Chapter 272: This Place Is No Place to Stay

"Fuck! What the hell is that?"

As Zhang Su pulled out a cigarette to light it, Wang Xin, holding a telescope in one hand and pointing toward the battlefield with the other, asked in a voice thick with shock: "What the hell is that?"

"What thing?"

There was only one telescope; the rest, curious what could shock someone who'd survived the apocalypse this long, raised their rifle scopes and peered fuzzily into the distance.

Zhang Su naturally turned toward the battlefield—and at a single glance, the cigarette in his mouth dropped to the ground, his jaw hanging open, unable to close.

"Quick, the telescope, hurry!"

Zhang Su snatched the telescope from Wang Xin's hand, blinked a few times to moisten his eyes, and stared hard—his hair stood on end.

A slender figure, about two men tall, darted through the horde of zombies, moving with terrifying speed. Compared to it, the other frenzied zombies seemed to move in slow motion, utterly unable to keep pace—like an adult playing with toddlers in a kindergarten.

In the flickering firelight, Zhang Su finally saw the face of the slender figure: a zombie's face stretched unnaturally long, its eyes, nose, and even mouth vertically elongated. It no longer looked disgusting—it radiated a chilling, bone-deep terror.

Through double zoom, he could even make out the color of its eyes—not the usual crimson of ordinary zombies, but two vertical black holes, utterly, perfectly black.

The slender zombie leapt—several burning zombies were flung high into the air by its powerful arms, tossed aside like trash. Hundreds of pounds felt weightless in its grip; one swift extension, and a zombie was pierced clean through the chest, then ripped apart into several chunks.

"If it's not even afraid of fire, it's going to be damn hard to kill!"

"Why isn't it catching fire? Is it wearing some special protective suit?"

Wang Xin asked curiously from beside him.

Seconds later, a piercing shriek pierced Zhang Su's ears—nothing like the usual zombie moans; it sent a chill straight to his bones.

Lucky, crouched at his feet, showed an almost unprecedented look of fear, shrinking back toward his heels, ears and tail drooping.

Flames once again engulfed the slender zombie—but this time, the assault was fiercer, and still, it did nothing. Figures wreathed in roaring fire scattered like sparks from a blacksmith's hammer—some missing arms or legs, others reduced to nothing but torsos.

Aohaa!

"Bro Zhang, quick, the telescope, let me see…" Lu Yu bo snatched the telescope and stared into the distance.

Unfortunately, the ordinary zombies surrounding the slender zombie had no intelligence, no fear—they rushed forward in a fresh wave.

"Bro Zhang, I think… I think even guns can't hit that thing. Fuck, what do we do?!"

To call Zero-Zero-Four merely fast would be to vastly underestimate it!

From the brief battle he'd just witnessed, Zhang Su could tell Zero-Zero-Four wasn't just fast—it was incredibly strong. Its slender limbs pulsed with explosive power. He didn't know whether it was stronger than Zero-Zero-Three, but if the two zombies fought, he was certain Zero-Zero-Three wouldn't last ten rounds…

Like a bird flying into a jet engine's turbine—cut to shreds in a single spin!

"What? Bro Zhang, Zero-Zero-Four? Is it Zero-Zero-Three's little brother or big brother?"

Perhaps Zero-Zero-Four couldn't withstand Zero-Zero-Three's blows—but only if the clumsy Zero-Zero-Three could catch its form. Otherwise, it would only take damage.

Zhang Su's face turned grim: "Zero-Zero-Four is a newly modified zombie from the Azure Dragon Corps. Xin Qi and the others only knew the project existed—they know almost nothing about Zero-Zero-Four itself. But they were right about one thing: it's fast. But not just fast…"

After a massacre that cleared the area, the slender zombie stood at the center of the flames, neck stretched upward, its elongated mouth howling at the moon.

"Zero-Zero-Four…"

Zhang Su slowly lowered the telescope, his heart pounding, voice heavy: "It must be Zero-Zero-Four."

All of this happened in an instant. Compared to the slender zombie, the other zombies were laughably fragile.

Lu Yu bo, usually fearless, was starting to panic—his belief that even heavy weaponry could solve everything was cracking.

Soon, everyone on the rooftop saw Zero-Zero-Four's battle through their scopes—the oppressive dread left them breathless and powerless.

"Wait, I don't get this… why is Zero-Zero-Four attacking zombies? Does it have intelligence?"

No one answered the cascade of questions. The group's hearts grew heavier. They unconsciously imagined themselves facing Zero-Zero-Four—and felt not a single coin's worth of hope.

