When Tu Xuhuai returned to the base, he passed through the dam and found that the water in the waterway had mostly receded. At this time, there was a layer of clear water at the bottom of the waterway, and beneath the water was deep silt. Cooking was underway in the base; it was noon, and every household was preparing for the afternoon battle.
Tu Xuhuai, panting, found Shen Feng. Shen Feng was eating with his wife and brother-in-law. Upon seeing Tu Xuhuai, Shen Feng warmly greeted him, "Mr. Tu is back? Come join us for a meal. I didn't expect you to complete your mission so quickly; that's beyond my expectations."
Tu Xuhuai found a chair and sat down, waving his hands. "The mission is only half complete. I'm not hungry now, thank you, Chairman, for your concern. There's been a change in the city."
"What change?" Shen Feng immediately tensed up. Could it be that just as he was about to reclaim Luzhou, the zombies in the city had undergone some new mutation?
Tu Xuhuai quickly explained what he had discovered in the city center. The zombies near the city center were standing motionless on the streets, as if in hibernation. Even when hit by a flowerpot, they didn't move, appearing like wooden stakes.
Hearing this description, Shen Feng felt an ominous premonition. Zombies wouldn't stand still for no reason unless they were being controlled! This meant there must be a commanding zombie in the city center. He wasn't sure how large an area a commanding zombie could control.
With this thought, Shen Feng said helplessly, "It seems I'll have to personally investigate after I finish eating. The afternoon battle will be led by the Vice Chairman. Mr. Tu, please assist as well."
Chang Jianyi looked at Shen Feng with great concern and said, "You must be very careful and return safely."
Whenever there was a dangerous situation requiring investigation, Shen Feng would personally take the lead. Firstly, Shen Feng was the strongest person in the base and possessed special abilities, allowing him to use wind to accelerate himself, making it easy to escape even in danger. Secondly, as the Chairman, Shen Feng had always excelled in leading by example.
Chang Haojie greatly admired his brother-in-law. Seeing his brother-in-law about to leave again, he quickly said, "Brother-in-law, have a safe journey."
After explaining the changes in the city center, Tu Xuhuai left immediately. He wasn't foolish enough to sit down and eat, especially since Shen Feng was dining with his family, and it would be awkward for an outsider to join. He also understood that his task had not gone as planned. To avoid Shen Feng's reprimand, he decided it was best to leave quietly.
Shen Feng looked at Chang Jianyi and said with a sigh, "You'll have to command the afternoon battle. I need to gather information. Thank you for your hard work; you always have to handle the busiest tasks."
"We're family, so there's no need to talk about hard work. Besides, you're the one doing the most dangerous work, so you should be careful and not overexert yourself. Safety is the most important thing," Chang Jianyi said helplessly. Since they had gotten together, they had spent little time apart, and separation had become the norm. However, this was for the sake of building a safe base, which was their choice from the beginning. Complaining now was useless.
After eating, Shen Feng set off with his two long swords. He followed the direction Tu Xuhuai had indicated and finally reached the street where the zombies were standing motionless. Shen Feng tried throwing something into the zombie horde to attract their attention, but the zombies remained stationary.
Shen Feng continued forward and finally discovered moving zombies, but these zombies were all heading in the same direction. Shen Feng threw something to attract the attention of the zombies on the street, but they continued to move forward, completely ignoring what Shen Feng had thrown.
At this moment, Shen Feng felt a sense of unease. So many zombies were either standing uniformly or moving uniformly. There must be a zombie behind them directing them, otherwise, they wouldn't be acting so orderly. Shen Feng began to move around the city center, intending to determine the range of these controlled zombies.
Shen Feng ran for two hours before he understood the extent of the controlled zombie area: a circular radius of five kilometers. Within this range, all zombies were under control, and many were moving towards the center of the circle. Shen Feng took out a map and identified the center of the circle, which was the city's tallest hotel, the forty-odd-story Fangfu Hotel. This meant the commanding zombie that could control a five-kilometer radius was inside!
After much thought, Shen Feng decided to go to the hotel to investigate. If he had the chance, he would definitely kill this commanding zombie, otherwise, the number of zombies it could control was unimaginable. If an entire five-kilometer radius was filled with zombies preparing to attack the base, the base would be completely unable to withstand them.
Shen Feng used "Ru Feng Sui Xing" to move across the rooftops and finally arrived near the hotel. Upon reaching the area, Shen Feng's scalp tingled because he saw hundreds of mutated zombies inside the hotel, and outside the hotel, tens of thousands of zombies had already gathered. As far as the eye could see, more zombies seemed to be continuously gathering. Such a large number of zombies gathered together was a disaster for humanity.
Shen Feng sat on the rooftop of a building on the teens floor, looking at the towering hotel in the distance. His intuition told him that the commanding zombie was inside this hotel. If it were killed, these gathered zombies would disperse instead of remaining clustered. However, just looking at the hundreds of mutated zombies on the first floor of the hotel, Shen Feng could only shake his head. With these zombies present, he absolutely could not get out alive. He couldn't even succeed in an assassination. The current commanding zombie was very cautious and completely hidden from view.
Previously, the commanding zombie Shen Feng encountered was arrogant enough to stay on the street. Therefore, Shen Feng easily jumped down from a building and dealt a blow to the commanding zombie, severely injuring it. He then kidnapped it and lured the zombies into the water, eliminating thirty thousand zombies.
