Chapter 437

Zhang Su stood behind the van and saw the fiery red zombie on the opposite side at a glance. Heat energy rolled beneath its skin, the air around its body was distorted by the high temperature, and even the chains binding it were roasted red-hot. One could imagine how high the temperature of this thing was!

This was clearly different from the situation Wu Baokang had described, so the answer wasn't hard to find: the researchers must have conducted various experiments on the mutant zombie later on, and its abilities had been enhanced!

A small nuclear reactor!

This was Zhang Su's first reaction. What was the difference between that endlessly emitting fiery heat and a small nuclear reactor? There was a difference: a nuclear reactor had nuclear radiation, while this thing only emitted heat.

If any faction could possess such a zombie, heat and electricity would no longer be a problem. Using it purely as a weapon was a waste of talent! This was a living mutant zombie that could be developed for multiple purposes! If the venom zombie from back then could have been captured alive, it probably could have created many possibilities...

Before he could continue his reverie, he saw the cargo box on the other side's truck actually rotate, aiming the open side at the shops by the road. After the people in that direction walked away, a dragon of fire erupted from the cargo box opening, as if the entire cargo box had turned into a giant flamethrower.

"Holy crap, the Fourth Gourd Brother!"

When the scene of the flame eruption came into view, the expression on Zhao Dezhu's face was spectacular, his eyes rounder than longans! He had witnessed the venom zombie spitting venom, and without even mentioning the lethality of venom versus fire, just in terms of momentum, the venom zombie was absolutely crushed. Its range wasn't even as far as a pee, unlike this fire, which was more exaggerated than a professional flamethrower. If you didn't know better, you'd think you were back on a World War II battlefield! Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

The flames erupted, covering a distance of twenty meters from the box truck opening to the shops. The flames slammed into the reinforced concrete with considerable force, instantly blooming into a flower of fire. The tongues of fire engulfed the three-story shop, quickly incinerating flammable materials. The cement building cracked and peeled, and the metal with a lower melting point showed signs of liquefaction! Liu Yao and Yang Xinci felt the power of the fire-breathing zombie at close range and couldn't help but look at each other. For once, they didn't erupt with hostility, because the strength of the Survivor Alliance exceeded their expectations!

Unless the fire-breathing zombie was as fragile as an ordinary zombie and could be taken out with a single bullet, its threat was simply too great! Li Zongkai watched with a dull expression as the zombie spat fire to incinerate the shop. The stronger the Survivor Alliance was, the more disadvantageous it was for him. In the face of absolute strength, all tricks would appear pale and powerless.

Unfortunately, there was too little he could do now; he could only wait and act according to the situation.

Gong Chengming's expression was calm. As the second-in-command of the Survivor Alliance, he naturally knew about the fire zombie. The fact that his room was warm every day was thanks to it. He wasn't as wary of the fire-breathing zombie as Liu Yao and the others, because this was a weapon he could use!

"Alright, stop!"

Seeing that the shop front had been calcined beyond recognition, Liao Youzhi gave an order.

Pfft.

No one knew what had happened to the zombie inside the box truck; the fire-breathing was suddenly cut off, just as they didn't know why the zombie had suddenly started breathing fire.

"Liao Youzhi, you ran to my territory to show off your muscles? I feel like you're showing off your IQ! Watch closely!"

Zhao Dezhu wasn't immersed in the shock brought by the fire-breathing zombie and followed the previous plan to recite the domineering and humorous lines.

At the same time his voice fell, a loud bang erupted from the west side of Beidong Town, almost at the same time...

Boom!

A three-story shop not far from the Survivor Alliance crowd instantly blossomed, dust flying, rocks piercing the air, and gravel was blown to the other side of the road. The earth-shattering power made people from all four factions freeze.

"A tank!"

Someone from an unknown faction suddenly shouted: "It's a tank shell! There's a tank in ambush nearby!"

A tank—among the Four Tigers of the North City, only the Guardians of Civilization were suspected of possessing one, but seeing them now, they were all very surprised; in all likelihood, they didn't have one...

Truly feeling the power of a tank, ordinary buildings were vulnerable in the face of shells.

One could imagine what the effect would be if one shell were fired at the place where they were gathered right now.

