Regional Center

March 23rd, overcast and foggy. 24 degrees Celsius.

At six o’clock in the morning, before dawn had even broken, Ping Chengcheng and the others had already arrived at the city gate.

The fog was thick today, with visibility of less than thirty meters.

The operation was about to begin. Six hundred personnel, dressed in neat combat uniforms, stood beside their respective team’s military trucks, ready to board at any moment.

In the dim light, no one noticed Lu Linyuan, wearing a black windbreaker, standing atop the thirty-meter-high city wall, with his hands clasped behind his back.

The strong wind at that height whipped at the hem of his coat. Lu Linyuan’s gaze was deep, as if he could see the entire long convoy through the fog.

‘I hope this operation is a success.’

He sighed.

‘With Ping Chengcheng around, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.’ Thinking of Ping Chengcheng, he was reminded of something else. Last night, a message had come from who-knows-where, saying that Ping Chengcheng had publicly insulted the base’s General Commander, calling him a pig.

Lu Linyuan was skeptical. Could it be just a rumor? ‘No, I need to send someone to investigate.’

At six-thirty, the sky gradually began to lighten.

The sun, obscured by dark clouds, sent a small amount of sunlight through the clouds, which then scattered across the ground through the thick fog.

All personnel were now at their posts.

Inside the Kamaz’s cabin, Zheng Zhiyi, wearing her standby exoskeleton armor, sat on one side of the seats, looking somewhat constrained.

Song Ning sat on the other side, but the girl was playfully straddling the girl’s lap. Of course, Song Ning was also wearing exoskeleton armor, though it was in standby mode.

Ping Chengcheng would sometimes bury her head in the girl’s neck, sniffing delicately, and sometimes playfully kiss her cheeks.

Taking a moment to glance at the time, it was exactly six-thirty.

So the girl took the walkie-talkie from her waist.

“Prepare to depart. Each group and squad, report your status and numbers.”

“Yes!”

A unified response came from within the walkie-talkie.

Ping Chengcheng patted her head. She walked out of the cabin, nodded to the command post. She walked from the cabin to the driver’s seat, sat in the passenger seat, and craned her neck to look around. The huge city walls, made of black and gold alloy, were mechanically turning their gears as the heavy inner city gate slowly opened.

Inside the walkie-talkie, the reports went from the Emergency Strike Team to the Collection Team, taking a full three minutes.

“No abnormal situations reported.” Ping Chengcheng took out her communicator and dialed Lu Linyuan’s frequency. “General Commander, we are departing.”

“Mm, received. Proceed with caution.” Lu Linyuan, standing at the edge of the high city wall, responded calmly.

As the inner city gate opened, the outer city gate opened with a simultaneous clang.

Instantly, a violent wind rushed in through the large opening in the city gate! It made a strange, wailing sound that sent chills down the spine.

“Whoosh… Whoosh…”

The sound of the wind was particularly clear in the quiet morning.

“All units, prepare to depart. Remember the distance between vehicles. The fog is heavy. If you get lost, contact the command on the walkie-talkie immediately.”

The Kamaz was once again at the head of the convoy. The route ahead to A City was entirely planned by the girl herself. She was now sitting in the passenger seat, holding a map in her hand.

“Wu Sheng, we need to leave S City first. Do you remember the road we took when we came here?”

Wu Sheng nodded. He still remembered it very clearly.

“Take that road?”

The girl shook her head. “No, stay away from there, go around it. There’s a Flesh Worm there. We can’t beat it.”

As the girl’s voice faded, Zheng Zhiyi, sitting in the cabin, trembled slightly. She bit her lip, her heart heavy, conflicted… Her eyes slowly began to moisten.

Although she really wanted to ask if they could try to go to the Flesh Worm, she knew that Ping Chengcheng wouldn’t agree. After struggling for a long time, she leaned weakly against the chair, staring blankly at the roof of the cabin.

“Alright, follow closely, let’s go.”

Ping Chengcheng looked at the fog outside the city wall and continued to issue instructions.

With a roar of engines, the entire convoy drove out of the city gate in a mighty procession, kicking up smoke and dust, filling the air with the heavy smell of dust.

Not far from the city wall, some zombies, attracted by the trucks’ loud engine roars, rushed over as if their lives depended on it.

“Roar~! Roar, roar!”

They first looked around, searching for a target in the thick fog, and finally, following the source of the sound, dragged their bloody, broken bodies over.

“Roar!”

The stench of decay, dampness, age, and blood rushed toward them.

Wu Sheng drove cautiously along the road, not daring to drive too fast. The zombies ahead, however, didn’t care about any of that. They charged toward the Kamaz’s sharp, pointed front end at top speed, like moths drawn to a flame!

Crack! Splatter! Splatter! Bang!

One zombie after another was torn apart by the Kamaz’s front end, collapsing limply on the ground. Then, a series of firecracker-like sounds of bones cracking and shattering rang out, making one’s teeth ache.

Excitement filled Wu Sheng’s eyes, and a somewhat twisted smile hung on his lips.

“Hahahaha… This is the Kamaz!”

Buzz~!

Crossing a raised earthen slope, the Kamaz’s excellent suspension kept Ping Chengcheng from feeling any bumps!

Thirty-odd vehicles lined up neatly, following the Kamaz and advancing at a constant speed through the fog.

They successfully entered S City’s urban area. There were still sixty kilometers to reach the edge of S City. Since S City’s base itself was built not far from the edge, it was good news.

In fact, Ping Chengcheng had carefully considered it. Entering S City’s urban area would still have some risks, but she glanced at the map and shook her head.

If they didn’t go through S City’s urban area, and chose to go around it, the distance would be three times as long.

In this kind of foggy weather, no one knew what other accidents they might encounter. What’s more… if they finally went around most of the way, only to find that they were blocked, that would be terrible!

“Is Intelligence Group Leader Ye Yin there?”

Ping Chengcheng frowned slightly and opened the walkie-talkie to ask.

“Here.”

“Are you clear on the distribution of zombies in this urban area?”

There was no hesitation from the other side of the walkie-talkie, as if he had memorized the entire urban area’s zombie distribution: “The zombies in this area have largely been organized into zones. The area we’re entering now has a relatively average number of zombies.”

“If you continue straight along this road, approaching the center, the number of zombies will decrease. The specific reason for this has not yet been fully determined.”

Hearing this, the girl’s expression became somewhat gloomy.

This kind of zombie distribution was unreasonable. Zombies were a hateful, unique thing. Especially in cities, where there should be many zombies, it was impossible for large areas to have few zombies.

They were either scattered sparsely or gathered in clusters.

Unless… in that area, there might be some powerful monsters, or Special Infected.

“Have you been to the center of this area to investigate?”

Ye Yin didn’t hide anything. “Not yet. I suspect there’s some Special Infected inside. We originally planned to explore it little by little.”

The girl pondered for a moment. What should she do? Did they need to detour?

No! Detouring would waste an unknown amount of time! She needed to get to that laboratory in A City as soon as possible!

She touched the inhibitor Lu Linyuan had given her in her pocket, feeling a little anxious. In the storage room, she also had a bottle of blood given to her by Shen Mengyuan.

Although the supply wasn’t enough, with so many people around, even if she didn’t kill them, drinking a little blood wouldn’t be a problem, right?