Apocalypse: the Most Ruthless Person

”Brother, given the speed we’re killing zombies, who knows when we can wipe them all out? There are tens of thousands of them wandering around us. It’s always a menace...”

Zhao Dezhu, who never admits defeat, was also downcast, slumped against the car, looking dejected. If you didn’t know better, you’d think he spent the whole night doing homework with the chemistry teacher.

Zhang Su looked at the distant, indistinctly moving horde of corpses and said, ”We took out over two thousand two nights ago, plus the ones we’ve killed intermittently, tallying up to four or five thousand. But if we focus on training moving forward, the extermination rate will definitely drop sharply. That’s indeed a problem!”

While eliminating the zombie horde, Zhang Su also conducted some experiments with his team, like breaking small clusters of zombies into even smaller units, attempting to delay their regrouping time. It proved effective, but usually, it took about a day before reverting back, and then within a day or two, they’d start moving toward Celestial Horse Island.

It’s as if once the zombie horde sets its mind on the direction of Celestial Horse Island, the memory stays fixed in their mind...

There’s another troubling phenomenon. The appearance of the zombie horde draws out zombies hiding in some villages, gradually expanding in size. The behavior of solitary zombies and that of hordes differ greatly, resembling locust-like attributes, leaving people baffled.

”Do you think it’s possible that the zombie horde is being locked into an area by the magnetic field emitted from our camp? Once they leave this area, they’ll continue heading south?”

Watching the distant, indistinctly moving horde, Zhang Su noticed a new speculation.

”Magnetic field?”

”Locked in?”

The others exchanged confused looks—other than Wu Lue, who had some brains today, Lu Yubo and Zhao Dezhu were War Generals and didn’t quite understand the thinking process.

”Brother Su, why not save this question and discuss it with Dr. Fu when we get back?”

Wu Lue suggested.

”Why bother with others about such a small matter? Get in the car, let’s verify it directly. Follow me!”

Zhang Su beckoned everyone into the car. There were two cars in total for this trip, which quickly got filled up. He drove the FJ Cruiser towards the zombie horde, with another van following closely behind.

What could only be seen was thanks to Zhang Su’s extraordinary eyesight; when the car traveled through the wilderness, they realized that this three-kilometer distance was quite long, taking about ten minutes for both vehicles to get within two hundred meters of the horde.

”Brother Su, these guys seem to have increased since last time!”

In the van, Lu Yubo held the binoculars watching the horde. He had been in charge of monitoring them in previous days, unable to count each horde’s exact quantity, but if it considerably surged, he’d definitely notice.

”Must have drawn out zombies from nearby villages. No problem, execute as planned!”

After that, Zhang Su honked the car horn, immediately causing the horde to riot.

In the bitter cold, as long as the internal combustion engine reaches a certain temperature, it isn’t affected. Zombies, however, are different—their body joints appear stiff, reducing speed. It’s simpler to attract them; just keep the car speed at about thirty kilometers per hour, blasting a booming track through the window, and drag a large crowd of zombies steadily behind.

To ensure the camp’s safety, Zhang Su’s two cars kept the zombies on the wasteland until they reached Celestial Horse Island, then led them onto the provincial road, heading all the way south.

Guiding zombies over long distances needs meticulous work, especially as the horde gets longer, some zombies inevitably break off. A couple wouldn’t matter, but if more leave, methods must be employed to lure them back.

It took over an hour before the two vehicles finally dragged a large zombie horde to West Camp Village’s Chuhai River Bridge.

The scene on the bridge was almost identical to half a month ago; currently, almost no one passes through here. From known circumstances, the last visitors to the bridge should have been Survivor Alliance’s Xiao Xuejian.

”Continue south after crossing the bridge, lead the horde onto North Second Ring Road, then we circle back from the west!”

Zhang Su used the radio to keep in touch with the car behind.

”Understood, received! Watch me lead them into the river, hahaha!”

”Don’t mess around, make sure they’re all led onto North Second Ring!”

Seeing Lu Yubo planning to create trouble, Zhang Su quickly stopped him. If zombies from the river crawl ashore due to insufficient distance, continuing towards Celestial Horse Island would make it all in vain. This time wasn’t about trapping the horde, but ensuring they entirely change routes!

”Got it...” Lu Yubo had been plotting to lead the zombies into the river but had to give up, feeling quite frustrated.

Even without intentionally leading towards the river, the horde’s width already exceeded the highway a bit. Zombies lack brains and can’t gather on the bridge; at least one-fifth got pushed into the river.

Watching through the rear-view mirror as the zombies fell into the river like dumplings, Zhang Su felt somewhat helpless. Those zombies, for sure, couldn’t emerge anytime soon. If not killed, who knows where they’ll converge in the future...

Regrettably, there was no time to ponder over them now. Once the remaining zombies moved to North Second Ring Road, Zhang Su floored the accelerator, the car shot forward like an arrow, soon leaving the zombies far behind.

Without a pursuing target, the horde quickly grew confused, scattered across North Second Ring and the surrounding wasteland, not knowing what to do next.

”Hey, Brother Su, these zombies really seem dumb now!”

Back at Chuhai River Bridge, Lu Yubo rested his trembling hand on the railing, bent over to look at the distant horde, each zombie like a lagging CPU, standing amidst the horde, looking around.

Meanwhile, quite a few zombies were gathering in the river below them, each stretching a hand towards the bridge direction, clearly sensing human presence, but unfortunately too dumb to know how to approach.

”Don’t rush. Last time, we led the horde to Qing County, thought it was settled, but what happened? They turned back the very next day unless they find a new target; success can’t be guaranteed.”

Zhang Su took out a cigarette pack and handed out some, looking at the zombies below the bridge with a sense of loss, saying, ”Why didn’t the Petrified Skin Zombies fall into the river? Following the horde, it’s hard to separate them, otherwise, those two Petrified Skin Zombies could’ve been fished out.”

There were two Petrified Skin Zombies hidden among the horde they guided earlier, but they were hard to capture.

After more than half a month’s time of skinning and sewing, Celestial Horse Island’s Elite Corps now has a set of Petrified Skin bulletproof suits for everyone. Originally called zombie skin bulletproof suits, Zhang Su found the name a bit disgusting, so he changed it to stone skin, which is quite fitting.

Initially, some female members felt slight resistance wearing bulletproof suits made from zombie skin, but if not concerned about the source, the skin’s feel could completely rival materials used in luxury clothing, so they eventually accepted it.

The bulletproof suits weren’t just simple bulletproof vests; the protection range wasn’t limited to the abdomen and chest. Instead, it was a complete set of shorts and jackets, paired with bulletproof helmets, covering almost all crucial body parts. If confronted with firepower, while it might not be foolproof, injuries would likely only result in broken limbs, rarely proving fatal!

Celestial Horse Island had entirely depleted its Petrified Skin Zombies reserve after crafting more than fifty bulletproof suits. Twenty suits are stored in the warehouse, intended to eventually reward members with outstanding contributions.