Chapter 9

Including Xinyan, everyone was puzzled about why they needed to hunt zombies and extract hormones and silver bones from them.

Su Hao often took silver bones in front of others. He frankly admitted that this substance could strengthen bones and transform the body. He also repeatedly warned that he was not afraid of the virus inside the zombies, which was a prerequisite for taking silver bones.

He even let the zombies bite him in front of others to prove that he was telling the truth.

He did not want to hide his secrets.

Because, as time passed, others would also discover the existence of silver bones.

For example, the person who named silver bones, Luther Cavitz, who was far in Britain.

Gradually, people began to get used to it. When Xinyan and Taoyuan went out to collect supplies, they often brought back some silver bone particles for him.

Looking at Su Hao, who seemed slightly dazed, Taoyuan grinned. He stepped over the corpse lying on the ground, patted Su Hao's shoulder, and handed him a tube filled with decayed fungal hormones.

"Hey! What's wrong with you?"

"......Nothing."

Su Hao reined in his wandering thoughts, carefully put the tube into his inner pocket, and said to Taoyuan, who was standing in front of him, "Tomorrow, I need to go out for a trip."

Taoyuan nodded.

Just last week, Su Hao had taken him to a garbage room at the other end of the city, where they found a heavy wooden box. Inside were hundreds of kilograms of white powder, two pistols, and over a thousand bullets.

Su Hao always gave him a mysterious feeling. Taoyuan never asked about the specific origin of the box. He was not good with words and knew that everyone had their own secrets.

The elderly Song Zhizhong and his wife had both said that Su Hao was not a bad person.

Otherwise, he would not have helped them at that time, nor would he have let them stay in the well-protected building.

Taoyuan subconsciously thought that Su Hao's "trip out" was just to take care of some personal matters.

This was not strange, it was normal.

......

The map of the city was deeply etched in Su Hao's mind, becoming an indelible part of his memory.

He carried his SA80 assault rifle and a backpack containing magazines, food, and water, and left the building at dawn. He chose a "Xiali" sedan parked by the roadside, smashed the window, and started the engine with a wire, driving toward the west of the city.

The silence was like death, with silent concrete buildings everywhere. Vehicles were scattered on the streets, and the cold morning breeze carried a faint odor. The bodies of the dead were rotting, and the skeletons, stripped clean, were gradually drying out. Flies and mosquitoes circled above the corpses, and rats and cockroaches gathered around the decaying bones. They might have sensed that the world was changing, but they had not changed their preference for flesh. Whether it was the living or the dead, it made no difference to them.

Su Hao drove around the city aimlessly. He seemed to have no fixed target, just driving through the streets and alleys. The fuel gauge, which was leaning to the left, showed that the fuel in the tank was down to a third, but he did not care and maintained a steady speed.

There were no traffic lights, and no one scolded him for driving in the wrong direction. He seemed like an alien visitor, observing the city with a cold gaze, wandering aimlessly.

He avoided the streets with dense crowds of zombies. The engine's roar had an obvious attraction to the flesh-eating creatures. Many zombies slowly emerged from the dark corners, howling and chasing the passing car. A few unlucky ones were hit and rolled on the ground, only to rise again like indestructible supermen.

In front of a famous ancient archway, which was a symbol of the city, the car slowly stopped. Su Hao got out with his backpack and weapons, looked around alertly to ensure no one was following, and then walked steadily toward the opposite side of the street, where a building dozens of meters high stood.

He used a hunting knife to kill a few zombies guarding the entrance to the building, without making a sound, and like a ghost, darted up the stairs. He used tools he had prepared to pry open the door of a room on the second floor and slipped inside.

It was an office, not very large. Through the window, one could see a wide road and the square in front of the archway.

Using furniture to block the door with the damaged lock, and confirming the escape route along the drainpipe from the window, Su Hao put down his backpack and gun, took out a warm rice ball, and slowly ate it.

The time machine was perhaps the greatest invention of human civilization and Su Hao's own creation. He knew very well that once it was successfully developed, it could only bring endless trouble, even death. At that time, Su Hao very wisely chose to cooperate with the military. However, the powerful families who coveted the results were not willing to let the military have it for free. They bribed high-ranking military officials to force him to hand over all the research data. Su Hao had no choice but to destroy all the technical parameters, set the machine to complete the automatic transmission, and then trigger a bomb to self-destruct.

The most successful escape was to go to a strange world where no one knew him. Perhaps future generations would develop machines with similar functions, but they would never find the space-time dimension he was in.

