Chapter 244 - 228: Enhanced Guinea Pig

Chapter 244: Chapter 228: Enhanced Guinea Pig

「Three days later, Day 94 of the apocalypse.」

Before the conflict between the two teams could escalate further, Qiao Yunliang left the cruise ship with his people.

They headed for the Shangri-La Resort Hotel, six kilometers from the cruise ship base.

It was just across from the Xiangti Bay Community. The hotel had a courtyard, plenty of beds, a restaurant, a spa with baths and a sauna... and most importantly, a boiler room that could burn coal for heat.

This winter was brutally cold.

Having a good source of heating was their number one priority.

Heating with coal was the most suitable and convenient option for them, as D Port had an endless supply of it.

Today, Yu Dong sent a convoy of vehicles and people to see Qiao Yunliang’s group off.

"Load up more supplies. Make sure the soldiers have enough to eat."

"Unload this whole truck of coal into the boiler room. Liu, you’ll be in charge of the boiler over there from now on. I’ll give you the best pay and benefits. Come back to the cruise ship to visit when you have time."

"The engineering team will head over today to set up their basic defenses. Dig an anti-zombie trench and install barbed wire fences on top of the walls..."

"Qiao, if you’re missing any daily necessities, just tell my secretary, Jiang. We’ll help you get them."

Yu Dong helped the soldiers prepare for a great deal, considering everything from food, clothing, and shelter to zombie defenses.

He did everything in his power to help Qiao Yunliang’s group quickly establish their own base.

Qiao Yunliang chuckled and waved at Yu Dong. "Alright, Yu Dong, you’ve already done more than enough. My men aren’t just good at fighting; they’re quite capable when it comes to daily life, too."

"Qiao, starting from scratch is a hassle. Don’t refuse our help. Getting your logistics sorted out quickly will let you focus on clearing out zombies. Besides... you’ve been under a lot of pressure lately. In the end, I had to trouble you to make some sacrifices to accommodate my people."

"You’re being too polite. Everything is for the greater good. We can’t let small things damage our relationship. We’ll work on our soldiers’ mindset when we get back. And when the zombie horde comes, we’ll return."

"I’ll also tighten the discipline within my team. I’ll see you then."

"Heh heh heh... We’re off."

"Safe travels."

The two men shared a knowing smile. Everything was understood without a word.

As the top leaders of their respective sides, they both saw beyond the surface-level incidents involving their subordinates. They wouldn’t let a minor event make them lose their cool. Friction between their people was normal; they couldn’t let disagreements break their unity.

As Yu Dong watched Qiao’s figure fade into the distance, Zhao Youcai’s furious voice sounded from behind him.

"Dongzi, Qiao didn’t give us the guns and ammo he promised! He just left a note that says, ’Guns will be distributed after the horde is defeated.’ He clearly promised to give them to us when they left!"

Yu Dong let out a knowing snort.

’That old fraud Qiao is just like that. He’ll follow through on what he says explicitly, but if he’s vague about something... there’s always a catch.’

"That old swindler is always playing word games with us. In our last life, we died because of him. In this life, if our team gets wiped out by mutated zombies because we don’t have guns... I’ll haunt him even as a ghost!"

"Qiao is being wary of us, so we should be a little wary of them too. Wang said a few things to me the other day, and I don’t know if it’s just him who thinks this way or..."

"Hm? What kind of outrageous thing did Wang say this time?"

In Zhao Youcai’s eyes, Wang was a machine that churned out radical ideas—radical toward Yu Dong and radical toward himself.

He wouldn’t even get started on Wang’s claim that the ’Benevolent Man’s Paradox’ was weakening Dongzi’s authority. The guy had even proposed issuing a ’public self-criticism’ to step down from power!

’No matter what, you can’t give up power!’

’How are you supposed to get anything done otherwise?’

"Never mind, it’s nothing."

Now that Qiao Yunliang and his group were gone, Yu Dong didn’t want to bring up Wang again.

After all, Wang was no longer on the leadership team. He was just offering advice as an old partner.

Yu Dong didn’t agree with him, but he also didn’t want the combat team members to attack Wang and disrupt the group’s overall harmony.

Although Qiao Yunliang hadn’t left them any guns or ammunition, complete autonomy was more important right now.

’Crossbows and incendiary bombs will do just fine for now.’

’Let them keep those guns and ammo... for the zombie horde. That’s what he’ll need them for when he comes back anyway.’

Besides, for routine cleanup work, guns weren’t as practical as crossbows.

One gunshot would draw all the zombies over, while a crossbow was much quieter.

Moreover, Yu Dong’s biggest concern at the moment was the vaccine. Whether or not Meng Dongqing could create a vaccine for the zombie virus was a matter of survival for all of humanity.

"Youcai, you take everyone out today. I have something to do."

"Oh... okay! But it’s been getting colder lately. If we stay outside too long, we’ll freeze. We might come back a bit earlier this afternoon."

"That’s fine. Tell everyone to take care of themselves."

The weather was getting colder and colder. Yu Dong had gone to school in Yanhai City for three years and had never experienced such a cold spell. This wasn’t the northeast, after all; it was just a typical northern city where temperatures bottoming out at ten to twenty degrees below zero was usually the limit.

It was only late December, and the temperature had already dropped below negative twenty degrees. It was only going to get colder.

Cold enough to freeze the harbor solid.

After Qiao Yunliang left, the combat team also went out to clear zombies and search for supplies.

Today, Yu Dong stopped the Liang Team, who were setting out late. Like a group of Rangers, they didn’t get up as early and kept a more flexible schedule.

Lately, some of the more physically capable people on the cruise ship who disliked being managed had started emulating Liangzi’s Ranger Squad, going out to search for supplies on their own.

