Chapter 45

It was another weekend of rotation.

Su Hao drove his off-road vehicle back into the city. The scenery along the way had hardly changed—dense streams of unmanned vehicles had become sculptures on the elevated bridges, the city's sky still drifted with the stench of rotting flesh, and the empty buildings exuded an unsettling silence.

Zhou Chen stayed in the lab to continue his unfinished research.

He always felt that the verification of the black particles was still at a superficial stage, and Su Hao wasn't crazy enough to turn everyone into so-called "bees." By yesterday, 317 team members had been injected with his blood. He didn't plan to further expand the group of immune individuals. The data obtained by the KD01 Research Institute indicated that the military already had the formula for the immune serum, but they hadn't had time to distribute it to the surrounding population. Following the formula left by the institute's officer Xu Yi on a USB drive, Su Hao had already produced over a hundred standard units of the immune serum.

These serums were entirely different from Su Hao's blood; they only produced immunity in the recipients, without the natural enhancement effects. Taking silver bones on top of immunity could only increase bone strength, not create truly enhanced humans. To achieve muscle enhancement, one had to take the corresponding level of enhancement serum.

With these immune serums as a cover, Su Hao could conceal the various strange effects produced by the prototype serum he had taken, and also explain the current situation where over 300 team members were all enhanced.

The military wouldn't abandon this city. They would always come back.

Because the main fighting force against the constantly evolving monsters could only be enhanced humans.

..

Everything in the small building remained the same.

When Su Hao walked into the first-floor hall, Han Jing was the first to greet him, hugging his neck with a joyful smile. This feeling was different from the love between him and Xin Yan; it was the affection between siblings. To Han Jing, Su Hao's significance went beyond saving her from the zombies; he was like a dependable, respected, and reliable older brother.

Su Hao smiled and patted her head, asking, "Already the third stage?"

Han Jing nodded with a smile, "Last week, we surrounded a large group of zombies, hundreds of them."

"So many?"

Su Hao was quite surprised, turning his gaze to Du Tianhao standing beside her, "What exactly happened?"

Since the virus outbreak, many things in the city had been fixed under a new order. For example, the activity range of the zombies, or the living habits of other survivors. Taking the zombies as an example, they often wandered in certain neighborhoods based on residual memories. These areas were mostly dark, rarely exposed to sunlight, and the surrounding environment was colder than usual. Just like pandas living in bamboo forests, zombies also had their unique living habits.

Without special circumstances, zombies usually wouldn't leave their fixed wandering zones.

With Han Jing and others' strength, dealing with hundreds of zombies was not a problem. According to Su Hao's knowledge, the number of zombie groups in the already explored areas of the city all exceeded several thousand. It was difficult to lure hundreds of zombies out from these groups. These decaying creatures had almost no intelligence, but their sensitive sense of smell and hearing made them interested in the same target. They wouldn't yield or retreat. Even experienced hunters from the future found it hard to lure a part of the group out with bait.

"There are still many people alive."

Du Tianhao spoke loudly enough for everyone present to hear, "According to our observations, there are survivors active in the nearby neighborhoods. They might have been hiding out of fear before, but everyone has to go out to find food and water. This inevitably leads to contact with zombies. Those monsters are not as terrifying as imagined; they are slow and have obvious weaknesses. As long as you're not careless and get surrounded, it's easy to take them down. Thus, many survivors have gathered and formed teams like ours. There are two in the southern neighborhood, with about thirty people each. There's another larger one in the west, possibly with over a hundred people."

Su Hao gradually understood what Du Tianhao meant, "You're saying those people lured out the zombies?"

Du Tianhao nodded, "It was a small team in the southern neighborhood. The nearby supermarkets and stores had already been emptied by us, so they had no choice but to go further to find food. Those guys were clumsy; they didn't cut the alarm when starting the car engine, which alarmed the zombie group near the stadium. The scene was spectacular; the zombie group was at least four thousand strong, maybe more. They drove around, leading the zombie group across half the city. We couldn't miss such a good hunting opportunity, so we intercepted and killed the stragglers, achieving great results."

As he spoke, he opened a drawer on the side cabinet, took out a bulging small leather bag, and threw it over. Su Hao unzipped the bag and saw it was filled with decayed fungus hormone tubes and a bag of cleaned silver bones, weighing at least several hundred milligrams.

"Old rules—half for us, half for you."

Du Tianhao's loud voice made everyone standing nearby laugh.

They were all enhanced, and they understood the value of silver bones. But everyone felt that these things should naturally belong to Su Hao.

