When Jian Xingyi opened his eyes, he found herself lying in his own bed.

Shanhai was sitting nearby, staring at his terminal. When he saw Jian Xingyi had woken up, he shut it off.

Jian Xingyi sat up and looked around. She then glanced at her own terminal, which was covered in red dots—the backend waiting to be managed. After a moment’s pause, she asked, “How long have I been asleep?”

“Not too long—close to a day.”

…!

That long?

Shanhai said, “The spiritual power of 300 Spirit Heroes is no small matter. It’s only natural that you needed rest after connecting with them and being unable to withstand the strain.”

“Oh…”

Although the outcome was obvious given the current situation, Jian Xingyi still asked as if seeking confirmation, “We won, right?”

Shanhai chuckled lightly. “Thanks to you, we won without suffering a single scratch.”

“Well, I wouldn’t put it quite like that—it’s the result of everyone working together!” Jian Xingyi thought to himself. Only after this collaboration did he realize just how formidable Grapevine Peak truly was—and how terrifying their combat power was!

Jian Xingyi glanced up. The sky, which had previously been pitch black, had now turned back to the blood-red hue it had been when they first arrived.

Before, the surroundings had been a murky, gloomy chaos—eternal night save for the light of artificial lamps—but now it had returned to blood red. Could it be…

Jian Xingyi blinked and asked, “Has the System announced when the next zombie wave is coming?”

Shanhai replied, “No.”

That was exactly what everyone found strange.

The sky had returned to its blood-red hue, and the Ark was floating above it, but there was absolutely no sign of the next wave of zombies.

Could it be… that this was the end?

No more zombie waves?

Shanhai: “Once you’ve woken up and rested, we’ll need to hold a meeting to discuss our next plan and figure out how to distribute the rewards.”

“Oh… then let’s do it now. Don’t keep everyone waiting.”

Although Jian Xingyi had a backlog of rewards waiting to be claimed, collecting them would definitely take a lot of time.

Shanhai led Jian Xingyi to the office. But when they reached the entrance, Shanhai suddenly ducked behind Jian Xingyi.

Jian Xingyi was confused—was he suddenly feeling socially anxious?

After Jian Xingyi pushed the door open and stepped inside…

“Boom—!”

“Smack!!!”

Something exploded right beside him, and the next moment, Jian Xingyi’s face was plastered with streamers.

……!

Still shaken, Jian Xingyi frantically brushed the streamers away to find everyone from Grapevine Peak and the Long Live for a Hundred Years Guild standing there, all laughing and staring at him.

“Celebration banquet!” Cola laughed. “You’re late, so we thought we’d give you a little surprise.”

Heiye put his hands on his hips. “Hahahaha… Mainly, we wanted to welcome our hero of this mission!”

Bai Jie crossed her arms and laughed, “That’s right. If we’re talking about this victory celebration, it should go to our Xinghe first, followed by Shanhai. Come on over!”

Jian Xingyi froze for a moment, then burst into uncontrollable laughter.

Oh, come on…

He’d been imagining all sorts of things!

Turns out they’d just prepared a welcome surprise for him.

But…

Jian Xingyi looked at all the eyes staring at them and darted behind Shanhai in a single leap.

The two of them jostled back and forth, neither wanting to go in first.

“Oh my, what are you two doing! During the battle, you were the first ones to charge forward, so why are you hiding now?” Seeing this, Bai Jie immediately stepped forward, grabbed both of them, and pushed them to the front.

Only then did Jian Xingyi notice the table was covered with food, though it was all his.

Firelight laughed, “It just so happens that the batch of food we bought together earlier hasn’t been touched yet. Now that we’ve won, we finally have the mood to eat it together.”

“What’s this…?”

Jian Xingyi pointed to a round cake in the center of the table. It looked pretty big—enough for everyone to have several bites.

Bai Jie chuckled, “You don’t know? Take a look at this.”

Bai Jie handed the terminal screen to Jian Xingyi to view; it was an announcement in the public channel.

【Hello, players of the Dawnbreaker! The Midnight Session of the Zombie Tide Feast has concluded successfully. Congratulations to all players who secured their Ark spots. The Zombie Tide Leaderboard has also been revealed!】

First up is the Damage Dealt Leaderboard, which tracks the total damage contributed by players.

