Chapter 46: Cyborg Gambit

Exitra’s body had completely changed after choosing the Cyborg class.

Various mechanical parts were attached to his body, giving off the impression of the mechanical arms and legs often worn by protagonists in alchemist-themed stories.

“Well… it would be strange for the commander of cyborg units to just be an ordinary human…”

It seemed his appearance had been altered to match the setting.

However, he didn’t gain any special abilities.

As a commander, apart from summoning units and issuing orders, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he had no combat capabilities at all.

“Now, is this… a map?”

A large map appeared before his eyes.

It displayed the entire base.

Quite a number of buildings had been constructed, arranged in various shapes and colors, and in the middle, there was a large empty space, as if intentionally left open.

From the entrance, one could walk straight down a path leading directly to the large mansion housing Exitra’s operations command room.

“The interior layout is a little complicated.”

—[Apparently, they built it this way so zombies couldn’t easily approach…]

—[… ]

—[Info) There was even a directionally challenged streamer who got lost because of the buildings.]

—[Exitra, be careful too.]

“Well, since everything’s displayed on the map, I don’t think that will be a problem. And if I press this…”

The map displayed exactly where each building was located, and when he clicked “Detailed View,” it showed the building’s stats—abilities, durability, attack power, and defense.

“The palisade is only Level 1? I’d better upgrade this first… And is this the menu?”

Beside the map were several menu options:

[Summon Units]

[Upgrade Units]

[Construct Buildings]

[Repair Buildings]

[Install Communication Devices]

There were five in total, and selecting them revealed what could be summoned or constructed.

Using these menus was the key to fending off the zombies.

“And this must be the money.”

In the top right corner, a display labeled “Gold” showed his current funds—around 100,000 gold.

This amount was given equally to all players when starting the game.

Gold was awarded at the end of each stage based on the number of zombies defeated.

This meant you couldn’t just wait for the time limit to run out—you had to kill as many zombies as possible within the time limit.

That was the only way to earn more gold.

“And I guess this is what I’m supposed to protect?”

Exitra turned around.

Behind him stood a massive crystal.

The game’s setting was as follows: when zombies were killed, they dropped something called “Essence.”

The crystal would absorb this Essence and then convert it into gold for the player.

But that wasn’t its only role.

When fighting the final boss, this crystal was an absolute necessity—essentially the ultimate weapon to defeat it.

That’s why the final boss, knowing the crystal was a threat, would try to destroy it, while the player’s mission was to protect it.

—[Yeah, you just need to defend that.]

—[This mode is hell difficulty.]

—[If the crystal gets hit, its durability will show up.]

Following a viewer’s suggestion, Exitra touched the crystal.

Immediately, a durability meter appeared before his eyes.

[100,000 / 100,000]

Its durability was 100,000.

Considering that ordinary zombies only reduced durability by 1 point per hit, this seemed like a very generous amount.

However, special zombies could damage it by 10 points per hit, so caution was necessary in the later stages.

“Alright then…”

—[Zombies will arrive in 5 minutes.]

—[Prepare for the zombie attack.]

The preparation phase began.

Exitra sat down in the cushy chair provided in the operations command room.

“Alright, let’s get started. And please, go easy on the backseat gaming.”

He gave the warning just in case.

Games like this often attracted plenty of backseat gamers.

While some advice could be helpful, if a streamer followed those directions too much, the entire game flow could collapse.

That’s why it was best to warn viewers in advance.

“Too much backseat gaming will get you banned~!”

—[Yeah, let’s keep the backseat gaming down this time.]

—[If you give too much advice, the streamer can’t play the game~~]

—[Even if it’s frustrating, let’s just watch for now.]

“Hahaha, if I really can’t handle it, I’ll ask for help—then you can give me advice.”

With that, Exitra immediately got to work.

“First… let’s summon some workers…”

There was a separate type of worker unit for building construction.

Exitra summoned around 10 of them, costing roughly 500 gold each.

The workers looked strikingly similar to the ones from Star of War.

“Let’s start by upgrading the palisade…”

He ordered the workers to upgrade the defensive wall.

[Yes, sir!]

Bzzzz!

***

The workers moved to the palisade and began the upgrade.

It didn’t take long before the upgrade was complete.

The palisade’s defense and durability had doubled.

With this, he could probably survive several stages without trouble.

“And now, the communication devices!”

[From this point on, it’s hell, lol.]

[A lot of people failed this stage because of the communication devices.]

[Honestly, no one picks Cyborg because of them, lol.]

[Since cyborg units only move within the communication range, managing them is super annoying.]

The communication device was crucial in Zombie Survival, as it was the only way to issue orders to combat units.

Since it had a limited “signal range,” it had to be installed carefully—otherwise, it could be a huge waste of money.

“Installation… I guess I’ll put it here.”

Exitra placed one down casually.

—[Ahhh! You can’t just put it anywhere!]

—[You need to be careful with that placement.]

—[Huh? Wait… did you not just put it randomly??]

—[What the—? The range covers the entire base??]

To an outsider, it looked like Exitra had installed it carelessly.

In reality, he had placed it in the optimal location using the knowledge from before his regression.

This setup allowed him to cover the entire base with the fewest possible devices.

“How’s that?”

—[Whoa! Perfect!]

—[Wow, so that’s how you place them.]

The viewers were astonished—they had never thought to arrange them this way.

Normally, it would take over 30 devices to cover the whole base, but Exitra had done it with only 20.

“I still have about 80,000 gold left.”

—[Wow, that’s a lot of leftover money.]

He recruited workers, upgraded the wooden fence, installed the communicator, and still had gold left over.

There was quite a bit left.

Considering that most players only had about 50,000 gold remaining after building various facilities, Exitra had spent only on what was necessary.

