The crowd stopped their descent as they listened to Qin Chuan’s words.
A young man, who looked no older than twenty-two, stepped forward, cupped his hands around his mouth, and shouted down at Qin Chuan.
“Captain! Are you alright? Do you need us to come down and help?”
But the response from below was deathly silence. Since Qin Chuan had gone down, there had been no movement.
Xu An scanned the surroundings and noticed that Zhou Zhe, who was usually inseparable from Qin Chuan, was not present this time.
Hearing the prolonged silence from beneath the sky ladder, everyone grew anxious.
Qin Chuan had only left a message about a zombie horde and then gone silent. Those above didn’t know whether to go down or not, pacing back and forth in place.
The young man who had spoken earlier, seeing Qin Chuan’s lack of response, was about to go back to report to superiors when Zhou Qiang stopped him.
“If you go back to report now, they’ll just send people down to rescue him, or abandon your captain and choose another landing spot.”
Before Zhou Qiang could finish, the young man interrupted, his face stubborn, with a hint of ferocity, “You’re talking nonsense! They would never abandon our captain.”
Xu An hadn’t expected that Qin Chuan, despite his sour demeanor, was actually quite well-liked.
Zhou Qiang was inexplicably choked, his stomach churning with anger. His words were merely hypothetical.
“Shut up and let me finish!” Zhou Qiang’s face also turned cold, his gaze stern as he looked at the young man. “First of all, everything I said was just a hypothesis. What I mean is, if you go report now, it’ll be a waste of time. Why don’t a few of us go down first to see the situation, and a few people stay up top. If things turn bad, then you can report.”
The young man, named Liu Dong, lowered his head, realizing he had unjustly accused the other in his haste. But at this moment, his mind was consumed with his captain’s safety. After some thought, he nodded, agreeing to the plan.
Seeing Liu Dong concede, Zhou Qiang turned to the others. “Who will come down with me? Be warned, there’s danger below, possibly a gathering zombie horde. No one is forced.”
Liu Dong was the first to step forward. “I’ll go with you.”
After Liu Dong spoke, the soldiers rushed forward, surrounding Zhou Qiang, wanting to go along.
But with too many people, Zhou Qiang selected a few from within the crowd who appeared sharp and strong.
As they were preparing to descend the sky ladder, Zhou Qian also followed behind the group, intending to go down. Zhou Qiang yelled loudly, “Don’t mess around. Stay up here. Wait until I say it’s okay before you come down.”
Zhou Qian knew her brother was saying this deliberately to prevent her from getting hurt. However, Zhou Qian had proven her abilities to reach this point, and being spoken to like this by Zhou Qiang ignited her rebellious spirit.
Just as she was about to retort, Xu An stepped forward. “Then I’ll go down too. We girls are more agile, and if something happens, it’ll be easier to look out for each other.”
Zhou Qiang gave Xu An a deep look. Xu An nodded at him, then glanced at Zhou Qian.
Zhou Qiang and Xu An reached a silent understanding, an invisible connection forged between them.
Zhou Haimei was standing in place, awaiting the outcome. When she heard Xu An say she was going down, she immediately prepared to speak, “I…”
Before she could finish, Xu An interrupted her.
“Mei Jie, don’t worry, I can handle myself. You don’t need to come down. You stay up here and keep watch.”
Xu An’s gaze was unfathomable, but Zhou Haimei instantly understood the unspoken meaning in her eyes.
Xu An also feared that if something truly happened to them below, the people on the lighthouse would abandon her without hesitation. Therefore, one of them had to remain on the lighthouse as a contingency.
Zhou Haimei nodded solemnly, patting Xu An’s arm, signaling her to be at ease.
Xu An didn’t say anything further. Following behind Zhou Qian, she also began to climb down the sky ladder.
After all, their group did not possess Qin Chuan’s ability to slide down the ladder, so they could only climb down honestly.
Including Xu An and Zhou Qian, a total of ten people descended.
They discussed and divided themselves into five teams, with two people climbing down each sky ladder, allowing them to look out for each other.
Naturally, Xu An and Zhou Qian were assigned to the same sky ladder.
Zhou Qiang and Liu Dong were a team, and they intended to take the lead, so it wasn’t convenient to bring Zhou Qian with them.
For this reason, Zhou Qian pouted unhappily and reluctantly shared a sky ladder with Xu An.
Midway down, Zhou Qiang’s voice echoed from below.
“No zombies have been spotted below. It’s clear. Don’t rush down yet. Liu Dong and I will go down first to scout.”
Those still on the sky ladder enthusiastically echoed their agreement.
Even Zhou Qian obediently held onto the ladder, refraining from any rash movements.
This descent was different from the previous ones.
To get as close as possible to the South China Sea, allowing the vanguard to quickly locate the exact position of the mineral resources, the lighthouse had made the dangerous choice of descending into a ruined city.
This not only increased the risk of exposure but also, because of the dense human population in the city, the number of zombies there would undoubtedly be the highest.
As Zhou Qiang and Liu Dong landed, they immediately raised their weapons, held at their chests, and warily scanned their surroundings.
“Anything on your end?”
Zhou Qiang, holding his gun, formed a back-to-back position with Liu Dong, better guarding against any “people” who might attempt a surprise attack from behind.
Liu Dong was also alert. “No, but this area seems to have been cleared.”
Zhou Qiang, finding the absence of any zombies strange, had a sudden guess after hearing Liu Dong’s words.
“Could it be that Qin Chuan lured all the zombies in this area away?”
“But how could Captain lure away an entire small zombie horde?” Liu Dong grew increasingly alarmed as he spoke. “Then Captain must be in great danger! We need to rescue him quickly!”
As humans and zombies continued to engage in conflict, the lighthouse had developed a clear classification system for zombie hordes.
Small groups of zombies were classified as roving squads. Hordes exceeding 100 were collectively termed zombie hordes.
Specifically, 100-500 were called minor zombie hordes, 500-3000 were intermediate zombie hordes, and over 3000 were large zombie hordes. Hordes exceeding ten thousand were classified as formidable zombie hordes.
Qin Chuan had referred to it as a small zombie horde, meaning there were at least over a hundred zombies.
No one knew how Qin Chuan managed to lure these zombies away.
“But didn’t your superior above say that they would conduct concentrated bombing on the zombies tomorrow? Why did your captain lure the zombies away now?”
Liu Dong could not answer, only remaining silent.