Chapter 3

"Ah! Help—Help!"

Several young people at the forefront of the group were accidentally dragged by the zombies beside them and were subsequently overwhelmed by the rapidly approaching horde, their faces bloodied as they screamed in terror for help.

"Quick, go! Now!"

Jia Shuai dashed past, loudly urging the others to move, completely ignoring the desperate cries for help that were almost within earshot.

A group of nearly a hundred people—how easy was it for them to move at full speed?

While about twenty young people were sprinting at the front, the dozens of women, children, and elderly people at the back were already in a chaotic mess.

A middle-aged woman, annoyed by the old lady in front of her, instinctively tugged at the other's clothes.

This small action triggered a chain reaction. The old lady, who fell, pulled down several others around her, and the people behind, unable to stop, tumbled like rolling gourds, with over a dozen people falling to the ground.

Roar—!

Although the zombies had lost their intelligence, their instincts drove them to chase the areas with the strongest scent of living beings. The cries and the wails of the women and children quickly attracted almost all the zombies in the vicinity.

Dozens of grotesque zombies pounced into the crowd, ignoring the weak punches and kicks that landed on them. Their dirty, rotting arms clawed and their white, sharp teeth tore off chunks of flesh.

Taking advantage of this unexpected chaos, Luo Jie, pretending to be in a panic, quietly retreated into a small souvenir kiosk.

As soon as he entered, a wave of zombies pounced at him. A woman in a short-sleeved dress with the Good Luck City logo, likely a former salesperson of the kiosk, lunged at him.

"Hah, an old trick..."

Luo Jie sneered, his body agilely shifting to the side, narrowly avoiding the zombie's outstretched claws. He then grabbed the somewhat faded golden hair from behind, using the momentum of her forward lunge to slam her head into the wall with all his might.

Thud! Thud! Crack—!

With a clear sound of bone breaking, the golden-haired zombie's face was completely crushed into her skull. Her curvaceous body, once seductive, now limp, slid down the wall, leaving a trail of dark red blood.

Luo Jie leaned against the door, panting heavily, drenched in cold sweat, and showing signs of mild exhaustion.

"My original physical condition is so poor..."

The rapid heartbeat and the heavy, aching limbs reminded Luo Jie that he was no longer the elite player who could easily push through low-level illusions with bare hands. His rich combat experience could not make up for the physical shortcomings.

It seems I need to level up quickly.

Luo Jie subconsciously glanced at the kill notification that appeared at the bottom of his vision.

[You killed a zombie, gained 10 points]

[Conditions met, do you want to activate the points leaderboard?]

Seeing this familiar notification, Luo Jie smiled.

The points leaderboard was the essence of every illusion, something all players both loved and hated.

They loved it for its generosity—players in the top three would receive extremely generous additional rewards upon leaving the illusion, based on their rank and total points.

They hated it for its cruelty—everyone else would have their points deducted based on their final ranking, with the last three not only losing all their points but also having a random high-level item or skill taken away.

Before his rebirth, every time the points leaderboard was activated, a large number of gamblers would flood in, hoping to win big, but most would end up losing everything.

Of course, for the current Luo Jie, the points leaderboard was a good opportunity to earn his first pot of gold.

"Activate." Luo Jie said without hesitation.

[Please choose a nickname and whether to hide the points display]

"Nightmare, hide points display."

"Nightmare" was the nickname Luo Jie used in his previous life, and hiding the points was to prevent others from guessing his rebirth status from the abnormal points, which could attract unwanted attention.

[Nickname confirmed, points display hidden]

[Your current points: 10, ranked 2nd]

Opening the points leaderboard interface, the top position was held by "Sunglasses," with a total of 310 points.

In just a few minutes, he had killed over thirty zombies.

However, the points had stopped increasing for the moment.

Luo Jie was not surprised. From the crude equipment of the Sunglasses man, it was clear he had only experienced one or two illusions, and his basic first-stage physical enhancement was not enough to support prolonged melee combat.

Killing so many zombies at once before resting was already a sign of his exceptional talent.

At this moment, the leaderboard refreshed.

A player with the nickname "President" appeared on the list, quickly pushing Luo Jie from the second position with 20 points.

President?

It must be Jia Shuai.

Luo Jie couldn't help but laugh. In his previous life, he hadn't activated the leaderboard and didn't know Jia Shuai's nickname was so flashy.