【Damage Dealt Leaderboard】

1. Grapevine Peak & Long Live For A Hundred Years

2. Beyond the Sea

3. It’s Really Cold & Warm Cotton Coat & A Single Cut of Winter Plum

4. Rain All Night

5. I Can’t Hear

……

14. Wildfire

……

Jian Xingyi was taken aback. Sure enough, even with players from Long Live for a Hundred Years in their ranks, Grapevine Peak still claimed the top spot. It proved that even when using Long Live for a Hundred Years to lower monster difficulty, Grapevine Peak still faced the toughest challenges in the entire server.

…… I can’t even imagine what kind of monsters Grapevine Peak would have to fight if the servers hadn’t merged—surely not a whole batch of Generals?

The second-place guild is from Wave Mountain, third place goes to some old friends, and fourth place is from Rainforest Mountain.

These three maps happen to be the hardest in Dawn’s Descent, so it makes sense.

Next up is the Survival Rankings. This ranking combines various factors—essentially, the most cost-effective victory—including member casualties and overall losses.

【Survival Leaderboard】

1. Grapevine Peak & Long Live for a Hundred Years

2. Beyond the Sea

3. Rain All Night

……

6. It’s Really Cold & Warm Cotton Coat & A Single Cut of Winter Plum

……

15. I Can’t Hear

16. Wildfire

This one wasn’t really a surprise, since thanks to Jian Xingyi’s various items, their guild managed to keep every single member alive.

It seems that 【It’s Really Cold】 suffered more in terms of supplies and personnel losses because they had a large group, and many of the members from A Single Cut of Winter Plum were relatively weaker. The same logic applies to I Can’t Hear.

【Congratulations to the guild 【Grapevine Peak & Long Live for a Hundred Years】 for topping both leaderboards! For the next three months, guild members will earn an additional 20% experience in combat, and their dungeon and quest rewards, as well as farming and breeding yields, will receive a 20% bonus!】

The same rewards as before—combined with the previous ones, that’s a total of 40% experience and bonuses.

This reward is absolutely amazing!

Jian Xingyi was overjoyed—this meant his future harvests would increase by 40%, which was no small amount.

【After the merger of the guilds 【Grapevine Peak & Long Live for a Hundred Years】, both sides achieved better results than during the first zombie wave, earning the achievement 【1+1>2】. Rewards: 200 million dawn coins in guild funds, 200 Bond Points, and 1 【Victory Cake】.】

【The guilds 【Grapevine Peak & Long Live for a Hundred Years】 topped both leaderboards, earning the achievement 【Sweep】, with rewards of 200 million dawn coins in guild funds and 200 Bond Points】

Wow.

After splitting the rewards, Long Live and Grapevine Peak each received 200 million in guild funds, and their Bond Points increased by 400. Leveling up requires 1,000 EXP, and 400 is almost half of that—that’s quite a lot.

And…

It took Jian Xingyi less than half a minute to scan through everything. He glanced at the 【Victory Cake】 in the rewards, then looked at the chocolate desserts on the table, and immediately figured out what was going on.

So that’s it!

The system actually gave everyone an extra cake as a bonus.

Since entering the game, they hadn’t had the luxury of desserts or cake. Everyone was thrilled—even if they could only have a bite or two, it would be worth it!

After Jian Xingyi took his seat, Bai Jie handed him the cake knife and said with a smile, “You take the first cut—you’re the protagonist.”

“I…” Jian Xingyi felt a bit flustered.

Bai Jie just smiled. “Don’t be afraid.”

Jian Xingyi hesitated.

Jian Xingyi looked around at everyone. This truly was… a moment worth commemorating.

Jian Xingyi took the knife and sliced down into a corner of the cake.

Applause and cheers erupted from all around.

In that moment, Jian Xingyi finally felt the tangible reality of victory.

Everyone then cut the cake into equal pieces, and each person received a small slice of chocolate cake.

Jian Xingyi took a bite; the rich, sweet flavor exploded on her tongue, and the long-awaited sweetness made her eyes squint with happiness.

Shanhai handed his piece of cake to Jian Xingyi. “Here, you eat this.”

Jian Xingyi shook her head. “Everyone has to have a piece—it’s for good luck.”

Shanhai hesitated. “But…”

“Oh, come on, just eat! A small piece is enough for me!” Jian Xingyi laughed. “Happiness is meant to be shared!”

“Alright.”

After everyone had eaten the cake and their meal, it was time for the meeting.

The Guild Administrators from both sides and Jian Xingyi entered a small room in the office and opened the guild management page.

The top row of the management page displayed the names of both guilds, followed by a badge indicating their levels.

