20: Chapter 20 Skill Drops: New Rules!

Lin Xiao scanned through the names with cold eyes; Xiao He was not among them.

That was fine then.

He closed his private message list and reached both hands into the bedding.

The next thing to do was... wait!

Offering charcoal before someone freezes to death is called charity.

Offering a match when someone is on the verge of death is called a transaction.

If he acted now, they would only take it for granted, thinking this was something Lin Xiao ought to do.

He was already so strong and firmly held the top spot on the leaderboard; what was the harm in helping others in the same Carriage 7?

Therefore, he had to wait until that door was on the verge of shattering, until fear ground their reason and dignity into dust, and until they were willing to stake their last chips just to survive...

Only then would Lin Xiao appear.

Every word he spoke would be truth, and every material he provided would fetch a real price!

Lin Xiao was not cold-blooded.

This was the underlying logic of the survival game.

Establish order at the most desperate moment, and use the smallest intervention to leverage the greatest loyalty and resources!

Furthermore, Lin Xiao had realized this earlier when distributing the care packages.

Most passengers in Carriage 7 pretended to be submissive on the surface, but in reality, they each had their own hidden agendas.

Once new passengers boarded the train later, the situation would inevitably change again.

These fence-sitters would surely backstab him for the sake of profit.

It was just as well; he would use this opportunity to make them recognize the current situation.

The frequency of private messages gradually decreased, and the content shifted from requests to desperate pleas.

[07-02 Zhang Mao: "Big Brother, Big Brother, I'm right next door, the room door is about to be breached by zombies, please help me!"]

[07-07 Zou Yutong: "Lin Xiao! Tell me, what exactly do you want in order to help? As long as you name it... our Room 07 can agree to some conditions [Video]"]

[07-07 Li Yue: "Brother Lin, help! We are four girls in Room 07, we don't have any weapons, and we can't handle the monsters outside the door at all."]

[07-07 Li Yue: "If you are willing to help, after the third round ends, I will bring Yutong to your room; we are both print models..."]

[07-04 Wang Tao (Deceased)]

...At this moment, some passengers' information panels turned into unknown text.

Lin Xiao knew it was time to act.

He rose nimbly, withdrew his arm from around Jiang Wanwan's neck, and quickly put on his clothes.

He then picked up several pieces of white-tier protective gear from the upper bunk and equipped them one by one.

Motorcycle helmet (Durability 5/12), Martin boots (Durability 8/15), football arm guards (Durability 10/18).

Although the slight defense provided was better than nothing, it could at least mitigate some damage.

"Be careful."

Jiang Wanwan warned him, still groggy with sleep, while Wen Yiran also cast a worried look.

Lin Xiao nodded, grabbed the double-bladed battle axe, pulled open the iron door, slipped out, and locked the door behind him.

As soon as he stood steady in the corridor, he swung his axe right in the face of the Level 1 zombie blocking the door.

Its ugly head split in two like a watermelon on the spot; the axe blade sliced straight into the neck, buried itself into the rotting chest, and splattered filth and internal organs all over the floor.

The weapon was too sharp; he hadn't fully adapted to it yet.

Lin Xiao stepped out, kicked the corpse aside, pulled out his weapon, and turned to clear the surrounding zombies.

Because it was a double-bladed battle axe, both sides of the blade could cut simultaneously, so there was no need to deliberately adjust the angle of attack.

To put it simply, in four words:

Swing and slash.

There wasn't much technique involved, relying purely on the extremely sharp axe blade and the kinetic energy of the swing.

Shadows of the axe flew, accompanied by the sharp sound of air being cut, as severed limbs and broken arms mixed with black slime splattered everywhere.

Additionally, among this wave of zombies, the proportion of Level 1 Gluttons had significantly decreased; there were more Level 2 Gluttons with hideous mouthparts blooming from their heads.

The tentacles of the Gluttons were not easy to dodge; facing one was manageable.

But facing a group...

The attack frequency of the tentacles was higher, and the angles were trickier.

This was where the advantage of team cooperation became apparent.

Fighting alone, it was indeed difficult to deal with monsters that had long-range surprise attack skills.

Just as Lin Xiao drove the axe blade into the bloomed mouthparts of a Glutton, several slender tentacles attacked from his rear right.

He barely managed to dodge them, only for more tentacles to block his path from the front left.

Whoosh! A tentacle struck towards his face.

He quickly turned sideways and raised his arm to block.

The tentacle hit the arm guard, and the durability instantly plummeted from 10 points to 3, nearly breaking it.

"What a pain!"

Lin Xiao's eyes hardened, and he swept the battle axe back, severing the Glutton on the left, tentacles and mouthparts alike.

At this moment, he noticed that the zombies wounded by the axe blade were gushing filthy blood from their wounds.

There was no need to land a finishing blow to the head; they soon withered and collapsed to the ground, turning into warm orbs of light and stardust.

It was the bleeding effect brought by the special attribute!

Seeing this, Lin Xiao immediately adjusted his tactics, no longer forcing a one-hit kill.

Instead, he utilized the high attack and bleeding attribute of the double-bladed battle axe, trading damage for speed, and quickly applied the bleeding effect to multiple targets.

Then he maneuvered around, waiting for them to perish on their own.

Efficiency increased, risk decreased, but the durability of the battle axe was also dropping rapidly.

After killing a dozen zombies, the durability hit rock bottom, and he had to stop to repair it with materials.

But it didn't matter; he wasn't short on materials right now.

The orbs of light and stardust scattered around flew into his body one after another.

Just as Lin Xiao was about to repair the double-bladed battle axe, suddenly, an item shimmering with a pale blue light slowly rose from the remains of a Glutton.

[Item: Skill Book - Wither]

[Type: Active Skill]

[Level: 1]

[Effect: Releases a burst of decay energy. Upon impact, the target enters a [Weakened] state, reducing movement speed by 30% for 15 seconds.]

[Cost: Consumes 1 point of Mental Power upon use.]

[All things shall Wither; life and death, the cycle never ends!]

It was only the first week, the third round, and a skill book had already dropped?

That was too fast!

And it was an extremely valuable control-type skill!

Although Lin Xiao currently only had 3 points of Mental attribute, he wasn't panicked; Mental Power recovered 1 point every 5 minutes.

He could also use equipment and items to increase the recovery rate.

Lin Xiao rubbed the parchment in his hand.

Since this thing was an item, could it also be fused?

As soon as this thought occurred to him, the Bronze Box in his inventory immediately changed.

At the same time, a black mark appeared on the parchment.

So, he didn't need to put items into the Bronze Box; as long as he possessed this wonder item, he could simply select the item in his inventory he wanted to fuse with his mind, and it would directly fuse and upgrade.

Very convenient!

What if he learned it beforehand?

Lin Xiao looked at the parchment in his hand and weighed his options.

It was just a trial, and regardless of the outcome, he wouldn't lose out.

So, Lin Xiao touched the skill book with his mind.

The parchment in his hand instantly turned into a stream of light and merged into his body.

A stream of obscure knowledge was instantly branded into his mind, as if it were innate.

His personal information panel updated synchronously:

[Passenger: Lin Xiao]

[Rating: Beginner]

[Territory Number: Room 07-01 (Captain)]

[Base Attributes: Constitution 6, Mental Power 3, Luck 0]

[Skill: Wither (Pending Fusion)]

[Inventory (1/10): Triple Moonlight, Scrap Plastic * 14, Rubber * 9, Electronic Components * 23...]

[Currency: stardust 439 (30% ↑)]

Even a skill book that had been learned still had a mark.

This wonder item was truly a divine artifact!