Chapter 881: Counting the Results

As the fighting went on from morning to noon, it was finally over.

The city had been cleared, or at least the streets were fully cleared for now. The road and the sidewalks were filled with zombie corpses.

Piles upon piles were being burned in the open, with dark smoke coming out of every part and every section of the city.

Every soldier walking by was wearing a mask, with some even holding flamethrowers as they blasted the flames at the zombie corpses.

"A single day and we cleared the city... Houqin, how much ammo do we have left?"

Xiaoyun asked as he sat in his chair inside the HQ tent, his tense face looking down at the sandbox that was covered in green flags.

There were few to no red flags left. There were only yellow flags indicating ongoing contested territory against the zombies.

"Enough for each soldier to have a single and a half mag... We’re going to need to wait for a day or two before ammo arrives."

"That’s fine."

As Xiaoyun looked over to the map, the right side of Zhuhai district up to Macao was mostly cleared, leaving the left side still remaining untapped.

"How many people died today?"

"Four from an invisible mutant, and two from a tank mutant that threw a massive light pole, and twenty from various kinds of mutants."

Twenty-six losses in Xiaoyun’s eyes wasn’t that bad for how much progress they made. But the thought of soldiers dying still aches his heart.

"Xiaoyun, a kind heart cannot command an army."

"I know that. You don’t have to remind me... Tell the Colonels to prepare. They are focused on the countryside until ammo arrives."

"Yes, sir."

Houqin didn’t speak up again as she walked out of the tent, leaving Xiaoyun all alone as he silently sat in his seat.

"Commander! General Lingang had reported unusual activity!"

As a radio operator ran inside the tent, Xiaoyun was immediately snapped out of his thoughts as he signaled him to calm down.

"Take a sip of water first... What unusual activity?"

"Somebody had tried to blow up the bridges. He stated that there was a loud explosion across from the other side of Shenzhen."

"A loud explosion?"

Xiaoyun’s mind tried to think of a reason, but he couldn’t really come up with one that would make any logical sense.

"Why would they try to stop us from advancing...?"

"Oh, I almost forgot. General Lingang said he wasn’t sure if it was zombies or humans who had tried doing it."

"I see, thank you."

The weird comment confused Xiaoyun even more, but he nodded his head to signal the radio operator out of the tent.

"Why would he suggest zombies? There has to be some sort of reasoning behind such a suggestion, right?"

The more Xiaoyun thought of it, the more he suspected the reasoning behind the explosion to be much more complex.

"Whatever..."

Just as Xiaoyun shifted his attention back to the task at hand, the tent flaps were once again opened.

"Commander! General Han Bang has reported that Colonel Li Miao has cleared Shanghen town and is heading towards Lianzhou town."

"Did he say anything else?"

"Um, no, sir."

"I see. Thank you."

As the 2nd radio operator left the tent, Xiaoyun quickly looked back over to the map, where 1/5th of the Zhuhai administrative district as a whole had been cleared.

"Maybe I really can do this in a week."

---

As the next few days flew by, the progress in Zhuhai’s district continued to speed up.

From inland to the very edge of the Pacific Ocean, they had cleared both the metropolitan part of the city and the rural area alike.

The only remaining part was the small islands across the Pearl River Delta and a few edge towns that were a matter of time.

"You see that building over there?"

"Yeah."

Both Xiaoyun and Houqin were standing on top of a skyscraper, with soldiers still gathering corpses of zombies to be burned down below in the streets.

"That’s the famous Macao casino. One of the biggest gambling rings... You ever been to Macao?" Xiaoyun questioned.

"Nope. Never been there... Although my parent went there for their honeymoon once when they were first married."

Xiaoyun quickly looked through the binoculars, only to see the city itself looked dead—no signs of humans or zombies on the streets.

Only a few burnt cars and a few buildings with SOS posters out the windows.

Most of the city looked to be intact, with little to no damage. If it wasn’t for the lack of light, the city itself looked near perfect.