Without him, they might already be dead.

Su Hao also felt a warm, indescribable feeling in his heart—had he once doubted that returning to this time might have been a mistake?

After all, if it weren't for the lack of energy, if it weren't for the circumstances at the time, if it weren't for various restrictions, he might have chosen a better landing point.

However, he now felt an unprecedented sense of fulfillment. This indescribable affection and friendliness could not be replaced by any interest relationship.

Of course, there might also be subtle changes caused by the prototype serum. Su Hao often overlooked this aspect, focusing only on friendship and emotion.

Tao Yuan stood beside Du Tianhao, his gun on his shoulder. He looked relaxed, "We heard from Old Song that the construction of the camp in the wild is progressing quickly. The main project is expected to be completed next month. It's safer there, and women and children can be moved over."

Su Hao nodded, "Our number of people has increased a lot, which is a troublesome issue."

Li Xiaomei, as usual, held the baby, her voice soft, "The food should be enough. There's still a lot in the warehouse, and if we go a bit further, there should be many unvisited stores in other neighborhoods."

"It's not just food. In fact, the food problem isn't hard to solve."

Su Hao smiled, "We harvested all the mature wheat near the camp, and in a few months, the rice can also be harvested. We planted a lot of radishes and potatoes, enough to last until next summer and beyond. Besides, there's a lot of food in this city. Especially in residential homes, you can find some food here and there. Accumulated together, the amount should be considerable. However, these things are scattered, and searching house by house takes a lot of time. The most pressing issue we need to solve now is fuel."

He wasn't exaggerating.

In fact, fuel had become one of the most important resources for the team, second only to food. Various machines and heavy trucks required diesel, and ordinary vehicles needed gasoline to run. Once the fuel supply was cut off, communication between the city and the camp would be very difficult, and resources and food could not be exchanged.

Su Hao walked to the table, took out a city map from the side cabinet, and spread it out. Pointing to the location of the small building on the map, he said to the people gathered around, "We are here, and the nearby streets are our actual control area. The nearest gas station is on a cross street about 300 meters away. The fuel there has been supplying us since May. As you know, traffic regulations prohibit large-tonnage vehicles from entering the city. Therefore, gas stations in the city have a common feature—small diesel storage and large gasoline storage. Now, the diesel in this station is almost depleted, and we need to find new sources."

Liao Qiu, holding an automatic rifle, stared at the gas station symbols on the map and said thoughtfully, "You mean we need to control more gas stations?"

"We need fuel—"

Su Hao said calmly, "Of course, there's another way—abandoned vehicles scattered outside have some fuel. We can use hoses to siphon it out and store it. However, this method is slow and also requires a lot of time. We only have over 300 people, and we need to build the camp, farm, hunt zombies, and find resources. We can't spare many people for this. Therefore, the most convenient and direct method is to control other gas stations."

Du Tianhao crossed his arms, frowned, and thought hard, "How exactly should we do it? Transport all the fuel from other stations? I know there's a parking lot in the suburbs with several large oil tankers, which we can use."

"Even a 30-ton heavy oil tanker can't transport all the fuel."

Su Hao shook his head, "We can transport some fuel to the camp for storage and also make the most of these abandoned gas stations. I've calculated that there are 230 gas stations in the city. Although they are scattered, some are far from us, but a round trip doesn't take much time. We can clear a few main roads based on the gas station coordinates. This isn't difficult; we just need to move the cars blocking the roads to the side."

"230 gas stations..."

Tao Yuan, interested, asked, "How much fuel does each station have?"

"It varies!"

Cao Rui, standing beside him, seemed familiar with this. She cleared her throat and said calmly, "The capacity of gas stations depends on the traffic in the area. Generally, the capacity is between 30 to 100 tons. As for the amount of fuel... before the chaos of the zombies, there were no news reports about fuel shortages in the city, and the price of fuel was stable. You can estimate it at 50%. However, this is just my guess; the actual amount might be much more."

Many people could clearly hear the sound of people drawing in breath.

"This is a large number, very considerable. This fuel is enough to sustain the operation of existing machinery and vehicles for a long time."

Su Hao looked around, his eyes filled with determination and strength, "We need it—"

..

The next day.

On the road outside the bank building, a "Buick" off-road vehicle, which had just emerged from the underground garage a few minutes ago, was parked. This vehicle had excellent performance, strong horsepower, and was one of the most frequently used vehicles. The survivors had fully reinforced and modified it for protection.

