Chapter 22: Chapter 22

Li Wei and his group had accidentally led the zombies into a dead end and were running out of options. Many were injured. Just as despair was setting in, thick vines suddenly sprouted from the ground, pinning the clawing zombies in place.

“It’s Mu Ying!” Liu Luoluo exclaimed from the back of the group, pointing at the window above.

With Mu Ying’s help, they finally escaped disaster and killed all the zombies.

Although Mu Ying hadn’t directly killed any zombies herself, she still received a fair share of copper coins."

"After rescuing Liu Luoluo and the others, it was already close to evening, so Mu Ying hurried back to the camp with them.

Once they entered the forest park area, everyone visibly relaxed—a place where zombies were now rarely seen.

“Mu Ying, thank you so much for today. We’ve had it too easy killing zombies in town these past two days and got a bit cocky. We heard there was an underground warehouse in that supermarket, so we went to collect supplies. Who would’ve thought the warehouse was packed with zombies? It gave us a fright, but we didn’t take it too seriously, just lured and killed them as usual. But then we accidentally got trapped in a dead end,” Liu Luoluo said, still shaken.

Mu Ying silently took this as a warning to herself. Things had been going smoothly for her too, but no matter what, she couldn’t afford to let her guard down. Who knew if she might one day get cornered herself—and would she be lucky enough to be rescued then?

“What’s that big basket full of?” Cheng Wei asked curiously. Mu Ying had been gone for over a week. If her name hadn’t still been on the rankings—and even leveling up steadily—they’d have thought she was dead. Whatever she’d worked so hard to bring back must be something special.

“Seeds from the seed market. By the way, on my way back, I saw a big group of people from the official organization heading toward the camp. They should arrive in the next couple of days. Is the camp crowded now?”

Mu Ying could actually check the current state of the territory through her player handbook: 105 residents, double the number when she left, but still not many.

After all, most of the zombies in town had been cleared. Survivors should have all come to the camp by now, so why were there so few people?

“Not many people have entered the camp, but there are plenty hanging around outside. It’s a mess,” Liu Luoluo said, clearly annoyed.

And she wasn’t the only one angry.

“You have no idea. We tried to help some people, but a bunch of them are just hopeless—won’t kill zombies, always looking for a free ride, and try to guilt-trip us. Are we supposed to take care of them for the rest of our lives?”

“If there were still zombies in the forest park, we’d have lured them right to the camp gate to scare those freeloaders!”

…

After listening to their complaints, Mu Ying finally understood: many people couldn’t afford the entrance fee, so they camped outside the gate. Some even went as far as to beg right at the entrance, cursing the camp residents for lacking compassion if they didn’t give handouts—trying to guilt them into helping.

No one managed the shanty camp outside, so it was a chaotic mess. The mountaineering club students, still with a conscience, naturally couldn’t stand it.

Mu Ying felt a headache coming on. But when she reached the camp entrance and saw that the area in front of the gate was stripped bare, the ground hard and lifeless, dotted with makeshift shelters made from branches, she was furious.

She remembered how vibrant these trees had once been, how she’d carefully tended them, even watered them with the Spring of Restoration. It was bad enough they’d cut down the big trees, but they hadn’t even spared the saplings she’d replanted!

Mu Ying regretted setting the camp in the forest. Humans always needed wood to survive, and her camp had drawn them all here—who knew how much damage it would cause the forest?

Now that the camp couldn’t be moved, she could only find other ways to restrain these people.

As soon as Mu Ying and her group approached, the crowd squatting near the camp rushed to the gate, sighing and looking pitifully at them.

“…”

“Damn it! They’re here again!”

Liu Luoluo and the others were furious. “These people are like leeches—you can’t shake them off. Even beating them up doesn’t work. What are we supposed to do, kill them?”

“No need to kill, just scare them enough,” Mu Ying said, eyeing the group. All grown men, yet instead of doing honest work, they were here pretending to beg—really, extorting—right at her camp gate, interfering with her business. She had to teach them a lesson.

“Huh?” Before Liu Luoluo could react, she saw Mu Ying wave her hand. A tangle of familiar vines shot up from the ground, quickly binding the men’s limbs.

Then a thorn-covered vine whip appeared in Mu Ying’s hand. Without hesitation, she swung it down hard.

The mountaineering club team gulped in unison. That whip looked vicious—how much must it hurt? But honestly, it was satisfying to see!

After the initial shock, they soon felt the same thrill as when they’d watched Mu Ying kill zombies. Their inner little devils came out to play.

“Nice one!”

“Let’s see if you dare loiter at the camp gate again!”

That was just venting verbally.

“I wish I could get a few swings in too—too bad I don’t have a whip.”

“I know where there’s a patch of thorny vines nearby. Not as good as that whip, but I bet they’ll do. I’ll go grab some.”

“I’m coming with!”

“Bring me a couple too!”

Some wanted to get hands-on.

“Aqing, get that bag of salt from my pack. Let’s get some water from the lake and splash them.”

Some were even more creative.

“Help! Murder! You’re breaking the law!”

“It hurts! Stop hitting us!”

“You witch! Psycho! How can you be so heartless?”

…

“I was wrong! I won’t do it again!”

“Please, let us go!”

“Mommy~”

No matter if they cursed or begged, Mu Ying said nothing, and her whip didn’t slow down in the slightest.

Only when they were too exhausted to even cry out did she finally stop, dragging them aside with her vines. “Next time, be smarter!”

Head held high, she led her ox into the camp, tied it under her treehouse, and gritted her teeth as she hauled the two heavy baskets inside.

“Ow, my arms are so sore,” she grimaced, rubbing her arms. “Gun Gun, wasn’t your master super cool and imposing just now?”

Gun Gun looked at Mu Ying in confusion, scratching its head. Imposing? Was she talking about it?

Before she got a response, Mu Ying was distracted by the pile of copper coins on the little table. “So much money!”

She squealed, rushing over and grabbing handful after handful, unable to count them all. She played with them for a long while, the heavy weight making her feel especially happy.

After converting them all to silver, she had 52 silver and 50 copper coins. With what she already had, she was now a rich woman with 56 silver and 27 copper coins.

Mu Ying ran her hands over the silver coins again and again. The satisfaction of metal coins was far greater than paper money. For someone who’d been poor for two lifetimes, money always brought her a special kind of happiness.

But while she loved saving money, she was never stingy about spending it.