Chapter 26: The Resort

There were so many Fish Monsters in Resort Lake that they eventually formed large settlements like villages, taking over the entire lake. In his previous life, Xu Feng had enjoyed coming here to hunt these Fish Monsters and collect Insect Crystals.

These Fish Monsters were among the weakest of their level and did not have any powerful skills, making them safe to hunt. Most importantly, they liked to place trophies they had collected into Treasure Chests and then scatter these chests everywhere. Sometimes they hid them and forgot, or maybe they intended to retrieve them later when needed. As a result, many buried or half-buried Treasure Chests were scattered around the lake. In his previous life, a big part of Xu Feng’s purpose in coming here was for these Treasure Chests.

After Earth’s apocalypse, chests of varying grades appeared all over the world, containing all sorts of supplies. These were relief materials distributed by Earth’s Will. However, near Resort Lake, both the Fish Monsters’ Treasure Chests and Earth’s Will’s chests appeared at the same time, making the number of chests in this area especially high. That attracted a large number of less powerful people in his previous life to come here looking for easy gains.

After driving several dozen kilometers, they could now see the large lake in the distance. Already, a few scattered wooden huts had appeared along its shore.

“Even though they’ve turned into monsters, it will take some time for these Fish Monsters to form villages like they did in my previous life,” Xu Feng thought to himself, glancing at the wooden huts and shaking his head.

Back when Xu Feng came here in his previous life, the Fish Monsters’ villages had already formed large tribes, occupying almost half the lake. Now, there were only a few scattered here and there.

“Villages take time to build, but there must already be plenty of Fish Monsters in the lake. I need to be careful not to get surrounded by them,” Xu Feng thought.

Xu Feng parked the car on the road not far from Resort Lake and walked with Wang Ying toward the lake.

“There are a lot of Fish Monsters over there. Be careful when fighting, and don’t get surrounded. If too many are alerted, run quickly,” Xu Feng warned quietly as they walked.

Soon, they approached the lake. Looking out, they saw two or three hundred Fish Monsters along the shore. Dozens of them had white streams of light flickering on their foreheads, and further in, there were even two huge Fish Monsters with black Insect Crystals on their foreheads.

“Hey, I didn’t expect these Fish Monsters to evolve so fast. They even have Fish Monsters with Two-Star Strength already,” Xu Feng murmured.

With these two Two-Star Fish Monsters, plus over a dozen with One-Star Strength and hundreds of ordinary ones, if they got surrounded, they probably wouldn’t even be able to escape and would die here.

“Wait for me here. I’ll lure a few over,” Xu Feng whispered, moving forward slowly.

Luring monsters had always been Wang Ying’s task, since she had long-range attack abilities, but there were too many Fish Monsters now. Who knew how many more were in the lake besides the ones on shore?

A single misstep could bring a huge group chasing after them. At that point, forget hunting—just escaping would be an accomplishment.

As Xu Feng crept cautiously toward the lake, he suddenly heard a “Bang!” A short distance away, an ordinary Fish Monster’s head exploded like a watermelon, splattering foul-smelling blood in all directions. The headless corpse wobbled a couple of times, then collapsed to the ground, twitching.

“Holy crap, a Sniper Rifle!” Xu Feng was startled and immediately dropped to the ground, looking around. He had heard that sound countless times in his previous life, back when he was weak and had fled with the military.

Individual firearms, no matter how powerful, could only harm ordinary monsters below One-Star Strength. Against monsters of One-Star Strength or higher, they couldn’t even break their defenses.

That was why even the military couldn’t protect people in the end. Everyone was scattered, fleeing for their lives from the monsters.

At that moment, after one Fish Monster was killed from a distance, the remaining ones went crazy, roaring and charging toward the direction of the gunshot. They waved their claws wildly; some wore clothes made of seaweed, and others carried crude weapons, swarming up the shore.

Thump.

Another low gunshot sounded. A charging Fish Monster was hit in the chest as if struck by a heavy hammer. It flew into the air and was dead by the time it landed.

Meanwhile, in a three-story building at the Resort in the distance, several young men leaned against the window, laughing as they watched the Fish Monsters.

“Haha, Wang Shao, your aim is great! One shot, one kill! Impressive!” said a skinny young man with his shirt open, holding a bottle of red wine in one hand and a glass in the other, laughing drunkenly.

“Hmph, those trash monsters are no match for me. With a gun and bullets, I’ll take them all out,” said a young man in camouflage gear lying by the window, aiming a Sniper Rifle and speaking softly.

“Wang Shao, we only brought a few dozen bullets on this trip. We should leave this place soon,” advised a man in a suit and sunglasses who seemed to be a bodyguard.

“Leave and go where? Back to the city? If you’ve got a death wish, go back alone! The city’s full of monsters and bugs now. This place is safer. You can go back if you want, but I’m staying right here.”

Before the bodyguard could finish, another young man with dyed, colorful hair, wearing a bright T-shirt and holding a heavily made-up girl around eighteen or nineteen, shouted loudly.

“Yeah, Da Jun, nowhere is safe now. The outskirts are at least a bit safer. Besides, in a few days, when I get in touch with my dad, the military will come protect us. Don’t worry,” Wang Shao said, pulling the trigger again.

“But what if those monsters really charge up here? We…” Da Jun was still very worried. Those monsters were too fierce. When they were playing by the lake yesterday, many people had either been eaten by bugs or dragged into the lake by monsters from the water, their fates unknown. Only by risking his life to protect Wang Shao had they managed to escape to the Resort.

And those monsters didn’t seem able to go too far from the lake; after chasing a certain distance, they would return to the water.

Once they were safe, Wang Shao remembered there was a Sniper Rifle in his car’s trunk. He had originally brought it just to show off on their trip, but never thought he’d end up using it against monsters.

“Relax, aren’t they unable to leave the lake? Watch me take down another big one.” Wang Shao aimed at a Fish Monster with a white Insect Crystal on its forehead and pulled the trigger.