Yu Dong actually encouraged this behavior. Taking the initiative to clear zombies and gather supplies was a good thing, and it was an important part of the cruise ship’s economy.

At the very least, when the combat team was occupied with other tasks, there were still people constantly bringing supplies back to the ship.

As for casualties... that depended on their own abilities. Before heading out, they had to consider whether they were skilled enough for the job.

Yu Dong couldn’t protect everyone. The best he could do was offer a selection of the weapons and armor that had been collected on the cruise ship.

"What’s up, Brother Dong? It’s rare for you to have time to chat with us."

Liangzi was happy to see Yu Dong. He had always thought Yu Dong was an impressive college student, but he never imagined he was *this* impressive... able to stand on equal footing with a high-ranking military leader. Everyone on the cruise ship respected Yu Dong, and he had so many capable followers. He was a real class act!

"Have you guys found any live chickens or anything like that recently?"

"Sigh... no. We went to several farms, but the animals had all been eaten by zombies... Oh, right, we also ran into a lot of climbing zombies. They completely wore us out. If it weren’t for our good protective gear, you probably wouldn’t be seeing me today."

"An oversight... I should have set up some animal husbandry from the start."

Yu Dong had only considered collecting various ingredients and greenhouse vegetables. He’d forgotten that meat, eggs, and milk could be steadily produced through animal husbandry. If he had a large chicken farm... he could supply the cruise ship with a large quantity of fresh eggs every day.

"Huh? Who could possibly think that far ahead? Most people were lucky if they managed to hoard a couple of cans at home."

"Heh... If I could start all over again, I’d definitely get into livestock..."

Yu Dong chatted with Liangzi for a while longer before asking, "Liangzi, Gao Yan, you guys fought your way out of the city step by step. You must have seen a lot of zombies, right?"

"Yeah, we have. Those climbing zombies appeared first in the city. The further you get toward the outskirts, the fewer mutations you see."

"Then have you ever seen... a huge zombie covered in muscle? A type of zombie that eats other zombies."

His question made the men look at each other in confusion.

"We... can’t say that we have. Has one appeared now? What are its characteristics? Its weaknesses? What about its speed... Can you give us the details? This is very important to us!"

The moment he heard about a new type of mutated zombie, Gao Yan became vigilant. For their Ranger Squad, an unknown mutation could be a death sentence.

Their group used to be larger, but they were ambushed several times by climbing zombies on their way out of the city. The city’s tall buildings provided the perfect cover for the climbers, and they lost half their people.

If Binhai Avenue hadn’t been cleared, they might have lost even more. The hard-earned skills they had for dealing with zombies were all paid for in blood.

Those with poor skills who couldn’t fight off zombies were already dead.

The nine who remained were all legendary kings of survival.

When Yu Dong heard that all nine of them had never seen such a thing in the city, he felt much more relieved. It proved this creature wasn’t a common mutation but likely some kind of special variation.

’A special specimen, artificially cultivated, that even follows the doctor’s commands.’

’Perhaps there’s only one in all of Yanhai City...’

"You can’t handle this type of zombie... If you encounter one, just find a way to run. Don’t get into a prolonged fight with it."

Yu Dong described the characteristics of the muscular zombie, and after pondering it for a moment... all nine of them headed back to the cruise ship.

"We’re not going out today. We’re going to craft some tools to deal with this thing..."

After talking with them, Yu Dong became even more convinced... Professor Meng might be able to achieve results from this special zombie that no other lab could.

He hadn’t heard of any new zombie species like this on the official broadcasts.

Earlier, frost zombies had appeared in the northeast, weaker waterborne zombies in the south, and other variants as well. Among them, bloated zombies had also been discovered one after another in coastal cities...

But there was never any mention of this muscular, somewhat intelligent zombie... In fact, the official channels had never mentioned any zombie possessing intelligence.

Yu Dong felt that maybe this time... luck was on his side.

The crucial vaccine would be born in Yanhai City’s biomedical research institute!

...

「Half a month later. Day 110 of the apocalypse.」

The temperature dropped even further. During the day, it was around ten degrees below zero, but at night, it plunged to negative thirty!

The entire harbor at A Port had frozen over. Their cruise ship was locked in the ice, unable to sail.

This kind of weather was no longer suitable for outdoor operations. Everyone had to wear thick layers of clothing, which restricted their movement, and staying outside for too long would cause their hands and feet to go numb from the cold.

Yu Chengfei was talking with Yu Dong.

"We could push the training start time back to 7 a.m.... Let everyone get a little more sleep. It’s too cold and dark."

"True..."

Yu Dong felt a pang of sympathy for the people who followed him, both the zombie killers and the logistics staff.

Just as Yu Dong was considering whether to shorten their outdoor expeditions in the future, the satellite phone rang.

It was Meng Dongqing.

"Chief, I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

"The bad news."

"After four rounds of vaccine trials, twelve of the thirteen test subjects you sent us... turned into zombies and were disposed of."

Yu Dong’s spirits lifted.

"Does that mean the good news is... the last one was a success?"

"Er... no. Each round used three test subjects, so we have exactly one left who hasn’t been tested on yet."

"Huh? Then what’s the good news?"

"The good news is that we learned from our failures and created a new inactivated vaccine. It has already passed tests on lab mice. And this time, the mice underwent a peculiar change. Their metabolism doubled, their appetite increased, their muscle mass grew significantly, they became incredibly fast and tireless, and... they didn’t mutate. Their intelligence is normal. They just became... enhanced mice."

"Hiss... So you’re saying... this change in the mice could possibly occur in humans?"

"It’s very likely! This is the true effect of a vaccine that can provide genuine immunity to the virus..."

"Then what are we waiting for? We have to test it!"

"I’m still short two for a control group, Chief. Let me try one more time..."