Chapter 163 - 162: Great Fortune

Chapter 163: Chapter 162: Great Fortune

"Qingzhou, isn’t this bet a little too all-in..."

Wang Zhong asked worriedly, looking over at Ye Qingzhou, who was resting with his eyes closed on the side of the truck bed.

Before Ye Qingzhou could speak, Hu Chen, who was squatting by his legs and studying his leg hair, looked up and answered for him:

"All-in? ... After you Awakened, I still think we’re not going far enough. Yu Wentao and I talked it over. When that Lin Fan fellow shows up, we’re going to fall to our knees and kowtow. Gotta make a good impression... Right?"

As he spoke, he raised his eyebrows at the other young man.

"Stop screwing around..." Wang Zhong gave Hu Chen a light kick, knocking him onto his butt.

As their captain, he rarely joked around with them. But after waking up this time, the drastic changes—both to the situation and his own body—made him tense despite himself.

He could feel that his physique and strength had gotten a major boost, and his five senses had become sharper. It was almost identical to the sensation Ye Qingniao had described when she first Awakened—the feeling that the whole world had been wiped clean...

He clenched his fist, and a solid layer of blue light materialized on its surface, like a piece of energy armor.

It was extremely hard. He hadn’t dared to test it against a bullet, but it could at least stop a bayonet from piercing through.

However, the more area the armor covered, the less time he could sustain it.

If his entire body was covered in the blue light, it would last for less than a minute.

But if it was just his fist or arm, he could maintain it for ten minutes with ease.

’This power... did that Lin Fan really give it to me?’

Wang Zhong still couldn’t believe it. A stranger who had appeared out of nowhere had turned him from a dying man into an Awakened One.

"When Zhang Wenyuan gets back, I’ll ask him... Where’s Cyan Bird?"

"Cyan Bird was sent out. The supply team got into it with a survivor community to the north. They had a ton of people, and they were tough as nails. It forced Zhao Cheng to send out all his men..."

The young man Hu Chen had prompted earlier, Yu Wentao, chimed in,

"If not for that, we’d have a real problem. This saves us a lot of trouble. That dumbass is a complete amateur, leading his men like they’re a bunch of street thugs. And he only left a handful of guys here at the camp to guard us..."

The words were barely out of his mouth when the walkie-talkie next to Ye Qingzhou, tuned to a specific channel, crackled to life.

"The meal is okay, come on down for chow..."

"Pfft—Sigh, that sense of humor of yours..."

When Hu Chen heard the code from Zhang Wenyuan, he burst out laughing. Turning to see Ye Qingzhou’s completely expressionless face, he sighed to himself.

"Sometimes I really envy you. When will I finally be able to hear that stupid code of yours and not laugh..."

He then bent over, walked to the edge of the truck bed, and lifted a corner of the tarp. He stuck his arm out and slapped the side of the truck, making a loud SLAP, SLAP, SLAP sound to get the attention of the two guards facing off outside.

"Cheng Qi, the meal... the meal is okay..."

"Whew, finally okay."

The soldier standing guard outside the truck let out a long sigh of relief. Without even glancing at the other sentry assigned to watch them, he nonchalantly placed his rifle on the ground and adopted a lazy posture.

The other soldier, positioned more than ten meters away in a standoff with him, saw this. Not knowing what he was up to, he nervously grabbed his walkie-talkie, ready to report.

His orders were to keep a close watch on the people in the truck and to report if anyone got in or out, or if they made any unusual moves.

"Hey buddy, we’ve been staring each other down for an hour. How about we make a deal..."

Cheng Qi took off the web gear and ballistic vest from his waist, stretched his limbs, and started doing movements similar to an old man’s morning calisthenics as he shouted to the guard across from him,

"We’re heading out. You don’t need to report it. You weren’t originally with Zhao Cheng’s crew, right? They sent you here, and if we decided to get rough, you’d be the first one we kill. You’re really getting the short end of the stick..."

"Look, man, I don’t know anything about the beef between you and Zhao Cheng. I wouldn’t dare stop you from going wherever you want. I’m just here to earn my keep, so please don’t make things hard for me..."

Seeing that Cheng Qi had put his gun and vest on the ground, the guard relaxed and said with a wry smile,

"Go wherever you want. I’ll just report it. The rest is above my pay grade, isn’t it..."

"Fair enough. We won’t make things hard for you, then..."

Cheng Qi bent down and stretched his muscles. As he looked up, his expression suddenly twisted into one of utter shock, as if he had seen something incredibly bizarre. He stared intently at the sky behind the guard.

