Chapter 26

After more than ten minutes, a heavy military truck and a Buick SUV drove out of the underground passage of the small building.

Li Xiaomei, with her child, naturally became one of the stay-behinds. Old Song, as usual, stood on the rooftop terrace with a sniper rifle, responsible for vigilance. Han Ying stayed behind to take care of the weak Zhang Jingjing. The rest of the people, all armed, got into the two vehicles.

To be honest, Su Hao did not feel that this was a righteous act of revenge. Under the threat of death, humans would naturally make many crazy and cruel actions. He did not want to make a judgment, nor did he have the obligation to conduct a moral trial. However, since he was transported to this world, he no longer belonged to the future.

He was no longer a fugitive but had changed his identity to become a participant. Perhaps, he was even a higher existence capable of rebuilding this world and restoring order.

The team needed more members. Both men and women could become warriors through trials and hardships. Loyalty could be greatly amplified by certain events—when they first met, Cao Rui and Zhang Jingjing would not have believed him. But now, they had to and could only rely on Su Hao's strength. Helping them seek revenge was the foundation for gaining recognition and obedience.

Ignoring others' advice, Cao Rui, with her still sore and weak legs, struggled to climb into the back of the truck. Her eyes were full of determination and stubbornness, and she spoke to Su Hao with a tone that was both pleading and fierce: "Give me a gun and teach me how to use it."

The vehicles trembled and roared, the engines quickly reaching their maximum power. They slowly started moving, gradually speeding up, and raced towards the new district.

...

The road leading out of the city was completely blocked, with thousands of vehicles densely packed on the elevated bridge, leaving no gaps.

A cat curled up in the shadow under the bridge, watching the crows circling above the silent traffic. There were about twenty of them. They cawed and occasionally dove into the vehicles, tearing pieces of meat from the already rotten corpses and swallowing them.

The sound of approaching engines caught the cat's attention. It quickly climbed up the concrete pillar to the bridge surface, stopping on top of the divider. In the sunlight, its tattered fur was particularly noticeable, with a shocking wound running from the side of its nose. Its claws and teeth were sharp, and its pupils emitted a red light characteristic of a wild beast.

"Meow—"

The moment the SUV approached from the wrong lane, the infected and mutated cat suddenly leaped out, screaming and pouncing, but was blocked by the rising window and fell. Before it could get up, the heavy military truck that followed drove over it, its thick tires crushing the cat's body into a grotesque meat patty.

...

The city, long neglected, was already covered in dust. Under the glaring sunlight, it was easy to see the plumes of dust rising in the distance. The lookout on the rooftop of the bath center noticed something unusual, feeling at a loss and hurriedly pulled open the small door leading downstairs, running down quickly.

Liu Jiantao sat in the office on the second floor, absentmindedly wiping a hunting rifle with a cloth.

He was a waiter at the bath center. His actual job was to stand in the passage leading to and from the bath, offering towels to the wet guests.

This job was not tiring, and the income was quite good, with frequent tips.

Of course, many people coveted this position. If Liu Jiantao were not handsome and had not used his masculine strength to conquer the department manager in bed, he would not have gotten this job.

The manager... She was over fifty, weighed over 150 kilograms, had dark spots on her face, and often exhaled a mix of tobacco and garlic odors. She could almost be considered a woman who could be his mother. If it weren't for the money, Liu Jiantao would have really wanted to kick her out of bed, rather than asking her with the sweetest words and a smile, "Are you satisfied?" "Are you comfortable?"

The old woman was not well-liked at the bath center. She seemed to have a deep-seated hatred for young and beautiful girls, possibly a negative effect of menopause, which made her name often associated with words like "roaring" and "violent." Naturally, Liu Jiantao also attracted resentful and jealous gazes. Gossips exaggerated the non-friendly relationship between him and the old woman, and her husband came to the bath center several times to cause trouble... On the day before the virus outbreak, feeling a green hat had been placed on his head, the husband broke into the guest room and beat the naked old woman and Liu Jiantao half to death.

The enraged husband was as strong as a wild boar, and it was said his job was slaughtering pigs. The old woman and the bath center owner had a bit of a family relationship, so after the incident, she was only docked three months' salary. As for Liu Jiantao, he was immediately fired.

The next day, with a bruised face, he ran to the bath center, tearfully begging the manager for his job, emphasizing how precious it was to him and hoping the owner would give him another chance based on his hard work.

All his words were in vain. The owner very straightforwardly pointed to the door and told him to get out. In his despair, Liu Jiantao, driven by an unknown boldness, flew into a rage, grabbed the owner's tie, and threw him out of the second-floor window.

