Ten minutes passed, and everyone gradually lost the overwhelming momentum they had possessed during the first wave. The zombies, however, continued coming one after another as if nothing had changed.
They had no intelligence and no fear of death. They would not grow tired or run out of strength. Even at the very last moment, they would still bare their teeth and desperately try to get closer to their food.
Some zombies had already reached the huge net woven from plants. Some tore at it and gnawed at it, while others attempted to climb over it.
Xiao Ziran reinforced the plant net while controlling his two familiar vines, continuously whipping the zombies away.
However, the zombies were becoming more and more numerous, and their numbers showed no sign of decreasing. Their assault on the defensive line was also becoming increasingly fierce.
The abilities thrown out by the ability users were like drops of water falling into the sea, quickly swallowed up by the zombie horde.
Perhaps their attacks had indeed left behind countless corpses, but the number disappearing was never as great as the number that surged forward again.
Everyone had long since lost count of how many zombies they had killed. They only knew that the corpses in front of the net had already piled into a small mountain, and quite a few zombies were still burning with flames thrown by the fire-type ability users.
Yet, their numbers did not seem to have decreased in the slightest.
Several close-combat ability users had already rushed to the front of the net. Taking advantage of the net as cover, they began slaughtering the zombies that slipped through.
Quan Xiaoyu was naturally one of them.
During brief intervals in the fighting, he would occasionally throw several fireballs into the zombie horde.
Almost every ability user had begun to emit a faint white light from their hands. This was the phenomenon produced when they activated the energy within the crystal cores.
Another fifteen minutes passed.
Large beads of sweat gradually appeared on everyone’s foreheads.
Li Nan and Lu Zhongxia continuously activated their abilities to purify the zombie crystal cores in their hands that had not yet been completely purified. These were the last reserves Quan Xiaoyu and the others had.
Then, they distributed them one by one among the various ability users.
Chu Tian controlled several zombies and made them bite and tear apart their own companions.
However, the base number of zombies was simply too enormous. The zombies he controlled were always torn to pieces by their companions in less than a minute.
Chu Tian could not help but smile bitterly.
He had figured it out.
His ability was truly a powerful weapon when dealing with humans!
But if he wanted to deal with zombies over a large area, his current level was still far from enough!
Five more minutes passed.
Everyone had already held out for a full thirty minutes.
Everyone’s movements had begun to become somewhat mechanical.
This was a battle requiring an extremely high level of concentration, both mentally and physically. Everyone’s physical strength and energy were being depleted several times faster than usual.
All the crystal cores had already been distributed.
Li Nan and Lu Zhongxia looked at each other, suddenly somewhat at a loss.
The large net had gradually begun to tear apart. More and more zombies were slipping through, and Xiao Ziran’s speed at repairing the net was gradually falling behind the speed at which it was being destroyed.
His physical strength had also almost reached its limit. He no longer had the strength to create another new net.
The close-combat fighters were facing more and more zombies as well, and Quan Xiaoyu no longer had even a moment to spare for throwing fireballs into the zombie horde.
The ordinary people had stopped shooting long ago, because it was too easy to accidentally injure their teammates, and their ammunition had almost run out.
Some people had even begun saving the last bullet for themselves.
The humans were in an extremely precarious situation, while the zombies remained unchanged.
The people who had originally been behind them had also still not caught up.
They could not break through, and there were no reinforcements.
For a moment, the situation seemed almost hopeless.
Some people had even begun giving up. Faced with the zombies surging like a tide, they seemed completely powerless.
“It’s here!”
Chu Tian, who had never stopped searching through the zombie horde, said those words once again.
This time, it had truly arrived!
The zombies’ assault suddenly slowed.
At the moment the defensive net collapsed with a tremendous crash, all the close-combat fighters had no choice but to retreat to their own side as quickly as possible.
Another fierce wave of abilities erupted.
In order to cover their retreating teammates, everyone unleashed their final all-out attack.
“Run! Everyone!”
Xiao Ziran shouted weakly and hoarsely.
There was no way they could break through in this situation.
Everyone had their own fate. He told everyone to get into their vehicles and escape separately. Perhaps some of them would be lucky enough to escape alive.
Yet although he shouted for them to flee, he himself did not move.
One of his two vines could now barely be swung.
But he was still fighting.
This was the first time Quan Xiaoyu had truly taken a close look at the doctor.
In his previous life, the doctor he had heard about was powerful and sinister, but he was also a qualified leader.
The doctor he had known in this life was cold, twisted, and domineering, but he had principles.
And now, this doctor was standing in front of everyone, fighting to buy his teammates their final chance to escape.
No one moved.
No one got into a vehicle and fled.
Even at this final moment, no one did.
No one screamed hysterically. Everyone had been stunned by the brutality before their eyes.
Should they flee?
For that faint chance of survival, should they abandon the teammates who were still fighting to buy them time?
Was life important?
Of course it was important!
But when life itself had become a gamble with extremely low odds, what happened when it was placed against genuine feelings?
Flee?
Or stay?
Everyone chose the latter.
Another wave of attacks was unleashed.
There was already none of the momentum they had possessed earlier, but no one gave up. Everyone was still trying their best, even though their efforts were barely enough to make a difference.
