Taking the bait

Early the next morning.

The mist over the wasteland had yet to clear, and the gray-white sky hung low.

The abandoned Benevolence Hospital was as silent as a ghost town. Aside from the occasional zombie roar drifting in from afar, there was not a sound.

Inside the RV, Lin Hui sat in the driver's seat, toying with the communicator he had looted from the goateed man and listening in on the Feral Wolf Guild.

As planned, Liu Xi had already driven the battered level 1 bus away from the hospital.

Meanwhile, Bai Ling crouched in the open space beside the RV, "feeding" a busload of low-tier zombies.

"Eat up, eat up. You need full bellies to get any work done."

She deftly sliced open a zombie's belly with her scalpel, stuffed an Anti-Tank Mine modified by Su Qingqian inside, and stitched it shut. The scene was bizarre yet strangely harmonious.

The scalpel in Bai Ling's hand was an Extraordinary Item, and exceptionally sharp!

Lin Hui looked away and took a deep breath.

"Qingqian, activate the [Voiceprint Simulator]."

"Understood. Hu Wei's voiceprint model-the goateed man, Number Three-has been loaded. Similarity: 100%," Su Qingqian's voice came through his earpiece.

Lin Hui pressed the green button on the communicator and adjusted his posture. He even ran in place with his knees raised a few times to make his breathing ragged and erratic.

Everything was ready.

"Bzzzt-"

"Guys! Help me!"

Lin Hui screamed into the communicator, his voice filled with panic, despair, and a tremor born of overwhelming excitement.

That hoarse voice, roughened by cigarettes and alcohol, sounded exactly like Hu Wei had come back to life.

The channel went silent for several seconds.

Then that steady, cold male voice quickly came through. "Number Three? It's Number Two! Why is there so much static on your end? What's going on?"

"I'm in trouble!!"

Lin Hui panted heavily, speaking in a frantic rush. "I just... huff, huff... attacked a convoy! I only wanted to score some loot, but... but guess what I got!!"

"What?" The voice on the other end immediately tensed.

"Blue titanium alloy!! Thirty whole units of blue titanium alloy!!"

Lin Hui's voice shot up an octave, cracking at just the right moment.

"And... I heard the poor bastard I killed begging for his life before he died. He said his boss had a... a Lv.6 Vehicle Upgrade Blueprint!!"

Dead silence.

A full five seconds passed before Number Two's voice came through the communicator, unable to contain his excitement.

"Number Three!! Are you sure it's blue titanium alloy?! And a Lv.6 blueprint?!"

"Number Three, is this for real?!" another voice chimed in. It belonged to another deputy hall master.

"Absolutely! That poor bastard probably wasn't lying!! He even showed me a photo!!"

Lin Hui kept up his performance, even remembering to slap his thigh hard for a sound effect.

"But... they've got a Lv.5 heavy combat vehicle equipped with a Reconnaissance Radar. They spotted me just as I was about to ambush them!!

My vehicle can't take much more! Come back me up!! If we pull this off, our Azure Wolf Hall will have a level 6 vehicle!!"

Boom-

To make it convincing, Su Qingqian cooperated by detonating several grenades in the distance.

"Ah!! They're catching up!! Hurry, guys!"

"Bzzzt..."

Lin Hui abruptly cut the transmission.

The instant he put down the communicator, his award-worthy expression of terror vanished, replaced by the cold smile of a hunter watching his prey fall into a trap.

"Blue titanium alloy. A level 6 blueprint."

Looking at the blinking red dot on the radar display on his central control screen, Lin Hui chuckled. "Let's see you resist that bait."

To make the lie more convincing.

At that very moment, Liu Xi was tearing across the wasteland in the battered level 1 bus, creating a moving signal trail as she headed straight for the abandoned Benevolence Hospital.

Meanwhile.

On a stretch of rocky ground two hundred kilometers from Benevolence Hospital.