As his anger subsided and he calmed down, he began to feel fear and hid in the office, refusing to come out. However, the expected police did not arrive, nor did the security guards rush in to catch him. The shouts and cries for help from downstairs and outside, and the chaotic crowds on the streets, told a different story. Looking out the window, he saw people tearing each other apart like dogs, pulling arms and legs from the injured and eating them with relish.

Liu Jiantao did not know what had happened, but he realized this was his best chance to clear his name. He took the owner's prized hunting rifle from the cabinet, rushed downstairs, and shot the still-twitching and gasping owner in the head... After doing this, he immediately transformed his identity, using the rifle to save over a dozen people on the street. Under his command, the group of survivors gradually grew and then rushed into the bath center, closing the doors.

From murderer to savior, Liu Jiantao felt as if he had been in a dream, very real and very bloody.

His thoughts at the time were simple—having these people as witnesses, the police would have to consider his actions as self-defense.

Unexpectedly, no rescue came, and communication was cut off. The bath center's pools were full of water, but there was not enough food. The people he had "saved" from zombies numbered over 120.

They searched for food, bringing back everything edible from nearby stores, and managed to survive the first week.

Liu Jiantao was not a natural leader, but the people he saved with the rifle felt a subconscious gratitude towards him. He naturally began giving orders and, in his idle moments, selected attractive women to call into the office to pass the time.

A group of people with similar "hobbies" gradually gathered around him. This small group had only about thirty members. They were young and strong, preferring to solve problems with violence. Others, to avoid being bullied, had to either join or endure in silence.

The nearby stores were all searched, and food was becoming scarce. There was no water or electricity. For nighttime lighting, many wooden items in the building were chopped up and used as firewood...

Someone suggested: Capture the elderly and weak survivors, tie their hands with ropes, and throw them into the street as bait. The zombies blocking the road would naturally clear a path, allowing them to run out of the street and find supplies in more distant stores.

They did this four times, "consuming" eight people.

The thugs soon realized that living people were also a usable resource. Tasting the benefits, they selected obedient followers, imprisoning, beating, humiliating, and even killing those who refused orders.

Eating people was not Liu Jiantao's idea.

He just found a pot of stewed meat in the kitchen. Fresh cooked food was an irresistible temptation after a long time of eating convenience foods. So he ate it and later learned from others that it was part of a young woman's body.

As for who made the pot of meat, he did not care and could not do anything about it.

The subsequent events were simpler—the thugs searching for food found Mei Zi and Xiao Dan waiting for their companions in the square. They forced them to reveal that there were other women waiting there. Thus, they captured Cao Rui and Zhang Jingjing.

...

The two vehicles sped through the intersection at an extremely reckless speed, knocking several zombies that were aimlessly sunbathing in the middle of the road into the air, then slowed down and stopped in front of the bath center's street-facing entrance.

Su Hao, in the most brutal way, smashed through the several-centimeter-thick steel-glass door with his fists. The shattered transparent wall collapsed with a "crash," scattering into countless crystal-like fragments.

"Stop! Who... who are you?"

Three men in the first-floor hall surrounded them. They held knives and steel pipes, their short leather jackets and metal chains clearly imitating gangsters from movies. Their shouts were loud but stuttering, revealing their barely concealed fear.

Su Hao did not stop. He walked directly towards the nearest man and punched him with his right hand. The man's chest immediately burst with a "crack," caving in like a compressed sponge. He flew backward several meters, crashing into the opposite wall with a scream.

He did not want to waste bullets. These people posed no threat to him.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang—"

Behind him, the sound of gunfire rang out. The other two men were instantly riddled with bullets, dark red blood spurting out as they fell to the ground, convulsing and twisting in pain.

Cao Rui rushed over, raising her automatic rifle and firing at the dying men. In less than a minute, the full magazine was empty, and she still angrily smashed the unconscious bodies' heads with the rifle butt.

Su Hao raised his hand to stop Xinyan, who wanted to go over and console her, and said calmly, "She needs to vent. Anger and pain pent up in the heart can drive a person mad. These people may not deserve death, but they must die now."

Stepping on the red carpet, they ascended to the second floor, where panicked people were everywhere.

Some, disheveled, dragged women around.

Some, hid in the shadows, trembling.

More, first in shock, then picked up homemade weapons like machetes, sharpened sticks, and nail-studded clubs, and charged forward fearlessly.

Most were young. Twenty, nineteen, perhaps even younger.

