Chapter 290: The Woman’s Purpose
Huang Shi Yao let out a series of shrieks.
The helicopter, clearly overloaded, struggled desperately in mid-air. It dragged two chains of zombies hanging from its landing gear as it rapidly ascended.
Its fuselage shuddered nonstop, its stumbling and swaying appearance making the group below break out in a cold sweat.
The fierce winds sent the two chains of zombies dangling from the landing gear spinning and flailing.
The zombies on the ground roared and shrieked, clambering on one after another.
Huang Shi Yao clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide with terror as she stared at the sky.
The helicopter barely lasted a minute before the horde of zombies dragged it lurching and twisting straight toward the ground.
"My God!" a female Superpower User cried out, tears streaming down her face.
The crowd could only watch as the helicopter was dragged down by the zombie horde. At the last moment, the pilot didn’t forget to charge into the horde, determined to take them down with him.
After a loud explosion, flames shot into the sky from within the zombie horde.
Many of the zombies were set on fire, but they felt no pain and continued to lunge at the Superpower Special Team. They pounced on whatever they could grab, pinning it to the ground and beginning to gnaw.
The other helicopter could only quickly move away from the billowing smoke and circle a nearby building.
Zhong threw a punch to knock Meng Lanfang off his chest, then charged toward the tall building beside them with Huang Shi Yao on his back.
Their only chance at survival was to run to the rooftop platform of that tall building.
"Zhong, Yaoyao, you can’t leave me behind! Yaoyao, for the sake of Aunt Meng looking after you for so many years, you can’t just abandon me!"
Meng Lanfang desperately grabbed Zhong’s arm and was dragged along as he sprinted forward.
"Get lost, you damn old woman! Go die, die, die!" Huang Shi Yao shrieked, losing her temper.
Seeing Meng Lanfang repeatedly block their escape route, Huang Shi Yao was so furious that she began pummeling Meng Lanfang’s face with her fists and palms.
"00009425, scan the surrounding area! Hurry, hurry, hurry!" Huang Shi Yao ordered shrilly, urging it on. "Map an escape route!"
"Due to the complexity of the surrounding environment, 00009425 requires three minutes to scan and map the area."
"Three minutes is too long! No!" Huang Shi Yao yelled, furious and exasperated. "Scan the building across the street first! Is it safe?"
"Scanning the thirty-three-story residential building five hundred meters away will take thirty seconds."
"Twenty-nine, twenty-eight... seven, six..."
Seeing Zhong charge into the building with Miss Huang on his back, the rest of the group followed without a second thought.
The crowd poured into the building and slammed the heavy iron gate shut, holding back the frantically pursuing zombies outside.
A Gold Ability User used the last bit of his superpower to weld the building’s iron gate shut.
At the same time, 00009425’s cold, robotic voice announced, "Residential building scan complete. Warning. Danger. Warning. Danger. There are over twenty zombies on each floor of the residential building."
Huang Shi Yao almost fainted from rage.
’It could have said something sooner! But no, the damned system waits until after they’re inside and have welded the gate shut to announce that the place is dangerous.’
Huang Shi Yao felt like her head was about to explode from anger!
"Miss, that helicopter seems to have left."
The sound grew more and more distant, and Huang Shi Yao’s expression turned completely dark.
"What do we do now, Miss?"
"Use the satellite communicator to contact Special Team One," Huang Shi Yao said through gritted teeth. "Tell everyone from Zone B to come support us."
「...」
"Sis, are we really going to search this entire residential area?"
"We’ll do our best," Xie Ning said, looking at the map in her hand. "According to how the area is sectioned off here, the scope isn’t actually that large."
"Since we took the one thousand Contribution Points, we’ll do things by the book."
Xie Ning said tonelessly, "If we can bring people out, we will. If we can’t, then so be it."
She slammed the car door shut, pulled a K30 Superpower Gun from her bag, and handed it to Wang Zongxuan. "This is the newest model, a K30 Superpower Gun. Your brother gave it to us."
Wang Zongxuan’s eyes lit up as he hurriedly reached out and took it.
The batch of guns from Gu Chen had all been fitted with silencers beforehand. Wang Zongxuan fiddled with it for a moment and found he couldn’t put it down.
Xie Ning tossed him a pack of bullets. "When you run out of ammo, you can power it with your superpower energy. But it consumes a lot of energy, so don’t do it unless you have no other choice."
"Okay!" Wang Zongxuan put the gun away, nodding repeatedly.
Just then, Yuan slyly sidled up to Xie Ning, bowed politely, and said, "Oh, my noble and beautiful little team leader!"
Xie Ning turned and shot him a deadly glare. "Spit it out."
Yuan stroked his little mustache, a faint smile on his face. "Do you have any more of those superpower guns?"
"You know how to use a gun?"
"Of course," Yuan nodded repeatedly. "My marksmanship might not be on par with Brother Zong Xuan, but I’m considered top-tier among ordinary people!"
Xie Ning took out another K30, tossing him a small pack of bullets. "Speaking of which, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you use your superpower. I don’t even know what it is."
"Fire Element! My beautiful little team leader, I am a Fire Ability User."
Xie Ning glanced at him. "How come I never see you use it?"
Yuan smiled as he fiddled with the K30 in his hands. "There’s something you don’t know, Captain. My superpower attack is quite powerful, and using it leaves me drained for a long time. That’s why I personally prefer not to use my superpower."
Xie Ning rolled her eyes at him, walked straight to the two buses Zuo Li had left behind, and casually retrieved them.
Then, she took out a large MPV and placed it to the side.
She had acquired this vehicle from Base Chief Zhang’s house back at the Lanshan Lake Base.
It was ninety percent new, and this was the first time Xie Ning was taking it out to use.
The interior was spacious enough; it would be a tight squeeze for nine people, but it would work.
Housekeeper Youen volunteered to drive. Xie Ning took the passenger seat, and the rest quickly piled into the car.
"Young Master, which way?"
"Straight ahead," Cres said, unwrapping a chocolate bar and taking a couple of bites. "We’ll run into a small zombie horde in five minutes. About a hundred of them. Everyone, prepare for battle."
Yuan was speechless. "Aren’t we supposed to be searching the residential buildings?"
"You think searching residential buildings is the captain’s main objective?" Cres felt his housekeeper’s intelligence was a lost cause.
"Do you really think one thousand Contribution Points is enough to make her do something?"
"Searching the residential buildings is just something we’re doing along the way." Cres chewed his chocolate bar, his expression blank. "The woman’s primary objective is to train us. Her secondary objective is to gather supplies from the residential buildings."
"Saving people is just incidental. Get the situation straight."
Xie Ning remained silent, pulling up the light-colored hood of her sweatshirt and leaning against the car window.
Song Shijun and Song Kexin almost burst out laughing.
Yu Tianfeng nodded in strong agreement, clutching his backpack and sitting obediently in the second row. "Logically speaking, the people who have been trapped in residential buildings for a long time are generally the old, weak, sick, disabled, infants, and young children."
"It’s cruel to say, but in terms of survival ability, they lacked the strength and courage to escape the residential buildings even during the initial zombie outbreak. Now that the zombies are getting stronger and stronger, they are, in fact, not suited to survive in this new world."