As cheers erupted within the base, many others watched the direction of the explosion in the city center. Numerous survivors had witnessed the scene of missiles streaking across the sky and landing in the heart of the city. This filled them with joy and tears, believing the army had finally come to their rescue and that they would escape their suffering.
For over a month, survivors in the city had been barely surviving in this place. Without electricity, they had to burn firewood for cooking and warmth. Many valuable pieces of furniture were destroyed. In times of peace, these were highly sought-after items, but in this chaotic era, no matter how valuable the furniture, it was just furniture. Anything that could provide warmth could be chopped up.
Those who survived held onto one belief: the country would come to save them. Therefore, no matter how difficult it became, the survivors persevered. If there was no water, they collected rainwater. If there was no light, they lit furniture. In short, everyone held on to life to see the day when light would appear, and now, the appearance of missiles gave everyone hope.
Ren Jing stood by the window with his men, watching the smoke and dust rise into the sky from the city. He was stunned, murmuring, "Missiles! Missiles are here!"
Ren Jing knew he couldn't withstand a missile bombardment, and neither could the zombies, as they were also made of flesh and blood. Why should they be able to withstand a missile strike? The hotel standing in the city was the tallest building there. At this very moment, the hotel collapsed with a roar, kicking up a massive amount of dust. Even in the pouring rain, this dust billowed into the sky. The missile had successfully hit the base of the hotel, destroying its foundation, and the hotel finally fell.
Just as everyone believed victory was imminent, a change occurred among the zombies in the city center. All nearby mobile zombies began to gather, converging towards the city center. Zombies that were too weak to stand due to dehydration also struggled to crawl towards the city center. They had received orders to assemble rapidly at the city center and were approaching it regardless of the cost.
This scene unfolded in the city, immediately drawing the attention of many survivors. What was happening with so many zombies gathering?
"Follow me and march out to kill all the zombies in Luzhou!" Shen Feng commanded, drawing his sword and leading the combat team out. Although it was raining, the combat team members were all filled with fervor. The recapture of Luzhou was today; how could they not be excited?
Shen Feng quickly led his men. Over a thousand people held relatively primitive cold weapons. It was the twenty-first century, yet everyone present could only charge forward with cold weapons. If this were abroad, tanks would likely have been deployed by now. Of course, in such places, unity was difficult to achieve because everyone had guns, so why should they obey someone else?
In short, firearms were prohibited in the country. In peacetime, it was difficult for conflicts to escalate. However, once a disaster struck, it was difficult for ordinary people to obtain weapons.
Currently, most of the zombies in Luzhou city were infected with dysentery. Zombies did not take medicine, and it was unknown how to prevent dysentery. Thus, they could only watch as the water in their bodies continuously drained away. Many zombies suffering from dehydration died, and the dead zombies were subsequently eaten by their own kind. The remaining zombies were mostly immobile due to dehydration. Facing the combat team members who charged into the city to fight, these zombies could only struggle to advance.
"Kill!" Shen Feng drew his long sword and thrust it into a zombie's body. The combat team members behind him also charged forward, engaging the zombies in combat. For zombies that couldn't even stand, a single strike was enough to finish them. Currently, all the zombies could only lie on the ground to be slaughtered.
Dysentery was not easily cured, and it was impossible to simply stand up after drinking a little clean water. Therefore, Shen Feng knew they had ample time to act, but they still needed to hurry. They had to eliminate all the zombies in the city in the shortest possible time to consider the entire city of Luzhou recaptured.
Li Minghua chopped down a zombie with a swift stroke of his blade. He then continued to direct the team members behind him, saying, "Don't make any unnecessary movements when killing zombies. Aim for the head with one strike, then keep moving forward. We have an important mission today and cannot afford delays."
The combat team members no longer felt fear while fighting the zombies, as these zombies could not even organize a proper charge, let alone surround them. Thus, the more than a thousand people charged into the city like a sharp blade, continuously advancing.
At this time, the rain gradually stopped. Although the sky was still overcast, it was no longer raining.
Chang Jianyi also quickly organized personnel to charge into the city to seize advantageous terrain. The recapture of Luzhou had officially begun, rendering the base less useful. The future base would inevitably be located within the city, and the rescued people would eventually be resettled in the city. As for the base on Hezhou, it would be abandoned.
Shen Feng led his men in their charge, penetrating deep into the city center. Along the paths they took, zombies lay dead everywhere. Currently, the zombies had lost almost all their ability to resist. Facing the charge led by Shen Feng and his men, they were completely unable to resist, and could only be killed one by one.
Shen Feng's objective was simple: the area near the hotel. Shen Feng intended to confirm if the Corpse King was still alive. If he could find it, Shen Feng planned to decapitate the Corpse King and use its head to concoct a potion. Shen Feng currently lacked the support of firearms, so he had to find ways to compensate through potions. Shen Feng intended to have a thousand evolved individuals as his subordinates first. With so many evolved individuals as subordinates, it would be enough to manage the entire city.
However, at this moment, Shen Feng felt a tremor, seemingly originating from the direction of the hotel. Instantly, everyone felt a sense of unease. This tremor seemed unusual; only when a large number of zombies moved together would such a violent tremor occur. Could it be that some zombies still possessed combat capabilities?
Shen Feng handed over command to Yang Chang and then used "Rushing Wind Movement" to advance rapidly, ignoring the dehydrated zombies along the way. After advancing several hundred meters, Shen Feng suddenly discovered a large number of zombies ahead. These zombies' pants were indeed dirty, meaning they had also contracted dysentery, but their mobility was not affected. This indicated that the severity of their dysentery was not serious, allowing them to still move.
But the question arose: why had these zombies suddenly become active?
Shen Feng quickly climbed to the rooftop and gazed into the distance. He was shocked to see dense crowds of zombies gathering in the distance, moving towards the combat team. The end of the horde was nowhere in sight. There were at least tens of thousands of zombies! Moreover, these zombies were operating in an organized manner, which meant the Corpse King might not be dead!
Shen Feng quickly returned to the team and said to Yang Chang, "Return to the base immediately and organize a defense line. Tens of thousands of zombies are charging over. These are all combat-capable zombies. I need to find the footage to figure out if the Corpse King is dead. You take the people back now!"
"Could the Corpse King not be dead?" Yang Chang was shocked. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to withstand a missile. Surely, no animal on Earth could survive a missile strike. Could the Corpse King achieve such a feat?
Shen Feng wanted to understand the entire situation, so he prepared to go to the building where the cameras were placed. As long as he could find the footage, Shen Feng was confident he could ascertain the Corpse King's condition. Originally, the cameras were placed to capture the spectacular moment of the missile landing, but now, they could be used to confirm the Corpse King's status.
Yang Chang had no choice. The situation was completely unclear, so he could only follow the guild leader's orders and lead his men back to the base, hoping the footage would resolve their doubts. Most importantly, there were still tens of thousands of combat-capable zombies in the city, which was not good. With so many zombies, the base only had fifteen thousand people, many of whom were the elderly, weak, sick, or disabled, making it impossible to withstand tens of thousands of zombies!
Shen Feng passed through the zombie horde, using "Rushing Wind Movement" to reach the building where the cameras were installed. This was originally an office building, but after the zombie outbreak, the office building became useless. However, because it was close to the hotel, Shen Feng had his eye on it, believing it to be the most suitable location for observing the Corpse King's movements.
Shen Feng found the camera fixed to the window. Fortunately, the camera was not broken and was still working. Shen Feng breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the camera was still there, he would eventually be able to understand the Corpse King's situation.
Since he was already here, Shen Feng also took a look at the hotel. The dozens-of-story hotel had already collapsed. It seemed the hotel could not withstand the missile attack, which made Shen Feng even more puzzled. If even the hotel couldn't withstand the missile attack, how did the Corpse King survive? Could it be that there were multiple Corpse Kings?
Afterward, Shen Feng quickly returned to the base, but time was running out. Based on the zombies' speed of advance, the horde would reach the dam within an hour at most. At the base, everyone watched Shen Feng anxiously, asking, "What happened?"
Originally, Chang Jianyi had been organizing personnel to seize important areas, but unexpectedly, Yang Chang quickly led the combat team back. Everyone then realized zombies were charging over, and their expressions changed. Could it be that even missiles couldn't eliminate the enemy zombies?
Shen Feng took out the camera from his person and said, "We'll play back the scene of the missile explosion later, and then we'll know what happened. Everyone come to the office. Let's first understand the sequence of events, and then quickly discuss what to do!"
Everyone quickly went to the office and began watching the playback. The video was rapidly advanced to the moment of the missile explosion. At this point, everyone discovered that the mutated zombies had already arrived outside the hotel, meaning that when the missile landed, the Corpse King had likely already left the hotel, thus narrowly avoiding the missile attack!
Shen Feng continued, "Advance the footage a bit to see when the zombies started leaving the hotel."
Thus, the video was advanced, and finally, everyone discovered that as early as seven o'clock, the mutated zombies had begun leaving the hotel. The zombies surrounded by the mutated zombies appeared unremarkable but were strictly protected. This zombie was small in stature, resembling a speed-type zombie, but its head was particularly large. The width of its head was comparable to the width of its shoulders.
"Could this zombie have precognition? Otherwise, how did these zombies happen to leave the hotel and precisely avoid the missile attack?" Li Minghua couldn't help but ask.
Hearing this, Shen Feng disagreed, saying, "How could zombies have precognition? Something relevant must have happened at that time, which is why these zombies came out of the hotel. And this zombie with the large head should be the Corpse King!"
Luo Qing suddenly remembered and said, "It was raining at the time. Could it be because of this that the Corpse King left the hotel?"
Yu Renshu heard Luo Qing's words and immediately reacted, saying, "That's right, the reason the zombies are moving is because it's raining! The reason these zombies can maintain their combat effectiveness is that they are far from nearby water sources, so they are particularly dehydrated. With hundreds of thousands of zombies crowded together, they have no way to get water. Therefore, the zombies remained stationary around the hotel. But now that it's raining, the zombies around the hotel have had the opportunity to replenish their water. Thus, these zombies have prepared for an attack and are about to set off!"
Shen Feng looked at the zombies on the screen and felt a headache coming on. "In other words, the rain, which we thought was unrelated, caused the zombies to prepare for an attack, leading them to leave the hotel, resulting in the Corpse King's survival. What a twist of fate!"
Previously, everyone had fallen into a misconception: they believed that as long as the Corpse King stayed in the hotel and was successfully killed, the missile would kill him. But they had forgotten one point: why would the Corpse King stay in the hotel without moving? The reason was simple: the zombies did not have enough water to replenish. Now that it was raining, it gave the Corpse King a reason to leave!
Unfortunately, this fact was discovered too late. There was only one missile, and besides destroying a building and killing hundreds of zombies, it achieved nothing else.