Chapter 38: Taste the Terror of the Peashooter!
By the seaside, on the Gobi desert.
Chen Jiang, who had been sitting on the ground, looked up at the countdown approaching zero in the sky. He took a deep breath, stood up to stretch his limbs, and gripped his submachine gun, preparing to face the zombie assault.
Facing an attack on three fronts single-handedly was no small pressure.
His team had chosen to plant sunflowers exclusively to secure high economic returns later, opting to send two players to scavenge for treasure chests while leaving him alone to handle the second wave.
The risks in the early stages were immense.
But—
Once successful, the rewards would be just as substantial!
This was the final novice dungeon; there would be no more dungeons as relaxed and simple as this one in the future. Naturally, he couldn't let any opportunity for gain slip by.
The next moment!
"00:00:00."
The countdown hit zero.
Dark clouds pressed down once more, and the sea surged. Pale arms reached out from the water like the dawn piercing through darkness. Leading the charge were ordinary zombies wearing bucket helmets.
However...
Following them was a group of "Screen Door Zombies" holding iron fences. With both bucket helmets and iron screens, their defense was significantly higher.
The number of ordinary zombies was the same as the first wave, but each front now faced an additional ten Screen Door Zombies.
"Bang... bang..."
Chen Jiang glanced toward the front he was defending, where a "Peashooter" was continuously firing pea projectiles. He had just planted it—not out of panic, but because he needed to gauge the Peashooter's damage to make better strategic decisions.
The damage was impressive.
Basically, one pea projectile was enough to kill a Buckethead Zombie.
Those peas, the size of fists, looked formidable. The rate of fire was a bit slow—about one shot per second—but it was more than enough to handle these zombies.
The Peashooter's damage was higher than he had expected.
Under normal circumstances, planting two Peashooters on one's front in the early stages was enough to coast through the first two waves.
He didn't linger.
He pulled the trigger, pouring out all the ammunition from his Uzi submachine gun before stowing the empty weapon into his storage pouch. With a flick of his wrist, a black sandalwood card case appeared in his palm.
A slight twitch of his wrist.
Fifty-two playing cards fanned out like dominoes, hovering in mid-air for an instant.
Flick of a finger, tap.
Flick of a finger, tap.
With simple motions, each tap sent several cards spinning at high speed, precisely striking the horde of zombies ahead. The speed was such that in the blink of an eye, thin red lines slowly appeared on the necks of dozens of zombies, and they collapsed limply to the ground.
Whether they were Buckethead Zombies or Screen Door Zombies, every single one was killed in a single strike!
The iron screen might block a few pea projectiles, but it couldn't stop his cards.
The second wave was simpler than he had anticipated.
By now, on the three fronts—excluding his own—sixteen sunflowers had been planted on each, yielding a staggering 1,600 points of sunlight every fifteen minutes. His own front only had fifteen sunflowers and one Peashooter.
The economy was already starting to overflow.
The charm of compound interest was on full display.
With three hundred tiles per front, he realized he would soon have to consider what to do when he ran out of space.
When four empty sandalwood card cases fell to the ground, all the zombies had been slain. Their corpses and flesh melded back into the Gobi desert, the dark clouds dispersed, and the sea gradually calmed.
-
"Third wave of attacks, 01:27:38."
-
The countdown for the third wave appeared.
At the same time—
A panel popped up in front of him.
-
"Ding, hidden achievement for this dungeon reached: 'One Against Two'."
"Saving the Dying and Healing the Wounded: Using your own strength, kill all zombies on three fronts during a single wave."
"You may choose one of the following rewards:"
"1: 500 Paradise Coins."
"2: Peashooter, Basic Skill Book."
"3: 2,000 Sunlight Points."
-
"..."
Chen Jiang raised an eyebrow, a flicker of surprise in his eyes. He hadn't expected this pleasant surprise. Without a moment's hesitation, he chose the "Peashooter" Basic Skill Book.
He wouldn't be short on sunlight for long.
He did need Paradise Coins.
He needed them to purchase attribute points.
But...
Compared to Paradise Coins, which could be earned anywhere, a skill book never before seen in the player shops was clearly more scarce.
-
"Skill Name: Peashooter."
"Skill Level: Basic."
"Skill Effect: Allows you to summon a Peashooter to fight for you. Summoning one Peashooter costs 100,000 currency; the currency consumed depends on the legal tender of the current dungeon world."
"Upgrade Requirement: 1,000 Paradise Coins to upgrade to Proficient."
"P.S.: All skill books are divided into four levels: Basic, Proficient, Master, and Perfect. This item can be brought out of the dungeon."
-
"..."
Chen Jiang was slightly stunned. He hadn't expected it to be a summoning skill; he had thought it would be a buff skill, like something that increased firearm damage. The panel indicated that the currency of the current dungeon world was sunlight.
He could spend 100,000 points of sunlight to plant a Peashooter on any tile on the front line to fight for him.
This naturally wasn't cost-effective here.
But—
In his previous dungeon, "Neon City," he had raided a casino and walked away with tens of millions. If he had possessed this skill then, did it mean he could have summoned hundreds of Peashooters?
If he had this skill back then, he wouldn't have needed to orchestrate a scheme.
He could have just started a massacre.
He wouldn't have needed to distinguish between players and locals; he could have wiped them all out. Of course, that was just talk—if he actually did that, and the city's entire armed response system went into full operation, he wouldn't have been able to hold out even with hundreds of Peashooters.
The main issue was that the skill didn't specify if there was a limit to summons, how long they lasted, or what their base defense was.
Nevertheless.
Chen Jiang grinned with satisfaction. Not bad, he had finally obtained his first "supernatural" skill.
He had been in the Paradise of Gods for so long, yet he had never experienced what it felt like to use a supernatural skill. The first one he had ever seen was in the "Midnight City" dungeon, belonging to a girl who had the "Pink Allure" buff.
Every time she took off a piece of clothing, she could teleport.
He had envied that skill at the time.
Unfortunately, that girl had died without ever truly utilizing the skill—a total waste.
He was looking forward to becoming an official player of the Paradise of Gods so he could revisit large-scale urban dungeons like "Midnight City" and "Neon City." In those types of dungeons, it was far too easy to get one's hands on the local currency.
He wanted to see the limits of this skill.
Prepare to feel the fear of the Peashooter!