Ye Fan's Tiger vehicle was parked inside the mining truck's compartment, surrounded by five or six zombies, still trying hard to break in.
This time, it was the military dog, Xiaotian, that rushed out.
In the narrow terrain, a person could easily get scratched by zombies, but not Xiaotian. The animal's agile movements made it impossible for the zombies to catch even a strand of its fur.
After Xiaotian rushed out, it almost took down the zombies one by one.
Li Biao got out from the front passenger seat and threw all these zombies off the truck.
There were still some zombies trying to chase from behind, but they couldn't keep up with the speed of the mining truck.
Occasionally, zombies would appear on the roadside, but they were unable to obstruct the rumbling progress of the mining truck.
Ye Fan looked behind, seeing some zombies stopping to devour the corpses of their kind.
He believed that it wouldn't take long before a bunch of evolved zombies appeared here.
But he couldn't worry about that now; getting out of Ice City was all that mattered.
About ten minutes later, the surrounding buildings became sparse, and the buildings grew shorter. They had exited the suburbs and entered the boundary area of the city.
"Stop the car."
The mining truck came to a halt, and the Tiger vehicle reversed out of the compartment and landed smoothly.
Closing the mining truck's compartment board, the surroundings finally quieted down.
"Is anyone injured?"
"Report, no one is injured."
Ye Fan nodded in satisfaction, exhaling a long breath of relief.
It's good that no one was hurt; his serum hadn't been refreshed yet. If anyone got scratched by a zombie, they'd be doomed.
Looking at his subordinates' upgrade progress bars, everyone had about half progress except for Wang Hu and Xu Haoran.
These two were driving and hadn't done much shooting, so their progress hadn't increased, but they did conserve their bullets.
The rest had only three to five bullets left and couldn't fire freely.
Looking at the time, it was now a little after two in the afternoon, with over a thousand kilometers left to home. At the earliest, they'd reach home by tomorrow afternoon.
The recent battle was quite tense, consuming a lot of energy, and every soldier took out dry rations and started nibbling on them.
Although there were gas canisters and a stove in the car, Ye Fan really didn't feel like cooking.
He took out some sausages and bottled water obtained from a supermarket and shared them with everyone, and just made do with those himself.
"You need to reach the Company Commander Level to have the production options for the logistics support team, and I'm still far from that."
Ye Fan currently had 127 in currency. Xu Haoran had brought back a necklace weighing over a hundred grams, Ye Fan's largest single income in a long time.
There's still a long way to go to reach 5,000 Gold for building the radar. Ye Fan has to start saving money.
After everyone finished eating and got back in the car, Ye Fan gave the order: "Start moving at full speed now, don't stop in between, and try to reach the small fishing village before dark to rest there tonight."
There's still not enough space in the car, and resting is difficult, so they have to rush to the previously visited small fishing village to rest.
The mining truck's speed increased to ninety miles per hour, pushing aside any occasional vehicles on the road.
Once they completely left the suburbs, the surroundings finally quieted down.
Now, it's early September, and the northern region has cooled down a bit. The surroundings were filled with crops and farmland, and as the Tiger vehicle drove on the road, Ye Fan opened the window, feeling the breeze blow in comfortably.
If it weren't for the outbreak of the biocrisis, it would look no different from before.
The soldiers in the car began taking turns resting, as they too are humans and need to recover their stamina.
Under the gentle breeze, Ye Fan also fell into a deep sleep.
In his dream, he saw himself commanding thousands of troops... hmm, very impressive.
********
Although it's called a small fishing village, it wasn't a village in the traditional sense.
It's close to the highway, and Ye Fan's family would take this route from Mei City to Ice City, with initially just one restaurant settling here. Gradually, more and more restaurants arrived, and besides restaurants, there were no other villagers.
There are more than twenty restaurants here, all famous for their fish dishes.
Later, a police station, a gas station, and a small clinic were added, and that was it.
After the highway was extended, this place wasn't as bustling, but some vehicles would still take this road, and the restaurants managed to stay afloat.
Ye Fan still remembers eating at the Sisters' Fish House. He was especially hungry and boldly ordered a plate of fish for dozens of Yuan. When adding rice, he asked the two sisters if it was free to refill.
The two sisters didn't mind and said it was okay as long as he was full.
Then, when Ye Fan left, the younger one gave him a fierce stare.
It's likely that for that transaction, the sisters probably lost money.
In hindsight, Ye Fan felt somewhat bad about it.
When Ye Fan woke up, they had arrived at the small fishing village.
"Commander, we've arrived."
Ye Fan opened his eyes, and it was already getting dark. After all, there were still obstacles on the road, and they weren't moving very fast.
On both sides of the highway, the more than twenty restaurants still lined up like before, but not as they were when he first came.
Some cars were scattered messily in the parking lot. A few buses had even overturned in the street, blocking the way. To detour, some cars drove off the road, flipping into the ditches.
The biocrisis outbreak happened around noon when people were dining in the restaurants.
