"The Car Zone got wiped out?"
"Damn!"
"How could this happen?"
Zhang Su, Liu Yao, and Yang Xinqi spoke in unison, looking at each other in disbelief.
"No way!" Yang Xinqi took a quick step forward to Ma Xiyu, urgently saying, "Tell us in detail, what exactly is going on?"
"Quick, tell us the important parts!"
Zhang Su urged as well. Yang Xinqi was anxious, but he was even more so. If those Absolute Justice guys started killing spree, and they killed more than twenty-six members of the Apocalypse Corps, his challenge mission would be ruined!
Ma Xiyu was sweating nervously and said, "Old Cao contacted me in code, but before he could say much, someone unfamiliar took the walkie-talkie. He said..."
"In the end, Absolute Justice wants us to bring supplies to the Development Zone to ransom people. Let me think... one hundred bullets, three pistols, I think, and three hundred pounds, no, three hundred liters of pure water, and a hundred pounds of food!"
"I’ll give them three hundred pounds of crap! Absolute Justice is crazy!"
Liu Yao jumped on the spot, cursing southwestward, "A bunch of bastards, dare to mess with my brothers, damn it..."
Halfway through cursing, he suddenly remembered he was no longer in charge. His voice stopped abruptly as he turned to look at Zhang Su, who had a frown on his face, "Brother Su, what do you think?"
"Brother Su... I beg you, save my poor brothers!"
Yang Xinqi pleaded with a face full of sorrow.
Zhang Su, feeling frustrated, looked at Zheng Xinyu, realizing he had made a mistake.
On the way here, he once asked Zheng Xinyu whether they should tackle the difficult tasks first or start with the easier ones. Zheng Xinyu’s answer was to solve the difficult ones first. At the time, he thought recruiting the Survivor Alliance was the hardest, so he went to Lego Mall without hesitation, but now...
Looking back, if the first stop was the Car Zone, Absolute Justice would never have succeeded.
It seemed that next time, he needed to be more specific when asking questions and not be too subjective, Zhang Su thought, just then he caught a glimpse of someone in the distance.
"There’s someone over there!"
Zhang Su pointed toward the community gate.
Everyone looked in the direction Zhang Su pointed, and saw a figure sneaking around the guard post.
"Old Cao!"
Liu Yao recognized him immediately and shouted, "Old Cao, come here, quick, quick!"
Just shouting wasn’t enough; he pushed through the crowd and ran toward the guard post.
Inside the guard post, Cao Duoliang was sweating profusely, his lungs cold with each breath. Even with the help of a scooter, the nearly four-kilometer dash nearly drained him. After all, he was sixty years old, no amount of exercise could turn back the clock.
When he first arrived at Xinglong Hua Mansion, Cao Duoliang was shocked by the scene inside. If he hadn’t been dealing with the apocalypse for over four months, he might have thought someone was getting married, with a convoy of cars for the wedding...
He sneaked into the guard post but was discovered before he could investigate further!
Cao Duoliang, startled, was relieved to see Liu Yao running towards him, half of the weight on his heart lifted. His legs trembling, he walked out of the guard post and accidentally tripped over the scooter. However, he didn’t lose his temper; instead, he righted the scooter that had helped him greatly.
"Director Liu..."
"Old Cao, what happened to you?"
Liu Yao ran up to Cao Duoliang and saw him covered in dirt, hair disheveled, not even wearing a coat in the minus twenty-degree weather, just a sweater, with snot frozen on his philtrum—he looked awful!
The funniest part was, he was pushing a scooter, that anyone would think a crazy old man had arrived.
"Let’s go, hurry, let’s get back to the kindergarten to warm up!"
"Damn..."
Liu Yao was startled by the voice behind him. He didn’t even notice when Zhang Su had followed.
"Who are you?"
"Old Cao, this is..."
"No time for introductions; let’s go, now!"
Zhang Su saw Cao Duoliang’s dazed look and realized his condition wasn’t good. He quickly took off his down jacket and put it on him. At his age, getting hypothermia could cost a life.
"So Old Cao was undercover in the Apocalypse Corps. I thought he really betrayed us!"
"I thought so too, damn, we were naive."
"Quick, enough of that crap, move aside first."
When the members from the kindergarten branch saw Zhang Su and Liu Yao helping Cao Duoliang back, they quickly made way, and as they entered the kindergarten, the others followed, making Xinglong Kindergarten as bustling as it had ever been since the apocalypse.
