Xiang An stood at the stair landing, the metal mechanical arm inside his toolbox operating according to its programmed trajectory, emitting a soft white glow.
Within the white light, the outline of half a security door gradually appeared.
Not far away, several zombies bypassed a van and were blocked in front of the unit building by a tripwire made of binding straps. After lingering for a moment, they seemed to have no intention of forcing their way through.
Xiang An held his entrenching tool and remained on guard for a long time. Seeing that the fortifications were taking shape, he finally relaxed his taut nerves slightly, estimating that those few zombies couldn't possibly interrupt the construction process.
Just as he relaxed for a moment, a gasp suddenly came from upstairs—
Xiang An abruptly looked up. If he hadn't misheard, the person who made that sound was Shen Xia!
He disregarded the unfinished fortifications and dashed towards the stairs. With a full-speed sprint, he reached the seventh floor in just over ten seconds.
The security door, which had been ajar, was now fully open, and footprints stained with zombie blood from outside the door extended from the entryway into the room.
Xiang An lightened his steps and cautiously investigated the interior.
“Shen Xia…?”
His pupils suddenly constricted.
In the living room, a man knelt, his hands desperately covering his neck, blood continuously dripping through his fingers.
Shen Xia hung her head, gripping a chipped bone-cutting knife. Her long, black hair was matted with dirty bloodstains, messily obscuring her expression.
Xiang An lightly touched the man’s shoulder with the tip of his shovel. The man struggled to lift his head, his eyes filled with the fear of death.
He recognized this as the tenant who used to live in apartment 702 across the hall, who should have moved out half a month ago—Xiang An even remembered seeing him call a Lalamove moving truck downstairs.
“Save… save me…”
Blood continuously gushed from the man’s throat, and his fragmented pleas, mixed with bloody foam, trembled in the air.
Xiang An noticed that at the man’s torn wound, several black-red blood vessels were twisting and pulsating in a bizarre manner, spreading under the skin as if they had gained independent life.
“The blood on the knife hasn’t been wiped off yet. He… he’s infected,” Shen Xia whispered.
The moment Xiang An met the man’s unfocused eyes, the graying irises were identical to Yang Zhiping’s before his mutation.
The blade of the entrenching tool hovered above the bloodied neck. He closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and suddenly exerted force—
The sound of flesh being cut echoed in the living room. Shen Xia looked up in surprise.
Xiang An became an executioner, his hand rising and the shovel falling, striking the man’s neck with force.
Perhaps because the mutation was not yet complete, the man's body still retained human muscle strength. With just two hacks, most of his cervical spine was severed. The dying body convulsed, halting the process of transformation, and finally slumped to the ground.
The man’s breathing stopped, and it seemed that the ongoing mutation also ceased at the same time.
Xiang An kicked the corpse aside, his gaze sweeping over the bone-cutting knife tightly clutched by Shen Xia as he gasped for breath.
“I, I didn’t mean to kill him,” Shen Xia took half a step back and bumped into the side cabinet. “He suddenly lunged at me. I thought he was a zombie…”
“Are you hurt?” Xiang An interrupted.
“No…”
“Then it’s fine.” Xiang An’s gaze scanned the floor, and he kicked a fruit knife out of the pool of blood with his foot. “If you had reacted any slower, the consequences could have been severe.”
There was no fruit knife of that style in the house; it could only have been brought by the man in front of them. There was even a circle of anti-slip tape wrapped around the handle.
This confirmed that the other party was definitely not benevolent—sneaking in with a weapon and taking the opportunity to suddenly ambush, how was that something a normal person would do? If Shen Xia had been a little less lucky, that knife might have been plunged into her neck.
After this unexpected turn of events, Xiang An shed all his casualness. After dragging the male corpse into the stairwell, he carefully locked the security door, repeatedly confirming that there would be no opportunistic entry before going back downstairs.
At the unit entrance, the double-layered composite protective door had been completed, and the toolbox lay quietly in the corner.
Xiang An reached out and touched the protective door; its cold metallic feel brought a sense of security. Compared to the old security door of apartment 701, its safety had increased by more than tenfold.
Looking through the observation hole, two more zombies had appeared in front of the building. Fortunately, the pre-set tripwire had worked, preventing them from breaking in and interfering with the construction.
There were still two urgent tasks to complete: collecting water from the convenience store facing the street, and thoroughly clearing the zombies inside the building. After these were done, with the supplies stockpiled last night, this unit building could become a long-term defensible safe zone.
Xiang An neatly placed all the tools from the stairs back into the toolbox.
For him, who possessed the system, basic survival was merely the starting point. He needed to dismantle abandoned materials within the building to reinforce the shelter, and simultaneously take in survivors to obtain system rewards and shelter buffs.
“How do I unlock shelter buffs?” he silently inquired.
【Completing quests grants Management Points. After survivors join your team, you can unlock corresponding buffs by spending Management Points.】
“Quests?”
【Newborn Fortress — First Construction of Fortifications (Completed): Management Points +10】
【First Light of the Shelter — Taken in First Survivor (Completed): Management Points +10】
【Day After Day — Completed Daily Shelter Patrol (Completed): Management Points +5】
【Never-Ending Gears — Maintained Facilities for 30 Consecutive Days】
【Night Watcher — Successfully Performed First Night Patrol】
【Iron Will — First Reinforcement of Shelter Fortifications】
【Bloody Dawn — First Repulsion of zombie horde Attack】
【Steel Cradle — Completed Shelter Basic Defense System】
【Return of the Broken — Accommodated 10 People to Form a Survival Team】
【......】
【C-Level Survivor Buff Unlock Cost: 30 Management Points (First unlock halved)】
Xiang An decisively spent 15 points to unlock Shen Xia’s buff.
【Please choose: Fortification Construction Speed +5% OR Fortification Material Cost -5%】
“Reduce fortification material cost.”
When constructing indoors, where it was relatively safe, resource saving was more crucial.
As Xiang An went upstairs, he also paid attention to the situation inside each apartment.
The entire building had 14 units. Excluding the two units on the 7th floor and Yang Zhiping's unit 402, the situation of 11 units remained unknown.
Reaching the door of 402, he put down his toolbox and entered with his shovel—since Yang Zhiping was bitten, it indicated a potential zombie threat inside the unit.
As soon as he stepped into the entryway, a violent banging on the door came from the direction of the bedroom.
Xiang An held his breath, pushed the dining table in front of him as cover, and cautiously pushed open a crack in the door.
A grayish-green face suddenly slammed against the door panel, and the recoil actually caused the door to slam shut.
Xiang An swallowed, using the dining table to completely block the bedroom door.
The zombie inside was Yang Zhiping’s daughter, now in her early thirties.
The formerly capable breakfast stall owner, though not yet decayed, had completely devolved into a bloodthirsty monster.
Five minutes later, Xiang An returned to the scene with Shen Xia.
“This time you’ll be the main attacker. Suppress it with the crowbar, and I’ll finish it off,” he instructed in a low voice. “Be careful to maintain distance.”
Shen Xia gripped the sweat-slicked crowbar, watching Xiang An move the dining table that was blocking the door.
As Xiang An retreated two steps, built up momentum, and kicked hard, the door panel burst open. The female zombie that erupted did not lose balance as expected; instead, she roared and lunged directly forward!
Xiang An’s arm guard on his left hand blocked in front, and a serious look flashed in his eyes.
Bang!
The moment the female zombie burst out, the crowbar seized the opportunity and slammed down heavily, instantly twisting the zombie’s neck.
Before it could adjust its posture, Xiang An’s shovel blade had struck its face, and as it staggered, the cold glint of the blade flashed.