Judging by the number of cars here, there must have been quite a few people in the town at that time.
"I estimate there are at least a few hundred zombies here, but why can't I see them on the streets?"
Feeling a bit strange inside, seeing that it was getting late, Ye Fan decided to rest here for the night.
"Sir, our vehicles consume fuel quite quickly, the fuel in the tank isn't enough to support you reaching your hometown."
The mining truck consumes a lot of fuel, especially when clearing obstacles on the road, as it relies on diesel for power, and the 500-liter tank is already less than half full.
"I remember this town has a gas station, so here's the plan: let's find a place to stay first, then look for fuel."
Since there were no zombies visible on the street, Ye Fan signaled the soldiers to get out of the vehicles.
The mining truck and the Tiger were both automatically locked, with the keys held by Xu Haoran and Wang Hu respectively.
Without the keys, apart from Ye Fan, it was difficult for others to open these two vehicles.
Red Alert products, guaranteed anti-theft.
Xu Haoran led the way, while Wang Hu covered the rear, their guns still fully loaded.
The further they went, the stranger Ye Fan felt.
They had reached the center of the town but still couldn't see any zombies.
"Strange, based on the vehicles, there should be at least three hundred zombies here. Where have they all gone?"
At this point, Ye Fan realized even more the importance of radar. If there were radar, the surrounding situation would be clear at a glance, and grasping the situation would be much more accurate.
Since they couldn't find any zombies, Ye Fan could only start looking for a place to stay.
He came to the front of the Sister Fish Shop.
It was here that he saw the first zombie.
A car was flipped over outside, and a female driver zombie was trapped in the driver's seat by the seatbelt and the deformed car door. As Ye Fan and the others approached, she kept reaching her claws through the broken car window.
Ye Fan waved his hand, and Wang Hu went over and finished off the zombie with a bayonet, then following Ye Fan's wish, took the ring off the zombie's hand and handed it to Ye Fan.
It was a nice diamond ring, together with a platinum setting totaling 18 gold.
After pocketing the ring, Ye Fan led the group inside.
The door was open, and inside was a mess.
Xu Haoran's gun had a red laser sight, and he continuously checked the surroundings while holding it in front.
"Sir, there's no one on the first floor."
"Let's check the second floor."
Ye Fan was about to head to the second floor when Xu Haoran suddenly stopped him.
"Sir, be careful."
Ye Fan looked down to see that the stairs leading to the second floor were covered in oil!
It wasn't gasoline, but soybean oil.
The floor tiles were coated with oil, slick enough not to set foot on.
Ye Fan immediately understood that this was a tactic to prevent zombies from going upstairs.
It was effective for zombies, but useless for humans. A few soldiers brought some sand and sprinkled it on, turning the stairs into a smooth path.
However, this also proved that someone was upstairs, and after climbing up, everyone remained cautious.
There were four private rooms upstairs, with a bedroom at the far end, currently closed tightly.
Xu Haoran and Wang Hu took positions on either side of the door, and then Xu Haoran suddenly kicked the door open with a powerful kick.
As the door opened, a scream came from inside.
"Don't move! Come out calmly, and we won't harm you."
Ye Fan didn't enter; he stood outside and saw a young girl coming out from inside.
About eighteen or nineteen years old, not a breathtaking beauty but rather pretty in her own way.
Ye Fan remembered her; she had once glared at him for eating too much.
But the girl clearly didn't recognize Ye Fan anymore; she only saw a group of soldiers with a young officer-like person in the middle.
The girl's fear instantly disappeared.
"Sir, are you here to rescue us? That's great, can you please help save my sister?"
As she spoke, tears welled up in her eyes, showing that kind of extreme fear mixed with finding a long-awaited reliance. She looked so pitiful, which was very appealing to nerds.
Of course, Ye Fan considered himself no longer a nerd, as even Nana called him a handsome commander, and he was happy to accept this role.
However, Ye Fan still needed to explain, "Little sister, we're not soldiers; we're just survivors and have no obligation to rescue other survivors."
The girl looked a bit disappointed when she heard this, nodding with tears, and quickly turned to run back into the bedroom, emerging with a large box.
"I saw you taking the zombie's ring from upstairs; here is my and my sister's entire collection of jewelry. If you agree, it's all yours."
As she spoke, the girl opened the box, and Ye Fan's eyes lit up.
Gold rings, gold bracelets, gold necklaces, gold earrings, a set of gold and platinum each.
Diamond ring, pearl necklace, ruby pendant, ladies' gold watch.
These weren't all that surprising, but more importantly, there was a stone inside.
A jadeite stone, already half polished, a semi-gamble rough stone, revealing the green texture inside.
This stone alone was quite valuable, and who knows where the sisters got it from.
"Rich people indeed!"
Ye Fan stared intently at this box of wealth, swallowed hard, rubbed his hands together, and gave the girl an incredibly sincere and kind smile: "How could I possibly accept...?"