Chapter 212 - 197: Burn It and Let the Smoke Billow

Chapter 212: Chapter 197: Burn It and Let the Smoke Billow

The zombie virus outbreak had occurred at 7 PM on a Sunday, so the main gates of Ocean University were wide open. Wandering zombies moved in and out of the campus without obstruction.

WHIRRR~

WHIRRR~

WHIRRR~~

Six drones swept across the sky above the campus. Below, the wandering zombies glanced up, watched for a moment, and then resumed their aimless shambling...

The drones’ first destination was a cluster of three main academic buildings.

Each building was 16 stories high.

The six modified drones flew up to the top floors, hovering close to the windows. They simultaneously activated their powerful speakers, blasting a pre-recorded message from Yu Dong.

"Announcement! Announcement!"

"To all surviving students and faculty, we are a group of military and police survivors, and we are clearing the zombies from Ocean University."

"We are about to lure the zombies away to be eliminated. Once they have been dealt with, our forces will enter the campus to begin the rescue."

"For now, please remain quiet in your shelters and do not move about!"

The modified speakers on the six drones repeatedly broadcast the announcement, the immense sound reverberating around the academic buildings.

The sound pierced the glass of the buildings, carrying into the rooms within.

Countless zombies inside the academic buildings turned in unison toward the source of the sound outside the windows.

BANG!

ROAR!!!

A zombie slammed against a window, shrieking at the source of the sound.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

WRAAAAGH!!!

More and more zombies rushed to the windows of classrooms and offices, pounding and slamming against the glass.

The many students, teachers, and staff members trapped throughout the campus heard the looping broadcast from outside, their faces lighting up with joyous surprise.

"The government is here to save us!"

"I knew we’d make it! *Sob sob sob*..."

"Huh? This... I was worried I wouldn’t have enough water today, so I just started drinking my own pee... Fuck, I jumped the gun!"

CRASH!!!

With a sharp crack, a pane of glass shattered. One after another, zombies lunged for the drone, hanging in the air for a brief moment before their bodies slammed hard onto the concrete below.

Their impact painted a splattered mural of red and white fluids on the ground.

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!~

Countless windows were shattered by zombies as they leaped from the upper floors, chasing the sound. The ground below was soon littered with their bodies.

Red and white matter splattered everywhere, coating the ground and walls.

The group in the Bihai Building watched the entire scene unfold through the drones’ cameras.

"Zombie-clearing tactic number one: the Drop Tower."

Liu Ye’ye had been the first to use this tactic, but Yu Dong was now taking it to a whole new level!

Zombies rained down from the academic buildings like dumplings being dropped into boiling water, splatting into piles of gore. When no more zombies emerged, the six drones slowly lowered their altitude.

By now, the ground was swarming with zombies. It wasn’t just the ones from the buildings; zombies from further away had also followed the sound, converging into a vast, dark torrent of the undead.

This torrent was now chasing the sound, stampeding in its direction.

Suddenly, BANG!

A drone suddenly plummeted from the sky, its camera feed going black.

A pilot tore off his VR headset.

"Something took down my drone!"

The feeds from the other five drones showed a climbing zombie dropping from above, landing right on top of the downed drone.

"It’s fine. Just increase the distance between the drones and the buildings. The climbers have a long attack range."

Besides the one that had just attacked, Yu Dong could see several other climbers scrambling across the building walls, chasing the drones.

"Alright, let’s lead this group out first!"

The five remaining drones flew at low altitude toward the campus exit, still blaring the recording, and dropped the bags of live fish they were carrying.

SPLAT!

Live fish scattered across the ground, and the zombies at the front of the horde immediately pounced on them and began to feast.

Fish blood splattered, and the scent of blood filled the air.

Drawn by the dual stimuli of sound and blood, the first wave of zombies, primarily from the academic buildings, followed the drones straight off campus.

