Chapter 890

Long'an Base outer city.

Dozens of armed helicopters sped toward the Riverfront suburbs, the broadcast from beneath the fuselage sounding continuously.

"A-level warning! All outer-city survivors, return immediately to defend the base!"

"Detected a large corpse tide approaching!"

"Warning! All non-Long'an Legion Awakened Ones, assemble and stand by! Those who disturb order will be killed without mercy!"

Piercing alarms and red indicator lights lit up the outermost city; inside the city, seven elite corps each of ten thousand rushed to the Dark Crystal City Wall to prepare defenses.

The spirit-energy defense tower began charging; the newly built Dark Crystal Cannon also adjusted its muzzle amid a rumble.

Bombers took off, and troops surged onto the wall.

The inner city gate, over forty meters high, slowly rose; piercing sonic booms sliced overhead—those were supersonic fighter jets carrying ammunition flying toward the corpse tide.

At the outer city, hundreds of thousands of survivors hurriedly fled into the city.

Further out, some squads preparing to go out for supplies hastily turned their vehicles around.

The wheels turned sharply, and wheel marks like black charcoal pencils drew arcs on the ground.

From high above, the Long'an Base radiating about ten kilometers in radius now resembled a giant wheel retracting its axle, slowly shrinking under the red alarm.

No time for the tents and RVs outside the city.

A dozen or so survivors dragged bundles large and small, fleeing with the crowded throng toward the city.

Their faces panicked, they frequently turned to look behind them.

In the distance, an endless black line advanced slowly, occupying the whole field of view.

"Zombie siege?!"

"How could a corpse tide be approaching?!"

The gathering places outside the city were in chaos; many ordinary people who had not yet become Awakened Ones lived here.

Tents were overturned, iron pots knocked over, wailing and shouting.

Not a few elderly, accompanied by family, were split apart by the panicking crowd.

People and horses overturned.

Whether it triggered a fear from memory, the survivors outside the city, hearing that piercing alarm, panicked like headless flies.

Everyone surged toward the gate about to close; even if Awakened One squads desperately tried to keep order, they could not stop the crowd flowing like a tide.

"Everyone, don't panic! Don't crowd together!"

"Enter in order! The gate will not close temporarily!"

"Honey! Where are you?!"

"Dad?!"

"Mom.."

Cries and shouts, the crowd began to descend into chaos.

The corpse tide attack came so suddenly it shattered this tranquility.

No one could have anticipated that danger would arrive so abruptly.

Nearly half a year of safety and Long'an's strength caused everyone to forget about corpse tides in general.

Actually, it's not really their fault.

Long'an Base's early warning and defense work has always been excellent; within a 40-kilometer radius, even the zombies near the suburbs have been cleared out.

Every day, 24 hours, sky-ground troops cooperate with Awakened One squads to form patrol teams, monitoring surrounding mutants and corpse tide invasions.

The main corpse tide was drawn away, small groups eliminated; the whole base, under prolonged peace, began explosive development.

Apart from the zombies difficult to clean up inside the city, it can be said that the outskirts of Riverfront have been cleared to a considerable degree of safety; many forces even defected over and simply built satellite towns and small gathering places in the outer city.

Tenacious survivors even rebuilt a "Commercial Street" in the outer city, spontaneously forming a material trading point.

Some even started running inns and hotels.

Everything proceeded in an orderly fashion forward.

But at this moment, these areas not within the city walls are no longer safe.

The crowd panicked, shoving each other.

"My stall!!"

"Don't step on it.."

Wanting to cry but no tears, a survivor holding a spoon, who looked like a cook before the apocalypse, slapped his thighs with bloodshot eyes.

As an ordinary person with little combat ability, this stall was his means of livelihood after the apocalypse.

But before danger arrived, everything ceased to exist.

When the corpse tide attacks, everyone knows that if breached, those without the Safe Zone's protection will perish in the zombies' mouths.

In the chat channels, each day a gathering place or Safe Zone is breached, and each breach is a great disaster.

On the armed helicopter, Huang Haitao, with a solemn expression, led a Second Level squad, gazing at the distant frantic corpse horde.

Black zombies linked in a straight line, running at 9 meters per second, 32 km/h, will reach beneath Long'an City in 40 minutes without rest.

And the faster mutants will attack the outer city within twelve minutes.

The corpse tide numbers at least 700,000!

Not only that.

According to feedback from the forward fighter jets, the zombies staying in the three cities and six districts around Long'an have also been drawn over by unknown causes.

This group of undead is now heading toward Long'an.

In 12 hours, the maximum scale is projected to be 3.7 million.

24 hours later, this number will surge to 6 million.

If it's 48 hours...

They even have to face the zombie tide surging out of Wangjiang Province, a nightmare numbering in the tens of millions.

And the number of mutants among them reaches as high as ten thousand.

Looking at the dense black dots, Huang Haitao felt his scalp go numb, as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

Too sudden, too abnormal.

Normally, even if the zombie tide moves, it does so aimlessly and slowly, giving them enough time to prepare all kinds of countermeasures.

But this time, the gathering of the zombie tide happened almost in an instant.

A massive gathering of zombie tide could not possibly form spontaneously.

If it were a spontaneous gathering, it would still be manageable; with vast strategic weapons and an Awakened army numbering in the hundreds of thousands, they might still have a fighting chance.

But anyone can tell that behind this massive zombie tide there must be some unknown entity.

Something has its sights set on Long An, aiming to put them to death!

Is it a third‑rank mutant, akin to a zombie king, or is it man‑made?

A chill ran up their spines.

Huang Haitao hurriedly contacted Wen Ya, the base's highest‑authority officer, and repeatedly reported the information he had seen.

"Wen Ya!"

"Quickly contact Lin Dui, Chu An, and Commander Jing Tian!"

"This zombie attack likely has a third‑rank entity behind it!"

At the stronghold, Wen Ya's expression froze; hearing Huang Haitao's subsequent report, she hastily dropped her documents and first tried to contact Lin An.

But after a moment, her expression suddenly stiffened.

Lin An couldn't be reached, and Xiong Hanzi, seeing the broadcast message, sent a reply with a puzzled look, asking her what had happened.

And told her, Lin An had already entered the black domain; no one knows when he will come out.

Lin An couldn't be contacted.

With a bitter expression, she had no choice but to continue trying to contact An Jing Tian.

A few seconds later, upon learning the situation, An Jing Tian likewise replied with a grave expression:

"Wen Ya..."

"Colonel Chu just led the zombies into the white mist."

"Normally, signals can get through the white mist, but it seems he has turned off his communications..."

In the armored vehicle, An Jing Tian took a deep breath and without hesitation ordered the troops to return to Long An.

The forces they brought out this time are all elite.

After repeatedly sending private messages to Chu An as a reminder, he couldn't help but feel a little panicked.

Too much of a coincidence...

With Lin Dui absent and Chu An also missing, this incident occurred.

Unable to think further, his top priority now is to rush back to Long An.

But if the mastermind behind this is a third‑rank entity, what should we do...

Strictly speaking, the Long An base has no third‑rank personnel left on guard!

Except... AnXia and it.

On the hilltop, Gao Tian and Liang Shaoguang, who were originally carrying bows and arrows, were still chatting about where the moon wolf might have left traces, when their searching steps suddenly halted.

Seeing the message sent by Wen Ya, Gao Tian's face suddenly changed dramatically.

"Return to the city!"

"Something's happened at Long An!"