Wasteland Commander

Even though the zombies had already appeared on the radar screen.

Even though Ye Fan had already seen those tide-like red dots for two days.

But when the zombies truly appeared within visual range, Ye Fan couldn't help but gasp.

On this late autumn northern land, dust danced in the air.

The yellowish dust made the air quality deteriorate.

A gust of wind brought a nauseating stench.

The roaring sound filled the eardrums, and the sound grew louder and noisier.

The endless horde of zombies covered the horizon as far as the eye could see.

Everywhere were terrifying, grim faces and waving arms.

Facing such creatures as zombies, even if you possess remarkable strength, if you cannot see the end of the zombie horde, it puts an enormous psychological pressure on people.

Even if you could see a bit of the edge, it would be better.

Regrettably, not even a small part was visible.

That overwhelming feeling is hard to comprehend without witnessing it personally.

At this moment, Dawn City was exceptionally quiet.

All survivors wore solemn expressions.

Even though they couldn't see outside from indoors, the gigantic roar was everyone's nightmare.

Some people clasped their hands in prayer, others prayed to gods and Buddha.

Some even carved a wooden figurine, vaguely resembling Ye Fan, and offered incense to it.

They needed a kind of faith, a spiritual support to help them endure this grueling apocalypse.

********

The crackling static continued to echo inside the radio station.

Ye Luo held her ground, broadcasting the situation to Xianghua City people.

"This is the Dawn Army... This is the Dawn Army... "

"I'm Ye Luo, hello everyone."

"As everyone knows, in this world, our greatest enemies for survival are the zombies and Mutant Beasts."

"Perhaps a day ago, we also believed we could certainly reclaim our homeland and rebuild civilization. Because those zombies and Mutant Beasts don't possess intelligence, they just linger in place, waiting for us to eliminate them one by one."

"But today, I have unfortunate news to tell everyone... "

"Right outside our Dawn Army's city, hundreds of thousands of zombies have arrived. Our leader had long since discovered the movement of this horde, traveling hundreds of kilometers to reach our city walls."

"I believe upon hearing this, everyone understands by now that some zombies have evolved intelligence, and they have also learned how to act in unison."

"Reporting this news to everyone, we are not asking for aid, but to give everyone a reminder."

"The only unchanging truth in this world is that everything changes, and the zombies are no exception. If everyone remains fixated on past knowledge about zombies, perhaps one day, the ocean of zombies will be right beneath your city."

"We will stand firm here and eliminate them. Leader Ye Fan is capable of doing so, and we are full of aspirations for free civilization. We shall ultimately prevail... "

"I will broadcast the situation here again at this time tomorrow... "

********

As the broadcast ended, everyone who heard it in the Huacheng Region fell silent.

Perhaps some isolated survivors didn't hear the broadcast, but all significantly sized survivor camps basically had a broadcast.

This was currently the only tool for communication with the outside world.

They used small diesel generators to power themselves, preferring to skip two meals than compromise information flow.

But the message from the Dawn Army weighed heavily on everyone's heart.

Zombies have developed intelligence!

What a despairing piece of news.

An attack by hundreds of thousands of zombies, it was unthinkable.

Even those in the Survivor Alliance who weren't fond of the Dawn Army hoped they would hear from them again tomorrow.

Although they didn't believe the Dawn Army could successfully defend, they hoped the Dawn Army could hold out a bit longer.

Because that would prove that the zombie horde is not quite so terrifying.

********

Wang Huining stopped seven to eight kilometers away from Dawn City.

He dared not get too close.

The fear from being bombarded in Chengguan Town last time still lingered in the depths of his mind.

The Dawn Army had mortars, and even as a zombie, he was still terrified of these killing machines born from technological warfare.

He was something of a military enthusiast and had some knowledge of mortar range.

The maximum range is about 6,500 meters.

Learning from mistakes, this time Wang Huining stopped seven kilometers away.

For others, seven or eight kilometers seemed distant, but not for Wang Huining.

He already had extraordinary vision, which evolved to be even keener.

After becoming a zombie, this ability advanced even further.

Standing here, he could clearly see the expressions on each Dawn Army soldier's face.

His gaze landed on the person wearing a white cloak.

That flashy guy, it was hard not to notice him.

Ye Fan stood on the city wall, hands clasped behind his back, showing no sign of fear on his face.

This somewhat disappointed Wang Huining.

He had led this horde of three hundred thousand zombies forward, encountering some survivors along the way.

