Chapter 128 - 100: Alert

Chapter 128: Chapter 100: Alert

The towering flames danced in the night, casting long, shifting shadows across the twisted ruins. The air was thick with the nauseating stench of burning flesh and the pungent smell of fuel.

Xu Mo gazed at the burning pile of corpses, pondering the secret behind the endless stream of zombies, when suddenly— "Alert! Three o’clock! Hostiles incoming!" The hoarse shout of a sentry shattered the brief tranquility of their position.

The words had barely faded when, in the dark ruins still untouched by the firelight, shadowy figures emerged once more. They looked like demons crawling from the fissures of hell, lurching toward the defensive line.

This time, the zombie horde seemed to have an instinctive fear of the raging flames. They didn’t charge directly through the inferno, but instead fanned out, skirting around it through the charred, still-smoldering areas on either side.

The orange-red firelight danced across their ashen or dark-green skin, illuminating hideous, twisted faces. Guttural, meaningless groans issued from their throats, merging into a skin-crawling murmur of death.

Xu Mo’s sharp gaze swept across the approaching horde. Most were still the usual slow-moving common zombies, but on the horde’s flank, three short, swift figures caught his eye. They moved on all fours, their movements like those of mutated hounds, darting between the rubble and debris at a speed far exceeding their companions. ’Agile zombies!’

"Heavy machine gun! Lock down the right flank! Don’t let those fast ones get close!" The commander of position C-07, a man with a dark complexion, immediately spotted the threat and barked his orders.

CHUNK-CHUNK-CHUNK-CHUNK— A heavy machine gun on the right flank immediately erupted, its stream of heavy-caliber rounds lashing the ground on the agile zombies’ approach, kicking up showers of shattered rock and dust.

However, the agile zombies were astonishingly fast and reactive. They seemed to possess a dangerous intuition, always managing to change direction an instant before the bullets struck or use the remnants of broken walls for cover.

The heavy machine gun’s barrage was intense, but it struggled to land effective hits on such small, high-speed targets.

With the machine gun’s fire focused on the agile zombies, the pressure on the main horde from the front was relieved. Seizing the opportunity, they shambled forward with grim determination, steadily closing the distance to the defensive line.

"Damn it!" The commander instantly realized his mistake. The heavy machine gun was perfect for mowing down dense formations, but it was proving ineffective against scattered, high-speed targets—and it was a waste of precious sustained fire. He made a snap decision, changing his orders: "Heavy machine gun, shift fire! Cover the main horde! Precision Shooter, you take out those agile zombies on the right. Do not let them reach our line."

The order was given. The roar of the heavy machine gun shifted, and a torrent of bullets poured into the approaching horde of common zombies, tearing the front ranks to pieces. Meanwhile, the position’s Precision Shooter, armed with a standard-issue rifle fitted with a high-powered scope, took a deep breath and aimed at the fleeting shapes on the right.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The heavy reports of the rifle cracked in succession.

Only one of the three bullets grazed an agile zombie’s shoulder before shattering a concrete slab behind it.

The other two missed completely, not even coming close.

Sweat beaded on the Precision Shooter’s forehead as he gritted his teeth behind the scope. The targets’ speed and agility were far beyond his expectations; their movements across the complex terrain were completely erratic, making them nearly impossible to predict.

In the few seconds of delay, the three agile zombies had used the ruins as cover, advancing dozens of meters with astonishing speed, like three gray bolts of lightning skimming across the ground.

They were now less than thirty meters from the outermost sandbag barricade—a distance they could cover in mere seconds.

The tension on the line became palpable. Some riflemen turned their guns to intercept, but the probability of hitting high-speed targets at night with standard rifles was abysmally low.

Xu Mo, who had been observing the battlefield intently, didn’t hesitate for a second. He snapped up the AK-47 in his hands. With almost no perceptible delay to aim, relying on something close to instinctual muscle memory and his superhuman dynamic vision, he pulled the trigger.

CRACK!

The gunshot was sharp and clear, distinct from the heavy report of the Precision Shooter’s rifle and the thunderous roar of the machine gun.

The bullet struck the lead agile zombie squarely in the chest, wounding it. The immense kinetic energy brought its charge to a sudden halt. It let out a sharp shriek and staggered.

But the shot hadn’t killed it. The zombie paused for only a second, its crimson eyes fixed on their position, before its limbs tensed to lunge forward once more.

However, Xu Mo gave it no such chance. In the instant before the muzzle had even fully settled from the first shot’s recoil, his wrist made a near-imperceptible adjustment, and the second shot was already away.

CRACK!

The bullet traced a lethal line through the air, plunging with unerring precision into the agile zombie’s eye socket.

SQUELCH!

Dark green blood and grayish-white brain matter erupted from the back of its skull. The agile zombie’s lunge froze completely. It then crumpled to the ground as if its bones had been pulled out, twitched twice, and lay still.

The entire engagement was as swift as a bolt of lightning. From raising the rifle to the double-tap headshot, the whole process took less than two breaths.