Chapter 114: The Base Commander? Where Is the Base Commander?

The Fire God Base was said by Zheng Yingjun to house more than twenty thousand people, but in reality, there were only a little over two thousand.

If it had truly been capable of accommodating more than twenty thousand people, the military would have requisitioned it long ago and converted it into a shelter for disaster victims.

Even so, the Fire God Base had enough space for more than three thousand people to live comfortably, without having to crowd together.

But Zheng Kaicheng, who had established the Fire God Base, believed that letting everyone live comfortably would make him uncomfortable. Otherwise, how was he supposed to play emperor?

For that reason, Zheng Kaicheng divided the Fire God Base into an upper district and a lower district, making it perfectly clear to everyone who joined that this place was unequal by design.

The result was that the living conditions in the lower district were atrocious.

The people there lived packed together, often fighting until their heads were battered and bloody—or even killing one another—for a small bag of rice bran or a few grams of salt. Law and morality simply did not exist.

The people in the upper district treated it all as entertainment.

After all, whenever someone died, they could let newcomers take their place and continue exploiting them.

Zheng Kaicheng had tried to keep the base running through this system—until the undead snowmobile riders stormed in.

No matter how fiercely the Fire God Base guards urged them on, or how much they knelt and begged, the people in the lower district paid no attention. Organizing them into any kind of effective resistance was out of the question.

Instead, when danger came, the people in the lower district did everything they could to push others to the front. If they could not escape, they dragged along anyone they could, taking them to their deaths.

“Help! Help!”

“Why are you making us charge forward? You have guns—why don’t you go?”

“You stole my rice last time! Die! Come die with me, hahahaha!”

“If I die, I can join them! Hahaha! I’ll kill all of you with them!”

“…”

Thus, the small group of undead Su Miao had sent into the Fire God Base to test its strength rapidly expanded into an undead army.

The undead surged madly toward the upper district.

At first, the guards still put up some resistance. But even after their heads were blown apart, the undead continued attacking.

They were nothing like the zombies people encountered in their everyday games, the kind that collapsed as soon as their heads were destroyed.

Before long, the defensive line in the upper district was overrun.

At first, the residents of the upper district believed that ability users were stationed there, so they had nothing to fear.

But they waited and waited, and not a single ability user appeared.

Only then did they realize that the situation had become catastrophic.

“Where’s the base commander?”

“Why haven’t any ability users appeared?”

“Help! Save me! Save me!”

“Ah! Don’t touch me with those filthy hands!”

“…”

Panic spread rapidly.

Some people put up a brief resistance, but within minutes, they were swallowed by the undead.

At that moment, in the base commander’s room, Zheng Kaicheng was awakened by urgent knocking.

Five young women lay beside him.

Two of them were under eighteen.

Extremely fresh.

It was rare to find such fine merchandise, and Zheng Kaicheng had been delighted.

Under the influence of alcohol, he had gone wild that night. He had enjoyed each of them several times, for a total of eighteen encounters.

That was the stamina he had regained after becoming an ability user. It would have been utterly impossible for him in the past.

He had simply been too excited this time. When Zheng Kaicheng woke, he felt utterly drained.

His kidneys ached.

“Who is it?!”

His good sleep had been interrupted, and Zheng Kaicheng was furious.

He casually draped a piece of clothing over himself, then yanked open the door and cursed, “What do you want?”

“Base Commander, a large number of zombies have broken in…”

The guard who had come to report it spoke in terror.

His face and body were covered in blood, and he looked utterly wretched.

“Zombies? Where would something like that come from? Are you seeing things? Call Zheng Meng to deal with it.”

Zheng Kaicheng discreetly supported his aching kidneys.

Damn. They hurt again.

The guard hurriedly said, “Captain Zheng Meng took people out this morning to rescue Captain Zheng Yingjun. She still hasn’t returned.”

His daughter had gone out?

Zheng Kaicheng frowned. “What about Yu Yuangui? With him holding the line, nothing can happen to the base.”

The guard hesitated. “We were told that Captain Zheng Meng sent a distress signal to the base, so Captain Yu immediately took people out to rescue her. The communications department tried to contact Captain Yu, but they discovered that after sending a distress signal to the base, he could no longer be reached.”

Zheng Kaicheng grabbed the guard by the collar. “What did you say?”

The guard struggled. “Base Commander, I can’t breathe! Please hurry and save everyone!”

Zheng Kaicheng flung him to the floor, his expression shifting unpredictably.

First, something had happened to Zheng Yingjun, and Zheng Meng had led a team out to search for him. There was nothing strange about that.

But Zheng Meng was so powerful that she had sent a distress signal not long after leaving. What kind of enemy had she encountered?