Zhang Su frowned in thought. He didn't know why Zero-Zero-Four didn't catch fire—but he'd just figured out something else. "I get it! Those drones before—two dropped bombs, but the rest were spraying the same pheromones used to lure Zero-Zero-Three!"

Others couldn't see the drones clearly, but he could—and now, Zero-Zero-Four's behavior made perfect sense.

"So it's still just a mindless zombie? Good, good…"

"Good what? It's more terrifying than ten thousand ordinary zombies! Fuck, how the hell did the Azure Dragon Corps control it?"

?!?!

"Right! Zero-Zero-Three is controlled by electricity—if Zero-Zero-Four is too, and it's jumping all over the place, how do we even recover it?"

"Electromagnetic cannon."

"Don't fucking joke. If they had an electromagnetic cannon, I'd be Magneto!"

Zhang Su heard the chatter around him and smirked: "I think the Azure Dragon Corps never planned to recover it…"

"True. Bro Zhang's right. When you're about to die, you might as well unleash everything!"

In a fight for survival, why overthink? Zero-Zero-Four might even be an unfinished prototype, activated out of desperation.

The proof was clear: Zero-Zero-Four's combat power was brutal. Combined with concentrated firepower, it held back the horde. Zombies fell in waves, and the corps' numbers stopped declining—temporarily stabilizing the situation.

"Fuck fuck fuck!"

Suddenly, Qi Xiaoshuai yelled three times, pointing toward the camp in terror: "It's on fire! It's on fire! It's on fire!"

Hearing this, Zhang Su, who'd been thinking how to deal with Zero-Zero-Four, snatched the telescope from Qi Xiaoshuai and stared at the battlefield. Moments later, his expression twisted involuntarily.

"This place isn't safe. Go!"

"What? Bro Zhang, what'd you see?"

Everyone rushed downstairs. Lu Yu bo asked curiously.

"Zero-Zero-Four has gone completely insane!"

Zhang Su said, voice tense.

Though modified, Zero-Zero-Four still retained some basic zombie traits. Once ignited, its combat power surged further—it leapt over twenty to thirty meters in a single bound, jumped over ten meters high from a single spot…

Its flaming arms slashed through the air like scythes of death, instantly claiming five or six lives on the wall. The sturdy wall crumbled like tofu dregs before it—each flame sweep brought down a whole section…

After catching fire, Zero-Zero-Four no longer responded only to pheromones—it began attacking indiscriminately. Guns, cannons, explosives—all crisscrossed the battlefield, chaos exploding.

But none of this was what made Zhang Su desperate to leave!

The key was: after completing another round of slaughter, Zero-Zero-Four let out a piercing shriek—directed at their position.

That wide-open mouth, those elongated teeth and tongue—clearly, it had sensed them. A thousand meters away, Zhang Su felt as if he saw the killing intent in its hollow eye sockets.

As if saying: Wait. Let me finish off these scraps first—then I'll come for you.

"Bro Zhang, what's going on? Is the Azure Dragon Corps about to be wiped out?"

The group waiting by the cars, seeing Zhang Su and the others hurry back, asked anxiously.

"Get in the car. Go! Head back! Now!"

Zhang Su had no time to explain—he leapt into the FJ Cruiser.

Everyone felt the urgency in his voice and scrambled into their vehicles without hesitation.

The convoy turned around. All vehicles with working lights turned them on and sped back the way they came.

The FJ Cruiser led the way. On the way here, they'd moved slowly. Now, they raced—speedometer hitting over a hundred kph, the provincial road feeling like a highway.

All the cars were unnervingly silent. Those who knew Zhang Su well knew his nature—he'd never shown this level of tension, bordering on panic.

In the back seat of the FJ Cruiser, Zheng Xinyu gave Zhao Dezhu a questioning look. Zhao Dezhu made a funny face and shook his head, waving his hands: Don't ask yet.

"Still alive? Almost dead, almost dead…"

The car sped down the road, quickly passing the white church. Zhang Su muttered under his breath.

"Bro, is Zero-Zero-Four chasing us?"

Zhao Dezhu, sensing something, ventured cautiously.

"Zero-Zero-Four?"

Before Zhang Su could answer, Xin Qi in the passenger seat gasped, turning around: "Big Brother, you saw Zero-Zero-Four?"

"Wait till we're farther away. Then we'll talk."

In a flash, less than half an hour later, the convoy reached the Tianma Island intersection—three times faster than when they came.

In those thirty minutes, the Azure Dragon Corps' population had plummeted to one hundred fifty…

What terrified Zhang Su was the sudden, stepwise drop in the Azure Dragon Corps' population.

Before, people died one by one, slowly or quickly. But just now, in that short time, three or five died at once—no need to guess who was responsible.

(End of Chapter)