Refuge

Waldo said to Alanna, "Alright, let's go in now. Given the weather, it's likely to rain. We need to act quickly and finish the task. We'll sleep in the big villa tonight!"

Alanna smiled and replied, "Great! I hope there's a big bed inside where we can get a good night's sleep!"

Without wasting any more words, the two of them prepared their supplies and set off towards their destination. Walking into the villa area, Waldo led Alanna along the grassy path behind the villas.

This path was usually used by the property management for inspections and was rarely frequented by people.

However, with the presence of zombie hordes, Waldo wasn't sure if there would be many zombies on this path. It was a gamble he was willing to take. A frontal attack would only attract the attention of the zombies.

Fortunately, they were lucky, and the grassy path was free of zombies. Just as Waldo and Alanna were about to exit the path, a zombie suddenly appeared at the end of it. Waldo was the closest, being at the forefront as the vanguard. He was almost in close contact with the zombie.

At that moment, Waldo didn't have time to draw his gun as the zombie lunged towards him with its arms swinging. Swish, swish! Two arrows flew past Waldo's ear and went straight into the zombie's mouth. The zombie burst with thick ooze and toppled forward onto Waldo.

Waldo pushed the zombie away and looked at Alanna, who was still in shock, holding the crossbow. He gave her a thumbs-up and said, "I didn't expect you, Dr. Alanna, to have such strong shooting talent."

Alanna regained her composure and quickly asked, "Are you okay? I was so scared when I shot the zombie with the crossbow. You were so close to it! I was afraid I might hit you. But luckily, I managed to kill the zombie."

Hearing Alanna's confession, Waldo, who had faced the sudden appearance of a zombie, wasn't scared, but now he was sweating coldly.

He thought about the arrows that narrowly missed him and said to himself, "Close call, so close. I almost died prematurely, betrayed and killed by my teammate."

"I'm fine. Let's keep going. The safe haven we chose is nearby," Waldo assured Alanna.

At that moment, they heard noises from the outskirts of the villa area. Waldo cursed, "Damn it! Let's rush in and occupy a villa. Once we're inside, the threat from the zombies will be reduced. Shoot arrows! Suppress their attacks and set them on fire!"

Waldo furrowed his brow. He didn't expect that there were other players entering the villa area as well. However, it worked out for them as it would draw the attention of the majority of the zombies.

Waldo pulled Alanna close and took advantage of the chaos to dash out of the grassy path, heading towards the villa they had chosen. During the process, some zombies noticed Waldo and Alanna's presence and rushed towards them.

But before they could get close, Waldo used a Molotov cocktail to keep them at a distance. And finally, he threw a hand grenade into the group of zombies.

Boom! The zombie horde suffered heavy casualties, and the two of them successfully ran into the villa by the lakeside. The commotion caused by Waldo also alerted the group on the outskirts of the villa area.

"What the hell! There are players here too?"

"He also has a hand grenade!"

"What's so special about that? We have a hand grenade too! He can't have more than one. Damn it, he wanted to keep that hand grenade, but it seems he won't have the chance."

Soon after, another explosion from a hand grenade was heard. Once Waldo and Alanna entered the villa, they closed the main door and noticed several zombies on the first floor.

Without waiting for the zombies to react, Waldo pulled out his P92 pistol and started shooting. With Alanna firing randomly beside him, they quickly cleared the zombies from the villa.

The reason Waldo didn't hesitate to use his limited Molotov cocktails and even sacrifice a hand grenade outside was because he didn't want to reveal his firearms and alert the other group.

After all, Molotov cocktails and hand grenades were valuable, but they could still be found on trading platforms. Firearms, on the other hand, were treasured and not readily available.

Waldo and Alanna cleared the zombies from the villa, confirming it as their long-term refuge. At the same time, a window popped up in Waldo's interface.

[Dear player, this refuge has been detected as unclaimed. Would you like to take control?]

[Yes/No]

Waldo clicked the "Yes" option. With the system's prompt, he felt that the villa had become the property of their team.

[Villa Area Refuge: A place for players to rest, can be used for blueprint upgrades, to avoid zombie waves, and for player challenges.]

Waldo turned to Alanna and smiled, saying, "Dr. Alanna, now this villa will be our home for a long time. You can consider this place our home in this apocalyptic world."

Seeing Alanna relieved and laughing, Waldo also relaxed from the battle mode.

Indeed, having a refuge in a zombie-infested world was a luxury.

After exploring the villa, Waldo walked to the balcony on the second floor. Although the group that broke in from the front successfully entered the villa area, they suffered heavy losses. It was clear that they had also depleted their supplies.

After all, almost half of the zombie horde in the villa area had gone after them.

In another villa, a young man reported to a middle-aged man sitting on a luxurious leather sofa, "Leader, we suffered heavy losses this time. Half of our brothers died, and more importantly, we ran out of combat supplies. We only have some cold weapons left."

Tommy listened to the report, his face gloomy. He angrily slammed the marble coffee table in front of him.

"Damn it! It's all because of the inaccurate intel. They said there were fewer zombies in the villa area, but we rashly attacked from the front, and we wiped out almost half of the zombie horde in the villa area. Now, indeed, there are fewer zombies in the villa area. Damn it!"

Just as he was fuming and cursing loudly, a lightning bolt suddenly struck from the sky, followed by a deafening explosion.

Crack!

The black clouds couldn't bear the burden any longer, and heavy rain poured down, making the air damp and cold with a sudden drop in temperature.

The chat channel exploded with activity.

ID382334: Damn it! I thought it

was regular rain and tried to catch some water, but it turned out to be acid rain?! And not only that, touching the acid rain burns. It hurts so much!

ID345345: Screw it, I was just about to collect water. I don't care anymore, let's just keep collecting. What if there's no clean water left one day? Boiled acid rain tastes better than mountain spring water!