Chapter 2: War System
"System?"
"Didn't hear wrong, right?" The confusion in Gu Chengyuan's heart was instantly dispelled by excitement.
For him, who had been frequenting major websites since the sixth grade of primary school, he understood the system better than the system itself!
But now was not the time to study the cheat. Not to mention the old bus ahead that was about to fail to contain the zombies, just the scattered zombies on the road who noticed him and rushed towards him were something he couldn't handle.
Fortunately, the Eight Kilometer Station was a transition section from the suburbs to the city, with only a few scattered self-built houses and sparse traffic around.
Gu Chengyuan took out his phone, chose a shared electric bike, and tremblingly started scanning the QR code, while also keeping an eye on the approaching zombies and the distance between them.
This feeling couldn't help but remind him of the fear he experienced playing escape rooms in Yu City, where he was chased by a ghost to a door, too nervous to figure out the correct direction to open it, and couldn't open it no matter what.
In the end, it was the NPC ghost who helped him open the door...
The current fear was definitely a super-double of the one in Yu City, because getting caught meant truly dying!
Beep, the bike lock has been unlocked!
Hearing this pleasant electronic sound, Gu Chengyuan let out a long breath, placed the small suitcase on the electric bike's pedal, used his left foot to support himself, twisted the throttle, controlled the electric bike to turn in a circle on the spot, and shot out like a sharp sword.
Honestly, electric bikes really start fast!
More than ten minutes later, Gu Chengyuan, wearing a military green sun protection jacket with the zipper pulled all the way up, was tightly pressed against a large mound beside the road, imagining himself as a starfish, trying hard to reduce his presence.
The mound was surrounded by farmland, the view was relatively open, and there were few people. Gu Chengyuan low-crawled and checked the mound twice, confirming there were no blind spots before starting to study his system.
"System?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a blue virtual panel appeared before his eyes, similar to the build panel in Red Alert. The top of the panel displayed 'War System', with a font that looked a bit like bolded Heiti?
Having written a holiday paper, he was already so obsessed that he automatically identified fonts. His mind was full of Songti and Heiti required for paper formatting...
"A bit cold and aloof?"
Gu Chengyuan silently complained, and at the same time, he silently called out again.
"System Spirit? System AI? War System?"
After a moment of silence, there was still no response.
...
Uh, as expected, the standard intelligent system in web novels is fake. The authors haven't even owned one, what the heck do they know!
Quickly accepting the fact that the system didn't have a system spirit, Gu Chengyuan seriously studied the War System in his mind.
The system panel was very simple and clear at a glance, feeling like it was copied directly from Red Alert. It was roughly divided into three main panels: Personal, Buildings, and Units.
Under Personal, it was divided into Personal Information and Troop Configuration. Using his mind to control the cursor on the virtual screen and opening Personal, he found some basic information.
Name: Gu Chengyuan
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Height: 182
Weight: 73kg
Strength: 12 (Race Average 10)
Endurance: 17 (Race Average 10)
Speed: 11 (Race Average 10)
Spirit: 20 (Race Average 10)
Seeing that his Strength and Endurance exceeded the average, Gu Chengyuan wasn't surprised. For him, who had served in the military during university, not exceeding it would be abnormal.
But how could this 'Spirit' thing be double the average? Was it because he had been staying up late reading novels since the 6th grade of primary school?
Putting aside his doubts, Gu Chengyuan opened the Unit Configuration page, which was empty as expected.
Opening the Buildings page, however, was beyond Gu Chengyuan's expectation. On the vast page, only the Barracks building was marked in gray-white, sitting there alone, giving a sense of emptiness like a hundred-person dormitory with only one person sleeping in it.
Below it displayed the price 5000, in red font, meaning the construction conditions had not been met.
"Well, it's not a loss, having a Barracks is great too! People should know how to be content!" Gu Chengyuan comforted himself as he opened the Units interface.
The Units interface was divided into three sub-interfaces: Sea, Land, and Air. Sea and Air were empty, but the Army interface gave Gu Chengyuan a surprise; there were two selectable icons, although both were gray-white indicating they were unavailable, at least there was something.
These two icons were:
Great Xia Regular Infantry Class (1500):
A ten-person Infantry Class with qualified military skills, the most basic component of Great Xia's national defense force, using Great Xia's mainstream standard weapons.
Great Xia Elite Infantry Class (3000):
A 12-person elite Infantry Class with excellent military skills, a model Squad created by Great Xia's national defense force, equipped with advanced individual gear for Great Xia's small-scale armed forces.
Seeing the descriptions of these two icons, Gu Chengyuan's breathing tightened. As he had expected, it was like Red Alert, where he could directly summon soldiers. Soldiers summoned by the system would definitely have maximum loyalty.
"In troubled times, having soldiers makes you a king!"
People were the most important. Gu Chengyuan had been a bit apprehensive before, wondering if it would be a system like an armory.
While that would still be better than nothing, if it was all weapons, who would use them and who would they be for would be a problem.
The struggle between people was even harder to predict than the claw the zombie lady just thrust out!
After roughly browsing the system panel and getting a general understanding of the system, Gu Chengyuan arrived at the most important part: what was the currency of this system?
In the upper left corner, there were two prominent, bolded, and enlarged characters: 'Money'.
Money: 2
Not zero?
Gu Chengyuan frowned.
Could it be from killing the zombie lady just now? 2 units is too little, it's unlikely to be a system gift, right?
According to the system's current prices, two units of starting capital.
The system shouldn't, at least not...
Then the case is solved. There is only one truth: this was given from killing the zombie lady just now!
Then wouldn't a regular class require killing 750 zombies, and an elite class require killing 1500...
No way, I'm not a fishmonger who's been killing fish at RT-Mart for ten years. This startup threshold is too high...
Just one zombie lady was a narrow escape. Gu Chengyuan couldn't help but feel dizzy thinking there were 749 more zombie ladies like that.
But life had to go on. Compared to others, he already had a lot to look forward to.
Gu Chengyuan could only cheer himself up. He raised his hand and elbowed the soft dirt pile beneath him, muttering:
"Be fierce!"
I don't believe there aren't any lone zombies in this wilderness. Digging pits, bludgeoning, using fire... more than ten methods of outsmarting zombies were already laid out in Gu Chengyuan's intelligent brain, ready to be picked.
I'm definitely taking down these lone zombies! I said it, even Jesus can't stop me!
After a round of mental boosting, Gu Chengyuan stood up invigorated. Just as he was about to close the system panel and start his venture, he suddenly noticed a red dot in the corner of the panel.
He found it was an envelope-shaped symbol. He controlled the cursor to move over and open it.
"Host Newbie Gift Pack x1"
Would you like to claim it?