After the guild raid and a day’s delay, there was now only one day left until the zombie tide. Jian Xingyi first checked how much the guild still needed to reach its three objectives.

The guild raid rewards had been distributed, significantly boosting both zombie kills and Dawn Coin contributions.

Jian Xingyi reviewed the details: thanks to the high-difficulty dungeon and the boss kill, both the Long Live Guild and Grapevine Peak received 10 million Dawn Coins each as rewards from this raid.

Grapevine Peak racked up 260,000 zombie kills, while Long Live Guild managed 40,000.

Not only that, but on this day, while everyone was looking for him, they were also replenishing their wood and Dawn Coins. For example, Lone Wolf, Akita, and others had gone to high-difficulty maps with Grapevine Peak to gather resources over the past few days and received quite a few rare items. As a result, they crafted numerous firearms and items for sale, earning the guild roughly 8 million Dawn Coins, which significantly boosted their Dawn Coin reserves.

Long Live

6.9 / 7.5 million Dawn Coins

74.3 / 75,000 Wood

13.8 / 15,000 Zombie Kills

The walls along the guild’s sides and back entrance have now been completed, while the front entrance is still half-finished.

Jian Xingyi’s villa is quite tall. Looking out the window, he saw the bricks of the surrounding walls arranged in a harmonious pattern, neatly laid out according to the blueprints provided by Cangshui and Wu Yun.

Standing by the window, Jian Xingyi was somewhat awestruck by the sight.

The long wall encircled the entire guild’s perimeter. Bricks and vines intertwined, leaving plenty of gaps, yet it remained sturdy, instilling a profound sense of security.

Every single brick here was earned through everyone’s hard work and laid brick by brick by the members themselves.

Shanhai asked, “We only have one day. Your guild needs to step up your kill count. Are you coming with me to the end of Peace Mountain?”

Jian Xingyi nodded, then climbed onto Shanhai’s motorcycle. The two made haste toward the air wall at the mountain’s end.

After all, time was tight, and they couldn’t venture too far. With so many zombies beyond Peace Mountain’s air wall, Jian Xingyi could farm a large number of kills in one go with Shanhai’s help.

On the way there, Jian Xingyi leaned against Shanhai and opened the backend to list items for sale.

With the Snow Mountain’s help, he now had an additional 100 plots for growing snow lotus. Combined with the 65 plots in front of the Peace Mountain air wall, plus the 10 plots at his home and on Snow Mountain, he had a total of 165 B-grade and 15 A-grade plots. After setting aside what was needed for his own use, the harvest yielded at least 5,000 blossoms. After listing the Hardening Potions, he successfully received 30 million.

In addition to snow lotus, Jian Xingyi also listed food items in Zone 3 and fulfilled guild orders. Since animals in the breeding zone were constantly maturing and ready for harvest, meat supplies kept increasing. Combined with income from vines, this brought in nearly 30 million.

As before, Jian Xingyi earned a total of 60 million.

Jian Xingyi had originally worried that with the zombie tide approaching, food might not sell well, but surprisingly, this time the food sold even faster.

It seems that precisely because the zombie tide is coming—and everyone has already experienced it once and knows what to expect—people are stockpiling food to conserve their strength and prepare for the worst. Some are even…

【Aaaah, is it gone? Is it gone? Was I too slow again? I’m gonna cry】

【Big Shot Xinghe, will there be more restocks during the zombie surge? I didn’t get any, I’m so sad】

【Big Shot Xinghe, don’t leave!! My dad! My living dad, please restock a little more!】

【Quick, ask for some Hardening Potions while the chaos is on!】

【To the person above, I don’t think there’s any left…】

Jian Xingyi didn’t reply; after all, he wasn’t sure when or if they’d restock, so he figured he’d just wing it when the time came.

After adding 60 million Dawn Coins, the guild finally had enough.

Heiye: 【Grateful.jpg】

Haihai: 【Long live Xinghe!! This guild would fall apart without Xinghe!】

Heiye: 【Everyone, hang in there! We’re just a little short on wood, and zombie kills now! Let’s go kill some!!】

Akita: 【Working on it, we’re killing zombies in Fire God’s Belly】

The guild has now split into a small squad to continue chopping wood nearby, while most have followed Grapevine Peak out to hunt zombies—after all, they’re still a bit short on Bond Points.

