Chapter 139 Slaughter

Through the binoculars, one could see a densely packed, shifting mass of zombies. They rolled like a tidal wave through the forests, across the fields, and along the highways stretching toward the New City. Wherever they passed was like a swarm of locusts sweeping through; countless wild weeds were trampled and churned into the mud. After the zombies had completely passed by, the land was left utterly barren.

Yang Chengyuan withdrew his head with a trace of panic, put away the binoculars, and leaned against a horizontal trench, clutching a brand-new assault rifle that still emitted the scent of machine oil. His chest heaved violently, and his hand instinctively tightened around the weapon. Even with his eyes open, the boundless black cloud of zombies lingered stubbornly in his vision.

"Captain, do you think... can we win?" A young man nervously checked his assault rifle, and after calibrating the scope, asked his team leader, Yang Chengyuan, with a hint of anxiety. Although he had killed quite a few zombies, this time was different from the past. This time, they were taking the initiative, relying on eight thousand regular soldiers and as many as ten thousand reservists to fend off an attack by over a million zombies.

Yang Chengyuan calmed his racing heart, cast a glance at the ten members of his squad, and said with confidence, "How could we not win? Don't look at the million-plus zombies as some terrifying force; they are nothing more than living targets." He raised the assault rifle in his hand, pointed at the scope mounted on top, and said, "Do you know what this is? A scope with a 1,500-meter calibration range. Mounted on the Type 43 assault rifle, it becomes a powerful sniper rifle."

Yang Chengyuan licked his lips, as much to reassure himself as to bolster his men, and said, "We have a total of five thousand sniper rifles converted from the Type 43, over a thousand light and heavy machine guns of various types, more than a dozen armored vehicles, dozens of weapon transport trucks, not to mention direct support from the air force." He gestured toward various locations—on the mountains, along the roads, and even out in the fields—where people were busy at work. He continued, "Do you know what they're doing? Those iron drums are homemade incendiary bombs. Thousands of them are distributed across this vast area. Once the zombies fully enter the zone of these incendiary bombs... well, let's just say these bombs will burn at least tens of thousands of zombies to death right here."

"And that's not all..." Yang Chengyuan said, showing off slightly. "Take a look through your scopes at the guys carrying launchers. Do you see that green modified shell strapped to their backs? That's the GGB, specifically designed to target zombies."

One of the team members finally couldn't help asking, "Captain, what is—"

Seeing that the entire squad was looking at him intently, Yang Chengyuan, to be honest, wasn't entirely clear on what GGB stood for either. But with all his subordinates staring at him, if he didn't answer, wouldn't it make him look ignorant? "Well, this... GGB... let me put it this way: GGB is the name of a chemical agent. It can be fired through modified shells. Under the action of the fuse, it detonates, activating the GGB biological agent acting as the warhead to form a spray radius fifty meters wide. Any zombie within this circle that touches even a tiny bit of the GGB biological agent will dissolve into a puddle of liquid."

All the squad members dropped their jaws, clearly terrified by this GGB biological agent. "That's too overpowered! With this GGB stuff, wouldn't that mean however many zombies come, that many will die?" The perceived effectiveness of the GGB biological agent seemed to restore a bit of confidence in everyone.

Yang Chengyuan did not dwell on the subject any longer. He said, "Our mission is very simple. It's just like fighting the invaders a century ago—we will use guerrilla tactics to massively annihilate the zombies. The maximum firing range of our Type 43 assault rifle is 2,000 meters, and the effective combat range is 1,100 meters. With the help of the scopes, it will be very easy for us to hit the zombies' heads between 800 and 1,100 meters. This time, everyone gets five magazines, 250 rounds in total. Use them sparingly, aim before you fire, and strive to end a zombie with a single bullet."

Although the entire squad had been filled with confidence about dealing with these zombies under Yang Chengyuan's persuasion, everyone still harbored some lingering worries. Yes, they could strike the zombies from 1,100 meters away, but that didn't mean they were completely safe, because no one knew if R2s or R3s would appear among them. R2s were somewhat manageable and still within the scope of eradication, but R3s were entirely beyond the extermination capability of everyone present.

