Chapter 259 - 225: Try Mine

Chapter 259: Chapter 225: Try Mine

After climbing over the wall, he landed in the corner of a parking lot. A dozen or so refrigerated trucks and caged livestock transports were parked inside.

Most of the vehicles were parked out in the rain, but the cabs of a few were covered with plastic sheeting. Lin Fan went over for a look and found that the driver’s side window of one had been smashed. There were several sticky bloodstains on the dashboard.

Apparently, the corpse inside had already been dragged away. In order to preserve the useful vehicle, they had deliberately covered it with plastic sheeting to shield it from the rain.

In the distance, the massive, blue-gray factory building loomed like a giant fortress. Rain hammered against the colored steel tiles on its roof, making a relentless RAT-A-TAT-TAT sound.

The meat processing plant must have had its own generator and fuel reserves. As soon as he landed, he noticed the faint red lights of surveillance cameras under the eaves of the distant factory, a clear sign they were still operational.

"..."

He looked down helplessly at his hands and the rifle slung around his neck, feeling a bit uncertain.

’I wonder if the Concealment Crystal’s effect works on cameras.’

Ever since the apocalypse began, he had only used the Concealment Crystal to fool zombies and people. He’d never tested it on cameras before.

’Probably not...’

After all, from what he could tell, the crystal worked more like a form of attention-based stealth rather than true optical camouflage. Lin Fan looked around but couldn’t see a generator room or any fuel tanks. The power facilities were probably on the other side of the factory building.

Although he couldn’t cut the power, the reaction of that Awakened One from earlier proved the crystal’s effect on people was still extremely potent. The thought of what might happen next made him want to laugh...

...

At that same moment, just as Lin Fan had guessed, three bored young men playing cards in a monitoring room on the edge of the factory grounds were the first to spot the alarm on the surveillance feed.

The huge screen was split into many sections. Most of the camera feeds were black and offline. Only a few hardwired cameras, mounted on the edge of the factory and aimed at the outer parking lot and entrance lane, were still working.

A conspicuous, dashed red box precisely framed a dark figure moving quickly through the rain. Though the figure was blurry, the long object it clutched was especially terrifying to behold in the downpour.

It was a gun!

"Holy shit! Brother Hong! Someone’s snuck into the parking lot!" one of the young men, who was about to play a card, jolted violently. He slammed his cards onto the table, grabbed the nearby walkie-talkie, and roared, "...And he has a gun!"

The words had barely left his mouth when, a few seconds later, they heard the CLICK of a lock from upstairs. This was followed by a THUD, and a tall, burly figure landed directly outside the monitoring room window.

The monitoring room and the security staff’s break room were stacked on two floors in a corner of the factory, part of the main structure. Through its window, one could only see the hallway and entrance to the main workshop, not the exterior.

"Brother Hong!" As soon as the figure pushed the door open and stepped inside, all of them shot to their feet respectfully, calling out in unison. One of them quickly turned back to point at the screen.

"Right ther—"

But when he turned back, he saw that the figure—the one the system had automatically highlighted in a red box—had vanished. The screen once again showed nothing but a gray, rain-swept scene.

"Huh? Where’d he go? A second ago he was right there, by that truck, looking in..."

"You two saw him as well?"

The man frowned, staring at the monitor that now only showed a gray curtain of rain.

On the screen, there were only withered branches swaying wildly in the wind and endless sheets of rain. There wasn’t so much as a shadow of a ghost. He turned, his sinister gaze sweeping back and forth across his two subordinates’ faces, as if searching for any sign of lying or slacking off.

"CRACKLE... Hong Chuan, what’s going on? Is someone there?"

Before either of the two men could answer, a damp, cold male voice crackled from the walkie-talkie in Brother Hong’s hand. In the background, behind the man’s voice, was the faint, bizarre, wet sound of SQUELCH... SQUELCH...

"B-Boss..."

Upon hearing that voice, Hong Chuan—who a moment before had been trying to project authority in front of his subordinates with a brutish expression—seemed to shrink as if his spine had been ripped out. He instinctively pulled his neck in, and his tone softened immediately.

"I-It’s nothing... nothing serious..."

After saying this, he seemed to realize his underlings were watching. He quickly straightened his back and shot his two subordinates a fierce glare—one that was all bark and no bite—warning them not to speak out of turn.

The two men flinched at the glare and quickly lowered their heads. Still, they nodded desperately, their eyes insisting that what they had seen was real.

Hong Chuan took a deep breath, held down the talk button, and tried to make his voice sound as calm and dependable as possible:

"The monitoring room spotted a figure in the parking lot carrying a gun. He must have climbed the wall to get in. From the way he moves, he might be a soldier... Could he be connected to Brother Li’s group?" ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

He finished, released the button, and paused for two seconds before hastily adding, as if making amends, "I’m taking some men to check it out right now! We’ll capture him alive and bring him to you!"

The other end of the line was silent for a few seconds.

"...Li Xun, where are you? What’s the situation outside?" After a moment, the damp, cold voice sounded again. "The two who went to drag the corpses—did they bring them back?"

A moment passed. There was no reply.

For ease of communication, everyone was on the same channel. Hong Chuan understood, of course, that the boss’s first question was for Li Xun. But the second one...