17: Chapter 17 Data Butcher

As the setting sun dyed the ruins of Beiling City dark red, Commander Lin Dong crouched behind an overturned bus, staring at the crosshairs in his scope.

The crosshairs rested on a zombie's forehead. That zombie wore a tattered military uniform, and its epaulettes still faintly showed the rank of Sergeant—three days ago, it might have been getting food with Commander Lin Dong in the cafeteria. Now its neck was twisted, wandering aimlessly in the middle of the street, dried black blood hanging from the corner of its mouth.

Distance: 137 meters. Wind speed: 3.2 m/s, left to right. Humidity: 47%.

Commander Lin Dong's finger rested on the trigger, but he didn't pull it.

"Company Commander?" a lowered voice came from behind. senior private Zhang Lei lay prone in a drainage ditch two meters away, the stock of his type 95 rifle pressed against his shoulder, suppressed tension in his eyes. "Should we fire?"

"No rush."

Commander Lin Dong moved the scope away and glanced at the panoramic view of the street. This was the main road of Beiling City's East District, a six-lane two-way street, with collapsed billboards and half-burnt private cars on both sides. According to the panel display, there were 47 F-Class Zombies within his field of vision, with a distribution density of about 12 per hundred meters. Most were wandering aimlessly, while a few were crouched over corpses eating.

[System Prompt: base vehicle deployment progress 38%, estimated completion time 4 hours 22 minutes. Current number of threat units within safety radius: 0. Warning: Moving targets detected outside a 200-meter radius, quantity: over 50.]

Commander Lin Dong glanced at the virtual panel in the bottom left corner and turned it off again.

Three days. From the moment the meteorite fell until now, it had been exactly seventy-two hours. Seventy-two hours ago, he was the company Commander of a Mechanized Infantry Brigade's Reconnaissance Company, preparing to organize afternoon tactical training; seventy-two hours later, he was crouching in the ruins, with a Red Alert base vehicle unfolding behind him, and five living people by his side—three soldiers who had fought their way out of the Barracks with him, one female Communications Soldier, and two College Students who had survived by hiding in a supermarket freezer.

There were also five Conscripts standing guard in the base—those who came out of the Barracks had the same body temperature and heartbeat as real people, but the way they looked at Commander Lin Dong reminded him of how a New recruit looked at a veteran, yet it was slightly different.

"Company Commander," Li Na's voice came through the headset with slight static noise, "The signal source is still repeating, three long and two short, military frequency. Directional tracking puts it about eight kilometers east-southeast; it should be a Field Training Site."

Communications Soldier Li Na stayed in the base, guarding the radio taken from the humvee. The gunshot wound on her shoulder had been bandaged for less than six hours; she should be lying down and resting.

"Report signal strength every ten minutes," Commander Lin Dong said.

"Understood."

Zhang Lei turned his head and lowered his voice: "Company Commander, are we really not going to save people first? There might be brother units over there—"

"We can't save them."

Commander Lin Dong interrupted him, his tone as flat as if he were stating a weather forecast: "The distance is eight kilometers, and we'd have to cross three large intersections, a commercial area, and an overpass. It's the seventy-second hour of the apocalypse, and the activity patterns of the zombies have just entered their first active phase. Based on a density of two thousand zombies per square kilometer, our success rate for crossing on foot is—"

He paused, and data automatically popped into his head: average team load 25 kg, average movement speed affected by obstacles approximately 2.8 km/h, probability of an encounter 97.3%, team survival probability—

"Less than four percent."

Zhang Lei opened his mouth but said nothing.

corporal Wang Hao crawled over from behind the cover on the other side, his face smeared with engine oil, black and yellow streaks across it: "Company Commander, that gang of convicts is active again. Two people just peeked out from the second floor of that abandoned Gas Station to the southeast, about four hundred meters away."

"Weapons and equipment?"

"Can't see clearly, but one of them had a reflection in their hand; it should be binoculars."

Commander Lin Dong didn't look back. His scope remained locked on the zombie horde in the street, but his mind was already drawing a new battlefield situation map.

That Convict Gang—more accurately, a group of survivors who escaped from Beiling City Prison—forty-seven people, at least twelve guns. Their leader was a bald, burly man, displayed as Lv. 5 on the panel, a Strength-type Esper with a strength attribute as high as 18 points, three times that of an average person. Twelve hours ago, they tried to seize the base vehicle and were repelled by Commander Lin Dong using terrain and traps; eleven died, and the rest retreated to an abandoned Gas Station.

Normally, they should have known better and backed off.

But Commander Lin Dong judged from their attack routes and tactical movements that there was someone behind the bald man directing them—someone who could understand his trap layouts, someone trying to flank him.