As citizens of the New City, they understood R3s better than anyone else. After all, wasn't the classification and grading of zombies published by the New City itself? Precisely because they understood, they were worried. These mutated monsters possessed terrifying capabilities. Only a tiny fraction of weapons could inflict damage upon them. If they happened to run into one, a squad of eleven men wouldn't last even a minute before being completely wiped out.

The eight thousand soldiers were divided into squad-sized units, scattered two kilometers ahead of the advancing zombie horde. The entire army adopted guerrilla tactics, making use of the sniper rifles' superior range to fight while avoiding any physical contact with the zombies as much as possible. Whenever the zombies closed to within 200 meters, the soldiers stationed at that distance were to withdraw 1.5 kilometers back as a whole, redeploy, and wait for the zombies to re-enter the sniper rifles' effective range. Repeating this cycle, they would wipe out these living-target-like zombies. Everyone harbored confidence in this plan.

"The reason Wangtian Base was overrun by zombies was fundamentally due to a lack of vigilance." Xie Han lowered his binoculars. Among the three helicopters at the experimental base, only Xu Qiang and he could barely pilot them. Considering his own combat role, Xie Han ultimately chose only one, piloted by Xu Qiang, to serve as a mobile unit capable of dealing with R3-tier zombies. At this moment, the helicopter was parked on a mountaintop three kilometers away from the zombies.

Xu Qiang felt the same way. When the Level 1 combat readiness state was declared, everyone had studied the reasons for Wangtian Base's failure. Among them, the lack of vigilance was cited as one of the primary causes of its destruction. If... if Wangtian Base had discovered the zombies' intentions earlier and mobilized preparations ahead of time, given their formidable personnel and equipment and the chance to fight millions of zombies, they might not have been without a chance.

"Losing vigilance means losing time, and losing time means losing everything." That was Xu Qiang's conclusion. If Xie Han hadn't discovered the zombies' intentions from the very beginning, and if they had suddenly appeared ten or twenty kilometers outside the New City, the New City would never have had the time to prepare everything. The consequence would only have been following in Wangtian Base's footsteps. Fortunately, none of that happened, leaving the New City with enough time to prepare for this—

Xie Han felt a bit troubled. He raised his binoculars again to observe and said, "Having only thirty-five GGB biological agents is still far too few. If we had a few thousand, why would these mere million-plus zombies even be worth our attention? Even if we win this time, it will be enough to hollow out the meager foundation the New City has worked so hard to accumulate. No wonder people always say war is like a gold-devouring monster; that saying is truly correct."

"Sigh, when two human factions fight, the victorious side always reaps a huge harvest. But what we are facing are zombies. Even if we win, the only benefit is protecting our New City; you can't even hope to earn back the cost of a single bullet in supplies. Damn it, even if Wangtian City loses these million-plus zombies, it just clears a bit of moving space for the rest of them." Xu Qiang was also extremely depressed. No matter what, this battle meant nothing to the zombies, but to the New City, it was a bone-breaking injury.

Xie Han patted Xu Qiang on the shoulder, tossed him an ugly-looking rolled cigarette manufactured in the New City, and said, "Smoke one. The battle is about to begin, and when it does, if you want a smoke, you won't have the luxury of taking it easy." He lit one himself and took a deep, heavy drag. The thick, pungent spice made Xie Han frown. He shook his head and said, "Our New City's technology is still not up to par. You can only smoke this stuff when you really can't help it. If you smoked a dozen of these a day, wouldn't that be pure torture?"

Xu Qiang chuckled, took a blissful drag, and said, "Be content. Do you know how much a pack of these costs? There are plenty of people who want to smoke and can't even get their hands on one."

Although the rolled cigarettes in the New City were crude, they were deeply loved by the men of the New City. Often, before they even hit the market shelves, they were completely bought out. For men with a severe nicotine addiction, even by tightening their belts and living frugally, they still had to spare the money for a pack of cigarettes. Against such a backdrop, the New City Cigarette Factory—a workshop of barely a dozen people—how could it possibly meet market supply and demand in the face of a tobacco leaf shortage? A single cigarette being hard to find had almost become a portrait of the New City!