Before the first zombie wave, the Long Live for a Hundred Years Guild was only Level 20. Now, after surviving two zombie waves and accumulating countless rewards, the guild had reached Level 24—just one more level up to claim the generous stage rewards.

As for Grapevine Peak… they’re already at max level.

Next came the data merge.

After the two guilds merged, the badge representing the Bond Level displayed a “9.”

Previously, to share farmland, everyone had worked themselves to the bone to boost the Bond Value to 13,000, reaching Level 9.

But the achievement for topping the leaderboard instantly granted everyone 400 points, and the five days of both groups working together to fight off the zombie hordes added a lot of experience points. In the blink of an eye, the Bond Level had reached 13,790.

Just 210 points away from upgrading to Level 10!

【Bond Level 10: Freely exchange supplies between the guild and personal backpacks】

【Bond Level 11: 【Feature Not Yet Available】】

Once they reach Level 10, exchanging supplies between them won’t require going through the marketplace anymore, and there won’t be any restrictions—this is incredibly convenient.

For example, if Bai Jie wants to give Jian Xingyi 100 million, the system wouldn’t allow it before. But once Bond Level reaches 10, forget 100 million—even 1 billion is possible.

As for Level 11… who knows what convenient features will be unlocked later.

At the bottom of the Bond Level screen are rows of reward records.

The Zombie Tide event is brutal, but the rewards are truly generous—the system is very generous with them.

【Guild 【Grapevine Peak & Long Live for a Hundred Years】 has accumulated over 100,000 zombie kills. Reward: …】

【Guild 【Grapevine Peak & Long Live for a Hundred Years】 has accumulated over 100,000 total Titan kills. Reward…】

【Guild 【Grapevine Peak & Long Live For A Hundred Years】 has accumulated over 100,000 total 【Godfather】 kills. Reward…】

【Guild 【Grapevine Peak & Long Live For A Hundred Years】 has accumulated over 100,000 total 【General】 kills. Reward…】

【Guild……

The achievements were dazzling, but the rewards were plain for everyone to see.

Generous!

Extremely generous!

【Based on system evaluation, all members of the guild 【Grapevine Peak & Long Live For A Hundred Years】 receive a +100 Combat Power boost】

Combat Power is already extremely difficult to farm, especially after being transported into the game.

This reward isn’t much for a max-power player like Shanhai, but for everyone else… It’s a godsend!

Jian Xingyi glanced at his terminal profile and found that his combat power had already risen to 206.

Great, great, great!

A level-6 noob is already a 206 T3 player!

Not only that…

【Based on system evaluation, all members of the guild 【Grapevine Peak & Long Live For A Hundred Years】 receive +5 to their personal fields and +5 to the guild’s shared fields. Field levels are distributed according to the highest level of fields owned by each player.】

This reward is also a godsend for everyone else, since not everyone is a max-level farming player like Jian Xingyi—an extra field is essentially a lifeline.

At the very least, Jian Xingyi can provide seeds for everyone, allowing them to become self-sufficient.

The stronger the guild, the stronger Jian Xingyi’s support network becomes.

Jian Xingyi has an overflowing supply of basic seeds, such as rice, and he can even synthesize seeds himself, so he doesn’t mind sharing them with everyone.

And for Jian Xingyi, even though he’s already maxed out, this reward is still incredibly tempting.

Currently, Jian Xingyi is busy upgrading his breeding area, so he’s reluctant to spend essence points on upgrading fields—especially since upgrading to A-rank requires so many essence points. However, these five fields are allocated based on the highest level of fields a player owns, so Jian Xingyi now has five additional A-rank fields.

Now he had a total of 300 B-grade plots and 30 A-grade plots.

【Based on the system’s assessment, all members of the guild 【Grapevine Peak & Long Live For A Hundred Years】 will receive 50 million dawn coins as a reward, and each of the two guilds will receive 100 million dawn coins as funds.】

After all, not everyone is as capable of making money through trading as Jian Xingyi, so this was the first time anyone had received such a large amount of dawn coins since entering the game.

We’ve struck it rich!

The guild received 100 million in funds, plus 200 million for topping the leaderboard, totaling 300 million.

Heiye said to Jian Xingyi, “We didn’t specifically give you any additional dawn coins, but… the guild’s 300 million is all yours.”

Jian Xingyi paused.

In other words, the 55 million dawn coins would still go into Jian Xingyi’s personal account, but if he wanted to use the guild’s 300 million, no one would stop him, not even ask a single question.

