Scouting the Zombie Horde

"Hey, I know you, you're... Slater, right?" Henry greeted with a smile.

Slater nodded in response, "Yes, that's me..." his mind on high alert.

He knew that Henry had been at his current level of strength a few days ago.

After so many days, who knew how much stronger he might have become?

What if Henry wanted to kill him to take his Energy Cores?

Slater had killed many people and naturally assumed Henry might do the same to him.

The two men exchanged glances.

The atmosphere was somewhat awkward.

"Nothing much, I'll be going now!" Henry wasn't sure what else to say.

Previously, his greeting was because Slater was one of the few people in this post-apocalyptic world he could converse with.

"Okay..."

As he watched the SUV speed over the bridge and quickly disappear from view, Slater finally breathed a sigh of relief.

On the other hand, Henry was somewhat surprised by Slater's rapid development.

The last time he saw Slater, his strength was only at the level of exceptionally strong.

Today, Slater had reached the first stage of an Awakener and possessed dual talents!

Dual talents meant that he had acquired a large number of Energy Cores in a short period of time, boosting his strength!

How had Slater grown so quickly?

Henry mentally noted this question.

However, these concerns were not urgent at the moment.

Becoming stronger was the priority.

Henry had nearly exhausted all his reserves of Energy Cores upgrading his ring!

Fortunately, Snow had left him a significant gift.

To date, Henry still had 892 Energy Cores.

He was still over 80% short of the 5000 Energy Cores needed for the next upgrade.

However, Henry was not worried.

Because he was facing a super zombie horde numbering in the hundreds of thousands!

What Henry has in abundance now is Energy Cores!

Currently, what he needs is to scout out these zombie hordes and then devise an efficient combat plan.

This morning's task is clear: determine the effective range for automatically collecting Energy Cores from zombies killed by explosives.

Henry drove back to the location of the car wall at North River.

The laser trip mines here had already been detonated.

The collapsed cars had perfectly blocked the gap that Henry had left earlier.

Three zombie corpses lay here.

Their heads were blown to pieces, and the ground was a mess.

The power of the laser trip mines was indeed impressive—it had instantly taken out three zombies.

Henry lightly touched the corpses, collecting the three zombie bodies.

He peered through the gap between the cars to the other side.

The street, which had been empty before, was now filled with zombies, easily numbering in the hundreds.

They had been attracted by the sound of the explosion.

Currently, they were aimlessly wandering about.

Henry invigorated himself, then lightly jumped to the top of the car wall.

He spotted a slender zombie, leapt down, and directly grabbed its hair.

The moment he touched the zombie, his energy armor enveloped his body again.

"Ow~"

The zombie noticed Henry and suddenly let out a loud scream.

However, by then, Henry had already taken a few running steps with the zombie in hand and jumped back outside the car wall.

The other zombies, cluelessly, hadn't noticed what was happening.

These hundreds of zombies continued to emit odd noises; zombies are almost immune to the sounds of their own kind.

Henry moved too quickly and silently, naturally not attracting the attention of the zombies.

Back on the other side of the car wall, Henry tossed the zombie into a dead-end alley, then quickly jumped to the other side of the wall.

At this point, having lost sight of Henry and no longer attracted by external stimuli, the zombie reverted to a drifting state.

Henry quickly returned to the mouth of the alley and set up a laser trip mine.

He also set an alarm clock for 10 minutes and placed it on the road opposite the alley entrance, ensuring it was out of the trip mine's harm's way.

Then, he jogged to the predetermined location, which was three kilometers away from the zombie's position.

Soon, the set time elapsed.

The alarm clock went off.

"Aow...uh..."

Attracted by the sound of the alarm, the zombie frantically charged towards it...

Bang!

A loud explosion sounded...

Henry did not receive any prompt...

It was still too far!

Continue!

Henry caught another zombie and threw it into the alley.

This time he stood at a distance of 2.5 kilometers.

Bang!

The explosion sounded again.

Still no prompt...

One more time!

This time at 2 kilometers.

Bang!

Ding! You have killed a zombie!

Automatically collected [Energy Cores] *1 (80% bonus less than 1 point, accumulated until next collection), [Mutant Fertilizer] *2, [Damaged Key] *1...

It worked!

Henry then adjusted the distance to 2.1 kilometers.

Bang!

Still no prompt.

This indicates that the maximum range of automatic collection is between 2 kilometers and 2.1 kilometers!

There's no need to test down to the tens of meters; it's a waste of time and not very meaningful.

Two kilometers!

So, Henry needs to design a defense line within a radius of two kilometers.

This would maximize the benefits of collecting Energy Cores and other supplies!

Henry returned to the location of the car wall.

He took out a [Reconnaissance Drone], launched it, and flew it northward.

Wearing VR glasses, Henry watched the view below through the camera in first-person perspective.

At first, everything appeared normal.

Apart from the hundreds of zombies jamming up the area around the car wall.

On the distant streets, the zombies were scattered, not very dense.

Moreover, the ground was marked with many pools of blood, as well as the remnants of cars and charred buildings from previous explosions.

Henry knew that the whole world had been restored.

So, these remnants must have been caused by the survivors after they crossed over.

The survivors at North River had also engaged in desperate fights with the zombies.

But now...

The entire North River area was eerily silent.

There probably weren't any living people left!

The drone continued to fly northward for several kilometers.

Finally, it spotted the traces of a zombie horde.

From a distance, the zombies were packed tightly, one after another.

Densely packed, they formed a dark mass.

It was like a black tide filling all the streets.

Looking into the distance, the sky was filled with dust.

The sky and the zombie horde seemed to merge into one, with no end in sight.

Henry knew that this smoke was the dust stirred up by the large number of zombies passing by.

Because the zombies kept moving, the dust was constantly churned up.

This was what caused such a phenomenon!

Judging by this scene.

Even a hundred thousand zombies seemed like a conservative estimate.

Zombies move swiftly at night and slower during the day.

Last night's explosions seemed to have significantly hastened the southward movement of the horde.

At this rate, it was estimated that by midday tomorrow at the latest, the zombies would reach the position of the car wall.

The time left for preparation... was running short!