Chapter 163: Entering the City

The second step was to enter the city.

When the catastrophe broke out, Gao Yuan had fled from Ji City, but now, he had to return.

Gao Yuan hadn't been to the city for a long time, and he had almost forgotten what city life was like, whether wealthy or poor, that era of absolute material abundance, it was probably gone for good.

Shi Lei raised his right arm, and the entire team stopped, the special forces members who had just been together once again dispersed.

"Twelve o'clock direction, zombies spotted."

"One o'clock direction, zombies spotted."

"Ten o'clock direction, a horde of zombies spotted."

It could be said that zombies were in front, left, and right. Shi Lei thought for a moment and said in a low voice, "Retreat, change direction, and continue searching forward."

This was still the far suburbs of Ji City, but Ji City had a population of over twenty million. What did this mean? Even if half the population had escaped, and the other half of the population died, only a quarter of the population turned into zombies, then there would still be five million zombies in the city.

And that was the most optimistic estimate. What if we were more pessimistic?

Then there would be at least ten million zombies in this city.

With a lack of food, zombies would also slowly spread out from the city; therefore, encountering a large number of zombies in the distant suburbs was not surprising at all.

Gao Yuan hesitated for a long time, and then he finally decided to go it alone.

"Captain, request to regroup, call back everyone who's scattered."

Gao Yuan walked over to Shi Lei and said softly, after which Shi Lei looked at him with a puzzled expression and asked quietly, "What do you mean?"

Gao Yuan lowered his voice and said, "Three teams went in before us and none could return, which already explains the problem. Even if we change our approach, the result will be the same; we can't find a safe passage."

Shi Lei let out a sigh. He obviously knew the reality, but the mission had to be completed, didn't it?

"I'm fast, not just ordinarily fast, but extremely fast. Captain, the only way now is for me to go in by myself."

Shi Lei shook his head and said, "That won't do."

"Why not? Should we argue over an obvious fact and waste more time? Let's be realistic and not dawdle over a clearly known outcome as they do in the movies, shall we?"

Gao Yuan knew what Shi Lei was thinking, but the fact was that he alone had a chance to enter, while the others, even though they were special forces members, still couldn't make it into the city.

It wasn't that these special forces members weren't capable, it was just that they weren't on the right battlefield.

Gao Yuan didn't want to say that these special forces members would be a drag on him, but everyone knew the truth.

Shi Lei was also just emotionally unable to accept it.

But Gao Yuan made sense, a very clear sense, and after Shi Lei hesitated for a moment, he eventually nodded and said, "Okay."

"All members retreat; regroup around me."

Shi Lei knelt on one knee, and the other members formed a circle around him.

"The plan."

Gao Yuan shook his head and said softly, "But I know where the national laboratory is. I'll go in alone, dodge if I can, run if I can't. I think I can make it to the national laboratory, find a place to shake off the zombies, grab the stuff, and run."

There was no detailed plan, just for the special forces members to wait here, while Gao Yuan went into the city alone—if he could pull it off, great; if not, he'd run.

Unable to accept it emotionally, but having to bow their heads to reality, Shi Lei wasn't indecisive. Despite his inner pain, he still had to grit his teeth and say, "Okay, we'll wait here for you. You go and try. If it doesn't work out, retreat immediately. Don't force it."

Gao Yuan nodded, and just as he was about to get up, Shi Lei once again put his hand on his shoulder and said quietly, "Don't force it! The mission can fail, but you can't die; that's an order."

Gao Yuan was somewhat astonished because it was quite hard for those who would rather die than fail a mission to say that it was okay for the mission to fail, but not to die.

"Yes."

Shi Lei exhaled and whispered, "Check equipment?"

"Food, energy drinks, knife, mace, axe, hammer, hand grenades, shoes, all equipment intact."

"Comm check, calling Gao Yuan, over."

"Received, comm is clear, over."

Shi Lei took another breath, then patted Gao Yuan on the back and whispered, "Let's go."

Gao Yuan stood up and then, crouching, slowly made his way to the side.

With the cover of the vegetation and shrubs, after distancing himself from the main group, Gao Yuan stepped out from the cover and moved forward.

About two thousand meters straight ahead, there were two zombies wandering, and looking to the sides, the furthest was a few hundred meters away, but the zombies were continuous, and these were just the standing and moving ones.

In the remote suburbs of Ji City, there weren't any tall buildings, and the roads were also clogged with cars.

Gao Yuan thought it over and decided to still go with stealth.

Well, if this were a game, then Gao Yuan's character would be an assassin or a thief.

He must sneak into the city silently without making any noise.

Gao Yuan increased his speed to the maximum, bent over like a cheetah, he dashed out for over a hundred meters, then hid beneath a big willow tree.

The zombies showed no sign of disturbance; apparently, they had not detected him.

Determined to stick to the assassin's path, Gao Yuan eyed the next piece of cover. He then leapt forward again, heading toward the evergreen shrubs by the side of the road.

After running a few dozen meters, Gao Yuan saw a zombie suddenly stand up from behind a car parked by the road and then run straight towards him.

It was totally unexpected. A zombie had appeared out of nowhere and had also spotted him.

Gao Yuan was somewhat annoyed in his heart, but he wasn't angry, because such situations were within his expectations.

Gao Yuan reached out and drew his knife.

Then he ran straight ahead.

The distance was closing quickly. Gao Yuan was running at a comfortable pace, a speed at which the zombie could actually intercept him.

Just about to meet, Gao Yuan suddenly sped up and dodged to the side, his knife not swinging, but held flat, slicing across the zombie's neck.

Without slowing down or losing stride, the zombie's head silently fell backward, and Gao Yuan continued straight ahead.

There was no sound; hopefully, the zombies hadn't noticed.

Just as this thought crossed Gao Yuan's mind, he heard a loud noise from his left front.

A zombie flipped over a car, crashed into another, and then continued running toward Gao Yuan.

With that noise made, Gao Yuan could even imagine the scene of the zombies all turning their heads in unison.

Yes, all the zombies turned their heads in unison, and then, almost simultaneously, all of them began running towards Gao Yuan.

By his guess, there were dozens of them.

Gao Yuan shook his head in resignation; it was time to switch from the assassin class to a warrior.

Actually, running crouched over was quite tiring; so since stealth was ineffective, better to just run full speed.

Speeding up once again, Gao Yuan dashed forward. He had intended to run around the zombies, but faced with the reality of being surrounded, he decided it was more solid to just cut straight through.

One knife, two knife strikes, he chopped down two obstructing zombies and then Gao Yuan rushed straight ahead, the zombies forming a long trail behind him.