Chapter 108 — The Zombie Siege
After death, the limbs of zombies stiffened. Even when they evolved into Level Two zombies and became more agile, this problem still remained when they walked. The fast-moving ones often moved more like beasts than humans, which actually made them easier to identify.
After signaling the watchtower across the moat and immediately calling the gate to report the situation, the observing soldier continued watching the figures cautiously while reporting what he saw.
“There are five of them. Their steps are unsteady. Their clothes are very loose, so I can’t see their condition clearly. I can’t determine whether their strange movement is due to injury or the stiffness caused by zombification. Each of them is wearing a hat, so their faces aren’t visible… wait! One of them is waving at our observation tower!”
The soldiers inside the watchtower were stunned and exchanged glances before quickly looking outside as well.
Although the distance was still considerable, they could see that one of the five figures was indeed waving his arm toward them.
“Human? Injured survivors?” the officer in charge frowned and said in a deep voice, “Keep observing.” Even if they were survivors, they could not be careless—especially now when danger could appear at any moment.
The watchtower across the moat called again, asking how they should respond. They had also noticed that one of the five people was waving.
“Captain… something seems wrong. That person keeps waving while walking. He hasn’t stopped once.”
“Could he be worried we might shoot him by mistake?”
It wasn’t unheard of for people returning from missions in miserable condition to be accidentally injured by the military. In such situations, waving and shouting could help prove that they were human.
After all, people driving vehicles were easy to identify—zombies couldn’t drive. But if someone’s vehicle broke down and they had to walk back, from a distance they looked no different from the scattered zombies wandering on the road.
“Snipers, prepare!”
The officer stood up and stared at the five approaching figures with a frown. After receiving the signal, the snipers in the opposite tower also took position, aiming at the five indistinct shapes.
Everyone held their breath and carefully watched the figures approaching slowly.
The waving figure staggered forward while moving his arm continuously at the same rhythm. Their oversized clothes concealed their bodies, and the hats covered their faces.
The officer slowly raised his hand, ready to give the order to fire.
Something was wrong.
Although they were waving toward the watchtower, not a single one of them had lifted their head to look at it. There was still quite some distance from the gate, and the soldiers guarding the gate couldn’t even see them yet. If they were waving to indicate they were harmless survivors, why was no one looking up?
His raised hand hovered in the air, ready to drop.
Suddenly the soldier with the binoculars shouted, “The skin on that person’s hand is grayish-blue—and it looks rotten!”
“Fire!” the officer shouted.
Even if it turned out to be a mistake, he would bear the responsibility. If they were zombies, they absolutely could not be allowed to reach the people waiting at the base gate.
“Bang! Bang bang!”
Several gunshots rang out. Four figures fell immediately. One that had not been hit paused for a moment—
Then, to everyone’s shock, that figure resumed its slow steps and continued walking toward the base exactly as before.
That was definitely not human.
No human would keep walking exactly the same way after seeing companions collapse—unless their mind was completely broken. But even then, it would be impossible not to glance once at a fallen companion.
“Bang!”
Realizing this, one of the snipers immediately fired another shot, bringing down the last suspicious figure.
The communications soldier quickly reported the situation to the base.
Hearing the gunshots, the people waiting at the gate for entry inspections became nervous and began urging the soldiers to let them enter faster.
The officer was just about to send someone out to inspect the fallen bodies when the soldier with the binoculars suddenly shouted again.
“Captain! Something’s happening! There are a lot of them coming!!”
Everyone looked up sharply.
From the streets in the direction of the city, a large number of zombies were pouring out—
Among them were huge numbers of speed-type zombies.
The alarm suddenly blared.
The zombie horde had arrived.
“What—what was that sound?!”
Li Tie and the others had just returned home and were about to lie on the bed watching a movie when the alarm suddenly rang. They all scrambled up in panic. Wu Xin moved so hastily that he rolled right off the bed, while Han Li nearly dropped his phone.
In the next room, Wang Duo was clinging shamelessly to Zhang Su, who was lying on the bed watching a movie, trying to reconcile with him.
These past few nights Zhang Su had been watching movies nonstop, even reducing the frequency of their intimate moments. Someone felt that he had been neglected by Her Majesty, so today he had wrapped his arms around Zhang Su’s neck and refused to let go.
Just as he finally slipped his wandering hand inside Zhang Su’s collar—
The alarm sounded outside.
The enthusiasm that had just begun to rise instantly collapsed.
