Chapter 210

The RV slowly drove out of the camp. The concrete road was very dry, and there was no feeling at all that it had snowed last night. It was just that the wind was stronger and colder, and the temperature had clearly dropped.

Soon, the RV arrived at the county road leading to Niuquanzi Town. However, before they could even get close to the town's central commercial district, the car stopped.

"Eh?"

Zhao Dezhu was just about to ask when he looked up and was stunned.

"Holy crap, where did all these zombies come from? We've walked this road eight hundred times, and it was clean as a whistle!"

They were still five or six hundred meters away from the town street entrance, which was where the excavators were parked. When Zhang Su and his group first came to this road, they hadn't encountered any zombies, but now, zombie figures had appeared!

It wasn't just on the road; there were also scattered zombies in the wasteland on both sides, as if a crop of zombies had grown out of the ground overnight...

"There aren't many, just kill them. Let's go, time to kill zombies!"

Pang Dakun, who hadn't been out of the camp for a long time, was exceptionally excited. He tightened the gun strap on his shoulder, grabbed his steel rebar, and prepared to get out of the car.

"It's not that I'm not used to it, I feel it too!" Guo Dachao nodded: "The zombies are different from before. Could it be because of the cold weather?"

In order not to cause any accidents, they specifically killed the zombies that were closer together in the wasteland and piled them up in a field to be loaded and hauled away when they returned later.

"After that heavy rain, the zombies got a boost. Strength, agility, speed, and perception have all improved to varying degrees. This is the conclusion we reached after actual comparison. Before the snow, the zombies' maximum running speed could reach sixteen seconds per hundred meters. If there's been another improvement after yesterday's snow, we really need to be careful!"

Zhang Su stared into the depths of the street, where zombies had also appeared in areas they had already cleared. He shook his head and said: "It might not be because the weather is getting colder, but because of yesterday's snow!"

A normal adult is faster than sixteen seconds per hundred meters, but they can't keep it up for several hundred meters. Even after being tempered by the apocalypse, maintaining full speed for three to five hundred meters is the limit, and that's without considering whether they're carrying a load. But zombies can maintain it for kilometers...

"Right, snow is just rain. No wonder the zombies got stronger, damn it!"

"Snow?"

"Right, it's that rain. We observed that the zombies' behavior was very strange in the rain, a bit like they were absorbing energy from the rainwater. Or to put it another way, the rainwater was replenishing the zombies' energy!"

Seeing Zhang Su get out of the car, Zhao Dezhu swung the steel rebar in his hand and said: "How come I feel like their strength is greater than before? It felt different when they rushed over, and their movements are more agile. But it's also possible that I'm just not used to fighting with one hand..."

"Thief, wait a second!"

"In short, if you encounter zombies in the wild now, without any obstacles to use, it's almost impossible to escape by running..."

Guo Dachao looked at the group with some confusion and asked: "What do you mean? What snow, rain, getting stronger? What are you all talking about?"

Zhang Su turned around, took his bag off the car, and put it on while saying: "Dachao, do you remember the heavy rain that fell not long after the disaster broke out?"

"Oh, right, damn, isn't snow just rain!"

Because they needed to fix the excavator, Zhang Su brought seven members out today, and every single one of them had impressive combat power. Even Zhao Dezhu, whose arm hadn't fully recovered, was a fierce warrior. With their full effort, they completely cleared the zombies leading to the town center with a sweeping momentum.

"I remember, it was huge. Young Lady and I, along with two other companions at the time, were trapped in an internet cafe, and the water flooded the first floor!"

Zhang Su called out to Pang Dakun and said: "There are at least a dozen of them. If we make too much noise and attract the ones from further away, it'll be troublesome. You all work together and finish this quickly. Don't let any accidents happen, I'll drive the car over!"

"This is the first time I've heard of this!"

For the people of Tianmayu, zombie corpses were now all top-grade fuel. Just for heating alone, they were even better than coal!

"Big brother, the zombies are a bit off!"

Guo Dachao was dumbfounded after hearing Zhang Su's words. They were still struggling to survive on the edge of life and death, while this side was already researching the zombies' limits. The gap was indeed huge.

"You have to understand one thing: while we are researching how to deal with zombies and building defensive fortifications, the zombies are also slowly changing. Never think that you've already won. Every time, you must give it your all. Let's go, start working!"