Grapevine Peak is also gathering wood right now, so the current strategy is for Grapevine Peak members to bring Long Live to the map, where they’ll chop wood and kill zombies simultaneously.

Everyone is so busy they can’t even stop.

Some guilds have already given up on building all their walls, but Grapevine Peak and Long Live, who are clearly just a hair’s breadth away from completion, don’t want to miss a single brick.

After Jian Xingyi finished handling everything, he finally opened his mailbox.

After guild battles, aside from everyone’s main objectives—Dawn Coins and zombie kills—the system also distributes plenty of upgrade materials and extra rewards.

As always, all the guild’s Management Vouchers were given to Jian Xingyi, adding another 5 to his total, bringing him to 26 vouchers. The Combat Vouchers were split evenly among the Guild Master, Vice Guild Master, Council Members, and Jian Xingyi, giving him a total of 2. As for the upgrade materials, they were divided among all guild members.

Jian Xingyi fed all the upgrade materials he had obtained, including the combat exchange vouchers, into his A-rank gun.

5700/10000

His experience points jumped by over a thousand at once—he was already more than halfway to the S-rank gun progress bar!

Jian Xingyi thought to himself: His combat power had originally been only 86, but because he’d been hanging out with Shanhai and running dungeons so often lately—even killing zombies behind air walls—the system had credited him with kills on the giant dungeon bosses. As a result, he’d now reached 106, barely scraping into Tier 3 from Tier 4. With his A-rank rifle and A-rank armor, he was now a capable combatant…!

Not the best, but better than most!

Jian Xingyi then opened his lucky bag.

The lucky bags were dropped when he and the zombies were blown up during a previous dungeon run—truly a case of “fortune and misfortune go hand in hand.”

Since Jian Xingyi had been tagging along with Shanhai to kill zombies everywhere, he’d collected quite a few lucky bags. He counted them—there were five in total.

Glancing at the guild chat, it seemed most people had gotten at most three, while quite a few had only one or two—some even came away empty-handed. After all, lucky bags were scarce, so his haul was already pretty good.

The contents of the lucky bags were said to be random, much like opening a blind box—you could get anything.

Exchange vouchers, upgrade materials, Dawn Coins, rare items… anything was possible—or nothing at all.

Jian Xingyi swallowed hard. With something so dependent on luck… he always felt like fortune wasn’t exactly on his side, even though he had the luckiest bags.

Jian Xingyi took a deep breath and clicked to open it.

【Player 【Xinghe】 opened the lucky bag and received 666 Dawn Coins】

Jian Xingyi: “……”

I knew it!

【Player 【Xinghe】 opened the lucky bag and received 66 Dawn Coins】

Jian Xingyi: “……”

Even fewer!

【Player 【Xinghe】 opened the lucky bag and received luck and sympathy. Keep trying!】

Jian Xingyi: “……”

Jian Xingyi let out a heavy sigh and turned to look at Shanhai, who handed him the terminal. “Can you spare a hand to open a lucky bag for me?”

Don’t let him waste such a good opportunity—this kind of thing is best left to a lucky player.

Shanhai paused for a moment and said, “I’m not sure I’ll get anything good.”

Jian Xingyi pouted, “It’ll definitely be better than what I’d get anyway. If you don’t get anything good, then it’s the lucky bag’s fault!”

Shanhai then reached out and tapped the screen.

【Player 【Xinghe】 opened the lucky bag and received an S-rank seed!】

Jian Xingyi: “………………”

This wasn’t Shanhai’s terminal, so he couldn’t see what Jian Xingyi had obtained. Seeing his blank expression, Shanhai asked with concern, “Didn’t you get anything good?”

Jian Xingyi handed the terminal back to Shanhai with a somber look. “Try again.”

Shanhai tapped again.

【Player 【Xinghe】 opened the lucky bag and obtained 6,666 Dawn Coins】

So even a “Lucky King” has his limits!

But…

Damn it!!! He’s still so lucky!!

Waaahhh… How can the gap between people be so huge? ! Why is he so lucky, and why is my luck so terrible!

