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

His pace was neither fast nor slow, as casual as a stroll, but none of the monsters that tried to approach him managed to leave his vicinity within ten meters alive. His spear seemed to come alive in his hands; each thrust struck a vital point with precision, and each retraction brought forth a cloud of blood mist.

He didn't deliberately hunt down those monsters, nor did he deliberately avoid them. He simply walked at his own pace, and anything that blocked his path would die.

Two hours later, Su Mu stood on the rooftop of an abandoned gas station, looking at the gray cluster of buildings on the northern horizon.

The towering chimney of the power plant in the northern suburbs appeared and disappeared in the mist, like a gray finger pointing to the sky.

He glanced at the map; the straight-line distance was less than five kilometers, and if he sped up, he could get there in under an hour. But it was still early; the sun was still high in the west, and there were still several hours until evening. He had plenty of time.

Su Mu jumped down from the rooftop, dusted off his hands, and continued walking north.

My current level is eight, and my experience bar is stuck at 5,936. I'm still almost 7,000 experience points away from reaching level nine.

After level eight, the leveling speed slows down significantly.

It's not that he's not leveling up fast enough, it's that there are too few monsters that match his level.

This area is mostly populated by level 5, 6, and 7 monsters. Killing one gives a pitifully small amount of experience; even killing a hundred wouldn't be enough to level up.

The good news is...

On his panel, there was another unexpected discovery. That talent... Killing Curse, grants a permanent 1% bonus to all attributes after killing three targets (humans) each day.

He originally thought that the trigger condition for this talent was to kill a "human," which had to be a living, conscious human.

But the zombies he killed along the way today... those zombies that had turned into monsters, had no consciousness, and could only instinctively attack living things... were also judged as "humans" by the system.

Fifteen zombies, triggered five times. A permanent 3% boost to all attributes.

His constant and deliberate hunting of zombies granted him a temporary 103% boost to all his attributes.

Su Mu clenched his fist, feeling the surging power within his body that was almost overflowing. His base strength was 189 points, plus a permanent bonus of 3%, plus a temporary bonus of 103%. If he were to activate the Golden Bloodline, his total increase would reach an astonishing 156%.

His actual strength is approaching 500 points. What does that mean?

That brown bear with a missing leg, a level 10 purple bear, had drunk the elixir of nearly two eggs, yet its energy intensity was only 27 times that of a level 3 job changer. Converted into attribute points, that's roughly between 250 and 280.

His current strength is almost twice that of the bear. If he were to encounter that brown bear again now, Su Mu was absolutely confident he could easily defeat it... not just beat it, but utterly crush it. As for the giant bear with its half-golden body and the large golden bird, Su Mu also had the idea of ​​clashing with them.

He took a deep breath and suppressed the restlessness.

It cannot float.

He couldn't see the level of the giant bear and the bird, so he had no idea how strong they were. Moreover, he didn't know when those strange creatures outside the city would break through the barrier. That creature in theatrical costume, that terrifying being that could reduce his cable car's durability by 53% in one hit, was still waiting outside the city. He couldn't waste his time and energy here.

Su Mu glanced at the temporary buff of the Killing Curse on the panel... 103%, still slowly increasing.

He looked up, his gaze sweeping across the surrounding streets, trying to find more zombies.

But along the way, the number of zombies was much less than he had expected. Most of the creatures roaming this industrial area were mutated beasts... wild dogs, reptiles, giant lizards... these things were not considered "humans," and killing them did not trigger the killing curse count.

He wanted to kill zombies, but there weren't any left to kill.

He even considered going back to cause trouble for that brown bear... That beast, that sneak attack on him from the rooftop—if it weren't for his divine parry, he might already be a corpse. And that big bird, chasing him through most of the zoo, pushing him to the brink of despair—he hadn't settled that score yet.

Su Mu glanced at the time; it was 2 PM.

Returning to the zoo from here and catching up with the brown bear could take an unknown amount of time. Moreover, the large bird might still be circling nearby, and the half-golden bear might not have left yet. Once a struggle ensues, time becomes unpredictable.

He had to get to the power plant in the northern suburbs before evening; the monsters outside the city could break through the barrier at any moment, and he couldn't gamble.

Su Mu withdrew his gaze and continued walking north.

He quickened his pace, but his route remained the same... He continued to deliberately circle the streets where zombies might be, eliminating each zombie he encountered and glancing at the fluctuating number on his panel after each kill. The temporary buff was only valid for the day; if not used today, it would be reset to zero tomorrow.

We need to retreat today. The higher the attributes, the safer we are. Stack as many as you can; it's not a must, but we can't waste them either.

.......

The perimeter of the North Suburb Power Plant.

The word "quiet" no longer applies here.

The gunfire wasn't intermittent; it was continuous, like a pot of boiling porridge that hadn't stopped since dawn.

The "thump-thump" sound of the machine gun is a low-pitched, dull, and heavy sound, each one like someone striking the ground with a hammer.

The "rat-a-tat" of the rifle is the mid-range, dense and rapid, like a downpour hitting a tin roof; the "boom" of the grenade launcher is the high-range, abrupt and explosive, each shot accompanied by a burst of fire and debris.

These three sounds intertwined, along with the monster's roar, the man's shout, and the echo of the explosion, creating a symphony without melody or rhythm, only madness and chaos.

Su Mu stood on a makeshift observation platform outside the power plant, from which he could overlook most of the battlefield.