She was his biological daughter. No one understood her strength better than he did.

He refused to believe that anything could happen to her so easily.

Yu Yuangui had taken people to rescue Zheng Meng immediately. Zheng Kaicheng’s usual care for him had not been misplaced.

But the fact that Yu Yuangui had sent a distress signal to the base not long after leaving meant that this was absolutely no ordinary situation.

Within the Fire God Base, Yu Yuangui’s strength was second only to his own.

Unless they had come under missile bombardment, there was no reason for them to send a distress signal.

Zheng Kaicheng rapidly pieced together all the clues. There could only be one explanation: that beast Zheng Yingjun had provoked an enemy beyond anything he could imagine.

“The zombies you mentioned—are they real?”

“I would never dare deceive you, Base Commander. Those zombies have already reached the upper district. It won’t be long before they make it here.”

The guard spoke rapidly. “Many of our brothers have already been killed by them. Those who are killed rise again soon afterward and become part of the zombie horde. It’s terrifying.”

“Base Commander, even after their heads are blown apart, those zombies can still attack living people. They have to be completely destroyed.”

Zheng Kaicheng’s expression grew grim.

These were not zombies at all. They were probably the corpses of the dead being controlled by some kind of special ability user.

“Base Commander, where did you go? I still want you…”

A young woman called out from inside the room in a sultry voice.

“You girls keep sleeping. I have something to take care of.”

Zheng Kaicheng put on several pieces of clothing and closed the door. “Gather whoever is left. We’re leaving through the rear gate.”

“But, Base Commander, what about the people in the upper district?” the guard asked.

“The person controlling the zombies must be outside the base. As long as we kill them, everyone else can be saved.”

That was what he said, but given that Zheng Meng and Yu Yuangui had sent distress signals one after another, if the force attacking the Fire God Base proved powerful, he would flee at the first opportunity.

With his strength, he could live well anywhere. There was no need to throw away his life for a bunch of useless people.

It was simply unfortunate that he had such a talented daughter.

When Zheng Kaicheng thought of Zheng Meng, he was reminded of Zheng Yingjun, and his expression darkened further.

That useless bastard was incapable of accomplishing anything, yet always managed to cause trouble.

If Zheng Yingjun was still alive, Zheng Kaicheng would kill him with his own hands. Even his sister, Zheng Qiongmei, could not stop him.

As he thought this, Zheng Kaicheng saw a familiar corpse on the ground.

It was his younger sister, Zheng Qiongmei.

From the scene, it appeared that Zheng Qiongmei had been trying to come here for help when she encountered the zombies.

Her corpse had been hacked into pieces by a dagger, blood everywhere, the sight utterly horrifying. A short distance away, several zombies were holding chunks of flesh from the ground and gnawing on them.

With a death like this, Zheng Qiongmei had not even been given the chance to become a zombie.

Zheng Kaicheng drew his gun and fired several shots in succession.

The zombies rose as though nothing had happened and lunged at him.

“Just as he said.”

Zheng Kaicheng continued firing, shattering the zombies’ leg and arm bones, then left without another glance.

Before long, more than a dozen guards gathered and followed Zheng Kaicheng toward the rear gate.

When he pushed open the door buried beneath the snow, Zheng Kaicheng shuddered.

He pressed a hand to his lower back.

If he had known something like this would happen today, he would not have gone so wild the night before. His body felt weak.

Zheng Kaicheng raised his head toward the sky. Amid the endless snowfall, the black myna flying overhead was extremely conspicuous.

The myna spotted the people emerging and immediately changed direction, flying toward Su Miao.

“A mutated bird.”

Zheng Kaicheng frowned.

The fact that their opponent could tame mutated creatures was further proof of their strength.

“Come on. Let’s go take a look.”

Zheng Kaicheng led his people through the snow, intending to see exactly who was controlling the zombies.

“Your Highness, someone has come out through the rear gate. They’re heading this way.”

The myna reported to Su Miao at once.

Su Miao jumped in fright. “How many people?”

“There are fifteen.”

That many?

Su Miao was terrified and immediately took out her sniper rifle.

According to the original plan, she had intended to have the myna find another exit from the Fire God Base so that she could go there, block the entrance, and snipe anyone who emerged.

But the snowstorms of the past few days had been too severe. Every area that could have been observed was buried and obscured beneath the snow, making it impossible to find anything.

She looked around and spotted a rise that was not particularly high. She quickly climbed it, set up her sniper rifle, and took position.

Before long, she saw their heads emerge.

“Base Commander, I don’t see any large force,” one of the guards reported to Zheng Kaicheng.

No large force?

Zheng Kaicheng frowned.