Downstairs, Xu Mei and Song Lingling were chatting while teaching little Xinran new characters. Hearing the alarm, Xinran opened her mouth wide and looked up at the darkening sky outside the window.
In apartment 1604, Yan Fei was holding the little dog from behind, forcing it to stretch out its paws, while Luo Xun carefully filed its claws.
There was no choice—it had recently developed the habit of scratching things everywhere. Just the other day it had ripped open one of the sofa cushions.
While filing its nails, Luo Xun lectured it.
“Look at you. You’re not even a cat. Why are you scratching everything all the time?”
The little dog had no idea what a “cat” was. It only knew that Luo Xun’s actions were extremely uncomfortable. Its whole body trembled with every movement.
So the mischievous dog tried to escape, standing on its hind legs like it was dancing ballet, tiptoeing across the floor and inching away in an attempt to slip out of Yan Fei’s grip.
At that moment, the alarm sounded.
Taking advantage of Luo Xun and Yan Fei being momentarily distracted, the little dog darted out like lightning. It scampered across the room and squeezed into a cabinet in the corner, its little butt sticking up as it wriggled inside.
The two men exchanged a glance.
Luo Xun sighed and walked toward the cabinet where it was hiding, while Yan Fei picked up his phone from the tea table.
“Probably a zombie siege,” Luo Xun said as he bent down to drag the dog out. “Fine, I won’t trim your nails anymore. Come out already. If you get stuck under there you won’t be able to crawl out.”
There were no messages on the phone yet, and the base hadn’t sent any official notifications.
Yan Fei glanced at the screen and looked back at Luo Xun, who was coaxing the dog out.
“Let’s see if any news comes in later. We should sleep early tonight. At the latest tomorrow morning we’ll probably have to go to the outer wall.”
Whether they would actually need to fight zombies was still uncertain, but Yan Fei would likely have to go supervise the safety of the metal wall.
For now the soldiers outside were handling things with firearms, so they probably wouldn’t need these unofficial personnel yet. But if the siege lasted too long, that might change.
Meanwhile Luo Xun finally grabbed the dog’s hind legs and dragged it out.
“Alright, once we finish with it we’ll—wait… why is there a slipper under here?”
Along with the struggling dog, a gray, tattered slipper came sliding out from under the cabinet.
Judging by the style and appearance…
Luo Xun slowly turned his head and looked at Yan Fei.
Yan Fei raised one eyebrow and stood up from the sofa. He casually picked up a piece of metal and formed it into a long metal rod, then poked it under the cabinet.
One slipper. Two slippers. Three slippers…
And a big clump of dog fur.
“So this is where all my missing slippers went,” Yan Fei said through gritted teeth, shooting a sharp look at the dog.
The guilty culprit had already sprinted back to its dog bed, presenting its backside toward them.
Luo Xun felt both amused and distressed.
These were items that couldn’t be replaced after the apocalypse! And look how many it had destroyed—and even hidden them all!
Before the apocalypse, Luo Xun had stocked up on a lot of household supplies just in case. Yet in less than a year, an alarming number of slippers had vanished.
And every single one of them had lost its partner.
In the end, the culprit still couldn’t escape the tragic fate of having its nails trimmed.
Even worse for the dog—its entire “collection” had been confiscated.
What a sad story.
Before going to bed, the two of them received a mass message sent by the military to everyone with a phone.
The main message was simple:
Stay home and behave. Don’t go outside and cause trouble.
Tomorrow the base would assign tasks to all teams. Everyone would take turns defending the wall and fulfill their duty to protect the base.
Another crucial point was emphasized:
Teams that refused to participate or tried to avoid their duties would be forcibly disbanded. Teams that acted cowardly or slacked off during missions would lose their official status.
How many teams lost sleep after receiving that message, Luo Xun didn’t know.
But he himself slept quite well that night.
Others might not realize it, but Luo Xun understood clearly.
In this life, the base was far safer than in his previous life.
Back then, the base hadn’t discovered the problem in time, and infections had already appeared inside the base before the zombie siege even began, throwing everything into chaos.
But now?
Before Luo Xun had even returned home, the base had already detected something suspicious and taken preventive measures.
Even if zombies reached the walls, there were multiple defensive structures outside to delay them long enough for the military to respond.
Early the next morning, Luo Xun and Yan Fei received messages from the military and Captain Guo.
Their order was simple:
Defend the city wall.
