Prison Base

Just as Xiao Fan launched the battle to retake Yanshan Town, far away to the north of Yan Yun City, over two hundred kilometers from here, at the Yanyun Prison, someone was discussing matters concerning him.

In the office on the third floor of the prison, Chen Fudong sat in a large executive chair, listening to his subordinate’s briefing about the information that had been gathered.

It was a dossier on Xiao Fan.

The prison was able to access personnel records for people in the city, including Xiao Fan. This was the police’s authority.

“Xiao Fan, male, 24 years old, native of Yanshan Town, Chishui County, Yan Yun City. At 18 he was admitted to Shenhai University, then studied away from home. At 22 he graduated university and had since been working in Shenhai City.”

“Yesterday afternoon, Xiao Fan led around a dozen people back to Yanshan Town. According to Feng Zhenxiang’s account of the situation at the time, those people were soldiers, and Xiao Fan was their leader.”

“Initial assessment is that they have some vehicles and some military firearms, so their combat effectiveness should be decent. Feng Zhenxiang probably escaped at the time, but has not contacted us since.”

“If there is still no news from Feng Zhenxiang after three days, we can make a preliminary judgement that he has been killed.”

“Boss Chen, this is all the information we’ve gathered from the radio broadcasts.”

Chen Fudong leaned back in his executive chair with his eyes closed, digesting this, before replying flatly: “That’s it?”

“Yes boss, because we’re so far from Yanshan, it’s not easy for us to get there right now, so we don’t have much more information yet.”

“Humph! Bunch of useless fools!”

Chen Fudong snorted in dissatisfaction: “You people lack even basic judgment. What army? He’s just a little whelp, how can he qualify as an officer? I guess he’s gathered up some retired soldiers or reservists at most, just some ignorant commoners.”

“That’s possible, but we don’t have a way to know for sure yet.”

Chen Fudong was even more displeased: “Don’t you guys even know how to use your brains? We’re far from Yanshan? Does everyone have to be far from it? Isn’t the Yanyun Wholesale Market on the western outskirts, less than thirty kilometers from Chishui and less than seventy from Yanshan? Can’t he send someone to go check out Yanshan?”

His subordinate was taken aback for a moment: “I was dull, but Lu Wang has the nickname Lu The Skinner, he won’t make a move without an incentive.”

“Then give him incentives if he wants them! Our prison base is strong now, with ample supplies. Whether he wants food, fuel, women, or even bullets, we can promise him. I only have this one younger cousin, I can’t let him die for nothing.”

“Boss, we haven’t confirmed yet whether Feng Zhenxiang is dead or alive. And Lu Wang will certainly not make simple demands - he’s been preparing to host a trading conference for the Mid-Autumn Festival, so he must have big plans.”

“Heh heh! It’s good that he has plans - we have plans too. Don’t think I don’t know what he’s scheming. He just wants to take advantage of his home turf to rake in a huge profit during this event. But right now each major power in Yan Yun City has considerable strength - he probably can’t accomplish much on his own. Alright, do this - if there’s no word from Feng Zhenxiang in three days, contact Lu Wang and tell him I’m willing to cooperate with him at the Mid-Autumn trading conference. He won’t refuse.”

Chen Fudong's subordinate immediately gave a thumbs up: “Brilliant thinking, boss! So in three days, if there’s no news from Feng Zhenxiang, I’ll have Lu Wang send people to Yanshan Town to gather information.

“Mm. If my cousin really did die at Xiao Fan's hands, then his people shouldn’t hold back when they go. If they can take out Xiao Fan, profits from the Mid-Autumn conference will be split seventy-thirty, him taking the larger portion.”

“Understood!”

The subordinate left. Chen Fudong stood at the window of his office, surveying his huge prison base, feeling a sense of having everything under his control.

This was a world that drove people to despair, but also a world that gave endless hope.

As long as he seized opportunities smoothly, he had a chance to reach the pinnacle of life. He hoped to have someone to share the journey with.

Feng Zhenxiang was his cousin, his only surviving relative in this apocalyptic world. If Xiao Fan really killed him, Chen Fudong would absolutely not let him get away with it.

Whether he was a real soldier or a fake one, he was just a dozen or so people. In this world, the one with the bigger fist had the say. No matter who provoked him, they would disappear!

********

The defensive battle at Yanshan Town lasted from afternoon into the late night.

The two military dogs endlessly attracted zombies, drawing no more than five hundred at a time for the warriors to kill manageably.

When one finished attracting, it would run off while the other went to pull another wave over, keeping the warriors constantly engaged with zombies to kill.

The sniper focused on picking off mutated zombies - as long as the mutations were taken out, the regular zombies posed little threat.

All of Xiao Fan’s warriors had used up most of their ammo over the many hours, and it was already 10pm.

“Xu Qiang, what’s it looking like on your end?”

“Collection complete, I’m at the side flank of the zombie horde right now.”

“Good, execute the plan!”

After a while, a grenade exploded to the northeast of Yanshan Town.

The late night grenade blast emitted a tremendous roar, drawing most of the zombies’ attention that way.

With the dogs also ceasing to pull zombies back, the intersection finally quieted down.

“Everyone move in to search for valuables - don’t overlook a single piece of jewelry!”

Xiao Fan waved the pistol with its sole remaining bullet, shouting loudly. After half a day of battle, he had participated directly too, expending eight rounds to kill four zombies, averaging two shots per kill - a decent hit rate.

The Red Guard soldiers left the buildings and started gathering jewelry from the zombie horde corpses.

They had accumulated over three thousand zombie bodies at the intersection after half a day - quite a remarkable battle record.

At this pace, it would probably take about ten days to clear all of Yanshan Town. But Xiao Fan couldn’t wait that long - they had to take what they could get.

Time was tight for the looting too - although Xu Qiang had drawn off a large portion of the horde with two grenades, some scattered zombies were still attracted by the blood and stumbling this way.

These zombies were indiscriminate - after a few days of observation, Xiao Fan noticed they did not attack each other, but would immediately devour their own kind whole if one died.

He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but it seemed like the zombies gained a slight boost in strength and speed after consuming their own. Xiao Fan guessed this could be part of the zombies' evolution process.

Previously when he’d seen the meteorite crater, he assumed the zombies evolved through those. Now this new observation left him puzzled again - he’d have to keep watching to understand.

The dogs kept killing off the stray zombies, while the warriors occasionally had to step in with bayonets too.

Survivors were collecting general supplies, but for the gold and silver, Xiao Fan only trusted his own men, since their small numbers slowed the collection.

After about half an hour, the horde had started shuffling this way, and Xiao Fan urgently wrapped up the looting, having recovered a good portion of valuables.

There was no end to the amount they could scavenge, and ammo was low, so they couldn’t take risks.

All the warriors regrouped and returned to the restaurant, where the Lin sisters had prepared dinner.

While eating, Xiao Fan took stock of the day’s gains, and was stunned by the results!