activa-t Chapter 15: The Living Corpse is simply the best experience source!
Chapter 15: The Living Corpse is simply the best experience source!
The cavalryman rode forward, reaching the breach in the wall, but did not continue up, maintaining a certain distance.
Then, amidst the villagers' worried gazes, the cavalryman removed his tall hat, revealing a full head of short black hair, and shouted loudly to the villagers:
"Listen up, folks! Don't be afraid, we've lured the zombies away!"
"We're from Luo's army; we just arrived here recently. We're actually neighbors!"
Neighbor?
Good heavens, these guys who look like they're not to be trifled with are actually my neighbors?
Upon hearing this, the villagers exchanged glances, their expressions not looking too pleasant.
In those days, most of the neighbors outside the Great Wall were not good neighbors. Because the imperial court could not govern this area, it was almost like a lawless land, so bandits roamed everywhere, and many villagers could not even distinguish themselves from the bandits.
Many villages are like this; in order to resist zombies and bandits, they often have their own security teams.
These security teams are indeed responsible for security work on their own territory, but once they are allowed to run away to the next village or other areas, they will immediately turn into bandits.
Security teams that part-time as bandits are commonplace, so much so that most villages in the area are quite xenophobic. They genuinely dislike having neighbors, especially those with guns.
The cavalryman noticed the villagers' expressions and waved to them, saying:
"Fellow villagers, don't be afraid! We're not bandits, we're all decent people! Let's deal with the zombies outside first, and then we can talk in detail!"
After saying this, the cavalryman ran off again.
Seeing the cavalry disappear into the distance, the two villagers holding homemade guns breathed a sigh of relief. When they first saw the cavalry running towards them, they thought these guys were trying to take advantage of the chaos.
Regardless of their statement that they would discuss it later, as long as there was no direct conflict, it was fine. In the eyes of these villagers, the cavalrymen in front of them were most likely another group of strongmen who came from nowhere, probably wanting to discuss security fees with them, which was basically just a way to collect taxes.
"Hey, village chief, what are we going to do? It looks like another group of people is coming to collect taxes from us. We're barely scraping together enough to cover the security costs at Black Mountain. If they ask us for even more money and supplies, how are we going to get enough?"
The village chief, having somehow produced a pipe, took a puff and said:
"What else can we do? We'll deal with it later! Let's get through this difficult time first before thinking about anything else!"
"At least those cavalrymen didn't just charge in and loot. Judging from their tall horses and the long spears and short guns they carried, they were definitely not to be trifled with. If they really came to rob us, we certainly couldn't stop them with just these few spears!"
Rock had no idea that the villagers had soon come to regard his group as bandits. At this moment, he was still standing next to his cavalry, watching with curiosity as they surrounded and killed the zombies.
It has to be said that these cavalrymen are really good at kiting the zombies; their maneuvers are as easy as walking a dog.
As they ran, many zombies gradually fell behind, and then cavalrymen would circle around and attack from behind, hacking the lone zombies to death with their sabers.
The cavalrymen don't fire their guns much anymore, because they've found that shooting at these zombies is really not worth it.
After firing for ages, they couldn't even kill one or two zombies, and they didn't even have enough bullets left!
Based on the firepower they had just unleashed, they should have killed at least an entire enemy company if they were only fighting a group of ordinary infantry. However, in the end, no more than 20 of these zombies were killed.
In comparison, the bombs of the Skaven are truly powerful.
The dimensional stone fragments from this thing are particularly effective against zombies. As long as a fragment is shot into a zombie's body, the zombie will be destroyed very quickly.
So much so that the two big rats didn't even have to throw a few bombs before the zombies behind them were already lying on the ground all the way. Although the cavalry were unsure whether these fallen zombies were temporarily or permanently dead, it didn't matter, they would finish them off.
After the battle is over, we'll turn around and chop off the heads of all these corpses on the ground. The cavalry refuse to believe that the living dead can come back to life again!
As the battle raged on, the number of undead dwindled. What was once a thousand undead lay scattered on the ground, until finally less than 100 remained, still following the cavalry at the front.
With less than 100 zombies, what's so scary about that?
The cavalrymen grinned, drew their swords, howled like hungry wolves, and charged back.
Under Lu Xiong's protection, Luo Ke watched the cavalry's movements from afar. He had to admit that the cavalry's fighting posture was truly a sight to behold.
It's a pity they were just cavalrymen, without the flowing capes of hussars; otherwise, they would have looked even more dashing wielding their swords.
