Song Tielin stared at Yang Bin and his team, eyes wide, a storm raging inside his chest.
Even the official forces only had a handful of Tier-4 individuals. Yet this squad of six were all Tier-4. It was almost impossible to accept.
At the same time, Song Tielin felt profoundly grateful. Thank god he hadn't gone along with that woman's insanity-otherwise the consequences would have been unthinkable.
They had guns, sure. But only he knew the truth: they'd burned through nearly all their ammunition on the way here.
This wasn't open ground. The other side wouldn't stand there like idiots waiting to be shot. The moment they ran dry, everyone in his group was as good as dead.
"How'd you manage to pull that many zombies? With your brain, that shouldn't have happened. Don't tell me it was that woman again." Yang Bin said abruptly.
"Not entirely. I made mistakes too." Song Tielin smiled bitterly.
"Shit, so it really was her."
"Old Song, I think you should just toss that woman off the building and let the zombies have her. Otherwise, once you get back, she's absolutely going to make your life hell." Yang Bin clapped Song Tielin on the shoulder.
"......"
"Don't bring this up again. Soldiers have their own principles and bottom lines!"
"Hah." Yang Bin sighed.
He respected a soldier's principles. But he knew perfectly well that in the apocalypse, those principles were dangerously stupid.
Shaking his head, Yang Bin turned to Song Tielin. "Let's talk about how to get out of here."
"You have a plan?" Song Tielin asked, a spark of hope in his voice.
"No. If I did, I wouldn't need to discuss it with you."
"......"
"You're all Tier-4 Evolvers. You really have nothing?"
"We're humans, not gods. Ten thousand zombies out there-unless we can fly, going down is suicide."
"Great. So you're useless too."
"......"
"Doesn't the military have those high-yield grenades? Lob a few dozen down there and problem solved."
"If we had those, you think we'd be hiding up here?" Song Tielin rolled his eyes.
"Then... rocket launchers? Heavy artillery? Anything?"
"No!" Song Tielin's face went dark. Those weapons sat in the arsenal. Who the hell carried them around?
"So you really are useless." Yang Bin shook his head.
"......"
"Can you at least call for backup?" Yang Bin pressed, still unwilling to give up.
"We can, but the comms equipment is in the vehicle. We didn't bring it up." Song Tielin said, visibly embarrassed.
"......"
"Then when command sees you haven't come back, they'll send a rescue team, right?"
"Definitely. This supply shipment is critical to the base."
"How long?"
"Tomorrow at the latest."
"Tomorrow?"
Yang Bin frowned. He had no intention of spending the night here.
He wanted to get back and collect crystals tonight. If his guess was right, at least one or two Tier-4 Zombies would spawn there before dawn. No way he was letting the people in that villa scoop them up.
He glanced around at the crowd, then spoke up. "How about I lead everyone in a breakout?"
"A breakout? Through ten thousand zombies? You'd be leading us straight to hell." Song Tielin wasn't stupid.
"I'll take my chances waiting for rescue."
"Waiting won't work either. At minimum, someone needs to get back and brief command on the situation here. They don't know about this many zombies. If the rescue force comes undersized, they're just delivering themselves on a platter."
"That..." Song Tielin frowned. He clearly feared the same thing.
"I have a safer method."
"Let's hear it."
"Right now we've got over four hundred people here. About a hundred soldiers and three hundred-plus deadweights."
"Who are you calling deadweights?" A chorus of indignant voices rose from the crowd.
"Fine. Since you're not deadweights, come downstairs with us and kill some zombies."
"......"
One sentence. Dead silence.
Yang Bin didn't spare them another glance. He turned back to Song Tielin. "The deadweights don't need to fight. They'd only slow us down anyway.
Send them to the roof to throw things down. Twenty-plus floors-drop a desk and it'll flatten a few zombies easy. More importantly, it'll draw most of the horde's attention. While they're distracted, we break out from the opposite side with the soldiers."
Song Tielin's eyes lit up. He was clearly tempted. But after a moment's thought, his brow furrowed again. "If we break through, what happens to these people left behind?"
"Are you dense? Once you break through, you go back and rally reinforcements. You'll know the exact situation here, so you'll know exactly how many people to bring. Then you come back and extract them."
"True. The method's feasible. But the risk is high. If we can't punch through fast enough and the zombies catch on, we'll get surrounded. Total wipeout."
"With six Tier-4 Evolvers on point, what the hell are you scared of?"
"......"
"Alright. Let's do it!"
Song Tielin wasn't the type to dither. After a brief moment of consideration, he made the call.
He turned to the crowd. "You all heard the plan. Nobody's asking you to fight zombies. You can manage high-altitude throwing, right?"
"Yes, yes, of course! But Battalion Commander Song-you won't just leave us here and disappear, will you?"
"I'm not that kind of man. Now move it-get upstairs. Remember: throw in one direction. Don't fucking scatter it everywhere."
"Got it, got it."
The crowd scrambled toward the upper floors.
Song Tielin turned back to Yang Bin. "How do we get down? The stairwell's packed with zombies-probably completely jammed by now."
"What floor are they holding them at?"
"Third."
"Then we jump from the third floor."
"......"
"This building has high ceilings on the ground floor-nearly five meters for the first story alone. Third floor to ground level is over ten meters. That's not a small drop."
"Tough or not, there's no alternative. If you'd blocked the stairwell the moment you went up instead of climbing higher, we wouldn't have this problem."
Song Tielin kept his head down, saying nothing. He hadn't thought of that at the time.
"Your soldiers train regularly, and they're all Tier 2 or above. It'll be rough, but they can handle it."
"They can." Song Tielin's voice was firm.
"Good. Let's move down. My people take point. You stay tight behind us."
"Understood."
They descended to the third floor. Four or five soldiers still held the stairwell entrance, keeping the zombies from pushing through.
It was barely necessary now-zombie corpses were piled so thick in the stairwell that nothing could easily climb over them.
The group moved through the third floor and reached a window in one of the office suites.
A thunderous crash erupted from below. The zombies on the ground floor instantly dissolved into chaos.
The rooftop team had started.
Yang Bin peered down. An office desk had hit the pavement-the zombies beneath it were nothing but pulp.
Then came another. And another. A barrage of impacts, one after the next, as furniture and debris rained from above.
Anything caught underneath was flattened into paste. From twenty-plus stories, even a Tier-3 Zombie couldn't survive the impact.
The horde below erupted in frenzy, roaring upward at the source.
Zombies from the far side of the building heard the commotion and came flooding toward the noise.
Yang Bin's eyes gleamed. The effect was even better than he'd expected.
But then he paused. The ones running toward the noise were all low-tier. The Tier-3 and above zombies hadn't moved.
"Figures. Tier-3 and up aren't that stupid. Looks like a hard fight's unavoidable."