At the end of the road in the distance, a dazed zombie slowly walked over. It moved very slowly, looking around and searching for living things to eat. It was not alone—about ten meters behind it, five or six more zombies, dressed in tattered clothes and with ugly, terrifying faces, followed. From the air, they looked like an irregular arrow, leading a dense crowd of zombies a few dozen meters away.

This was a massive horde of thousands of zombies. They moved aimlessly forward, and no one knew why they were there or what had attracted them. Various styles of shoes trampled the green belts, and abandoned vehicles on the road were submerged by the horde. Mosquitoes and flies, which liked pus and rotten flesh, also gathered, flying above the horde. Many zombies raised their heads and kept reaching out to grab these tiny creatures. Occasionally, a few agile or very lucky ones managed to catch flies and mosquitoes. They immediately stuffed their prey into their mouths, chewing loudly and forcefully, drawing envious, angry, and hungry looks from the surrounding zombies.

The enhanced vision from the silver bones allowed Su Hao to observe the movements of the horde from a distance three times that of an ordinary person without the aid of binoculars or other equipment. He sat by the window, coldly watching the dense horde on the street below. He did not aim, did not show any intention to kill, and did not plan to take any action—just observing.

The greatest advantage of time travel was knowing the future in advance.

Of course, some low-probability accidents could also affect the course of events that had not yet occurred. For example, Xinyan and Taoyuan, whom he had saved from the zombies, might have already become skeletons in another timeline.

Thanks to his identity as a senior researcher in advanced technology in the future, Su Hao had access to many secrets that others could not know.

Various signs indicated that the government and the military might have already predicted the global virus outbreak. There was no rescue, no broadcast to the public. People fled the cities and established new settlements in the wilderness. Su Hao was already very familiar with the changes and development of human society after that. However, he still found some special things in the archives.

It was a record about the military's research on genetic agents. In the "Notes" section of the document, it said, "Prototype agent lost."

Su Hao was shocked at the time—genetic agents were classified according to different effects, such as immunity, enhancement, and increased cell activity. The military's record-keeping was very strict, and it was impossible for irrelevant information to be included. Especially in the "Notes" section, which required special explanation, the recorded text had to be reliable and detailed.

This simple piece of information contained two interrelated contents.

1. The detailed classification of genetic agents was likely the result of the military's research on the prototype agent. The document did not mention the specific effects of the prototype agent. Su Hao speculated that the effects of the prototype agent were far superior to those of genetic agents, perhaps even a combination of different types of genetic agents.

2. The military had already obtained the prototype agent before the virus outbreak, but it was suddenly lost before systematic research could be conducted. They might have only obtained partial data, and the information and formulas were incomplete. At the bottom of the "Notes" section, a date was attached—"May 29, 2020."

That was today.

To seek the truth, Su Hao searched through all the materials he could access at the time. Finally, in a highly classified document, he found records related to the loss of the prototype agent.

During the 2013 South Expo, the Kingdom of Cambodia signed a series of cooperation projects with the government, including mutual dispatch of experts for academic exchanges on ancient culture. At the time, King Norodom Sihamoni actively invited domestic archaeological authorities to participate in the excavation plan of the Angkor Wat crypt.

Six months later, a wealthy businessman who liked collecting antiques began to participate in the excavation and injected a large sum of money into the archaeological research project. The records showed that the true source of this money came from the military.

In the Angkor Wat crypt that was brought to light, artifacts worth about $20 billion were found. Among them was a small ceramic bottle that had been carbon-14 dated to the ancient kingdom period. It was secretly transported back to the country. Six years later, the Kunming base research institute obtained the prototype agent from an ancient site in Southeast Asia.

Due to the involvement of many secret elements, the materials were vague in many places. Su Hao's identity at the time did not allow him to continue searching for more. However, the process of the prototype agent's loss was recorded in detail—after obtaining the agent, the Kunming base worked hard to decipher the specific formula and components. Before the large-scale outbreak of the virus, researchers had made some progress and transmitted the relevant data to headquarters via satellite. On May 29, the military decided to transfer the prototype agent to the central base. During this process, the escort force unexpectedly encountered a large horde of zombies and was completely wiped out.

The data showed that the last known location of the prototype agent was the square in front of Su Hao. The transport convoy was equipped with the "Beidou" satellite positioning system, and this coordinate was absolutely correct.

As for the time... Su Hao raised his right hand and looked at his watch. The hands had just passed the 8:27 mark.

"Six minutes left."

He silently counted down the seconds, his mind replaying the information he had seen. He tightly gripped the assault rifle, his fingers moving back and forth between the trigger and the magazine, trembling more and more.

The central nervous system enhanced by the silver bones was at least three times stronger. Su Hao could feel the slight tremors coming from the ground. At the end of the street connected to the square, the roar of an engine broke the morning silence, stirring the suppressed agitation deep within him.

