The cylinder tumbled down the mountain of corpses, incessantly rolling faster and faster.

Even Yang Mu was disoriented, let alone the others.

However, Yang Mu’s willpower was immense, and he kept shouting.

“Stop the rotation or you’ll encounter zombies! Take care of yourselves!”

He repeatedly shouted these words, though not very clearly, making it difficult for others to understand.

The cylinder finally left the sea of zombies and continued rolling until it crashed into the wall of a building, causing the wooden doors to scatter.

Yang Mu forcefully pushed the doors aside, his eyes bloodshot as he stood up, only to collapse again, feeling as if the world were spinning and the light of day had vanished, completely disoriented about his whereabouts.

Resigned, he closed his eyes to let his head gradually clear.

His ears, however, remained alert, utilizing years of developed sensitivity to listen to the surrounding situation.

It was chaotic, and something was approaching.

He had to open his eyes or he would be doomed!

Yang Mu understood the gravity of the situation, lying on the ground, opening his eyes, and quickly scanning the area.

A shadow approached from behind; this wasn’t due to an enemy’s abilities but because Yang Mu’s consciousness was still partially unconscious, causing the shadowy appearance.

Yang Mu kept his axe tightly gripped, swinging it in that direction.

He was uncertain if his target was already in front of him, but his mind remained clear enough to attack blindly in that direction, hoping to block any approaching zombies.

As he swung his arms, the dizziness and lack of control over his body began to subside, and his vision refocused.

The approaching figure was a zombie, now less than a meter away.

Yang Mu controlled his pace, striking the zombie’s ankle with the axe as it came closer.

The strike was precise and forceful, causing the zombie to fall, its ankle injured severely, rendering it unable to move.

The mountain of corpses was now only a few dozen meters away, with more zombies surging towards them.

Hiding in the nearby buildings would be futile; a sixty-story skyscraper, nearly two hundred meters tall, had been instantly overwhelmed.

Where was the escape route? Where could they flee to? How could they survive?

This wasn’t the real city center; there were many factories nearby.

The roads were wide, with few vehicles—mostly large trucks, unlike the dense array of cars in the city.

Suddenly, a container truck came into Yang Mu’s view.

Yang Mu felt he had found a lifeline and excitedly called out to the others:

“Quickly, follow me to that container truck; we have a chance to escape!”

However...

Hope is often full, while reality remains harsh.

A few people had just managed to escape from the damaged cylinder, lying scattered on the ground, including Liu Dongfeng, who hadn’t made it out.

Yang Mu paused for a moment, but his mind raced through various scenarios.

This was the best opportunity; if they didn’t run to the truck and escape quickly, every second would decrease their chance of escape and increase their risk of death.

But if he ran now, none of the people here would survive.

What to do?

If it were the old Yang Mu, he would have run without hesitation, but Xiang Hai’s death had deeply affected him.

Number One and Xiao Yao were still here; they had to be rescued, as it was Xiang Hai’s dying wish.

As Yang Mu contemplated this, he ran to the damaged cylinder and peered inside.

Liu Dongfeng lay on the wooden doors, his eyes wide, filled with blood, mouth agape, face pale, and blood flowing from his mouth and nostrils.

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Yang Mu scanned quickly and saw that a long nail, about ten centimeters, was embedded in Liu Dongfeng’s temple!

Yang Mu’s heart raced, his mind became much clearer, and the dizziness finally disappeared.

Liu Dongfeng was dead, killed by his own plan—the cylinder’s collision with the wall caused a nail to pierce Liu Dongfeng’s temple, which was not the outcome Yang Mu desired, but it had happened.

“You have ten seconds to get up and run with me. I won’t wait for even a second longer.”

Yang Mu, while speaking, rushed over and struck down a nearby zombie; had he not acted in time, the zombie would have bitten Butterfly.

Yang Mu defended himself while counting down, the countdown quick, and by the time he reached five, only about two seconds had passed.

Chu Hong was surprisingly the first to unsteadily stand up.

This was largely due to her youth and good physical condition.

In such circumstances, while willpower is crucial, the decisive factor in quick recovery is physical fitness.

Yang Mu had the best fitness, but he was surprised to find that Chu Hong was second only to him in terms of physical resilience.

This young lady, who simply did some regular fitness training, was stronger than Butterfly, who was said to be a national athlete?

Even more astonishing was that after Chu Hong stood up and walked over to Yang Mu, she appeared completely steady and had begun excitedly pointing and shouting around.

“Yang Mu! Oh my God, Yang Mu! It’s over, Yang Mu! We’re doomed, Yang Mu! Zombies, Yang Mu!”

Yang Mu was exasperated and gave her a gentle kick on the backside.

“Enough of your nonsense!”

Chu Hong, though adding Yang Mu’s name to her exclamations, felt somewhat reassured.