The members of the Yama Corps couldn’t all join in the excitement; they had many tasks to handle, like guarding the fire-breathing zombie’s vehicle or keeping watch around the area—these matters must never be neglected!
"I was in the kitchen just tidying up pots and pans, about to start preparing lunch, when suddenly I heard a commotion outside. I took a look and, my god, over ten cars stormed into the camp like maniacs, then a group of bandits jumped out wielding weapons. Some had guns and started shooting anyone they saw, absolutely ruthless!"
Inside the middle-class classroom of the kindergarten, Cao Duoliang sat in front of the stove, holding a steaming enamel cup, with fear and lingering tension on his face as he recounted the thrilling encounter of the morning.
He felt that those people were even scarier than zombies; when zombies stormed the camp, he could still hide, but against humans, there was no place to hide!
"How are the brothers? How many died?"
Yang Xinqi was extremely anxious, shaking Cao Duoliang’s shoulders.
"Director Yang..." Cao Duoliang felt guilty seeing Yang Xinqi, "I owe you for recognizing my talents, honestly, I..."
"Stop rambling, I don’t have time to blame you, hurry up and answer my question!"
"I saw three dead, oh no, four. Those bastards killed Xiaokan, Big Nose, and Xiaohong when they broke into the car yard, and later Lao Zhuo died protecting Jiajia... Alas."
Cao Duoliang sighed deeply as he finished speaking.
"Ah!!!"
Yang Xinqi exploded with rage, shouting, "Why, why so coincidentally, when I left the car yard with the team, Absolute Justice broke in, why?"
"Because there’s an Absolute Justice mole, a mole..."
Cao Duoliang answered weakly, lacking confidence because he was also a mole.
Yang Xinqi almost spat out blood, thinking it was related to Survivor Alliance’s Liao Youzhi, only to find out his own group was infiltrated; it was distressing, but he couldn’t blame others as it was due to his careless recruitment of survivors.
"Who, exactly who is Absolute Justice’s mole?" Yang Xinqi asked angrily.
Cao Duoliang shook his head cluelessly: "They didn’t specify; just knowing someone like that is hiding among us."
The mole’s identity wouldn’t be easily exposed unless the Apocalypse Corps was completely destroyed; otherwise, they might still prove useful.
"Bastard, utterly inhuman!"
Yang Xinqi clenched his fist and paced back and forth in frustration.
"Ma Xiyu said Absolute Justice won’t let you go; how did you come back?"
Zhang Su asked the crucial question.
"Yeah, Xiaoma said we need to go to the Development Zone to ransom you, what’s the deal?"
Liu Yao also caught on.
Cao Duoliang had just brought the enamel cup to his lips when he heard their questions, set the cup down, his flesh trembling as he frowned and said, "The one demanding ransom is an idiot named Leizi, seemed like he took some kind of stimulant, acting all crazy like a lunatic. He snatched the walkie-talkie from someone surnamed Huang and smashed it after speaking; the two almost quarreled...
Later, that Huang guy persuaded the lunatic, saying their boss didn’t want a direct confrontation with the Little Eagle Association, because if the Little Eagle Association was gone, they’d have to face the Survivor Alliance directly, that’s basically it. So they let me go..."
The speech was somewhat incoherent, but everyone present could grasp its meaning.
"Damn it, he sure thought it through comprehensively. Fine, now he doesn’t have to face the Survivor Alliance; something scarier is waiting for him. Damn!"
Liu Yao cursed angrily, sneaking a glance at Zhang Su, noticing his frown and a look of frustration like a gloomy water surface.
Zhang Su sensed Liu Yao’s gaze, took a deep breath to adjust his mindset.
He wasn’t just missing out on the joy of victory; he hadn’t even completed the challenge task and then Absolute Justice popped up causing trouble, really infuriating.
"I am Zhang Su from Celestial Horse Island; now there is neither Little Eagle Association nor Survivor Alliance. This is Celestial Horse Island Kindergarten Branch; strictly speaking, you’re also a part of Celestial Horse Island. We’ll talk later, Old Cao, when you left the car yard, what was the situation there?"
Zhang Su asked attentively.
"Huh?!" Cao Duoliang was stunned at first, as the news he heard was too shocking.
"Huh what, hurry and speak!" Liu Yao nudged Cao Duoliang’s shoulder.
"Oh oh... I overheard those guys talking, saying they plan to drag our brothers from the Apocalypse Corps to their camp to be laborers, and the women with good looks will... will..."
Cao Duoliang left his sentence unfinished, but everyone knew the fate of those women.