It was a dark green military "Mengshi" off-road jeep. It sped over from a distance at an incredible speed. The wild speed and roaring engine attracted the zombies gathered on the square and the street. Their eyes glowed red, and with the sudden discovery of food, they rushed from all directions. From Su Hao's position, the jeep looked like a magnet darting into a pile of ore, completely surrounded by the zombies. The large rubber tires rolled over the fearless horde, leaving a trail of flesh and blood, and constantly knocking away the living obstacles trying to block the road. However, the zombies felt no pain or fear. They howled with open mouths, surging toward the car like a tide.

"Rat-tat-tat-tat—"

The heavy machine gun on the roof began to fire.

Holes the size of fists immediately appeared on the bodies of the leading zombies, dark red liquid mixed with bone fragments and flesh spewed out, and the cold air quickly turned bloody. Many zombies were torn in half and could only crawl on the ground with their hands. Many of the zombies who were hit had their chests and abdomens completely penetrated, oozing yellow-green pus and internal organs. Since they were not hit in vital areas, they fell in rows and then climbed up again, madly spreading their arms to grab the car tires, only to be crushed by the powerful impact and weight.

There were only three people in the car.

Even from a distance of over a hundred meters, Su Hao could still see their pale faces and eyes filled with fear and despair. They were all officers, including a high-ranking lieutenant colonel. He held a briefcase in his left hand and a gun in his right, constantly firing at the zombies surging toward the window. The car's bouncing seemed to have no effect on him, and the bullets accurately hit the zombies' heads, leaving a thick layer of corpses on both sides of the bloody road.

Su Hao crouched by the window, watching the off-road jeep that had been surrounded by the dense horde on the square. Deep in his dark eyes, the excitement and impulse grew increasingly difficult to control.

"Escort force encountered a large horde of zombies, Lieutenant Colonel Liu Jianguo was surrounded and killed by zombies."

"Base defense forces' reinforcements were blocked, suffering heavy casualties."

"Prototype agent lost..."

The words he had recited countless times kept appearing in his mind. Names, locations, times, license plates of the accident vehicles... Information from decades in the future was compiled into simulated scenes in his brain, overlapping perfectly with the scene unfolding before his eyes, without any omissions.

The heavy machine gun continued to spew flames, and the few zombies that approached were immediately frozen in place, with blood fountains spurting from their chests and backs. More zombies formed a wall, blocking the jeep's path, and the rapidly spinning tires were covered in a layer of sticky flesh, slipping in the pus and decay. Soon, two zombies climbed onto the back of the car, grabbing the shoulders of the machine gunner on the roof, and fiercely bit into his neck from both sides. The soldier screamed and fell off the car, being swallowed by the surging horde.

The driver pressed the gas pedal with all his might, but the engine's power could not match the horde. These fearless creatures pushed the car, reaching through the windows, grabbing the driver's arm, and biting and tearing without restraint. Under this irresistible force, the driver could only scream in agony, watching his left arm separate from his shoulder and quickly disappear into the sharp, terrifying mouths outside the car.

The lieutenant colonel's right shoulder had already been bitten, and his expression was more brutal than ever, with blood-colored ripples appearing in his pupils, turning into a rock-hard despair. He raised his gun, aimed at the dying driver, and shot him in the side of the head. Then he turned the gun to his own temple and pulled the trigger.

The man was dead.

The horde, however, became even more agitated. They gathered around the jeep, crowding from all directions, gnawing on the flesh of the dead. The driver and the lieutenant colonel's bodies were dragged out of the car windows and quickly torn into pieces. This small amount of food was clearly not enough for the massive horde to share, and they began to fight over it, howling over a finger or a small piece of flesh with hair. The stalled jeep was like a solitary reef in the sea, repeatedly washed and submerged by the dense, frenzied horde.

Su Hao leaned against the wall, breathing slowly.

He could do nothing and dared not make a sound.

Even second or third-class enhanced humans could not handle a horde of thousands of zombies. Although they were weak, just low-level creatures at the bottom of the evaluation chart, no one could deny that when their numbers reached a certain point, they could unleash unimaginable power. They could devour everything, cover everything.

Su Hao kept his eyes on the briefcase in the lieutenant colonel's hand—it was secured to the dead man's wrist with handcuffs, being dragged back and forth. The zombies had no interest in it, and the arm torn from the lieutenant colonel's body was being fought over by a dozen zombies. The briefcase was covered in dirty blood and flesh, being passed back and forth among the horde, attached to the arm that had been gnawed to the bone.