Chapter 45: Chapter 45: Combat Skill Card: Basic Combat Technique

[This is a special Basic Combat Skill Card. Upon use, you will acquire a basic combat skill. Use it?]

Lu Feng read the information provided by his inspection ability.

It was another skill card.

But this one was different from the life skill card he’d used to make Qingfeng Tea.

This was a combat skill card. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Lu Feng chose to use it without hesitation.

The Basic Combat Skill Card dissipated in his hand.

The next moment, information began to flood his mind, just like before.

It was all about combat. The knowledge wasn’t just deeply imprinted in his mind; it also came with a strange muscle memory, as if he had practiced these basic moves countless times.

It was a truly peculiar sensation.

Moreover, while these basic combat techniques were simple, every move was decisive and efficient. There was nothing flashy about them; they were more like killing arts.

Clearly, these were moves suited for the apocalypse.

"Boss, what’s our next move?" Lin Jiao stepped forward and asked.

The roars of zombies echoed continuously from all around.

The recent fight had already alerted some of the nearby zombies.

"Help me find a rope," Lu Feng ordered, simultaneously starting to connect the large loudspeaker to the amplifier.

A moment later, Lin Jiao returned with a rope she had found in the ’Lin’s Martial Arts Hall’.

Lu Feng decisively used the rope to tie the loudspeaker and amplifier together, planning to hang the setup in mid-air in the first-floor hall, lowering it from the second floor.

Once the loudspeaker went off, there was no doubt the first to be drawn would be the zombies on the first floor.

This would prevent the loudspeaker from being destroyed immediately.

After securing the rope, Lu Feng turned to Lin Jiao and the other three. "You guys get out of here first. I’ll handle the rest."

Upon hearing this, the four of them nodded decisively and headed upstairs.

Once the noise started, not only would the zombies swarm in, but there was no telling where a Mutant Beast might pop out from. They didn’t have their boss’s ability to vanish at will.

Lu Feng, meanwhile, went down the stairwell to a corner on the first floor.

He peeked out, his view filled with a dense horde of zombies.

Before the zombies could react, he decisively quit the game and returned to his apartment.

He opened the valves on two gas canisters, brought them directly into the game, then tipped them over and rolled them sideways from the stairwell out into the hall.

Similarly, before the zombies could react, he retreated back into the stairwell, brought more gas canisters into the game, and rolled them out in the same fashion.

In an instant, gas began to spread throughout the surrounding area.

The gas canisters had been tampered with. With several releasing gas at once, the heat generated by the rapid increase in gas concentration would heat the canisters themselves. When the flame from the nozzle flashed back, a terrifying explosion would occur.

After arranging the gas canisters, Lu Feng raced back up to the second floor as quickly as possible. He then moved the tied-up loudspeaker and amplifier into position above them.

Then, he hit play and let it hang in mid-air.

"Soaring freely, in your heart..."

Loud, rhythmic music instantly filled the Department Store.

And, boosted by two amplifiers, the sound was absolutely booming.

Compared to this, the speakers used by aunties for their plaza dances back in the real world would seem utterly pathetic.

The moment the music started, the surrounding zombies went into a frenzy. The ones on the ground floor swarmed madly toward the gas canisters.

The zombies on the second floor also began to surge toward Lu Feng’s position.

Lu Feng had no intention of dealing with these zombies right now. He went straight up to the third floor and found a hidden spot to watch from above.

At this point, Lin Jiao, Xu Bin, Chen Tao, and Chen Hao had also made it to an upper floor. They instinctively paused when they heard the music start.

They had definitely never heard this song before, but they found it strangely rhythmic, even catchy.

The four of them peered down through the railing, their eyes widening slightly. The first-floor hall was in complete chaos. The interwoven roars of countless zombies echoed as they gathered beneath the large loudspeaker.

More and more zombies were being drawn in from the surroundings, forming a dense, tide-like mass.

In terms of numbers alone, there had to be at least a thousand of them.

If they were the ones surrounded by this many zombies, they’d be so damn screwed.

The zombies gathered, unable to reach the loudspeaker, and could only roar in frustration.

They clearly paid no attention to the gas canisters freely venting their contents.

A sharp screech rang out at that moment.

Hearing this, Lin Jiao and the others instinctively ducked. It was the sound of the Mutant Beast.

