Chapter 292 - 153: Invitation

Chapter 292: Chapter 153: Invitation

As evening fell, Xu Mo drove his off-road vehicle through the mud. The wipers swept back and forth across the windshield in a monotonous, dull rhythm. The tires churned through puddles, sending up murky splashes that were quickly washed away by the relentless rain.

Xu Mo’s expression was grim, his brows tightly knitted.

He had originally thought that if there was trouble he couldn’t handle, he could just stay away.

Now, it seemed he had been wrong.

Since that afternoon, Xu Mo had discovered that no matter which direction he tried to drive away from Luochuan City, his path was blocked by hordes of zombies.

Not just a few scattered ones, not twenty or thirty, but organized, large-scale hordes. These hordes simply barred every "safe route" he tried to take.

What weighed heavily on Xu Mo’s mind was that these zombies blocking his way were incredibly difficult to deal with.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t fight them. Xu Mo could take care of the ordinary zombies with ease, and even the Level 1 Agility Type zombies mixed in among them were no exception. The real problem was that the moment he stepped out of his vehicle, more zombies would swarm in from all directions.

Furthermore, most of the reinforcing zombies were Level 1 variants.

Agility Type, Strength Type, and even a few unidentifiable variants he occasionally spotted. They moved swiftly through the rain, gathering ceaselessly to form new rings of encirclement.

From afternoon until evening, Xu Mo had crisscrossed the rain-drenched wilderness, trying at least seven or eight different routes. The result was always the same—each time, he was forced back by a horde of zombies.

Worse still, Xu Mo discovered an even grimmer trend: his room to maneuver was shrinking, bit by bit.

Initially, Xu Mo could move freely within a radius of over ten kilometers from the outskirts of Luochuan City. Then it shrank to ten kilometers, then eight...

The zombie hordes were like invisible walls, slowly and inexorably closing in. They weren’t rushing to attack or kill him. They just kept constricting his space, cutting off his escape routes, and herding him in a specific direction like prey.

The feeling was deeply unsettling. He felt as if he’d walked into a long-prepared ambush, and now, the snare was slowly tightening.

—

The off-road vehicle was parked on the leeward side of an earthen slope. Xu Mo leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, mentally reviewing the day’s events.

From killing the Level 2 water-type zombie, to his failed attempts to find a detour, to being repeatedly intercepted by the hordes. It all pointed to one undeniable conclusion: he was being targeted. And the one targeting him was a High-tier Zombie.

This High-tier Zombie was unlike any variant he had ever encountered.

It wasn’t a simple predator. It understood strategy, coordination, and how to use ordinary zombies and Level 1 variants to form an encirclement. It was systematically wearing down its prey’s stamina, shrinking its territory, and ultimately, forcing it into a dead end.

It even understood patience. It hadn’t shown itself all afternoon. It just kept deploying low-tier zombies, herding him from one direction to another and then back again, like a shepherd with his flock.

This wasn’t how zombies hunted. This was how intelligent beings conducted a coordinated hunt...

Xu Mo opened his eyes, his gaze fixed on the darkness outside, a world shrouded in rain and mist.

This was a premeditated hunt.

And he was the prey.

A knot of anxiety tightened in Xu Mo’s chest. He was facing an unknown enemy with unknown abilities and unknown intentions. ’What does this hidden High-tier Zombie want?’ he thought. ’Does it just want to kill me? Or does it have some other goal?’

’If it’s the former, why hasn’t it ordered the hordes to launch an all-out assault? With the coordination it displayed this afternoon, it could have easily swarmed me with all the hordes at once, wearing me down through sheer numbers. But it didn’t.’

’If it’s the latter... what could it possibly want?’

Xu Mo didn’t know.

But he did know one thing: this feeling of being manipulated, of being passively forced into a trap step by step by an unseen enemy, was something no one would ever enjoy.

His room to maneuver was shrinking. His options were dwindling.

Xu Mo realized that if this continued, by dawn—or even just a few hours from now—he might lose his last chance to break through.

Taking a deep breath, Xu Mo drew the Triangular Spike from its sheath. After a brief glance at the weapon, he made his decision: he would abandon the vehicle and break out on foot.

The moment the thought surfaced, Xu Mo’s first reaction was one of reluctance. He thought of his stored supplies—food, water, ammunition, medicine... and the door he’d brought with him.

But his rational mind told him he had to.

The off-road vehicle was too large a target. Its engine noise, headlights, and even the heat radiating from its body were all signals impossible to hide on a rainy night. The High-tier Zombie lurking in the shadows could clearly track his position by some means. If he stayed in the vehicle, he would never escape its sensory range.

’Abandon the vehicle. Conceal my aura. Break out on foot.’

’It’s the only way.’

Sacrifice the land to save the people, and you can retake the land. Sacrifice the people to save the land, and you lose both. Xu Mo had understood this principle since he was a child.

Without further hesitation, Xu Mo quickly gathered his essential supplies: the Triangular Spike, his pistol with its spare magazines, and a small amount of food and water. Most importantly, he secured the sealed information against his body. The Barrett and the AK-47 were heavy, but abandoning his rifles was out of the question, so he took them and their ammunition as well. After one last glance at the door strapped to the roof of the vehicle, Xu Mo turned and plunged into the downpour.