Chapter 428: Strategy
“Your truck left early this morning,” someone explained. “After you left, Commander Zhuang stopped the Peace Squad members from boarding. He said the headcount was already full, and that with the current drop in zombie numbers, there was no need to send more ability users to the front.”
But instead, he replaced them with substitutes from Frost Society and Zhongliang Squad.
Now that everyone in the base knew that going outside meant collecting crystal cores with heavy weapon support, it was like free loot. Ye Jia and Chen Xing had just lucked out, so they didn’t say much either.
“What happened?” Lu Weiyi had just returned to the base and was already drained from being on constant high alert despite supposedly being stationed in command. All surrounding affairs required his attention, and after only a day of rest, he was sent out again—he knew nothing about what had happened.
“…It’s true, something like that did happen,” Wu Yue stammered. “Mingxu probably just wanted to teach them a lesson. That kid really didn’t know how to watch his mouth.”
Lu Weiyi frowned but said nothing.
The Peace Squad currently held a relatively high status in the Ability Users Guild, and its members included many powerful ability users. What Zhuang Mingxu had done seemed a bit over the top.
Lu Weiyi felt this wasn’t like Zhuang Mingxu’s usual way of handling things.
But thinking back to the past—when Zhuang Mingxu had no powers and had always been sensitive—maybe those harsh words had struck a nerve.
Lu Weiyi didn’t say anything in front of the others, but internally he wondered whether he should offer some crystal cores to compensate Peace Squad a bit. After all, their ability users had gone out on missions several times without ever slacking off or taking shortcuts.
“Qingyue and Brother Xiong didn’t come this time either. Qingji’s powers suddenly malfunctioned and he fainted. Qingyue was worried and stayed to care for him—Li Zhuang agreed,” Wu Yue added quickly, seeing the heaviness on Lu Weiyi’s face. “Also, Brother Xi fell this morning. Brother Xiong was worried about his old bones and stayed behind too.”
Lu Weiyi glanced around and realized that only Li Zhuang and Wu Yue from Team One were here. The others hadn’t shown up.
“I had the rest of Team One head out early,” Li Zhuang explained with a half-smile. “They’re trying to lure the nearby zombies toward our encampment.”
This was the first time they had acted without notifying him in advance. Lu Weiyi lowered his gaze and didn’t respond.
Li Zhuang and Ning Yuan held vice-captain titles, but they had always known their boundaries. Any decision involving the squad was always reported beforehand—either to Lu Weiyi or to Zhuang Mingxu.
Now, if Lu Weiyi didn’t know, then Zhuang Mingxu must have.
That…
Lu Weiyi thought for a moment, then nodded and didn’t ask anything in front of the others.
This base camp was farther inward than before. Everything still followed the original plan, except Lu Weiyi hadn’t seen the members who had supposedly left early. Thankfully, cars were indeed bringing in waves of zombies, so the team assumed everything was in motion and didn’t question it further.
Three days passed in an orderly fashion.
Late at night, a vehicle suddenly approached at high speed from the distance—followed by a massive horde of zombies, a sight that made hearts sink.
“What’s going on?” Wu Yue had just picked up his binoculars when the vehicle smashed through the crowd of zombies at the base of the high wall and crashed into the wall itself.
“Hey, up there—get your base commander! I’m his good friend!”
“Help us out! Our wounded can’t hold on!”
Tang Bai shouted while turning back to strike down zombies with his team.
Li Zhuang signaled someone to go call Lu Weiyi over and help defend against the zombie tide.
A moment later, Lu Weiyi came over and ordered that they be let in.
As the gates sealed shut, Tang Bai immediately collapsed to the ground.
The last time they met had been over half a year ago, when Tang Bai personally came to negotiate a deal about purified crystal cores. Back then, Lu Weiyi had been out shopping with three kids from home, and Tang Bai had been recognized by one of them—Tang Tingting—who excitedly asked for a hug.
Using the child as a bridge, Tang Bai invited Lu Weiyi to a meal. At the time, he had been full of confidence—even though his squad was smaller than before, he was calling the shots and clearly riding high.
But now, he was covered in blood, reeking of zombie decay and rotting flesh, looking utterly wrecked.
“Commander Lu, could you please have your healing team help treat my people? They’re seriously injured. I’ll offer crystal cores in return,” Tang Bai said, pointing at the bloody figures he had dragged in.
Seeing Lu Weiyi nod, Xu Yi stepped forward and treated the group before returning to his post.
“What are you doing on this side?” Wu Yue asked, noticing how parched Tang Bai’s lips looked. He handed him a cup of water and looked toward the woman beside him—Zhou Xue of the Blizzard Squad, who had been merged into Tang Bai’s team after a collaboration last year.
Tang Bai thanked him and gulped down the water. “We were set up.”
This zombie-hunting mission had technically only been a suggestion, but no one wanted their base to be overrun by zombies. Plus, everyone needed crystal cores. Working together raised the success rate. Even with power struggles in the Pingjin base, a temporary alliance had formed.
They’d already been out a long time, and their supplies were nearly gone. Just the day before they planned to return, someone in their group turned on them.
“I guess all those past collaborations made us let our guard down. On the return trip, they punctured our tires. My team and Blizzard’s were bringing up the rear—we got dragged into the mess,” he said.
These days, cars weren’t hard to find—but gas-powered tires were precious and couldn’t be wasted.
Tang Bai clenched his teeth. “We crammed everyone into the remaining vehicles and tried to head back to the base. But then, out of nowhere, we got swarmed—zombies from front and back. We couldn’t shake them. Too many people were dying or injured, so I had no choice but to crash through your wall to get help.”
According to their prior agreement, whichever side broke into the other’s wall would be held responsible—and the entire base might have to offer compensation.
“We had no choice this time. In one day, we lost over a thousand people—more than all our previous battles combined,” Tang Bai said, wiping his face. His eyes gleamed with a fierce, murderous glint.
“Even if you were desperate, couldn’t you have just escaped? You had crystal cores to replenish abilities…” Wu Yue’s voice trailed off as he noticed how chapped Tang Bai’s lips were. For a water-type user to be this dehydrated—something was clearly wrong. He didn’t push further.
Zhou Xue, standing beside him, quietly added, “Most of our crystal cores were stolen.”
Once their powers were depleted with no way to recharge, they’d had no options left.
At that moment, Li Zhuang subtly jerked his chin toward something nearby.
Everyone followed his gaze. Suddenly, the ground flipped open, tossing a nearby vehicle into the air. Beneath it, several blood bags spilled out—splattering the floor with a growing red puddle.
“F* that bastard,”** Tang Bai cursed. “If I ever find out who did this, I’ll throw him straight into a horde of zombies.”
Everyone around them looked grim too—this was clearly a deliberate act meant to send people to their deaths.
“Commander Lu, can you spare us some crystal cores so we can recover our powers? I’ll pay you back double once I return. My wife and daughter are still in the base,” Tang Bai, having recovered slightly, pleaded.
“You brought over ten thousand zombies with you, and you smashed through the wall. Now the horde keeps pouring in. Are you sure you and your people can even leave this place alive?” Wu Yue had just checked on the situation at the wall and was beginning to doubt whether the Pingjin base had been properly clearing out their zombies.
Tang Bai thought for a moment. “We’ll fight alongside you. We’re all A-rank ability users—we’ll at least be of some help.”
Wu Yue looked to Lu Weiyi. After a brief moment of consideration, Lu Weiyi gave orders to assign them a section to defend.
But the next morning, their base’s ability users started experiencing serious problems.
At the time, Lu Weiyi was leading a team suppressing incoming zombies with heavy weapons. This camp was far too close to the front line, and the collapse of a nearby wall had lured over a massive number of zombies from the other side. Concerned something would happen, Lu Weiyi hadn’t rested the entire night.
The constant sound of artillery alone was enough to keep attracting zombies.
Then Wu Yue’s panicked voice came through the radio: some of their ability users had been attacked by zombies. He urged Lu Weiyi to return immediately.
Since all team members were long-range ability users, they shouldn’t have had any close encounters with zombies. Confused, Lu Weiyi handed command over to Li Qing and quickly rushed back to the camp.
The scene was utter chaos—blood, corpses, and half-zombified people covered the ground. Some screamed, some cried, some lashed out as if attacking invisible enemies. High-ranking ability users sat pale and dazed on the floor, others curled into trembling balls of pain.
“Please don’t kill him! He hasn’t turned into a zombie! He won’t turn into one!”
“Captain Wu, please wait a little longer—he can survive this, I swear!”
“Let him go! You’ll have to go through me first!”
“Brother—brother, look at me! Please wake up!”
The wailing and shouting were endless—the whole area had fallen into turmoil.
Lu Weiyi couldn’t even push through the crowd and had to use his power to clear a path. “What happened?”
“Commander, they… they must have mixed high-level zombie flesh and blood into our food. Our ability users are showing signs of zombification!”
“Please save my brother, Commander! I’m begging you!” someone sobbed, crawling over on their knees and slamming their head to the ground repeatedly.
“It wasn’t us,” the people from Pingjin base were now surrounded, their previously healed wounds bleeding again—clearly, a fight had already broken out. Tang Bai’s arm had been chopped off; he held the severed limb in one hand, teeth clenched as he forced out the words:
“We’ve never had problems like this before. If it wasn’t you, then who else could it be?”
“It’s obviously you!”
“You came here to sabotage us!”
Voices overlapped in accusation, as if the verdict had already been passed—another fight was on the verge of erupting.
Lu Weiyi glanced at Li Zhuang, who appeared unharmed. Li Zhuang shook his head. “No evidence. Can’t be certain yet.”
“Wu Yue.”
“Here!”
“Detain everyone from the Pingjin base. No one is allowed to move an inch,” Lu Weiyi ordered swiftly, then turned to Tang Bai. “If it wasn’t you, then don’t resist.”