But… but!!

I’m still so happy!

This is an S-rank seed—how long has it been since I got one?!

Jian Xingyi turned and hugged Shanhai tightly. “You got an S-rank seed! Thank you…!”

Shanhai froze for a moment, then chuckled softly, “I’m glad I could be of help.”

Jian Xingyi couldn’t wait to open the package containing the S-rank seed to see what was inside.

【Variety: S-rank Sugarcane】

【Description: Can be eaten directly or refined into sugar. The sugar’s sweetness not only enhances flavor but also increases the bonus effect of food by +10%】

【Source: Guild Raid 【The Edge That Cuts Through Gold】 Lucky Bag】

Jian Xingyi: “……!”

What a great find!

Unlike A-rank seeds, S-rank seeds usually come with bonuses and special functions—and this sugarcane’s ability is absolutely top-notch!

That means, for example, if his B-grade meat increases cold and hot weapon attack power by 50% when eaten, stir-frying it with this sugarcane or sprinkling a little sugar on top would boost it to 60%.

The temperature boost from ginger soup, the stamina bonus from watermelon, the energy boost from coffee… everything gets a bonus!

Sugarcane not only fills you up but is also delicious. More importantly, you can extract sugar from it at the Synthesis Station—this is just too incredible…!

I just wonder what would happen if I combined lychees—which already provide a 100% precise bonus—with sugar to make lychee syrup?

Maybe I’ll give it a try later!

But in any case, praise sugarcane, praise sugar, praise lucky bags, praise Shanhai!!

After finishing all this, Jian Xingyi took a quick inventory of what was in his backpack.

A bunch of Plants vs. Zombies series items—maybe they’ll come in handy during the next zombie horde.

3 Unity Points.

1 Bag of Tricks.

2 Savior’s Wish Bottles.

Spirit Battle Talismans, Wish Talismans, and Snow Spirit Talismans.

26 Business Exchange Vouchers.

The letter the Doctor gave him.

Some miscellaneous map items, such as a compass, an anemometer, a navigator, and a campfire.

Some tools for manual labor, such as 11 axes, 11 shovels, 2 excavators, and 2 chainsaws.

Ordinary beast meat, nearly filling his backpack—not very useful but filling.

Potato chips, cookies, and soda from the Air Wall Supermarket, which take up a lot of inventory space; they’re not very useful but can… bring joy?

A large amount of food, mostly potatoes for sustenance, livestock meat for combat, and lychees. Plus two unenlightened seeds—he’ll have to wait until he goes to the snowy mountains later.

Currently, he has 290 plots of B-grade farmland and 25 plots of A-grade.

The farm is entirely Grade B, consisting of one dairy barn, three pens (for sheep, pigs, and cattle), and one loach pond.

After spending a fortune to upgrade the livestock area, combined with the substantial amount of Essence Points he obtained from rare herbs in the group dungeon, he currently has 1,350 Essence Points. He’s saving them for now, not yet sure what to do with them.

This… should be enough to handle the second zombie tide, right?

Jian Xingyi wasn’t entirely sure, but ultimately, the more resources he had, the better.

For instance, since both he and Shanhai were heading to the end of Peace Mountain, Jian Xingyi planned to enter the Air Wall once more to purchase the fields inside.

After all, the fields behind the Air Wall are heavily polluted and therefore very cheap, but as long as he has Green Vines, they’re usable—the impact isn’t significant.

So even though the yield is a bit lower—for instance, the yield of an A-grade field in the Snow Mountain Temple is five times that of a Volcano Farm—the price and quantity balance things out, so the loss won’t be too great.

There are plenty of fields available, but few with suitable locations, so Jian Xingyi doesn’t plan to pass them up.

After Jian Xingyi and Shanhai reached the end of Peace Mountain, Jian Xingyi sat on a tree branch and began firing into the familiar sea of zombies.

The zombies were drawn over and gathered beneath the tree, clawing at it, but Jian Xingyi’s current weapon was an A-class rifle, more than capable of handling the situation.

