Chapter 29: New Target
"Save them."
spoke, then abruptly wrenched the steering wheel. The modified truck let out a roar and charged straight ahead.
"Open fire! Cover us!"
In the cargo bed, and the others had already raised their rifles, cold muzzles aimed at the zombies in pursuit.
Bang! Bang!
Bullets struck the zombies' skulls with precision, bursting into clusters of dark red blood blossoms.
's mechanical arm extended out the window, its barrel spitting tongues of flame as it blew a leaping at the injured man clean in half.
The truck executed a clean drift and came to a steady stop in front of the three men.
"Get on!" shouted.
The two men who could still run scrambled toward the truck, climbing up with hands and feet.
The one with the injured leg, however, had despair written all over his face as he watched a that had slipped through open its bloody maw wide.
frowned, raised her gun, and blew that 's head apart with a single shot.
Then dragged the man bodily onto the truck.
But he clearly saw that a row of deep bite marks had appeared on the man's calf, black veins spreading upward at a visible pace.
"He's been bitten! Throw him off!" The companion who had been rescued onto the truck, his face deathly pale, shouted frantically at the sight.
"Shut up!" , a bit irritated, glared at the two men, then said to , " , he's been bitten. What do we do?"
"Should we try that?"
"Nothing to lose at this point. Let's give it a shot—it'll provide with some data too."
"Right, we have to try!"
made the decision on the spot, already pulling a syringe filled with pale blue liquid from the medical kit. "Anyway, his condition can't get any worse!"
The —a medicine had produced according to the formula provided.
In the lab, it had already been proven to have a powerful killing effect on mutated cells, and afterward they had run experiments on zombies.
They had confirmed that at a certain dosage, it could kill zombies outright.
But they had never run a trial on a living person, and there was no way to find someone on the spot, have them bitten by a , and then run the experiment.
So in the end, they had only carried a few doses as a backup plan for anyone unlucky enough to be bitten during a mission.
And now, that backup plan had found its use.
tore open the packaging and drove the needle hard into the man's thigh.
The pale blue medicine was pushed in slowly.
A miracle happened.
The black veins that had been spreading upward like mad seemed to meet their natural enemy—they jolted to a halt, then began receding even faster.
At the ghastly wound on the man's calf, the muscle tissue that had been graying and mutating stopped changing, then fresh red blood welled up anew.
In just over ten seconds, apart from the wound that was still bloody, every abnormality had vanished.
The man panted heavily, staring at his leg in disbelief. The wild joy of surviving a catastrophe sent tears and snot streaming down his face.
In the truck bed, everyone was stunned.
"Excellent! It really works!" said excitedly.
Deep in 's consciousness, a ripple passed as well.
He hadn't expected the effect to be so immediate either.
If this was the case, then the value of this medicine was incalculable.
"Don't relax. We're still outside. Ask where they came from." 's cold voice cut through everyone's shock.
"Yes, ." 's expression turned serious, the gun in his hand already aimed at the three survivors who were still shaking from their ordeal.
and also rotated their weapon modules, cold killing intent locking onto them.
"Name. Background. Where you came from, where you're going," 's tone carried no emotion. "Tell me clearly, or else..."
Facing the dark gun muzzles and two robots that looked extremely dangerous, the three who had just escaped death were scared out of their wits.
"D-don't shoot! We'll talk! We'll tell you everything!" One of the men, somewhat older than the others, raised both hands tremblingly. "My name is . He's . The one just rescued is ."
"We... we fled all the way here from ."
" ? That's a long way from here!" looked at him suspiciously. "Just the few of you?"
"Of course it wasn't just us. We came with a convoy. The convoy's leader is ."
hurriedly explained.
" ?" raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. After the catastrophe, he gathered a bunch of brothers and formed a convoy, taking in helpless survivors like us along the way. He said he'd bring us to find a shelter."
swallowed, a flicker of fear and resentment passing through his eyes.
"But it was all bullshit. They used us purely as cannon fodder for scavenging supplies."
"How many people are in your convoy?" didn't care about their emotions; he was more curious about intelligence on the convoy.
"Around a hundred and fifty or sixty. I didn't count exactly." said honestly.
"Where are they?"
"In the suburbs, not far from here."
After a round of interrogation, and the others quickly pieced together the full picture.
This " 's" convoy was by no means small—well over a hundred people, entrenched in an abandoned logistics park roughly twenty-plus kilometers from the power station.
Only after extracting all the information and confiscating all the blades these men carried did put away his gun.
No more surprises occurred on the rest of the journey, and the group returned to base without trouble.
By the time the modified truck drove back into the , it was nearly noon.
didn't have and the others bring the newcomers directly into the underground base. Instead, they were temporarily quartered in the surface dormitory building, to be quarantined and observed for a period.
Upon hearing the news, came at once to draw a tube of blood from —the one who had narrowly avoided mutating thanks to the medicine—for research.
In the small meeting room, the debrief on the industrial park operation was brief and efficient.
"The equipment is no big problem, but dismantling and transport are always a major headache," said, pointing at the bearing factory on the holographic map. "We need at least two heavy trucks, plus a crane."
[The lifting equipment can be handled with mechanical arms mounted on UAVs,] 's voice rang out.
[But heavy trucks really do need to be found.]
"Then we can keep an eye out during the next operation. There shouldn't be a shortage of those in the industrial park," said.
***
In the cafeteria.
The three newly arrived survivors sat at a dining table, watched over by a guard and .
On the table sat steaming rice, braised pork, canned luncheon meat, and a pot of vegetable soup.
Yet none of the three had touched their chopsticks. They just stared fixedly at the food, Adam's apples bobbing, their eyes full of longing, fear, and disbelief.