A layer of steel plate was welded around the body, and the sides and front windshield were covered with a dense, sturdy steel wire mesh. The roof window was converted into a movable cover, and in case of emergency, a 12.7mm heavy machine gun could be dragged out from the trunk and mounted on the roof. Next to the long ammunition belt were two oil-filled chainsaws and a complete set of anti-slip chains for complex road conditions.

Su Hao chewed a steamed bun with fermented tofu, opened the car door, and bent down to sit in the passenger seat. His cheeks bulged, making him look a bit silly, and Xin Yan, holding the steering wheel, couldn't help but laugh. This atmosphere quickly infected Yang Lulu, who was sitting in the back seat, and the two women burst into laughter.

Su Hao swallowed the food in his mouth, took a breath, and looked at them angrily, then pulled down the sun visor and looked in the mirror for a few seconds, saying unhappily, "What's so funny? Don't you think this is what a man should do? Being able to eat means being healthy—"

"You're right!"

Yang Lulu, with her chubby, rosy face, looked at Su Hao with a gaze that didn't match her age, then turned to Xin Yan and said with a chuckle, "Being healthy means having strength, so you won't be kicked out of bed by a dissatisfied woman in the middle of the night."

This statement was quite shocking.

Su Hao and Xin Yan stared at Yang Lulu with cold eyes. The latter, embarrassed, put on her sunglasses, coughed lightly, and then stepped on the clutch, shifted into gear. Su Hao, shocked, opened his mouth wide and asked, "Where did you hear these crazy theories? Who told you?"

The nine-year-old girl was not intimidated by Su Hao's fierce gaze. She took a lollipop from her pocket, peeled off the wrapper, and put it in her mouth, looking very pleased and saying indistinctly, "I'm smarter than you think, right?"

..

The off-road vehicle crossed a large part of the city, passing through the bustling area near the south, and slowly stopped in front of a gas station with red and white signs.

The building opposite the bank had been cleared, and 120 team members, including Li Xiaomei and a dozen others responsible for vigilance and daily logistics, had moved in. Su Hao divided the remaining team members into groups of five. According to the plan discussed the previous day, these search teams were divided into two parts—Tao Yuan led half of the people to search the surrounding area, with the task of hunting zombies and collecting resources. Su Hao and Du Tianhao led the other half to occupy and control all the gas stations in the nearby area.

On the roadside, there was a side-flipped light truck with prominent ant patterns and the words "Ant Moving" on its sides. Its right front wheel was flat, possibly due to a puncture. A pile of messy furniture had spilled out from the open rear door, crushing the shrubs in the green belt. Under this mountain of debris, half of a human skeleton, gnawed and decayed, was exposed.

Su Hao got out of the car and carefully observed the surroundings.

Four zombies were wandering in the gas station—two were standing in the corner, swaying slowly, one was lying under the eaves, and the last one was studying a few ants on the ground like a professional entomologist. It curiously extended its dry tongue, trying to lick the seemingly delicious little creatures.

Although there wasn't much meat.

The noise from the off-road vehicle, whether the engine roar or the brake sound, was enough to attract the zombies' attention. They seemed to have been given a shot of adrenaline, immediately waking up from their lazy, dazed state and slowly, with their mouths open, lunging over.

Su Hao swung the fire axe and cut off the leading zombie's leg, and Yang Lulu immediately used a fork to trap its head. The immobilized zombie, its neck caught, lay on the ground howling but couldn't free itself with its hands. Su Hao and Xin Yan took the opportunity to deal with the other zombies, quickly extracting the decayed fungus hormone, and then turned back to deal with the legless zombie held by Yang Lulu. The little girl, now free, didn't idle; she picked up the axe Su Hao had thrown aside and fiercely chopped the zombie's buttocks.

Although only nine years old, her body, enhanced by silver bones, was stronger than an adult. Despite her height, Yang Lulu could easily deal with a lone zombie.

Of course, her hunting process was a bit more complicated than an adult's—she had to cut off the zombie's legs first before attacking its head.

The team members all liked this nine-year-old girl but didn't let her age prevent her from receiving combat training. Like others, Yang Lulu also had to learn how to hunt zombies in the trap courtyard and receive shooting training in the suburbs, learning how to use firearms.

Spartan education was cruel but could create a large number of excellent warriors who had fought for their lives from a young age.

Su Hao had merely advanced Yang Lulu's growth time a bit.

In fact, the wild wanderers in the future world were even more mature. Those seven or eight-year-old children were very familiar with the anatomy of human and monster bodies. They knew how to exploit their weaknesses and never picky about food.