Guo Dachao, Tan Huajun, and Jia Shiqin stayed at the street entrance to study the excavator repair. Wang Xin kept watch for the group, while Zhang Su led the others to start clearing the zombies on the street and then went to the side street to scavenge for supplies.

After the ambush by Beitazi Camp, the progress of scavenging for supplies had slowed down. Even in areas that had already been searched, they had to be checked again.

During the process of clearing the zombies, Zhang Su also felt the change. If nothing else, the running movements had less of a mechanical feel than before and seemed a bit more agile, and consequently, the impact force was greater than before, causing the barbed wire to clatter loudly.

However, killing them was just as simple—just aim for the brain and it was done. But this slow improvement still gave people an inexplicable sense of pressure.

"We keep researching weapons and defensive fortifications to block the zombies, and the zombies are also slowly getting stronger. It just depends on who is faster."

Zhang Su pulled out his steel rebar with a *swish* and felt moved to speak.

"We still have the advantage!" Zhao Dezhu said with a wide mouth: "Zombies won't just appear out of thin air. There's a fixed number of them; kill one and there's one less! Like the people in our camp, on average, everyone has killed at least fifty zombies, right?"

"Your words..." Zhang Su's mouth twitched: "The total permanent population of all districts in Qincheng is three million. According to our estimated ratio, the first batch of people who turned into zombies exceeded two million. Even if all the subsequent victims were killed and none turned into zombies, there are still at least 1.5 million zombies now!"

"How many humans can we have? One hundred thousand? Fifty thousand? You say kill one zombie and there's one less, but for us humans, every one that dies is one less. Zombies only need one bite to turn a human into their own kind. We humans don't have the ability to reverse a zombie. Which side do you think has better odds?"

Zhao Dezhu was stunned for a moment, his eyes brightening: "Big brother, you're wrong. We can have babies, more and more of them. Zombies can't, hehehe..."

Speaking of having babies, he smiled unconsciously.

Zhang Su looked at Zhao Dezhu strangely and asked: "Hey, Zhuzi, you didn't get Teacher Yu pregnant, did you?"

"No, no!"

Zhao Dezhu denied it repeatedly, then smiled mysteriously: "But I do have that plan, hehehe..."

"Wow, Uncle Zhuzi, that's awesome!"

"My god, this plan is too crazy..."

Pang Dakun and Zhang Ya exclaimed one after another. The former felt from the bottom of his heart that Zhao Dezhu was mighty, while the latter was lamenting that their ideas were outrageous.

"Phew..." Zhang Su took a long breath, lit a cigarette, and asked: "Zhuzi, honestly, is this your idea or Teacher Yu's?"

Zhao Dezhu rubbed his clean-shaven head and laughed: "Hehe, my idea. New year, new atmosphere."

"Zhuzi, I don't have the right to deprive anyone of the right to reproduce, but I still advise you to try to consider this matter after the situation is more stable."

Zhang Su said very seriously.

Anyway, from his perspective, the current environment was extremely terrible for having children.

"I know, I know." Zhao Dezhu nodded and said: "We'll talk about it after our camp develops a bit more."

"Zhuzi, I'm not joking with you. This matter is very serious. It's understandable that you want children, but you must consider yourself, consider the child, and consider Yu Qing. You can't just get hot-headed and do something without considering the consequences!"

Zhang Su felt that Zhao Dezhu didn't realize the severity of the problem, so he simply stopped his work and spoke seriously.

"We don't even have a decent medical environment now. Can you be sure we will in ten months? I hope so, but what if? And another thing: a child doesn't have the right to choose whether to be born, but do you really have the heart to let them come into this shitty world?"

If we're talking about passing on the lineage, no one had better conditions than Zhang Su. He could get two women pregnant at once, but he hadn't even considered this matter at all, and Zheng Xinyu and Zhong Xiaoshanyi didn't mention it either.

"Yes." Zhang Ya spoke up from the side: "I once watched a TV program about wild animals. It said that when the natural environment is harsh, wild animals will stop reproducing... The environment we are facing now can no longer be described as harsh."

Zhao Dezhu was educated repeatedly by Zhang Su and Zhang Ya. A thoughtful look appeared on his face. He looked up at the zombies clawing and scratching not far away and sighed: "I was impulsive. Don't worry, big brother, I won't do anything stupid."

(End of chapter)