Chapter 84
The goods arrived the next day.
Almost everyone at the Sixth Street was busy with the crusade, so the smuggling went unnoticed.
There were only four people that delivered the goods, and they were all close subordinates of Zhao Chenwu. His assistant Su Lei personally led the team. The guarding soldier transferred the control rights to Jiang Chen and sharply saluted him before they hastily left.
Jiang Chen smiled as he watched the camouflaged armor vehicle and the pitch black metal giants with a fearsome face. He patted the closest guy’s shoulder before ordering the new slaves to transport the goods.
If one could compare light armor to kinetic skeletons, then power armor resembled the knight’s heavy armor in the middle ages. They were divided into ground type and air drop type with the main difference being the armor’s weight and if it was equipped with a shock absorbing turbine engine. The mass of the air drop type was usually less than half a ton, while the ground type weighted one ton or more.
These ten sets of T-3 power armors were the air drop type. They were equipped with a trident-shaped revolving machine gun and ammo packages.
Lu Huasheng was smart enough to design an elevator at the exit. Or else, if they only used rope, it would be tricky to bring up the two meters high, 300-kilogram power armor. The ten slaves clearly did not know how to operate the equipment, and they looked like they were getting ready to enter their caskets.
Obviously, they knew it was illegal to sell those types of equipment.
Since it was illegal…
Their genetic ID must have been registered as died at the Sixth Street already.
As to if they will really die? It would all be up to the man with the cheerful smile.
“Welcome to Fishbone Survival Camp. Trust me, working for me is much more enjoyable than working for anyone else in the world…”
Although it did sound like bullsh*t, it looked like they won’t be dying anytime soon.
Everyone felt relieved as they anxiously followed the man’s footsteps.
－
After giving the responsibility of assigning jobs to Lu Huasheng, Jiang Chen quickly went to find Sun Jiao.
“Weapon and power armor is ready, when should we depart?” Sun Jiao immediately asked when she saw Jiang Chen.
“Within two days. Did you manage to contact the survivor groups around us?”
“No problem. The wireless equipment in the conference room can do that, but what is the point of it?” Sun Jiao asked confused.
“Take them to fight the mobs.” He left an unclear response behind.
There were too many survivors living in small groups around the area. If he managed to consolidate them together, there would at least be two to three thousand people. If Fishbone Survival Camp wants to the break the limitations of their population, they must think about the surrounding survivors.
Those were the survivors that survived through hardships in the apocalypse. Their mental strength was much stronger than ordinary people, or at least more twisted. Their individual combat abilities also far exceeded the slaves in the ghetto. But the tricky part was, they had long ceased to believe in orders and rules, they acted like wolves which are difficult to train.
If you want a dog to listen, a bone plus a rope would be enough.
But for a wolf to listen, a bone and a rope were nowhere enough. The survivors will take the bone away without hesitation but never willingly lower their head and accept the collar.
Unless they possessed absolute power, there was no point in even thinking about uniting together and fighting back.
Showing off their firearms was the second purpose of the crusade.
The best idea was to bring the battlefield together and alleviate the pressure from the waves of zombies. Then, promise them part of the reward to increase their dependency on Fishbone base.
Now that the zombies have all formed crystals, Jiang Chen didn’t believe that those survivors would not be interested. Even if Jiang Chen didn’t have the heavy firearm, the power armor was more than enough to steamroll through normal zombies. Those survivors have no reason to give up guaranteed profit.
－
The next morning.
The Fishbone Base was busy once again. The soldiers rushed to their battle stations. The non-combat unit helped to pack supplies as well as raise polyethylene board onto the front door to create a defense zone in case the zombies rushed into the base when the door was opened.
Outside the wall, it was also busy. The crowded zombies perfectly illustrated the words ‘seas of zombies’. The sheer amount of rotten bodies completely blocked the streets outside.
Strange. It was as if the zombies from the entire area was stuffed onto this one street.
“Weapon system, functional. Turbine engine, functional. And energy stick, functional!” Jiang Chen tirelessly checked the data within the electronic helmet. Although he had experience with power armors in the virtual reality training chamber and had the opportunity to familiarize himself with the actual armor yesterday, being locked in the “metal box” made him feel unsettled.