The trees swayed under the pressure; for an ordinary player, the trunk would have snapped long ago. If the zombies had gathered beneath the tree to form a wall of flesh, piling up into a small hill, they could have climbed up to Jian Xingyi’s height. However, Shanhai had been helping Jian Xingyi control the situation all along, shooting down any zombies that approached or gathered.

The zombies at the edge of the air wall were endless; they kept pouring out of the black hole. However, as night fell and with only one hour left until the end of the day, they called it quits and prepared to enter the air wall.

Jian Xingyi took a look.

Long Live

750,000,000 / 750,000,000

750,000 / 750,000 Wood

144,000 / 150,000 Zombies Killed

So close!

They should make it… right?

Of course, if they really can’t finish it, it’s no big deal—at worst, there’ll just be a gap in the wall.

Jian Xingyi hopped onto Shanhai’s motorcycle, and the two of them charged toward the air wall just like before. Then Jian Xingyi touched the translucent barrier.

Whoosh—

Jian Xingyi opened his eyes; sure enough, he had successfully entered the air wall behind Peace Mountain once again.

With only an hour left before all players were teleported back to the guild, Jian Xingyi convinced Shanhai not to use or waste the Unity Anchor.

After all, he shouldn’t fade away and disappear within an hour, so he might as well buy some land here, gather some resources, and then exploit the bug to return directly.

Jian Xingyi looked around; everything here was exactly the same as when he’d been here last time.

This is fantastic!!

It seems they can now confirm that the area behind the air wall on every map is fixed. That means next time, he can return to the Volcano Farm to buy more land, along with the farm he’s been longing for—which even comes with chickens, ducks, and fish—and the farm’s warehouse will be usable too.

……Though the journey there was a bit grueling—after all, he still had to pass through the Belly of the Fire God and the Earth’s Core, where the zombies were extremely high-level.

But in any case, at least he had something to look forward to.

Jian Xingyi had been here before, so he knew his way around. He carefully maneuvered past the zombies, following the alleyways out of town and straight into the wilderness.

The scenery here matched the town near his home, so he could rely on his memory to find his way to the outskirts.

He remembered there was a forest nearby!

Sure enough, as soon as he left the city, a forest came into view. Jian Xingyi plunged right in and began searching through the area.

Just as he’d suspected, the land here was just as heavily polluted as the Volcano Farm. In the Chaser dungeon, the land behind the Sanctuary and the Temple scored over 250, but here, none of the plots exceeded 100—some were even as low as 10 or 20.

But those high-scoring plots started at a million, whereas here… you could get land for 30,000 or 50,000.

Since he could only buy one plot per area, Jian Xingyi chose carefully.

In the end, he selected a plot with the most fields, spending two exchange vouchers and 70,000 to acquire 100 Grade B fields. Without delay, Jian Xingyi planted vines to purify the land—after all, these plots were too damaged and polluted to be used as they were.

After finishing all this, Jian Xingyi breathed a sigh of relief.

Mission accomplished!

Jian Xingyi looked around and, since he still had time, decided to explore a bit more.

After all, if danger arose… he could run fast.

No big deal!

Jian Xingyi set off with a sense of mischief.

But after walking in circles, all he saw was forest after forest. The essence value here was low, and clicking on anything yielded no seeds or benefits. Jian Xingyi sighed, thinking he might as well head back to town to see if there was anything worthwhile.

Stealing some spices from the supermarket would be better than coming up empty-handed here.

However, Jian Xingyi realized with despair that he was lost.

Oh man.

After circling around a few times, Jian Xingyi realized he couldn’t find his way out of the woods no matter what.

But since he’d just checked his inventory, he was quite familiar with his items. Jian Xingyi reacted quickly, pulling out his compass and heading in the direction it pointed without wasting a second.

After walking for 20 minutes, Jian Xingyi furrowed his brow slightly.

Something’s off…

Why does it feel like he’s getting deeper and deeper into the woods?

Just as Jian Xingyi was beginning to doubt the compass, he spotted a building in the distance.

Huh?

It was only then that Jian Xingyi remembered: the compass couldn’t necessarily read his mind, nor did it know where he wanted to go. Just like earlier in the snowy field, when the compass couldn’t guess they were heading for a dungeon, it led them to the nearest treasure chest.