That thin man with glasses.

During the final retreat, that person looked back at the base vehicle. That look made Commander Lin Dong's fingers tighten involuntarily even now as he remembered it.

"Wang Hao."

"Here."

"I have a mission for you. From now on, change observation post positions every twenty minutes and record the movements at that Gas Station. I want to know how many people they have, how many guns, if there are any wounded, and where their food and water are coming from."

Wang Hao was stunned for a moment: "Company Commander, you're not planning to let them go?"

Commander Lin Dong finally moved the scope away and turned to glance at Wang Hao.

That glance made Wang Hao instinctively straighten his back.

"Forty-seven people, twelve guns, and they know we have a base vehicle that can be deployed," Commander Lin Dong said. "Do you think they'll keep the secret?"

Wang Hao was silent for two seconds: "...No."

"Go. Stay safe; if you're spotted, retreat. Don't get drawn into a fight."

"Yes, sir."

Wang Hao crawled away and disappeared into the ruins. Commander Lin Dong pressed his eye to the scope again and saw that Sergeant zombie still wandering in the same spot.

The sun sank a bit lower.

19:17.

The sky grew completely dark, with only a few distant buildings still burning, reflecting a dark red glow in the night sky. The activity frequency of the zombies rose significantly—according to the panel monitoring, the number of moving targets within a one-kilometer radius had increased from 347 two hours ago to 512. The night was their active period.

Commander Lin Dong led Zhang Lei back to the base. The entrance to the underground garage was blocked by two humvees, leaving only a gap narrow enough to squeeze through sideways. Passing through the gap and turning past a simple barricade made of sandbags, the view suddenly opened up.

A five-hundred-square-meter underground garage with a ceiling height of four meters and support columns spaced eight meters apart. In the center, that silver-gray heavy truck had fully deployed—now it was no longer a vehicle, but a silver-white metal building covering about two hundred square meters and nearly six meters high, with dark blue energy patterns flowing across its surface.

[Red Alert Outpost Base · Level 1]

[Completed Buildings: power plant, Barracks]

[Under Construction: base vehicle deployment 41%]

[Energy Reserves: 217/500]

[Defensive Facilities: Machine Gun Turret x 1 (Awaiting Deployment)]

Five Conscripts in dark gray combat uniforms stood at the perimeter of the building, muzzles pointed down, standing tall. Seeing Commander Lin Dong enter, the lead Conscript stood at attention and saluted: "Commander!"

Commander Lin Dong nodded, walked past him, and headed straight for Li Na, who was resting against a corner wall.

Communications Soldier Li Na's face was still somewhat pale, but her eyes were bright. She sat leaning against the wall with a Portable Data Terminal on her lap—a military tablet taken from a humvee, which she had modified into a simple monitoring screen using tape and wires. The screen showed footage from five cameras, each pointed at one of the garage's five entrances.

"Status?"

"The convicts have been quiet for three hours. Twenty minutes ago, Wang Hao sent back the last report, saying they seemed to be having a meeting; there's firelight on the second floor, and about thirty to thirty-five people," Li Na swiped her finger across the screen. "About a dozen are missing; I don't know if they were sent out for reconnaissance or if they've split up."

"Signal source?"

"Still transmitting. The frequency hasn't changed, and the strength is stable. I've calculated that if it's a military field power supply, it should last another four to five days."

Commander Lin Dong sat down beside her, pulled a pack of Compressed Biscuits from his backpack, tore it open, and chewed slowly.

The silence lasted for three minutes.

"Company Commander," Li Na suddenly spoke.

"Hmm?"

"Do you... do you think I'm useless?"

Commander Lin Dong turned his head. Li Na kept her head down, staring at the tablet on her lap, her fingers unconsciously touching the gauze-wrapped shoulder.

"That shot, I should have dodged it. If I hadn't been hit, you wouldn't have had to waste two minutes saving me, and the base vehicle might not have been hit by them—"

"Li Na."

Li Na stopped.

Commander Lin Dong swallowed the biscuit in his mouth and said flatly: "When you used your body to block the line of fire at the garage exit, how far were those convicts from the base vehicle?"

"About twenty... twenty meters."

"How many shots did they fire then?"

"Three... three shots?"

"Three shots, all from automatic rifles. The shooting posture was standing unsupported at a distance of twenty meters." Commander Lin Dong looked at her. "According to the laws of ballistic dispersion, at least one of those three shots would have hit a critical part of the base vehicle. The one you blocked hit your left shoulder, which isn't a vital spot. If you hadn't blocked it, the base vehicle's current deployment progress might be 31%, or it might be 0."

Li Na was stunned.