Du Tianhao's "Type 95" machine gun immediately spewed out a stream of hot flames.

This was a slaughter where the power disparity was not even worth mentioning.

Su Hao crouched, using the powerful thrust from his legs to dash to a man in an indescribably short moment. He grabbed the man's throat with his left hand and quickly dislocated his shoulders and jaw with his right. He threw the immobilized man to the ground and pounced on another.

Gunshots echoed throughout the building. Besides Han Jing and Liao Qiu, who stayed downstairs to guard the vehicles, Du Tianhao, Tao Yuan, and Xinyan formed a dense web of fire. Cao Rui had already changed two magazines, firing wildly at those running down from upstairs. The screams of the wounded were even louder than the dense gunfire. Except for Liu Jiantao, the others could not resist, at most charging a few steps with knives before being pierced by bullets.

"Don't kill them all, leave a few alive—"

Su Hao threw a captive, whose arms had been dislocated and was unable to move, and shouted clearly, "Search everywhere and release those who are imprisoned."

Random killing was meaningless and not worth wasting too many bullets on these thugs.

As for the captives... Su Hao needed test subjects to verify whether his blood could truly replace the immune serum. Without equipment, he could not analyze the specific structure of the blood cells. He deeply regretted killing Hu He in a fit of anger. He should have kept that guy alive.

Of course, it was not too late now—using a few inhuman scoundrels for experiments, Su Hao did not consider it a mistake.

Liu Jiantao, holding a hunting rifle, rushed out of the office, trying to use the corridor wall for cover. He had no combat experience and rolled on the ground in a very flashy way, like a movie hero. Before he could stand up, he was spotted by Du Tianhao and shot dead. Du Tianhao picked up the hunting rifle and slung it over his shoulder.

The four fully armed avengers charged up the stairs. At the corner between the third and fourth floors, two young men with ugly tattoos on their arms ran down. They held knives and were startled to see Su Hao and the others. Their attention immediately focused on Du Tianhao's machine gun. They instinctively pressed their bodies against the wall, sucking in their stomachs to make room, and their knives fell to the ground, rolling down the stairs with a clatter.

They might have killed and eaten people before, but now their eyes only showed fear.

Su Hao turned and looked at Cao Rui, who immediately shook her head.

Cao Rui had said: A man secretly released them.

Su Hao did not want to cause any accidental harm.

Du Tianhao walked up to the nearest young man, clamped the machine gun handle with his right arm, tilted the gun barrel down, and pressed it against the man's trembling legs. He then raised his left hand, patted the man's shoulder heavily, and asked in a commanding tone with a grin, "Where are the people who were imprisoned?"

The poor young man trembled all over and stammered, "Fifth... fifth floor, meeting room."

Du Tianhao smiled in satisfaction, leveled the gun, looked at the young man whose tense expression had slightly relaxed, and suddenly turned the gun around, smashing it with the butt.

A scream.

Blood.

A heavy body rolled down the stairs...

The meeting room door was tightly closed, secured with a chain lock on both handles. The floor corridor and hallway were empty. The gunshots and shouts had already made the occupants understand what was happening. They were smart enough not to stay and die pointlessly.

Su Hao pulled out his pistol, shot the chain lock, and kicked open the door, suddenly widening the enclosed space.

Chairs and tables were scattered everywhere, and over thirty people, either sitting or lying, were on the open ground. Due to a lack of food, they looked weak and numb, and many did not have the strength to stand, only mechanically raising their heads to look at the strangers at the door with empty eyes.

Cao Rui's gaze quickly swept over the crowd. In the corner of the wall, she did not find her other companions who had escaped from the gym, but she did see the middle-aged man who had secretly released her—his face was swollen, with bruises and bloodstains around his eyes and mouth, his left eye so swollen it could not open, his clothes almost torn to shreds, and his exposed chest had wounds from sharp objects. The edges of the skin were curled, revealing fresh red flesh oozing pale yellow pus.

All the windows were sealed, and the air in the room was foul, mixed with the stench of feces and urine. Su Hao frowned, looking at the rescued people with a cautious eye. He noticed that each of them had a bottle of liquid, clearly human urine, to avoid dying of thirst.

The captors clearly did not want to provide them with food or water. To avoid dying of thirst, they had to drink their own urine.

Su Hao put away his pistol, walked to the middle-aged man recognized by Cao Rui, grabbed his arm, and carried him on his shoulder. He then instructed the others at the door, "Get them all into the vehicles and leave here as soon as possible."

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