Apocalypse: the Most Ruthless Person

In the restaurant of Little Lucky Inn, everyone waited for the meal, naturally discussing the issue of the Cyan Dragon Corps.

“Big brother, I spotted the gun on that guy today, QB03 assault rifle, an absolute treasure, better than our weapons!”

Zhao Dezhu held a cup of water, his expression grave as he spoke. One of his arms was not very handy, but he still helped with tasks around the camp. When Yuwen led the Cyan Dragon Corps up the mountain, he was mixing cement.

“No way!”

Guo Dachao retorted, “The stability, accuracy, and ammunition applicability of the QB03 assault rifle are not as good as the Type 95 automatic rifle. The QB03 is only superior in special usage scenarios!”

Everyone stared at each other, surprised at Guo Dachao’s understanding of firearms.

“Someone in Dachao’s family served in the military, previously in the infantry brigade camp in Qing County. If nothing unexpected happened, the equipment of the Cyan Dragon Corps came from that camp!”

Zhang Su explained, then added, “For amateurs like us, whether QB03 or Type 95, they’re all the same when it comes to shooting; no difference in effect or deterrence. I brought back two pieces of news: first, West Camp Village should choose to join the Cyan Dragon Corps. They plan to head north soon!”

“West Camp Village joined the Cyan Dragon Corps?”

“This… aren’t they comfortable by the Chuhai River? Why join others only to suffer bullying!”

“Exactly, that Old Ma must be out of his mind.”

Everyone couldn’t understand West Camp Village’s choice. Although surviving in the post-apocalyptic world was tough, it also meant fewer restraints. Once a piece of land was established as a home, one could live freely.

When used to freedom, no one likes being controlled, let alone living under someone else’s roof.

Zhang Su shared the reasons given by Ma Changshou; he believed nine out of ten true, with West Camp Village indeed facing many real problems, only hiding the fact of joining the Cyan Dragon Corps.

“Life has dreams, each with its glory. West Camp Village’s decision must have been carefully considered, suitable for their development.”

Yuwen gave a very fair assessment.

“Brother Su, what’s the other piece of news?”

Wu Lue asked.

“The other news is that United Village plans to ally with us, watching what we do and then doing the same!”

“Brother Su, there are lots of people in United Village, we have to be careful they don’t betray us.”

Liu Tianji reminded.

Zhang Su nodded, saying, “I arranged for Wang Xingui to come here tomorrow to talk. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure they comply.”

United Village has many people but weak fighting strength, easily dominated if planned well.

“Uncle, what are we going to do? Are we really going to give grain to those guys?”

After some rest, Pang Dakun’s injuries improved a lot.

“According to Teacher Yu’s feedback, between Qing County and Qin City District, there are approximately four survivor camps along this provincial highway route. If the ones collecting grain encounter an accident, the Cyan Dragon Corps will hardly investigate.”

Zhang Su took a sip of hot water, speaking slowly.

“Big brother, you mean… take them out!?”

Zhao Dezhu’s face showed a ruthless expression as he tested the waters with his question.

“Exactly!” Zhang Su placed his cup heavily on the table, saying, “Everyone here isn’t an outsider, do you believe in peace through begging on your knees or in tranquility gained by the gun?”

“Let’s do it, damn it!”

“Don’t give, kill them all, damn it!”

“Uncle, let’s fight to Qing County and take out their base!”

With zombies rampant and factions disputing, chaos is inevitable. However, Pang Dakun’s suggestion was vetoed by everyone.

“Xiaokunzi, did you get your brain damaged after your injury? The enemy is entrenched in Qing County, possibly like Old Li and his group, settled in military camps, guarding weapon depots. Are we delivering parcels if we go fight them?”

Zhao Dezhu teased and lectured Pang Dakun.

“Right, we can’t head north to attack the Cyan Dragon Corps headquarters.” Zhang Su nodded, “At least until we understand their specific situation, we can’t go. Since the decision is made, let’s do what needs to be done. I’ll arrange our response for the following week!”

Everyone nodded. Hearing Zhang Su take charge brought a sense of inexplicable reassurance.

After the meal, some helped clean up. Yuwen called out to Zhang Su, who was about to leave, saying, “Mr. Zhang, we discovered a problem when burning zombie bodies this afternoon!”

“Exactly!” Zhang Su clapped his hands, saying, “When we returned earlier, the fire pit was still ablaze, concentrating into a big mass of black stuff, damn it, burning for a good four or five hours, wasn’t it resisting burning too much?”