A large convoy had stopped there to rest. Twenty or thirty modified armed vehicles stood like a pack of steel wolves, radiating murderous menace.

At the very center of the convoy sat a massive Lv.5 modified armored personnel carrier.

A Reconnaissance Radar and a Gatling gun had been mounted on its roof, and red skull designs covered its thick armor.

Inside the vehicle.

A man with a buzz cut sat on a leather sofa, playing with a bloodstained dagger.

He was Yang Antong, the master of the Feral Wolf Guild's Azure Wolf Hall.

He had a highly distinctive face, somewhat resembling An Zhijie, the martial arts star known for playing villains. In particular, the scar stretching from the corner of his mouth to his ear made his smile look exceptionally vicious and brutal.

At the moment, he was in a very good mood.

Several trembling survivors knelt at his feet.

"Don't... don't kill me..." a female player sobbed pitifully, her clothes disheveled.

Yang Antong grinned, revealing a mouthful of large, tobacco-yellowed teeth.

Ignoring the woman's pleas, he grabbed a male player beside her and expertly strapped a ticking black device to his chest.

"Run."

Yang Antong patted the male player's face and grinned viciously. "This is a time bomb. You've got five minutes. If you can run two kilometers, it'll disarm automatically. If you can't... bang! You become fireworks."

"Run!!!"

Scared out of his wits, the male player scrambled out through the door and sprinted into the wasteland.

Through the window, Yang Antong watched the desperately fleeing figure, his eyes filled with twisted pleasure.

Just then, "Number Three's" cries for help came through the communicator.

The moment he heard the words "blue titanium alloy" and "Lv.6 blueprint," Yang Antong's mocking expression froze.

He abruptly sat upright and drove the dagger into the table with a thunk.

"Blue titanium alloy... a level 6 blueprint?!"

His breathing grew heavy, and his eyes lit up with naked greed.

As the owner of a Lv.5 vehicle, he knew all too well what those two things meant.

Even the strongest vehicles owned by the current top players were only Lv.6.

The key to reaching Lv.6 was a Lv.6 blueprint, along with its rare core material: blue titanium alloy!

A Lv.6 vehicle would no longer be merely an armed vehicle, but a true Land Cruiser capable of launching small missiles. That was a genuine qualitative leap!

"Hall master..." a sexy woman beside him with long, wavy curls said hesitantly. "Could this be a trap?"

"A trap?"

Yang Antong sneered, his gaze contemptuous. "Who in this region would dare set a trap for me? Besides, I know Number Three. He's tough as nails. He'd never lie to me!"

More importantly, he did not want to let this opportunity slip away.

Ever since the current guild master, Zhang Yaoyang, had successfully seized power, he had kept the hall masters under his thumb, afraid history would repeat itself!

Unless Yang Antong relied on himself, who knew how many years it would take him to upgrade to Lv.6?

If he could upgrade his vehicle to level 6, he could strike out on his own, or even turn around and swallow up the Feral Wolf Guild!

"The power to launch missiles..." Yang Antong licked his lips, desire overcoming that insignificant trace of doubt.

Besides, he had absolute confidence in his own strength.

A Lv.5 heavy combat vehicle, a fully armed convoy, and his specialization ability-even if it really was a trap, he was confident he could crush everything in his path!

"Pass on my orders!"

Yang Antong sprang to his feet and shouted into the communicator. "Number Two, take the main force to rendezvous in Cauldron City as planned!"

"I'll go meet Number Three myself!!"

As he watched the red dot representing "Number Three" on the radar, a crazed smile curled Yang Antong's lips.

Just then, a muffled boom sounded in the distance.

The male player who had run off exploded into a cloud of bloody mist, still several hundred meters short of the two-kilometer mark.

Without so much as a glance, Yang Antong kicked the door open.

"Move out!!"

A small convoy of twenty-five fully armed, elite modified vehicles tore toward Benevolence Hospital, led by Yang Antong's massive armored vehicle.