Chapter 342
Chapter 343 The Sanctuary of the Peace Tree
If anyone was thirsty, they could bite into a water orb and take a drink.
That set off waves of cheering through the crowd.
It cost them half an hour, but not a single survivor died, and everyone had enough strength to keep moving.
Two miles wasn’t far. On foot, it was only about forty minutes. Even with a few people in rough. shape slowing the pace, they still made it in an hour, arriving beneath the Peace Tree.
As expected, the Peace Tree didn’t attack the survivors.
But the zombies around them seemed to go berserk, surging toward the Peace Tree from every direction.
One of them was even a powerful Zombie King.
Alwyn cut it down before it could get close.
After confirming every monster in the dungeon was dead, Joanna realized something strange. The dungeon still hadn’t ended.
“What’s going on? Did I miss something p>
Joanna swept the area with Detection.
By now, three hours had already passed in the instance.
Meanwhile…
Sophie stayed close to the base leader, cutting down zombies with ferocious efficiency.
“Entrance 01 has been breached p>
“Elite zombies have slipped inside p>
“What do we do, boss p>
Everyone turned to the leader. Even Sophie, caught in the current, fixed her eyes on him.
The immersion was too strong. In a crisis like this, people needed someone to lead them.
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Chapter 343 The
“We have to abandon this place. Everyone, gather up. We retreat through Exit 04, head to the botanical garden, and move toward the Peace Tree. With the Peace Tree’s help, we’ll survive p>
Once the decision was made, the entire team gathered. The elderly, women, and children stood in the middle, while the able-bodied men stood on the perimeter.
They fled together.
Sophie stood in the center as well, positioned to heal anyone swarmed by zombies.
Soon, they burst out of the underground parking lot and onto the road.
Zombies poured in from all sides, an endless tide chasing them down.
Sophie’s healing never stopped for a second, keeping the team’s fighters alive and moving.
However, after a short while, people began to fall behind.
The ones who were too hungry to even walk:
The front line was breaking through; no one had time to look back. Sophie was panicking too.
If these NPCs died, would it affect her mission evaluation?
But she realized she truly couldn’t afford it.
Even under her healing, those NPCs were still losing HP from starvation.
And even if she wanted to wait, the zombies wouldn’t allow it.
The zombie assault was relentless. Sophie could only heal the strong and abandon the weak.
Following the base leader, they covered the two miles in just 22 minutes.
Because if they didn’t run, they’d be torn apart.
Everyone was running.
But the slow ones inevitably got left behind.
In the final head count, they had lost two-thirds of their group.
Only 321 survivors remained.
Thankfully, once they entered the Peace Tree’s range, the zombies couldn’t push through—any that tried were whipped apart by the Peace Tree and killed on the spot:
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Chapter 343 The Sanctuary of the Peace Tree
Finished
But more and more zombies gathered around. The Peace Tree kept killing them, shedding leaves as it fought, aging rapidly right before their eyes.
“The Peace Tree’s leaves are turning yellow-oh no. It’s releasing energy. It’s running out. The Peace Tree is going to die p>
Watching that, Sophie finally understood.
Healing wasn’t just for the people.
She had to heal the tree as well.
She immediately unleashed Holy light and covered the Peace Tree, but whether it was an attribute mismatch or the sheer drain of supporting countless branches, the effect was … underwhelming.
The Peace Tree’s HP recovery was slow.
Still, slow was better than nothing. It was climbing, about 1% per minute. But Sophie quickly noticed something else: if the zombie pressure increased, or elite zombies landed heavier hits, the Peace Tree lost more HP.
“I get it. As long as I heal the Peace Tree and we clear out all the zombies, we can finish the mission p>
Sophie said it with rising excitement, then pushed her healing even harder.
Inside the dungeon, Joanna was thinking at full speed, too.
“Don’t tell me this survival dungeon wants the NPCs… to live happily ever after p>
Pros in survival dungeons often chased perfect endings.
It was said that the items dropped from a Perfect Ending were like the SSS-rank rewards from Fruit vs. Zombies-true top-tier loot.
Joanna looked at the survivors around her.
Besides the 999 she’d escorted here, there was another group already at the Peace Tree-1,049 people total.
Right now, their hunger levels were stable. No one was at immediate risk of starving.
So… was it not enough to hand them food? Did she also have to teach them how to feed themselves?
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Chapter 343
With no better clear condition in sight, Joanna moved.
She had managed her own territory before. Even if she hadn’t done everything personally, directing a thousand people to build a small settlement was still easy work for her.
“Besides guarding the Peace Tree, pick 300 able-bodied adults. Start cutting timber. We’re building houses here p>
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The Battle Queen They Blindly Kicked Out
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