He climbed the steps one by one.
A few scraggly weeds grew in the cracks of the steps, nestled beside some discarded food wrappers on the treads.
Perhaps when everything happened, these good students were still huddled in twos and threes outside the library, eating lunch.
After they were full, it was time for others to be full.
A dark joke suddenly popped into Shawn's mind, making him shake his head with a laugh. He stood at the front of the group and pushed open the partially ajar library door.
The door creaked open.
It seemed like only a few months had passed since the apocalypse began, yet these buildings, without human care, looked as if they had endured years.
As soon as the door opened, Shawn couldn't help but frown and turn his head slightly.
A rush of scent charged straight into his nostrils, then from his nostrils directly to the top of his head.
"Whoa--"
"With that smell, I'm afraid many people died in there."
Merle pinched his nostrils with two fingers and pushed the library door completely open.
"Let's wait a moment before going in."
Shawn led the group back out, and after about 10 minutes, when the smell had mostly dissipated, they re-entered the library.
Between the circulation desk, public desks, and bookshelves…
Shawn's gaze swept across, and he could even see several figures that had turned into black masses; they had already rotted away here.
"No wonder the smell is so strong."
Daryl walked forward, holding his crossbow.
He had intended to poke the corpse with the tip of a crossbow bolt to see if it was truly dead or had turned into a Walker.
But just as he was about to touch it, he pulled his crossbow back.
It seemed Daryl also found these corpses a bit disgusting.
Watching Daryl's actions, Shawn silently activated the 'Blood Bar MOD'.
Several bright red Blood Bars appeared before his eyes. Although these Walkers were motionless, they had nowhere to hide from Shawn.
Shawn reversed his grip on his knife and, before the Zealots could get excited, he cut down these Walkers.
[Experience + 300]
[Experience + 300]
[Experience + 300]
…
The sound rang out 12 times in a row before silence returned to the area.
Shawn skillfully flicked the blood off his blade and glanced sideways at Daryl under the bookshelf opposite.
How tacitly they had worked together all this way?
Daryl instantly understood. At Shawn's instruction, he led a group of Zealots up to the second floor.
Before long, Shawn heard the sound of experience point messages provided by the team system in his ear.
"With Daryl there, that group of Zealots won't have any problems."
Recalling his thoughts, Shawn looked out at the entire first floor of bookshelves.
Arriving at the southwest corner, Shawn began to check them one by one, starting from the bookshelf labeled 'A-1'.
Reference
Upon reaching the bookshelf, Shawn didn't reach out his hand, but instead thought, 'Search'.
Instantly, a grayish-white full circle appeared before Shawn's eyes. As the 6-second countdown on it vanished, the grayish-white color gradually contracted in a fan shape, until the countdown ended and the grayish-white color uniformly turned blank.
At the same time, two grids appeared before Shawn's eyes.
On the right was Shawn's system backpack, and on the left was a 6 * 5 grid, most of which was empty, with only the first three slots containing supplies.
Paper, glue, nails.
The quantity of materials found through Search was random, but generally not too much.
Seeing that no books were found, Shawn wasn't too disappointed; there were still so many bookshelves waiting for him.
It was also good to take this opportunity to get some basic supplies. Anyway, Shawn's backpack had expanded by more than ten pages now, so carrying these basic supplies was a piece of cake.
"When did you start getting interested in books? I've never seen you read one."
Merle didn't follow Daryl upstairs. He came to Shawn's side with interest and teased him.
"You don't understand 'live and learn'?"
Shawn gave him an annoyed look and casually picked up a book from the shelf.
Anyway, the entire Search process was carried out in a system interface invisible to others, and the supplies were directly placed into the backpack. Merle's presence was just right for chatting and relieving boredom.
There were 20 bookshelves in one row, and on the first floor, there were 7 rows of bookshelves as far as the eye could see.
Shawn and Merle walked and chatted, until they reached the last three bookshelves in the first row, when Shawn suddenly paused, a slight smile playing on his lips.
In the three slots of the bookshelf, lay a single copy of a 'magazine'.
"The Art of Mining" * 3
"Automatic Weapons Handbook" * 1
"tool summary" * 1
Shawn waved his hand and threw all these 'magazines' into his backpack, intending to count them later.
Look!
This was the proper way to open the "seven days to die system"!
Just searching the bookshelves could find 5 books, which was much faster than doing apocalypse missions.
Shawn rubbed his hands, pushed Merle, who had been chattering in his ear, aside, and began to Search with full concentration.
Second row of bookshelves: 7 books, third row: 3 books, fourth row: 12 books, fifth row: another 3 books, sixth row: 9 books…
Shawn's movements became faster and faster. Seeing so many 'magazines' being found, he felt his eyes almost turn red.
"Damn it, I've never fought such a rich battle in my life."
Looking at the 'magazines' quietly lying in his system backpack, Shawn felt like his saliva was about to drool.
…The last time he was this excited was during the Blood Moon.
He came to the last row of bookshelves on the first floor. Shawn rubbed his lucky hand and began to Search.
It was the same 6 seconds, but this time only one slot of supplies was found in the bookshelf.
Tech Fan * 1
"Not bad, a good start. The first bookshelf already yielded one."
Shawn wasn't greedy; he was content with what he could get.
Immediately, he went to the second bookshelf and waited for the Search to complete.
"Hmm?"
Shawn looked at another 'magazine' lying in a single slot, feeling a little surprised.
"This script seems…"
Shawn quickly put the 'magazine' into his backpack and hurried to Search the third, fourth, fifth…
As expected, all the subsequent bookshelves contained a uniform 'magazine' * 1.
By the time the last bookshelf in the seventh row was searched, Shawn's system backpack had gained a full 20 various 'magazines'!
Adding those collected before, it meant that on this floor alone, Shawn had found 59 magazines using the 'Search function'!
"But wait… at this collection efficiency, will the magazines in the system be enough for me to learn?"
Amidst his surprise, Shawn still felt something was off, and a faint guess formed in his mind.
But then, Shawn looked at the 59 precious items lying in his backpack and threw all those thoughts to the back of his mind.
Live for today, worry about nothing.
He looked at the rows of bookshelves and suddenly thought… were these bookshelves like body bags, since they all had space inside?
He thought for a moment, then shook his head with a laugh.
"Silly, cabinets can naturally hold things. How can they be compared to body bags?"
One must know that body bags themselves have no weight and can be freely shrunk, whereas objects like bookshelves have no value in being taken away.
He called out to Merle and the others, and they all went up to the second floor of the library.
Two Zealots guarded the staircase. Seeing Shawn appear, they quickly bowed their heads to him, showing extreme obedience.
As Shawn entered the second floor, looking around with the 'Blood Bar MOD', all the Walkers here had already been cleared out.
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