Chapter 433: Reckoning
For a moment, silence fell—then the sound of artillery filled the air, and a visible fireball shot toward the plaza.
“Captain—!”
“Run—!”
Feng Chengjun roared, spinning around toward the stage. He saw Du Ping shielding Zhuang Mingxu as they ran toward the back of the government building. Feng, panicked, tried to use his ability to pull them back—only to realize, his powers weren’t working.
“Captain! There’s a disruptor! Our powers aren’t working—what do we do?!”
“What about the signal blockers? Didn’t we have extras?”
“Captain, you took them—where are they?”
Signal blockers…
Of course, they’d been handed off to outside allies.
Feng Chengjun hit the ground and rolled, trying to escape the square—only to find that anyone approaching the perimeter was met with machine gun fire. Anyone who stepped forward was immediately gunned down.
It was the first time he’d seen a crystal-core gun in action. The area around the impact point would melt, forming a fist-sized hole in the target. The stench of cooked meat and sizzling fat filled the air, mixing with the screams—like a death knell in his ears.
By now, the artillery fire had ceased. All around were the charred corpses of his comrades or people writhing in agony, trying to extinguish the flames consuming their bodies.
Then, Zhou He arrived with hundreds of uniformed soldiers, pouring in from all directions and surrounding them. Guns in hand, they fired at anyone trying to flee. With each shot, another corpse fell.
Before long, the bodies piled up half a person’s height around the square.
“Watch them. Don’t let a single one get away.”
Zhou He gave the order, then turned toward the government building.
“Dean, hurry up! Commander Zhuang looks injured.”
“Coming!”
A cheerful voice answered from beside him. A short young man, also in uniform, jogged up.
Du Ping emerged from the building carrying Zhuang Mingxu on his back. Beside them, Tao Tao was holding onto Zhuang Mingxu’s pants leg. When she saw who was coming, she shouted, “Uncle! Little uncle!”
“Coming, coming!” Dean responded, pressing his hand on Zhuang Mingxu.
“Thank you.”
From a distance, Zhou He saw clearly that Zhuang Mingxu’s leg was injured. If Du Ping hadn’t carried him, he likely would’ve been caught in the crossfire.
“It’s what partners do,” Du Ping replied, then looked at Dean.
“Is it serious?”
“His shin bone’s fractured. Two ribs are broken,” Dean said angrily, using his ability to heal.
“Hurry and fix the burn on my arm,” Zhuang urged.
“The fabric’s melted into the flesh. I have to cut away the dead tissue first,” Dean said awkwardly.
“Then start cutting.”
“But in this environment…”
Dean, though not a trained doctor, had been forced to study under pressure for so long that he now understood the basics. This was the kind of thing that should be done in an operating room.
“If the city center’s been compromised too, Xiao Yi will know something’s wrong and come back. He’s probably already on the way. Don’t waste time,” Zhuang Mingxu said, pulling out an anesthetic from his storage space.
He hadn’t intended for Lu Weiyi to get involved in this situation. He’d only dispatched people connected to the base—people he thought would stay safe. His plan was to settle everything before Lu returned. But now… if Lu came back at this moment, things could go badly.
Dean said no more and began working.
Zhuang Mingxu looked at Zhou He and ordered, “Watch them all. We’ll interrogate them one by one.”
“Yes, sir.”
Then Zhuang quickly pulled out a walkie-talkie, adjusted the channel, and asked, “Qingyue, what’s your status?”
“Ning Yuan brought back a lot of zombies. They’re fighting the enemy ability users. Zheng Jun had us secure the walls and cut off retreat routes so the zombies can wear them down. Ning Yuan’s team is helping Qingji now.”
“Do as Zheng Jun said.”
Zhuang then checked in with Gu Qingji and Lin Yimu, and had just let out a sigh of relief when the sound of aircraft engines grew louder—approaching from the sky.
“That… is that a fighter jet?” Zhou He asked in disbelief.
Zhuang Mingxu took one glance and hurriedly urged Dean, “Hurry, hurry—we’re running out of time.”
“This can’t be rushed,” Dean replied, still working methodically, his expression precise and focused.
Zhuang Mingxu could only watch helplessly as the aircraft hovered mid-air. The cabin door opened, and someone slid down the rope ladder—at the front, unmistakably, was their young base commander.
*
The situation in the base had largely come under control. After returning with his second squad, Lu Weiyi helped detain all those who had caused chaos. Only then did he learn about Zhuang Mingxu’s plan.
Zhuang Mingxu had already begun preparing to clean the house once he learned there were people attempting to seize control of the base. As it happened, Du Ping came to him for help, and the two decided to turn the trap on their enemies.
“Why did he decide to work with us?” Lu Weiyi asked, glancing around at his still-shaken teammates huddled together in the villa.
“He and Zheng Chengjun are cousins,” Zhuang explained. “They’ve supported each other since the apocalypse. At first, things were fine. When powers could be upgraded, he brought Chengjun along, thinking two S-class users would help stabilize their squad’s standing in the base. But after the upgrade, he started feeling like the other two deputy captains were clearly closer to each other.”
