Armored train in the apocalypse

Chapter 321 Humanity's Counterattack

A torrent of steel roared overhead, the howls of zombies mingled with He Jie's roars, and the flashes of heavy machine guns leaped between the horde of corpses and the ruins, tearing their shadows apart and piecing them back together.

Blood smeared their lips a vibrant red, and gunfire added a highlight to them; in the flickering light and shadow, something even hotter than gunpowder was revealed.

The shouts of the scavengers behind them grew closer, and someone called out their names, their voices wavering amidst the gunfire.

"It seems the scavengers are about to join the battle..."

"Ignore them."

Su Huan casually flicked away a stray bullet that flew in from who-knows-where, continuing to replenish his depleted lifespan.

"Woo..."

On the roof of the car, gray-blue eyes gazed intently at the embracing figures before rushing onto the battlefield ahead.

Wen Biao and the others stared in disbelief at the train car that had been blown apart by the explosion, their eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. But when they realized that the oppressive aura emanating from the third-tier lord-level zombie was gone and the train's firepower was still fierce, they immediately regained their courage.

They climbed onto the broken train wreckage, overlooking the horrific battlefield, their hearts pounding with excitement amidst the smoke and the night wind.

Although the horde of zombies amidst the gunfire was barely visible, most of them were shrouded in the darkness of night.

More than four million became ten or twenty thousand, or even less.

Wen Biao roared, "It's our turn! Follow the armed train and kill these beasts!"

"Take back our home!"

"Crush them!"

"kill!"

The devastation of the city and the battlefield before them spurred many Zhijin people to action. Watching the armed soldiers fighting on the front lines, they roared with bloodshot eyes, their first fury since the apocalypse.

Led by Wen Biao, nearly 100,000 survivors crossed the train defense line, shouting noisy slogans, and charged into the battlefield.

They may have had their own thoughts, but at this moment, everyone was thinking only of fighting back, fighting back!

To take revenge on the family members who died tragically, to take revenge on my own, and to take revenge on all the grievances suffered since the end of the world.

They will fight back the fear suppressed by natural disasters and zombies, and the anger that has driven them out of the land where they have lived for thousands of years!

Their offensive power may be weak, their will may be thin, but everyone's inferiority and fear are covered by the night, and their courage and bloodlust are amplified infinitely. Each of them is a lone soldier, but when they step on this land, each of them is a lion!
Humanity's most terrifying weapon has never been guns and cannons, but rather the insatiable greed for survival that has been ingrained in our bones for hundreds of thousands of years!

Years from now, if there are history textbooks, they will only say:

"On June 25, 2036, led by armed trains, humanity launched a vigorous counterattack against the zombie-occupied city, marking humanity's formal shift from strategic survival to strategic counterattack... This battle not only verified the feasibility of mobile fortresses, but also greatly inspired the will to fight among the survivors of the apocalypse, and is hailed as an important turning point in the apocalyptic war... From then on, human civilization sounded the clarion call for a full revival, and history entered a new chapter."

No one would think this was a misunderstanding.

This was a great and glorious counterattack war witnessed by 100,000 people, without any personal conflicts, and filled with the brilliance of humanity!

All those who died in this battle, whether by conspiracy or by cowardice, were shrouded in a glorious light.

……

The future is the future, but we still have to tackle the tough challenges now.

Five million zombies are a real phenomenon.

The battle between the armed train and the train conductor wiped out more than 500,000 zombies. The most deadly weapons were not the red-hot machine guns on the train, nor the artistic dumplings made by the train conductor, but the cannons and railguns on the train.

Thanks to the zombies' densely packed formation, each shot could achieve considerable results.

Even so, the number of zombies stubbornly remained at over four million. However, without the command of the lord-level zombies, the massive horde was like a blind man. As time went on, they forgot where their destination was and could only blindly scatter throughout the city.

Only about a million zombies near Zhinan District are still fighting against humans.

The battle raged from nightfall to dawn. Even if the men could hold on, the guns couldn't. Without modern weapons and ammunition, against the "steel-boned" horde of zombies, there was no way to achieve any results; the horde would only grow larger.

Of 100,000 people, it would be a stroke of luck for ten to escape. Faced with the terrifying number of second-tier zombies, only Su Huan had the ability to move freely.

The armed soldiers, who had been killing all night, all had exhaustion on their faces, and their fingers were stiff as they pulled the trigger.

