The convoy, a noisy spectacle, drove unhindered into a deserted city.
The roar of the cars was deafening, many of them modified secondhand vehicles, and the empty city amplified the engine noise infinitely.
"Hey, there must be quite a bit of supplies left in this city."
"What are you thinking? The military already scoured it once when they cleared out the zombies."
"Then I guess we might still find something. Perhaps they left behind things they didn't care for."
"Indeed. Keep your eyes peeled later. With so many people here today, it'll probably be hard to catch any mutated animals. We can't go back empty-handed."
The leader finally spoke. This trip alone had cost them a lot in fuel, and with no zombies around, they certainly couldn't return without anything.
As the cars entered the city, the obstacles on the streets increased, so everyone parked their vehicles near the city entrance.
After a group of people reorganized their equipment, they glanced at the other ability user teams around them.
When searching for supplies outside, they were all competitors. Here, without the official restriction against fighting, they needed to be wary of each other.
"Stay close, and you few chatterboxes, keep your mouths shut."
Although there were no zombies here, speaking in the empty city could still expose their whereabouts.
Therefore, the leader laid down the rules before they officially entered the city.
"Mhm."
A dozen people responded, and then, following their leader, they began to walk into the city.
Once inside the city, these ability user teams began to disperse.
These people had all heard that there were mutated wild boars here yesterday, and the teams that captured those boars yesterday had also arrived.
The group from yesterday wasn't worried about others snatching their prey. The city was vast, and finding prey would take time.
They had already earned a good amount from selling information yesterday, and if anyone else caught prey today, they could intercept and rob them.
In this era, these outdoor ability user teams wouldn't bother with morality.
This was also one of the reasons they had leaked the information yesterday.
Several groups headed in different directions of the city, their figures gradually disappearing among the abandoned buildings, leaving only their parked cars behind.
After entering the city, everyone naturally became quiet. As hunters, they knew they needed to remain silent to catch live mutated animals.
These people, armed with various weapons, moved through the city, observing their surroundings.
However, after walking for a long time, none of the teams found any trace of mutated animals. The entire abandoned city seemed eerily quiet.
Among the group that had come yesterday, the one who caught insects muttered softly, "What's going on? Why aren't there even any insects today?"
Beside him, a burly man who had just learned to weave nets from him couldn't help but speak up, holding his new net.
"Yeah, and it's too quiet here today. Yesterday, there were still insect chirps."
That's right, when they came yesterday, they could occasionally hear the sound of insects flapping their wings from the grass along the road.
But today, they had almost reached the city center, and it had been exceptionally quiet all the way.
Someone raised a question, and they all stopped their advance. Several people shivered.
It was already mid-July, and the weather had become quite hot. Some men who disliked the heat were already wearing short-sleeved shirts, but at this moment, a hint of unease and coldness spread through those people.
"Boss, we've already traded enough. Why don't we wait outside the city? If they catch any mutated animals, we can just rob them."
The leader of the team heard this and nodded. The situation here was indeed somewhat unusual compared to yesterday.
He waved his hand and led his men back towards the direction they had entered the city from.
Halfway back, in the overly quiet city, a loud explosion suddenly erupted.
It sounded like some kind of explosion, and the sound traveled far in the empty city.
Everyone who had entered the city heard it.
However, before they could react, the deafening explosions continued incessantly.
The rumbling explosions sounded very much like... the explosions from cars colliding...
"It seems to be from the direction we came from?"
Standing on the road, they could gradually see plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky.
That patch of black smoke was indeed where they had parked their cars.
For a moment, all the ability user teams in the city turned their direction and headed back the way they came.
Without their cars, they wouldn't be able to return to the capital city today, even if they managed to haul back prey or supplies.
However, they were somewhat worried about staying overnight in a non-protected area.
Another reason was that their cars were all modified, and such vehicles were difficult to come by in the apocalypse.
Everyone quickened their pace towards the location of the black smoke.
Behind one of the teams, shortly after they had turned back, the person at the very end suddenly disappeared without a sound.
A moment later, following this pattern, three or four people from that team vanished one after another.
Finally, someone wanted to chat with the person behind them, and when they turned their head, they discovered that there was no one behind them.
They clearly remembered that they were not the last person in the team.
"You guys wait..."
The person stammered, but as soon as they finished speaking, they too quickly disappeared.
The remaining few people at the front of the team heard someone speak and stopped to look back.
However, this one glance made the members of this team show expressions of astonishment.
Their team had thirteen people, but only five were standing together now.
Where had the rest of them gone?
"That was Lai Zi speaking. Where's Lai Zi?"
The leader looked at everyone and asked in confusion.
What answered him was something that made the remaining few even more terrified.
As they looked, several figures were swaying out from the grass, though their movements were not fast.
When they got closer, these people said to the person closest to them, "Lai Zi, can't you hurry up?"
The one called Lai Zi didn't answer and walked straight towards the crowd, but his speed seemed to have increased.
However, as they got closer, everyone finally saw clearly.
Those figures were indeed members of their team, but the exposed skin on those people was now a ghastly pale.
That was the appearance of zombies.
The sound of "bang bang bang" gunshots, accompanied by screams, erupted at this moment.