19: Chapter 19 Underground Garage 2

Commander Lin Dong's finger hovered over the trigger for a second.

At this distance, 85 meters, with a wind speed of 3.2 m/s and a crosswind, he needed to adjust the reticle 0.3 mils to the left. Target: head. Predicted impact point—two centimeters below the right temple, the weak spot of the temporal bone.

He could empty the remaining eleven rounds in the magazine within 0.8 seconds. Based on the muscle density of a Strength-type Esper according to the panel data, at least seven hits to the torso would be required for a lethal blow. However, if the opponent activated that burst skill with a 2.3-second cooldown, their muscle density would instantly increase by 300%, and the bullets' lethality would drop by at least sixty percent.

2.3 seconds.

Commander Lin Dong moved his finger away from the trigger.

"Come out," he shouted toward the abandoned military truck, his voice echoing in the empty underground garage. "Your brother hiding behind the fuel tank has had a cramp in his right leg for three minutes. If he doesn't move soon, he'll need an amputation."

Silence followed from behind the truck for two seconds.

Then, a bald man wearing a prison uniform stepped out, hands spread wide, palms covered in grease and dried blood. A bandage was wrapped around his right knee, soaked through with blood—a result of Commander Lin Dong's previous shot. Following him was a young man as thin as a bamboo pole, wearing glasses and limping; his right leg was clearly cramping.

A red data box hovered above the bald man's head:

[Lv.5 Strength-type Esper]

[HP: 327/680]

[Status: Penetrating wound to the right leg (Movement speed -40%, Burst skill cooldown extended by 0.8s)]

[Threat Rating: C+]

The box for the Man with Glasses was gray—an ordinary person, unawakened.

"Soldier?" The bald man stared at the gun in Commander Lin Dong's hand, then at his camouflage uniform. "From the military?"

"I used to be." Commander Lin Dong didn't lower his gun. "Where are you from?"

"Beiling Prison." The bald man grinned, revealing a row of yellow teeth. "The apocalypse hit, the doors opened, and we came out. I'm Ma Kui, though the guys inside call me Brother Kui. Brother, I don't want to fight you. We're just looking for some food and a place to hide. It's full of those things out there; more than half of us are dead."

As he spoke, his eyes kept darting behind Commander Lin Dong.

Deep in the B2 level of the underground garage, that silver-gray heavy truck sat quietly. Twenty-two meters long, eighty tons in weight, with fifty millimeters of homogeneous steel armor—the progress bar for the base vehicle deployment had just reached 32%, and a metallic texture was surfacing on the truck's side, as if something were growing out from within.

Commander Lin Dong's peripheral vision swept over the base vehicle's status bar:

[base vehicle Deploying: 32%]

[Time Remaining: 4 hours 28 minutes]

[Warning: Interference during the deployment process will result in a progress reset]

"What are you looking at?" Commander Lin Dong raised his muzzle slightly.

Ma Kui retracted his gaze, his smile deepening. "Is that your supply truck? Brother, we don't need much. Just give us some food and medicine. This leg of mine..." He looked down at his knee. "You have to take responsibility; you're the one who shot it."

"There are forty-seven of you," Commander Lin Dong said, his tone flat. "Twelve guns, three shotguns, the rest are machetes and steel pipes. Your ammunition reserves average less than five rounds per person, and two people have empty chambers—they're using their guns as clubs. You've been out of prison for at least twenty hours without food or water; I can smell the stench on you from fifty meters away."

Ma Kui's smile froze.

"I'm not negotiating with you," Commander Lin Dong said. "I'll give you two choices. First, turn around now and leave the way you came. There's a grocery store to the left; what's inside will last you three days. Second—"

He raised his muzzle again, aiming it at Ma Kui's head.

"I'll send you out."

The underground garage fell silent for a few seconds.

A few distant roars of zombies echoed, muffled, as if separated by several floors.

Ma Kui stared into Commander Lin Dong's eyes for a long time. Then, he slowly raised his hands and took a step back.

"Fine," he said. "You're the soldier; you call the shots. We're leaving."

He turned and gave the Man with Glasses a shove. The two of them limped toward the garage exit.

Commander Lin Dong didn't move.

He was counting.

One, two, three, four, five—

"Wait."

Ma Kui stopped in his tracks without looking back.

"Your Supernatural Ability allows you to briefly increase your strength and muscle density when you burst, right?" Commander Lin Dong said. "The duration is about seven seconds, and the cooldown—it should have been over two seconds, but with your leg injured, it's probably around three."

Ma Kui's shoulders tensed.

