Chapter 326 Rescue Preparations

Ling Mo had no idea what Xia Xinyan was thinking about him.

He was still testing his abilities and had already gotten some results: “My manifestation ability is also restricted; the consumption has risen significantly, and now I can’t manifest anything too high-tech. This level of weaponry is already the maximum I can handle right now. If I try to conjure something more advanced, it will drain my stamina.”

Whether it’s manifesting items or maintaining their existence, it all drains his stamina—which doesn’t just represent his physical capability but goes deeper than that.

Explaining it is a bit tricky; simply put, it’s similar to the mana bar in games. All ability users are the same: once the mana is depleted, they’ll be as good as dead—more helpless than the little sister picked up outside a bar.

So most people would avoid reaching that point, just as no one would choose to run until they drop dead. When feeling the strain, a normal person would stop to rest.

This mana bar also gradually regenerates over time, and as one’s abilities improve, so does the recovery speed. Thus, theoretically, with enough understanding of one’s abilities, one could maintain the consumption speed beneath the recovery speed, allowing for sustainable combat capability.

Ling Mo was close to grasping this boundary and could roughly determine the balance between his recovery and consumption rates.

The peculiar effect of this small town had increased his consumption rate significantly while reducing his recovery speed, so he needed to find a new balance—though this wasn’t a major issue.

What mattered was he had confirmed one thing: at least he could still provide sustained equipment supplies here.

“Where’s Xinyan?” He turned to look at Xia Xinyan.

Xia Xinyan hesitated for a moment before replying, “My strength has been greatly reduced; I shouldn’t be much stronger than an ordinary person now. However…”

As she spoke, her cat tail swiftly swished past a nearby patch of weeds, and in the next instant, those weeds were neatly severed.

“Looks like the hardware is still intact.” She joyfully wagged her tail.

As a body-enhancement ability user, having her hardware unaffected was her biggest reliance.

Moreover… she felt that her succubus ability didn’t seem to show any signs of weakening either.

Could it be thanks to Tianji?

Seeing this, Ling Mo felt a bit more relieved: “Looks like the impact isn’t too big.”

He then turned to the rescue team behind him and said, “You all come in and feel the changes in power, get familiar; we’ll act soon.”

Tiger Ba Tian glanced at his brothers and asked, “Can we go in to help?”

“Not yet.” Ling Mo waved his hand, “First, let’s assess the situation here.”

He needed to ensure the safety and reliability of this rescue mission. These twenty brothers were brought by him, and he had to be responsible for their safety.

Most importantly, he had to be responsible for Xia Xinyan.

Now, since their powers had been weakened, they couldn’t afford to be careless.

After letting the rescue team feel the effects of weakness within the town’s limits, they pretty much understood the situation.

Although Ling Mo’s manifestation ability was diminished, the stamina consumption for maintaining already manifested items didn’t change, so the battle armors they wore… might be things Ling Mo had manifested in advance, thus not affected by the weakening effect inside.

This was good news; otherwise, with the increased consumption… Ling Mo honestly might struggle to maintain the existence of all twenty-one armors.

Additionally, even though their individual powers had seen a massive decline, they were still stronger than ordinary people. With the battle armors, dealing with zombies shouldn’t be an issue.

Not to mention, Ling Mo would also distribute equipment to them.

It’s worth mentioning that Ling Mo had deliberately left the influence zone before starting to manifest equipment, mainly focusing on modern firearms, such as rifles and submachine guns.

After all, their mission this time was rescue, not destruction; using rocket launchers as massive weapons was unnecessary.

Plus, manifesting magazines in bulk was easier than manifesting rocket warheads.

After distributing these weapons, Ling Mo discussed the rescue strategy with them.

The key target was undoubtedly to destroy the Source of Invasion—well, in the context of the Dark Zone world, invasion doesn’t quite qualify as an invasion. Such situations were rarely seen by Xia Xinyan in the Dark Zone world, but to put it plainly, it’s just a term, and if it’s not classified as an invasion, we can just call it an event instead.

A rules event.

However, since zombies were involved, it was likely they would face an extremely fierce tide of zombies when trying to destroy the Source of Invasion, so they needed to prepare for that.

Ling Mo’s idea was to split into teams, with four members each, using walkie-talkies to communicate. The primary task was to locate the main survivor base trapped inside, ensure their safety first, and then take action based on the situation.

Alternatively, they could use the current groupings to destroy the Source of Invasion. The benefit of splitting up was that it could help disperse the potential zombie tide’s assault, and with fewer people, they could move more flexibly, allowing those with relatively higher strength to have more room to maneuver.

Or they could simply let Ling Mo distribute guns to everyone, then rush to destroy the Source of Invasion together.

However, how to choose at that point depended on the number of zombies in the town and the exact form of the Source of Invasion.

So the foremost task now was to enter and search for survivors.

The others grouped up; ammo and equipment were sufficiently prepared, and they entered the town from different locations. Ling Mo teamed up with Xia Xinyan and entered through the front gate of the town.

At this point, it was already after dusk, and the dimming light added a touch of eerie atmosphere to the small town.

As Ling Mo and Xia Xinyan stepped onto the main road of the town, they encountered several zombies, giving them a chance to practice a bit and test their skills. The individual strength of the zombies wasn’t strong, and headshots could still kill them completely; however, hitting their bodies seemed to do absolutely nothing—Ling Mo tested it specifically. A middle-aged male zombie probably had several pounds of bullets in him by the time he died, but the bullet that caused the fatal damage was the one that hit his head.

“Phew…” Ling Mo looked at the zombie crowd wandering in the distance with some emotion, “It’s been a while since I’ve felt this tense…”

Suddenly losing most of his strength and reverting to his early weak state felt oddly nostalgic.

Xia Xinyan, holding a rifle behind him, nodded in response, “It’s good to feel a little tense.”

Better than being overly relaxed and then messing things up.

Ling Mo paused for a moment and then smiled, “I guess it won’t take just a day to solve things here… Xinyan, do you want to find a place to rest for a bit?”

Xia Xinyan paused briefly, “Rest? Are you tired, Mo Mo?”

“No,” Ling Mo’s smile turned slightly ambiguous, “But it seems our previous competition still hasn’t concluded?”

Xia Xinyan: “…”

This guy…