Lu Xiong also looked at the cavalry with some envy and couldn't help but reassess Rock's strength in his heart.
He didn't know how many men Rock had hidden in the shadows, or what their skill level was, but the cavalry that had been exposed so far were enough to make Rock a local tyrant.
If they dismounted to fight, and he was given a sword, then this Ming Jin martial artist could easily defeat ten cavalrymen by himself.
But if he were to face such a cavalry charge, he would definitely not last a single round and would be killed on the spot. Not to mention a Ming Jin martial artist like him, even a Hua Jin Grandmaster would be extremely vulnerable when facing a large army and could only wait for an opportunity to launch a sneak attack.
As the last zombie's head was severed, Rock's system notification sounded again:
[Congratulations! You achieved a glorious victory in the previous battle! You have received 2,000 taels of silver and a randomly unlocked two-star unit!]
[You and your troops have gained a total of 300 experience points. You and your cavalry unit have successfully met the upgrade requirements. Do you wish to upgrade?]
"Oh dear, another upgrade is possible!"
Rock's eyes lit up, but then he regretted it.
He currently doesn't have a corresponding four-star unit for the cavalry he can upgrade, so even though he has enough experience, he still can't upgrade.
If he had brought those guerrillas with him, they could now be promoted to French flintlock musketeers.
"But that's not the case. If we bring those guerrillas over, they're all infantry, and they might not survive the zombie attack. Besides, I need someone to guard the house; I can't just bring my whole family along in one fell swoop."
Thinking this, Rock shook his head.
However, since the ratmen can ride horses with the cavalry, can the guerrillas also ride horses together with the cavalry?
Forget it, I don't want to think about it anymore. There's no point in dwelling on these things.
Looking at the system interface, Rock tried upgrading the frigate riders to see if he could upgrade them all into Skaven, but he found that he couldn't.
The system indicates that the two races are incompatible, and the cavalry must have a level 4 cavalry unit to upgrade, while the ratmen's poison grenadiers are considered ranged infantry.
So Rock clicked on personal upgrade and raised his character level to level three.
[Congratulations, player! Your personal level has been upgraded to level three. The upgrade reward is 1,000 taels of silver, unlocks a random level two troop type, increases troop command ability by 10, and slightly improves physical attributes.]
It was the same old reward, but this time, Rock felt that he had experienced a slight improvement in his physical fitness. He vaguely felt that he had indeed become stronger and was not as weak as before.
"Hehe, all in all, I earned an extra three thousand taels of silver from each battle and unlocked two level-two troop types. I never expected fighting zombies to be so worthwhile!"
Thinking about his gains, Rock couldn't help but laugh.
He can't wait to find the next wave of zombies and experience that kind of battle again.
Although they faced a large number of enemies this time, numbering over a thousand undead, these undead were all of average combat strength and had very monotonous attack methods, posing no threat to his cavalry.
Looking at it this way, zombies are simply the best targets for racking up points!
After clicking to unlock two random level 2 units, Rock immediately received two more system notification sounds.
[Congratulations, player! You have obtained a two-star unit: Cossack Cavalry (from Total War: Empire)]
[This unit is equipped with: a light warhorse and a saber. Recruitment price: 50 taels of silver per person or 2500 taels of silver per squad (60 people), occupies 2 population slots per squad.]
[Congratulations, player! You have obtained the two-star unit: Slave Rat Spearman (from Total War: Warhammer)]
[This unit is equipped with: a low-quality spear. Recruitment price: 5 taels of silver per person or 800 taels of silver per squad (180 people). Population requirement: 1 population per squad.]
"These two two-star units... seem pretty good? But how can slave rats be considered two-star units?"
Rock muttered to himself, slightly surprised. He had thought the slave rats should be a one-star unit.
But considering that Bretonnia's peasant mobs could be considered two-star units, Rock didn't find it strange at all, especially since, in his opinion, slave rats were much more useful than peasant mobs.
The reason is simple: even if the peasant thugs completely obey his orders, they are still just a group of loyal and strong peasants. No matter how strong they are, they are still human beings.
But slave rats are different. As the lowest of the rats, their ability to withstand exploitation far surpasses that of peasant thugs! They are simply the best labor force!
These rats not only eat very little, but they also eat a lot of dry food, and they can eat anything.
They can eat anything, from grass roots and tree bark to even feces, since the Skaven have an extremely powerful digestive system.
In this case, wouldn't they be the best cattle and horses for Rock?
This is clearly a high-quality workforce!