"When I shot your knee earlier, you dodged," Commander Lin Dong said. "But you dodged to the left, not backward. To the left was the direction of the support pillar; you wanted to hide behind it and have your brother circle around from the other side to flank me. Your ability isn't meant for offense, it's for defense—you wanted to tank a round of my fire to buy time for your brother."

The air in the underground garage seemed to solidify.

Ma Kui slowly turned around.

The subservient smile of a low-life thug had vanished from his face, replaced by a wolf-like gaze.

"How did you know?"

"Your hands," Commander Lin Dong said. "When you raised them, the muscles in your forearms were twitching. That's the precursor to activating your ability; you probably didn't even notice it yourself. While you were talking to me, your eyes flicked to the right three times—behind that van parked over there, your people are hiding. At least six of them, and two should have guns."

Ma Kui said nothing.

"Tell your brothers to come out," Commander Lin Dong said. "I'm counting to three."

The back door of the van was pushed open, and six men filed out.

Commander Lin Dong's panel quickly scrolled through six data boxes—all ordinary people, no awakened. Two of them were holding guns: one was a double-barreled shotgun with a sawed-off barrel, and the other was an ancient Type 56 semi-automatic with an iron chain tied to the stock.

"Twelve," Commander Lin Dong said. "You have forty-seven people, but you only brought eleven out? Where are the rest?"

Ma Kui grinned.

"Why don't you guess?"

Commander Lin Dong didn't guess.

His finger pulled the trigger.

The first shot hit the ground half a meter in front of Ma Kui's left foot. The bullet shattered the concrete, and the flying fragments struck Ma Kui's shin. Ma Kui's body instinctively flinched to the right—

The second shot hit half a meter in front of his right foot.

With two bullets pinning his feet in place, Ma Kui froze.

Simultaneously, Commander Lin Dong threw his body backward, lying flat on the ground as three bullets whistled through the space where he had just been standing—fired by the two gunmen near the van.

The moment Commander Lin Dong's back touched the ground, he used his core strength to spring back up in a kip-up. As he rose, he switched his Type 95 to his left hand.

His right hand pulled an Type 82-2 all-plastic grenade—one he'd found on a fallen soldier earlier—from his waist. He bit off the safety pin and hurled it toward the van.

The grenade traced a low, flat arc through the air, landing precisely under the van's chassis.

"Get down!"

Ma Kui's roar and the explosion of the grenade sounded almost simultaneously.

Boom—!

All four of the van's tires blew out at once, the chassis slumped, and the window glass shattered completely, raining shards onto the ground. The six people hiding behind the vehicle were knocked over by the shockwave. Blood leaked from the ears of the two gunmen—a sign of ruptured eardrums.

But they weren't dead.

Because when Commander Lin Dong threw the grenade, he had specifically calculated the angle and distance—the killing radius of a Type 82-2 all-plastic grenade is six meters, and the van was only four meters away from them. If the grenade had landed in the middle of the group, not one of the six would have survived.

Commander Lin Dong didn't want to kill.

At least, not these people right now.

"Don't move!"

His shout and the sound of gunfire rang out together. A three-round burst hit the scrap tires next to the two gunmen. The dull thud of tearing rubber finally made the two men, whose ears were still ringing, realize—the muzzle was pointed right at them.

Two more bullet holes appeared in Ma Kui's knees.

He knelt on the ground, panting heavily, eyes fixed on Commander Lin Dong. A faint red glow began to emanate from his body—the sign of his ability activating.

[Warning: Target Supernatural Ability activating]

[Predicted attributes after burst: Strength +400%, Muscle Density +300%, Movement Speed +200%]

[Duration: 7 seconds]

[Cooldown: 2.3 seconds (originally 2.0 seconds, extended due to leg injury)]

Commander Lin Dong discarded the empty Type 95.

He pulled the type 92 pistol from his waist, aimed it at Ma Kui's head, and began to count down:

"Seven seconds. Six seconds. Five seconds—"

Ma Kui was stunned.

The red light on his body flickered twice, like a flame being choked at the neck, and slowly died out.

"How did you know..."

"After your burst ends, you have a 2.3-second weakness period," Commander Lin Dong's muzzle remained rock steady. "Your strength returns to zero, your muscles relax; any ordinary person with a brick could kill you. What were you planning? To tank my bullets, rush in front of me, and take me out with one punch? Seven seconds, nineteen meters. Your top sprint speed is 8.2 meters per second—did you do the math? It takes you 2.3 seconds to reach me, leaving 4.7 seconds. In 4.7 seconds, how many punches can you throw?"

Ma Kui said nothing.