However, the zombies’ offensive gradually came to a halt as well.
They parted toward both sides.
Slowly, a special zombie appeared before everyone’s eyes.
It was a female zombie.
She was very young, but half of her face was already gone, as if something had scraped it completely flat. The bloody and gruesome state of the original wound was obvious, but by now the flesh had long since dried and scabbed over, leaving behind a smooth, flat mass of red.
It looked even more bizarre and terrifying.
Unlike the other zombies, she did not have sharp fangs.
The other half of her face remained largely human in appearance, if one ignored the several blood-red veins bulging near her ear.
Her long hair fell loosely over her shoulders and was surprisingly clean. Her clothes were somewhat torn, but still mostly intact.
At this moment, she was riding on a large cat.
The large cat carried her elegantly and leisurely, stepping out of the zombie horde one step at a time.
The strangest thing was that large cat.
It was not a zombie cat.
It was actually a genuine mutated cat.
Its body had already grown to the size of a lion.
At this moment, it walked with the graceful steps of a cat, proud and elegant like a king.
Without a doubt, that female zombie was the mental-type zombie Chu Tian had been talking about all along.
But what was she going to do?
Why had she suddenly stopped the attack?
What did she want?
Staring at the remaining intact half of the girl’s face, Quan Xiaoyu suddenly felt that she looked somewhat familiar.
Yet he could not remember where he had seen her before.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
After Lei Shi and Jia Lunxu communicated with the pretentious man, they finally learned what had happened earlier.
So there really was no benefit to be had!
The two of them were disappointed in their hearts, but did not show it.
They were also somewhat puzzled by Xiao Ziran and the others suddenly fleeing as though their lives depended on it.
However, after hearing the pretentious man’s speculation, they felt that Xiao Ziran and the others had probably been worried that they would join forces with those few ability users to deal with them, which was why they had fled so quickly.
Thinking this way, their confidence swelled once again.
Thinking about it, it made sense.
The two groups led by Xiao Ziran and Ouyang Jing had only a little over twenty people combined, nearly half of whom were ordinary people without abilities.
And on their side?
Including the six ability users brought by the pretentious man, they had nearly twenty ability users of their own, as well as some ordinary people with combat capabilities.
Could Xiao Ziran’s group possibly be their match?
They must have been frightened into running away.
By this point, the two sides had already made their initial introductions.
They learned that the pretentious man’s name was Yuan Shaohua, the only son of Yuan Long, the person in charge of the J City Safe Base.
This time, he had come to S City carrying out a mission.
The J City Safe Base had originally been the provincial capital of J Province, which bordered the province where S City was located.
After the apocalypse began, Yuan Long used his position as the provincial administrative head to quickly organize and establish a safe zone.
When he discovered that ability users had begun emerging after the apocalypse, he had shown considerable foresight and immediately begun recruiting ability users on a large scale, offering them generous terms.
Therefore, the six people following Yuan Shaohua were all ability users recruited after the apocalypse.
A total of sixteen ability users had accompanied Yuan Shaohua on this trip.
Ten of them had died along the way.
Only the six people before them remained.
The strongest among them was Pei Qianxing, a Level Three plant-type ability user.
Perhaps because both sides shared a common hostility toward Xiao Ziran and the others, adhering to the principle that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” the two sides were quite friendly toward each other.
They happily exchanged information.
Only then did Lei Shi and Jia Lunxu learn that safe zones had already been established in many places, and that they had begun taking in surviving refugees.
The two quickly exchanged a glance, each beginning to make various calculations in his heart.
Since Pei Qianxing, the strongest ability user under Yuan Shaohua, did not like talking, a fire-type ability user named Liu Sijun was sent forward to handle communication between the two sides.
As for Yuan Shaohua, the moment he saw Wen Tong, he became immensely interested in him.
So he had long since stopped bothering with serious business and left everything to Liu Sijun, while he himself happily followed Wen Tong around.
Wen Tong’s injuries had not yet healed.
Lu Zhongxia had stubbornly refused to treat him, and had then followed Xiao Ziran away.
Wen Tong was not without resentment toward Jia Lunxu, either.
He felt that if Jia Lunxu had not kept flirting with Lu Zhongxia for no reason, none of the subsequent events would have happened.
Of course, on his list of enemies, Chu Tian and Quan Xiaoyu occupied the top positions.
It was simply that he currently had neither the opportunity nor the ability to take revenge.
Right now, he was wrapped in bandages and engaged in a cold war with Jia Lunxu when, along the road, he encountered a young master who showed concern for him the moment they met.
Wen Tong naturally enjoyed being treated this way.
Especially after learning the young master’s identity—
The only son of the head of the largest safe base in J Province!
Thus, the conversation between the two sides was extremely pleasant.
When Jia Lunxu saw this, his first reaction was a flash of anger in his eyes.
But very quickly, that anger was replaced by thoughtful calculation.
His gaze toward Yuan Shaohua became even darker and more profound.
The two sides were getting along so pleasantly that they had no intention of continuing on for the time being.
So they simply stopped where they were to rest.
The ordinary people in the Lei Jia Squad were also delighted.
Whenever they stopped to rest, food and water would be distributed, so of course they were more than happy.
However, just at this moment, strange sounds came from behind them as well.