32: Chapter 32 The Cradle of Steel

The moment Li Na's body went limp, Commander Lin Dong's brain entered a strange state of clarity.

This was a talent his old company commander in the Reconnaissance Company had praised—the more life-and-death the situation, the sharper his thoughts became, like a blade. He caught Li Na's sliding body, pressing his left hand against the wound on her shoulder. Warm blood surged through his fingers, dripping onto the concrete floor with a faint patter.

“Boss...” Li Na's face was deathly pale, her lips trembling. “The base vehicle...”

“Don't talk.” Commander Lin Dong ripped open the first-aid kit on her military uniform, pouring military-grade hemostatic powder onto the wound as if it cost nothing. The white powder was instantly soaked in blood, but the bleeding did slow down. He looked up at the base vehicle five meters away—the silver-gray heavy truck was currently hovering thirty centimeters off the ground, red energy patterns flowing across its body, pulsing slightly like blood vessels.

Deployment Progress: 47%.

Dammit.

Messy footsteps and curses came from the entrance of the B2 level of the underground garage. The prisoners who had escaped from the prison were clearing out the zombies in the stairwell; they would be down here in five minutes at most.

“Platoon Leader.” A low voice came from behind him. It was Zhang Ocean, the deputy of the second squad, originally from the 3rd Infantry Battalion. There was a bloody gash on his left cheek from broken glass, which had been simply bandaged. He held a Type 95 he had taken from the armory, the barrel slightly warm. “There are three brothers left, with fewer than sixty rounds of ammunition total.”

Commander Lin Dong quickly scanned his surroundings. The B2 level of the underground garage was a standard rectangular structure with support pillars spaced six meters apart and a ceiling height of 4.2 meters. Their position was in the southeast corner, with a load-bearing wall behind them, a stairwell leading to B3 on the right (which had been chained shut), and a row of abandoned Zhang Ocean cars on the left. The base vehicle was parked in an open area ten meters directly ahead, with all debris within three meters pushed away by some invisible force.

Terrain data was automatically generated in his mind: a frontal width of thirty-five meters, with seventeen load-bearing pillars that could serve as cover. If the enemy entered from the north stairwell, they would advance along the main corridor. The abandoned vehicles on the inevitable path could provide temporary cover but would also limit their field of fire.

“Zhang Ocean.” Commander Lin Dong gently leaned Li Na against the corner of the wall and took a pistol magazine from her waist. “Take two men and hold the position by that row of cars on the left. Let them get within twenty meters before firing. Use burst fire; do not spray.”

“Understood.” Private didn't ask questions; he made a gesture and led two soldiers, crouching as they moved toward the left flank.

Commander Lin Dong himself took the last soldier—a Private named Zhou Zhou who looked to be in his early twenties—and moved behind a load-bearing pillar on the right flank. He laid out four magazines within reach and checked the Type 95 in his hand; the bolt was functioning normally.

“Platoon Leader,” Zhou Zhou's voice trembled slightly, the veins on his hand gripping the gun bulging. “I... I've never killed anyone before.”

“They aren't human.” Commander Lin Dong's eyes were fixed on the northern entrance, his voice as calm as if he were remarking on the nice weather. “Wait for my command. When I shout 'fire,' you fire. Aim for the chest, not the head. Lead moving targets by one body length.”

Zhou Zhou swallowed hard and nodded.

Commander Lin Dong pulled the last grenade from his tactical vest—the last of the only four remaining in the armory. He weighed the grenade in his hand, his gaze landing on the ceiling—there was a ventilation duct about forty centimeters in diameter, right above the main corridor.

Data: Grenade delay 3.5 seconds, throwing height 4.2 meters, ground rolling distance approximately 1.8 meters.

There was no time to calculate a more precise trajectory.

The iron door of the northern stairwell was kicked open with a clang, and the beam of a flashlight swept in.

The first figure to rush into the B2 level wore a prison uniform and held a machete. Seven or eight people followed him, three of whom were carrying guns—two shotguns and an old Type 54 pistol.

Commander Lin Dong did not fire.

He was waiting.

Data showed that F-Class Zombies have a sound sensitivity radius of fifty meters and a light sensitivity radius of twenty meters. The underground garage was relatively enclosed, so the sound of gunfire would reflect repeatedly within this concrete box, with an effective propagation distance of at least one hundred and fifty meters.

And on the B1 level, at least two hundred zombies were wandering around at this moment.

“Damn, that big truck is over there!” the prisoner holding the flashlight shouted, the beam landing on the base vehicle. “That's the thing the boss was talking about! What does 'deployment progress' mean? Is this damn truck going to grow on its own?”

“Don't worry about that, find those soldiers and take them out first!” The tall, thin man with the Type 54 pistol was clearly the leader; he waved the gun. “Split up and search! That woman is injured; she won't get far!”

The prisoners began to scatter, but they clearly lacked basic tactical discipline—three went left, two went right, and the rest followed the tall, thin man straight toward the base vehicle. The flashlight beams swayed in the darkness, nearly sweeping over the car where Zhang Ocean and his men were hiding several times.

Commander Lin Dong's finger was on the trigger, but he didn't pull it.

