Chapter 261 - 145: Ambush

Chapter 261: Chapter 145: Ambush

After passing through Forward Base Four, Xu Mo topped off his fuel tank, which hadn’t been depleted much. Seeing the gauges for both the main and auxiliary tanks read full, he finally felt a bit more at ease.

Xu Mo didn’t linger at the base. After a quick inspection of his vehicle’s condition, he was back on the old highway stretching to the southeast.

His tires rolled over the last relatively smooth stretch of concrete on the base’s outskirts. He rounded a bend, and Forward Base Four vanished from view.

Xu Mo knew that from this point forward, he had well and truly left Jiang City.

Now, this road, along with the endlessly stretching fields and hills on either side—gradually being consumed by weeds and shrubs—belonged entirely to the wilderness.

The entire day’s journey was unexpectedly peaceful.

The road conditions were better than he’d anticipated. This old provincial highway connecting Jiang City to the southeast must have been a major route before the cataclysm. Though its surface was riddled with cracks, the roadbed was largely intact, allowing his off-road vehicle to travel smoothly at a steady sixty kilometers per hour.

The view was wide and open, flanked mostly by long-abandoned farmlands and scattered, collapsed farmhouses.

Occasionally, the engine’s roar would startle a flock of crows. They would caw and circle for a moment before settling back onto bare branches or crumbling walls, their jet-black eyes coldly watching the lonely metal shell pass by.

He didn’t see any zombies, nor did he come across any obvious signs of Mutant Beast activity.

Time slipped by to the drone of the engine and the crunch of tires on pavement. Evening began to fall, painting the western sky in shades of dusky yellow.

When the sun finally sank below the horizon, leaving only a dark red afterglow on the skyline, Xu Mo encountered his first practical problem since leaving Jiang City—where would he sleep tonight?

He had seen plenty of ruined houses along the way, but they were either half-collapsed or had cracked walls that looked ready to crumble. They could barely offer shelter from the elements, let alone serve as a temporary refuge where one could rest easy and guard against the many potential threats of the night.

The vehicle’s cabin was stuffed to the brim with his issued supply crates and personal backpack, leaving no space to lie down. The roof rack provided a flat surface, but sleeping up there was far too risky.

For any nocturnal predators, or even other people with ill intentions, someone sleeping on the roof would be an open invitation.

Xu Mo pulled the car to a slow stop on a relatively flat patch of open ground by the roadside and cut the engine. As the roar faded, the silence of the wilderness rushed in like a tidal wave.

Xu Mo rolled down the window, letting the cool night air pour in as he listened intently. All he could hear was the RUSTLE of wind through the blades of grass and the faint cry of some unknown night bird in the far distance.

’Looks like I’ll have to use it,’ Xu Mo muttered to himself, his gaze falling toward the back of the vehicle.

He started the engine again, drove off the highway, and navigated through a patch of waist-high wild grass until he found a hollow nestled against a large, weathered boulder.

It was a relatively concealed spot. The boulder blocked the line of sight from one direction and would provide some shelter from the elements, while the view ahead was still open. It was a good place to make camp.

After parking, Xu Mo didn’t get out right away. He sat quietly in the car for five minutes, confirming once more that there were no unusual movements or sounds in the vicinity. Only then did he swiftly get out.

He first cleared away some loose rocks and tough grass roots. Then, he pulled the heavy, military-issue tent bag from the trunk and started setting it up.

He wasn’t particularly skilled at it, but thankfully the tent’s design was simple. A little over ten minutes later, a low, olive-drab, single-person tent stood securely in the boulder’s shadow.

With the tent pitched, Xu Mo retrieved a few small items from the vehicle’s toolbox. They were little gadgets he’d bought with Contribution Points before his departure, useful for nothing else but setting up a perimeter alarm.

With the tent as the center point, Xu Mo carefully deployed the alarm devices in a fifteen-meter radius, covering the likely directions of approach. He then sprinkled some insect-repellent powder in an even wider circle. Only then was the process of setting up camp complete.

By the time everything was in place, the sky had grown completely dark. A sliver of a waning moon cast a cold, faint glow, barely tracing the blurred outline of the wilderness.

The night passed with surprising tranquility; no creature disturbed Xu Mo’s rest. As the eastern sky began to pale with the first light of dawn, Xu Mo gently unzipped the tent and emerged.

...

The morning’s journey continued smoothly under clear skies. While driving, Xu Mo switched on the tablet mounted on the passenger side, pulled up an offline map, and checked his current position.

He made a rough calculation. Including this morning’s travel, he had already covered more than two hundred kilometers southeast since leaving Forward Base Four yesterday.

He himself was somewhat surprised by his pace.

He had originally estimated that making a hundred kilometers a day would be good progress. On second thought, however, his current pace made sense. After all, this was still the fringe of the territory that Jiang City could, in theory, influence.

’At this rate, I might be making better time than I expected...’ A flicker of optimism sparked in Xu Mo’s mind, but he immediately stamped it out. ’Can’t get careless. The real trouble will probably begin five hundred kilometers or more from Jiang City. The state of the roads, the density of zombies and Mutant Beasts, and any unknown threats out there... that’s the real test.’

Xu Mo steadied his nerves, secured the tablet back on its mount, and refocused his gaze on the winding, undulating highway ahead.