Chapter 387 - Disconnected (6)
"Can something like this even be possible?" Zhang Qin Feng had a question mark on his head from listening to the captain's report. If such a thing really happens, won't it be a re-animated top-rated Zombie Apocalypse Game from the modern world?
"There's no false in all the words I omitted, Boss." the captain quickly responded to what Zhang Qin Feng said.
"These people are dangerous, Boss. Their physique is hardly different from the zombies, but they're much more intelligent and harder to defeat. There's also a hierarchy in their social community, which makes them much harder to defeat compared to the mindless zombies and reckless Tyrants."
"A native could control a little over a hundred zombies, but the better ones could even control the Tyrants if they want." said the captain with a hint of fear shown on his face.
"Then... Any idea what is the status of the safe zone you guys created?" Zhang Qin Feng asked. This question is undoubtedly essential to determine how much access they had over weaponry, ammunition, etc.
With no access to the Dimensional Storage, Zhang Qin Feng is no different from a regular soldier. Even if he had a physique boosted by the serum to its peak right now, he's not undefeatable. All it took was still a single bite into his flesh to infect him with the same Seed Crystal Virus.
"Reporting to the Boss, we have no idea. Our survey team initially had around twenty people, which means when we were under attack, we could have split into between five to six groups to escape."
"I am not sure how many of us managed to escape, but I hope nobody is stupid enough to lead the natives back to our safe zone." said the captain.
"Next question then. Where did you find the vehicle you're using. And how come it is still working while everything else failed." Zhang Qin Feng asked.
About twenty-five kilometers towards where we came from. There's a remarkably well-preserved parking lot with all these vehicles still usable. From our initial guesses, maybe the reason it still works was that these vehicles rely on petrol-based fuel to power them." the captain answered.
His guesses actually make sense somewhat. At a place like this right now, a petrol-based vehicle was indeed the only one still capable of running.
"Actually, we're considered lucky to escape from that place because it was swarming with the virus carriers and natives. We're not sure, but it seems to be a place where the natives are guarding tightly." the captain added.
"Boss, may I interrupt?" the soldier amongst the trio crashed into the discussion as he had something to say.
"Go ahead." Zhang Qin Feng nodded.
"May I suggest we ignore the parking for now and go straight to the nearest beacon five kilometers northwest from here?" he said. Judging from his expression, he seems to have a good reason for his suggestion.
"And why is that?" Zhang Qin Feng asked. Without Stein's support, he could only rely on his feeling and experience to read what was in his mind. But Zhang Qin Feng also felt that the soldier's suggestion seems to be within reason.
"Because having the vehicle is a liability to us right now. It may reduce the time we travel around, but what about the fuel after it's depleted? We've used about half of the fuel canister that powered the car from our escape until here." said the soldier.
"That's true. It would be pointless if we grabbed the vehicles but did not have any fuel to use. But what about the beacon? How can you be sure that destroying the beacon will allow us to reaccess our wares?" Zhang Qin Feng asked.
"I can answer this, Boss." the other guy working as the operator spoke.
"Continue." Zhang Qin Feng's attention moved on to him.
"I've noticed that the beacon scattered all around us were their mean on network sharing. If my theory isn't wrong, these people still rely on technology to relay their information around. But instead of an open channel like ours, they're using a closed landline." the operator crew answered.
"So... Your meaning is..." Zhang Qin Feng understands partially what the operator meant.
"If we destroy or hack into one of the beacons, we could possibly remove the interference on all open source equipment. This way, we might regain access to all our tools, like the Luna Device for communication." said the operator.
"How confident are you in getting this done once we capture the beacon?" Zhang Qin Feng asked.
"70%, Boss... This is my first time doing something like this. The 30% remaining is because I'm not very confident with their system and how it works." the operator replied.
"Hahaha... We will still go even if you turned it around and say 30%. As long it's not a 10% success rate, we will give it a try. Rest well. Both of you will be the ones leading the way towards the beacon." Zhang Qin Feng said and left the room to them.
"Monitor them until we depart the following day. If they had any suspicious activity in the meantime, decide if they should be let alive or killed." Zhang Qin Feng said and took the staircase down.
"Roger that, creator," answered Zhang Tianci.
Early next morning, the captain of 009 Assailant-Class went into the flames along with the dead zombies and Tyrant's heads. The fire that's been burning intensely is like an announcement of war as Zhang Qin Feng gets on the vehicle.
It seems that only the operator is still alive after sleeping for the night. As for the other two, their head was chopped by Zhang Tianci the moment they crawled out of the room sneakily.
But it has no idea that their movement was inside Zhang Tianci's eyes as they finally show their actual appearance.
This also clarifies one of Zhang Qin Feng's worries that all his men on this island were compromised. Of course, this doesn't mean he will not take their advice seriously.
"Get ready! We'll attack that damn beacon today and destroy their signal interference today!" said Zhang Qin Feng as he rallied his men towards the northeast direction.