Thirty-five meters.

Thirty meters.

Twenty-five meters.

“Platoon Leader...” Zhou Zhou's voice already had a hint of crying in it.

“Wait.”

Twenty meters.

At the position where Zhang Ocean was hiding, the window of an SUV reflected the flashlight's light. A prisoner stopped: “There seems to be someone over there!”

At the moment he raised his hand to point at the SUV, Commander Lin Dong spoke.

“Fire.”

Two bursts rang out almost simultaneously. Commander Lin Dong's bullet hit the tall, thin man with the Type 54 in the right shoulder—he didn't aim for the head because the data showed that hitting the torso could incapacitate an enemy without killing them immediately, and a wounded, screaming living person was more attractive to zombies than a corpse. On Zhang Ocean's side, they directly took down the two prisoners with shotguns.

The gunfire exploded in the enclosed underground garage, making ears ring.

“Ambush! They have guns!” The prisoners panicked and scrambled for cover. But their choices of cover were purely instinctive—some hid behind Zhang Ocean cars but forgot the thirty-centimeter gap underneath; others hid behind load-bearing pillars but left half their bodies exposed.

Commander Lin Dong gave them no chance to catch their breath.

“Zhou Zhou, behind that white van to the front-left, two targets. Continuous suppressive fire.”

He himself quickly leaned out and fired a short burst, hitting the thigh of a prisoner trying to flank from the right. The man fell to the ground screaming, his voice as shrill as a slaughtered pig.

“My leg! My leg's broken!”

“Shut up! Do you want to attract those things?” The prisoner leader hiding behind a load-bearing pillar—the Strength-type Esper—roared. He had been shot in the right shoulder, but he could still move; the panel data showed his strength had reached 18 points and his constitution was 15, so this wound wouldn't kill him.

But this was exactly what Commander Lin Dong was waiting for.

He suddenly hurled the last grenade.

The grenade traced a parabola in the air, accurately striking the ventilation duct on the ceiling, bouncing once, and then landing right in the middle of the group of prisoners.

“Grenade! Get down!”

Boom!

The flash of the explosion instantly illuminated the entire B2 level. The shockwave, carrying shrapnel, swept in all directions, striking the load-bearing pillars and creating sparks. The windows of several cars shattered with a crash.

But Commander Lin Dong knew this grenade wouldn't kill many people—it was a training grenade with only half the charge, its power only a third of a live round.

His true purpose was the sound.

Three seconds of explosive noise, combined with the screams of the wounded prisoners, was enough for the zombie horde on B1 to re-orient themselves.

Sure enough, dense footsteps came from the concrete floor overhead, like countless feet stomping. Then came the sound of the iron door leading from B1 to B2 being slammed—Clang! Clang! Clang!

Those zombies, attracted by the gunfire and explosions, began to move down.

“Damn! You're crazy!” The prisoner leader peeked out from behind his cover, a gash on his face from a piece of shrapnel, blood covering half his face. “You'll be torn to pieces by those things too!”

Commander Lin Dong didn't answer. He was staring at the base vehicle's deployment progress bar.

52%.

The flow of energy patterns accelerated, and the outline of the vehicle began to blur, as if something were taking shape inside it.

“Zhou Zhou, how many magazines do you have left?”

“T-two.”

“Enough.” Commander Lin Dong estimated the distance and time. “When the zombies rush down later, stay close to me and retreat toward the base vehicle.”

“But that truck...”

“It can block bullets, and it can block zombies.”

The iron door to the B1 stairwell finally gave way under the continuous bashing and slammed open. The roars of the zombies were instantly amplified, pouring into the stairwell like a tide. The flashlight beam swept over, showing the first zombie already rushing down from the corner of the stairs, then a second, a third... They wore all kinds of clothes; some still looked like they did when they were alive, while others were rotted beyond recognition, but all their eyes were the same grayish-white, and all their mouths were wide open, revealing blood-stained teeth.

“They're here!” The prisoner's side was in total chaos. Two who could still move scrambled up and tried to run back, but were pushed by their companions behind them, momentarily bunching together.

The Strength-type leader gritted his teeth and stood up, grabbing a chair with his uninjured left arm and roaring as he smashed it at the leading zombie. The chair shattered on the zombie's head, knocking it to the ground, but three more immediately lunged and tackled him.

“Ah—!”

The scream was drowned out by more roars.

Commander Lin Dong didn't look over there. He pulled Zhou Zhou up and, crouching low, moved quickly toward the base vehicle under the cover of the load-bearing pillars. Zhang Ocean and the two soldiers also retreated from the other side, and the five of them regrouped on the left side of the base vehicle.

“Platoon Leader, where are we retreating to?” Zhang Ocean changed his magazine, breathing heavily.

Commander Lin Dong pointed to the base vehicle: “Behind it, stay close to the hull.”

“Can this thing stop them?”

“It can.”

The five of them stood in a row against the base vehicle's hull. A slight warmth came from the surface; the metallic texture didn't feel like ordinary steel but rather had a fine, ceramic-like quality. The energy patterns flowed beside them as if they were alive.

The zombie horde had already poured into the B2 level. They were first attracted by the prisoners still struggling and screaming on the ground. Dozens of zombies swarmed them, and the sounds of biting, screaming, and bones snapping mixed into a horrific symphony. But soon, some zombies looked up, their grayish-white eyes turning toward the base vehicle—toward the five living people there.

“Fire.” Commander Lin Dong ordered calmly.

Five Type 95s fired simultaneously. Burst, burst, and another burst. The leading zombies were hit in the head and collapsed like puppets with their strings cut. But the zombies behind them stepped over their bodies and continued forward.

Thirty meters.

Twenty-five meters.

Twenty meters.

Zhou Zhou's gun clicked—empty. He scrambled to change the magazine but dropped it on the floor.

“Platoon Leader! I'm out of ammo!”

“Get down.”

Commander Lin Dong changed his magazine with one hand and continued firing. But his magazine was also nearly empty. The gunfire from Zhang Ocean's side was also thinning out.

Fifteen meters.

Ten meters.

Commander Lin Dong could already see the face of the leading zombie—a middle-aged man in a security uniform with a massive bite wound on his chest, maggots crawling inside. Its mouth was open, snapping at Commander Lin Dong's neck.

Then, the energy patterns of the base vehicle suddenly erupted in a blinding red light.

An invisible shockwave spread outward from the base vehicle. Everywhere it passed, all the zombies seemed to be frozen, stuck in their lunging poses. The teeth of the leading zombie were less than twenty centimeters from Commander Lin Dong's neck, yet it could not advance another millimeter.

The shockwave continued to spread, enveloping all the zombies on the B2 level. Then, those zombies began to fall over like dominoes, layer by layer, no longer moving.

A string of data prompts flashed on the panel: [Threat detected, activating base vehicle primary defense protocol] [Energy points consumed: 200] [electromagnetic pulse released, paralyzing the nervous systems of all unprotected biological entities within a 30-meter radius] [Cooldown: 72 hours]

Commander Lin Dong gasped for air, looking at the zombies lying all over the ground, his back drenched in cold sweat.

Behind him, the base vehicle let out a low rumble, and the deployment progress bar finally reached 100%.

[base vehicle deployment complete] [Confirm deployment as Outpost Base?] [Confirmation will consume all remaining energy points and grant the following building permissions: power plant, Barracks, Ore Refinery] [Please select deployment location]

Commander Lin Dong took a deep breath and clicked the confirmation button.

The silver-gray heavy truck began to transform. The hull opened to both sides, and countless mechanical arms and building modules extended from within, assembling, joining, and welding at a speed visible to the naked eye. The ground began to vibrate, the concrete slabs cracked to reveal the soil beneath, and metal piles were driven deep into the earth. The outline of a silver-white building appeared from nothing in the underground garage within five minutes—it was the core module of the Red Alert base, the [Outpost Command Center].

Zhang Ocean, Zhou Zhou, and the others stood with their mouths agape, completely speechless.

Commander Lin Dong, however, had already turned and walked toward where Li Na had fallen. He knelt down and checked her carotid artery—there was still a pulse, weak, but there.

“Zhang Ocean.”

“Here!”

“Carry Li Na into the command center. There is medical equipment there.”

Zhang Ocean was stunned for a moment but immediately executed the order. He and another soldier carefully lifted Li Na and walked toward the building that had appeared out of thin air.

Commander Lin Dong stood up and looked back at the battlefield. More than twenty prisoner corpses lay scattered about, some torn beyond recognition by zombies. Nearly two hundred zombie corpses lay on the ground, their brains completely dead from the electromagnetic pulse.

His gaze fell on the corpse of the prisoner leader. He was pinned under three zombies, his neck torn open with a large gash, and his blood had run dry. But his panel was still flashing—or rather, something inside him was still flashing.

Commander Lin Dong walked over, kicked away the zombie corpses on top of him, and knelt to check.

Under the skin of the prisoner leader's chest, a faint glimmer was visible, as if something were embedded in the muscle. Commander Lin Dong pulled a dagger from his boot, sliced open the layer of skin, and picked out a crystal about the size of a fingernail.

The crystal was pale red, warm to the touch, and its surface had fine patterns like a circuit diagram.

The panel suddenly popped up with a new prompt: [Unknown energy crystal detected] [Analyzing... Analysis complete: Low-level Strength-type Mutated crystal core] [Use 1: Can be exchanged for 500 energy points] [Use 2: Can increase an infantry unit's strength attribute by 1 point (Max 20)] [Use 3: Can be used as construction material for the special building “Biochemical Laboratory”]

Commander Lin Dong gripped the crystal core and stood up.

In the distance, deep in the northern stairwell, footsteps seemed to ring out again—but these were the footsteps of humans running, not the sluggish dragging sound of zombies.

And it wasn't just one person.

Commander Lin Dong looked at the base radar icon on the panel—it had just lit up, showing thirteen red dots moving from B1 to B2 at high speed in an organized formation.

Those weren't fleeing prisoners or aimlessly wandering zombies.

That was an organized team.

Commander Lin Dong's hand rested on the grip of his gun.

【End of Chapter】