“He was away from the base most of the time, leading external missions, while everything inside the base was handled by Li Feng. Once he noticed what was going on, he had one of his trusted men quietly investigate and discovered that they’d been in contact with a lot of teams and had ulterior motives. By then, many squads were already involved, and his influence within his own team had significantly weakened.”
“So it was either cooperate with them and eventually get cleaned out, or side with us and clean house together,” Zhuang Mingxu said, waving his hand. “That choice is a no-brainer.”
“The more critical issue was that during his upgrade, he realized that even for S-class users, relying on purified crystal cores was extremely dangerous. You can imagine how risky it must be for SS-class users. As the only SS-class power user right now, even for his own survival, he had to think twice.”
Seeing that Lu Weiyi remained silent, Zhuang admitted, “I had Ning Yuan and the others lie in wait outside the base in case external collaborators tried to attack. I figured five S-class users and an A-class squad would be enough. They’d coordinate with Qingyue and Zheng Jun from inside and completely trap the enemy. But who could’ve expected…”
“Who could’ve expected over ten thousand to show up…” Ning Yuan chimed in, finishing his sentence.
“We were stunned when we realized it. We didn’t dare drive away directly in case they spotted us, and we couldn’t reach the base at that point.”
“So you figured out a way to lure in zombies,” Li Zhuang concluded for them.
“Exactly. We knew most of the zombies around Pingjin had already been cleared, so we diverted southwest. When we came back from Cangnan before, I remembered there were still a lot of zombies in that direction. There weren’t any large bases along the coast there, so no one was assigned to clean them up. Thankfully, it worked out. You guys can’t imagine how I felt when I saw the enemy forces were ten times what we expected—just mentally collapsing on the spot,” Ning Yuan said, wiping a mock tear.
The original plan had been to work with Gu Qingyue’s group from inside the base to deal with the approaching ability users. But when they saw the numbers, they realized going head-on would be too difficult. So, they lured zombies to suppress the enemy and rushed back to the base.
They arrived just as Xu Chu led people to reinforce the ice wall. Soldiers from the west island had already been stationed in the north island outposts and undeveloped zones. With the north island engulfed in artillery fire, they knew the plan was working and headed to support Gu Qingji.
“Not perfect, but we got it done,” Ning Yuan stretched and stood up.
“Am I done here? I’ve been lying in the snow for days—I’m exhausted.”
Several teammates who’d been working non-stop headed off to sleep. The rest quickly slipped away once they sensed something awkward brewing between the two base leaders. Soon, only Lu Weiyi and Zhuang Mingxu remained in the living room.
“You mad?” Zhuang Mingxu asked. His arm had already healed, but the skin was visibly discolored, showing just how serious the injury had been.
Seeing Lu Weiyi silently staring at him, Zhuang pulled down his sleeve to cover his arm, grabbed Lu’s wrist, and explained, “I meant to talk to you about this at first. But when I saw how angry you were, I figured I’d just send you away. By the time your squad returned, everything would’ve been resolved—you wouldn’t even have to see those eyesores. Who could’ve predicted your side also got infiltrated?”
He cupped Lu Weiyi’s face in both hands and rested their foreheads together.
“You’ve worked too hard this past year. I just wanted to take care of all the things you didn’t want to deal with—all the people you didn’t want to face.”
“Didn’t expect it to backfire, huh?” Lu Weiyi replied flatly, completely unmoved by the sentiment.
Zhuang Mingxu awkwardly rubbed his nose.
Lu Weiyi understood Zhuang Mingxu’s deeply ingrained machismo—he always wanted to be relied on. So he said nothing more and relayed what Li Zhuang had uncovered during interrogation. At the same time, Li Qing arrived with preliminary interrogation results.
“Several bases were involved in this incident: the Capital faction, Pingjin Base, Mongbei Base, Changhong Base, and some nomadic ability users. Basically, every base along the coastline,” Li Qing said, handing over the list.
“It might not have been official orders from the bases, but certain factions definitely participated.”
Lu Weiyi read through the list, then handed it over to Zhuang Mingxu.
Neither of them spoke. Li Qing had to ask again,
“What do we do with the captured ability users? And what about the families of the ones who participated?”
“What are our casualties? Do we have the numbers yet?” Lu Weiyi didn’t answer the question directly.
“2,281 civilians were infected and killed by zombies. The base military lost 17 soldiers. Over 700 were injured—and that’s just within the base. It doesn’t include the city center,” Li Qing reported grimly.
Zhuang Mingxu clutched the casualty report, his jaw clenched so tightly his teeth audibly ground together. After a long silence, he said coldly:
“Gather the families of all participants. Confiscate their resources and redistribute them to the families of the injured and dead. Expel them from the base in front of all the ability users—make sure the entire base sees it, civilians included. As for the ability users involved—execute them all.”
He tossed the list onto the table, his face expressionless.
