Chapter 7: Clearing in Progress
"Dong Yao! Dong Yao! This is Dong Liang, this is Dong Liang! If you receive, please reply!"
Gu Chengyuan was using binoculars to observe from the shooting sunroof on the roof of the vehicle when the walkie-talkie clipped to his chest suddenly rang.
He immediately took off the walkie-talkie and pressed the talk button.
"Dong Liang, Dong Liang! This is Dong Yao! Received, please speak!"
"Ahead, a Dongfeng Sangchan vehicle has been found crashed and stopped. The car door is slightly deformed but still very sturdy. There is one male zombie inside, restrained by the seatbelt."
"Requesting tactical guidance!"
"Dong Yao received, Dong Liang leave a marker and continue the mission!"
"Understood!"
After putting the walkie-talkie away, Gu Chengyuan couldn't help but feel like laughing.
"Tactical guidance."
Even Jia Sanniu, with his thick eyebrows and big eyes, was getting into social niceties. If he wanted to let him abuse the weak, he should just let him, but he had to ask for tactical guidance.
But don't say it, really, don't say it, when he said that, it did feel good to hear!
"Junpeng, stop the vehicle when we reach the marked vehicle!"
"Yes!" Hu Junpeng immediately replied.
The mengshi 3 armored assault vehicle drove for a little over a minute before stopping next to a Dongfeng Sangchan that had collided with the roadside barrier.
The zombie inside the car had purplish-gray skin all over, a shiny greasy head, and a formal suit that was wrinkled from being strained by the seatbelt during its struggles.
Its eyes, a yellowish pus-like color, were full of chaos and ferocity, and its pupils were shrunk as small as a needle!
The corners of its mouth were also torn open from excessive force, its entire mouth felt like it was about to split to its ears, and the wide-open mouth from its howling was filled with dense, jagged teeth!
Seeing Gu Chengyuan and Pu Guangqiang approach, it almost frantically beat against the car window, trying to lunge out.
Gu Chengyuan, who had already taken off the safety and was pointing his gun at the zombie inside the car, was observing a zombie up close, for this long, and this carefully, for the first time.
If, as various movies or literary works say, zombies are caused by a virus.
Then what kind of virus could possess such power, transforming former humans into almost another species in less than half a day?
Bang~
The gunshot rang out.
The zombie, which had been frantic a second ago, tilted its head back, and a small hole suddenly appeared on its nose.
At the same time, a splash of red and white matter sprayed out from the fist-sized bullet hole in the back of its head, scattering bloody spots all over the car.
Having witnessed Pu Guangqiang's iron pick skull-painting earlier.
Although it was Gu Chengyuan's first time shooting a zombie in the head, he didn't feel the same intense discomfort as before.
While lowering his head to put the safety back on, Gu Chengyuan called out:
"Guang Qiang!"
"Here!"
Before Gu Chengyuan could say anything further, Pu Guangqiang showed an expression that said 'I understand'.
"Chief, I understand!"
Saying that, he also shook the iron pick in his hand. The shotgun he had been holding a second ago was now slung behind him without him noticing.
...
...
As time went on, Gu Chenyuan's unit had advanced nearly ten kilometers.
And in the sky as the sun gradually set, there was a rare sight of fire-red clouds filling the sky, countless deep red cloud formations like fire stretching across, as if the entire sky was burning!
The scene was magnificent!
If this were before today, such a beautiful and romantic scene would surely have been widely shared and praised by countless people getting off work or school on their Moments and social media!
Gu Chengyuan's heart stirred, and he opened his phone to edit a post:
First day of the apocalypse...
Below it was a picture.
Gu Chengyuan, wearing combat gear, was holding a gun, sitting on the roof of the mengshi assault vehicle, leaning against the 12.7mm caliber vehicle-mounted heavy machine gun.
He wore a black mask on his face, so his expression was unclear, and the background behind him was the burning sky and the blood-red setting sun.
Click Send.
Send failed, please check your current network!
Seeing the red exclamation mark displayed on his phone, Gu Chengyuan sighed softly, put his phone away, and then took out his walkie-talkie.
"Attention all units! Attention all units! This is Dong Yao! This is Dong Yao! If you hear, please reply! If you hear, please reply!"
"Dong Liang received!"
"Dong San received!"
"Dong Si received!"
"The current mission is complete, all units please immediately end combat, dig out the zombie crystals. To save time, no need to count, but you must return to the assault vehicle before dark!"
"Dong Si continue with the alert mission, and withdraw after all units have returned!"
"Dong Liang received!"
"Dong San received!"
"Dong Si received!"
Seeing that it was getting dark, to be safe, Gu Chengyuan chose to withdraw the troops.
The apocalypse had just broken out, and the specific situation was still unclear, with unknown potential dangers.
Furthermore, by his estimation, the Soldiers had been fighting with high mental focus for nearly four hours. Although they had taken a few brief breaks in between, they were indeed mentally exhausted.
Once it got dark, without large lighting equipment, visibility would also be very low, relying solely on tactical flashlights mounted on guns.
At the same time, they would become living targets in the dark, and the chance of danger would significantly increase.
Although these Soldiers were summoned by the system, through communication, Gu Chengyuan felt no difference between them and real people.
Each person had their own personality, preferences, and different ways of speaking and doing things, and even their own stories.
For instance, just now, he had been chatting with Pu Guangqiang, who was accompanying him as a guard. Pu Guangqiang said his hometown was the peak division of the internet.
Having not attended school after high school, he had been working as marketing staff in various bars, surrounded by DJ music, handsome men, and beautiful women every day.
He was forced to enlist by his Lao Die. At first, he was very resistant and counted down the days every day, but later he gradually got used to and liked it here.
He also said he liked things that were thick and big, which was why he chose the shotgun as his weapon.
"Like Brother Crow, bang, one shot, and just blast people away! I just like that feeling!"
Facing such a group of flesh-and-blood people who were fiercely loyal to him, how could Gu Chengyuan bear to let them take such unnecessary risks.
...
About half an hour later, each Squad, stepping on the last ray of blood-red light from the setting sun, returned to the armored vehicles before the sun completely set.
Combat Squads One and Two each brought a small bag of zombie Crystal Cores and handed them to Gu Chengyuan.
These Crystal Cores were washed clean by the Soldiers in the small ditches by the roadside before being bagged.
System!
As soon as he got the Crystal Cores, Gu Chengyuan couldn't wait to call out the system.
He planned to check how today's harvest was.
Up to the current location where the armored vehicle stopped, they had cleared approximately eighty vehicles.
The number of zombies in these cars varied, with one, two, three, or even four in some.
Another situation was empty cars, either the survivors had escaped, or they had been chased out of the car by zombies and eaten.
Gu Chengyuan felt that his luck today was also relatively bad.
Although it was partly due to the naturally low traffic flow on Xishui North Road, he didn't encounter a single survivor in these nearly eighty vehicles.
Was it because humans were too strong and all escaped, or too weak and none escaped?
Estimating two zombies per car, a total of 160 zombies were killed today, minus the 5% loss from mistakenly damaging zombie Crystal Cores.
Gu Chengyuan conservatively estimated that there were at least 152 Crystal Cores in these two bags.
Now let's see how many of these Crystal Cores actually end up in his pocket!
"Convert Money."
Ding.
Conversion successful.
Obtained 389 Money!
Gu Chengyuan watched the thick and big Money bar jump, and the total became.
410!