Shanrao County is a county town located about four hundred kilometers from Dawn City.

About fifty kilometers from the county town, there is a large grain purchasing station.

Because it's far from the urban area and is surrounded by a wall, it became a survivor base after the apocalypse.

The leader of the base, Xu Haichuan, is a strength-type mutant, with more than a thousand survivors under his command.

Besides him, there are no other mutants within the base.

There are over four hundred young and strong males in the base, the rest are women, the elderly, and children.

The base has more than thirty guns, some of which are simple weapons like hunting rifles.

Most people still use cold weapons, such as fire axes, machetes, and red-tassel spears.

The base has a radio station, a treasure of the entire base and the only means of communicating with the outside world.

They can't receive provincial TV programs, but they can listen to the radio and speak with the outside world.

However, they haven't had this radio for long and know little about the outside world.

Recently, not many people speak on the radio, and if they do, it's usually small survivor groups around Lin City, exchanging information and comforting each other.

Until a few days ago, when a survivor team claiming to be Dawn Army said on the radio that they had weapons, crystal cores, and mutant beast meat for sale, they were overjoyed and felt they had to go to the so-called Dawn City, no matter what.

Xu Haichuan himself was an armored car driver. During a transport mission, he was responsible for delivering a large batch of New Year gold bars to a bank in Lin City when the apocalypse arrived.

His companions all died, but he survived, took away two escort guns and a truckload of New Year gold bars, rushed out of the city, and settled here.

So here he didn't have much of anything else, but had over a thousand kilograms of gold bars, which he originally thought would be mere decorations in the future, but unexpectedly came in handy.

Unfortunately, this heavy snow completely isolated them.

They initially thought they wouldn't get the urgently needed supplies in a short time, but unexpectedly, the Dawn Army actively contacted them, asked for their location, confirmed they still needed supplies, and said they might deliver them to the door, then lost contact.

Xu Haichuan sat in the room, constantly exhaling white breath while breathing.

"Brother Chuan, this weather is so cold; my hands don't obey me. Can we let the boiler room burn a little more?"

His woman rubbed her hands coquettishly, unable to bear the cold.

Xu Haichuan looked at the twenty-something beauty, feeling a little distressed, but he didn't dare agree.

"Jiaojiao, hold on a little longer, the coal in our base is almost consumed. At most, it can last ten days. I've already instructed to burn the boiler for only two hours at night; bear with it during the day."

The girl named Jiaojiao complained, "How can we bear it? It's minus thirty-something degrees and could freeze us to death. There's ice indoors; can't we go out and collect some coal?"

Xu Haichuan shook his head decisively, "No way. Last time, we went out to collect supplies and were chased back to the door by a group of zombies. That group of zombies is still outside the compound, including a big zombie we can't handle. Dozens of brothers have died; we can't take risks anymore."

Jiaojiao pursed her lips slightly, looking very dissatisfied.

Next to them, a man who looked like a think tank proactively spoke to Xu Haichuan, "Boss, the radio we heard a few days ago mentioned a Dawn Army selling equipment. Should we buy it?"

Xu Haichuan thought for a moment, "Let's wait and see. Most of the radio boasts are likely exaggerated. In the apocalypse, people are unpredictable; we must be cautious. Besides, we can't go out in this weather."

The advisor nodded, "The boss is right. We must not only guard against zombies but also against survivors exploiting others."

Xu Haichuan sneered, "If they want to play dirty with me, they better grow two more heads, or they won't have enough for me to chop off."

The subordinates and Jiaojiao showed admiration; their boss was indeed formidable, having once killed more than twenty zombies alone with cold weapons. In their eyes, their boss was invincible.

As for the so-called Dawn Army, they hadn't heard of them on the radio before, so any weaponry and personal combat power could not compare to their boss.

While they were speaking, suddenly there was a commotion outside, followed by zombie roars.

Xu Haichuan's face turned pale, and he stood up abruptly.

"What happened? Wasn't it told not to make a big commotion in the yard attracting zombie attention!"

Soon, someone rushed in, running so urgently that one shoe fell off.

"Leader! Bad news! Yang the Third and a few others secretly started a fire in the warehouse to roast potatoes. They set the warehouse on fire, and in the chaos, alerted the corpse group outside. Now that big zombie is leading an attack on the iron gate. Please, leader, think of a way!"

Xu Haichuan kicked the person hard, sending him flying, then grabbed his automatic rifle and walked out quickly.

Many people outside were also heading to the gate, and some were already climbing ladders to the top of the wall.

The wall here is three meters high and cannot support people walking on it, making defense very difficult.

Outside the gate, over a thousand zombies were surrounding it, including one giant zombie over two meters tall, fiercely pounding the gate.

This zombie hadn't reached King Kong's status but could be considered an Iron Armor about to evolve into King Kong.

Even just one such zombie was completely impervious to knives and guns; they had no way to deal with it.

Xu Haichuan rushed to the wall himself and raised his rifle, firing several shots.

He killed two regular zombies, but the two shots at the Iron Armor had no effect.

