Cooking Gourmet Meals in the Apocalypse

Chapter 98: Chapter 95: Clearing the Subway Station

That substance, combined with the cold air, would eventually form into hailstones. As for the consequences of them falling, it would be far worse than any ordinary hailstorm.

Just imagine the consequence of something the size of a human head falling from that high up.

If a person wasn’t hit, they’d be incredibly lucky just to be alive.

”Doesn’t the Capital City have subway stations everywhere? Can’t people hide inside and come out after the disaster passes?” Chen Xing wanted to get underground as soon as possible.

After all, the sky could change at any moment. There was no telling when it would all come crashing down.

”The subway stations are off-limits!” Song Yiguo didn’t try to hide it.

In the meeting they just had, the whole discussion was about whether or not to go underground.

The safety zone, of course, had its own secure underground city, but its capacity was limited. If you hadn’t made a special contribution, you couldn’t get in, not even with money.

Chen Xing asked bluntly, ”Why?”

’At a critical time like this, refusing to let people in... isn’t that just condemning so many to die out here?’

The National Capital Safety Zone had a population of at least a million people.

’In my past life, I never heard of the Capital City getting hail or anything like it. It never showed up in any videos, either.’

’Was I just uninformed, or did the Capital City suppress the news?’

’Or maybe... this life has already diverged significantly from my last one?’

’In any case... a part of me is really fighting this right now.’

’It’s like I’m a walking disaster, a jinx who leaves nothing but devastation in her wake.’

”The subways have been sealed for so long, and no one knows what’s down there. Going down rashly might be even more dangerous!”

Although Chen Xing thought so too, she was certain Song Yiguo was still hiding something.

To survive, she didn’t mind forcing his hand. She volunteered bravely, ”I’ll be the vanguard. I’ll go down and clear it out for you!”

’I don’t care if this is a chain reaction caused by my rebirth or not. Either way, I don’t want to die!’

Silence hung on the other end of the line.

’What is he still hesitating for?’ Chen Xing wondered.

”Just level with me. What’s the real reason we can’t go underground?” ’There has to be a reason,’ she thought.

’Zombies, zombie dogs, mutated Stone Monsters... I’m sure the Superpower Users have already encountered plenty of different monsters.’

”On the third day of the zombie outbreak, something crawled out from the underground...” Song Yiguo finally confessed.

According to the meteorologists, this weather phenomenon was unprecedented. No one knew what the outcome would be; it was impossible to predict.

In the worst-case scenario, all surface-level buildings around the Capital City could be completely destroyed.

If even the buildings couldn’t be saved, what hope was there for the people inside?

During the meeting, he had proposed more than once that they let everyone on the surface take refuge in the subway stations.

However, the proposal was unanimously rejected.

The higher-ups’ decision was that they couldn’t risk releasing the monsters.

Chen Xing had figured as much. ”Give me three hours. I’ll take a team in and clear it out!”

’In my last life, there was nothing I was afraid of, except for a certain type of crawling monster that appeared in the later stages.’

Song Yiguo: ”...”

Even Vice General Du would be terrified to receive such a mission, let alone volunteer for it.

”It’s extremely dangerous!” Song Yiguo had absolutely no confidence. ”When the monsters first appeared, dozens of people from the Superpower Group died just to kill one of them. We had no other choice but to resort to the most primitive method: sealing all the subway entrances. What if... what if you go in and run into a whole swarm of them?”

Chen Xing frowned.

’From the sound of it, these monsters are pretty powerful,’ she thought.

’It couldn’t be the monster I fear the most, could it?’

’In my last life, that crawling monster didn’t show up until five years later. Even then, they were extremely rare, so the odds of running into one were slim. But... if you did encounter one, your chances of survival were also slim—next to zero, in fact.’

’I, on the other hand, was lucky. I ran into one once and managed to survive.’

”Then I’ll kill them,” Chen Xing said nonchalantly.

’It’s better than waiting out here to die.’

”I’ll have Vice General Du lead a team to assist you into the subway stations.” Song Yiguo steeled himself. ”But I can only give you two hours, max. If you can’t solve the problem in that time, or if you’re still inside when the time is up, we’ll have no choice but to seal the subway entrances again!”

This was all the time he could buy for her, and it had to be done without anyone finding out.

The subway system was a labyrinth; clearing out a large, safe area in such a short time was surely impossible.

But still... he chose to believe in Chen Xing.

”Alright!” She had a rough map of the safety zone in her head.

She only needed to sweep through the few major subway lines within the safety zone, clear out the monsters, and then seal off the tunnels connecting to the rest of the network.

Subway stations generally had emergency blast doors that would lower in a crisis, which was a good way to secure a temporary safe haven.

She just had to reach a few key junctions and lower those blast doors.

In less than ten minutes, Vice General Du arrived with eighty members of the Superpower Group.

Vice General Du had only taken a dozen or so men to the North Sea mission. Bringing eighty this time meant the danger level was clearly much higher.

Captain Lu, naturally, wasn’t going to sit back and do nothing. He might have left his military post, but his dedication to the people hadn’t diminished in the slightest.

The team of over a hundred people moved from the hotel down into the underground levels.

Chen Xing then learned that every building here had underground levels, which could be used to escape to adjacent buildings in an emergency.

While there was no subway line running through this particular level, it was equipped with roadways for vehicle access in emergencies.

Of course, vehicle traffic was normally prohibited.

After a few minutes’ drive, they reached the entrance to the nearest subway station.

Song Yiguo had already sent people to unseal the entrance, and they were now standing guard.

From this point on, the group had to proceed on foot.

To facilitate their movement, the underground power supply had been specially activated.

This station had only a single line with two platforms. They just needed to split into two groups and head in opposite directions.

”I’ll go this way by myself. You all go the other way!” Chen Xing assigned one of the routes to Vice General Du.

She was faster on her own, and it was easier to clear things out without having to hold back.

”It’s too dangerous to go alone!” Vice General Du protested.

But before he could stop her, Chen Xing had already taken off. ”We’ll meet up at the transfer station for Line 6!” she called back, the furry Meng Hu at her heels.

Vice General Du had mentioned that because this was a critical part of the Capital City, all the transfer stations on this line had been sealed shut.

Vice General Du had no choice but to lead his men and quickly set off.

The transfer to Line 6 was only three stops away.

By that calculation, Chen Xing had to search twenty-three stations on her own.

The team of over a hundred people ran without stopping. At every station, some would stand guard while others conducted a search.

By the time they reached the designated meeting point, they hadn’t encountered a single monster.

On her side, Chen Xing’s progress was just as smooth. Working with Meng Hu, she had cleared every station.

When she got back to the rendezvous point, Vice General Du and his team had already arrived and had opened the passageway to Line 6.

The distance between stations on Line 6 was greater, making the journey longer.

Fortunately, nearly all the transfer stations on Line 6 were also sealed off.

The transfer to Line 2, however, was an exception.

Because Line 2 connected to almost every other line, it hadn’t been completely sealed off, just in case.

Since she was alone, Chen Xing wasn’t suited for searching such a large area. So she assigned the route with the Line 2 transfer to Vice General Du, while she and Meng Hu headed in the other direction.

Twelve stations later, aside from a few zombies, her path remained clear.

By the time Chen Xing reached the designated Line 2 transfer station, Wen Yan and about twenty other Superpower Users were standing watch.

Seeing Chen Xing return, he finally relaxed a little. ”We haven’t heard anything from Deputy Du’s team. They should be fine, right?”

The walkie-talkies probably couldn’t get a signal because of the distance.