As the drones flew, they continued to drop bags of live fish along the route, keeping the smaller horde’s attention firmly fixed.

Yu Dong and his team had no idea how many zombies they had lured out, only that it was a massive number.

Moreover, this first wave included not only zombies from near the main academic buildings but also those that had been wandering around the commercial street, food court, and shopping mall near the main gate, all drawn by the massive commotion.

The tide of zombies, reeking of decay, was made up of tens of thousands of them letting out ear-piercing shrieks. The ground trembled and dust swirled, forming an unstoppable force.

A horde of this magnitude was terrifying. Yu Dong felt that their cruise ship base would be utterly incapable of facing it head-on.

The five drones led this zombie torrent all the way into the T-shaped anti-horde structure.

They finally came to a stop, hovering over the first collection pit, located in the middle of the T-shaped channel.

They dropped the remaining two bags of live fish into the pit.

FLOP! FLOP! FLOP!~

The live fish floundered below, their seeping blood the perfect catalyst for the zombies.

ROAR!!!

The hideous student zombies had lost all trace of their former youthful charm, replaced by bloodthirsty terror. Their eyes held only an extreme desire for flesh and blood.

They would devour even a single fish down to the bone!

Zombies ate all kinds of animals. There were no longer any stray cats or dogs on the streets.

Yu Dong wondered if any animal rights organizations still existed. He couldn’t imagine what they would think if they saw this spectacle.

PLOP! PLOP! PLOP!

The zombies charged straight down the wide T-shaped channel and into the large collection pit, which was over six meters deep.

Then they pounced on the live fish, feasting ravenously!

Fish blood splattered across their faces, twisting the hungry zombies’ expressions into bizarre and hideous grins.

The scent of blood and flesh awakened an irresistible desire. Wave after wave of zombies poured into the first collection pit, fighting over the fish.

"It’s working!"

Yu Dong clenched his fists tightly!

The route he had planned for the zombies was a complete success.

The zombies had begun to fill the first collection pit, piling up inside at an incredible rate.

The others all cheered. It was the first step of their collective plan succeeding.

"Zombie-clearing tactic number two: the Incinerator Pit. Activate!"

By now, the five speaker drones had returned to the Bihai Building. The pilots quickly swapped them for six FPV-style dropper drones that were already prepared, each carrying four Molotov cocktails.

They flew toward collection pit number one.

One by one, the Molotovs’ fuses were lit in mid-air as they were dropped from the sky!

SMASH!!!

As the flames engulfed the zombies, they instantly ignited the gasoline-soaked coal dust and other flammables at the bottom of the pit.

WHOOOM!!!!

A violent inferno erupted from the bottom of the pit!

The first zombies to fall into the pit were blasted by the wave of heat and flame. Their clothes and hair caught fire first, turning them into human torches.

The entire pit began to heat up simultaneously from the top and bottom, the temperature rising rapidly!

As the zombies at the bottom were ignited, their skin was quickly burned away, exposing sticky, yellow fat. The fat rendered into liquid in the flames, dripping constantly from their bodies.

FWOOSH!

A flash erupted from within the flames.

The rendered zombie fat became fuel for the fire, making a sizzling sound.

Under the intense heat, the bottom layer of zombies was completely immolated, becoming fuel themselves and carrying the raging fire up to ignite the layer above.

The thick layer of coal burned steadily, providing a constant source of flame and heat. Zombies struggled to climb out, but they were pinned and crushed by the bodies falling from above, left to be consumed by the fire.

ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!

Collection pit number one was now burning furiously, with flames constantly surging forth.

However, the first wave of zombies was too large. Collection pit one was about to overflow. The zombies at the rear began to walk over the bodies of those in front, heading toward the two side channels and lunging toward the scent of blood in the adjacent pits.

In collection pits two and three, more live fish were floundering, waiting to be tasted by the zombies.

"This isn’t good! There are too many zombies and it’s burning too slowly. We need more firepower!"