The pitch black paint, the vigorous and light armor’s aerodynamic shape, the trident-shaped revolving machines gun, and the tactical rifle placed at the waist. Jiang Chen was almost fortified to his teeth.
It certainly did look cool, but it was surprisingly difficult to put on.
Sun Jiao glanced at Jiang Chen with worried eyes. She then took a deep breath and waved at the guard on the wall.
The guard saluted and quickly positioned himself by the machine gun.
Sun Jiao will be the leader for this operation.
“Be prepared to depart. Open your weapon system, and make sure the zombies don’t break our formation. All of our supplies are in the car. Am I understood?”
“Understood!” The eight armored soldiers uniformly shouted as they put on their helmets.
“Open the gate!” Sun Jiao shouted and signaled before she also put on her helmet.
The metal gate slowly rose. As if they smelt the delicious scent of food, the zombies turned their hollow eyes in the direction of the door.
Tatatatata!
“Fire!”
The machine guns on the two watchtowers began to unload their ammunition. The orange light split countless bodies of zombies as it shredded the already crippled body into more pieces. However, it was futile as the waves of zombies howled and rushed to the door.
“Charge!”
The team in power armor formed a triangle, protecting the armored vehicle in the middle. They then ripped a hole in the sea of zombies. Zombies with missing limbs shook on the ground. If their brains were still intact, zombies would not die.
But there was no time to finish them off. Under the power of the machine gun on the watch tower and the armored soldiers’ continuously firing revolving machine gun, the flow of indestructible metal trampled through the corpses of the undead.
Even through metal, the sticky feeling of blood and meat on Jiang Chen’s feet made his stomach churn. But he was no longer afraid of the frightening zombies.
They are no longer humans.
Some were not humans to begin with.
When the reinforced front armor collided with the zombies, who had attempted to bite him, the power of the armor’s technology was truly demonstrated. The turbine engines on the waist and arms spat out mystic blue flames. The zombies futilely scratched and bit on the cold armor as Jiang Chen maximized the thrust of the engines.
The team maintained their formation as they moved forward, pushing the zombies back.
If the charge formation stopped, they then must face the dire situation of being surrounded by zombies. Although the regular zombies would not penetrate the armor if they accumulated and gained a numerical advantage, they could, however, deform the power armor as easily as they flipped cars.
Even if they had the absolute advantage on equipment, no one dared to lose concentration as they used the fire power of their armors to disperse the sea of zombies.
But it was impossible to kill all the zombies even if they used all of their ammunition. The only thing they needed to do was to break through, not waste all the ammunition on these dead things.
The zombies squeezed through and collided with the armored vehicle, but they got ran over right away. The thick and heavy tire left a frightening mark on the ground. The 20mm machine gun on top of the vehicle continued to fire as the bullets penetrated the zombies’ withered bodies, exploding it into pieces.
Finally, the entire force forcefully created an opening through the sea of zombies as they trampled through the twitching bodies and out of the zombie-infested street.
“How do you feel.” A caring voice passed through the private channel.
“I am okay.” Jiang Chen took several deep breaths as he tried to calm his pounding heart.
He closed the revolving machine gun on his right hand and pulled out the tactical rifle on his waist. Everyone else followed. They no longer needed to maintain a high concentration of firepower after they broke through.
The zombies still rushed towards them, but they were much more sparse. It seemed to have matched his guess that the zombies all consciously gathered near the base. Once they passed another street, they could barely see any zombies.
“This is odd.”
“Be careful, stay alert! Open the electric life detection device.
“Roger.”
“No mutant signal within the 500-meter radius.”
…
The series of reporting made the public channel sound chaotic.
Usually speaking, the drastic decrease in zombie concentration could only mean one thing. The existence of a powerful mutant was nearby. Although zombies hunted for any living creature, most of their prey were creatures with a similar life energy to humans. If they encountered an one hundred crystal monster or the nest of a mutant, zombies would subconsciously move away from that direction.
But the situation was abnormal. Not only mutants, but there wasn’t even a single cockroach on the street.
The broken advertisement board, the abandoned cars…
They were the only living creatures on the street.
He shook his left arm to get rid of the sticky feeling of blood as he watched the empty street.
The ominous feeling was more and more apparent.