But any survivor who sees his zombie army either gets scared out of their wits or scared shitless.

Just like when he arrived, he even saw some people fleeing Dawn City.

Wang Huining was very pleased with this situation.

This proved his might and humanity's fear of him; he loved this feeling.

Moreover, he didn't intend to let those who abandoned the city and fled get away.

He had already dispatched five hundred Agile Zombies to hunt them down.

Hunting people is definitely the specialty of Agile Zombies, not to mention most of those people are on foot, making it impossible to escape the Agile Zombies' chase.

Devouring so much flesh and blood, these Agile Zombies will surely bring forth some Crawlers after returning.

This is all his strength, his trump card.

He came here wanting to see Ye Fan scared out of his wits.

Unfortunately, Ye Fan disappointed him.

Standing behind him were three women in military uniforms, and Ye Fan was chatting and laughing there, as if he didn't even consider these hundreds of thousands of zombies a threat.

"Damn it... It's you! It's you who ruined everything for me, made me lose a hand and turned into a zombie!"

"If it weren't for my great fortune, I'd already be part of the soil of Blue Sea Star by now."

"You didn't think I would come back, did you? Maybe I was a trivial nobody in your eyes before, but today, this nobody is going to flatten your Dawn City and turn all of you to dust!"

Wang Huining let out a series of roars, and the surrounding zombies were agitated.

Unfortunately, Ye Fan couldn't hear him, his gaze casually surveying the tide of corpses below.

Tired of ranting, Wang Huining stared at Ye Fan, shouting the last sentence.

"Damn!"

Then he saw a strange scene.

On the city wall, Ye Fan's face looked odd, and he glanced over with one eye open, the other closed.

He spoke.

Exaggerated gestures, lip reading.

"Fool!"

Wang Huining was stunned.

At that moment, he felt Ye Fan was looking at him.

How could it be?

How could the other party find his position from amidst countless zombies?

And how could he possibly have eyesight like his own to see here?

Wang Huining didn't think it was an illusion; just now Ye Fan indeed looked this way, they even exchanged a glance across the distance.

But no sparks flew, it was just a verbal spat.

Ye Fan's actually a trash talker!

Wang Huining's anger surged up.

He's about to die and still dares to trash talk me!

He stretched out his single arm, raising his middle finger towards Ye Fan's direction.

"Ye Fan, you're doomed!"

Being out of range, Wang Huining had no qualms, no matter how sturdy Dawn City's defenses appeared, they couldn't pose a threat to him.

All he needed to do was command countless zombies to charge.

The endless zombie army was still arriving, many Iron Armors and Agiles were deployed around Wang Huining's command post.

Ordinary zombies started slowly advancing, with the vanguard already near Dawn City's Outer City District.

But they hadn't launched an immediate attack, Wang Huining needed to assess the situation in Dawn City.

Ye Fan stood atop the city wall, covering one eye and watching Wang Huining flip him off.

He didn't remember Wang Huining; back in Chengguan Town, Ye Fan didn't chase out to see who was fleeing.

So he wasn't sure where this zombie came from.

But the guy's rampant trash-talking left Ye Fan rather annoyed.

He checked the time, it was half-past ten in the morning.

An hour and a half to ammo refresh.

Judging by this, the zombies seemed still preparing, showing no signs of launching an immediate attack.

Ye Fan didn't intend for the zombies to dilly-dally with preparations; he had to start the battle soon or he'd waste the bullets in the firearms now.

He carefully examined the area around this bald zombie, surrounded by elite zombies.

Several huge zombies with a metallic sheen on them were especially notable; this was something Ye Fan hadn't seen before.

"Zombie's second stage evolutionary form?"

There were also some red zombies crawling near Wang Huining; Ye Fan had seen these, they were Crawlers.

In addition to the giant zombies and Crawlers, there were also several Iron Armors and Agile Zombies nearby.

"Why aren't they coming over? Staying at such a distance, what are they worried about?"

Ye Fan calculated the distance, surprised to find it was just outside the range of the mortars.

"Could these zombies know we have mortars here?"

Ye Fan had a vague idea; he seemed to have guessed a bit about this zombie's background.

"If I'm not mistaken, the zombie leader might have been previously shelled and is staying outside the safe range to command."

"But I must say, habitual thinking really can kill you."

Ye Fan waved to Zhongjing: "Chief of Staff, prepare to deliver a grand gift to our visitors from afar!"