Chapter 79: Chapter 79: Assault on the Jewelry Store
Upon hearing the intelligence Shen Ruihui brought back, Ye Fan decided to take immediate action.
According to Shen Ruihui’s information, the number of zombies near the construction materials market is relatively small, so it should be possible to capture it smoothly.
However, there are quite a few zombies at the jewelry store, even though a river separates a large portion, there are still tens of thousands of zombies wandering in that area.
Ye Fan quickly made a decision.
He produced 36 Army Soldiers and 36 Conscripts once again; these units would be the basic infantry of the third company.
Spending 10,800 gold, these new recruits would be dispatched to the construction materials market to transport supplies.
Meanwhile, Ye Fan would lead the second company and the entire combat unit of the guard platoon to Qinghe Town to attack that jewelry store.
As for the base here, Ye Fan had John’s platoon temporarily come over to help guard it, as there weren’t many things here anyway.
Leaving as soon as the decision was made, Ye Fan led the main force to depart early in the morning.
The battle group of the second company, with 130 people, plus the 40 from Ye Fan’s guard platoon, advanced in a grand scale of 170 people.
Following the already cleared road of Kao Mountain Town, after almost three hours of driving, the unit reached the edge of Qinghe Town.
Up ahead was Qinghe City, now looking like an abandoned ruin, with a fishy smell in the air as a gust of wind blew by.
Activating the radar screen, the surrounding situation was visible in full detail.
At the very edge of the radar was where Shen Ruihui mentioned the jewelry store was located.
Although it was only nearly five kilometers away, there was certainly no shortage of zombies along this section of the road.
Moreover, the highway was severely blocked, making it somewhat difficult to drive straight there.
Checking the time, it was 11:00 AM, with one more hour until bullet refresh, so he could fire freely once.
"Set up a position right here, and lure zombies from within one kilometer nearby."
Two armored vehicles were the first to open fire.
Ratatatat~~~!
The heavy machine guns’ tongues of fire began to spray, and as a wave of zombies fell, countless zombies around started to swarm over.
The soldiers collectively disembarked and began precision shooting!
The marksmanship of these Three-star Soldiers was extremely formidable, basically managing one shot, one kill.
The zombies roared and charged, but couldn’t even get within fifty meters of the soldiers before being killed.
An Agile Zombie burst out from the horde, sprinting on all fours, when two Three-star Army Soldiers immediately focused their fire and blew it apart on the spot.
Occasionally, an Armored Zombie would appear in the horde, immediately attracting the sniper’s attention.
With the muffled sound of a sniper shot, the Iron Armor fell dead on the spot.
"Mortar operator, fire at 500 meters ahead, attract more zombies, expend all bullets before noon!"
"Understood!"
The newly produced mortar warriors Chen Ge and Chen Wu quickly adjusted their shooting angles and fired ahead.
With the sound of the cannon, the nearby zombies seemed to riot, pouring in from every street like a crowd of demonstrators.
"All firearms cease firing, Flamethrower Warriors prepare!"
Five Three-star Flame-Thrower Warriors came to the front of the team, ready to deal with this wave of large-scale zombie tide.
"Release!"
When over a thousand zombies surged into the fifty-meter range, the flamethrowers launched simultaneously.
Five streams of fire seemed to be controlled by the soldiers, spewing out fiery flames at the hordes ahead.
The whole block seemed to ignite, the zombies’ roars engulfed by the crackling explosion of flames.
Once the wave of fire was released, the Flamethrower Warriors collectively retreated, with the soldiers advancing again to shoot down the resilient zombies that emerged from the flames.
Zombies wouldn’t die just from being burned, but the ones falling in front blocked the progress of those behind, slowing them down. After a while, the ones behind were charred.
Occasionally, some zombies managed to rush forward, promptly slaughtered by the combined efforts of soldiers and military dogs.
The Three-star Soldiers’ virus immunity significantly boosted Ye Fan’s squad’s combat power, so minor injuries no longer mattered.