Previously encounters with fires in the city were usually due to houses burning, leaving no time to focus on zombie burning issues.

“Not only does it burn long, but it’s also very flammable. This afternoon, Xiaowang planned to use fuel to ignite it. Xiaowu tried lighting it, and the flames spread quickly. Although not comparable to gasoline or alcohol, it achieved thirty percent of the speed of ignitable materials!”

Yuwen spoke very earnestly.

“Zombies being flammable and resistant to burning, we hadn’t considered that before… Does this mean live zombies have this trait too?”

Zhang Su naturally thought of using this flammable characteristic against zombies.

“We don’t know about live ones yet, but we can test it.”

Yuwen pointed towards the direction where zombies were tied up.

The previous hunger test has roughly concluded that zombies can absorb energy from sunlight, but the charging process is very slow. Tied up under the sun for over an hour, they only showed speed decline and sluggish reactions after being teased for about ten minutes.

Later, two zombies were shoved into the ticket hall again to see how long they could survive without dying. The zombies locked in the ticket hall became lethargic again, yet they wouldn’t die. Many days passed, and they stubbornly lived on.

“Come on, let’s give it a try!”

No time to lose, Zhang Su walked out of the restaurant.

“Brother Su, what are you and Teacher Yu up to?” Lu Yubo saw the two walking briskly and asked curiously.

“Doing an experiment, burning zombies, want to watch?”

Zhang Su raised a long anti-riot fork, the kind used to catch dogs, which he found at an inn.

“Holy crap, that’s intense? Quick, quick!”

Lu Yubo was immediately interested.

“Uncle, I want to go too!”

Pang Dakun, who was helping with the dishes, hobbled after them.

Upon hearing about the exciting show of burning zombies, many people followed along. There was no work at night, so they certainly wouldn’t miss out on the new thing.

The large group marched to the ticket hall where zombies were held. Lu Yubo volunteered to poke a lethargic zombie out of the hall with the fork.

Ow, ow!

Even looking half-dead, when the zombie saw a circle of living people around, it still bit here and nibbled there, albeit slower than usual, like watching a movie at 0.5x speed.

Regardless, this zombie was not without threat; one bite could still be lethal!

“Let’s go, tie it to the telephone pole in the parking lot!”

Zhang Su shone a flashlight at a distant concrete telephone pole.

“What brutal guys, even want to barbecue zombies. Lucky, we don’t want to learn from them, okay?”

Following the crowd, Zheng Xinyu murmured, holding a twenty-plus pound corgi, not too heavy and warm.

Soon, the zombie was tied to the pole, foolishly howling, not knowing what’s coming next.

“Zombie burning time!”

Lu Yubo eagerly pulled out a lighter and a cloth ball.

“Hold on…”

Yu Qing stopped Lu Yubo, quickly stepped forward, and somehow found a burlap sack to cover the zombie’s head.

“Haha, Teacher Xiaoyu takes it seriously, even gives the prisoner a hood before execution.”

Lu Yubo manually liked the action.

Yu Qing smiled awkwardly: “I’m afraid it’ll randomly bite people…”

“Oh oh…”

Lu Yubo laughed awkwardly, continuing with his tasks.

For safety, he didn’t directly ignite the zombie but first lit a cloth ball with a lighter, then poked the zombie with the fork.

Ow, ow!

As the fork approached, the zombie seemed to sense something, suddenly becoming frenzied, shouting a lot louder than before, strange patterns exploded on its skin, and the rope as thick as fingers creaked under its struggle, clearly showing its strength had increased!

Whoosh!

Flames touched the zombie’s skin, spreading across its body at a visible speed, the burlap sack on its head ignited too. Through the blazing fire, the zombie looked unusually cool…

“Damn, turns out zombies are so afraid of fire!”

Lu Yubo stepped back a few paces, lighting a cigarette with the still-burning cloth ball, watching as the burning zombie struggled crazily.

“Where do you see it’s afraid of fire?”

Zhang Su frowned at the burning zombie, feeling faint unease.

“It’s struggling, isn’t this fear…”

“Watch out!”

At this moment, the zombie let out a strange shout, broke the hemp rope, and a ball of fire rushed straight at nearby Lu Yubo.

“Hey!”

Zhang Su pulled Lu Yubo back while Tan Huajun dashed diagonally forward, fiercely swinging his ever-present calipers.

Puff…

The calipers accurately nailed the zombie’s head, its arms drooped and it knelt to the ground, collapsing, while the flames continued to blaze.