Unfortunately, while she was reassured, Yang Mu was irritated, and her shouting had disrupted his countdown.

Yang Mu remembered that he had already counted to three; continuing would lead to two and one.

Perhaps a trace of compassion was at play, or perhaps human hearts are not so cruel after all.

Yang Mu started counting down again from ten.

That meant he had counted seven numbers this time.

Yang Mu sighed inwardly, realizing that “seven numbers of kindness” was his limit.

Time seemed to pass very slowly for Yang Mu, but a ten-second countdown, no matter how slow, could not last forever.

When the time was up, Yang Mu hesitated no more; he walked over, picked up Number One, and saw Xiao Yao standing and taking her hand. He then directed Chu Hong to help the unsteady Butterfly.

“Hurry up! If you don’t want to die, get up and run like a dog chasing after food!”

Under Yang Mu’s loud shouts and warnings, people finally mustered their willpower to compensate for their physical inadequacies, standing up and running.

In reality, the container truck was only a few dozen meters away, though some zombies had already appeared in between.

Yang Mu was brave, and Xiao Yao, seeing so many zombies, also became frenzied, tearing off her mask to attack the zombies.

She seemed much stronger, possibly due to having consumed zombie flesh the previous day.

This was a pleasant surprise; under Xiao Yao’s frenzied assault, a path was cleared, reaching the rear of the container.

Yang Mu threw Number One up and then pushed Chu Hong and Butterfly onto the container.

Soon after, Wang Liang and the others arrived.

“Hurry up and get in! Close the door, there are chains inside. Lock the door but don’t pull it too tight, or you’ll suffocate. I’ll drive.”

Surrounding zombies were closing in, but there were not too many nearby.

Yang Mu had courage, strength, and skill, and the distance from the rear to the front of the truck was not great.

To avoid zombies, he crawled under the truck once but eventually made it safely inside.

The truck door was open, the keys still in the ignition, and it was empty; the driver had likely turned into a zombie long ago.

Yang Mu closed the door, started the truck, rammed through the approaching zombies, and drove several meters before steering towards the gate of a factory to avoid zombies on the roadsides.

The gate had a barrier, so he drove straight through, into the factory, where zombies were scarce.

The nearby factories were numerous and sizable, including electronics, machinery, sheet metal, and lathe factories.

Quickly entering through the back door of the first factory, he then drove onto the road towards another larger factory.

Yang Mu chose to navigate through the larger factories as they generally had multiple entrances, allowing him to maneuver between factories.

Driving straight for about four kilometers, the number of zombies dwindled further.

The truck suddenly stalled due to an unknown issue, rendering it immobile.

Yang Mu disembarked, calling the others out from the back.

This was a machining factory, with a small yard but a sizable workshop.

Machining factories typically have many machines and few workers.

Yang Mu led his small team inside, found some handy weapons, and then took out his phone to determine their location.

“This place is roughly equidistant from exits B and C, but both are about seven kilometers away. We were closer to exit B before, but now we’re farther.”

Yang Mu was frustrated; it wasn’t his choice of route but merely evading zombies that led them here.

“Exit B is more familiar, but it’s completely blocked off by zombies, including an intelligent BOSS. We can only head to exit C! No time to rest, let’s go!”

“Go, go, go! Why should we go? Yang Mu, you killed my sister, and now you’ve killed my brother-in-law! Why should I follow you?”

Wang Liang erupted, shouting hoarsely.

Yang Mu didn’t even glance at him, walking towards the factory’s exit and saying, “Your sister and brother-in-law are dead; you can die too if you wish. I won’t stop you. A family reunion sounds quite nice.”

Yang Mu’s words were harsh, but no one stepped forward to criticize him.

Everyone understood that Wang Yunzhi and Liu Dongfeng’s deaths could not be blamed on Yang Mu. If he hadn’t led them out of the sixth floor last night, they might not have survived today; the building had been entirely consumed by zombies.

So, as Yang Mu moved forward, everyone immediately followed closely, and Wang Liang, face flushed with rage, eventually fell into dejection, trailing behind the group.

Once outside the factory area, they were far enough from the intelligent zombies, and the zombies did not appear to be drawn towards them.

This indicated that the intelligent zombies’ control range over ordinary zombies was probably around five to six kilometers.

Approximately five hundred meters ahead, Yang Mu furrowed his brows as he recognized the area—the largest fruit wholesale market in Hanning, where all the city’s fruit was distributed.

The market’s security guards were reportedly paid per kilogram of fruit sold, with monthly earnings of twenty to thirty thousand, and many owned several properties in the city.

Such a place is a standard hub of human traffic, though now it was deserted and overrun with zombies.

“Yang Mu, should we detour around this area?”

Song Ren suggested.

At that moment, Little Puppy spoke softly:

“Boss, I’m familiar with this area; let me lead the way, alright?”