"Good thing you're here, neighbor!" Dave struggled free from the corn silk.
[Cob Cannon launch countdown: 8.64 seconds.]
[Cob Cannon launch countdown: 7.34 seconds.]
"Hang in there a little longer, neighbor! It's almost ready!" Dave roared, peeling back another layer of husks to reveal the outline of the kernels.
With seven seconds left, Bai Mu blasted a small Zombie to pieces with his fifth shotgun shell, leaving only one round left in the magazine tube.
The Giant Zombie paused briefly before charging at Bai Mu once again.
A single shell could stall it for three seconds at most. If he fired this last round, he would lose his only effective countermeasure for the final three seconds, leaving him unable to guarantee his safety.
But he did not panic, for he knew he had already won.
He fished a single 12-gauge shotgun shell from his pocket. It was a habit he had cultivated over many years: always keep at least one shell within easy reach at all times.
This was a subtle trick known only to those intimately familiar with old-school shotguns. It could only be executed when the magazine tube wasn't full and there was already a round in the chamber. It was called an emergency port reload.
Executing this technique in actual combat was incredibly difficult. Even Bai Mu had practiced it for a long time to ensure he had fully mastered it.
Using the thumb of his support hand, he pressed the action release button in front of the trigger guard, while his firing hand rapidly racked the pump all the way back.
The ejection port opened, and the shell he had prepared was tossed directly through the open port and pushed straight into the chamber.
This round bypassed the tubular magazine and the lifter system entirely.
The recoil spring drove the bolt forward, sliding the freshly loaded shell into the chamber and automatically locking the action.
In an instant, the weapon transitioned from an empty-chambered state back to being fully loaded and ready to fire, skipping the multiple steps of loading through the bottom port and pumping the action again.
This was the fastest method for a single-round reload. In just half a second, he had chambered a fresh shell.
It looked effortless, but a novice attempting this in a distraction-free environment would fail nine times out of ten. He wasn't merely shoving a bullet inside; he was guiding it into the exact right position by pure muscle memory.
One minute of action on stage requires ten years of practice off stage.
The ejection port was narrow. The slightest deviation in technique would result in failure; arm strength and finger precision were both indispensable.
With 6.21 seconds left on the countdown, Bai Mu fired his sixth shot.
The buckshot slammed into the Giant Zombie's right arm. Bai Mu leaped to the side, dodging a vertical smash from its telephone pole.
At 3.14 seconds, the Giant Zombie roared and raised its arm. Bai Mu fired his final shell into its left knee, causing it to momentarily lose its balance and throwing its attack wildly off course.
[Cob Cannon launch countdown: 0.00 seconds.]
"Watch out, neighbor!" Dave covered his ears and squeezed his eyes shut.
The cannon angled toward the sky like an artillery piece. The massive corn cob launched like a rocket, arcing upward before plummeting from over a dozen meters in the air.
'How much damage could a single ear of corn really do?'
That was what Bai Mu had initially thought, right up until the deafening explosion.
The Cob Cannon smashed into the Giant Zombie's shoulder and exploded with a massive boom. There was no fiery flash typical of gunpowder. Instead, it sounded like a massive boulder being dropped into a lake—muffled yet immensely powerful—as the plump kernels burst into snow-white popcorn.
The Giant Zombie's head was blown completely off. Gone. Following the blast, its colossal body collapsed onto the lawn. Within the explosion's blast radius, even the turf and dirt had been violently churned up.
A rain of white showered down as countless pieces of popcorn bounced across the soft grass. The scene was filled with a dreamlike absurdity. The putrid stench of the zombie corpse mingled with the buttery aroma of popcorn, making it seem as if the popcorn had erupted directly from the Giant Zombie's head.
A few pieces of popcorn bounced over to Bai Mu. He reached out, caught one, and gave it a gentle squeeze.
Crack. The crisp corn fractured.
The scent reminded him of the old men who would occasionally show up at the village entrance to pop corn in a black, hand-cranked, rotating iron pressure popper.
[Because you assisted Dave in defeating the Giant Zombie, Crazy Dave has fully acknowledged you.]
[Main Quest updated: Speak with Dave.]
Dave's voice rang out from behind him, "Neighbor! We did it!"
"Thank goodness you were here. If it weren't for you, that Giant Zombie definitely would have destroyed our backyard!"
"You even took out so many regular Zombies! As expected of the Golden Duck of the Rubber Duck Commando Squad, you're amazing!"
Wearing an excited expression, Dave hurried over to Bai Mu. He scooped up a piece of popcorn from the ground and tossed it into his mouth.
"Aren't you going to try some? Popcorn specially produced by Garden Plants—one of a kind!"
"Thank you, Dave, but I'm not hungry," Bai Mu declined, waving his hand.
Even though the popcorn smelled delicious, it had essentially exploded off a zombie's head. Who knew if it was contaminated with rotting flesh or some kind of virus?
Unless he was on the verge of starving to death, he never liked risking his health to eat food of unknown origins.
"That's a real shame." Dave continued to chew noisily.
Bai Mu looked at the Giant Zombie's corpse. There were no further notification sounds. It seemed the combat phase of the Script was finally over. Now, all he had to do was finish talking to Dave to complete this Script.
He had cleared the level following an unknown route that hadn't been mentioned in any of the guides. He wondered what kind of rewards he would receive.
"Neighbor, your performance was beyond my wildest imagination. I originally thought I'd have to face the zombie invasion all alone, but I never expected to meet you." Dave patted Bai Mu on the shoulder. "Zombies have invaded our home. I sincerely hope you can help me defeat them. Are you willing?"
[Dave invites you to fight the Zombies with him. Do you accept?]
[Yes / No?]
[Note: Upon accepting, you will receive the Special Item: Dave's Car Keys.]
"If we can't team up, then who can?" Bai Mu replied.
He had no reason to refuse. He had fought so hard to defend the backyard precisely to earn a reward from Dave.
"I knew you would agree, neighbor!" Dave was thrilled. "Your skills absolutely blew me away. You simply must do me this favor. If we can recover the Sunflowers, those Zombies will be nothing to worry about."
Dave pulled a car key from his pocket and pressed it into Bai Mu's hand.
"I trust you to bring back the Sunflowers and my car!"
Bai Mu looked down at the key:
[Name: Dave's Car Keys (Requirement: Gain Dave's acknowledgment)]
[Type: Special Item]
[Quality: Unique]
[Note: Dave never allows anyone else to drive his car, not even his own brother. Stealing this key from Dave is harder than stealing Mary. Using this key will unlock the Script: Lost Sunflowers.]