Chapter 266 - 242: The Last Bullet

Chapter 266: Chapter 242: The Last Bullet

Yanhai City was divided into four districts. The Binhai Avenue safety line, which Yu Dong had established, ran from Zongshan District, through the Urban Area, to North River District, connecting all three.

Thanks to Officer Wang’s sustained publicity efforts and the survivors’ own initiative to move to safer locations, this line was now home to a large number of survivors, from large and small settlements to individual families.

The safe highway allowed for trade and communication, so it didn’t take long for news to spread... News that an Intelligent Zombie had slaughtered and captured over two hundred people from the Community Wargod Base.

Their deaths were gruesome. They were devoured and dismembered, leaving behind a scene of scattered limbs and fragments. Only a few managed to escape to the cruise ship.

Large numbers of survivors who had previously been reluctant to come to the cruise ship now flocked toward it. A long line formed at the entrance checkpoint, filled with refugees carrying whatever they could manage.

"This isn’t a normal infection, this is predation!"

"Cai Hong is eating people alive! And he’s capturing others to save for later!"

"We have to kill him, no matter the cost!"

Qiao Yunliang was enraged by the incident.

It was the greatest crisis he had faced since taking command of the cruise ship.

He dispatched Zheng Zhonghu to lead an assault team—composed of his three hundred soldiers and thirty of the cruise ship’s drone pilots—to pursue Cai Hong’s trail.

Along the way, they unleashed bullets and Molotov cocktails as if they were free. The assault team killed everything in its path, and their terrifying firepower even wiped out a horde of over ten thousand zombies!

They pursued him all the way to the vicinity of People’s Square, once a bustling part of the Urban Area, before coming to a stop.

The surrounding area was packed with residential complexes and office buildings, and it had once been the most congested spot during the evening rush hour.

The apocalypse had broken out right when everyone was stuck in traffic...

The streets were choked with wrecked and abandoned vehicles, making the roads nearly impassable. The logistics personnel couldn’t even use bicycles; they had to carry everything by hand.

Their main cargo was ammunition and Molotov cocktails, along with some detonators and explosives intended to cover a potential retreat.

From a distance, People’s Square and the surrounding area were a sea of black, like asphalt covering the ground. The high-rises were overgrown with green moss, as if nature itself was reclaiming the city.

Zheng Zhonghu picked up his binoculars to look, and his jaw dropped open.

The ground was completely packed with zombies!

That wasn’t moss on the office buildings and apartment blocks—it was all climbing zombies!

These creatures, once a rare sight, were now everywhere in the city center... They scaled the high-rises with ease.

Their numbers were terrifying!

If he drew the attention of these zombies... it would start raining zombies from the sky.

"Retreat!"

"Fall back immediately! The Urban Area is too dangerous!"

Zheng Zhonghu broke out in a cold sweat. ’Given the state of these roads, if we trigger this horde... we’ll have nowhere to run. We’ll be completely wiped out. There’s no other outcome.’

In a pitched battle, they stood no chance against the zombies of the Urban Area.

This wasn’t Binhai Avenue, with its clear, drivable roads!

Staring at the trail Cai Hong had left as he vanished into the city... they had no choice but to turn back.

The pursuit mission was declared a failure.

...

Yu Dong stood on the deck of the cruise ship, watching as Zheng Zhonghu’s team returned empty-handed. He found one of his drone pilots, a former university student, and asked about the situation.

’The rate of zombie mutation... is accelerating rapidly.’

’Based on their description of mutated zombies running rampant in the city, this is far worse than the zombie tide from my past life, the one that hit on day eighty...’

’In my past life, the climbing zombies in the horde could only cover a single building at most. Now, the high-rises in the city are crawling with them. While climbing zombies aren’t physically tough—they’ll still die from a gunshot or crossbow bolt to the head—their agility is on another level compared to regular zombies. A simple corpse pit wouldn’t be able to contain them.’

’The fact that the day-eighty horde never came has actually turned out to be a bad thing... If it had arrived back then, we would have had a decent chance of winning. In the worst-case scenario, the cruise ship could have just sailed away. But now...’

Yu Dong’s brow was furrowed.

It was day 126 of the apocalypse, with only twelve days left until the New Year. This was the coldest time of year, with nighttime temperatures dropping to over thirty degrees below zero. The cruise ship was now completely frozen in the harbor.

Yu Dong felt a shadow creeping out from Yanhai City, threatening to envelop them.

The future he foresaw was growing more perilous by the day. He had to finish what he’d set out to do, and quickly.

"Excuse me..."

A few people carrying luggage passed by, and Yu Dong moved to a different spot on the deck.

The cruise ship was crowded with people; it was now impossible for Yu Dong to find a quiet place on deck to think.

Yu Dong moved through the crowd, searching for the person he needed to find.

...

「Day 128 of the apocalypse. Ten days until the Lunar New Year.」

Recently, it wasn’t just the four largest civilian settlements that had begun relocating to the cruise ship; large numbers of smaller groups and even "lone wolves" were now arriving at the base.

The strain on the cruise ship base surged, and problems began to crop up frequently. Wang Dingbei’s security team was stretched thin, and the military had to dispatch a large number of additional personnel to help patrol and maintain order.

According to Lin Mo’s calculations, the cruise ship’s population had increased by approximately 1,600 people in the last three days alone, nearly doubling its numbers.

The cruise ship base was already struggling with skyrocketing expenses due to the harsh winter. The influx of so many survivors added another heavy burden.

The various logistical problems that came with housing so many people drove the ship’s engineering crew frantic.

Burst heating pipes, overloaded boilers, insufficient water purification flow, and a massive increase in fuel consumption...

Looking at the chaotic state of the cruise ship, a heavy feeling settled in Yu Dong’s chest.

’I had kept things running so smoothly before...’

The reason Yu Dong hadn’t previously insisted on other settlements merging with them on the cruise ship was precisely because of its limited capacity. Once they passed a certain threshold, the ship would no longer be a comfortable haven, but a bloated and grim fortress.