Chapter 206 - 191: Silent Isolation Zone

Chapter 206: Chapter 191: Silent Isolation Zone

No matter how difficult, Yu Dong was determined to clear the final 18 kilometers of Binhai Avenue to the east!

This was the toughest nut to crack.

Because this 18-kilometer stretch of coastline was the most bustling part of Yanhai City’s shore, marking the entrance into the Urban Area.

It was packed with universities, office buildings, and dense residential communities.

The area around Binhai Avenue was scenic, with good infrastructure, and the land was almost completely covered with high-rises.

According to Qiao Ping, at least half of Yanhai City’s entire population lived in the Urban Area.

That meant there were roughly 1.5 million zombies in the Urban Area alone.

The next 18 kilometers were on Hell difficulty.

Yu Dong had originally planned to leave this section for the military to handle. They had sufficient firepower. Before it was cleared, he planned to primarily use boats to bypass this stretch.

But Qiao Yunliang’s forces were running low on ammunition. Furthermore, their plan to attack the military district’s warehouse had been temporarily shelved after they mysteriously lost contact with the personnel on the cargo ship.

The army couldn’t break through, and it was too risky to take a boat.

Yu Dong had no choice but to tackle it head-on.

Entering the Urban Area meant they had to deal with the problem of zombie hordes.

Yu Dong had his own theory about zombie hordes.

"The principle of breaking up a horde—breaking it into pieces and eliminating it wave by wave—is to preemptively take out the areas that could form a horde, one by one, before they can consolidate."

"Based on my experience from my past life, every time I used explosives in a residential complex, it would attract nearby zombies. The zombies themselves weren’t the scary part. What was terrifying was that after they followed the sound of the explosion to our location, they would constantly claw at our walls and roar. That large-scale, continuous noise would then attract zombies from even farther away. Zombies leading to more zombies, eventually forming a small horde that completely overran our community."

"I believe large hordes form through a similar mechanism. It starts with a small group of zombies gathering and making a lot of noise. This commotion causes surrounding zombies to converge, making the sound even louder and the numbers even greater. They then sweep through an area, consuming everything in their path."

As Yu Dong explained this to Wang Dingbei, several other core team members found the discussion interesting and gathered around to listen.

Yan Yikai asked, "Brother Dong, if that’s the case, doesn’t that make clearing hordes extremely difficult? One slip-up and we could cause a chain reaction?"

"Exactly. That’s why we need to make the zombies move along a route of our choosing. We’ll lure large groups of them to open areas to be eliminated. Sound only travels so far; from a distance, they won’t hear a thing. Our main battleground absolutely cannot be in a dense, urban center."

Some of the others understood, while some didn’t quite grasp it.

Yu Dong continued, "For example, Northern Ocean University is full of a large number of student zombies. We need to lure them out of the school and into an area we’ve already cleared, then we can eliminate them."

"This creates a zombie-free vacuum between us and other areas. The zombies at our battle site won’t be able to attract more, so we’ll only have to fight the ones we lured."

"And once we’ve completely cleared the university, the empty campus will become a buffer zone. When a horde from the city approaches, it will reach this area and find... only silence. With no zombies to respond, the horde won’t continue toward the campus. Instead, it will divert to other areas where there’s noise, thereby neutralizing a potentially massive future horde."

At this, Liu Hao understood.

"It’s a firebreak. You burn away everything in its path ahead of time. When the wildfire arrives, it reaches that point and stops because there’s no fuel left, preventing it from burning on toward our truly valuable property."

"Exactly! We’re creating a ’Silent Buffer Zone’! This will protect the entire length of Binhai Avenue. Within this zone, we can safely develop and restart production. We can even restore traffic. Then, we, the military, and the many other survivor groups can use this lifeline to trade resources and information, and eventually, launch a counter-offensive against all of Yanhai City."

After Yu Dong finished his explanation in one breath, both Zhao Youcai and Huang Zhiqiang raised their heads with pride.

This was a strategy they had developed together back when Xufeng was still alive. Clear Binhai Avenue, proactively lure away smaller hordes, and finally form a ’Silent Buffer Zone’ to shield Yanhai’s lifeline. The remaining survivors would live along this line, restart production, and eventually reclaim the city.

After hearing the plan, Wang Dingbei couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration,

"It sounds incredibly practical. If you pull this off, you’ll be the top strategist in all of Yanhai City... No wonder you were able to make such big moves before the apocalypse and still be so confident. Yu Dong, you and your people are really something else."