Other survivors around were also sporadically firing, but the gunfire was sparse and the damage minimal.

Unfortunately, they lacked bullets. At least half of these thirty-plus guns were broken, and only a few could be fired.

Soon, they ran out of ammunition. Not only did they fail to eliminate many zombies, but they also attracted surrounding zombies, placing especially heavy pressure on the gate, which was now teetering on the brink of collapse.

"Hurry, hurry! Notify everyone to go into the basement to hide. We can't hold on here."

Xu Haichuan, furious, dragged over the survivors who had lit the fire without permission and directly killed them with a knife.

But it was already too late. Once the gate was breached, over a thousand people inside the compound might not even know how many could survive.

A few chaotic minutes later, the gate finally gave way under the relentless assault of the Armored Zombie.

Fortunately, Xu Haichuan personally drove a large truck to block the gate, which might hold for a while longer.

"Quick, quick, quick! Everyone hide, don't worry about anything else!"

Xu Haichuan had lost his courage to fight as well, leading the remaining people in a frantic rush towards the basement.

Luckily, to prevent zombie attacks back then, they had dug a large basement in the yard, hoping not to be discovered by zombies.

A swarm of people flooded into the basement, and the air inside suddenly became thick.

They could even hear the zombies' growls outside, and everyone inside dared not catch their breath.

Xu Haichuan felt completely desperate; if the zombies couldn't find people, they probably wouldn't leave and would just wander around the yard. Although the basement had some provisions and water stored, with over a thousand people consuming them, they wouldn't last long.

In the end, they'd either be eaten by zombies outside or suffer the fate of being eaten by their own people.

Everyone hung their heads, and some even started to cry, holding their mouths.

This world, there's no hope.

BANG~~~!

A crisp gunshot suddenly shattered the extremely oppressive atmosphere in the basement.

Xu Haichuan froze for a moment: "Who? Who fired? Do we still have people outside?"

"I don't know, everyone should be inside by now, I was the last one in, no one's left outside."

"Then who's firing? In this icy snow, it wouldn't be possible for outsiders to come, right?"

BANG BANG BANG~~~!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT~~~~!

A series of gunshots echoed continuously outside, intermittently interrupted by the zombies' growls.

Xu Haichuan's eyes suddenly lit up; someone was there, someone was fighting the zombies!

Who could it be?

Could it be the official troops from the Empire?

Everyone harbored a silent hope, yet dared not hope too much.

Because the fierceness of the Armored Zombie, many had witnessed it.

About five minutes later, the gunfire outside stopped.

Xu Haichuan's heart sank instantly; it was over.

Surely the people who came were wiped out by zombies. Otherwise, it shouldn't have ended so quickly.

With over a thousand zombies, they had been fighting them for half the winter without finishing, and he thought no one could eliminate them completely in just five minutes.

While they were filled with anxiety, suddenly footsteps approached the basement door.

Not just one person, but a group.

The horde must have come over, Xu Haichuan felt sweat on his forehead, gripping the steel knife tightly in his hand, his fingers trembling uncontrollably.

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, I'll block the front. Zombies won't open the basement door. Even if zombies come in, I'll strike first. If I can't hold on, the people behind will take over."

No one spoke; even though he was so brave and noble at this moment, no one praised him because everyone was petrified by the fate of impending death.

Suddenly, the basement door was abruptly pulled open, and the lock didn't serve any interceptive purpose at all.

Light flooded in, and Xu Haichuan immediately lunged forward.

His gun was out of bullets, so he could only swing his knife.

Unexpectedly, on the opposite side wasn't a zombie, but humans.

Xu Haichuan's fierce charge had no effect; instead, a hand chop struck his neck, causing him to immediately go limp.

"So strong...!"

These were Xu Haichuan's thoughts as he fell, and then everything went black, and he fainted.

He didn't stay unconscious for long; the ice and cold wind opposite quickly woke him up.

When he came to, the scene before him completely stunned him.

Four gigantic helicopters were now landed in their yard.

The front and rear rotors were still slowly rotating, stirring up swirling snowflakes.

Standing around were fully armed, gun-wielding soldiers.

That gun was an assault rifle, right? The grenades hanging on their waist, right!

The helmets on their heads were well-designed, and those goggles seemed to be infrared, right.

Each soldier was superbly equipped and extremely fierce. Even as a Mutant himself, Xu Haichuan felt that he couldn't defeat any of them.

He himself was a Mutant, and this should be impossible, but that's exactly how he felt.

Those zombies, which had left them completely helpless, were now lying strewn across the ground, all exterminated!

Xu Haichuan stared dully forwards, seeing among the soldiers a young man draped in a cloak with a cigarette clamped in his mouth.

This person wore impeccably crafted clothes, his gaze on Xu Haichuan was very sharp—a high-ranking military officer.

Since the apocalypse began, Xu Haichuan had always been strong, confident, indifferent to life and death. At this moment, his eyes were moist.

A high-ranking officer, since the apocalypse began, finally meeting such an officer.

There's hope!

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