Xie Han also sighed at the spirit of Chinese smokers and resolutely said, "Let's increase the tobacco cultivation area next year. Anyway, this stuff can survive even when planted in the mountains; just send a few more people to maintain it."

During the time it took to smoke a cigarette, the zombie horde had surged like a flood into the 1,100-meter effective attack range of the sniper rifles. Chen Liu, serving as the overall commander for this sniper battle, had naturally come to the front lines. He did not stay safely in the rear merely because he was the commander-in-chief; he held a sniper rifle in his hands as well, and through his scope, the ugly head of a zombie was already framed within the crosshairs.

As the very first zombie stepped into the effective attack range of the sniper rifles, Chen Liu nodded to the adjutant beside him and gave the order: "Execute! Any zombie entering the 1,100-meter attack range is to be shot dead. Have the machine gun units ready; the moment the sniper units withdraw, they will step up."

With Chen Liu's order given, in the absence of communication equipment, a green signal flare was fired into the sky, bursting into a massive spray of green sparks that dyed the entire sky green.

The moment the signal flare appeared, the various squad leaders, assessing their own distances, gave the order to open fire. The previously silent expanse of rolling hills and fields suddenly erupted with dense gunfire. Through his binoculars, Xie Han could clearly see the zombies in the front row of the horde taking precise hits to their heads. Thousands of zombies collapsed without warning. Splattering brain matter stained the wild weeds under the zombies' feet a dark, ink-like black, only to be trampled over without hesitation by the mindless zombies pressing forward.

"Aim! Everyone, aim for God's sake..." squad leaders shouted loudly. After the first shot, many men showed a trace of panic on their second shot, with fewer than a thousand zombies having fallen to their guns. "Are you guys blind? Is it pitch black? Even with scopes, you're shooting this terribly; it's a disgrace... All of you, aim properly! They are nothing more than moving targets that don't even know how to dodge or lunge."

Dense gunfire rang out continuously. Zombie after zombie was hit in the head and went down. Eventually, the zombies across the entire frontline entered the effective attack range of the assault rifles, and the gunfire grew even denser, sounding like falling rain. The sight of five thousand assault rifles firing simultaneously was deeply shocking. If both sides were human armies, perhaps the casualties on both sides wouldn't even reach a hundred. But facing zombies moving in a single-minded charge, the nearly 95% hit rate caused their front rows to fall in neat rows like harvested wheat.

The maximum rate of fire for an assault rifle could reach 2,000 rounds per minute, but this was no time for indiscriminate spraying. Almost every soldier employed controlled bursts or single shots. Factor in the time needed to re-aim after a kill, and within a minute, each soldier could fire about ten times. Calculated at a 95% hit rate, the firepower generated by five thousand shooters was formidable: within a single minute, over forty thousand zombies could be brought down.

Under this kind of attack, the zombies within the entire effective range were virtually wiped clean. A thick layer of zombie corpses littered the ground, though they were quickly submerged by the following zombies, who continued marching forward over the bodies of the fallen. To beings devoid of thought, was death even death? To the greatest threat facing humanity, in their minds, there wasn't even a passing thought. Only marching forward, ever forward, biting and killing every living human being—that was their sole drive.

This devastating attack effect left even Chen Liu stunned. He ordered, "All forces cease fire. Let them close to 800 meters before engaging in free fire." To be honest, Chen Liu had never imagined that a battle could be fought quite like this. These zombies were entirely like living targets—they didn't know how to dodge, didn't know how to make evasive maneuvers, as if they were simply waiting for bullets to blow their heads apart.

The entire battlefield fell silent once more, save for the sound of heavy breathing and the "woo-woo" noises emitted by the zombies.

