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

The leopard's second strike slammed into the shield with a dull metallic clang, and Zhao Gang staggered back a step, leaving a deep footprint.

Zhao Qiang attacked from the side, his battle axe striking the leopard's hind leg; the sound of bones shattering was clearly audible. The leopard roared and turned to bite Zhao Qiang, but was immobilized by a control-type ability user from He Lin's team... not completely immobilized, but slowed down. The leopard's movements were a fraction of a second slower, but that fraction of a second allowed Zhao Qiang's second axe to strike its neck.

When the leopard fell, a pool of dark red blood had already formed on the ground. Zhao Gang crouched down, using his shield to pin down the leopard's still convulsing body, and Zhao Qiang delivered the final blow with his axe.

One person was seriously injured, and two others were slightly injured. They took down a level seven leopard in less than thirty seconds.

Zhao Qiang wiped the blood off his axe and grinned, "Level seven isn't that hard to beat."

He Lin did not laugh.

She crouched beside the leopard's carcass, examining the fatal wound... it was from an axe, Zhao Qiang's handiwork.

But her gaze fell on a wound on the leopard's side. The wound wasn't caused by an axe, nor by anyone in the group.

The wound was thin, deep, and had clean edges, as if it had been pierced by an extremely sharp weapon. The blood had congealed, not a fresh dark red, but a blackish, dried brown... This wound must have been there at least half an hour ago.

"We didn't do it." He Lin's voice wasn't loud, but it was loud enough for those around her to hear.

Zhao Qiang leaned closer to take a look, his smile freezing for a moment: "This... is a gunshot wound? No, a gunshot wound wouldn't be this fine."

"It was a cold weapon." Zhao Gang squatted down and gestured with his fingers to indicate the size and shape of the wound. "A spear, or a lance. It pierced through the side, went through the abdomen, and came out the other way. One strike."

There was a moment of silence on the rooftop.

Someone came in early. And it was just one person.

To inflict such a penetrating wound on a level seven leopard... it wasn't killed by attrition, nor by coordinated attacks, but by a single blow. A single strike with a melee weapon, piercing the body of a level seven monster.

This isn't luck, it's skill.

"Who are they?" Zhao Qiang asked.

No one could answer. He Lin stood up, her gaze sweeping across the dark, dense forest around her. The treetops blocked out the sun, obscuring what lay deep within. But her senses told her that something was moving deep within this forest.

Not monsters... but people. At least one, maybe more. Their presence was vague and fleeting, as if deliberately concealed by something. She could only vaguely sense that there were people there, but couldn't determine their number, distance, or even direction.

"No matter who they are," Zhang Peng's voice came from the back of the group, "our goal remains the same. Speed ​​up."

The procession continued forward.

He Lin walked in the middle of the group, her eyes occasionally sweeping over the three-dimensional map on the detector. Red dots were densely packed, green dots were sparse, and the entire zoo looked like a pot of boiling porridge, with living organisms everywhere.

Outside the range that the detector could see, there was a blurry spot of light, neither the dark red of a monster nor the bright red of a survivor, but a pale silver-white that she had never seen before.

The point of light was moving slowly.

He Lin frowned. As a sensory-based talent, her judgment of "strength" was far more acute than any instrument. The aura emanating from that silvery-white dot... wasn't hostile, but a pure "presence"... making her heart pound. It felt like standing on the edge of a cliff, knowing you wouldn't fall, but your legs still went weak.

They're not monsters, they're people.

But how could a human have such strong perception? Her own perception range was 300 meters, which was already top-tier among survivors.

She could vaguely sense that person's presence, but she couldn't pinpoint it, lock onto it, or even determine its distance. It was as if he were right there, yet it was also as if he were everywhere.

If that person hadn't shown them no hostility... or rather, hadn't completely disregarded them... He Lin might already be organizing a retreat.

She took a deep breath, suppressing the unease in her heart.

The reward Zhang Peng offered for this operation was one she couldn't refuse: three blue skill books, twenty Mystic Stones, and a slot to purchase equipment through internal military channels.

All of this combined is enough for her and her team to push their levels up significantly within the next month. If they retreat now, offending Zhang Peng is a minor issue; missing this opportunity is a major one.

He Lin turned her head and winked at her teammates behind her. She made a secret signal with her fingers in front of her chest... thumb down, index finger bent, it was the preparatory instruction for "emergency evacuation".

It means: Be ready to run at any time, don't hesitate, and don't worry about others.

The five people nodded slightly almost simultaneously, a movement so subtle that only they themselves would notice.

He Lin withdrew her gaze, gripped the detector in her hand tightly, and continued walking forward.

......

At this moment, in the zoo, on the other side.

Su Mu stood at the edge of the herbivore enclosure, looking at the distant lawn through the sparse tree canopy.

This place was completely different from the places he had walked through in the city before. Those zombies, giants, and crawlers were pure monsters... without intelligence, only instinct.

The mutated creatures in the zoo felt "different" to him. They were eating, patrolling, and wary of each other; he could even discern a hierarchical relationship of obedience.

A huge, mutated goat stood in the middle of the lawn. It was grayish-white all over, with horns curved like two scimitars, and amber eyes, not the scarlet or pale white usually seen on monsters.

When it saw Su Mu, it didn't rush over like the monsters outside. Instead, it stopped, tilted its head, and looked at him with a scrutinizing gaze. Then it lowered its head, parted the grass with its horns, took a bite of grass, looked up at Su Mu, and turned to leave.

It wasn't that it wasn't afraid, it was that it was assessing the situation. It felt that Su Mu was not someone to be trifled with, so it chose to walk away.

Su Mu didn't give chase. Killing a mutated goat gave him less experience than killing a Dark Zone zombie, so it wasn't worth wasting time.

Lin Yuwei squatted in the grass, holding a rabbit by the scruff of its neck in her hand.

The rabbit was about the same size as a normal rabbit, but its fur was not white or gray, but an abnormal dark red. Its eyes were also red, not the pink of albinism, but a blood-red.

Its leg was bent at an unnatural angle... When Lin Yuwei pulled it out of the hole, she used too much force and broke its hind leg.