Chapter 154 — The Final Disturbance
With Yan Fei and the others’ abilities, repairing those holes would have been effortless—they could have sealed them without even lifting a finger.
But now, staring at the holes—some man-made, others preexisting—not one of them moved to repair them immediately.
After a long silence, Sun Shaoyang finally cursed bitterly, his eyes slightly red.
“Damn it… they’ve gone insane! If they get us killed and the base walls break, who’s going to fix them?! Do they think they have other metal-type users lying around to patch the walls?!”
Earlier that day, when Yan Fei and the others first repaired the wall, they had already discovered something.
Before Captain Guo was punished and confined—and before the second metal-type user transferred into the squad had died—the outer metal wall surrounding the base had never actually been fully reinforced and purified. At best, less than half the work had been completed.
And after inspecting the wall again today, they realized that almost no further progress had been made since then.
When they asked about it afterward, Xiao Li explained that after Sun Shaoyang left the squad, their team had barely gone near the outer walls again.
Instead, they mostly stayed near the military camp crafting miscellaneous things.
Sometimes tools.
Sometimes furniture.
Apparently all private jobs arranged by the new captain.
Even when they did perform legitimate work for the base, it was always in highly visible areas where leaders could see them.
If nobody was supervising or if the task wasn’t considered urgent, the captain would simply order Xiao Li to work on private commissions instead.
Captain Guo knocked on the walls of the container around them, looking it over carefully.
“This thing was probably dragged back from the city after the apocalypse to temporarily store supplies.”
Then he let out a cold laugh.
He had actually been set up.
“Throw all this junk out. Xiao Yan, grab metal from anywhere nearby—from anyone’s damn vehicle if you have to—and seal this container properly! Damn it, do they really think I’m useless?!”
Now that Captain Guo had spoken, everyone silently began tossing the empty boxes and debris hiding the holes out of the truck.
As for metal…
Yan Fei simply demonstrated how terrifying a fourth-level metal ability truly was.
Why would he still need to painstakingly search for scrap metal everywhere?
Even back at second and third level, he could summon metal from nearby locations at will.
Now it was even easier.
No one knew where exactly he “borrowed” the metal from, but before long he had reinforced the container with walls nearly ten centimeters thick.
Even the intentionally installed screened windows were replaced with tightly woven metal mesh.
That design had actually originated from a casual suggestion Luo Xun once made long ago, saying that if they ever lacked proper window screens at home, Yan Fei could try developing his ability to create metal ones.
Even the ventilation fan on top was reinforced with metal.
Compared to these kinds of practical construction skills, Sun Shaoyang and Xiao Li were far less experienced.
Both curiously examined the upgraded container and asked Yan Fei for advice.
Once the modifications were complete, everyone distributed sleeping bags and divided the food supplies sent over by logistics.
They ate in large mouthfuls.
Only after everyone was half full did Captain Guo finally speak in a low voice.
“Someone approached me earlier…”
As he spoke, he glanced toward Luo Xun and Yan Fei.
“You two don’t live inside the military camp anymore, so there’s a lot you probably don’t know. Right now, everyone says the number of living people keeps shrinking, and every expedition outside the base is practically a suicide mission…”
He paused.
“But in reality, there are still plenty of people who think there are too many people left in the base.”
Before he finished, Sun Shaoyang sneered coldly.
“They mean too many disobedient people.”
Captain Guo shot him a look and sighed helplessly.
“More or less…”
He lowered his voice further.
“After this zombie tide… honestly, the base may run into trouble before the tide even ends.”
Again he looked toward Luo Xun and Yan Fei.
“But that has nothing to do with you two. While defending the base, don’t go running around with random people. If you’re assigned to the walls, just defend the walls. Once you come down, either stay with us or go straight home.”
“This time, ordinary civilians won’t be dragged into it.”
The eyes of Xiao Li and Zhang Quan brightened immediately.
Excitement, nervousness, and unease all mixed together on their faces.
“Boss…”
Captain Guo cut Xiao Li off immediately.
“Don’t get involved.”
He glared at them.
“Even if something changes, things probably won’t improve much afterward anyway…”
He sighed heavily.
“These idiots just don’t understand. No matter how much they seize or profit from, if the base itself collapses, what will they have left?”
Silence filled the container once more.
After dinner, everyone was too physically and mentally exhausted to care whether sleeping immediately after eating was unhealthy.
One after another, they crawled into sleeping bags.
Bowls and chopsticks were casually piled in a corner.
Before long, everyone had fallen asleep.
Thanks to the thickened metal walls, they slept surprisingly peacefully that night.
Several times during the night, zombie birds launched sneak air raids, dropping unknown objects—possibly living creatures—onto the roof of the container.
But none of it managed to interrupt their desperately needed rest.