Could it be that only a few ability users were attacking the Fire God Base?

“Everyone, stay alert. Watch out for an ambush.”

Zheng Kaicheng continued forward with his people.

Their opponent had a mutated bird assisting with reconnaissance, so they must have already been discovered.

At present, Zheng Kaicheng only wanted to determine how many enemies there were, how many were ability users, and especially which one possessed the ability to control zombies.

An ability user capable of controlling zombies had to be killed immediately.

Bang!

They had only gone a short distance when one of the Fire God Base guards was shot in the head and collapsed into the snow.

“There’s a sniper! Take cover!”

Zheng Kaicheng picked up the fallen man’s assault rifle and fired ahead.

The others began shooting wildly as well.

On a real battlefield, unless they were highly trained regular troops or exceptional marksmen and snipers, most people simply carried rifles and fired randomly in the general direction of the enemy.

Against ordinary people, one would have to take cover beneath such a barrage.

Su Miao was terrified.

She crouched in a snow trench, letting the bullets be absorbed by the magical spatial array.

The gunfire continued for roughly ten seconds before Zheng Kaicheng’s group briefly ceased fire.

Su Miao immediately reversed the magical spatial array, sending the absorbed bullets back along their original trajectories.

“Ahhh!”

Five or six Fire God Base guards who had remained in place without changing positions were instantly riddled with bullets.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

At the same time, Su Miao fired rapidly and sniped three more people.

After killing them, she quickly ducked back down, clutching the Type 36 sniper rifle as she trembled.

This was the second time she had killed her way to the gates of a large base. She was terrified.

At least she had possessed the Book of Blood Magic last time.

This time, she had nothing.

Zheng Kaicheng’s heart bled.

In the blink of an eye, only five ordinary guards remained beside him.

Now he had seen clearly. The shooter was a young girl, and there was no one else nearby.

Damn it!

A mere young girl had dared to attack the Fire God Base and reduce the base he had built with such painstaking effort to this state.

It had to be that beast Zheng Yingjun who had provoked her.

Zheng Kaicheng was furious.

He called out, “There’s only one young girl. You two circle around from the left and right. I’ll cover you. Kill her!”

As he spoke, Zheng Kaicheng fired rapidly in Su Miao’s direction.

The moment Su Miao was about to raise her head, he immediately ducked back down and shifted positions.

“You cowards hiding over there! I can see you!”

Suddenly, a voice came from the distance.

Zheng Kaicheng was stunned.

Wasn’t there only one girl?

Just as he thought this, another one of the men he had sent out was shot in the head.

Damn!

What useless trash.

Before he even had time to curse, several more gunshots rang out, and the remaining guards were all killed.

Su Miao clutched the Type 36 sniper rifle and trembled.

Because her opponents were all hiding behind cover, she had no choice but to aim into the sky, allowing the bullets to trace a wide arc before striking their targets.

That method consumed a great deal of mental energy.

Now, aside from the ability user leading them, everyone else had been killed.

Whenever Su Miao saw an ability user capable of dodging bullets, she was reminded of Chi Wanning. People like that were powerful—and terrifying.

Watching bullets skim past the tip of his nose, Zheng Kaicheng broke out in a cold sweat.

They had been powerful enough to force Zheng Meng and Yu Yuangui to send distress signals in such a short time.

If a large force had come, that would have been one thing.

But if all of this had been done by a single girl, it was far more frightening.

Therefore, under the pretext of launching an attack, Zheng Kaicheng had sent the remaining guards forward to draw Su Miao’s attention while he withdrew under their cover.

He had not expected those useless fools to be killed in an instant. There was no cover left at all.

Zheng Kaicheng’s expression became exceedingly ugly.

It absolutely was not because he was afraid of Su Miao.

The truth was simply that his kidneys were in poor condition today, making him wholly unsuited for combat.

“You bastard over there! You’re the only one left, you piece of trash. Come out and take a few steps!”

The myna switched into taunting mode.

“You call me both your grandson and a beast. Are you insulting yourself?”

Zheng Kaicheng answered.

He was considering what to do next.

The myna declared proudly, “Why would I insult myself? I am a beast! Don’t believe me? Come out and see for yourself. I’m right here, watching you, grandson.”

Zheng Kaicheng was left speechless.

But did they really think such a little verbal provocation could anger him?

How laughable.

While Zheng Kaicheng traded insults with the myna, he failed to notice that his attention had been diverted.

At that moment, Su Miao raised her hand toward the place where he was hiding.

Resurrection of the Undead!

In an instant, the guards Su Miao had shot in the head one after another “awakened.”

They picked up their guns and began walking toward Zheng Kaicheng.