’In some ways, Wang Dingbei truly admired Yu Dong. That’s why, even with Yu Dong’s lust for power and his extreme methods of carrying out personal judgments, he never considered overthrowing him to take charge himself.’

’He was a veteran detective; his skills lay in keen observation and fighting criminals. But strategies for fighting zombies... those needed to be made by someone who had actually fought them, someone who had even died to them.’

Yu Dong’s ’Silent Buffer Zone’ strategy left him deeply satisfied.

It didn’t just sound scientifically sound; it proved that Yu Dong had a clear objective from the very beginning. He wasn’t just striking randomly here and there—he had always been focused on Binhai Avenue.

First, he guided the military to help advance from the eastern section. Then, upon discovering Ji Luo’s team was capable, he entrusted the western section to them.

Now, only the most difficult middle section remained. The military couldn’t handle it, so it was up to them to finish the job.

Yu Dong said, "The future is bright, but the road there is winding. To reach our goal, we have to be meticulous about every detail... This is a high-stakes game against the hordes. If we lose a single battle, we could be finished. I need an engineering team to lay an inescapable trap for the horde at a designated location, ensuring their annihilation."

"What’s your plan? Can’t the logistics team handle it?"

"Logistics has plenty of people, but not all of them are skilled enough to be engineers. I need specialists who can rapidly set up defensive fortifications. For example, the two masters from Sun Shan’s group who operate excavators, plus crane operators, forklift drivers, bricklayers..."

"Leave it to me."

Wang Dingbei supported Yu Dong’s overall strategy and immediately went to find the right people. They had a large group, so they were bound to find the talent they needed. That was the advantage of having a large team.

Yu Dong walked over to Yu Chengfei, who was getting ready to change.

"Uncle Yu, you should sit this one out today."

"What? You’re going up against a horde and think us spear-wielders are useless, is that it? I just got a proper Liuhe Greatspear from the research institute. I’ll be pretty upset if you don’t let me have some fun with it."

"Haha, no, that’s not it at all! We’ve just recruited ten new members for the combat team, and we need an old hand like you to train them for a few days. They need to at least learn how to poke a zombie with a spear before they go out."

"The new recruits do need training... but that’ll have to wait until after I’ve had my fun today. Let’s go! Time to go out and poke some zombies. This 3.3-meter Liuhe Greatspear is going to show those zombies a thing or two."

The muscles on Uncle Yu’s rolled-up sleeves were bulging. At sixty years old, he was even more built than Yu Dong.

He swung the 3.3-meter-long spear, and it whistled through the air.

’Yu Dong used to think traditional martial arts were just for show. But seeing Uncle Yu now, he finally understood what a true martial artist of the older generation looked like.’

’There was a world of difference between someone who just practiced forms and someone who mastered a weapon.’

’Fifty years of practice were behind that one spear. Who could possibly stand against that?’

Yu Dong’s combat team had been stuck at 46 members for a while, with no new additions.

’Although many of the new survivors had expressed a desire to join the combat team, Yu Dong felt the group’s overall quality wasn’t very high. The team had expanded without much order during the first ten days for the sake of killing zombies quickly, and as a result, some members lacked strength, while others had questionable character.’

’Overall, though, there were no major issues. They had all contributed and risked their lives for the team. Yu Dong couldn’t just use them and toss them aside... His only option was to focus on education and training.’

’At least for now, there were no issues with the combat team’s loyalty.’

Zhao Youcai was also getting the hang of managing the team. Though he was a bit thin, when you put him together with Uncle Yu, their presence screamed, ’Who thinks they can take us on? Step forward!’

Zhao Youcai had a gun, and Uncle Yu had his greatspear.

Between the two of them, in terms of both martial prowess and prestige, they could keep everyone in line.

So for the time being, Yu Dong decided not to change the combat team’s current structure.

His main focus was on future additions. From now on, they would be selected based on merit. Those who were physically fit and had shown a high level of awareness in Lin Mo’s observation would be accepted into the team.

The first batch consisted of ten people, all chosen from among the more recently arrived survivors.

These people had no personal connections on the cruise ship yet. Moreover, they had all clawed their way through hordes of zombies to reach the cruise ship base. Their overall quality was indeed much higher than many of the original people on the ship.

It couldn’t be helped. Those with lower overall quality wouldn’t have been able to make it to the cruise ship in the first place.

Anyone who survived to make it here had to have good stamina and a sharp eye, at the very least.

Yu Dong planned to have them trained with firearms and crossbows before officially adding them to the combat team.