My Players Keep Grinding in the Post-Apocalyptic World

Chapter 26: The Stone City of Looters

"This area ahead is a radiation restricted zone. We can't go any further. Let's go back and level up by dealing with regular looters and mutant creatures."

Thin Dog, Fox Spirit, and Lin Tang, who were out exploring the map, had now reached the southernmost area of the Four Mountains.

There was a massive crater here.

It looked very much like the epicenter of a nuclear bomb explosion.

The surroundings were overgrown with radioactive thorn flowers, blooming in various colors, strangely beautiful and toxic.

Getting pricked by one would inflict a radiation status effect, causing gradual health loss.

The three carefully hid behind the thorn flowers, looking at the lush green crater ahead.

It stretched as far as the eye could see.

But they could vaguely make out some creatures moving inside.

Earlier, when they had just stepped into the crater, everyone was immediately afflicted with the radiation debuff and started slowly losing health. Frightened, they hurriedly retreated and waited for a while before the radiation status finally disappeared.

Clearly, this area was not yet one they could venture into, otherwise they would have died from radiation before even seeing anything.

Thin Dog, wearing a ring that increased radiation resistance by 11%, took the opportunity during the recent injury to calculate the effect of his equipment.

Indeed, the damage he received was 11% lower compared to his two teammates.

"So, if we increase our radiation resistance to a very high level, we'll be able to explore this place, right?"

"Theoretically, yes," Fox Spirit agreed with Thin Dog's view.

But that was for the future. For now, they could only turn back.

On their way here, the three had discovered another looter camp. If they ambushed in the vicinity, they might be able to catch isolated looters.

Just as the three were about to get up and leave, a line of looters approached from the north.

"Get down! Hide!"

The three crouched among the thorn flowers, watching as nearly 10 looters walked into the radioactive crater.

The intense radiation didn't seem to harm the looters, after all, their race evolved by absorbing radiation, and they could even absorb radiation energy to evolve themselves.

Fox Spirit: "Do those 3 green muscle-bound leaders at the front look familiar?"

Lin Tang exclaimed: "Hey! Aren't those... aren't those the elite monsters from the looter camp we went to before? How did they end up here?"

3 looters, noticeably larger in size, were leading the group.

Thin Dog: "Strange... the looter spawn points aren't fixed? Elite monsters move around with smaller ones? What kind of design is this? Come on, let's leave while they haven't noticed us. We'll log off later and ask the Sentinel about the monster respawn mechanics in this game."

"Alright, let's retreat!"

"Oh, and let's pick a few flowers to take back. Growing in such a harsh environment, flowers that don't die from radiation might be useful."

The three each took a few of the colorful radioactive thorn flowers with them.

With their current team strength, they were most comfortable dealing with 1 looter. If they had to fight 2... they stood a chance, but the margin for error would be very low. This was only because Thin Dog had upgraded his equipment; with his skills, he needed to land some golden critical hits to have a chance of victory.

The three marked the two looter camps they had discovered so far on their smart watches.

They named them Looter Camp 1 and Looter Camp 2.

The three returned to Looter Camp 2 and ambushed for half a day.

They finally caught a looter who had separated from the main group, immediately unleashing a series of attacks without explanation.

After confusing the looter, they gave it a thorough beating.

In the end, each of the three gained another 8 experience points and obtained one corpse.

Thin Dog glanced at his smart watch.

[Experience: 42/500]

He had gained 12 experience points from solo killing one looter, 16 points from the three of them killing 2 looters together in the morning, 6 points from killing two mutant hyenas, and just now 8 points from jointly killing 1 looter.

The other two only had 30 experience points.

Thin Dog: "Experience is growing so slowly. At our current rate, with these two fixed spawn points, killing them one by one, it'll take at least a week to level up."

Lin Tang: "Yeah... if only we had some kind of area-of-effect weapon, we could wipe out the entire looter camp at once, killing dozens of them. That would level us up quickly..."

Fox Spirit was deep in thought.

"Lin Tang has a point. We need to find a way to speed up the game. We can't just let the game designers lead us by the nose."

"I seem to recall some crucial information..."

"Let me think about it after we log off."