But they remained at the forefront, acting as the spearhead to halt the advancing horde of zombies.

Occasionally, a few might be missed, creating opportunities for the scavengers behind to outnumber the enemy.

"Boom——"

A small building collapsed, and zombies from the hot pot restaurant on the second floor crashed down, blocking the entire street. The leader, a second-tier butcher, rolled on the ground like a ball. His small eyes, hidden beneath his corpse armor, gleamed with greed. He grabbed a dead tree by the roadside, yanked it up by the roots, and walked towards the crowd.

The scavengers who were clearing away the remaining zombies with a squad of sergeants from the armed corps suddenly screamed, dropped their weapons, and fled in a frenzy.

Even the leading sergeant paled, but remained calm and ordered, "Evacuate from left to right. Don't worry about the survivors, preserve yourselves, and don't let them get within a meter of you. You are allowed to fire first! Understand?!"

"Yes!"

The soldier on the far right began to retreat, while the remaining four held off the horde of zombies ahead.

It wasn't that they didn't want to stop the second-tier killer, but with the equipment they carried, they couldn't break through its defenses at all.

When it came to the last sergeant, he couldn't even control the horde of zombies by himself, and several red tracer rounds shot out of his rifle, proving that there were only five bullets left in the magazine.

The butcher's thunderous footsteps grew closer, but his men had only run out a few seconds before he knew that retreating now would only result in both of them dying.

Under the pressure of death, sweat streamed down his forehead, but the sergeant did not move an inch.

He skillfully loaded the last magazine, steadily retreating while precisely taking down the zombies that charged at him.

As the distance closed, almost every shot could take down a zombie.

He killed more than ten ordinary zombies after emptying half a magazine.

Such battle losses would have collapsed any other species, but these beasts were even more resilient than the Qing Dynasty, charging forward with guns pointed at them.

The most recent one that fell on its deathbed almost bit his boots.

The red light of the tracer rounds flashed again, indicating that there was enough time for the teammates to evacuate.

But he knew he couldn't escape.

While drawing his pistol and rifle, he silently counted the bullets inside.

"three"

"two"

"Da da da……"

Before he could finish counting to one, he heard a burst of gunfire behind him.

Without turning around, he could tell it was a squad light machine gun used by the team's "gunner"—small caliber, high rate of fire, only effective against ordinary zombies.

"Boss, above! Above!"

Anxious shouts came from behind.

The young sergeant suppressed the inexplicable tremor in his heart, rolled suddenly towards the corner of the wall, and the withered tree whistled down, the sound of breaking branches echoing in the air, and the bricks and stones on the ground cracking.

Although he chose the corner of the building, his back still felt like it was being cut by a knife.

He forced himself to stand up and tried to run.

Even if a Tier 2 Butcher is slow to react, he is still much faster than a "Defender" without a profession. He can even hear the sound of air being cut behind his head.

The next moment, a sharp pain shot through his waist, and he was sent flying sideways.

Before he could react, he was picked up again and thrown somewhere. The sergeant unfastened his misaligned helmet and saw a pair of pale golden beast eyes staring straight at the second-tier butcher below.

"Sister Cat?"

The sergeant's voice sounded somewhat surprised.

"Okay, Liu Zi, find a place to go down yourself." The meerkat nodded. If Liu Zi hadn't been transferred to Qu Hang's team by He Jie, he would have been her adjutant.

After giving its instructions, the meerkat leaped down.

Liu Zi then realized that he had been carried up to the third floor by a meerkat without anyone noticing.

With a "thud," a spent cartridge hit him on the head.

He Jie roared in anger, "Still reminiscing? Do you want me to carry you down?"

"You! You! You're the one being sent back to basic training this time, and even if the train conductor pleads for you, it won't work!"

The machine guns roared, and the butcher let out furious howls.

Even though he is a second-tier zombie with immense strength and tenacious vitality, as long as he has not advanced to the third tier, he is still a solid target in front of a 12.7mm caliber gun.

With a precise burst of machine gun fire, the second-tier killer's head exploded into a bloody pulp.

Liu Zi climbed down the wall and rejoined his four teammates.

He felt both relief at escaping death and sorrow at the prospect of returning to the recruit camp, but the four teammates in front of him were a different story.

My brother is alive! What a joy!
My brother's bad luck has turned into double good luck!

One by one, they enthusiastically patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, we'll come to see you then."