Many people couldn't help but swallow their saliva, and by the way, look at the hostages of the Guardians of Civilization and Li Zongkai. If they weren't there, would the shells have already been fired? Perhaps if the other side hadn't also held hostages, the fire-breathing zombie would have already been dispatched. But no matter how you looked at it, the fire-breathing zombie was at a slight disadvantage; its attack range wasn't as far as the tank's...

The restraint between the two sides was built on the foundation of both possessing high-power lethal weapons! Some worried whether nearby zombies would be attracted by the huge noise, but then they thought, this wasn't far from Tianmayu, so the zombies should have been cleared out, and even if there were any left, there wouldn't be many. And now, the top combat power of five factions was gathered here; let alone one or two thousand, even a horde of ten thousand could be easily wiped out!

The expression on Liu Yao's face was extremely strange. Thinking about how he had wanted to bring people to Tianmayu to pick a fight not long ago, now that he thought about it, how was that any different from seeking death? He had dozens of men following him and thought the Little Eagle Society could dominate one side, but he hadn't expected that a truly powerful faction already possessed real war weapons.

If he knew that a drone capable of dropping bombs was on standby at any time, and a dog that could appear and disappear like a ghost and also plant bombs was hiding and watching the fun, what would he think? If he knew that enough bombs had been planted on the potholed road in front of them to send them all to the west, what would he think? Yang Xinci only felt his mouth dry. Like Liu Yao, he thought about how he had proposed at the banquet last night to strike directly at Tianmayu, looking down on the Survivor Alliance as if they were bandits in the suburbs. Now, by comparison, he was more like a bandit...

Gong Chengming and Xiao Xuejian looked at each other silently. Both knew Tianmayu had a tank, but both had doubted whether it could participate in battle normally. Now they had a clear answer.

"Alright, everyone has shown their weapons, so we should enter the hostage exchange phase, right?"

Zhao Dezhu's hearty voice drifted through the street.

"That's a must!"

Liao Youzhi moved his gaze away from the semi-collapsed building and responded to Zhao Dezhu. He wasn't particularly afraid because of the other side's big guy, because his own trump card hadn't been shown yet.

And he also believed that Zhang Su definitely wouldn't show his real cards to him. Everyone was pretending to be confused while knowing the truth.

Just as Zhang Su had predicted, whether it was himself or the several leaders on the other side, in all likelihood, they didn't want a large-scale bloody conflict. People capable of sitting in the position of leader considered problems from completely different angles. Everyone knew the importance of the population and cherished their own feathers.

Even the subordinates holding weapons cherished their own lives and knew that once a war started, it would be uncontrollable. No one wanted to fire the first shot.

"Then bring the people over."

While speaking, Zhao Dezhu raised his hand toward the front, meaning for Ju Wuying to take the hostages over.

"Wait!" Liao Youzhi's voice rang out, then he continued: "I want to verify their identities. With their heads covered one by one, how do I know if they are our brothers?"

Being able to become a leader of the Survivor Alliance, he naturally wasn't stupid. He had to consider whether the other side was using the lives of others to make up the numbers, and also whether there were people from the other side mixed in preparing to launch a sneak attack.

Zhao Dezhu didn't struggle, because this was a very necessary process, so he ordered people to take off the hostages' hoods.

Whoosh, whoosh, pfft...

One by one, the hoods were taken off, and haggard faces appeared in the sunlight. Because of the dark environment for a period of time, they couldn't even open their eyes, and their mouths were tied with ropes. To describe it in two words: miserable.

Liao Youzhi, with a livid face, held his binoculars and quickly confirmed the five members of the Guard, including Wu Baokang, then leaned over and handed the binoculars to Yang Xinci, who was standing beside the truck bed.

After Yang Xinci confirmed there was no mistake, Liao Youzhi was just about to speak when Liu Yao spoke.

"Leader Liao, ask him where the bodies of my Little Eagle Society brothers are!"

Liao Youzhi frowned secretly, thinking this was really superfluous, but he knew Liu Yao was doing it for the others in the Little Eagle Society to see, so he picked up the microphone: "Identity confirmed, but Zhang Su, where are the bodies of the three Little Eagle Society brothers?"

"I warn you not to push your luck. It's not bad that I can return the living to you. The bodies are lying at the camp; if you have the guts, go get them yourself!"

Zhao Dezhu responded quite impatiently.

Taking advantage of this time of bickering and arguing, the hoods of the ten hostages were put back on, and right under the other side's noses, a swap was completed.

(End of chapter)