"Even if you killed me with one punch," Commander Lin Dong said, "then what? During your 2.3-second weakness period, the people behind me could smash your head in with their gunstocks."

The underground garage was terrifyingly quiet.

In the distance, the roars of zombies were getting closer—drawn by the sound of the explosion.

"Where are your brothers?" Commander Lin Dong asked.

Ma Kui lowered his head and remained silent.

The thin Man with Glasses suddenly spoke up: "They're... they're up there."

Commander Lin Dong looked at him.

"We left over thirty people up there," the Man with Glasses's voice was trembling. "Brother Kui said to let us come down first to scout the way. If there weren't many of you, we were to... to hijack that truck, then have the people above come down to support us. If there were many of you, we were to... to..."

"To do what?"

"To lure you up there," the Man with Glasses swallowed hard. "We set an ambush above with gasoline bottles, homemade Molotov cocktails, and... and several bottles of medical alcohol brought from the prison, mixed with laundry detergent. They can be used as simple incendiary bombs..."

Commander Lin Dong looked at him without saying a word.

The roars of zombies in the distance were getting closer, mixed with the sound of messy footsteps—there were many of them, at least thirty or forty.

"How many of you are there?" Commander Lin Dong asked.

"Thirty... thirty-seven," the Man with Glasses said. "Six died, bitten to death by those things along the way."

Commander Lin Dong closed his eyes, a string of data quickly flashing through his mind:

[Zombie Movement Speed: 3.2m/s]

[Speed of Sound: 340m/s]

[Time for the explosion sound just now to reach the surface: approx. 0.2 seconds]

[Time for zombies to enter the underground garage from various surface entrances: approx. 2-5 minutes]

[Passages from B2 to B1 of the underground garage: 3]

[Exits to the surface: 2 (1 of which is blocked by vehicles)]

He opened his eyes.

"Which exit is your ambush at?"

The North Exit.

This was one of the two passages leading from the military camp's underground garage to the surface. It was a two-lane slope, about seventy meters long with a fifteen-degree incline. The sides of the passage were concrete walls, with a fluorescent light every ten meters—most were now extinguished, with only three or four still flickering dimly.

Ma Kui's men had set their ambush here.

Thirty-seven people, divided into two groups. Twenty people were blocked behind the fire door in the middle of the passage, which was the maintenance access to the ventilation shaft. The door was iron; once locked from the outside, the people inside couldn't get out. The remaining seventeen people were distributed behind abandoned vehicles on both sides of the passage, clutching homemade Molotov cocktails.

Their plan was simple: when Commander Lin Dong's people were "driven" up by Ma Kui, they would launch a pincer attack. The passage was narrow with nowhere to hide. Once the gasoline bottles were thrown and a sea of fire erupted, they would either be burned to death or forced to rush into the swarm of corpses outside—either way, it was death.

But it wasn't Commander Lin Dong they were waiting for.

It was zombies.

Commander Lin Dong stood at the entrance of the B2 passage, looking at the ajar fire door.

Behind him, Li Na and the two students were pale. Three wounded were placed in the power distribution room at the deepest part of B2, the door locked with iron chains. The body of the sacrificed soldier was also inside—Commander Lin Dong had promised he wouldn't leave him behind.

"You... you're really going to lure them up?" Li Na's voice was trembling. "There are over thirty people up there..."

"There are thirty-seven people up there who want to kill us." Commander Lin Dong didn't look back. "They have Molotov cocktails and gasoline. If they get the upper hand, we won't be able to hold this place. The base vehicle still needs over four hours to deploy. During this time, if even one Molotov cocktail is thrown in, the progress resets, and we all die."

Li Na opened her mouth but couldn't find the words.

Commander Lin Dong took something out of his backpack—it was a car stereo control panel he had just removed from the humvee. He had spent ten minutes using a wire and several rolls of tape to connect it to the battery of an abandoned bus.

Now, a number was flashing on the control panel: 85.

85 decibels.

This was a value recorded in an acoustic data report he had found in the military camp—normal human conversation is 60 decibels, a car horn is 90 decibels, and 85 decibels was the calculated threshold at which "zombies are most sensitive and have the fastest reaction speed."

At sounds lower than 85 decibels, zombies would still be attracted, but their reaction speed would be delayed by 0.3-0.5 seconds.

At sounds higher than 85 decibels, zombies would enter a berserk state, their movement speed increasing by 10%, but they would be easily distracted by multiple sound sources, leading to confusion in target selection.

85 decibels.

Precise to zero decimal places.

Commander Lin Dong fixed the control panel to the fire door and pressed the play button.

A recording played from the speakers—it was what he had just asked Li Na to record:

"Help! Is anyone there! Help!"

The woman's screams echoed in the empty underground garage.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.

Messy footsteps came from deep within the passage.

Then more.

Commander Lin Dong stood at the B2 passage entrance, watching the swaying figures get closer—the data boxes above their heads were densely packed together. They were all F-Class Zombies, with HP between 80 and 120, and there were at least fifty of them.

"Go," he said in a low voice.

The four of them hugged the wall and silently bypassed the passage from the other side.

On the fire door, the speaker panel was still playing.

"Help! Help!"

Amidst the screams, the first zombie rushed to the fire door, followed by the second and the third—they knocked open the ajar door and charged up the slope.

Upward.

Toward the North Exit.

Toward the ambush.

Commander Lin Dong counted in the darkness.

Thirty seconds later, the first scream came from above.

Then gunshots.

Then more screams.

Then the sound of gasoline bottles exploding. Flames erupted from the passage opening, lighting the underground garage entrance bright red.

Li Na stood behind Commander Lin Dong, her whole body shaking.

The other two didn't speak.

Commander Lin Dong didn't speak either.

He just watched the firelight, the swaying figures in the flames, the zombies charging up, and the survivors fleeing in all directions—thirty-seven people, thirty-seven lives.

There was no expression on his face.

A message popped up on his panel:

[Kills: F-Class Zombie x 47]

[energy points Gained: 470]

[Indirectly caused human deaths: 17 people]

[Moral Value: No change (Judgment: Self-Defense)]

Self-defense.

Commander Lin Dong ran the word through his mind.

Then he turned and walked toward the depths of B2.

"Let's go," he said. "The base vehicle still needs four hours."

Four hours later.

At the deepest part of the B2 underground garage, the silver-gray heavy truck finally stopped vibrating.

The twenty-two-meter-long body had completely changed—the original rough container shell had disappeared, replaced by a smooth armor plate with a cold metallic glint. The driver's cab at the front was replaced by a protruding diamond-shaped structure with flickering deep blue lights. Three hydraulic struts extended from each side of the body, digging deep into the concrete floor to firmly secure the entire vehicle.

[base vehicle Deployment Complete: 100%]

[Red Alert Outpost Base Established]

[Currently constructible buildings: power plant (requires 200 energy points), Barracks (requires 300 energy points)]

[Current energy points: 790]

[Warning: Insufficient power, cannot construct two buildings simultaneously]

Commander Lin Dong stood before the base vehicle, looking at those lines.

Insufficient power.

He needed to make a choice.

Build the power plant first, or the Barracks?

Just then, a light suddenly flared in the eastern sky.

It was a signal flare.

Three long, two short.

The PLA "Request Support" signal.

Commander Lin Dong stared at the falling light, silent for a long time.

Then a new message popped up on his panel:

[Special energy fluctuation detected]

[Source: 15° East of South, distance approx. 9 km]

[This fluctuation overlaps with the iron mine location you previously detected]

[Hidden Tech Tree Unlock Condition: 1/5]

Commander Lin Dong looked at those lines, then at the fading light in the eastern sky.

His finger unconsciously tapped the trigger twice.

15° East of South.

Nine kilometers.

Military signal flare.

iron mine.

Hidden technology.

Li Na stood behind him, looking at the light, and whispered: "Is that... the army?"

Commander Lin Dong didn't answer.

He just stared at the dark sky, a string of data quickly flashing through his mind:

[Night Marching Speed: 3km/h (complex terrain)]

[Required Transit Area: Urban-Rural Fringe (Zombie Density: Medium-High)]

[Estimated Number of Encounters: At least 3]

[Time Required for One-way: 3 hours]

[Time Required for Round-trip: 6 hours]

[Base Defense Strength: 0 (No defense facilities constructed)]

[Existing Combat Personnel: Commander Lin Dong + 5 Conscripts to be summoned (if Barracks built first)]

If he built the Barracks first, he would have troops for scouting.

If he built the power plant first, he would have a stable energy source, but he would have to wait four hours before building the Barracks—by then, whether that signal flare would still be relevant, no one knew.

Choice.

Another choice.

Commander Lin Dong closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

When he opened his eyes again, the light in the eastern sky had completely disappeared.

But on his panel, that message was still flashing:

[Hidden Tech Tree Unlock Condition: 1/5]

Nine kilometers away, something was waiting for him.

And he had to make a decision within four hours.

Because as soon as dawn broke—

Those zombies would come out again.

[End of Chapter]