Chapter 129: Seizing the Flour Mill
“Yes, but the zombie outbreak spread too fast. They secured them but didn’t have time to clear them out,” Lin Yimu answered. “Some smaller, private flour mills weren’t touched. We could check those.”
“Let’s go straight to Mill No. 6 then. It’s big, so it probably still has a lot of stock,” Li Zhuang suggested, then turned, “Young Master?”
“Okay,” Lu Weiyi understood this was asking for his opinion.
The group turned and drove toward the city center.
Qingyuan City had dozens of flour mills worth mentioning, but in terms of scale, Mills 1 through 6 were the largest—each occupying tens of thousands of square meters. Getting supplies from just one would already be a big haul, so plenty of people had their eyes on them.
Before they even reached Mill No. 6, they saw a line of parked vehicles ahead—mostly cargo trucks.
The road in front had collapsed, turning it into a dead end. The parked vehicles formed a semicircle that blocked the entrance, preventing any zombies from coming up the rear. If they could clear the zombies inside, it would be safe to transport the supplies.
“Someone beat us to it,” Lin Yimu said, looking through binoculars. “Looks like they’ve got quite a few people.” Just the number of trucks—eight—suggested they had strength in numbers and weren’t afraid of being trapped.
“That’s not the main entrance. The main entrance collapsed and got completely blocked. That’s a section of the side wall that happened to cave in. They’ve likely already cleared the zombies around the perimeter and are now working on clearing the collapsed area to make it easier for vehicles to get in and move supplies. By my estimate, there are seventy to eighty people,” Ning Yuan said as he climbed onto the top of the truck to observe. “Are we still going in?”
“This is a huge factory. Even if it’s partially collapsed, once it’s cleared, there should be plenty of flour left—enough to last us a good while,” Wu Yue was reluctant to give up on such a valuable target. But seeing the seventy or eighty people, who were clearly determined to claim it, and then looking at their own group of just over ten, he fell silent.
“Let them draw the zombies’ attention, and we’ll sneak in from the other side by jumping the wall. We cover Lu while he collects the supplies, then quietly slip away. What do you think?” Antonio perked up with excitement at the thought of such a sneaky scheme.
“Good idea.”
“Sounds doable.”
“I’m in.”
With no objections, the leader, Lin Yimu, immediately turned onto a different road at the fork to avoid being spotted and causing conflict.
There’s a big difference between sneaking in and robbing someone openly—the former is much less likely to lead to retaliation.
“Three hundred meters ahead, the outer wall has collapsed. We’ll enter there, go straight through the factory, and exit at the corner of the next street. Lin Yimu, Chen Zhong, Shen Xing, Wu Yue, Li Dongsheng, and Gu Qingyue will stay behind—one car per two people, distribute as needed—to support from the other side. The rest of us go in together.”
It wasn’t safe to leave only three ordinary people behind, so Li Zhuang left a few low-level ability users with limited offensive skills. The ones going in were all ability users, and they had developed good teamwork over time.
After giving the orders, Li Zhuang reminded everyone of the risk. “The exit point is really close to where they’ll be. We’ll only have a window of ten minutes before they get inside. Everyone needs to move fast. If we run into them, things could get very messy.”
When they reached the collapsed area, the three vehicles paused simultaneously. Li Zhuang and Antonio jumped in first, followed closely by the others. The six who stayed behind sorted out the cars and quickly drove off before the zombies could get close.
The flour factory was large, but most of the factory buildings were filled with massive flour-processing machines. As they entered, they found half of the structure had collapsed. The towering machines were smashed to the point where only rough outlines remained.
“The flour should be stored in a dedicated warehouse. There’s also the raw materials warehouse. As long as we don’t miss those two spots, we’ll be fine. The other buildings are probably all equipment rooms. Even if there’s some stuff, it won’t be much. We should avoid the staff dorms if possible, grab what we can, and leave quickly. Leave the rest for them,” Wu Yue whispered, staying alert as they moved through the ruined buildings.
“Let them work hard for scraps,” Xu Sa gloated.
The factory had the bad luck of being split by a huge fissure. Though the crack had since closed, it left about a meter of uneven ground. Buildings on both sides had completely collapsed. Without space powers, just carrying goods over that meter-tall ledge repeatedly would be exhausting.
Not to mention, they’d have to dig supplies out from beneath the rubble. Just that task alone could hold up a large team for an entire day. And clearing out zombies first to maintain a relatively safe environment made the labor even more intensive.
Everyone had thought of that, but it wasn’t enough to make them abandon the plan. In times like these, more supplies meant a better chance of survival. When it comes down to your life or someone else’s, most people won’t hesitate to choose their own.
“This is the raw materials warehouse,” Lu Weiyi suddenly said as they reached the midway point.
The group looked over at the wreckage beside them—it really was nothing but rubble. Twisted rebar and chunks of concrete and bricks were stacked all over. You couldn’t tell what the original building even looked like. Everything inside was completely buried.
