In the dark of night, this group of zombies surrounded Lu Wang, but did not pounce to eat.
The one-armed zombie leader squatted down and looked at Lu Wang's face.
"Chief Lu!"
The voice was hoarse and unpleasant. The zombie spoke.
"It's really unexpected. Back then, you and I were running rampant in the wholesale market. But today, we have both fallen to this state."
"I have become a zombie, neither human nor ghost. But you died and your corpse was left to rot in the wilderness, without even someone to collect your remains."
"All this is thanks to Xiao Fan!"
The zombie's face twisted, looking extremely angry.
This zombie was Li Nanfeng, who had mutated in Yanshan Town.
At this moment, he had about a thousand zombies behind him, all his men under his control.
He had come to the farm supply market, but did not dare approach here during the day. Although he had over a thousand zombies under him, if he faced Xiao Fan's troops, he would be wiped out in minutes.
So he only dared to appear when it was deep in the night and no one else was around. He came to Lu Wang's corpse.
"For the little friendship we once had, I'll give you new life. Although your new life will have no human consciousness, at least your body will be alive again."
"Also, your body has already gone through one mutation. After I give you new life, I will focus on cultivating you, to see how far you can grow."
"If you do well, perhaps one day, we'll have a chance to take revenge on Xiao Fan!"
After saying this, Li Nanfeng lowered his head and bit Lu Wang's throat.
The zombie virus entered Lu Wang's body. This person who was already dead gradually showed signs of life.
After about twenty minutes, Lu Wang stood up again.
But the Lu Wang now was no longer the previous Lu Wang.
His height had shockingly grown to over two meters and three centimeters. His whole body was covered with thick bio-armor. His eyes flashed with red light, like a fierce beast let out of its cage.
He had mutated again, becoming an iron-armored zombie even stronger than ordinary ones!
Seeing Lu Wang complete his mutation, Li Nanfeng laughed gleefully.
"Very good, now come with me. We will build our great army!"
The group of zombies followed Li Nanfeng away, disappearing into the night.
********
When Xiao Fan's convoy returned to Yanshan Town after two days, they were greeted with cheers.
The people didn't know what had happened during Xiao Fan's trip, but they could see his troops had grown even stronger.
On the way back, Xiao Fan carefully reviewed the changes after reaching the rank of Commander.
In his soldier list, there were still the Engineer and Spy units.
Xiao Fan remembered that constructing the Base Vehicle required assistance from 30 Engineers.
So on the way back, he directly produced 30 Engineers.
These 30 Engineers together with the 10 Engineers from before would form an Engineer platoon, specialized in constructing the Base Vehicle.
Therefore, when he returned to Yanshan Town, the people he brought back exceeded eighty. Adding the two platoons from before and the Engineers, his total troop number had surpassed one hundred and seven.
Xiao Fan returned to the police station, first meeting with his father and sister, and giving them some supplies.
His father needed some relatives to care for him, and his sister had some good classmates to look after her. At times like these, care was not as practical as giving them a few eggs and a bowl of rice.
Xiao Fan was not stingy at all with his loved ones.
But now there were also many problems. The police station could no longer accommodate so many people.
Luckily these past two days the Red Alert troops had not been idle. Not only had they eliminated most of the zombies in Yanshan Town, they had also recovered many places.
The town's elementary school was temporarily requisitioned by Xiao Fan. He arranged all the students like Xiao Tian to go there, and stationed three platoons there.
The town's middle school was also requisitioned by Xiao Fan. He gathered a large amount of tools, equipment, etc. there and used it as the construction site for the Base Vehicle.
When all the Engineers were in place, Xiao Fan's chief engineer Ai Yin reported to him.
"Commander, we still lack a lot of steel. As long as we have steel, we can officially start constructing the Base Vehicle. I guarantee completion within one month."
Xiao Fan nodded. "Are there any nearby places with a lot of steel?"
A platoon leader Xu Qiang said, "Commander, we discovered a steel factory at the other end of Chishui County. But the roads there are impassable. Too many zombies in the city districts along the way."
Xiao Fan took out a map to look at the location of the steel factory.
Indeed, as Xu Qiang said, the steel factory was not far, less than 300 km away.
But taking the highways would have to pass through the main city districts.
Chishui County was not a big county, but still had around 4-5 million zombies.
Xiao Fan's current strength had improved a lot, but trying to directly break through the zombie hordes in Chishui County was wishful thinking.
"How can we get to the steel factory without alerting the zombies?"
Xiao Fan was very troubled. He let everyone leave his room and pondered alone.
Transportation had always been a big problem plaguing him.
Not just steel, but also when he wanted to leave Chishui County and expand elsewhere there were issues.
For example, he had his eye on one location, but was hindered from reaching it.
Unfolding the map, he searched it inch by inch.
"Kaoshan Farm, with mountains and water, easy to defend, not too far from the city districts, and has water sources."
He picked up a pen and circled a place called Kaoshan Farm in another city in red.
"The steel factory is 300 km away from here, but hard to reach. Previously we could take the train there, but the trains stopped running long ago..."
"Wait!"
Xiao Fan had a flash of inspiration and suddenly realized a key point.
Train!
If the highways were difficult, he could take the railways!
The areas around the rails were fenced off to keep zombies out. Naturally he could reach his destination unhindered.
As long as he got a train, he could go straight to Chishui County Train Station.
And the steel factory was near the train station!
Xiao Fan immediately realized he had discovered an opportunity!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
