken flowerpot. The deep purple petals shimmered faintly in the moonlight, and the roots twined around his fingers, as if drawing something from them.

His steps were neither fast nor slow, and he kept his head down, as if he was thinking about something.

Su Mu followed him about 800 meters behind, observing his every move through the farsightedness function of his glasses.

Bai Liuxi walked further back, about 1,100 meters away from Xiao Jiu. Lao Wei and Zhao Cheng were scattered among the buildings on both sides, using the terrain to conceal their movements.

Ah Qi's voice came through the communicator to everyone's ears: "The target has not appeared. There are no abnormal signals within a 300-meter radius of Xiao Jiu."

Su Mu's fingers rested on the spear, his gaze fixed on Xiao Jiu's back.

He didn't know if the hunters would come. But Lin Yuwei's message told him that the hunters were nearby and had been watching them.

The communicator vibrated. It was a message from Lin Yuwei.