Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

Both the crowds with their phone and the cameramen were constantly snapping pictures, their minds full of curiosity about who was descending.

All they could see was a black wingsuit with a helmet fully covering their face as they released their white parachute.

Meanwhile, the helicopter had flown away into the distance, with the police officer and soldier readying their rifle out of precaution.

"Whew, never doing that again..."

As the person in the black wingsuit made a touchdown, several of the police officers and the soldiers immediately made their first move.

However, both of their walkie-talkie suddenly received a message, telling them to stay back from the person who had landed.

They soon realized why when they saw the person take off their helmet.

"Good afternoon... Ahem, can you guys help me unzip this thing? I can’t reach the zipper."

"Yes sir!"

The crowds of people behind the officers were still confused until they finally saw Xiaoyun in his usual dress suit walking up to the podium.

"Hello? Is this working?"

As Xiaoyun tapped the microphone, the speaker instantly amplified his voice as Yuqi facepalmed herself in disbelief.

"Ahem. Good afternoon, everyone."

The crowd of people instantly fell silent. Neither the journalists nor the news reporters spoke up.

Everyone was waiting for him to continue.

"I’m here today to make a very important announcement. It is about the direction of our cities and the future of our civilization as a whole.

This decision will be a defining moment that will go down in the history books. A decision that requires me to leave the city."

Within seconds, he could see the faces change. Both the crowds in the distance and the soldiers nearby were in shock.

The only ones who didn’t change were the journalists and the news reporter, as if they had gotten some advance memo or their professionalism forbade it.

"Some of you might have heard how I was missing for the past few days. I’m here to tell you, I’m not dead."

Xiaoyun waited for a second, then continued.

"I had been planning a trip. Although I didn’t want to go initially, the decision had been made by the higher-ups for me to go."

The answer instantly confused both the crowd and several of the high-ranking army officers behind Xiaoyun.

"You might be wondering, who can be higher-up than the Temporary Governor? Who can be higher than the man who’s at the top?"

Everyone could hear the extra emphasis Xiaoyun put on the word temporary as he cleared his throat.

"At the end of this month, I’ll be going on a trip to Beijing."

The sentence instantly caused the crowd to talk among themselves again. Even some of the news reporters and the police officers flinched a little.

"I’ll be meeting with the remnant of the northern command, and hopefully I’ll be able to come back alive with a piece of paper that says peace.

You all can have my word. I’ll try my damn best to bring an enduring peace and form a united front against the zombies for the good of all humanity."

Several of the people in the crowd started clapping, leading to the entire crowd clapping and cheering for Xiaoyun.

After waiting for it a bit, he continued with his speech.

"While I’m gone, the deputy governor will be taking over my position. She’ll be in charge of both the civilian and the military."

Within seconds, all of the heads of the departments were in shock, as well as the high-ranking military officers standing behind Yezi.

The only people who didn’t look shocked were Yuqi and Yiming, who were expecting him to announce publicly.

"Secretary Yiming, as the head of the Department of Defense, please help guide the deputy governor to victory."

As Xiaoyun turned around from the podium, Yiming instantly saluted him before the cameras, and Xiaoyun saluted back.

"Yes, sir!"

"Thank you... Now, General Yezi, General Han Bang, General Lingang, and General Wuli, can you all swear an oath to your new Commander?"

All of them immediately stepped up before Yuqi on the side, despite a hint of hesitation on several of their faces.

"We swore to serve you, Commander!"

"I swore to serve the people," Yuqi swore next as she quickly put her three fingers up in front of the cameras.

"Great."

With all of them saying it out loud before the cameras, Xiaoyun let out a small sigh of relief as the part he worried about the most was out of the way.

"Now for the 2nd part of the announcement... Starting tomorrow, there will be a new offensive in Zhuhai’s direction.

The main objective is to capture and eliminate the zombies that had been cornered, to secure our southern flanks permanently."

Not a single person was surprised, almost as if this announcement was what most of them had expected from the beginning.

"The operation will last beyond my stay in Guangdong. But I fully trust my Generals and my deputy governor to handle this affair after I’m gone.

Outside of that, I don’t really have much to say... Now I’ll be taking questions. Please wait for Jianlin to pass the mic to you."

As Xiaoyun ended the speech much faster than anyone had expected, all of the journalists were busy raising their hands to be the first one.

"Luoping Daily here. Will your trip to Beijing be safe, Governor?" The first journalist asked out loud through the handheld mic.

"I do not know. Hopefully it’s safe, but seeing how dangerous it is to travel in the wasteland, it’s certainly a dangerous journey.

Still, I need to go to represent us in the meeting... I should add that the invite specifically stated the intention as an invitation for the head of settlement."

Just as Jianlin was about to move the mic to the next person, the journalist spoke up again with another question.

"Governor, why not just reject the offer?"

"Because it’s mandatory... Maybe I won’t go if someone here can be certain enough to tell me they don’t have nukes?"

The journalist fell into silence as the memory of nuclear fallout in the Middle East still lingered in everyone’s minds.

"Next."

"Guangzhou Weekly here. Mr.Governor, how long will this trip be?"

"Ideally, I’ll be able to come back before the year’s end. If I don’t come back by April, you all can just assume I have died out there."

Hearing Xiaoyun say it out loud so casually, both the crowds and the journalists were taken aback and surprised at the same time.

"I respect you, sir." The 2nd journalist murmured.

"Thank you... Next."

"Revolutionary post here. Can I ask how you will travel this far up north? And how will the meeting work?"

"The first part is classified. For the 2nd part, the meeting will be talks with other settlement leaders. I’m not the only one who’s invited."

"Thank you."

"Next."

---

As journalists and news reporters began walking off with their notebooks and cameras, their faces were all holding up big smiles.

Meanwhile, Xiaoyun’s face looked extremely annoyed. He didn’t bother hiding it at all as he walked off the podium.

Why does he look so annoyed?

It was thanks to one section of journalists near the end. More specifically, a whole group of tabloid news media outlets.

Each of the journalists was showing him secret pictures of him traveling in and out of places that he doesn’t want the public to know.

From holding hands with Lily to the love hotel to entering Houqin’s apartment that the police and secret service had temporarily blocked off.

It was questions that no leader would ever want to answer in front of the press. Yet, Xiaoyun still answered them out loud.

The persona he had set up at the beginning had dug itself into a hole. Avoiding answering was only going to ruin his reputation for being blunt and open.

Of course, the answer itself can’t be fact-checked, leaving the tabloid with only questions that couldn’t be asked out loud.

"I had never seen someone shut them up like this. How did your brain even come up with that clever comeback?"

Yuqi questioned as she followed Xiaoyun into the office building, with all the other high-ranking military officers and department heads right behind them.

"The only way to deal with tabloids is to be even more shameless than them... They can’t ask if I really had sex with them in front of the crowd, can they?"

"Yeah, but... Didn’t they get what they wanted when you said they’re your girlfriend?"

"Better say it than have them endlessly speculate."

Despite saying it calmly, Yuqi could still see his face looking annoyed as they walked past the front desk.

"Why are you so mad then?"

"Because... Yuqi, who allowed those tabloid news outlets into the press meeting?"

As Xiaoyun turned around and looked her straight into the eyes, she immediately pointed her finger over to her assistant.

"Jianlin was the one who arranged the news team beforehand. I only confirmed the date and sent out the arrangement schedule."

"Sorry, Governor! I fucked up."

Seeing Jianlin taking the fall without hesitation for her boss, Xiaoyun could only let out a sigh before turning back around.

"Don’t make the same mistake again."