Lu Weiyi had been using his little green vine to search through the row of collapsed buildings, so he couldn’t be mistaken. Underneath the rooftop layer were neat stacks of wheat, corn, and various grains. But if Lu Weiyi directly used the green vine to pull all of it into his spatial storage, the collapse of the upper debris would cause a loud commotion and definitely alert the other group. And they had come in stealthily.
“What’s wrong?” Xu Sa asked, seeing that Lu Weiyi wasn’t swiftly collecting supplies like he usually did.
After Lu Weiyi explained his concerns, everyone fell silent.
Their team had fewer than ten people. Even if they were all ability users, they wouldn’t stand a chance against seventy or eighty. And any group that could send out that many people was definitely not some minor faction. Even back at the base, they wouldn’t be able to win a direct confrontation.
“We’re just going to let this go?” Wu Yue asked bitterly. That building alone had to be at least seven or eight hundred square meters. With such height, the amount of grain inside must be massive. He was genuinely reluctant.
“Can you take the entire roof structure into your space too?” Li Zhuang asked.
“Wouldn’t that be too obvious?” Xu Sa pointed out. “Everywhere else looks fine, and then suddenly there’s this bald patch with not even a single brick left—it’s kind of like we’re mocking them.”
“Obvious or not, no one said this belonged to them. If it’s in our hands, it’s ours,” Xiong Jie said with the swagger of a streetwise ex-con. “And if we’re fast enough, they won’t see us do it. Without proof, they can’t blame us.”
He had a point. Lu Weiyi didn’t hesitate any longer and quickly used his vine to start moving the supplies into his space. Even though he tried to be careful, it still made some noise. But since the other group was farther away and still busy clearing zombies and rubble, they probably couldn’t hear it.
A bald patch of ground was left between two collapsed buildings, with bits of spilled wheat, corn, and black beans scattered about—anyone who saw it would know someone had already cleared the place out.
Yeah… it was definitely a little too obvious.
“Zombies are coming. Liu Rui, protect Lu Weiyi and keep moving forward. The rest of you take them out. We’ll leave from that tree over on the left. Keep quiet. I’ll go stall them for a bit,” Li Zhuang said, and without waiting, headed straight toward the direction the other group was entering from.
“Go,” Liu Rui told Lu Weiyi after glancing at the courtyard where some zombies had already appeared—half were heading toward them, and the other half toward the spot the rival group would soon reach.
There was no time for hesitation now. Lu Weiyi and Liu Rui quickly continued their advance.
They had only taken a few steps when a thud-thud sound came from the direction Li Zhuang had gone. The group turned to look and saw something massive pounding from beneath the four-story pile of rubble near the collapsed main gate. With each impact, the debris shook and more bricks and stones tumbled down.
Lu Weiyi had a bad feeling. “Move!” he urged, breaking into a jog.
The others, while fending off approaching zombies, also quickened their pace.
The processed flour was stored at the far end of the factory. After being soaked by heavy rain and crushed by debris, the flour had turned grayish-black and was stuck to the stones. Rainwater on the ground had carried it away in winding white streaks.
Lu Weiyi quickly swept all of it into his storage space. As he turned around, he heard Wu Yue gasp in shock, “Holy crap, is that… a dog?!”
He turned to look and saw that the area where the noise had been coming from had finally been broken open. Two dogs—one black, one yellow—were shaking off the dirt from their bodies. The black one was obviously larger, over a person’s height, built like a bull. The yellow one was slightly smaller, but not by much.
The two dogs looked in their direction, bodies low to the ground, ready to pounce. The group wasn’t sure whether they should move, but with zombies approaching, they had no choice.
Liu Rui launched a fire dragon, taking out several zombies. But at that moment, the black dog let out a deep growl and was about to charge. Just then, Li Zhuang—who had vanished earlier—suddenly reappeared behind the two dogs.
He threw a clump of dirt at the black dog. As the black dog turned and caught the dirt ball in its mouth, Li Zhuang immediately took off running, hurling dirt spikes behind him to keep the creature’s attention—drawing aggro with precision.
Mutant animals were clearly different from their former selves. Even though the yellow dog hadn’t moved yet, Lu Weiyi didn’t dare treat it like a regular dog. Seeing that the others were merely staying on guard, he took the initiative—using his mental powers to fling a watermelon knife and called out, “You waiting to die?”
The words had barely left his mouth when the yellow dog leapt aside, dodging the blade with ease, then crouched and tilted its head at them. If it weren’t for its massive size, the move might have looked cute.
The others didn’t hesitate anymore. Antonio flung two daggers at the yellow dog, while Liu Rui summoned another fire dragon. With the two most powerful members taking action, they hoped to force out the creature’s abilities. Lu Weiyi observed carefully.
But no matter what they did—despite even injuring the yellow dog—it only kept dodging, occasionally baring its teeth in a threatening gesture.
“It doesn’t have any powers. Go in close—finish it fast,” Lu Weiyi ordered. “Quick and clean.”
I kinda feel bad for those dogs, just trying to survive in a tough world