Just as the outside world said, Long Live For A Hundred Years was like an extension of Jian Xingyi—a reservoir of manpower and resources—and the entire guild was at his disposal.

Jian Xingyi accepted this without hesitation.

After all, if he were to make any long-term investments in the future, he would need Dawn Coins.

In addition to the dawn coins, there were also plenty of upgrade materials and accessories. Heiye and Baizhou clicked to let the system distribute them freely.

Jian Xingyi opened his mail and found it filled with weapon upgrade materials.

Lastly, there were the vouchers.

Heiye divided the combat vouchers equally among all the Guild Administrators and members, while half of the management vouchers went to Jian Xingyi, with the remainder distributed among the rest.

Jian Xingyi received 5 Combat Vouchers and 30 Management Vouchers.

……Now he had 61 Management Vouchers.

So many!

As for the Combat Vouchers, weapon upgrade materials, and accessories, Jian Xingyi, as always, used them to upgrade his rifle.

8,900/10,000

Yay!!

His rifle, which had been stuck at 6,600 EXP, was now finally skyrocketing toward its target.

Finally!

Lastly, there were individual rewards. The system had evaluated each player and distributed rewards accordingly, but these were beyond the scope of their current discussion; each player would be able to check their mailbox later to see them.

After sorting out the rewards, everyone moved on to discussing their next steps.

“Although the system hasn’t released any information on the next zombie wave, one thing I’m certain of is… we can’t just sit around and wait for death,” Heiye said, furrowing his brow. “Otherwise, we’ll be caught completely off guard, won’t we?”

“Exactly,” Bai Jie nodded. “I don’t have any specific plans yet, but here’s what I’m thinking: even though we received a lot of rewards from this zombie wave, we’ve also taken a heavy toll. So moving forward, everyone must work even harder to gather resources, improve themselves, and strengthen the guild.”

For example, Grapevine Peak earned 300 million from this zombie wave, but the cost during the wave… was far more than 300 million.

Everyone then discussed their future gathering plans.

However, these plans excluded Jian Xingyi and Shanhai. Everyone tacitly understood that these two preferred to act on their own, so they tactfully refrained from disturbing them.

With one being a resource tycoon and the other the guild’s top combatant, who would dare join them and be the third wheel?

After speaking, Bai Jie called out to Jian Xingyi and Shanhai.

At that moment, the room contained only the three of them, the flickering Firelight, and a can of cola.

Bai Jie asked, “Xinghe, what are your plans from here on out?”

Jian Xingyi glanced at the remaining members and roughly understood that what Bai Jie wanted to discuss next was the “Human Liberation Plan.”

With the next zombie wave yet to be announced, everyone was busy recovering… making this the perfect time to figure out how to leave the game.

Jian Xingyi told everyone about the doctor and the letter.

“So… once I’ve recovered, I want to head to Peaceful Mountain.” Jian Xingyi instinctively glanced at Shanhai.

Shanhai said, “I’ll go with you.”

The entire Dawnbreaker map is divided into eight major regions. The westernmost is Peace Mountain, followed by Lava Volcano, Flag-Raising Mountain, Thousand Bells Snow Mountain, and Rainforest Mountain, with the difficulty gradually increasing.

However, as you move eastward past Rainforest Mountain, the difficulty gradually decreases, leading to Wave Mountain and Peaceful Mountain.

Beyond Peaceful Mountain lies Forbidden Mountain, but this area is off-limits to players. It was originally slated to open in a future update, but since the game stopped receiving updates after players logged in, Forbidden Mountain has remained locked away.

The condition for opening the envelope is to reach Peaceful Mountain, and according to the Doctor, Jian Xingyi might need to enter Forbidden Mountain to find the answers he seeks.

Jian Xingyi had initially worried he wouldn’t be able to enter, but the Doctor assured him that since Jian Xingyi could even pass through air walls, the Forbidden Mountain wouldn’t be a problem at all.

This was also what puzzled Jian Xingyi.

How could he enter a place that everyone else couldn’t?

But regardless, traversing the entire map would be a massive undertaking.

Bai Jie paused for a moment and asked, “Do you need help?”

Jian Xingyi shook his head. “Not at the moment.”

“Alright.”

Bai Jie said, “Before the zombie tide, Wu Yun and Cangshui also discovered some… oddities regarding the connection between the Snow Mountains and the Rainforest Mountains. But those explorations were halted to deal with the zombie tide; now they’ll resume them.”

Jian Xingyi asked curiously, “What kind of oddities?”