It was almost as if the outbreak had never happened there.

"Where are all the zombies?" Houqin questioned curiously as she looked all around with her own binoculars.

"No clue... Maybe I should send a scouting team first."

"Commander, Colonel Pinli is heading towards Nanshui town... He’s requesting speedboats to finish the last remaining bit."

"Tell him to send the request to the logistics department. Over."

"Yes, sir."

As the walkie-talkie ended, Xiaoyun looked over to the city one last time before noticing something a little off.

The bridge was awfully empty. Not damaged or blocked. It was almost as if no one had tried to leave or enter Macao at all.

Not even burnt cars or abandoned cars that usually would have blocked off the road. Just a wide-open lane for anyone to enter or leave.

"Commander Chen, I found a person who wants to meet you."

A voice from behind made both of them turn around, only to see Colonel Jixi standing next to a middle-aged man.

"Who’s this?"

"My name is Yu Pen. I have been living in Doumen District since I was born... And I stayed here during the outbreak."

The heavy Cantonese accent didn’t bother Xiaoyun at all as he quickly realized the middle-aged man was a local survivor.

"You want to meet me?"

"Yes, mister. I have been waiting for someone to rescue me... I really want to thank you for saving me."

"It’s no problem... Houqin, how many survivors did we find in Zhuhai?" Xiaoyun suddenly asked as he turned over to her.

"One thousand and two hundred forty-five... Forty-six now."

"A lot more than I had imagined... Ahem, is there anything else you want to meet me for?"

"Mister Chen, you notice Macao is awfully empty, right?"

"You know something about it?"

Yu Pen nodded his head before taking out a folded piece of paper from his sleeve, handing it over to Jixi, who instantly handed it over to Xiaoyun.

Opening the paper, Xiaoyun was a little surprised to see a ticket inside.

A cruise ticket.

"What’s this for?"

"There were several cruises docked in Macau. The local garrison decided to evacuate everyone to the cruise when the outbreak happened."

Both Xiaoyun and Houqin immediately looked over to the ocean, only to see multiple cruise ships floating far on the horizon.

They didn’t seem to be moving at all. Just stationed far out in the wide ocean, close enough for them to see them from the tall skyscraper.

"Are those cruise ships full of zombies?" Xiaoyun questioned.

"Don’t know. They have stayed there ever since the outbreak... They haven’t made contact with land at all."

"Shit... Ahem, thank you for your info. I really appreciate it."

"No problem, sir."

As Jixi signaled a soldier to take Yu Pen away, he could soon see the heavy frown on Xiaoyun’s face.

"Is there something wrong, Commander? Macao is free for the picking for us."

"Not that... Jixi, you know how many people live in Macao?" Xiaoyun questioned back.

"Um... Half a million, right?"

"More than that. All those people crammed into a cruise ship. No human can live that long at sea with no supplies."

"Zombie ship isn’t that bad. Not like they know how to sail it back to land... And I bet the cruise fuel went bad long ago."

"I guess..."

Xiaoyun still didn’t look reassured as he waved towards Jixi, signaling him to leave as the two of them stood on the rooftop.

"Xiaoyun, why are you still looking so concerned?"

"Houqin, do you believe zombies can evolve?"

"Evolve? Like mutants?"

Xiaoyun nodded his head.

"Yeah, I mean, we have seen all kinds of mutants for the past week. What’s so concerning or special about it?"

"Tianci told me zombies eat other dead zombies."

Houqin froze. She immediately realized what Xiaoyun was trying to imply, as a hint of fear appeared on her face.

"Are you saying... Those boats have an extremely dangerous zombie mutant?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. We’ll never know unless we decide to board it one day... That day is not today."

As Xiaoyun turned around and headed towards the exit, Houqin unfroze, running all the way back up with him.

"When are we going to board it then?"

"Who knows. Maybe when we defeat the zombies on land... Whatever it is, I’m not sending anyone near that thing."