Chapter 5: A Real Battle, Slaying Monsters with a Single Strike

When Hua Tian heard Captain Han mention those modes, she was completely lost. "Solo mode? What's that supposed to be?"

Captain Han had no choice but to explain the four modes individually. "There's Free Mode, Solo Mode, Team Mode, and Pro League (Pro Mode). Free Mode is the open world where you can do anything, following its own order—it's the game's default. Solo Mode lets you level up quickly, zombies have weak health, which is pretty normal. Only the Exam Level has weaker zombies, but players are even more fragile—one hit and you're out. Team Mode is more for fun, with zombie health just below Pro League. It features the most types of boss zombies. In that mode, a boss zombie is equivalent to a Pro League leader. There are mini-games like dungeons, survival, rescue, defense, escape, and so on. The Pro League is basically an advanced Team Mode—you can't adjust difficulty, it's hell as soon as you enter, and I don't really know what else is in there. Last time, there were only survival and defense, just like Team Mode but harder. Except for Free Mode, all other modes only have zombie races. Only Solo Mode and Free Mode let you farm levels, gear, skills, and items. No matter how hard you try in Pro League or Team Mode, you won't get any drops..."

Hearing that her cute fairy assistant could help with operations and reminders, always following her, Hua Tian replied nonchalantly, "No problem!" After entering Solo Mode, she spent the entire morning without seeing Kuangsha come out.

In the training room, the ice-cold beauty seemed lost in thought again—was she too embarrassed to come out, or had she gotten lost in the main city again?

Liu Wei glanced at Hao Tian's position and whispered to Captain Han, "Captain, do you think our new teammate couldn't last an hour and is hiding in the main city, too scared to come over, or did he forget the time and keeps grinding inside?"

Han Qianyun checked the real-world clock—it was almost lunch break, yet Kuangsha still hadn't come out!

She didn't know what to say—was this really necessary? Recalling his replay video, she wondered if he was still hiding from zombies!

A booming voice called everyone to gather.

"Forget it, leave him be for now. This afternoon, you all stick to the usual routine—keep grinding skill proficiency, and farm out your gear. Sell off any white gear, and post the info on better items in the work group, understand? If so, dismissed."

Everyone murmured their acknowledgment. Then, like two phantoms, Liu Xin and Xiao Yu dashed away faster than cheetahs. Just as they reached the door, Captain Han called them back.

In the team leader's office, Captain Han sat on her newly bought leather sofa, with the two female players nervously standing before her, heads lowered.

"Liu Xin, this afternoon you train your stealth skill. Go into Solo Mode among the zombie hordes; as long as you aren't detected, that's enough. If you can kill high-level ones and get out unscathed, great. If not, just stay put quietly and don’t respawn and run around, got it?"

"Xiao Yu, from now on, every afternoon you follow the Shieldbearer—Kuangsha—in Free Mode and practice your Blessing and Healing Tree until your heals land exactly where you aim. With such a tanky class, don't do what you did last time—heal the warrior, or me. If it weren't for his Fortress skill coming off cooldown just in time to withstand the zombie assault, our team might not have even placed third."

"We understand," Xiao Yu and Liu Xin replied, lowering their heads even more, pinkies touching in a cute gesture of apology.

...

Hua Tian entered Solo Mode and immediately reverted to her old, flawless ways.

Blood-red forest at night, sky a crimson cloud, castle looming beyond the woods, beside a blood marsh.

Whenever she spotted a lone zombie, she’d pick up her shield, charge, and hurl it, knocking down countless enemies as she slowly made her way out of the woods. A patch of tall scarlet grass blocked her path. Skirting it, she looked up to see a gray-red castle ahead.

A gleam of battle-lust flashed in her eyes—the time to prove herself had come. For ahead, a horde of corroded zombies awaited.

The castle had four floors. Peering inside, every level was packed with zombies—no doubt one of the game's infamous zombie-besieged fortresses.

Summoning her courage, Hua Tian decided to push open the door and enter.

As she stepped through the doorway, a distant zombie spotted her, its bloody maw opening to emit a low call, confused by the sight of this new companion. Hua Tian saw it staring at her, froze for a few seconds, then, seeing that the zombie was blocked, slipped in and quietly closed the door behind her.