"For now, let's keep hunting monsters. It'll be dark soon and time to log off. Let's try to get some more loot and experience."

They didn't dare charge directly into Looter Camp 2, so they could only hunt for isolated looters who were out hunting or looting.

The looters never imagined that after years of robbing others, they would one day become someone else's prey.

After all, in the wasteland, mutant looters were pure vermin, their blood and flesh full of corrosion, making their corpses difficult to handle. Humans generally did as the merchant caravans did, abandoning the bodies in the wilderness. Even animals wouldn't eat looter flesh, leaving them to rot.

The three kept an eye on the time while searching for small monsters to farm, gradually making their way back towards the base.

Meanwhile, in the radiation crater.

There was a city built entirely of stone.

It was inhabited by deep green looters over 2.5 meters tall, with explosive muscles and skin as hard as stone, exuding strength. Unlike ordinary looters, they didn't seem dull, showing signs of intelligence and even communicating through speech.

The 3 elite muscle-bound looters from Looter Camp 1 were kneeling on the ground, facing the tallest looter inside.

"Humans... stole... holy object... please punish, leader!"

The central looter was 5 meters tall, its skin split open with countless small openings. The skin in these openings was constantly writhing, like tentacles growing on its skin, slippery and nauseating. The blood beneath its skin was black-green in color.

Slap!

The looter leader's foot didn't move, but the skin on its foot did, transforming into a tentacle that lashed out, knocking down the 2.5-meter tall elite looter.

"Fool, you can't even handle such weak, useless humans. You've wasted all this time absorbing the holy object!"

"Yes, commander, but I urgently need the holy object now. Please give me another piece."

The looter leader's hand skin twitched, pulling out a green radiation source from its pocket.

"This holy object is only lent to you temporarily. Bring it back in a week."

"The old humans can't absorb the power of the holy object. They must have hidden it. You need to find them..."

"These days, I'll have all our looter camps in the Four Mountains assist you in sweeping for humans. Our clan's numbers should have increased somewhat."

The large looter who came to apologize received the 'holy object', accepted the orders, and left the radiation crater.

But on the way, it was still puzzled why the 2 clan members who went out to search for humans this morning hadn't returned yet.

It rubbed its stiff head... unable to understand.

At 5:30 PM in the wasteland, Thin Dog and his two companions dragged their spoils back to the Disaster Base.

They saw Mo Ran, Xiao Xiao, and Forgiveness Hat Wholesaler still building houses.

Their eyes met.

Thin Dog cheerfully said: "Oh! New players have arrived?"

Lin Tang: "666!"

Fox Spirit looked at the wooden cube matchbox-like houses the two were building, his mouth twitching slightly.

"You guys... really understand MC (Minecraft)."

The loot Thin Dog's trio brought back was still substantial.

2 looter corpses, 1 mutant vampire rabbit, 1 mutant hyena.

They had been fighting monsters non-stop.

After a busy day, their body functions had dropped to the extreme. Even though the negative status effects had been weakened, they could still feel their bodies reaching their limits.

Thin Dog started cooking beans, and after everyone exchanged greetings, they began to share information.

Xiao Xiao directly presented the polished stone spear: "Take a look at this weapon... is it useful? If it is... I'd like to trade it for some of your prey, just enough for me to complete the beginner's quest, because I'm not very good at fighting monsters."

Thin Dog: "Oh? The lower attack limit of your wooden spear is quite high! And it even has an additional 5-7 points of basic piercing damage. Very nice, and it feels much lighter than a wolf tooth club. Did you really make this yourself?"

"Yes! And this isn't the only type of weapon I can make!"

Xiao Xiao proudly straightened her chest.

Causing all 4 pairs of eyes present to momentarily focus on the same point.

After a brief discussion, Thin Dog's trio felt they needed to befriend this skilled weapon maker.

"Alright! Make us another spear, and we'll trade you one set of biological materials."

Fox Spirit: "Oh, before you start crafting, let me appraise this thing first. It might be useful."

He placed the thorn flowers from everyone's pockets on the [Attribute Conversion Tower].

A flash of light...

Read ahead up to chapter 400 at