Lu Feng immediately saw a Slaying Dog emerge from a corner of the hall and charge toward the loudspeaker at top speed.

This Slaying Dog was just like the previous two: the size of a calf, with scarlet eyes and a savage appearance.

Seeing this, Lu Feng didn’t hesitate. He took out the lighter he had prepared, lit it, and tossed it down.

The Slaying Dog reached the loudspeaker, leaped violently, and clamped its jaws around it. A loud CRUNCH echoed, and naturally, the music stopped abruptly.

The Slaying Dog landed on the ground, clearly stunned for a moment. The loudspeaker was not the delicious meal it had expected.

Just then, the lighter, trailing a small flame, landed. The gas permeating the air ignited, and the entire area was instantly engulfed in a sheet of fire, creating a scorching pocket of heat.

At the same time, the gas canisters ignited. Under the intense heat of the surrounding space, the flames at the canister valves flashed back. Then, the scene he had envisioned unfolded.

BOOM!~

BOOM!~

Terrifying explosions roared to life, unleashing dragons of fire that blasted outwards with a horrifying heatwave.

The horrific, tearing force shredded all the zombies in its path, ripping their bodies to pieces.

The Slaying Dog was not spared. After a single, wretched howl, it was blasted into the air by the shockwave, its body torn apart in a spray of blood.

A dense stream of notifications appeared in Lu Feng’s mind:

[Congratulations! You have killed a zombie and gained 5 EXP!]

[Congratulations! You have killed a zombie and gained 5 EXP!]

...

[Congratulations! You have killed a Mutant Beast Slaying Dog and gained 100 EXP!]

[Congratulations! You have killed a zombie and gained 5 EXP!]

...

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[Congratulations! You have killed a zombie and gained 5 EXP!]

...

When the notifications finally stopped, the stench of blood mixed with rot had spread through the air.

Lu Feng peeked his head out to look at the first-floor hall. A single glance made his stomach turn, followed by a powerful urge to vomit.

He had never seen the "mountains of corpses and seas of blood" described in ancient texts, but he was now looking at a scene of mangled remains piled like hills and blood flowing like rivers—only this blood was black and putrid.

The scene was incredibly gruesome.

Fortunately, from dealing with that mutated zombie earlier, he had already witnessed a smaller-scale version of such a scene, with severed limbs scattered everywhere.

The moment the explosion occurred, Lin Jiao and the others had instinctively peeked out again.

But when they looked at the first-floor hall again, it had already turned into this horrific spectacle.

Within a certain radius, a whole section of the dense zombie horde had been completely cleared out.

As powerful as the explosion from several gas canisters was, its range was still limited. It was impossible to eliminate all of the zombies; only a portion in the middle had been dealt with.

The next moment, the surrounding zombies swarmed in again, covering the cleared area. Some of the zombies whose bodies had been blown apart but were not yet dead were pitiably engulfed by the tide.

A moment later, Lin Jiao and the other three came downstairs, their faces etched with shock.

"The Mutant Beast is dealt with. Do your best to scout the six floors below this one," Lu Feng said. He looked at the still-dense horde of zombies below, helpless for the time being. He couldn’t even retrieve the Mutant Beast’s crystal core.

There were still too many zombies, and he had already used up all his gas canisters.

He would just have to wait for his cousin to deliver more gas canisters later.

’Maybe I should consider opening my own gas canister dealership,’ he thought.

After scanning the area a few more times and seeing that no loot had dropped, he exited the game on impulse.

Back in his apartment, Lu Feng took another deep breath before looking at his character attribute panel:

Character: Lu Feng

Sex: Male

Level: 6

Strength: 9 (Average Human: 5)

Agility: 9 (Average Human: 5)

Stamina: 9 (Average Human: 5)

Spiritual Power: 0

Combat Skills: Basic Combat Arts!

EXP: 635/3200

That last explosion had taken out several hundred zombies from the dense horde, allowing him to level up directly.

Furthermore, this time he leveled up, his Strength, Agility, and Stamina had each increased by a full point, instead of the previous 0.5.

A combat skill had also been added to his attribute panel—the Basic Combat Arts he had just acquired.

This prompted him to try performing the moves, following the memories in his head.

He threw two quick, sharp blows.

The moves felt completely natural, as if he had performed them countless times before—they just flowed.

Truly amazing!