It must be the same this time—the compass was leading Jian Xingyi to the nearest landmark.

As Jian Xingyi approached the building, he discovered it was an abandoned factory. The red-painted complex consisted of numerous buildings and warehouses, with trucks parked all around. Not far away was an open area that looked like a testing ground.

Further away were what appeared to be employee dormitories, their hallways teeming with wandering zombies.

Jian Xingyi studied the sign closely.

—Changchun Fireworks Factory.

Jian Xingyi froze.

Fireworks…

Jian Xingyi strode forward and used the navigation map by the main gate to locate the gunpowder warehouse.

The gunpowder warehouse was located deep within the factory, protected by layers of fences and fingerprint-activated doors, but Jian Xingyi used his gun to force his way through. The guard on duty… had, of course, already turned into a zombie, and he shot him dead.

After finally entering the warehouse, Jian Xingyi indeed discovered box after box of gunpowder.

Jian Xingyi swallowed hard.

Gunpowder… that’s a valuable commodity.

【System Reminder: The zombie horde will officially begin in 10 minutes!】

【In 10 minutes, the system will teleport all players back home.】

Time is running out…!

Jian Xingyi packed several crates of gunpowder into his backpack to take back with him—who knows, it might come in handy during the zombie horde?

But before that, he needed to conduct an experiment. He carefully carried three crates of gunpowder to the dormitory entrance and attached the fuse.

After retreating to a safe distance, Jian Xingyi fired his gun at the dormitory entrance.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The door was blown to pieces, and the noise drew all the zombies in the building down. They jostled each other, making terrifying noises as they descended; some even jumped or fell directly from the hallway.

“Click.”

As the explosives detonated, Jian Xingyi was met with a deafening roar.

Boom—

Boom—

The entire dormitory building shook violently from the blast, its aging structure beginning to collapse, the crashing debris creating a massive clatter.

It felt as if the earth itself were shaking.

The densely packed zombie bodies were blown to pieces, their flesh mangled beyond recognition. Some whose brains hadn’t been destroyed still let out hoarse groans, dragging half their bodies as they crawled toward Jian Xingyi.

Thick smoke filled the air, and Jian Xing began coughing from the fumes.

The explosive power of this blast… is massive!

Meanwhile, the guild chat was in shock.

Lone Wolf: 【Holy shit! What the hell, Xinghe, what are you doing? How did your zombie kill count skyrocket in two seconds?!】

Haihai: 【Whoa, are you blowing up a zombie nest?!】

Although it was just banter and exaggeration, they probably never imagined that Jian Xingyi was actually blowing things up.

Long Live

750 million Dawn Coins

750,000 Wood

150,000 Zombie Kills

Thanks to everyone’s efforts, all the stats… had finally met the requirements!!

Jian Xingyi had no time to explain or celebrate; he rushed back to the warehouse and frantically stuffed gunpowder into his backpack.

This gunpowder packs quite a punch—I have to take it with me!

【In 1 minute, the system will teleport all players back home.】

30, 29, 28…

The countdown has begun!

Jian Xingyi didn’t dare to stuff them in haphazardly; after all, this stuff was highly flammable and explosive—a single drop could send him to his grave—so he could only move them as carefully as possible.

But perhaps the sound of the explosions was too loud, attracting zombies from all around. Jian Xingyi could feel more and more zombies heading toward the warehouse.

20, 19, 18……

“Boom—!”

The warehouse doors were smashed open by the zombies, and hordes of them began pouring in.

Jian Xingyi dared not fire a gun in this enclosed space filled with gunpowder; he had no choice but to flee.

It’s okay, it’s okay… He’s about to be teleported away!

10, 9, 8…

Jian Xingyi ran toward the back door of the warehouse with all his might.

3, 2, 1!

Teleportation begins!

As Jian Xingyi opened his eyes to see the familiar ceiling, the system’s announcement echoed throughout the server.

【Attention all players of *Dawn of the Dawn* V3.0: The Ark has been activated! To earn the right to board this new paradise, players must survive the Zombie Tide Trial!】

【Dawn will not come; only by relying on yourselves can you fight your way through. 【Midnight Zombie Tide Feast】 officially begins!!】