When the emergency occurred the night before, the military had responded first. Naturally, the people stationed on the wall initially were mostly soldiers, along with several large survivor teams that had military backgrounds and were required to obey military orders.
Now that it was clear the zombies outside the wall would not retreat anytime soon, the military began mobilizing survivors across the entire base.
Luo Xun and Yan Fei hurried to the assembly point Captain Guo had specified, climbed onto a truck, and headed toward the outer wall.
During the ride, Captain Guo briefed them.
“When we arrive, follow the orders of your superiors. Everyone will receive weapons and try to shoot as many zombies as possible.”
Everyone nodded.
One of the metal-type ability users raised his hand.
“So we won’t use our abilities to fight like last time?”
Captain Guo glanced at the four metal-type ability users in the squad.
“The exact situation outside isn’t clear yet. We’ll decide based on the circumstances. For now, don’t act on your own—follow the orders from above.”
The number of zombies outside was definitely not small, otherwise the base wouldn’t mobilize nearly all survivors.
Soon they arrived at the assigned location and climbed onto the wall.
Luo Xun glanced down—and couldn’t help clicking his tongue in shock.
The first defensive barrier outside the wall was now practically useless. The two observation towers connected by bridges from the main gate had already been abandoned; the soldiers there must have retreated back into the base.
Outside the moat, countless zombies crowded together.
They rushed forward endlessly, plunging into the moat like dumplings being thrown into boiling water, scrambling desperately to climb toward the wall.
Zombies couldn’t exactly be said to fear water. If soaked long enough, they would gradually lose mobility. Their bodies would swell and eventually fall apart.
Zombies in water were far less dangerous than on land.
But if they managed to crawl out quickly, being soaked wouldn’t reduce their lethality at all.
Therefore, the moat’s function was actually similar to the traps and pits Luo Xun and his team had once dug outside. In fact, because the river itself could not directly eliminate the zombies piling up layer upon layer inside it, its effect was somewhat limited.
However, between the river and the city wall there remained a narrow path. Although a row of smooth boulders lined the riverbank, making it difficult for zombies to climb up, if too many zombies crowded into the moat, sooner or later some of them would reach the base of the wall.
At this moment, the people standing on the wall were shooting at the zombies that had not yet entered the river, as well as those emerging from the water trying to climb up.
Yan Fei briefly observed the terrain and glanced at the endless sea of zombies. He quickly understood that the current terrain was not suitable for the kind of massive iron-plate attacks they had used before, nor for large-scale metal crushing techniques.
Fortunately, the zombies were still some distance away from the wall. It was not yet time for large-scale destructive abilities to be used.
Everyone received their assigned weapons and rushed to the positions designated for them. Raising their guns, they began firing at the zombies below.
This time Luo Xun did not use his personal crossbow. Instead, he held a rifle issued by the military and began shooting downward, silently sighing in his heart.
Working alongside the military really had its advantages.
In his previous life, how could he have obtained such good weapons? Once the military’s supply of weapons became tight, survivors had to find their own equipment. Even if guns were issued, most people—including Luo Xun himself—preferred to use homemade crossbows in order to save ammunition. Bullets could later be traded for supplies in the base.
Their targets were the zombies beyond the moat that were squeezing into the water like dumplings being dropped into a pot, as well as those attempting to climb up the banks.
Endless, relentless.
The zombies, baring their rotten teeth and waving decayed arms, surged toward the base one after another. In just a single night, they had completely surrounded the entire base.
Like a black tide, they flowed out from the city’s streets and alleys, swarming toward the walls.
Although Luo Xun and his team had never encountered such a massive formation during previous missions, they had faced similar situations before. Compared to the swarm of zombie rats they encountered at the end of last month, fighting here behind a solid city wall was far safer.
The other members of the metal construction squad had not gone out on zombie-hunting missions before, but when they were building the outer wall earlier, they often helped eliminate zombies gathering beneath the wall. At least when it came to long-distance shooting, they were all quite skilled.
Gunshots rang out one after another. Occasionally someone threw a few incendiary grenades into clusters of zombies.
For now, the military’s ability users had not yet deployed their powers. Ammunition supplies were still sufficient.
Just as they were blasting away at the seemingly endless zombie tide, suddenly a section of the moat—already overflowing with tightly packed zombies—froze solid.
Everyone instinctively turned their gaze toward the frozen area.
Only then did they realize that the people on the wall were no longer just soldiers.
