Chapter 62: The Artillery Fort is a Money-Sinking Beast, the Final Round!

A minute later, Xu Lang stepped out again to lure the monsters, supported by Wang Yazhi from the side, while Cao Yaxuan sneakily clutched a crossbow as she kept watch over the left-hand corridor.

The buff effect of Blood Grudge was simply too powerful.

The moment Xu Lang stepped out of the doorway, many of the zombies currently slaughtering players abruptly changed targets, leaping toward this direction as if they had just spotted their most unforgettable, bitter enemy.

Xu Lang’s expression remained calm, his hands resting naturally at his sides.

Bang, bang, bang!

Tong Qi raised her pistol, picking off the monsters with precise shots.

Against these Tier 2 monsters, the Colt Python still retained immense value!

Even with their tendons and bones as tough as steel, a shot to the head meant instant death for the zombies.

Just as Tong Qi finished a round of bullets and moved to reload, Xu Lang suddenly condensed a ball of scorching flames in his hand, hurling it out toward the hallway.

It was none other than the Tier 1 skill, Fireball!

The exact second Xu Lang released the fireball, a green-eyed monkey sprang up from below, its ghastly claws flashing with a chilling glare, only to take the fireball square in the chest. It let out a shrill, shrieking screech before plummeting downward.

"Keep firing!" Xu Lang commanded softly.

Tong Qi steadied herself, emptied another magazine, and then all four of them retreated back into the dormitory.

By the end of this round, Tong Qi’s score had firmly secured a spot in the top ten.

During this time, several monkeys leaped up from the ninth floor, but Xu Lang anticipated every single one of them, knocking them back down with fireballs as if he possessed foreknowledge.

"Xu Lang, how did you know those monkeys were going to jump up?" Cao Yaxuan asked eagerly the moment she stepped back into the room.

Naturally, it was due to Malice Perception!

Xu Lang chuckled inwardly, putting on an arrogant tone to reply, "If you really must know, their malicious intent was already as clear as day!"

Hearing this, Cao Yaxuan rolled her eyes almost up to the ceiling.

Perhaps Xu Lang simply possessed exceptionally strong perceptual abilities, considering how high his physique stats were.

Having just used Fireball, which consumed a portion of his mental energy, Xu Lang closed his eyes to meditate.

Though the time was brief, it could at least help him recover a bit of his state.

The primary function of Meditation was, in fact, the restoration of mental energy.

Once the monsters at the doorway were completely wiped out, Xu Lang went back outside to lure another wave.

...

"They're finally gone!" Wu Huihui laughed heartily as she watched the monsters scatter away from her doorway.

Her entire body was bathed in blood, and she gripped a spiked club that still had fragments of monster flesh and gore clinging to it.

"I almost thought we wouldn't be able to hold out," Nie Xiaozhu said, patting her chest with lingering fear in her heart.

Wang Tingting found the two of them somewhat comical.

Nie Xiaozhu stood at only one meter fifty centimeters tall, looking like a little kid standing next to Wu Huihui.

Wang Tingting remarked, "Brother Lang is truly fierce. His score is about to break ten thousand."

Ah...

How wonderful it would have been if Xu Lang had set his sights on her back then; if he had, she surely would have been able to survive this survival game.

"Come on, Xiaozhu, Tingting, follow me to kill some monsters!" Wu Huihui hoisted her spiked club and swung the door open.

Slaying monsters could relieve the pressure on other players on the same floor, while also dropping equipment and boosting rankings. Any player with the capability would naturally want to kill a few extra monsters.

Though Nie Xiaozhu and Wang Tingting were girls, having experienced this much, their courage was no longer what it used to be. Grasping their weapons, they followed Wu Huihui right out the door.

Upon stepping out of the dormitory, Wang Tingting subconsciously glanced toward the left corridor, only to find monsters swarming the area, immediately making her scalp tingle.

Wu Huihui glanced at it as well, then sauntered swaggeringly toward the right hallway.

Nie Xiaozhu followed closely behind, shouting, "Everyone pay attention, Sister Hui is here to help!"

Wang Tingting stood in a daze for a moment. She watched the monsters in front of Dormitory 200 die in rapid succession, and then laid eyes on the sea of dropped items blanketing the floor.

So many!

If she could just go up and snatch a bite of that, Sister Hui’s front door might even have been able to upgrade to Tier 3!

Swallowing hard, Wang Tingting forced herself to look away, turned, and hurried to catch up with her teammates, though her mind remained fixated on the pile of supplies covering the ground outside Xu Lang's dormitory.

...

Six minutes into the fourth round, all the monsters on the tenth floor had been thoroughly cleared out.