“It’s hard to explain in a few words. Let’s wait until they make some progress and have them submit another report then.”

“Oh.” Jian Xingyi understood; after all, there were many things he couldn’t explain clearly to everyone. He could only vaguely say that he seemed to have gone to another dimension and met a strange doctor.

But Jian Xingyi knew this matter wasn’t that simple.

Whether it was the air walls, his dreams, the Holy Son, or those strange memory bubbles…

Perhaps only when he actually arrived at Peaceful Mountain would he be able to figure it all out.

After chatting for a while, Jian Xingyi and Shanhai finally headed home.

Seeing that there was nothing else to do, Shanhai lay down to rest.

Shanhai was utterly exhausted. Whether from the battles against the zombie hordes over the past few nights or the fierce fighting as a Spirit Hero, he could finally get a good night’s sleep.

Jian Xingyi sat beside Shanhai. Seeing that the man had fallen asleep, he couldn’t resist reaching out to gently touch the tip of his nose.

A soldier’s vigilance is extraordinary; under normal circumstances, Shanhai would have grabbed Jian Xingyi’s wrist and woken up long ago. But this time, sensing that familiar, reassuring scent, he showed no reaction—he even subconsciously rubbed his face against Jian Xingyi’s hand.

Jian Xingyi paused.

Just like a little puppy.

Jian Xingyi chuckled softly and reached out to gently ruffle the top of Shanhai’s head.

For some reason, the man whom others regarded as the terrifying, ruthless, and top-ranked expert in the entire server was, to him, just a big dog—a bit clumsy, a bit slow, and a bit insecure.

After admiring Shanhai’s sleeping face for a while, Jian Xingyi opened his terminal to check his email.

First up was his Spirit Warrior Talisman.

His Battle Talisman had originally been Level 2, but after this zombie tide… it had actually risen to Level 3.

Level 1: Duration 1 hour, can summon 100 foot soldiers

Level 2: Duration 3 hours, can summon 300 foot soldiers

Level 3: Duration 1 day, can summon 300 foot soldiers and 50 vanguards

Level 4: Lingers for three days, can summon 500 foot soldiers and 100 vanguards

Level 5: Lingers for three days, can summon 500 foot soldiers, 100 vanguards, and 1 general

Now his Spirit Warriors can linger for a full day, and he’s gained an extra 50 vanguard. Ordinary Spirit minions are already incredibly powerful—they can at least help everyone fend off the zombie tide—so wouldn’t the Vanguards be even more formidable?

Jian Xingyi was over the moon. To him, this was far better than any zombie tide reward!

After all, following this zombie tide, Jian Xingyi had fully realized just how powerful the Spirits were.

This was practically the greatest cheat code he could ever have as the Savior!!

Surviving for one extra day was already outrageous; if he could survive for three extra days in the future…

He couldn’t even imagine how amazing that would be. In other words, if another damn zombie tide came along, he’d just cast a summon, and the next three days would be a breeze!

After reading the notification about the Battle Talisman upgrade, Jian Xingyi moved on to other things. Like… the Savior System.

He tapped it open and, sure enough, this zombie tide had helped him complete quite a few achievements, with plenty of rewards waiting to be claimed.

【Helped 8,016/8,000 strangers fend off the zombie tide. Reward: 666 dawn coins, 6,666 Savior Experience, 【Wish Bottle】 x1】

【Achievement Method: Selling food and Pot Sprouts】

【Helped 125/125 guild members survive, Reward: 666 dawn coins, 6666 Savior XP, 【Wish Bottle】 x1】

【Achievement Method: Using the cart and Spirit Guardians to prevent casualties and protect guild members】

Just like before, Jian Xingyi wasn’t surprised.

It’s just…

Why does “protecting guild members” sound so awkward? That’s Grapevine Peak, after all!

Jian Xingyi couldn’t help but laugh and cry at the same time, but regardless, he now had two more Savior Wish Bottles!

Counting the previous ones, he had a total of four!

The reason he’d stockpiled so many was that the wishes Jian Xingyi actually wanted were already written on the boards at the Savior’s Wishing Pool, but the system hadn’t lit them up yet. And he wasn’t particularly interested in the wishes that had already been lit.

I wonder if, after this second wave of the undead, any of the wishes on the boards have been lit up?

Jian Xingyi opened the 【Wishing Pool】 section.

The board still displayed the wishes she had written earlier.

Want 1 SS-rank seed.

Want the entire Peace Mountain to be registered under her name.

Want to leave this game.

And so on…

The first wish… lit up?!