The zombie, realizing she hadn’t replied, determined she must be human. It rushed forward, ramming the clueless zombie in front of it to the ground. The fallen zombie, enraged, glared at its attacker, but before it could roar, it saw a living human's feet in front of it and grew excited.

It scrambled forward, crawling through the standing zombie’s legs. If it couldn’t dodge, it violently shoved aside legs, toppling zombies to the floor. The fallen zombie then stared at the one who’d just knocked it down, only to see those living human feet. In a bizarre mimicry, it too scrambled forward.

Soon, a chaotic scene unfolded—standing and fallen zombies, impatient ones shoving their fellows forward in a feeding frenzy. The force of their tussles often sent them crashing into each other, sometimes with disastrous results—smaller zombies thrown into larger ones, bouncing off helplessly, while those behind, unable to stop, piled up, pushing the largest to the front. Suddenly, a massive zombie was hit by a tremendous force and, in a rage, slapped the zombie atop it into a corpse pancake.

Some zombies, still trying to reach Hua Tian, found their way blocked by this fracas, crawling under and over each other, only to be pinned by the melee. Larger zombies, annoyed, would grab nearby crawlers or hurl corpse pancakes at unlucky bystanders. One feisty zombie, sideswiped, started a brawl, and soon others joined in—sometimes over a mistaken step, sometimes over pure bad luck.

Thus, the group closest to Hua Tian became embroiled in a brawl—some were crushed, some beaten, some trampled, or simply unable to reach her. The road to her was blocked by these fighting brutes.

Hua Tian watched the spectacle, recalling human pyramids and inner-outer warfare. Zombie civil war was quite amusing. Real zombies, she mused, were so much dumber than those in movies. So, what was there to fear?

Her skill could knock enemies flying—why not intensify the chaos? With Earthshaker, she leapt to the nearest zombie, right fist slamming the ground, left fist hammering down.

In an instant, every zombie within ten meters was sent flying. Since the melee was centered around her, the blow's area of effect swept through the entire horde.

The ongoing zombie infighting meant many were already dead on the ground. Those knocked into the air landed with the tranquility of stones dropped in water. But the ones still fighting, or not yet downed, were flung about, shifting positions and inadvertently helping Hua Tian deal with more zombies.

The sudden deaths instantly leveled her up.

Other zombie groups on the floor, still untouched, sensed a living presence and the ruckus. One by one, they turned, blood-caked faces, hollow eyes tinged scarlet, decaying flesh and broken limbs, each silently announcing her death sentence.

There was nothing in their line of sight blocking them—they could see Hua Tian clearly. After a brief standoff, human and zombies exchanged a glance, and the zombies charged.

As they surged forward, Hua Tian spread her feet, preparing her second round of punches, eyes locked on her foes.

But just then, the zombies she’d previously launched crashed violently into the ceiling. The survivors died on impact, and the rest, losing all upward force, plummeted down.

Right onto the onrushing horde.

Instantly, the zombies below snapped their bloody jaws, tearing into what they presumed was prey—but in fact, bit into their own kind. In the blink of an eye, the ground floor was a whirl of flying limbs and corpses, bodies tumbling through the air.

Some zombies, still confused, were struck on the head, others crushed under the heavyweights, while the only survivors were those already brawling. These victors would glance around at the carnage, only to be knocked out cold by a punch from Hua Tian as she circled behind, finishing them off.

The initial crash of bodies into the ceiling had woken the slumbering zombies on the second floor. Noticing seismic movements below, they poured downstairs. On the third and fourth floors, zombies by the windows caught sight of a living intruder and hurried toward the first floor. Soon, fights broke out on all levels, but hearing the commotion from below, the third floor formed a following and rushed down, with the fourth right behind.

Second floor zombies arrived first, looking around in confusion—what madness had seized their ground-floor companions? What was so fun about piling up like that?

But then, at the stairwell, a group spotted Hua Tian and began to howl. One mercilessly stomped on its former companion's head, slipped, and fell out of sight, shrieking. The others followed suit, clambering over corpses to scale the “despair” mountain, while some, failing, tumbled down, sometimes crushing those below in a grotesque embrace.