When Xu Lang stepped outside to gather the supplies, he saw the crimson lacquered door of Dormitory 180 swing open, and Xu Ruyan’s figure flashed as she leaped straight down from the tenth floor.

Not long after, Xu Ruyan’s score began to tick upward.

"That really is convenient. The supermarket seems to sell a climbing skill; if I upgrade it a bit, doing a wall-crawling gecko stunt should be a breeze for me," Xu Lang muttered to himself.

The group transported the supplies batch by batch into the entryway before closing the heavy cyan-steel door.

Next, everyone carried out a second round of relocation, placing the supplies onto the sofa and coffee table.

Looking at the overflowing harvest, Cao Yaxuan put her hands on her hips and laughed aloud, "We're getting rich, rich, rich!"

A smile surfaced on Xu Lang’s face as well.

Only players understood the joy of defeating a horde of monsters and reaping the rewards together.

However, when Cao Yaxuan and the others transferred the copper coins over to Xu Lang, the corners of his mouth twitched involuntarily.

"Xu Lang, what's wrong?" Wang Yazhi noticed his strange expression and asked aloud.

"Uh... It seems we actually took a loss... Our original copper coins were over forty thousand, and now we only have thirty-nine thousand," Xu Lang said with a dark face.

"How could that happen?" Cao Yaxuan didn't process it for a moment.

"The cost of the artillery turrets!" Xu Lang sighed.

Those two turrets were certainly powerful, but they were also ridiculously expensive!

A single silver-winged crossbow bolt cost a hundred and twenty copper coins, meaning a hundred bolts ran up to twelve thousand!

And while the Annihilator Heavy Crossbow had a slower attack speed and fell short of the Silver-Winged Crossbow in that regard, a single bolt still cost a whopping 180 copper coins!

Were these two turrets defensive installations? They were clearly money-swallowing beasts!

"When you calculate it closely, it really is quite expensive," Cao Yaxuan said, speechless.

"But all in all, once we sell these supplies, we should be able to break even," Wang Yazhi pointed out.

Xu Lang replied, "Actually, it pretty much balances out because I gained a few extra silver coins here, but overall, it's far below the harvest I anticipated."

The three women nodded upon hearing this.

Calculated that way, the supplies themselves were pure profit.

Because he frequently browsed the exchange market, Xu Lang had a firm grasp of commodity prices. With a rough estimate, he arrived at a ballpark valuation for this batch of supplies.

Over thirty thousand copper coins!

If the mall opened again, that would be enough to buy a Tier 3 weapon; honestly, it wasn't a small amount.

Xu Lang set aside three portions of Black Zombie Blood Essence, then listed the rest of the supplies on the trading network.

Just as he finished these tasks, the fourth round came to a close.

Xu Lang immediately checked the chat room.

[Mad King's Building Chat Room: 137/200]

By the start of the second round of the game, the chat room only displayed the number of surviving dormitories.

Wanderers would be directly kicked out of the chat room and would additionally attract monsters—an effect similar to the Blood Grudge, which basically amounted to a death sentence. It was utterly brutal!

"So many have died already," Xu Lang sighed.

And this was in the span of a mere ten minutes!

"Will the casualties this time be just as tragic as the previous round?" Wang Yazhi bit her lip, her slender brows knitting together slightly.

Because she had been frequently "developed," a hint of delicate charm lingered on her refined face. With her brows furrowed like that, she truly evoked a sense of pity.

"Hard to say, but at least the casualties will exceed half," Xu Lang guessed.

Tong Qi spoke up, "These are all living human lives! The entity that created this game is a true demon!"

"Human lives are sometimes valuable, and sometimes completely worthless," Xu Lang shook his head and said, "Take our peaceful era, for instance—every year, the number of people tricked into going abroad amounts to the population of an entire town."

The three women fell silent for a moment upon hearing this.

Tong Qi frowned and said, "Why hasn't the dormitory broadcast come on yet?"

Some veterans in the chat room were asking the exact same question, prompting older players to step forward and explain.

This was a normal occurrence.

The dormitory survival game's broadcast sometimes functioned like a piece of code that required processing time; it didn't always go off right on the dot.

"Never mind that, let's get some rest first," Xu Lang smiled.

The very next second after he finished speaking, the dormitory broadcast rang out, causing the expressions of everyone present to drastically change.

[Dormitory Broadcast: Congratulations, everyone. Over 50% of the players have survived the fourth round. The originally scheduled fifth round is canceled. The game will directly enter the sixth and final round tomorrow at 6:00 AM: "The Ten Evil Sorcerers!"]