"Turn on the blower!"

At Yu Dong’s command, one of Sun Shan’s men stationed below immediately switched on industrial blower number one.

WHIRRRRRR!!!

The ferocious roar of the industrial blower erupted like the shriek of Godzilla!

A massive volume of air surged into the bottom of collection pit number one!

A huge amount of oxygen flooded the gaps in the coal, acting as a powerful accelerant.

WHOOM!!!

An orange-red pillar of fire erupted violently from the bottom!

The coal’s full potential was unleashed, and it began to radiate terrifying heat!

The combustion of the zombies burning below also accelerated!

In an instant, the smoldering collection pit number one transformed into a gigantic, fiery furnace!

The zombies being fed into it rapidly shriveled... bloated... and burst! Their immense fat content became part of the fire, and in the rolling heatwave, it became the perfect fuel to ignite other zombies.

Billowing black smoke poured from collection pit number one.

A nauseating stench spread from the pit across all of Yanhai City. Yu Dong and the others nearly threw up when they smelled it.

"Close the windows! Quick, close the windows!"

Everyone sealed the windows shut, watching as the black smoke enveloped the area outside.

The power of the industrial blower had truly unleashed the potential of collection pit number one!

Vast numbers of zombies were incinerated, clearing a large amount of space and allowing the zombies behind them to fall in.

The rate of filling was now roughly equal to the rate of incineration. A small number of zombies trickled along the T-shaped channel into the side pits, but it wasn’t time to light those yet.

They were piling up in the pits, frantically eating the fish, unable to climb out.

The climbing zombies were more cautious. Instead of blindly jumping into the pit, they tried to climb up from various angles, eventually reaching the tops of the shipping containers...

SHINK!

As a climber flipped itself up, its body was impaled on the steel spikes covering the container, and brownish blood oozed out.

The climber struggled, but the jungle of steel spikes was its own personal hell, piercing it all over. The unlucky ones hit the spikes head-first and were killed instantly on top of the containers.

’So you like to climb, do you?’

A cold smirk touched Yu Dong’s lips. With the right trap, a climbing zombie’s greatest strength became its fatal weakness.

The zombie horde was steadily being digested by collection pit number one. It had become a furnace of flesh and blood; any carbon-based lifeform that entered would be reduced to carbon ash.

"The first wave is almost finished. Keep going!"

Taking advantage of the coal’s extreme temperature, the second wave of drones resumed the operation.

Six drones flew deeper into the Ocean University campus.

They flew past the academic buildings and moved on to the dormitories, luring out every possible zombie and sending them plummeting to their doom.

After making a full circuit of the Ocean University campus, broadcasting the announcement to all the survivors, they led a second torrent of zombies out of the buildings.

After repeating the process, collection pit number one was finally overwhelmed. A thick layer of ash covered the coal below, smothering the intense flames. The pit was filled to the brim with a new zombie torrent, which then trampled over the bodies to rush toward pits number two and three.

"Light up pits two and three!"

WHOOM! WHOOM!

The same scene played out again as two new, massive incinerators began to digest the endless horde.

Ancient coal met the zombies of the future, and turned them to ash.

The more than 20,000 zombies of the university were slowly devoured by the coal-fueled flames.

Yu Dong said, "Firepower is everything. We... did it."

The plan Yu Dong had prepared had physically annihilated the zombies, wiping them from existence.

’So this is what he meant by firepower...’

Wang Dingbei gained a whole new appreciation for the phrase.

Today, a pall of thick black smoke hung over all of Yanhai City.

They had burned the zombie horde into a pillar of smoke!

The three collection pits burned for a full day before finally going out.

The group from the Bihai Building emerged from their residential complex.

Yu Dong, Wang Dingbei, Zhao Youcai, and Yu Chengfei walked at the head of a fully-armed, 46-person combat team, their boots crunching on the black ash that covered the ground as they entered Ocean University.