This created a gap, and the zombies following behind, stepping on the pile, sent the two below into the heap. Some, landing awkwardly, lunged forward to bite or were themselves trampled to death by those behind.

A bitten zombie shrieked, but one glance backward was enough to topple it. More and more “lives” ebbed away—endless cycles of death and rebirth...

Hua Tian watched the stairwell, baffled by what was taking so long. As more time passed, she tried to use her knock-up punch, but it failed. Checking her personal info, she realized if she didn't act, the cooldown would never start—so she made her decision.

She unleashed the second strike of Earthshaker, slamming it into the pile of dead zombies. Perhaps she overestimated their weight or underestimated the skill’s explosive power.

The first strike had done little damage, so she assumed the second would be similar, and used her full strength.

Her fist met no resistance, and the zombie pile rocketed through the stairwell, crushing, pinning, and launching the zombies there.

Silence fell...

Zombies rushing down either missed their step and died, were crushed by the next wave, or crippled themselves in the fall—those who survived were swiftly finished off by Hua Tian, the ever-watchful “fisherman.”

When her vision finally cleared, Hua Tian could hardly believe her eyes, watching the zombies perform their suicidal dance.

Her tiny fairy assistant hovered behind her, expressionless, reciting notifications: "Your... your... you-you-you-you-you..." Eventually, it went hoarse and fell silent. At last, it announced, “Your skill Earthshaker has reached LV2, your mastery of the Fist has reached Level 3, and you’ve leveled up to 10. Reminder: killing zombies lets you loot their gear.”

Gear? Hua Tian was delighted—she hadn’t known! She wanted to cheer.

Watching the fairy circling the castle ceiling, playing alone and avoiding her, Hua Tian went to the dead zombies, looting gear, flipping them over, kicking and moving them to see if there were any drops.

Bored with the repetitive looting, she finally couldn’t take it anymore. She used Earthshaker again, blasting the zombie pile elsewhere to clear the area.

In her boredom, she counted—there were about 1,100 zombies, no more, no less... After looting, she found she’d gained ten items, two skills, and ten gold coins. Not knowing what tier they were, she decided to ask.

She messaged Captain Han: “Captain, are you there? I have something to ask.”

Han Qianyun, busy overseeing her team's training, saw her adorable fairy assistant peeking out, fluffily greeting her. She patted its head, then checked her messages. Glancing at the time, her irritation flared as she walked out.

“What exactly are you doing? I said one hour, and now there’s only an hour left in the day.” She checked the time—should she praise him for being impressive or scold him for slacking? She’d said to last one hour, and he’d shown up right at the very end—impressive in its own way.

“It’s not that, Captain. I’ve been in Solo Mode the whole time. I have ten pieces of gear and two skills.”

After saying this, Hua Tian tried to exit the mode, but found herself still in the same place. Anxious, she added, “Captain, I—I don’t think I can leave.”

Han Qianyun, already fuming, latched onto that last part.

“That means you have to die to exit, or have a friend forcibly pull you out. Hang on, I’ll pull you out now!” She quickly tapped a few times, sent an invite, and Hua Tian accepted. The more Han Qianyun thought about it, the angrier she became, pacing back and forth. Just as she turned, Kuangsha appeared right in front of her, their faces barely half a centimeter apart—her lips almost met his.

“Yikes! Get away from me—back up!” she shrieked, stumbling backwards and slipping on the freshly mopped floor.

“Kuangsha, what are you doing?!”

Having exited the mode for the first time, Hua Tian’s eyes took a moment to adjust. The first thing she saw was Captain Han, and her dramatic fall almost made him lose himself. Was she mad at him? Was it his fault? Did she get hurt because of him? No, wait—she was his boss. That wouldn’t do. He hurried to change the subject and calm her down.

“Um, Captain! I have ten pieces of gear and two skills here.”

Sitting on the floor, Han Qianyun’s anger slowly ebbed as she gritted her teeth and muttered, “Couldn’t you have just posted them in the group?”

“I haven’t joined yet, have I?”

Han Qianyun, the beauty herself, realized, “Oh, that’s right, you haven’t. Never mind, just send the gear info to me!”