57: The zombie horde has ended.

At the Xingyang Base Combat Command Center, the giant screen clearly captured those four flowers of death blooming one after another over the Luocheng TV Tower! The Chief of General Staff slammed his clenched fists onto the console, his eyes erupting with ecstatic light, and his voice was hoarse with excitement: "It's done! The Corpse King has been slain! Contact the Central Military Region headquarters immediately! Confirm the success of the 'Wing Severing' operation!"

Almost at the same instant the Corpse King was destroyed, every soldier fighting bloodily on the city walls felt that subtle yet shocking change! The Zombie Tide below, which had been charging frantically like a precision machine, seemed to have its soul sucked out instantly! The feverish offensive rhythm was abruptly interrupted! The zombies became dazed, confused, and lost! They no longer charged the walls in an organized manner; instead, they began pushing and biting each other, even spinning aimlessly in place! That invisible, suffocating pressure dissipated by more than half in an instant!

"The Corpse King is dead! They're in chaos! Brothers! Counterattack! The time for a counterattack has come!" Commander Wang Yao was the first to raise his arms and shout! His voice was filled with the ecstasy of surviving a disaster and an infinite will to fight!

The Chief of General Staff immediately seized this fleeting opportunity, his voice like a great bell echoing through the entire command link: "Order! Mobilize the 100mm heavy artillery and concentrate fire! Blast the subsequent echelons of the Zombie Tide mercilessly! Cut off their reinforcements! Evolver teams! Armored assault units! Strike immediately! Coordinate with the wall's firepower! Completely clear out these leaderless scumbags below the wall! Leave none alive!"

The iron torrent roared once more! The surviving tanks and armored vehicles pushed open the heavy gates, spitting tongues of fire like angry steel beasts as they charged into the chaotic mass of zombies! The Evolvers followed closely behind, the light of Superpowers shining on the battlefield as they harvested the bewildered zombies! On the city walls, the soldiers erupted in earth-shattering cheers, their weapons spraying flames of vengeance!

High in the sky, the weilong-1, having delivered the fatal blow, circled elegantly. Lu Yuan took one last look through the cockpit canopy at the dissipating smoke over the Luocheng TV Tower below, confirming the target had been completely erased. A faint, barely perceptible curve formed at the corners of his mouth as he pushed the control stick. The silver-gray fighter jet turned gracefully, bathed in the golden sunlight piercing through the clouds, and headed back toward Kyoto. The sunlight gilded it with a sacred and glorious golden edge, as if offering a silent tribute to this thrilling victory.

As the last wisp of smoke dissipated outside Xingyang, as the soldiers walked down from the walls with bodies exhausted yet filled with excitement, and as the armored units conducted the final sweep among the mountains of corpses, a sense of immense joy from surviving the disaster and deep exhaustion permeated the entire base.

Finally, the first nationwide Zombie Tide since the zombie outbreak was repelled. The soldiers excitedly rushed out of the city to harvest the spoils of war, rummaging through the piled-up, charred remains, especially in the areas hit by missiles. Although many of them did not have a Superpower, ordinary crystal cores could still slightly improve physical fitness. Everyone who participated in this bloody battle was entitled to a share of the spoils; even a single white crystal core was a glory earned with their lives.

A drone landed cautiously on the scorched earth of the Luocheng TV Tower, which had been thoroughly plowed by explosions. A mechanical arm precisely picked up a crystal emitting a faint blue light from a pile of foul-smelling, semi-molten charred fragments. This crystal was larger than an ordinary crystal core, its texture more translucent, and its interior seemed to have a blue nebula slowly swirling, emitting a cold and powerful energy fluctuation. Unlike the murky yellow of a First-Tier Zombie or the vibrant green of a Second-Tier Zombie, this deep blue silently proclaimed the Winged Bat King's terrifying strength, far exceeding the Second-Tier—Third-Tier! It had endured the continuous bombardment of four heavy anti-ship missiles with a payload of over five hundred kilograms before finally dying; ordinary gunfire would likely have been as powerless as an itch to it. This blue crystal core was both a trophy and an alarm.

Almost at the same time the crystal core was confirmed, a radio wave carrying both gravity and hope was sent from the wireless tower of the Xingyang Base, piercing through the gloom of the apocalypse and spreading to every corner of Huaxia:

"This is Xingyang Base! This is Xingyang Base! Emergency announcement to all survivor bases and compatriots across the country! We have just experienced and successfully repelled a terrifying Zombie Tide of over a million driven by the Corpse King 'Winged Bat King' (confirmed Third-Tier)! It has been confirmed that high-tier Corpse Kings exist in the direction of Luocheng! They possess the ability to command zombie swarms and launch large-scale organized attacks! Repeat! The Corpse King threat is real! Level: Third-Tier! All bases must heighten their vigilance, strengthen defenses, and go all out to cultivate Evolver forces!"

The news was like a sudden clap of thunder, instantly exploding in the deathly silence of the apocalypse! The first reaction of countless survivor bases struggling to survive in the dark was a bone-chilling cold—a Corpse King! A million-strong Zombie Tide! This was almost a synonym for total annihilation! Many people instinctively thought that Xingyang Base had already fallen and that another flame of human hope had been extinguished.

But then, the follow-up content in the broadcast was like warm sunlight, dispelling the gloom in their hearts:

"With the full support of the Kyoto Base's Central Theater Command and through joint operations, we successfully implemented the 'Wing Severing' operation, precisely decapitating the Corpse King 'Winged Bat King'! The million-strong Zombie Tide has been successfully routed! Casualties at Xingyang Base have been kept to a minimum! Humanity has the ability to defeat Corpse Kings! We have the ability to rout Zombie Tides! Compatriots, do not give up hope!"

This twist of news instantly pulled everyone who heard the broadcast from the abyss of despair back to the shore of hope! After the immense shock came indescribable ecstasy and excitement! Xingyang was still there! Humanity won! Hope remained!

Following that, the more authoritative radio broadcast from Kyoto Base also echoed across the land of Huaguo:

"This is Kyoto Base! Notifying compatriots across the country! The victory at Xingyang Base proves the power of unity! It proves the resilience of humanity! According to the latest intelligence, Second-Tier elite zombies have appeared in batches in major cities! The 'Winged Bat King' that appeared in Luocheng this time has been confirmed as a Third-Tier Corpse King! Its threat level is extremely high! Now ordering: All official bases must, at all costs, go all out to cultivate Evolvers! Form Evolver teams! This is the core force for future combat against high-tier zombies! At the same time, we encourage and support civilian Evolvers in establishing mutual aid bases, watching over each other, and overcoming difficulties together!"

The voice of Kyoto Base was steady and powerful, carrying the weight of the state machinery:

"The nation promises! We will use all resources to find a way to end this zombie catastrophe! The virus is not invincible! The darkness will eventually pass! Please believe in the nation! Believe in your compatriots! Believe in ourselves! Persevere! Victory will surely belong to humanity!"

This resounding promise, like a stabilizing anchor, was deeply planted into every anxious soul. After the initial panic and the encouragement from the victory at Xingyang, the vast majority of survivors chose to believe. They believed that the state machinery was still functioning, that the power of science would eventually find a cure, and that as long as they were united, humanity could rekindle the sparks of civilization on this land shrouded in death and end this long nightmare. The victory and promises transmitted in the broadcast were like sunlight piercing through dark clouds, illuminating the direction of the future.

(Writing the Luocheng Zombie Tide was mainly to unveil the prelude to the Corpse Kings, so I won't write it in such detail. As for why this Corpse King was so weak, the setting was to give him the strength of someone just entering the Third-Tier, and he took four anti-ship missiles; I really didn't nerf his combat power. I expect everyone will ask about the fighter jets; Xiao Feng checked, and general provincial military regions don't have fighter jets. Armed helicopters are equipped with anti-tank missiles or ordinary air-to-air combat missiles, which only have a few kilograms of payload. Anti-ship missiles carried by fighter jets are different; for example, our own Yingji missiles start at at least several hundred kilograms, enough to shatter an aircraft carrier's deck. But the nation's strategic weapons are limited after all, unlike the protagonist who can refresh and use them at will every other day; in the later stages, the Red Alert Legion will take over the battlefield.)