“And with the remaining gold, let’s recruit some units.”

Exitra used the leftover gold to recruit the units available at the start.

At 800 gold per unit, he recruited 100 of them.

Cyborg units had significantly higher base stats compared to other classes’ units.

A cyborg had 700 durability, 30 attack power, 20 defense, and a movement speed of about 80.

By comparison, units from other classes typically had 400–500 HP, 10–20 attack, 5–10 defense, and a movement speed of 30–50, making cyborgs clearly superior.

Of course, if there’s an advantage, there’s always a drawback.

The reason people avoided using cyborgs was obvious.

—[Is that really okay?]

—[Cyborgs are hard to control…]

—[Their base stats are good, but last time I played them, they just stood there getting hit by zombies if I didn’t give orders…]

“Ah, that’s true. I’ve seen it in videos too.”

Cyborgs were notoriously difficult to control.

Unlike other units, they lacked free will, so without direct orders, they would simply stand there.

They had to be micromanaged constantly.

If the player made even a small mistake, the cyborgs could end up charging straight into a zombie nest.

‘How fair was that?’

They had been given incredible physical abilities, but had their thinking brains taken away.

“Well, I’m sure it’ll work out somehow.” Exitra said with a light smile.

“If we upgrade them, it should be fine, right?”

From now on, the gold he earned would have to be used to upgrade the units and hold out until Stage 10.

“I just have to survive until Stage 10 with these, right?”

—[Yep.]

—[That’s right. You can’t summon any more units now.]

Sure enough, the unit summoning option in the menu was disabled.

He would have to hold out until Stage 10 with these 100 units alone.

—[Still, Exitra is at a huge advantage.]

—[Yeah, I checked some other players, and most could only summon 60–70 units.]

Compared to the others, Exitra had a whopping 30 more units.

That would be a huge advantage.

“Money should be spent strategically. Look at me—when I want to buy something else, I can’t because I’ve spent it all already.”

***

After summoning his units, he had exactly 0 gold left.

Exitra looked very satisfied.

“Nice and clean, right? I just don’t like leaving anything behind.”

—[Clean.]

—[So satisfying.]

—[This guy knows how to spend money.]

—[He calculated it perfectly lol amazing.]

—[Zombies will attack in 10 seconds.]

—[Survivors, prepare for the zombie attack.]

“Right on time.”

Still seated in his chair, Exitra scanned the map.

The blue dots represented his units.

“There are zombies outside.”

Countless red dots surrounded the perimeter—every single one of them a zombie.

At first, about 300 zombies came charging in.

—[Can he stop them?]

—[Cyborgs need constant orders, so it’s a bit annoying…]

—[Not sure if it’s possible…]

The zombie attack began.

The undead rushed into Exitra’s base at great speed.

Their target was the crystal.

From this moment on, he had to hold them back until the final boss appeared.

Exitra smiled as he watched them approach.

“Alright, let’s hold them off.”

This was the moment the battle between Exitra—the brainpower monster—and the zombies began.

***

The first zombies to appear weren’t particularly strong.

It was more like a test round.

So, taking them down wasn’t very hard.

— [Uuurrgh…]

The zombies shuffled forward slowly.

Early-stage zombies had low HP and defense, and their movement speed was quite slow.

Their AI was also rather dumb.

“Attack.”

Exitra’s basic units blocked the entrance, stopping the zombies in their tracks.

Their weapon was a sword—blades extending from their arms.

With those, they easily slaughtered the zombies.

Even though 300 zombies were coming, they all had to pass through the entrance.

That made defending much easier.

All he had to do was swing the sword at the entrance.

The zombies, acting like fools, would keep walking forward even after seeing their comrades die, only to meet the same fate.

They really couldn’t have been dumber.

“This is easier than I expected.”

—[Stage 1 is just a warm-up.]

—[No one dies in Stage 1, right?]

—[You could do it with your eyes closed lol.]

“Is the other side almost done?”

Time was nearly up.

In about 10 minutes, the zombies would naturally disappear, signaling a successful defense.

But if that happened, he wouldn’t be able to earn the gold that came from killing them.

“I can’t let even one escape.”

Exitra’s eyes gleamed with determination.

He clearly intended to kill every last one.

“Kill them all.”

He moved his other units, systematically hunting down the zombies.

By the time the 10 minutes were up, every attacking zombie had been wiped out.

[The zombie attack has ended.]

[After a 5-minute break, the next attack will begin.]

[You have earned 30,000 gold.]

The first reward was 30,000 gold.

Early stages didn’t give much gold, but the rewards would increase as the stages went higher.

“Any damaged units? No? Then…”

Stage 1 was just a light warm-up, so losing units was practically impossible.

“First, let’s upgrade the wooden fence…”

Exitra spent some gold on the fence.

There weren’t any buildings he needed to construct yet, and he couldn’t recruit more units.

The fence was a crucial part of defending the base.

Later, it could be upgraded to a wall.

It was always better to upgrade to a wall if possible—otherwise, you’d experience a living hell later on.

“And with the remaining gold, I’ll increase movement speed.”

[Unit movement speed has been upgraded to Level 2.]

“Once again, I’m broke.”

It wasn’t intentional, but after upgrading the essentials, his gold had gone down to exactly zero.

[Zombies will attack in 10 seconds.]

[Survivors, prepare for the zombie attack.]

[They’re coming again~]

[You’re all going to die now~~]

[Wow, you guys are old…]

[You know that reference? You’re true old-timers.]

Time was up.

Once again, the zombies began swarming in.

This time, about 400 of them.

The number of zombies increased with each stage.

For now, they were attacking from only one side, but later they would come from multiple directions.

Players had to prepare for that in advance.

Exitra watched them closing in and said, “Alright, here come the zombies again. Let’s keep going.”