"HOLY! SHIT!"

The man on the other side had seen Cheng Qi disarm himself, do his stretches, and even chat with him, so he had let his guard down.

When he suddenly saw Cheng Qi staring at something behind him and crying out in alarm—in the very direction of last night’s explosion—he subconsciously twisted his head around to get a look...

He was only halfway through the motion when he sensed something was wrong. He gripped his walkie-talkie, starting to turn back, but then he felt a vicious rush of air closing in. In the next instant, his vision swam, and he lost consciousness.

"Clench your right fist, swing it hard, and strike right between the jaw and the ear..."

Cheng Qi rubbed his reddened right fist, then bent down and hoisted the unconscious guard onto his shoulder. He lifted the tarp, tossed the man into the truck bed, and jerked his chin at the others inside.

"Yu, tie him up... Let’s go. Time for chow..."

He then put his gear back on and reached out a hand to steady Ye Qingzhou as he jumped down from the truck.

"Not bad, Cheng. Simple but brutally effective..."

Hu Chen jumped down from the truck after tying up the guard and clapped Cheng Qi on the shoulder.

"Oh, not at all,"

Cheng Qi chuckled and scratched his head.

"Compared to you shameless bastards, I’ve still got a lot to learn..."

Having dealt with this loose end, they avoided any potential trouble.

Ye Qingzhou and his six companions walked quickly toward the gas station’s main building.

The convoy’s armed contingent had started with forty-six people. They had fought their way through the outer ring road, losing one armored car, one assault vehicle, and ten men in the process.

Of the remaining thirty-six, six were men under Ye Qingzhou’s command; the other twenty-nine answered to Zhao Cheng.

These men were divided into three teams. Two of the team leaders were Zhao Cheng’s people, and the leader of the third team was a former security officer named Tan Wei, who was also one of only three Awakened Ones in the convoy.

Among Zhao Cheng’s two teams, only eight or nine could be considered his trusted inner circle. The rest were like the guard they’d just dealt with—men who knew how to handle a gun, were just looking for their next meal, and saw this as a chance to fight for a better lot in life.

It was, at least, slightly better than cowering on a bus, waiting for the inevitable moment when the entire vehicle and everyone in it would be swallowed by a zombie horde.

The survivors from the buses were divided into two groups. Whenever they made camp, conditions permitting, each group would be led by two armed soldiers on a supply run.

That morning, the call for help from one of the supply teams had been broadcast on all military walkie-talkies, and Ye Qingzhou’s group was no exception.

When they saw a deputy captain take a total of ten men to provide backup, they immediately decided to enact the plan they had been plotting all morning.

After those ten men left, only fifteen people remained at the gas station.

One was guarding the door for Zhao Cheng, six were scattered outside as lookouts for zombies, one was watching the generator, and the remaining seven were all sorting supplies and equipment or maintaining the vehicles.

Ye Qingzhou’s group wasn’t spotted until they reached the entrance of the main building, where they were stopped by the guards working on the vehicles off to the side.

"Colonel Ye, can I help you?"

Most of these men were under Tan Wei. Even though Zhao Cheng was in charge now, they still treated Ye Qingzhou with a degree of respect. But that didn’t mean they could let his group just barge into Zhao Cheng’s military tent.

He didn’t know why the guard at the entrance to Zhao Cheng’s tent was missing, but that wasn’t his problem. All he could do was report it.

Ye Qingzhou’s goal was precisely to draw everyone together. Anything was better than being pinned down in the truck.

So, naturally, they let him pull out his walkie-talkie and report to Tan Wei.

A moment later, a slightly heavyset, middle-aged man appeared in front of the gas station’s main building.

"What happened?"

He glanced quizzically toward the military tent by the main building. The guard was gone. Moreover, the tent, which should have been the camp’s command center, was eerily silent. Not a single sound came from within.

This strange atmosphere put the former security officer, now an Awakened One, on high alert. He narrowed his eyes at Ye Qingzhou and said,

"I can’t reach Captain Zhao. Can’t reach Captain Xu, either. Does Colonel Ye happen to know anything about this?"

As he spoke, his hand slowly closed around the grip of the rifle slung at his back. He pulled out his walkie-talkie and began calling for backup.

Before long, aside from two men left to watch for zombies to the south, the other twelve armed personnel had all gathered in front of the gas station’s main building. They all stared at the tent flap, which hung perfectly still, but not a single one of them dared to open it.