"Hey, why do you think that about us?"

"We're brothers in arms!"

"If all else fails, you can run over to see us..."

"Salutes and salutes are not important. Just remember to call me 'sir'."

Liu Zi: “o.0”

……

In a temporarily converted underground laboratory in Zhijin City.

Apart from various screens and equipment, the laboratory has only two assistants.

Number 1 stood in front of a huge screen, which showed Su Huan and the third-tier matriarch touching foreheads, with information streams refreshing wildly on both sides.

In their indifferent eyes, information flows converge, occasionally coalescing into a miniature black hole that devours other data.

'Why was he able to advance to the third rank instantly?'

Where does such a massive amount of energy come from?

Why didn't the third-tier matriarch kill him? Instead, she pushed him away in the end.

Why is the profession of "energy provider" so different in his case?

Why did he freeze up at the end?

Are there really such large differences between the original genomes?

'...'

Due to the lack of information, countless questions arose in Number 1's mind. He thought that many questions would be answered after watching this battle, but he didn't expect that there would be even more questions.

"The zombie horde is spreading uncontrollably, twelve observation points have been destroyed, and the risk of the temporary laboratory being discovered has increased significantly. Should we evacuate?"

An assistant asked while typing on the keyboard.

The only sound in the laboratory was the hum of the machines, but there was no response.

After a long pause, Number 1's indifferent voice rang out, "No, continue observing, focusing on gathering the following information..."

……

As the sky grew brighter, He Jie's situation became less relaxed.

He had encountered situations like Liu Zi's countless times in one night. No matter how well-equipped or well-trained one is, it's all for naught on the battlefield.

Bad luck can kill you too.

At first, their senior officers fought in squads, but later they found that they couldn't manage it all and had to split up and put out fires everywhere.

In one night, the corps lost fourteen non-commissioned officer squads.

Including a few squads with at least one or two members, the casualties are approaching those of the battle against Hei Yuan at Yanbei Pass.

Several of the recruits he had high hopes for lost their jobs.

"boom!"

A loud, muffled thud sounded ahead.

It didn't look like an explosive explosion; it looked more like waves crashing against rocks.

He Jie frowned. "Mongoose, lure the horde of zombies away. I'll go check ahead!"

He removed the empty ammunition belt, stuffed it into his pocket, shouldered the heavy machine gun, took a few running starts, jumped onto a nearby rooftop, and ran in another direction.

As he ran, he deduced the map in his mind. According to his orders, Qu Hang, Lin Jin and others were now causing the zombie horde to spread in all directions. There shouldn't be any first-level evolved beings in that direction, so how could they cause such a commotion?

Could it be that the flight crew intervened?

'hiss……'

Thinking of this, He Jie quickened his pace.

Even from a distance, he saw a "water giant" two or three meters tall standing on the rooftop, throwing short spears downwards. The sound he heard, similar to a tsunami, was the sound of the short spears piercing through a level two zombie and hitting the ground.

If the kill is not achieved, a second short spear will be thrown.

With a maximum of three sticks, he can kill a level two zombie.

Then he would manipulate the water flow to pull the spear back, and despite the violent impact, the spear was completely undamaged.

He stood indifferently on the rooftop like a cannon, killing the high-level zombies below.

With his help, the scavengers below were able to clear the waste with remarkable speed.

Because of his injury, He Jie had never seen Zhong You's face, but the terrifying energy fluctuations emanating from him told him that he was no ordinary person. He loaded his anti-aircraft machine gun with ammunition and stood behind Zhong You, waiting silently.

He could sense the other person's presence, so Zhongyou naturally knew of his arrival as well.

The two men, one working and the other watching silently, created a delicate balance.

Zhongyou stopped hunting down all the second-tier zombies below, and the "little giant" turned into clear liquid and returned to the steel cylinder behind him.

He didn't have the final authority over the exoskeleton, so he only carried three short spears and a steel cylinder filled with water.

"I need to find Su Huan and make a deal with him."

……

"Forget the story, tell me something that interests me."

Su Huan sat shirtless on the roof of the car, letting Yu Yue slowly wipe the blood off his body with a rag.

Zhongyou said calmly, "Number 1 is still in Zhijin City. I know its approximate location."

Su Huan relaxed his brows and smiled kindly, "I think this is a sincere deal."

"So what do you want?"

(End of this chapter)