It seems he still values his position as student council president.

On the other hand, the appearance of new names on the leaderboard meant that some survivors' mindsets were changing, shifting from passive escape to active survival.

It's time for me to take action.

Luo Jie quietly poked his head out from behind the counter, looking through the metal railing. The hundreds of zombies on the square had returned to their previous wandering state.

Clearly, Jia Shuai and the others had successfully entered Good Luck City.

The bodies of the unfortunate victims had been gnawed into blood-soaked skeletons, and the heavy scent of blood attracted flocks of crows circling overhead, their harsh, grating calls echoing through the air.

"Then... let's begin!"

Luo Jie stood up from behind the counter, and a thick black mist rolled out of his body, passing through the metal railing and converging into a black humanoid figure in front of the kiosk.

The black humanoid, nearly two meters tall, resembled a mummy wrapped in black bandages, thin yet powerful.

Black Phantom.

Short for IBM, it was a symbiotic life form existing within sub-humans, possessing a bit of self-awareness and nearly animal-like combat instincts, and sharing a mental connection with its host, allowing for sensory sharing within a certain distance.

In short, it was a clone.

[You have summoned a Black Phantom, strength 180, duration 360 seconds (mental attribute x2)]

[Note: The existence time of the Black Phantom can only be restored by resting and cannot be reset through infinite recasting or resurrection items.]

Seeing the last note, Luo Jie was momentarily stunned.

He had thought the Black Phantom was like a summoned creature that could exist permanently as long as it didn't die. Now it seemed to be quite different from what he had expected.

"Only six minutes of combat at most... but it should be enough."

Luo Jie closed his eyes, and the mental connection immediately projected the Black Phantom's senses into his brain.

Sizzle—!

When the light reappeared before his eyes, Luo Jie found himself standing on the square outside the kiosk. Several zombies shuffled past him, completely unaware of his presence.

So this is the Black Phantom's perspective...

Luo Jie tried moving his limbs. Thanks to the severe damage to the Black Phantom's original consciousness in the temporal storm, he felt no resistance, and the flexibility was as if he were controlling his own body.

Crack—!

Luo Jie casually threw a punch, and the zombie's head snapped back at a ninety-degree angle, its body collapsing to the ground, motionless.

The 180 mental attribute points converted to nearly twice the strength of a normal person, breaking the zombie's neck.

The sound of the body hitting the ground alerted several nearby zombies. Despite not sensing any living presence, they still turned and moved toward the source of the noise.

The Black Phantom's feet exploded with speed, and he charged into the horde like a black whirlwind, grabbing the heads of two zombies and slamming them together with a powerful arm.

Crack—!

The two zombies' heads burst like watermelons, red and white brain matter splattering everywhere.

The Black Phantom's invisible form briefly appeared in the dark red blood, then disappeared again as the blood dripped away.

"This won't do, it's still too slow!"

Luo Jie manipulated the Black Phantom to grab a GG sign and swung it with all his might, smashing it into a nearby neon sign.

Crash—!

The sound of dozens of glass bulbs shattering echoed, and nearly half the zombies on the square turned and charged toward the noise.

Before long, a terrifying horde of over a hundred zombies gathered around the small kiosk.

Luo Jie, instead of being worried, was delighted. He pulled a P-lettered parking sign from the grass and used it as a weapon, sweeping it through the approaching horde.

[You have obtained a weapon—Parking Sign, do you want to spend 50 points to authenticate it?]

[Note: Authenticated items have no durability limit and can be taken out of the world after the mission.]

As the notification appeared, Luo Jie directly chose to decline.

The biggest feature of this illusion was that anything that could be picked up would be considered a weapon. Without careful selection, it was easy to end up with a bunch of useless junk.

Swish—!

Almost as soon as he made his choice, the circular sign of the parking sign sliced through the necks of four or five zombies, their rotten heads rolling to the ground.

The horde roared and growled, their residual instincts sensing some danger, but their sensory organs, evolved to detect living flesh, could not detect the existence of the Black Phantom, composed of IBM particles.

For a moment, Luo Jie's controlled Black Phantom seemed to enter a no-man's land. The parking sign in his hand became like a hot butter knife, slicing through the zombies layer by layer.

The circular sign became deformed, so he used it as a club, swinging the thick iron pipe with all his might. The efficiency of killing zombies was not much worse than before, and the visual effect was even more impressive.