However, the commanding zombie now was different. It was hidden inside the massive hotel, completely out of sight. Even if he wanted to assassinate it, he couldn't find it. As soon as anyone appeared, the hundreds of mutated zombies inside the hotel would instantly react and kill the assassin.
Shen Feng, seeing the dense concentration of zombies around the hotel, immediately felt a headache. If such a large number of zombies gathered and began a full-scale offensive, the entire Luzhou would face disaster. A five-kilometer radius was a significant area, capable of covering a small county. This meant these zombies could easily wipe out the population of a county, and if the situation persisted, even a city could be destroyed.
At this moment, Shen Feng suddenly had a question: why were these zombies gathering? Previously, there were no instances of zombies acting in a concentrated manner. But now, undoubtedly, the zombies had begun to move. With countless zombies gathering, there must be a reason for their assembly!
Shen Feng thought carefully and finally came up with a plausible explanation. The zombies' scattered actions before were because they hadn't encountered a crisis. But now, with the zombies gathering, it was likely because they sensed danger. And the source of the danger? Shen Feng guessed it was the base located in Hezhou.
The commanding zombie must possess a certain degree of intelligence. Therefore, upon discovering that its survival was threatened, it immediately took action. These zombies were preparing to fight for survival, and their enemy was the people of the base in Hezhou who were continuously killing zombies, including Shen Feng.
Shen Feng was somewhat unwilling to leave without even seeing the commanding zombie. He sat on the rooftop, observing the hotel in the distance. At the very least, he needed to obtain the appearance and characteristics of the commanding zombie, otherwise, it would have been a wasted trip. With this thought, Shen Feng decided to wait until he had gathered more information before returning. Currently, these zombies had no intention of attacking, so the base was still very safe.
Meanwhile, on the battlefield in Hezhou, the battle had already begun. It was the same old combat method: two people drove cars to attract zombies. After luring the zombies to the waterway, the zombies would be attracted by a louder sound from the base and would enter the waterway, preparing to infiltrate the base from there. The road above the dam had already been blocked.
Once the zombies entered the waterway, they were quickly trapped by the silt, making it impossible to advance. However, with the zombies in front getting stuck, the zombies behind found a shortcut, allowing them to step on the zombies in front to move forward. But as they continued, they would get stuck in the silt again. Ultimately, the zombies could only remain trapped in place. Those lucky enough might have their heads exposed in the silt, while the unlucky ones would sink directly into the silt, only to be discovered during the dredging.
The waterway was over ten kilometers long. It would take hundreds of thousands of zombies to fill such a long waterway. However, the problem was that zombies wouldn't move through the waterway in a normally distributed manner. Therefore, as long as the zombies formed a path in the waterway, other zombies could advance unimpeded.
Zombies in front that drowned or were trampled to death would immediately become stepping stones for those behind them. Gradually, paths began to form in the waterway.
Chang Jianyi began to mobilize everyone in the base who could fight to stay on the edge of Hezhou. If any zombies broke through, they would be dealt with. The combat team was, of course, the main force for fighting zombies, but there were too few members of the combat team. If a large number of zombies rushed to Hezhou, it would cause heavy casualties. Therefore, everyone in the base had to fight against the zombies. Chang Jianyi planned to first clear the zombies in the streets near the dam, as well as rescue the people there. In the following days, they would advance along the waterway.
There were scattered mutated zombies in the nearby streets, numbering in the teens. However, the base already had over fifty evolved individuals. The base didn't play by the rules; they didn't fight one-on-one. As soon as a mutated zombie was discovered, everyone would swarm it. After all, this was an opportunity for merit, and whoever killed a mutated zombie had a chance to receive more rewards.
The zombies in the streets were continuously lured into the waterway. A large number of zombies became trapped in the silt. A small number of zombies that passed through the waterway faced the weapons of the base's people. The zombies thought they were going to have a feast, but as soon as they charged forward, they were hit with a club and immediately fell to the ground. Afterward, the combat team members would usually kick the zombies into the waterway, not wanting zombies to accumulate in Hezhou.
Luo Qing stood beside Chang Jianyi. Due to her recent outstanding performance, she had been noticed by Chang Jianyi and was assigned to stay by her side to record observations. The most important record was to observe which personnel were working harder in combat and killing zombies. Diligent team members would receive an evolution potion after the battle. Through such management, the combat team members were all striving to kill zombies because as long as they killed enough zombies, they would eventually obtain an evolution potion.
Yu Renshu and Chu Chaoyan also joined the combat team. Yu Renshu began practicing her special abilities at this time. With a casual wave of her hand, the residual water in the waterway flew up, enveloping a dozen zombies. The zombies struggled in the water spheres for a while before becoming motionless. These zombies had all died of suffocation.
Seeing Yu Renshu's combat method, Chu Chaoyan couldn't help but ask, "Doctor, why don't you add some poison to the water flow? Wouldn't that make killing zombies much easier?"
Yu Renshu heard this and spread her hands helplessly, saying, "If only I had poison! Where can we find poison now? Moreover, how much poison would be needed to kill tens of thousands of zombies? It's better to let the zombies suffocate to death, and it's a good opportunity to practice my special abilities."