Chapter 25: The Corpse Tide Surges Forth
The pollution from the war a hundred years ago created the world of today.
Pollution led to mutated viruses and genes, and the mutated creatures born from this overwhelmed the original natural order, yet also constructed another deformed ecosystem that has persisted for a hundred years to this day.
A new biological chain linked species such as monsters, walkers, and humans.
As the mutation spread, more and more creatures successively enriched this biological chain.
In order to survive and continue in the perilous post-war world, how to deeply understand this biological chain became one of the important topics faced by all humanity in the new era.
This powerful adult Crawling Giant Lizard before them was undoubtedly one of the formidable predators in this biological chain.
Its hunting range was also extremely wide; weak walkers, monsters, and humans were all its hunting targets.
However, even it displayed a cautious side when facing this massive corpse tide.
This was an essential element for a predator with no low intelligence.
Its individual combat power could absolutely be described as crushing against these low-tier walkers, but the vast numbers of walkers were also not to be ignored.
Among them, there were advanced walkers capable of inflicting substantial damage on it.
In the grand scheme of this wasteland, meaningless battles at most brought only temporary victory.
Once wounded, it would bring great difficulty to subsequent survival.
It was a fierce beast, not a mad beast.
The Commander on the walker side was also aware of this.
As a living creature, it had not lost its most basic ability to weigh and judge.
If it clashed with the creature before it, the fragile Commander would inevitably lose a large number of advanced walkers.
Even if it dug out this creature's crystal core, it wouldn't be able to compensate for such a loss.
The restrained two sides maintained a standoff across a street.
Apart from roars intended for intimidation, there were no other substantial actions.
“Quick! Run! The corpse tide is coming!”
Han Nianling glanced grimly at the direction of the corpse tide and the Crawling Giant Lizard, shouting loudly as if she had a premonition.
They had already run to the vicinity of the community's flower beds, located on the eastern edge of the community, having quickly traversed half the distance.
The sudden appearance of the Crawling Giant Lizard blocked the direction of the corpse tide's departure.
This accident was unavoidable, but they still had to bear this grave risk and continue their plan.
No one could abandon this final plan.
To their left, beyond a row of community residential buildings, was the overwhelming corpse tide.
The distance of less than a hundred meters made people feel exceptionally oppressed.
This was almost like traveling right under the corpse tide's nose.
Without Han Nianling's urging, everyone knew the importance of speed at this moment.
While running and watching the road, they also kept their ears pricked, constantly paying attention to the standoff over there.
As long as the roars continued and the attention of both sides remained on each other, their situation was safe.
But this fragile safety couldn't support the team's entire operational plan.
The standoff between the monsters didn't last too long, eventually ending with the corpse tide backing down.
Just as Han Nianling had said: the corpse tide was coming.
Under the Commander’s control, the corpse tide contracted backward, preparing to return to the community’s location.
The surging corpse tide pushed and squeezed against each other, moving in their direction, encroaching upon their last remaining space for action, bit by bit pushing the mercenary team to the edge with no room for retreat…
“ROAR!!!”
A few hundred meters ahead was the community gate, but what arrived first, before hope, was a perilous crisis.
The corpse tide, which had ended its standoff with the Crawling Giant Lizard, had become calm.
But a sudden roar sent a strong chill down everyone's backs.
Even without turning their heads, they knew the reason for this roar: they had been discovered!
And they were regarded as hunting targets.
Nothing was more attractive to monsters than the active cells in a human body.
That roar hadn't even faded when a series of howls followed one after another.
The chaotic footsteps made even the ground tremble.
Everyone could imagine that behind them, tens of thousands of walkers were chasing their steps, eager to devour any valuable active cells on their bodies.
If it were just a corpse tide composed of ordinary walkers, there was still a possibility of shaking them off as long as they weren't surrounded.
But the problem was that the group of walkers behind them wasn't that simple.
In this chase, the most deadly were not these ordinary walkers.
“Care…ful! Swift Walkers… are coming up!” Uncle Lin panted heavily, not forgetting to relay information through the comms headset.
As its name suggested, the Swift Walker's speed was extremely fast.
Its characteristics weren't just about agile movement in tight spaces; on open ground like this, it could increase its speed to around forty kilometers per hour in a short time.
As humans, they simply couldn't outrun these Swift Walkers on their two legs.
Facing such a critical situation, they would have to resort to their prepared backup plan.
“Flashbangs, ready!”
With a command, they all reached for the flashbangs hanging at their waists.
The cold metal calmed Zhong Jing's inner panic considerably.
Her finger hooked the pull ring, entering a state of readiness.
The strange roars and the high-frequency thudding of footsteps grew closer and closer.
These were undoubtedly the rapidly approaching Swift Walkers; they had already broken away from the corpse tide and rushed out.
“Throw!”
Everyone unanimously activated their flashbangs and threw them behind them without looking back.
However, there was no need to visually confirm the landing point of the flashbangs behind them; knowing they were behind was enough.
“Pop!”
In a series of soft sounds, the flashbangs exploded into clusters of intense white light.
The people, with their backs to the white light, momentarily saw their shadows deeply imprinted on the ground in front of them.
The effect of the flashbangs was extremely significant.
The strong blast of white light caught the Swift Walkers off guard.
Their visual systems, intensely impacted, caused their crystal cores to malfunction for a moment, and their control over their bodies also deviated temporarily.
Some roared and rolled, while others stood frozen in a daze.