"Th-this... is... is this really for us?" The man named asked , the guard on duty beside them, in a trembling voice.
"What else would it be for—decorating the table? Eat up." said with some impatience.
Receiving the affirmative answer, the three exchanged glances and finally stopped hesitating.
The next second, they pounced on the food like wild dogs that had been starving for half a lifetime.
They even abandoned their chopsticks, grabbing rice and chunks of meat with their bare hands and stuffing them into their mouths, grimacing from the heat without pausing for a moment, as if the food would disappear if they were even a second late.
Everyone else in the cafeteria was so startled by the scene that they stopped what they were doing.
Though they had experienced hunger themselves, they had never seen such a... frantic manner of eating.
And today's cook wasn't , so was it really that good?
Watching them eat, also broke into a cold sweat, afraid they'd eat themselves to death.
After a whirlwind of devouring, the food on the table was swept clean, and even the vegetable soup was drunk to the last drop.
The three collapsed into their chairs, rubbing their round bellies, faces showing long-lost expressions of satisfaction so deep they were nearly foolish.
[Delicious?]
From 's speaker, the electronic synthesized voice representing " " abruptly rang out, startling the three, who had just been immersed in the feeling of fullness, into a jolt.
But on the way back, they had already learned of 's existence, so they quickly came to their senses.
, the oldest, reacted first. He straightened up a little, piling an almost fawning smile onto his face, and answered without hesitation:
"Delicious! So delicious! Mr. , I'll never forget this taste in this life... no, not even in my next life!"
The other two also nodded frantically like chicks pecking at rice, making even , standing by, feel a bit heartsick.
[Then, would the three of you be interested in staying? Becoming members of .]
This question didn't even need consideration.
Following , they went hungry nine meals across three days—
and on top of that, they were beaten regularly. They lived a life worse than a dog's.
But here, there was hot food, meat to eat, clean water, and a miracle medicine that could cure transformation.
Most importantly—wasn't this the national shelter they had been longing for?
"We're willing! We're ten thousand times willing!" stood up excitedly, nearly knocking over the empty bowl in front of him.
"We can do any kind of work! We definitely won't slack off!" also hurriedly declared.
However, , the one who had been rescued, made a move that no one had expected.
With a "thud," he knelt down once more before , which was watching over them, his forehead striking the cold floor tiles heavily.
"Mr. ! I also want to join the shelter, but please, I beg you—save my little brother!" His voice was choked with tears, full of desperate pleading.
"My brother's name is . He's only sixteen, and he's still in that convoy! and his people don't treat us like human beings. I'm afraid... I'm afraid he can't hold on much longer either!"
The cafeteria went silent in an instant.
, on duty, frowned but didn't stop him.
, on the other hand, was very pleased. Of course he would agree to 's request.
In fact, it wasn't just —in his heart, he wanted to pull the vast majority of that entire convoy over.
Survivors were the most precious resource to him.
Every day, piloted UAVs to explore everywhere. Aside from supplies, wasn't the purpose precisely to find more living people?
His enormous nuclear power station—to fight those mysterious monsters, to complete increasingly troublesome missions—relying on just the twenty-odd people he had now was nowhere near enough.
And now, a survivor group of over a hundred people was barely twenty-plus kilometers away.
This was simply a pillow arriving as he was dozing off.
The moment he learned the news from , more than a dozen plans had already been generated in 's "brain," including but not limited to material enticement, information subversion, armed coercion, decapitation operations...
Except for and his core subordinates, he wanted them all.
The convoy's upper echelon, led by , was too much trouble. Their character didn't seem up to much, and there were only a handful of them anyway. Compared to planting hidden dangers in the shelter, it was better to abandon them all.
[We will definitely save your brother.]
's voice came through the speaker, carrying unquestionable certainty.
[And not just him. We are very willing to shelter any law-abiding good citizen.]
With the words said to that extent, the three immediately understood 's meaning.
quickly said, "I know where the convoy is. I—I can take you there!"
***
Half an hour later, underground base, small meeting room.
The core members were summoned once again.
On the holographic map, an abandoned logistics park twenty kilometers from the power station was highlighted with a red circle.
"A convoy of over a hundred and fifty people is entrenched in the logistics park. The leader is called ' .' Their weapons are mainly cold steel, with a small number of firearms, but ammunition is unknown."
introduced the situation concisely, his gaze sweeping over everyone present.
" 's meaning is to... 'absorb' these people."
"Absorb?" smacked his lips. "Including that ?"
[No. In fact, when the time comes, pay attention—the relatively higher-ups can all be given up on. The focus is the majority at the bottom. I need survivors, not hidden dangers or sources of conflict.]
"Understood." nodded, but her brows were still knitted. "But suddenly taking in over a hundred people will have a huge impact on our existing supplies, management, and security."
"And inevitably, quite a few of them will be potential troublemakers."
The atmosphere in the meeting room grew somewhat heavy.
Everyone understood that, whether it succeeded or failed, the shelter's appearance was bound to change.
[I need population.]
[For the shelter to develop, it necessarily needs more people.]
The electronic voice representing broke the silence.
[As for the risks...]
's consciousness switched, pulling up the weapon module parameters of and , along with the firepower configuration of the two " " Type 2 UAVs.
Row after row of cold data and weapon model diagrams appeared clearly before everyone.
[If and his ilk could cow everyone with just a few guns and a bit of viciousness,]
[then there's no reason we'd do any worse.]
was silent for a moment, then spoke slowly: "A direct military assault is not the best strategy. The enemy has superior numbers and complex terrain. If it turns into a melee, it would be all too easy to accidentally hurt the ordinary survivors we're trying to win over."
[I agree.]
's voice rang out.
[So, I don't intend to use force.]
[I want them to flee over here to this side of their own accord.]