Escaping for His Life

Outside the ruins of Jiao City, a modified off-road vehicle drove into the urban area from the vast wilderness.

This off-road vehicle was inlaid with a large amount of steel plates, and the bumper at the front of the vehicle had been replaced with sharp ramming horns, stained with blood and rotten flesh.

It was clear that this off-road vehicle did not have an easy time getting here.

The vehicle finally stopped at the entrance of the main road leading into Jiao City. The road further in was blocked by a large number of abandoned cars, making it impassable even for the modified off-road vehicle.

The engine was turned off, and four young men and women wearing bulletproof vests and holding firearms got out of the car.

The leader was a strong man with a scar on his face, carrying a large saber over a meter long. The remaining two men and one woman held assault rifles, looking nervously at the ruined city before them.

"Is this Jiao City?"

"This is already the largest ruined city around the Seventy-Third Settlement."

"It is said that the Seventy-Third Settlement once tried to reclaim Jiao City, sending over three hundred Transcendent Zombies into Jiao City. As a result, they encountered more than three Zombie Kings hunting them.

A fifth-order expert from the Seventy-Third Settlement perished, and the Transcendent Zombies suffered heavy casualties. Since then, no one has dared to rashly propose a plan to reclaim Jiao City."

"The few of us have just stepped into the first order of Transcendent Zombies. Brother Li is a third-order expert. Can we really venture into these Jiao City ruins?"

The three discussed amongst themselves, clearly having heard about the danger level of the ruined city before them.

Only Li Kang, the leader, had a calm expression, saying nonchalantly:

"Since I brought you here, I naturally have the confidence to retreat safely.

I lived on the outskirts of the Jiao City ruins for three years and am very familiar with the distribution of Transcendent Zombies in the surrounding areas.

The more concentrated the zombies are in Jiao City, the more likely it is that powerful Transcendent Zombies will be born. However, as long as you don't approach the inner ring of the city, the zombies you encounter are generally below the third order.

Third-order zombies and the ordinary zombies on the outskirts don't pose much of a threat to us. As long as we are careful to avoid getting infected with Zombie Poison, we can easily handle them."

As he spoke, Li Kang strode towards the Jiao City ruins. The three behind him exchanged glances and then cautiously followed Li Kang.

The four walked along the silent city streets, where abandoned cars were piled everywhere. One of the young men looked at a relatively intact car with some excitement, trying to search for things.

"Don't waste your effort. Anything you can see has already been rummaged through by who knows how many scavengers. It's impossible to leave anything valuable behind.

The real treasures in the ruined city are hidden in the buildings closer to the urban area.

There are likely zombies lurking inside those buildings that can block sunlight. Scavengers don't dare to approach them easily, so some supplies can be preserved."

Hearing this, the young man's interest immediately diminished by more than half.

Among the few people, the only young woman asked cautiously:

"Jiao City has been fallen for eleven years. Even if there were resources like food in this city, they would have expired long ago. What exactly are we here to look for?"

Li Kang moved a scrapped car blocking the road and replied casually:

"Canned goods, tools, gasoline, cigarettes, alcohol... Jiao City was a large city with millions of residents. Its resources are far richer than your limited understanding.

Some properly stored canned goods, cigarettes, and alcohol can be kept for decades. These things are what the upper-class big shots lack the most.

Zombie Poison has contaminated too much land, and the remaining clean land and existing industrial conditions are already the limit for supporting the survivors in the settlement. There is no extra capacity to produce other luxury goods. These luxury goods from before the apocalypse are extremely expensive."

As they gradually went deeper into the urban area, Li Kang and the others arrived in front of a large supermarket.

Raising his head to look at the dead silent supermarket before him, Li Kang's brows furrowed tightly.

"Brother Li, aren't we going in?"

Li Kang suddenly sneered, pointing at the supermarket in front of him and said, "In a large supermarket like this, there would normally be at least dozens of zombies inside.

Can you believe that so many zombies wouldn't smell us?"

"There's no sound inside the supermarket. It must be an intelligent Transcendent Zombie that has detected our presence and is using some special transcendent ability to suppress sound, deliberately luring us in!"

The two men immediately showed expressions of sudden realization and praised one after another:

"As expected of Brother Li."

"If it weren't for Brother Li, we might really have fallen into the Transcendent Zombie's trap if we had rushed in."

Only the woman beside them frowned. As a first-order transcendent, her awakened transcendent ability was related to life detection. She could sense that there were indeed no living creatures inside the supermarket.

The woman was about to speak, but seeing the two men praising Li Kang's rich experience, she began to doubt her own detection and could only swallow her words back down.

The group continued to explore the surrounding area, but something unexpected happened.

Whether it was the abandoned supermarket, the shopping mall in the building, or the shops on the street, they were all dead silent.

Only one or two places could be explained by the methods of Transcendent Zombies, but all places were like this, making everyone have to suspect that something had happened in Jiao City.

Even Li Kang no longer had his initial ease, and his expression became increasingly solemn.

"How about we leave?"

In the team, the voice of the only female transcendent sounded.

Li Kang's expression was calm and he didn't speak, but the young man beside him retorted with displeasure:

"We finally made it to Jiao City, and we used up a lot of gasoline along the way. Are we just going to return empty-handed?"

"If we're really going to leave, we should explore a resource area first."

As soon as the words fell, the four suddenly felt the ground they were standing on constantly shaking.

"What happened?"

As the questioning voice just sounded, the four saw a scene they would never forget in their lives.

At the end of their vision, all the zombies went against their habits and appeared outside under the scorching sun.

Tens of thousands of zombies, like a tide, crossed the streets of the city and rushed towards this place.

Running at the very front was a giant zombie whose body exceeded ten meters. Its tall and mighty body completely ignored the buildings in the city. The tall buildings were as fragile as building blocks in front of it.

Its body crashed through buildings, its footsteps crushed the cars blocking its path, and with one step, it could cross a distance of dozens of meters, like a giant from legends.

Seeing this scene, even Li Kang could not suppress the fear in his heart.

"Zombie King! It's the Zombie King!"

Only powerful zombies that command tens of thousands of zombies and whose strength reaches above the fourth order are qualified to be called Zombie Kings, capable of easily destroying a small settlement.

They could not imagine how a scavenging team of only four people could attract such a terrifying creature.

In front of such a powerful creature, the scavenging team didn't even dare to entertain any thoughts of resistance. They could only watch helplessly as the giant Zombie King charged towards them, and then... brushed past them.

It's not coming for us?

Doubt rose in Li Kang's heart, followed immediately by the female transcendent's voice speaking again.

"They... seem to be running for their lives."

As her words fell, the entire sky instantly darkened, and a black mist that blotted out the sun swallowed everything.