Chapter 65: Entering the Factory
“Wow! Little Zhe, you were insanely cool!” Seeing the Level Three zombie fall, Zheng Jiahe couldn’t hide his excitement and rushed over to give Su Ruizhe a big hug.
That zombie had been so powerful that even he couldn’t defeat it, yet Su Ruizhe had killed it single-handedly. It was truly incredible.
However, the gun in Su Ruizhe’s hand suddenly slipped and fell to the ground. His whole body went limp, slumping against Zheng Jiahe’s shoulder as he said weakly, “Help me back to the car… I don’t have any strength left.”
Although transparent crystal cores could replenish the energy an ability user consumed, they couldn’t restore physical stamina or mental strength. During the fight with the Level Three zombie, Su Ruizhe had pushed himself to the limit. Now he was not only exhausted, but his temples were also throbbing with pain.
“Okay…” Zheng Jiahe quickly called Zhang Shuoliang over, had him pick up Su Ruizhe’s gun, and together they helped Su Ruizhe back into the vehicle. To make him more comfortable, they gave up all the seats in the second row so he could lie down.
Song Chengshu examined Su Ruizhe and confirmed that he wasn’t injured, just overexerted. Only then did everyone breathe a sigh of relief.
Not long after, the gunfire up ahead finally stopped. Zhan Yun returned with Cheng Qi and Cheng Jiao, their steps heavy with fatigue. When they saw the massive number of zombie corpses piled around the off-road vehicle, shock and disbelief filled their faces.
There were hundreds of bodies, all blown apart by explosives. The only person who could produce that many bombs at once and cause such massive destruction was Su Ruizhe.
Zhan Yun hurried back to the off-road vehicle. When he saw Su Ruizhe lying pale-faced in the back seat, his mind went blank, and even his fingertips felt numb.
“He…” Zhan Yun wanted to ask how Su Ruizhe was doing, but it felt as if someone were gripping his throat, and he couldn’t make a sound.
“A-Zhan, Little Zhe is fine. He’s just too tired and needs to rest for a bit,” Song Chengshu said, understanding Zhan Yun’s worry. He quickly summarized what had happened.
After confirming that Su Ruizhe was safe, Zhan Yun’s expression turned grave as he looked at the mountain of zombie corpses outside. If things were really as Song Chengshu had said—if evolved zombies could evolve yet again into an even higher-level type, gaining not only iron-like bodies but also the ability to command lower-level zombies—then this was very bad news for humanity.
At this moment, Li Ming finished settling his own team and came over to check on Zhan Yun’s group. Thanks to the plant-based bullets Su Ruizhe had provided, only five people in Li Ming’s unit had suffered minor injuries, and there were no deaths.
When he arrived, he too was startled by the mountain of corpses behind them.
“This is…?”
Zhan Yun looked at Song Chengshu, who could only helplessly repeat what he had said earlier.
Li Ming’s expression also became extremely solemn. He immediately ordered his men to report this information to the higher-ups at the base via radio.
“Where is that high-level zombie…?”
Song Chengshu pointed to a pile of mangled flesh not far away. The destructive power of Su Ruizhe’s super pea bullet was not to be underestimated.
Li Ming: …
He had originally wanted to take some samples back, but with it reduced to this state, how was that even possible?
“Where is its crystal core…?”
“Little Zhe put it away. He killed that zombie himself.” The implication was clear—the crystal core belonged to Su Ruizhe, and no one was allowed to take it.
“As long as the crystal core is still there, that’s fine. Please rest assured, I have no intention of seizing it. I just wanted to see whether a high-level zombie’s crystal core differs from those of other levels.”
By this time, Su Ruizhe had recovered a bit of his strength. Hearing their conversation, he sat up and took out the Level Three zombie’s crystal core. Once cleaned, the orange-red crystal core looked somewhat like red agate, gleaming and radiant, extremely eye-catching—nothing like something that had come from a zombie’s head.
“Thank you.” After seeing the obvious color difference between it and the crystal cores of other zombie levels, Li Ming nodded and offered Su Ruizhe his sincere thanks.
With several hundred zombie corpses at the scene, it would have been a waste to leave them untouched. Li Ming had someone call over Niu Dali. The kid was lucky—he had awakened a fire-type ability. He set several fires and burned all the zombies on the ground to ashes, then picked out every single shimmering crystal core from the remains.
Knowing that most of those zombies had been killed by Su Ruizhe, Li Ming distributed the majority of the crystal cores to Zhan Yun’s team. Zhan Yun didn’t refuse and accepted them all.
The convoy continued on its way. This time, without the control of a Level Three zombie, they only encountered scattered zombies, which posed no great threat.