Even the Commander’s pheromones lost their influence over them.
The delay caused by the flashbangs bought them enough time to successfully reach the community entrance.
In terms of objective, their plan to cross the community seemed to have succeeded.
Zhong Jing panted heavily, wanting to slow her pace.
The long sprint just now had consumed most of her stamina.
This body’s physical condition was terrible.
If it were her original self, such a run might have been tiring, but not this pathetic.
“Don’t celebrate too early, they… are coming up.”
It seemed Han Nianling had noticed her thoughts based on Zhong Jing's gradually slowing pace.
It wasn't just Zhong Jing; the entire mercenary team had relaxed due to this temporary gain, trying to use this brief moment of ease to relieve the fatigue in their legs.
But another sentence from Han Nianling made the team’s atmosphere heavy again.
Successfully crossing the community didn't mean successfully escaping danger.
Their situation was by no means safe until they shook off the relentlessly pursuing Swift Walkers.
After all, it was just the stimulation of strong light.
The Swift Walkers quickly recovered from the momentary disarray of their crystal cores and once again began their hunt for them.
“Don’t look down on people! Monsters!”
Perhaps as a vent for the tension brought on by being cornered, Crow angrily opened fire at the Swift Walker running at the very front.
However, the moment Crow raised his gun towards the front, the Swift Walker had already reacted.
Its agile limbs twisted at an incredible angle, causing its body to shift laterally and dodge the bullet attack.
A bullet that wasn't dodged merely hit an inconsequential spot.
After its speed was slightly blunted by the impact of the bullet, the Swift Walker still pounced with extremely high speed.
“Open fire! Free fire! We won’t be able to escape if we don’t take down these few Swift Walkers!”
Uncle Lin said, also raising his gun to aim.
They had already distanced themselves from the main body of the corpse tide, but the situation with the Swift Walkers clinging tightly was very tricky.
He didn't dare to gamble on how far the effective command range of that Commander was.
The only way was to completely eliminate them here.
Zhong Jing also couldn't care less that her gun didn't have a sound suppressor.
Facing the current situation, the mere addition of gunfire noise was already irrelevant.
The roars and commotion of the corpse tide had already spread throughout half of Sector 02A.
This actually served to deter many monsters from approaching this area.
As long as they dealt with these few Swift Walkers, they still had a chance.
In an instant, a metal storm whipped up by bullets flew towards the dozen or so Swift Walkers.
The Swift Walker that Crow had initially targeted failed to dodge such a large number of bullets this time.
In the blink of an eye, its body, which was charging head-on into the bullets, gained more than a dozen bullet holes.
Especially a bullet that hit its head completely severed the crystal core’s control over its body.
The Swift Walker, unable to continue the chase, fell silent.
The inertia of its speed caused it to plunge headfirst into a cracked pothole by the roadside.
However, the team’s shooting achieved very limited results.
Only two Swift Walkers running at the front were killed.
More of them dodged to the sides of the street at extremely high speeds.
Even if hit, it was only in non-critical areas.
They used the buildings as cover to evade the team’s gunfire.
“Damn Commander… Fight while retreating! Watch your surroundings! Don’t let them get close!”
These Swift Walkers intended to use the cover of the building complex to break through, to neutralize their firepower advantage.
It was obvious that only a Commander would make such an organized deployment.
The difference between it and the idiot Zhong Jing had encountered in the office building was too great.
And the terror of the Commander was manifested here, with instinct replaced by intelligence, making this hunt no longer a simple slaughter.
They absolutely could not be bogged down here.
If the main corpse tide surged up, they would truly be finished.
But the Swift Walkers naturally wouldn't let them leave just like that.
They appeared on all four sides of the team.
Only bullets could temporarily repel them, and this severely hampered the team’s withdrawal speed.
“Careful!”
Zhong Jing raised her hand and emptied the last bullets in her magazine to repel a Swift Walker that was about to pounce on Si Ling from behind.
The bullets took one of its arms, but it escaped again.
After cursing under her breath, Zhong Jing quickly reloaded another magazine.
“Don’t rush! Stay calm!” Han Nianling still aimed and fired without losing her composure in the face of danger. Although she was a researcher, her marksmanship was by no means inferior to that of professional combatants. Zhong Jing, who had witnessed her marksmanship in the office building, was quite convinced of this.
“Uncle Lin, it’s time to take it out, right? Don’t hide it anymore.”
Han Nianling said, turning her head to look at Uncle Lin.
Before Zhong Jing and the others could react, Uncle Lin had obediently taken something out of her waist pouch… Plastic explosive?
And it looked like the new type of plastic explosive Han Nianling had taken out earlier, obviously leftover from when they were setting up the explosives.
“I just saw this good stuff and wanted to bring some along.” Noticing the gazes of the other mercenaries turning towards him, Uncle Lin hurriedly said, “Stay alert!”
“The explosion just now caused a big commotion, but the yield of the detonation was off. If you want some, I can provide it to you as extra remuneration. Also…” Han Nianling changed the subject and pointed at Zhong Jing, “Stone, is there any relatively intact, open area nearby that can provide quick passage, preferably connecting two streets directly.”
“The gymnasium! There’s a civic gymnasium ahead! Going in the front door and out the back door leads to another street! And it’s open, with no cover!”
It blurted out almost without thinking.
In her urgency, her mind worked incredibly fast.
In the blink of an eye, this place that met Han Nianling's requirements appeared in her mind.