Chapter 166 - 114: Exploration

Chapter 166: Chapter 114: Exploration

Since the temporary base was already empty and the outer gate was blocked, Xu Mo was the only person left inside.

Xu Mo took a stroll around and found that only some of the items had been taken away. The heavier, less important things were all left behind, and none of the fortifications had been dismantled.

When he reached the factory building that served as the rest area, Xu Mo looked through a window and saw that the beds were still neatly arranged. However, all the bedding was gone, likely taken by the evacuees.

After a quick look around and finding nothing of particular interest, Xu Mo prepared to leave.

But when he saw the factory’s massive, sealed doors, his eyes shifted.

’A door this big... If I slapped an armored vehicle placard on it, wouldn’t that mean I could...?’

’But that would be way too conspicuous. It wouldn’t matter if I were driving it around out here by myself, but how would I explain where it came from back in Jiang City? Not to mention the fuel consumption. Those things are total gas guzzlers.’

’There’ll be a chance. I’ll get my chance later.’

After reassuring himself, Xu Mo chose a different wall of the temporary base and climbed up.

The main entrance was blocked by a horde of zombies, after all, and he didn’t need to cause himself any unnecessary trouble.

The moment he steadied himself on top of the wall, the sound of zombies roaring filled his ears.

Clearly, zombies nearby had sensed his presence and were closing in.

But since Xu Mo was on top of the wall, the zombies could only roar and reach for him futilely from below, posing no real threat.

As he observed the surrounding zombies, Xu Mo noticed something odd. Four or five zombies were closing in from his left. To his right and in front of him, there were more than ten zombies combined, but only two of them were approaching—and those two had been the closest to begin with.

Xu Mo looked at the zombies to his right and front, puzzled.

He wet his right index finger with his tongue, then narrowed his eyes and focused on the sensation. The answer came to him at once.

There was a light breeze. It wasn’t strong, but it was enough to create a current. The wind was coming from his right, so the zombies to his left could easily pick up his scent, which was why more of them were gathering on that side.

Of course, the roars of the alerted zombies were now drawing in the others that hadn’t initially sensed him.

Ignoring the roaring zombies below, Xu Mo jogged along the top of the wall, picked a spot with fewer zombies, and jumped down. Then, he made a beeline for Fortress C-07.

He wasn’t returning to the fortress, but rather wanted to head past it and see what was happening deeper inside the area.

When they were moving the ammunition earlier, he had seen an endless stream of zombies pouring out from that direction, and he’d been curious ever since. Now that he was out here anyway, he had to see what was going on.

Along the way, plenty of zombies sensed his presence and began to follow, but they were so slow that he easily left them far behind.

As he passed Fortress C-07, Xu Mo glanced back. The entrance gate was open, but no zombies were gathered around it, which was a good sign.

Once past Fortress C-07, Xu Mo began navigating through a field of ruins. The buildings here had long ago been reduced to rubble by bombardments, which slowed his advance. The number of zombies ahead also began to increase.

Most of these zombies would let out a roar upon sensing his presence and give chase. The majority were slow, but there were some faster ones mixed in. However, the obstacles prevented even them from moving much quicker.

Within two or three minutes, Xu Mo found he had a trail of over a hundred zombies behind him. To his surprise, a Level 1 Strength Type zombie was mixed in with the horde; he had no idea where it had come from.

"ROAR—"

Just as Xu Mo was running forward, another roar erupted from his left. A moment later, a Level 1 Agility Type zombie leaped out from a pile of ruins and lunged straight for him.

Xu Mo had already anticipated this. He had drawn his Mountain-Cutting Saber as he passed Fortress C-07. Seeing the Agility Type zombie pounce, Xu Mo took a deep breath, circulated his qi and blood, and brought the saber down in a diagonal slash from right to left.

With a flash of white light, the pouncing Agility Type’s head and half of its shoulder tumbled to the ground.

Xu Mo paid it no mind. He stepped over the corpse and kept running. His goal was to reach the very center of the core area as quickly as possible to see what was going on. Unnecessary stops were a waste of time.

After running for another two minutes or so, Xu Mo found the area was pockmarked with craters, the rubble coated in a layer of black ash—the aftermath of bombing and fires. The number of zombies had increased yet again. Sensing his presence, they all began to close in. Xu Mo estimated that if he stopped, he would be completely swarmed in less than a minute. The only thing he could do was keep running to maintain his distance.

Moreover, he wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but Xu Mo felt a faint, almost imperceptible mist forming around him.

’An infantry fighting vehicle?’

After running another two hundred meters, he spotted a familiar silhouette. An infantry fighting vehicle lay overturned beside a pile of ruins. One side of its hull was caved in, its treads were snapped, and its turret was twisted out of shape. The bulletproof glass of the observation port was shattered into a spiderweb of cracks, through which he could vaguely make out dark red bloodstains. It looked as if it had been knocked over by a massive impact to its side.