"You have killed a Phantom. Total count: 1. Apocalypse reward: Green Phantom Stone."

As Liven got up from the ground, the voice rang in his ears again, causing his eyes to light up.

"A reward prompt?" Liven's eyes flashed with excitement. "I didn't expect such good luck."

Liven immediately crouched down, grabbed his dagger, and smashed it into the Phantom's head. He then pried open the shattered skull and soon dug out a green crystalline stone from the bloody mess.

This Green Phantom Stone was a crystal formed in the brains of zombies, or rather, the residual life essence left behind when a person died and turned into a zombie.

However, not all zombies left behind life essence. The probability of such crystals appearing in low-level zombies was extremely low. Even though Phantoms were mutated zombies, they were still the lowest tier of mutated zombies.

Therefore, one would typically need to kill at least a thousand Phantoms to have a chance of obtaining a single Green Phantom Stone.

Liven's luck was truly remarkable.

As for the Green Phantom Stone, it was currently useless. But once he boarded the Death Train, it would become invaluable. These life essence crystals were the most basic form of currency on the Death Train.

Money? In a world where civilization had collapsed, it wouldn't be worth more than toilet paper.

Liven wiped the blood off the Green Phantom Stone, carefully tucked it into his pocket, and then picked up some chocolates, beef jerky, and a few bottles of water from the ground, stuffing them into his backpack.

Originally, Liven had planned to rest in the convenience store for a while. But now that the window was broken and the commotion had drawn attention, it was no longer safe. More zombies could be attracted to the area, so Liven had no choice but to find another place.

Before leaving, Liven glanced at the girl's corpse on the ground and repeated, "I'm sorry, but this is the apocalypse."

Liven left the convenience store and quickly moved forward.

Night soon fell.

After several hours of hunting, the streets had completely turned into graveyards. Corpses were piled everywhere, and the ground was stained crimson with blood. Stepping on it would even pull up sticky strands.

Liven walked down the street, observing the small groups of zombies ahead. He took the recurve bow off his back and pulled an arrow from the quiver at his waist.

Thud!

The sound of an arrow cutting through the air rang out, and the arrow pierced a zombie's skull, pinning it to a nearby car.

Due to the noise, the gathered zombies immediately scattered, staggering and growling as they quickly moved toward Liven.

Without hesitation, Liven rapidly drew his bow and fired arrows in succession.

In his previous life, after boarding the Death Train, Liven's initial ability was the "Master Archer" skill. As the name suggested, it was a skill for using bows and arrows, and Liven had even upgraded it to the master level.

Of course, after being reborn, Liven's body had returned to its initial state, and the skills he had learned were no longer effective.

However, even without the skill, relying on his past experience, Liven was still an expert archer, certainly not inferior to professional archers.

Thud, thud, thud...

Liven continuously drew and fired arrows. The arrows flew out, piercing the zombies' skulls and blowing them apart. In fact, zombies were immune to pain and hard to kill. Only attacks to the head or breaking their necks could finish them off.

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"You have killed a zombie. Total count: 4."

"You have killed a zombie. Total count: 5."

...

A moment later, the zombies blocking the path were all shot dead by Liven, bringing his total zombie kill count to 12. These kills would count as achievements once he boarded the Death Train.

Continuing forward, there were few living people left on the streets. They had either been hunted down or had hidden inside buildings.

However, hiding was not a long-term solution.

As time passed, zombies would slowly begin to wander into buildings. Additionally, food and water were major issues. No matter how much was stockpiled, it would eventually run out.

Therefore, Liven knew very well what the only way out was.

About half an hour later, Liven entered a church.

There weren't many Christian believers, so churches were rare and usually small. This church had been donated by a wealthy Christian businessman and was only open on weekends. The priest was also part-time.

This was why Liven had chosen this place. In theory, there should be no one here, allowing him to rest in peace.

To board the Death Train, one either had to be lucky enough to find a Death Train station or wait until three days later, when the mysterious voice would announce the station's location twelve hours before the train's departure.

Liven had already made plans. He would use his memory to visit the locations where Death Train stations had appeared in his previous life within three days. If he found one, that would be ideal. If not, he would have to wait until three days later.

This church was the temporary base Liven had chosen after studying the map.

However, the moment Liven stepped into the church, his muscles tensed, and he immediately entered a state of alert.

The church's door wasn't locked and opened with a push.

Upon entering, Liven was hit by a strong smell of blood. He glanced around and saw that the chairs and tables inside the church had been overturned. On the front wall, there was a four-meter-tall wooden cross that had originally been nailed to the wall as decoration. Now, it lay on the ground.

This was clearly the aftermath of a violent struggle. But shouldn't this church be empty? It was usually locked, and without any living beings inside, the zombies wouldn't have entered.

Drip!

At that moment, Liven felt a cold sensation on the back of his neck. He reached out to touch it and found it was a drop of saliva.

Liven's pupils contracted sharply, and without hesitation, he lunged forward, hitting the ground and quickly rolling away.

Looking back, a red tongue suddenly dropped from the ceiling, stabbing the spot where Liven had just been standing and piercing a hole in the ground.

Liven looked up and saw a zombie clinging to the ceiling. It was twice the size of an ordinary zombie, with enormous limbs and sharp claws that could dig into the walls, allowing it to cling to the ceiling.

"A Crawler!" Liven gasped. "Another mutated zombie."

Liven swallowed hard. Had he been cursed with bad luck since his rebirth? In his previous life, he had been fortunate enough to board the Death Train. But this time, he hadn't even caught a glimpse of the Death Train and had already encountered two mutated zombies.

These mutated zombies were not easy to deal with!

Without hesitation, Liven immediately took off his recurve bow, nocked an arrow, and drew the string into a full moon.

In the next moment, the arrow shot through the air!