Only after daylight fully brightened the next morning did the sunlight filtering through the windows gradually wake them.
Groggily, they crawled out of their sleeping bags and packed everything up.
When they opened the container doors, they discovered that chaos had clearly erupted in the vehicle camp overnight.
The zombie birds had launched several more nighttime air drops under cover of darkness.
This time they dropped not only zombie rats, but even some smaller zombie types directly into the camp.
The surprise attack caused major turmoil.
Sure enough, some people had been bitten by zombie rats that secretly crawled into vehicles during the night, leading to cases of zombification…
Hearing this, everyone exchanged lingering fearful glances.
After eating a little more to restore their strength, Captain Guo—now carrying new orders—led everyone back to the wall.
At this point it had become impossible to deny.
The zombies truly seemed intelligent now.
Or perhaps they genuinely possessed a real commander directing them.
The evidence was obvious.
After repeated aerial attacks, forced breakthroughs, and constant assaults over the past few days—and after last night’s renewed air raids combined with zombie-rat infiltration—
the zombie army… retreated.
But unlike the previous siege, this retreat was different.
They only withdrew to a certain distance.
Far enough that their abilities could no longer strike the walls—
but also far enough that the defenders on the walls could no longer attack them.
“What are they doing?” Luo Xun asked quietly.
He and the others stood atop the wall, staring at the enormous zombie horde surrounding the base from afar.
The countless zombies stood motionless like wooden stakes.
Just looking at them made everyone’s scalp tingle.
No one could answer.
Not even Luo Xun, despite having lived through two lifetimes.
After all, nothing like this had happened in his previous life.
Still, the sight prevented everyone on the wall from relaxing even slightly.
They stared fixedly at the distant zombie army, unable to spare attention even for the piles of shattered corpses beneath the walls.
About half an hour later, just as the sun slowly climbed toward midday—
the disturbance began.
But the disturbance had nothing to do with the zombie army outside.
Those zombies still stood there silently, like cold spectators watching from afar.
The chaos erupted inside the base.
Gunfire.
Screams.
Panic.
Zombie rats.
The zombie rats dropped during the night had hidden themselves throughout the base—and now they burst out from every corner.
They swarmed across the walls and beneath them, darting rapidly through crowds of people.
“Damn it! Rats!!”
The defenders immediately reacted, desperately guarding against attacks from every direction.
Fortunately, Luo Xun’s group had three metal-type users, along with the other elemental users assigned to them the previous night.
Protective barriers quickly rose around them, and they rapidly counterattacked the charging rats.
The entire base exploded into chaos.
At this point the zombie rats truly became like “rats crossing the street”—hunted by everyone.
Luckily, because everyone already knew about the rats and wore heavy winter clothing, most people remained highly alert.
Some had even developed effective methods for killing them.
Before long, the overall situation was brought under control.
Only the more troublesome zombie rats with abilities continued causing problems.
At least the situation atop the walls stabilized quickly.
Then something truly terrifying happened.
The vast zombie army standing in the snowy distance…
withdrew.
“…Could it be…” Luo Xun suddenly said, scalp tingling, “they planned to use the zombie rats to break through the base from inside and reduce their own losses… and now that the rats failed to achieve the expected results, they’re retreating?”
Even as he spoke, he found the idea unbelievable.
The people around him looked at him with horror.
They wanted to refute him.
Wanted to insist that couldn’t possibly be true.
But…
given the bizarre circumstances unfolding before them…
what other explanation could there be?
All defenders remained at their posts.
Inside the base, a new extermination campaign against zombie rats immediately began.
Only at noon did this bizarrely concluded zombie siege finally come to an end.
Although they had slept the entire night, resting atop cold metal—even inside sleeping bags—wasn’t remotely comfortable.
Luo Xun and Yan Fei walked wearily through the base streets, remaining constantly alert for zombie rats that might suddenly emerge from anywhere.
Fortunately, although many rats had been dropped during the night, the total number wasn’t actually that large.
The defenders on the wall had already exterminated most of them.
Any remaining rats inside the base certainly wouldn’t be common.
The two of them finally returned home and slowly climbed back up to the fifteenth floor.
Yan Fei reinforced their front door once again.
Most of the others were still asleep in their rooms.
Only Xu Mei emerged sleepily after hearing movement.
Once she saw it was the two of them, she relaxed and returned to bed.
Without disturbing anyone else, Luo Xun and Yan Fei quietly went back into their own apartment.
That night, the troops guarding the walls were not withdrawn.
They continued holding the perimeter in case the zombies suddenly returned.
Meanwhile, the military camp was brightly lit.
The powerful leaders of the base gathered together celebrating the successful defense of the base, already preparing for a future victory banquet.
At the same time—within the shadowy corners of the military compound—teams of swift, silent figures quietly surrounded the crowded assembly hall…
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