At last, they arrived at the destination of their mission—the Hongyang New Energy Photovoltaic Power Generator Factory.
This new energy generator factory was enormous, covering several thousand square meters and employing over a thousand workers. Although the apocalypse had broken out at night, many workers had been on the night shift, so there were likely quite a lot of zombies inside.
The five people in Li Ming’s team who had been injured earlier gradually began to develop fevers. Perhaps due to their relatively strong constitutions, none showed signs of severe infection, but it was clear they could no longer participate in this operation. After giving them the specially prepared fruit juice they had brought before departure, Li Ming found an unoccupied empty building nearby and temporarily settled them there. He also asked Zhang Shuoliang to seal off the building’s entrances, stairwells, and several other access points, making it difficult for zombies to discover that humans were hiding there.
Once they were properly settled, the group prepared to enter the new energy generator factory.
The factory was vast, and searching it area by area would take far too long. With limited time, they ultimately decided to split up and search separately, using walkie-talkies to stay in contact if anything happened.
The soldiers formed teams of around thirty each. Since Zhan Yun’s group had strong combat capabilities, they were also asked to split up and be mixed into the different teams, forming three squads in total.
Zhan Yun and Su Ruizhe, along with Yu Dongdong, joined Li Ming’s First Squad. Song Chengshu, Wu Jing, and Zhang Shuoliang joined Niu Dali’s Second Squad. The Cheng siblings and Zheng Jiahe joined the Third Squad. For safety’s sake, Su Ruizhe also made some additional plant-based weapons and distributed them to each team.
“Put on your night-vision goggles. Move out.” For this operation, the base had spared no expense, equipping everyone with night-vision goggles so they could search the pitch-dark factory.
The three squads split into left, center, and right routes and entered the new energy generator factory.
“Brother, there are monsters inside,” Dongdong suddenly whispered when they reached the door of a production workshop.
“Do you know how many monsters are inside?” Su Ruizhe asked in a lowered voice.
Yu Dongdong tried hard to sense them, then shook his small head in frustration. His ability had only just awakened, and his detection range was only about fifty meters. The workshop, however, covered nearly three hundred square meters. He could sense the presence of those unpleasant monsters inside, but couldn’t tell exactly how many there were.
Even knowing there were zombies inside, they still had to go in and check. Who knew whether the equipment they were looking for might be right there in this workshop?
“Open the door!”
Two soldiers stepped forward and opened the workshop door. Through their night-vision goggles, they immediately saw several dark figures charging rapidly toward them.
Without any hesitation, everyone opened fire. The plant bullets sank into the zombies’ bodies, and the ones that were hit quickly collapsed.
With the aid of night-vision goggles, they were no longer hindered by the darkness and could clearly see the zombies hiding within it. As long as any of them dared to move, they were met with a burst of gunfire.
They cleared all the zombies in the workshop very quickly. Then they turned on their flashlights and discovered that this was a raw materials production workshop—and the large-scale assembly line they were looking for was actually right here.
In the workshop supervisor’s office, Li Ming also found some documentation on the equipment needed to assemble the production line.
It was truly a case of searching far and wide only to find it effortlessly at last.
Now the problem they faced was how to transport this massive assembly line out.
Just then, a burst of static came through the walkie-talkie, followed by gunfire and someone shouting, “Zombie dogs! Run!”
At the mention of zombie dogs, everyone was startled. Before the apocalypse, it was common for factories to keep several dogs, but once those guard dogs were infected with the zombie virus, their attack power became alarmingly strong.
“Where are you?! We’re coming to support you right now!”
“It’s fine, no need to come!” Zheng Jiahe’s voice came over the walkie-talkie.
It was the Third Squad that had encountered the zombie dogs. The soldiers in front opened fire as soon as they spotted them, but the dogs were incredibly fast, charging straight at their faces and nearly clawing several of the soldiers. One soldier stumbled and accidentally pressed the walkie-talkie’s transmit button, which was how Zhan Yun and the others overheard the situation.
In reality, Zheng Jiahe yanked back the soldier who was about to be clawed, then swung his club down hard, smashing one of the zombie dogs to the ground and even caving in its spine. Cheng Jiao’s wind blade arrived in the next instant, slicing off the dog’s head.
Cheng Qi’s lightning followed, electrocuting the remaining zombie dogs and knocking them down. The soldiers coordinated, shooting the dogs in the head and successfully resolving the crisis.
They also successfully found the warehouse where raw materials were stored.
After searching for about another half hour, the Second Squad also discovered a warehouse. Inside were large quantities of solar panels already packed up. They were probably goods that hadn’t yet been delivered to a client—and now they conveniently fell into their hands.
Thank you for reading 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉
