Chapter 46: Three Lines in Parallel
, Hongyuan Road.
Several modified six-wheel trucks rumbled over the gravel on the road, their tires grinding out a dull, heavy noise.
In the cargo beds, the —disassembled into multiple modules—was secured on shock-absorbing mounts, each module wrapped in two layers of waterproof tarpaulin.
sat in the front passenger seat, his left arm resting on the window frame, his gaze sweeping levelly across the streets on both sides.
The rolling shutter doors of roadside shops hung crooked, and the ground was littered with dark stains that had dried long ago.
A city bus lay sprawled across the intersection, its body covered in palm-sized dents. The windshield had long since vanished.
"Twelve at the intersection, three hundred meters ahead." 's voice came through the on 's chest.
"Copy." pressed the communication button and said to in the driver's seat, "Don't stop. Move through fast."
The convoy held sixty kilometers per hour and rolled into the intersection.
Sure enough, a dozen or so zombies staggered out from behind the bus, their pale, ashen faces turning toward the trucks, their clouded eyes tracking the moving source of noise.
Three of them started running after the trucks.
In the cargo beds, everyone instinctively tightened their grip on their rifles, but no one was in a hurry to fire.
"Don't get tense," said in a low voice. "They can't catch up."
The trucks continued on, speed unchanged.
The zombies chased for about two hundred meters, gradually fell behind, and finally stopped, swaying in place a couple of times before wandering off aimlessly again.
But soon enough, zombies from other places came following after them.
"They really are everywhere!" muttered, his tone heavy.
After another ten minutes or so of driving, spoke again.
[Approaching the target area: 137 Hongyuan Road, the ' ' residential complex.]
[The underground garage entrance is on the west side.]
The lead truck slowed and turned into the complex's side gate.
The iron fence gate had been smashed open long ago. The ground was covered with dried tire tracks and drag marks of varying depths.
The landscaped greenery inside the complex had run wild into dense weeds. Several high-rise residential buildings stood in silence, their windows gaping black.
The instant the vehicles stopped, the engine noise vanished, leaving only the sounds of zombies running and howling.
As expected, figures soon began appearing around the trucks one after another.
From building entrances, from behind flower beds, from the rubble of a collapsed pavilion, they came running over one by one.
did a quick count—there were more than twenty just within his field of view.
"Spray on the perfume. Get ready to get out."
As he spoke, took a metal spray bottle from his waist and sprayed evenly over his jacket, pant legs, and shoe tops.
Everyone else did the same. The liquid didn't really have any smell people could detect, but they were still used to calling it perfume for short.
After the preparations were done, the zombies around them noticeably dispersed, no longer fixated on the trucks.
It was as if they had suddenly lost their target, looking somewhat bewildered.
Seeing this, seized the moment, pulled open the door, and jumped down.
The sound of his landing caught the attention of the nearest . The thing was less than fifteen meters away; its gray head turned, and its clouded eyes stared straight in his direction.
stood where he was, not moving.
The stared for two seconds.
Then it slowly turned its head away, dragged its feet along the ground, and shuffled off in another direction.
As if didn't exist.
But had no intention of letting it go. He closed the distance in three quick strides and brought the blade down, and the crumpled limply to the ground in an instant.
"Squad One, clear the zombies. Squads Two and Three, unload." turned his head and gave the order in a low voice.
After the previous rounds of clearing, the zombies that had originally been in the underground garage had actually already been cleaned out.
And the ones that had just followed the noise of the trucks into the garage weren't many. Squad One, working with , finished clearing them quickly.
The whole clearing took less than eight minutes. Ordinary zombies of this level were now no more than a warm-up exercise for the current operation squad.
Meanwhile, the unloading crew on the other side had already released the locking clasps and started moving the components in an orderly way.
The 's modules were carefully lifted off the trucks and moved by handcart to the pre-planned spot—an isolated compartment at the deepest part of level B2.
The concrete walls there were thick, the height was sufficient, and there was only one entrance, which made setting up a defensive line simple.
On top of that, directly overhead was ' ,' a residential area relatively close to the core of . The location was good in its own right.
led the assembly. He had done this once before, so doing it a second time came easily.
The interfaces of the three modules were aligned, cables were routed into place, and cooling lines were connected.
"Module One connected. Module Two... good. Module Three, in place." tightened the last mounting bolt and dusted off his hands. "Okay, Old Li, hook up the power."
The power supply network and mother machine interface retrofitted during previous operations connected successfully.
Clack!
The once again lit up with a deep blue glow across its body. A low hum sounded, and the cooling vents on the surfaces of the three modules began blowing air in a regular rhythm.
The escorting drone formations also powered up one after another and returned to the mother machine to recharge.
's voice sounded right on cue.
[Power supply test complete. Voltage stable. Output meets spec.]
[ successfully installed and brought online.]
watched the patch of deep blue light and let out a relaxed breath.
"Operational phase complete," he said to the group. "Pack up and prepare to pull out."
The bodies were all loaded onto the trucks and taken away, too—since they'd been killed anyway, leaving them behind unburned would have meant working for nothing.
After the trucks drove out, they also used the steel plates and wire mesh transported in advance to make a simple cover over the garage entrance, leaving only an opening large enough for the drones to enter and exit freely, further ensuring the safety of the .
From the outside, this place looked no different from any other abandoned residential complex.
But from now on, this was the starting point from which would begin reshaping the distribution of .
This was 's third plan—an operation built around the drone swarm.
In 's view, the drone swarm numbering in the thousands actually had far greater potential beyond just escort duty.
But endurance had always been the limiting factor holding these drones back.
Their endurance was already absurd compared to other drones of the same size from before the apocalypse, but it still wasn't enough.
The could fly farther and for longer, but its numbers were limited and it was expensive—nowhere near as cost-effective as the drones at one civilization point each.
So 's approach to the problem was straightforward: if the swarm couldn't fly far, why not just install the directly in the battlefield?
With the deployed in the underground garage, the combat radius of the swarm of nearly ten thousand drones could directly cover more than thirty percent of .
The next step was to use the micro-speakers carried by the drones to play that verified specific acoustic frequency band, attempting a regional dispersal of ordinary zombies within the coverage area.
No need to kill them—just drive them away.
Drive them to the edges of , drive them in other directions, and that would open up a gap in the center of to establish a temporary base.
Afterward, whether it was using the swarm to slowly conduct carpet-style searches for possible survivors,
or verifying the limits and flaws of this dispersal sound wave, neither would be a problem anymore.
If more drones could be produced in the future, they could even drive the ordinary zombies out of completely, step by step, preparing for subsequent operations in Anlan—and even for the return to Anlan.
As for the possibility that mutants wouldn't be affected, that didn't matter much either.
Apart from high-risk mutants like those in District, ordinary mutants, though dangerous, were nothing compared to a horde.
When the density dropped low enough, even if those mutants didn't leave—deprived of the horde's cover, they were nothing more than a bit harder-to-kill living targets.
Once the waters receded and the rocks emerged, some dangers became relatively controllable.
***
For these three plans, the meeting had set no order of priority—they chose to push forward on all three in parallel.
After all, the had considerably more people than before, more than enough to support exploration in these three directions.
led , responsible for installing the and coordinating the drone swarm's follow-up clearing work.
coordinated the in erecting the framework of the chemical production line in the open area east of the power station, with in charge of overseeing product standards.
, meanwhile, took out to find reaction vessels and storage tanks of the specified specifications, along with raw materials that met the requirements.
And led his fifty-man down into the ground.
***
Twenty-three meters underground.
Day four of the test tunnel excavation.
The , code-named " ," was advancing steadily to the northeast.
The impact drill at the front emitted a low vibration, spinning as it sank into the rock, with crushed stone and dust sucked away by the negative-pressure system. The tunnel extended forward at a steady pace.
stood at the command position behind the cockpit, staring at the geological radar screen in front of him.
The layered geological profile scrolled slowly forward, with colors representing the hardness and moisture content of different rock layers.
The current excavation zone matched the forecast—medium-hardness sandstone, low moisture content, stable surrounding rock.
"Excavation normal. Quick-setting spray coating applying automatically." At the forward operator station, a team member named Old Chen, a former miner, reported.
Behind the " ," more than twenty team members were carrying out support work in the tunnel that had already taken shape.
The initial lining formed by the quick-setting material had already set, and they had to install steel arches and precast panels over it to ensure safety for long-term use.
The tunnel interior was brightly lit by LED light strips. At four meters in diameter, it was spacious enough for a vehicle to pass through.
" Wang," a young team member leaned in, unable to hide the excitement in his voice, "at this rate, the test section will break through tomorrow, right?"
"Don't rush," wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Fast excavation doesn't mean we can let our guard down. Support quality matters more than progress."
"We've already completed today's scheduled progress. Let's stop here for now and wait for the handover." gave the order to halt.
Then he left the command position and walked back along the tunnel for a stretch, inspecting the quality of the support work in the completed section.
His fingers slid along the concrete wall, feeling the smoothness of the joints.
"This section's done well," he said to a young team member beside him.
That young man was named Zhao Lei. He used to be a scaffolder on construction sites—quick with his hands, but he had never done underground work.
"Brother Wang, this tunnel is really sturdy," Zhao Lei knocked on the wall. "What is that quick-setting material? It's harder than the C40 concrete I used before."
"Don't ask. If you ask, it's cutting-edge tech." had long gotten used to all sorts of things in the that defied common sense. "Just do your own job well."
As he walked back to the command position, 's voice came through his .
[Attention. Eighty meters ahead, the geological radar shows a change in the rock structure.]
immediately looked at the screen.
Sure enough, a zone of color difference had appeared in the originally uniform sandstone layer on the profile—density suddenly dropping, porosity rising.
"Mr. , this doesn't look like a naturally formed cavity. The edges are too regular."
Staring at the unknown area ahead, took a deep breath. "How should we handle it?"
[Don't continue excavating for now. Re-plan the route and bypass this cavity.]
[Our goal at the moment is only to establish a safe passage, not to explore the unknown underground.]
[Immediately withdraw with your team members.]
"Understood." knew there was no time to waste and immediately gave the order. "All personnel, per Emergency Regulation Article One, retreat in an orderly manner."
But before 's order could even reach the ears of the last row of people, a piercing alarm sounded inside the " 's" cockpit.
On the geological radar screen, within that cavity area of anomalous density, a large number of unknown targets had suddenly appeared and were moving toward the tunnel at extreme speed.