Three hundred meters was a distance that zombies—moving slightly faster than a normal human's brisk walking pace—could cross in just a few minutes. "820 meters, 810 meters, 800 meters, 790 meters... Open fire!" The shouts of the squad leaders were quickly drowned out by the roar of gunfire. It was as if the previous scene was playing out all over again: zombie after zombie was struck in the head while in motion, collapsed onto the ground, and was subsequently trampled over by the zombies behind them as they pressed forward. Yet merely three or four seconds later, those same zombies that had just stepped over the bodies would crash heavily to the ground themselves.

Repeating this cycle, every soldier pulled the trigger mechanically, aimed at the head of the next zombie, and pulled the trigger once more.

Although this slaughter method was extremely effective—at a rate of forty thousand per minute, it was practically like practicing marksmanship against stationary targets during training—the area covered by the zombie horde was simply too vast. Driven by wave after wave of reinforcements, a massive black sea of bodies continued to press toward the defensive line established by the humans. 600 meters, 550 meters, 500 meters, 450 meters... until the 200-meter mark was reached, when all attacks abruptly ceased. The five thousand soldiers quickly rose from their combat positions with virtually zero casualties and sprinted toward the rear to withdraw.

Following the retreat of those five thousand soldiers, the machine gun units previously positioned behind them instantly surged onto the front line. What was the concept of over a thousand light and heavy machine guns? Such a concentration of machine gun fire had probably never been deployed in the history of warfare. The shock it delivered was unimaginable. In the context of the apocalypse, with a maximum range of 5,500 meters and an effective combat range of 1,500 meters, focusing targets at a mere 200 meters away guaranteed an absolute slaughter of visual shock—producing a spectacle capable of leaving anyone who witnessed it with memories that would last a lifetime.

"All units, prepare... Open fire!!!"

The moment the order was given, the frenzied "ta-ta-ta" gunfire left virtually no gaps, becoming the only sound between heaven and earth. Like a harvester cutting through wheat, wherever the fire swept, wave upon wave of zombies collapsed. With such dense attacks, even a 10% headshot rate translated into a terrifying statistic. Zombies with severed limbs and torn bodies fell to the ground, struggling, using their hands and torsos to continue dragging themselves forward.

This reaping process did not last very long—only three to four minutes. But those three to four minutes were hellish. Countless zombies lay stacked thickly upon the ground, stretching out as far as the eye could see without an end in sight. Only about 10% of these zombies had been hit in the head; the rest had broken arms and legs, crawling and wriggling forward. The scene was utterly horrifying, giving any soldier who witnessed it an urge to vomit.

"All units withdraw to the second machine gun line..."

Because machine guns were difficult to transport manually, the machine gun units were equipped with dedicated trucks serving as their transport fleet. Therefore, the moment the retreat order was given, the soldiers immediately hoisted their machine guns from their positions and ran toward the trucks parked not far behind. One by one, the machine guns were loaded onto the cargo beds, and the soldiers boarded in an orderly fashion to depart. The entire withdrawal took no more than five minutes—just enough time for the zombies to flood forward once again, burying the former machine gun positions.

Watching the machine gun units retreat, Chen Liu—who had already fallen back to join the sniper infantry—picked up his binoculars and looked at the zombie horde, which had lost a tenth of its numbers. A smile appeared on his face. With eight thousand soldiers and zero casualties, they had lost only a few hundred thousand rounds of ammunition while wiping out over one hundred thousand zombies. At this rate, eliminating these zombies was strictly a matter of time. Moreover, by this point, the zombie horde had completely submerged the thousands of homemade incendiary bombs planted within their path.

*(PS: Zombies have no thought, so rifles equipped with scopes, acting as sniper rifles, make hitting heads very simple. Just like a stationary shooting target—could you really miss with a scope placed within the rifle's effective range? Keep in mind that these men are no rookies; they are people who have survived and floated through three and a half years of the apocalypse, so their marksmanship was naturally forged long ago. With five thousand shooters and the zombies packed into such a dense formation, a casualty rate of over forty thousand per minute is entirely plausible.*

*The Type 43 assault rifle refers to an assault rifle finalized in the year 2043.*

*Additionally, brothers with monthly tickets, please cast them for this book. This book truly needs the support of all of you.)*