Chapter 27: The Sweeping Squad, a Signal for Help?

[Congratulations to the host for completing a series of tasks. A new mission has appeared. Along the way, you have killed many survivors, most of whom left behind some inheritance. These items are of considerable value. The new mission is to sweep up these resources and bring them back to camp! Mission locations: Wang Ping’an’s lair, the village camp, and the psychiatric hospital.]
[Mission reward: one mystery gift pack!]

Damn!
This damn system—aren’t you getting more and more like a heartless capitalist?
Three places for just one reward pack?

Gu Lang, fully aware of the system’s stingy nature, simply chose to ignore it.
He issued an order, telling his wife to begin sweeping the area first.
The village was large, but now it was deserted.
Plenty of supplies lay in plain sight, free for Gu Lang to take.

First, there were over a hundred crude firearms and some steel pellet bullets.
Besides that, there was plenty of food and drink—cured meats, rice, flour, oil.
These were two of the most vital types of resources, and Gu Lang stowed them all in his storage pouch.
The pouch’s space was limited, about as big as a minivan’s cargo area.
But since he’d already returned previous loot to the camp, there was room now.
In addition, Gu Lang scavenged a handgun from the village chief.
He already had one himself—both were standard models.
He handed this new one over to the little girl to use.

After that, Gu Lang decided not to leave immediately, but to rest for a while.
Both he and the Queen were exhausted.
It was dangerous to go out at this hour.
They found the most luxurious room in the village—a villager’s house.
It was more of a small villa, with several luxury cars parked outside.
Before the apocalypse, this would have been a wealthy family indeed.
Once everyone was settled, Gu Lang started allocating his attribute points.

This time, he had a whopping 107 points!
Eighty came from completing tasks, the rest from killing zombies, villagers, and Chosen Ones along the way.
This gave Gu Lang confidence—his strength would skyrocket.
He assigned all the points to strength and speed.
After distributing them, his attributes changed dramatically.

[Name: Gu Lang]
[Rank: Silver (Rookie)]
[Charm: 57]
[Speed: 100]
[Strength: 100]
[Intelligence: 10]
[Skills: Sovereignty, Savage Charge, Ice Spike, Blade and Sword Aura, Mass Enhancement]
[Points remaining: 0]

Two hundreds—according to the Zombie Queen’s power, just one more hundred would be enough to reach the next tier.
But that would take time—no need to rush.

Dawn soon arrived, and the group was ready to set out.
The mission this time was to sweep three locations.
They started from the village—now only two remained.
Gu Lang returned once again to the psychiatric hospital.

Compared to last time, this journey was unimpeded.
The ordinary zombies inside the hospital were no match for Gu Lang.
They advanced, cutting down everything in their path.
Along the way, Gu Lang became more familiar with the Zombie Queen.

This Queen, before her death, was the daughter of the hospital director.
She was indeed a lady of good upbringing—beautiful, kind-hearted.
She often helped at the hospital and was known far and wide as the little angel of the psychiatric ward.
But after the outbreak, she witnessed her father’s death with her own eyes.
Devastated, she transformed into a powerful zombie, nearly of gold rank.
Now, as Gu Lang’s lover, she had become rather clingy—
Even more affectionate than the little girl.
She followed closely by Gu Lang’s side at all times,
Though she dared not get too close, only following silently,
And spoke sparingly.

Gu Lang wasn’t eager to nurture the relationship just yet.
He would wait until the subsequent missions were complete, then consider advancing their bond to marriage.
After all, even if he succeeded now, future mission rewards would be upgraded all at once—
Doing it now would be a waste of effort.

Soon, they left the psychiatric hospital.
This trip yielded a rich harvest.
There were many powerful silver-ranked zombies inside,
Trapped within the hospital, forming a natural environment.
Unable to escape, these zombies developed rapidly to silver rank.
After killing them, Gu Lang gained a large number of attribute points.
Counting all those earned along the way, his points now totaled 20!
Only the final stop remained: Wang Ping’an’s lair.

At this moment, the Zombie Queen spoke up shyly,
“Brother Gu Lang, Huang Ping’an is a local tyrant, very powerful. There should still be more than ten bronze-level experts in the camp, plus over a hundred underlings.”

Gu Lang nodded dismissively.
“No problem! Even you alone could handle them.”
He spoke the truth.
Everyone had witnessed the Zombie Queen’s might—
A near-gold expert was already this formidable.
And now, Gu Lang himself boasted double-hundred attributes,
Just one step from gold.
The two of them together could easily wipe out an entire bandit stronghold.

Soon, they saw clusters of small tents in the distance.
This was a wild area, rarely visited by people or zombies—hence chosen as a hideout.
But it had its drawbacks: no walls or brick houses built with modern technology,
So its defenses were poor.

Gu Lang and his group crept quietly to within fifty meters of the tents,
Still undetected.
At last, Gu Lang gave the order.
A horde of zombies surged forth, forming a tidal wave.
Many ordinary members were slain on the spot by the zombies.
As for the bronze-level fighters, Gu Lang dealt with them with a single ice spike each.
With his strength now at a hundred, his stamina had greatly increased—
Where once he could cast ten ice spikes, now he could manage at least fifty.
Ice Spike had practically become his basic attack.

After sweeping through, the camp soon fell silent.
Gu Lang felt no guilt for killing these people—
They were all murderous bandits; killing them was only just.
This time, there were no new skills, just five more attribute points dropped.

Gu Lang began looting in earnest.
In these chaotic times, bandits truly lived lavishly.
The camp contained all sorts of supplies—
Dried meats, canned goods, even candy.
Such food was extremely rare in the apocalypse.
Gu Lang stuffed it all into his pouch.
There were even modern firearms and ammunition:
Two rifles, each with three hundred rounds.
Gu Lang took them at once—one for the little girl, the other for Li Xiaoxiao.

Just then, the little girl exclaimed,
“Brother Gu Lang! Look, isn’t this a telephone?”
Frowning, Gu Lang checked and found it was a telegraph machine.
Such things were rare in the apocalypse, but extremely valuable—
They could receive signals from the outside world at any time.
Gu Lang hurried forward and found it intact,
With a diesel generator still supplying power—
Amazingly, it still worked!

Just then, a broken, intermittent voice came from the telegraph:
“Is anyone there? Help… help me! I’m in the military district. There are lots of supplies here…”