"On the battlefield, blocking a bullet isn't the bravest thing; the bravest thing is charging forward even when you know you'll be hit." Commander Lin Dong stuffed the last piece of biscuit into his mouth. "What you did was the bravest thing."

Li Na's eyes reddened slightly, but she held back the tears.

A sudden commotion came from the distance. A Conscript ran over quickly, stood at attention, and saluted: "Commander! An anomaly has been detected to the southeast—there's fire, and it's moving very fast!"

Commander Lin Dong stood up abruptly and rushed out of the garage in a few strides.

Standing at the garage entrance, he looked at the southeastern sky—in the direction of that abandoned Gas Station, a fireball was soaring into the sky, its orange-red flames particularly piercing in the dark night. Immediately after, a series of dull explosions followed, spaced less than two seconds apart.

It was a Tanker Truck exploding.

And more than one.

"Everyone, enter First-level Combat Readiness!"

Commander Lin Dong's voice rang out in the underground parking lot. Five Conscripts scattered instantly, each taking their firing positions; Zhang Lei and Wang Hao rushed out from behind cover, the guns in their hands already chambered; the two College Students leaning in the corner hugged each other in terror, the boy instinctively protecting the girl.

Li Na gritted her teeth and stood up, grabbing her tablet: "Southeast, distance one thousand two hundred meters! The explosions are still continuing—"

A second wave of explosions arrived, louder this time; the shockwave caused the hummer vehicle at the garage entrance to vibrate slightly.

Commander Lin Dong rushed onto the roof of the hummer vehicle and raised his binoculars.

The direction of the abandoned Gas Station was now a sea of fire. According to his memory, that Gas Station had three underground fuel tanks, each with a capacity of about thirty tons. If all three were detonated simultaneously—

He quickly calculated in his head: the explosive yield of thirty tons of gasoline is approximately 120 tons of TNT, with a shockwave radius of at least three hundred meters, a thermal radiation radius of five hundred meters, and a splash combustion radius of eight hundred meters—

There were at least five thousand zombies around that Gas Station.

And the second floor of the Gas Station occupied by those prisoners was less than fifty meters from the fuel tanks.

Commander Lin Dong's hands paused on the binoculars for a second.

No survivors. Thirty-seven people—if all thirty-seven were on that second floor, not one could have survived. Even if that Strength-type Esper had 18 points of Strength, it would be impossible to survive an explosion of 120 tons of TNT—that's not how the limits of the human body are calculated.

But that man with glasses.

He wasn't there.

Commander Lin Dong didn't know why he wasn't there, but he just knew.

"Company Commander!" Wang Hao's voice came from behind him. "Southeast—zombies! A massive Zombie Tide! They're coming our way!"

Without him needing to say it, Commander Lin Dong had already seen it.

Illuminated by the firelight, a gray-black tide surged from the end of the street. Those were the zombies attracted by the explosion, converging from all directions and sprinting along the main road toward the base. The numbers on the panel were jumping frantically: the number of threat units within a five-hundred-meter radius jumped from 58 to 127, then to 289, then to—

[Warning: A large-scale Zombie Tide is approaching! Current number: approximately 800, expected to arrive within ten minutes! Immediate deployment of defenses is recommended!]

Commander Lin Dong jumped down from the humvee and rushed into the garage.

"Conscripts!"

"Present!"

"Machine Gun Turret deployment position: fifteen meters directly in front of the garage entrance. The left-wing field of fire covers the main road, and the right-wing field of fire covers the parking lot entrance. I'm giving you three minutes!"

"Yes, sir!"

Two Conscripts shouldered the yet-to-be-activated Machine Gun Turret—two meters high and weighing one ton—and rushed out of the garage like they were carrying ordinary sandbags.

Commander Lin Dong turned to the others: "Zhang Lei, Wang Hao, follow me outside to set up a defense line. Li Na—"

He paused for a second, looking at Li Na's pale face.

"You're in charge of communications and monitoring. If the defense line falls, take those two students and evacuate through the emergency passage. Head west to the Third Rendezvous Point."

Li Na gripped her tablet: "Company Commander, I can fight—"

"It's not a matter of whether you can fight or not." Commander Lin Dong interrupted her. "I need someone to stay alive to record everything that happens here. If I don't come back, you must tell the other survivors about this."

Li Na opened her mouth to speak but finally nodded.

By the time Commander Lin Dong rushed out of the garage, the vanguard of the Zombie Tide had already entered his field of vision—at a distance of about four hundred meters, moving at a speed of 3.1 m/s, which was exactly the standard data for an F-Class Zombie. Eight hundred of them; at this rate, they would enter firing range within five minutes.

