Chapter 45: A Pleasant Surprise
'Clang'
"Huh?"
The feedback from his hand was completely different. Shawn knew what this meant. He pulled away the broken plaster, and what came into view was a not-too-thick sheet of iron wall. Although it was already slightly deformed from his blow, it was completely different from the previous walls that had crumbled with a single hit.
"Treasure room. Found it."
Shawn's heart stirred. He unusually dragged his sledgehammer out, went to the front of room 214, and prepared to enter through the main door. But just as his hand touched the doorknob, a dense, hoarse growl suddenly erupted from all directions.
Shawn reluctantly pulled his hand back and placed it on his Stone Sledgehammer. He watched as walkers dropped from the ceiling of the corridors on both sides and couldn't help but say, "I should have known this was '7 Days to Die''s M.O. Hiding walkers in every corner of a building is their specialty."
Facing a walker that was shakily getting to its feet, Shawn swung his hammer, creating a gust of wind. The walker's head instantly twisted 180°, facing directly behind it. Without the support of its bones, the decaying head, connected by the last bits of flesh and sinew, wobbled a few times and then fell backward along with its body.
Seeing this, Shawn lunged forward, ignoring the walkers closing in from behind, and stomped hard on the chest of the falling walker. Using it as a foothold, he leaped up! As he came down with gravity and the immense force he applied, with a series of sickening cracks, he smashed its head straight into its chest cavity.
Landing, Shawn held the sledgehammer horizontally, pressing the handle against the headless walker's chest. Before it could fall, he unleashed a powerful force, shoving the entire body forward! He pushed off with his feet! Shawn didn't know how many walkers he had knocked over; he only felt the resistance against his hands growing stronger and stronger.
Only when he reached the stairwell did he finally muster his strength and topple the pile of walkers to the ground. Glancing at the several walkers closely following him, Shawn took a deep breath, letting his stamina recover automatically. Then, he actually charged toward them.
The first one... exploded!
The second one... also exploded!
The third...
The fourth...
At this moment, Shawn was like a god of war in the corridor! The hideous walkers were completely powerless against him. Every swing seemed to be blessed by that 'large headshot probability', requiring only a single blow to the center of the forehead for a headshot!
He fought his way through the second floor of the motel twice, killing the few walkers in the hallway, then turned back to deal with the ones that were just getting up, one by one. What would have been a dead end for others was brutally carved into a bloody path by Shawn.
'Hah—'
'Hah—'
Shawn stopped, leaning on his sledgehammer, his chest heaving rapidly. Facing so many walkers at once was already his limit. Of course, that was without considering the need to avoid injury and attack effectively. An ordinary 'horde' was no longer a threat to him.
After recovering, Shawn returned to the door of 214 with a look of anticipation and gently turned the doorknob.
'Click—'
The moment he touched it, he first felt a resisting force, but then it went slack. The latch retracted, and the spindle connected with the internal mechanism of the lock, emitting a series of faint clicks. To his surprise, Shawn opened the door to 214 with ease.
He gently pushed open the white-painted door, and the first thing that came into view was something that took up nearly two-thirds of the small room.
Shawn's eyes widened in utter disbelief.
"It can even spawn this thing??"
Shawn walked into the treasure room.
A long time later, he walked out again. Now, there were four rings of "barbed wire" wrapped tightly around his Stone Sledgehammer. The already intimidating hammer now had several more rings of barbed wire around the head and where it connected to the handle, making the whole weapon look so gruesome that it would make one instinctively take a step back.
[Barbed Wire]
Weapon Mod / Mod - Clubs
Effect Details: 20% chance to cause a continuous bleeding effect on the target, 40% chance to hit a target's weak spot, causing a power attack.
Introduction: Thank you for purchasing the most cost-effective killing machine in the post-apocalyptic world—a humble ball of barbed wire. Don't mind that it looks like construction waste that even workers don't want.
"If this hammer hits someone, tsk tsk tsk—"
Shawn spun the sledgehammer a few times, finding it more and more to his liking. Although only the barbed wire had been added and nothing else had changed, he felt a strange new sensation when swinging it. It seemed... it seemed even better for smashing brains...
In addition to that, his system backpack now contained some simple first aid supplies, 3 boxes of potato chips, and system-produced ready-to-eat meals (generated by the system, won't spoil in the backpack). And a pure black Stalker Hood—Lv. 1.
Counting all his gains, Shawn's gaze finally landed on the large, unstackable item that took up a whole inventory slot. The other things were just bonuses; this was the real prize of the trip!
Oh... of course, there was one more thing.
'Ding—'
The moment Shawn walked out of the treasure room, two golden flashes appeared before his eyes.
[Apocalypse Quest Completed, Experience Reward Gained]
[Level Up! Lv. 13 → Lv. 15]
[Skill Points Gained: 2]
[Remaining Skill Points: 3]
After dealing with all the walkers, his experience was infinitely close to level 14. With the generous experience from the apocalypse quest, Shawn jumped directly to Lv. 15.
With skill points in hand, Shawn didn't hesitate to put two points into his coveted Strength attribute.
[(Power Lifter) Level 8/10, massive increase to Strength and headshot chance.]
[What! Super divine power?... Could you be the apocalyptic legend of this city!!]
It was almost exactly like last time. After the points were assigned, a gentle yet expansive power filled his body. His physique hadn't changed much, but when he gripped the Stone Sledgehammer again, it felt as light as holding a slightly thicker wooden stick. With the massive increase in strength and headshot chance, his power seemed to have doubled again on top of the already existing bonuses.
He moved his arms and muscles a bit, and his body quickly adapted to this new strength, mastering it with ease.
"As for this last skill point..." Shawn pondered. The last two levels of the Strength attribute both required 3 skill points to unlock. And the final Lv. 5 of 'Skull Crusher', which had always accompanied his Strength points, required Strength to reach the final level 10 before it could be leveled up.
"This is a real skill point abyss," Shawn lamented, but he didn't feel bad about it. After all, the intangible skill points had been converted into tangible strength. But this meant he had to look at other skills.
[Big and Fast — You're not just strong, but you are fast as well.]
[Increases the frequency of using clubs and sledgehammers, swinging the weapon faster.]
This skill only had three levels, but with the backing of his immense strength, its effect was not to be underestimated. Shawn put his last skill point into Big and Fast (Lv. 1).
[Big and Fast Level 1/5]
[You are starting to develop highly patient and highly active biceps.]
[Sledgehammer swing speed increased by 5%.]