After defending through the entire night, roughly half of the soldiers had already withdrawn. Various ability-user teams from the base had taken their places on the wall.
The ones who had just frozen part of the moat were a group of ice-type ability users.
The military commanders had organized the arriving ability users into teams according to their ability types and were directing them in a coordinated manner. Ordinary survivors, like the soldiers earlier, continued firing at the zombies with firearms.
On another section of the wall, Li Tie and his four companions stood together, holding the rifles they had just received and firing wildly downward.
Since they had no abilities and worked as civilian staff within the military, their assigned section faced away from the city.
As they shot at the dense mass of zombie heads below, someone nearby suddenly shouted. A black rifle slipped from the wall and clattered down.
Startled, Li Tie and the others immediately crouched behind the barrier. Once they recovered, they looked toward the man who had shouted.
The man stared blankly at his right arm, clutching it, his face full of shock. He looked down at the wall below. It didn’t look like he had been hit by any long-range ability.
Li Tie and the others were puzzled when the man’s companion angrily smacked him.
“What are you doing?! Why did you throw the gun down there?!”
The man glared back, still clutching his arm, pointing angrily at where the rifle had fallen.
“Is that gun broken?! When I fired it, it felt like it exploded and hit my arm! I couldn’t hold it steady! What kind of junk weapons are they handing out? It’s not even as good as the axe I used before!”
“Exploded?”
His companion looked at his own rifle in confusion, then fired a shot downward.
Bang.
The recoil knocked him back a step, as if something had slammed into his arm, but he managed to hold onto the weapon.
Li Tie covered his mouth, his shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter. He nudged his companions and pointed downward, continuing to shoot.
The man didn’t even know what recoil was, yet insisted the gun was broken…
Even if someone had never used a real firearm before, how could they be this clueless?
Of course, Li Tie and the others didn’t realize that their own experience was unusual. Because they had previously left the base several times with their team and used crossbows to kill zombies, their sense of aim and handling was far better than those who had never used long-range weapons.
Combined with their work in the military, they naturally understood some basic weapon usage. So when they first received rifles with recoil, they adapted quickly.
—
Zhang Su stood on the city wall with his arms crossed, his expression indifferent as he watched the endless zombies below.
Suddenly he said coldly to the military officer standing beside him,
“How many crystal cores you give me determines how much effort I put in.”
The officer nodded stiffly. “Understood.”
People nearby glanced at this unbelievably handsome man in surprise. Hearing him speak so arrogantly while standing there made it seem as if he were some sort of inspector.
Most of the ability users in this area were wind-type. Although most had already reached Level Two, their abilities were insufficient to eliminate large numbers of zombies. They could only use wind cannons to knock enemies back and buy time for others.
That was why they were stationed directly above the wall.
Since Zhang Su was standing here, it meant he was probably also a wind-type ability user like them. But for a wind-type ability user to act so arrogant was quite irritating—even the others of the same ability type found him unpleasant.
Zhang Su ignored every gaze around him.
He reached into the box carried by the officer and grabbed a handful of crystal cores. A strange smile suddenly appeared on his lips, and his peach-blossom eyes curved slightly.
Suddenly—
Everyone clearly felt the air around them begin to move.
A massive swirling wind sphere formed above the wall, visible to the naked eye and drawing everyone’s attention.
The wind sphere grew larger and spun faster and faster.
As Zhang Su raised his hand and then swung it downward—
The target was the dense zombie mass directly in front of the gate, on the road behind the drawbridge.
The raging wind exploded outward.
Every zombie within the range of the wind sphere was caught in the blast.
Wind Explosion.
In the instant it detonated, every zombie caught in the attack was blown into pieces.
The surrounding people stared in shock, then slowly turned their stiff faces toward Zhang Su.
They saw him squinting unhappily at the destroyed area, rubbing his chin with the hand that had completely absorbed the crystal cores.
Then he casually said to the officer beside him, whose face had gone blank:
“This is too slow. Call all the fire-type ability users here. And also… bring the little girl from our team.”
The officer turned his stiff neck toward him, piece by piece.
After a few seconds he finally asked,
“Your… team?”
When had this monster joined a team? And were there others as terrifying as him in it?
Zhang Su glanced sideways at him, sounding even more displeased.
“The Otaku Team.”
Yes, the name sounded ridiculous—but that was the team’s name. And who would dare object?
The officer silently nodded and picked up the phone to begin contacting them.
Thank you for reading 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉
