17: Chapter 17 Zombie BOSS

Just as Mo Yufei stowed the excavator into his spatial storage, a dusty, barely functional loudspeaker on an old utility pole by the street crackled to life. The static hiss gradually faded, and a calm, cold official broadcast rang out clearly.

"Attention all survivors. Every day at noon, the military will conduct high-altitude precision airstrikes on high-density zombie clusters within the city. All survivors are requested to immediately proceed to the nearest official shelter to hold your position, or stay far away from zombie-infested areas to avoid the daily noon strike window."

The broadcast looped the warning over and over.

Most of the survivors in the city had already evacuated. The scattered few who remained, relying on their abundant supplies, were unwilling to leave their hideouts for the official shelters, so the broadcast was meant for them.

Hearing the broadcast, Mo Yufei stood rooted to the spot. Instead of feeling any panic, a surge of irrepressible ecstasy welled up in his heart.

The deadline for his return to the secret realm was drawing near, and upgrading the realm required a massive amount of crystal cores. He had been searching everywhere for days, but his harvest had been meager.

Now, the military's scheduled high-altitude clearing operations were practically an opportunity delivered to his doorstep.

The artillery bombardment would wipe out zombies in massive swathes, saving him from having to engage in close-quarters combat or risky skirmishes.

All he needed to do was scout out large zombie horde clusters in advance and find a hidden, sturdy blind spot that wouldn't be hit by stray shells to hide in.

He would quietly wait for the noon airstrike to begin, watching as fighter jets rained down missiles and obliterated entire swaths of zombies in an instant.

Once the shelling ceased and while the smoke had yet to clear, the other survivors would be too terrified to approach the war zone, leaving him as the only one who could rush in immediately.

The crystal cores inside the bombed zombies would mostly remain intact, scattered all over the ground with no one to compete for them. He could arrive before anyone else and recklessly harvest every single crystal core, with an efficiency far exceeding his own hunting by more than ten times.

Mo Yufei's eyes lit up. He immediately identified his direction and strode straight toward the Urban Village he had visited before.

Before The Apocalypse, that place had been extremely densely populated, with streets and alleys packed tight with people.

When the disaster broke out, there was nowhere to escape, and almost the entire area was rapidly infected. Now, it had long since become the city's most terrifying disaster zone, where zombies were most densely packed.

Mo Yufei hadn't gone there before because it was a key focus area for the military—the population was high, there were many survivors, and rescue operations were difficult. Now that they were broadcasting, it must mean the survivor arrangements were nearly complete.

Mo Yufei kept his posture low as he traveled. Along the way, he could faintly hear swarms of muffled roars. Looking into the distance toward the Urban Village, he saw a dark, dense mass of wandering zombie hordes that practically filled the entire street.

Seeing this, Mo Yufei knew clearly in his heart that this was a natural treasure trove of crystal cores.

As long as he snuck deep into the old buildings of the Urban Village in advance and found a blind spot with thick walls that was hidden, safe, and wouldn't be hit by stray shells, he would be set.

When the noon airstrike arrived, entire swaths of zombies would be wiped out in a wide-area strike.

Once the shelling ended and the smoke cleared, he could rush out immediately to scavenge crystal cores from the zombie corpses scattered everywhere.

The houses in the Urban Village were packed tight, and the alleys were a complex labyrinth. If any survivors were hiding inside, the military wouldn't dare to bomb from high altitude; a single accidental strike on civilians would be an unmanageable disaster.

Therefore, the military certainly wouldn't launch a mindless airstrike. They would definitely first use methods to lure the mountain of zombies inside the village out to the open roads and wide areas, and only then concentrate their firepower for an aerial sweep.

Mo Yufei had seen other survivors use high-powered loudspeakers and car stereo systems to lure zombies elsewhere.

Zombies were extremely sensitive to sound. As long as the commotion was loud enough, they would frantically gather toward the source of the noise, moving outside at all costs.

By then, the entire zombie horde in the Urban Village would swarm out, and the massive crowd would all be lured to the open area on the outskirts, just in time for the fighter jets to conduct precision bombing and cleanup.

Mo Yufei had already calculated everything clearly. Once the bombing ended and the piles of zombie corpses accumulated, he could time his entry perfectly to harvest them.

Moreover, the Urban Village had originally had a very high population density, meaning a higher proportion of mutated zombies. The quality and quantity of crystal cores would far exceed those in ordinary areas, and his harvest this time would be absolutely terrifying.

Sure enough, before the noon bombing time arrived, deafening, high-energy music suddenly blared from the open square on the outskirts of the Urban Village, the high-decibel speakers roaring across the entire area.

Looking from afar, the dense mass of zombies moved like a tide, one by one strolling slowly out of the narrow streets and alleys, aimlessly gathering and moving toward the source of the noise.

Military reconnaissance drones circled and patrolled the sky from time to time. Fearing that he would be locked onto by the aerial view, Mo Yufei didn't dare to stay outside and immediately turned to slip into the complex interior of the Urban Village to conceal himself.

He hadn't gone far into the depths of the alley when the scene before him made him freeze.

A large group of zombies was densely packed and staying right there, completely unaffected by the massive noise outside. They remained motionless, occupying the spot with an eerily strange order.

Out of curiosity, Mo Yufei lowered his posture and crept closer to observe.

The next instant, a cold, domineering, and highly oppressive mental command flooded directly into Mo Yufei's mind without any warning.

"Despicable humans! None of you are to go out; everything outside is a trap and trick set by the humans."

"All of you stay here and obey my commands."

"I am your only King."

The invisible, terrifying mental force blanketed the entire area. All the zombies present were docile and well-behaved; not a single one was restless, and not one was lured away by the outside noise, as they all completely followed the command.

Mo Yufei looked inward along the source of the mental command. At the very center of the crowd, one figure stood out remarkably.

That zombie's eyes were no longer murky and hollow; within its pupils was an unusually deep and intelligent glint, its thoughts clear and its consciousness complete.

Clearly, this was a Lord-level zombie that had awakened a mental control ability.

Mo Yufei stared at the mental-ability-awakened zombie lord in the center, his expression sinking instantly as he cursed internally that things were looking bad.

If this monster kept using its mental power to control all the zombies and stop them from being lured out by the noise in the square, the military wouldn't be able to carry out their high-altitude bombing. His plan to sit back and harvest crystal cores would be completely ruined, and even his hope of gathering enough crystal cores to complete his upgrade would fall through.

He absolutely could not let it ruin his plans!

Suppressing the urgency in his heart, he immediately lowered his head, relaxed his tense muscles, and deliberately mimicked the stiff, dull posture of the surrounding ordinary zombies, letting his arms hang slightly.

Following the direction of the mental control, he shuffled slowly toward the zombie lord, pretending to be a thoroughly controlled underling.

As he crept closer step by step, Mo Yufei used the surrounding zombies as cover to carefully examine this lord zombie; its build was a size larger than an ordinary zombie.

This zombie's limbs were thick and powerful, and a faint sense of oppression radiated from its body. The zombies within a dozen meters were all enveloped by its mental power, obediently surrounding it to act as guards.

Mo Yufei quietly compared their physiques and strength, and instantly came to a judgment in his heart: in a direct confrontation, he was no match for it at all. Furthermore, it had a large number of zombie underlings around it; if he made a move, he would be instantly engulfed by the horde.

A frontal assault wouldn't work; he had to resort to a sneak attack!