He needed five minutes.

"Zhang Lei, Wang Hao, move all the oil drums to both sides of the entrance! Conscript No. 1 and No. 2, guard the left-wing load-bearing pillar; No. 3 and No. 4, guard the scrapped vehicles on the right! Machine Gun Turret—"

He looked at the two Conscripts who were deploying the Machine Gun Turret.

"How much longer?"

"Thirty seconds!"

The dull thud of the Machine Gun Turret's base hitting the ground was heard. Immediately after, the energy patterns on the turret body lit up one by one, and the dual-linked machine gun at the top began to rotate automatically, its muzzle pointing toward the approaching Zombie Tide.

[Machine Gun Turret · Deployment Complete]

[Caliber: 12.7mm]

[Rate of Fire: 600 rounds/minute]

[Effective Range: 800 meters]

[Ammo Supply: 2,000 rounds]

Commander Lin Dong glanced at the countdown in the bottom right corner of the panel.

base vehicle deployment progress: 43%.

He still needed at least three and a half hours.

Three and a half hours, eight hundred zombies, thirty-seven bullets—no, thirty-seven people.

He took a deep breath and pulled back the bolt of his rifle.

"Everyone, fire at will. Aim for the heads and save ammunition. Don't let them near the garage."

The first to pull the trigger wasn't Commander Lin Dong.

It was the Machine Gun Turret.

The sound of a 12.7mm machine gun firing wasn't a "rat-tat-tat," but a "Bang! Bang! Bang!"—each shot felt like a heavy hammer smashing against the air, making one's eardrums ache.

The dozen or so zombies in the lead were blown into fragments seven hundred meters away. The power of large-caliber bullets far exceeded that of ordinary rifles—hitting the torso would tear them directly in half, hitting a limb would blow it clean off, and hitting the head—the head would just disappear.

But the zombies wouldn't stop.

As the ones in front fell, those behind continued to charge, stepping over the corpses. They had no fear and no sense of pain, only an instinctive pursuit of the scent of living things.

Commander Lin Dong knelt behind a scrapped car, shouldered his type 95 rifle, and centered the scope on a zombie's forehead.

Distance: three hundred meters.

Wind speed: 4.1 m/s.

Lead: 0.3 meters.

He pulled the trigger.

The zombie fell to the ground as a burst of black blood erupted from the back of its head.

Commander Lin Dong pulled the bolt, ejected the shell, chambered the next round, and aimed at the next target.

Zhang Lei and Wang Hao were on either side of him, shooting with an equally steady rhythm. Three veterans, three rifles, firing ten to twelve precise shots per minute—this wasn't the spray-and-pray shooting seen in movies, but true combat marksmanship: every bullet had a target, and every shot had to hit.

But there were too many zombies in the tide.

Eight hundred. Even if every shot hit its mark, it would take eight hundred bullets. And they only had six hundred rounds in total.

Commander Lin Dong recalculated in his mind:

The Machine Gun Turret fires six hundred rounds per minute, but continuous firing would cause the barrel to overheat; it must cool down after a maximum of two minutes of continuous fire. In two minutes, it can fire one thousand two hundred rounds, eliminating about—

He looked at the Machine Gun Turret's trajectory: the accuracy of large-caliber bullets was nearly one hundred percent within five hundred meters, but after a bullet passed through the first zombie, its kinetic energy would dissipate, making it difficult to hit subsequent targets.

Therefore, the Machine Gun Turret's actual kill efficiency was about four hundred per minute.

Two minutes, eight hundred zombies.

That was enough.

But that was assuming the Zombie Tide charged in a straight line from the front.

Commander Lin Dong's pupils suddenly constricted.

On the panel, the distribution of the zombie group was changing—the single group originally concentrated on the main road was now splitting into three: one continued to charge from the front, one veered left toward the parking lot entrance, and one veered right toward the construction site next door.

Someone was commanding them.

Not "someone."

Something was commanding them.

Commander Lin Dong snapped his head up, his gaze passing over the Zombie Tide and toward the Gas Station that was still burning after the explosion. The firelight illuminated the sky, but in the shadows at the edge of the light, he vaguely saw an outline—much larger than an ordinary zombie, standing there motionless like a statue.

[Warning: High-level Mutant detected! Distance approximately 900 meters, currently using mental waves to control the Zombie Tide!]

[Target Level: Lv.15]

[Threat Rating: A-]

[Ability Speculation: Mental Induction / Zombie Tide Command]

Commander Lin Dong's finger paused on the trigger for a second.

Level fifteen.

What they were facing now was a commanded Zombie Tide.

And those eight hundred zombies were just the vanguard.

[End of Chapter]