Chapter 43: Thanks to the Army's Rockets
"Finally, I can make clothes and strengthen buildings. Everything is set!" Howard's eyes lit up.
In the post-apocalyptic world, the most urgently needed supplies are food and water. However, Howard has already secured a steady supply of food and water, so what he needs more now are clean and fresh clothes, bedding, and safe, tidy rooms not contaminated by zombies. After all, sleeping with the smell of blood is really uncomfortable.
With Advanced Gathering, these problems can be solved easily. Howard took Miranda's backpack and collected all the clothes inside.
"Ding! Congratulations, you've gained 325 daily supplies points, 1 metal point, and 0 wood points." The 1 metal point must have come from some metal decorations on the clothes.
"Let's see what I can produce!" With a thought, Howard could see a list of items that could be exchanged using daily supplies points right before his eyes.
Apart from clothes, shoes, and hats, the list also included bedding, mattresses, pillows, sanitary pads, eye masks, small leather whips, bouncing bullets, motion sticks, collars... The list seemed to be constantly changing based on Howard's thoughts.
From the moment Howard saw the sanitary pads, the content of the list gradually became more unconventional...
"Cough, um!" Fortunately, only Howard could see these images. He coughed awkwardly, then made a set of sports shorts and a top to wear. The doctor's coat was too hot and cumbersome.
After changing his clothes, Howard felt much lighter and more agile. "Please take your seats, we are encountering a horde of zombies ahead!" A female soldier's voice came through the vehicle's speakers. Clunk! As soon as she finished speaking, the bus seemed to run over something and jolted. Then, there was a sound like hail hitting the bus, crackling and popping.
Howard looked out the bus window. Countless zombies were pounding against the bus. Due to the height of the bus, only countless pale, blood-stained hands could be seen from the window. Some zombies were completely rolled over by the moving bus, mercilessly crushed under the wheels. Despite their broken bones and torn muscles, the mangled bodies still tried to crawl in the direction the bus was heading.
A vast number of zombies continuously surged from a distance, seemingly endless. Among the vague masses, there were leaping zombies, the massive forms of Berserkers, and many other strangely shaped beings that had never been seen before.
"Is this the commercial street? Why did we come here?!" Howard recognized the familiar mall building where he used to wait for takeout orders. It was the famous commercial pedestrian street of Jiangcheng City, bustling with huge crowds daily and especially packed during holidays, with people moving shoulder to shoulder. Now, these crowds had turned into grotesquely fearsome zombies.
Roughly estimating, there were at least hundreds of thousands of zombies on this pedestrian street alone.
"There must be some important survivors trapped in the mall," Miranda answered.
"That means the survivor's identity must be very significant, otherwise the military wouldn't risk charging into the most zombie-dense area of Jiangcheng City," Quinn remarked from the side. The surrounding tide of zombies made her scalp tingle and her hands tremble slightly.
After all, she had only fought zombies for the first time the previous night. Before that, zombies had always seemed terrifying and invincible monsters in her mind.
"Don't worry, with your current status, as long as you don't attack the zombies, they won't attack you!"
"And with us here, you don't have to worry!"
At that moment, a pair of warm, large hands took hold of Quinn's small hands. It was Howard.
His face carried a calm and composed smile, and his confident aura enveloped Quinn, suddenly making her feel at ease. Following such a leader was truly the greatest honor for her!
The armored vehicle at the front had been fitted with a snowplow, which pushed aside cars and zombies like sweeping trash to both sides. The gunners on the vehicle occasionally fired bursts, turning zombies trying to climb onto the armored vehicle into minced meat. Rocket projectiles blew large groups of zombies blocking the road into pieces.
In the face of heavy firepower, the zombies' mortal bodies were simply no match. Bullets hitting them would leave gaping holes. If a bullet hit an arm, it could even break the bone. However, this was only the case with ordinary zombies, dealing with Level 2 mutated zombies was a bit more challenging.
Suddenly, a jumper leapt from the crowd of zombies, its long claws swinging, trying to tear the gunner into pieces! The gunner, with a stern expression, fired a dozen bullets at the jumper. The jumper zombie let out a wail, knocked down by the force of the automatic gunfire. But the bullets did not cause catastrophic damage to its body; they only left several bloody holes.
Starting from the second level of mutation, zombies' bodies are enveloped by a shield of evolution energy. This energy barrier helps to mitigate a great deal of physical damage, thus providing protection.
The gunner targeted the jumper's landing spot and fired a barrage again. Ordinary zombies blocking the way were shattered by the bullets, and the jumper was hit by another dozen bullets, finally stopping it for good.
A faint green glow emerged from the body of the slain zombie. Howard knew that this was evolution energy.
The energy would only fly into the body when one approached it. However, at the moment, although the convoy was moving slowly, it was still traveling at a speed of 40 yards per minute, and in a short while, it had left the bodies of the zombies far behind. About seven or eight seconds later, those unclaimed bundles of energy just dissipated into the air.
"What a waste!" Howard sighed.
"Ding! Miranda evolution energy +14, level up progress 520/1000!"
"Ding! Quinn evolution energy +14, level up progress 64/100!"
"Ding! Howard evolution crystal +1, current level: Initial Stage of a Transcender, level up progress 6/50!"
Suddenly, rows of information appeared in front of Howard.
And it didn't stop there; the notifications about evolution energy kept coming.
"What's going on?!" Howard was startled.
"Look, it's Glisson!" Miranda, hands pressed against the window, excitedly pointed outside. A small shadow, ghostly in form and lightning-fast, darted around among the zombies. It did not attack the zombies, with its agile movements, the zombies couldn't even touch it.
Glisson specifically moved towards the bodies of the zombies, absorbing all their energy into itself. According to the system's settings, any female zombie or pet that Howard raised shared energy.
"When did it run out?!" Howard looked at the little creature, feeling both annoyed and endeared.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone