Discrepancies with the Plan

"The sense of smell is mainly for close-range capture; for long distances, it still relies on hearing. My eyesight is equivalent to severe myopia, used to assist smell in hunting."

Tao Yu dodged several zombies and arrived next to a wine-red house on the outskirts of the city.

The building was about six or seven stories high, with a metal staircase and railings resembling a fire escape on the side. Below it were trash cans emitting a stench of decay.

Tao Yu looked up and saw a zombie stuck on the metal walkway railing on the third floor. For now, that was the only one he could see.

He exerted force with his feet, leaped, and hooked his hand, grabbing the metal fire escape railing. He easily flipped himself up.

The creaking of the metal attracted the attention of the zombie on the third floor. Before it could react, Tao Yu, who had just arrived, kicked it down the stairs.

Then, he quickly ascended the building and reached the rooftop.

There was a corpse on the roof. Upon closer inspection, one could see an open gunshot wound on its head, but it was mostly desiccated, with no flies around.

"It must have been a long time ago. I'll go check that place where the curtains were lifted first. It would be best to find a local resident to talk to."

As long as they weren't Fragment natives, he could accept intelligent zombies or pioneers.

He could also exchange some information with the pioneers.

Estimating the gaps and distances between the houses, Tao Yu sprinted briefly.

His powerful physique, combined with the dismantling movements of the Five Forms Fist Technique, made Tao Yu move like a highly compressed spring.

He easily leaped over the alleyways between the houses with his backpack, landing on the opposite side.

Once he found his rhythm, he began to accelerate continuously, like parkour.

The alleyways between ordinary buildings posed no obstacle. As he passed by zombies, he'd swat them away with a raised hand. His palm, covered by anti-stab gloves, struck like a bear's paw, sending the zombies flying like rags.

Running, vaulting, sliding, jumping, rolling – even with fifty kilograms of supplies on his back, Tao Yu moved more agilely than a seasoned parkour practitioner.

"Seventh floor, seven o'clock direction."

As Tao Yu raced across the rooftops, feeling the wind rush past his ears, he would occasionally scan the buildings he had previously identified.

While he was on the move, people were still observing from those windows from time to time, but they didn't spot Tao Yu on the roof.

"At least the Inner City pioneers can be ruled out."

Tao Yu made a simple judgment based on the strength of Yosef and Winuo. Even though he was moving on the rooftops, if they were newcomers from the Inner City, they should have been able to spot him easily.

Even though he had previously felt that people from the Inner City wouldn't care much about the gains here, being able to rule them out further increased his control.

Even now, compared to Yosef and Winuo back then, he still lacked the ability to confront them head-on.

Swish~

His tactical shoe soles scraped against the surface as Tao Yu abruptly slowed down, stopping at the edge of the rooftop.

What lay before him now wasn't the alleyways he had been traversing, but a four-lane road forming a T-junction with the road he had entered from.

The hotel where the person Tao Yu had identified was located was diagonally across the road.

As Tao Yu stepped onto the edge of the rooftop, fully exposing himself, the person observing from behind the curtain finally spotted him.

Tao Yu met the unseen gaze, causing the observer to hastily retreat from the window in alarm.

Not long after, it seemed like a different person appeared at the window. They lifted the curtain and met Tao Yu's gaze – a bald, tattooed, burly man who looked very strong.

Tao Yu was fully clad in tactical gear, wearing a tactical helmet and a backpack, armed to the teeth.

His appearance alone was quite imposing. Seeing this, the other man simply pulled the curtain aside and made a few hand gestures.

However, Tao Yu couldn't understand what his abstract gestures meant.

Realizing communication was impossible, the burly man pointed upwards with his finger, then placed his finger on his lips, making a universal gesture for silence, before leaving the window.

This time, Tao Yu roughly understood what he wanted to convey: he was probably preparing to come up to the rooftop and wanted Tao Yu not to make any noise.

As expected, not long after, three figures appeared on the rooftop.

Although their outfits varied, Tao Yu could generally determine that they were not pioneers from the Outer City.

It wasn't that Outer City pioneers didn't have good clothes, but they usually carried their own backpacks and belongings, and even if they had good clothes, they would piece together various items into strange outfits.

That kind of demeanor was easy to judge.

Among the three who came up were the bald white man, a tall black man carrying a shotgun and a handgun, and what looked like a crossbow on his back.

But the most unusual thing was that the person walking at the front was an Asian with a large nose and a scar on his face, seemingly their leader.

The key point was that Tao Yu's eyesight allowed him to see the Asian's features clearly from this distance, and he found him surprisingly familiar.

What's going on?

Uncle Long from the furniture store with the big nose?

Did he star in a zombie movie?

Although the Asian had a deep scar on his face, making him look somewhat ferocious, there was no doubt it was that big-nosed Uncle Long.

This was the first time Tao Yu had encountered a local native in the Abyss Fragments, and he hadn't expected to run into such a "big event" on his first meeting!

Upon seeing the big-nosed Uncle Long, Tao Yu felt a vague sense of foreboding.

This world was not as simple as just a zombie world!

This guy definitely hasn't acted in a zombie movie!

Thinking of the giant python that had been infected by the alien, Tao Yu had some guesses in his heart.

At this moment, the three people on the rooftop had already crossed the distance of an alley and jumped onto the rooftop opposite Tao Yu. Then, the Asian man who looked like Uncle Long with a big nose kept waving at Tao Yu, signaling him to retreat.

After that, Tao Yu saw the tall black man pull out a crossbow bolt from behind him. A rope was attached to the crossbow bolt, and Tao Yu immediately understood.

He lowered his head and glanced at the not-too-dense zombies on the street, as well as the roughly twenty-meter width of the road plus sidewalk in front of him.

Tao Yu actually felt that it would be faster to just go down and climb up.

But after thinking about it, he didn't make that choice.

Bzzzz~

The crossbow bolt shot over, piercing the water tank on the rooftop.

The bald, tattooed white man on the opposite side also made a pulling motion towards Tao Yu.

Tao Yu went over and checked that it wasn't very tight. He directly pulled out the arrow, then tied the rope to the water tank rack with a knot that looked like a tow hitch. After tightening it, he signaled for them to pull hard.

Soon, the rope was pulled taut, and it was tied to something on the other side.

Without any hesitation, Tao Yu grabbed the rope with both hands and quickly moved across, alternating his grip.

However, Tao Yu still paid attention to the other side while moving.

Although Uncle Long's role was usually very righteous, he wouldn't completely entrust his safety to others.

If he concentrated now, even if they suddenly shot at him, he could still maneuver with Bullet Time.

If he fell from this height, he could land on a car roof by swinging his backpack to adjust his trajectory.

As Tao Yu reached the other side, the thing he was guarding against didn't happen.

It was just that the tall black man and the bald white man were holding their guns defensively with wary expressions.

Tao Yu's gear, coupled with his strength to easily traverse the rope with just his hands while carrying weight, had made them appropriately cautious.

In this apocalypse, people were sometimes more terrifying than zombies.

"Hello, my name is Jack. For now, I'm kind of the leader of this survivor base. Friend, your gear is pretty good. Where did you get it?"

Uncle Long introduced himself first in English, probing with his question. The scar on his face twitched as he spoke, making him look somewhat fierce.

Jack?

Tao Yu didn't have much of an impression. It was a very common American name, likely from a Hollywood movie. Compared to names like Chan Ka Kui, it felt quite unfamiliar.

But he quickly replied in passable English, "I came from the south. What exactly is going on here?"

Tao Yu didn't know if they had contacted the Pioneers, but from the radio information, he could tell that they had noticed the grasslands and rainforests to the south.

The Pioneers didn't have any requirements for secrecy from the natives within the Fragment, but most of the time, they would try to maximize their informational advantage