Some soldiers who suffered scratches or bites were unfazed, treated at the back by medics, and promptly returned to battle.
By 11:40, Ye Fan ordered the entire army to advance 500 meters, unleashing the most frenzied firepower.
Various firearms roared incessantly, the sensation of not having to conserve bullets was exhilarating, particularly when the heavy machine guns fired, leaving the entire street in disarray.
Before the bullet refresh at noon, more than 30,000 zombies had been wiped out!
At noon, when the bullets refreshed, Ye Fan had already led the team over a kilometer into the city before taking a moment to catch their breath.
Checking the radar screen again, the jewelry store was only three kilometers away.
"Halt the advance and gather resources immediately!"
The entire army halted and began a one-hour-long collection of all the available gold and silver jewelry, which was handed over to Ye Fan.
"Congratulations, sir, you’ve gained 33,211 gold!"
Ye Fan accepted the gold contentedly, his money totaling over 120,000.
Originally having 100,000, but he had just produced the fourth assault armored vehicle and filled the quota for two heavy machine guns among the units.
The firepower of the heavy machine gun was fully demonstrated in this large battle, and these two heavy machine guns, plus the armored vehicle’s machine guns, would further enhance the team’s strength.
While waiting for the heavy machine guns and armored vehicles to arrive, Ye Fan advanced a bit further.
Zhuge Yunxue and Shen Ruihui closely followed, ensuring Ye Fan’s safety.
Ye Fan’s gaze fell on several piles of bones ahead.
They were slightly whitish, as if not long-exposed; those long exposed had already turned dark.
"Shen Ruihui, can you tell how long ago these bones were left?"
Shen Ruihui really couldn’t discern it, but luckily a medic from behind followed up, checked briefly, and reported to Ye Fan: "Sir, the bones are roughly from five days ago."
Ye Fan nodded. Five days ago meant it was after the apocalypse broke out, indicating someone passed through here several days ago.
"It was probably a team of survivors. Reaching this place is an achievement, but the chances of returning are slim."
The remaining three kilometers weren’t so easily traversed.
Within the urban area, every step forward introduces countless new zombies, forcing the troops to remain vigilant against threats from all directions.
From afternoon till dusk, Ye Fan advanced roughly 1.5 kilometers, with over half his bullets expended; thus, he promptly led the troops out to rest overnight outside the city.
The next day morning, after breakfast, the troops re-entered the city, continuing along yesterday’s path, and upon the bullet refresh at noon, pushed ahead to near the jewelry store!
Fifty meters ahead lay the jewelry store, and beyond it was a river.
Ye Fan glanced at the opposite bank of the river and couldn’t help feeling a bit of a headache.
A densely packed horde of over hundreds of thousands of zombies gathered, covering the sky.
If not for the river, they would have long since charged over and torn Ye Fan’s group apart.
Seeing Ye Fan appear, the zombies let out frequent angry howls, some in the front being pushed directly into the river by those behind, immediately swept away by the current.
"I wonder if these zombies swept away will drown? If they don’t, they’ll be a threat eventually."
"No matter, the jewelry store is right ahead. Taking this, we can pretty much establish the base framework once we return."
Ye Fan opened the radar screen to examine the situation inside the jewelry store ahead.
The store spanned hundreds of square meters, two stories tall.
In front lay an overturned jeep, and Ye Fan even saw bones and firearms on the road.
It’s possible that survivors tried to cross the bridge here, but someone had blown it up, trapping them here.
The ones capable of blowing up a bridge are highly suspect; such people aren’t many.
What captured Ye Fan’s attention further was a deep red dot on the second floor of the jewelry store.
Previously encountered Armored Zombies and Agile Zombies hadn’t shown such a deep red.
The gunfire was so intense, yet the red dot didn’t show up, indicating this zombie was not simple, possibly possessing some level of danger awareness.
Ye Fan didn’t care whether this entity was ambushing there, directly telling Zhuge Yunxue: "Throw your grenade through the second-floor window for me. I want to see what new variant of zombie has emerged!"