Chapter 142: Surprise

A massive hole had been smashed through the main wall of the Slaughterhouse!

Cheng Xianglong and Yi Lin were left nearly deafened by a succession of deafening explosions.

When the dust finally settled, they stared in shock as Yichen and Lu Yu, who had been fighting fiercely in the central courtyard, completely vanished. The mechanical trap had been crushed square-on by the falling aerial stage, its pit now choking with rubble and shattered glass.

A wave of profound despair washed over Cheng Xianglong.

Liang Bing and Xueman had been directly underneath that mechanism. After such a violent impact, even if they had not been killed outright, they must have sustained critical injuries.

Yi Lin quickly snapped back to her senses. She realized that even if only the two of them remained, Cheng Xianglong was too severely wounded to escape on his own.

She ran into a corner and picked up the phone Chen Hong had dropped. Though the screen was shattered, it still booted up and had a signal.

"Brother, do you have a way to contact anyone?" Yi Lin asked Cheng Xianglong.

Remembering Ling岚 and the others, a spark of hope reignited in Cheng Xianglong's chest. Those people were waiting near the Slaughterhouse; if they came inside, perhaps they could still rescue them.

Yet, doing so was fraught with danger... The Slaughterhouse was riddled with lethal mechanisms, and the battle between Yichen and Lu Yu was far from over. If they came, they might—

Cheng Xianglong was hardly a paragon of virtue willing to cast aside his own survival. Without a second thought, he recited Ling Lan’s number and told Yi Lin to dial.

Risks certainly existed, but let them evaluate that for themselves! He had to get the news to them.

The call connected almost immediately. Gritting his teeth, Cheng Xianglong gave a brief, harrowing account of the situation, leaving Ling Lan in utter shock.

While they had anticipated that dealing with the Infiltrator might not go smoothly, they had never expected the situation to spiral into such chaos.

Yichen was already formidable enough, and with the backing of three infected individuals—Lu Yu, Liang Bing, and Xueman—logic dictated a guaranteed victory!

Yet now, according to Cheng Xianglong: Lu Yu was possessed by the Infiltrator; Yichen’s mother had been murdered, causing him to undergo complete corpse-transformation; Liang Bing and Xueman were trapped within the mechanisms without a sound, their fates unknown... This was quite simply the worst possible news.

"We will find a way to come in and rescue you, but it will take some time," Ling Lan said bluntly.

She was deeply mired in troubles of her own. Massive hordes of zombies had arrived. Because there were too many living people gathered too closely together, they had attracted a relentless wave of the dead. The onslaught was impossible to clear; no sooner had one wave subsided than another rushed in to attack.

Chang Qing, the only infected individual in their group, had played a vital role, but his psychic ability could not be used indefinitely; he needed to constantly rest his eyes, leaving everyone under immense pressure during those intervals.

Ling Lan asked for Cheng Xianglong and Yi Lin's exact location and was about to say more when she suddenly heard an explosion erupt not far away!

"What's happening?" Ling Lan startled, turning her head toward the sound while still holding the phone.

Through the gaps between the towering buildings, she saw that the glass dome shielding the sky had been blasted open with a massive hole!

A smoking helicopter was plummeting downwards, clipping the side of a nearby building before crashing to the ground with a thunderous roar!

Had someone tried to escape by helicopter and met with an accident?

Before Ling Lan could recover from her shock, her gaze locked once more onto the rupture in the glass dome.

Spiderweb cracks radiated across the glass dome, shattering in a continuous crunching circle around the edges, the gaping hole steadily widening!

Black rain poured in through the breach, worsening the contamination of the city.

Ling Lan’s expression turned stern, and the others grew equally grim.

The black rain would infect even more people and cause a secondary infection among the zombies, once again boosting their strength, speed, and overall capabilities!

They could hear the terrified screams of the living echoing from that distant neighborhood, sending a chill straight down their spines.

"...What is it?" Hearing something amiss through the receiver, Cheng Xianglong asked.

"We've run into some trouble," Ling Lan bit her lip.

Logically speaking, the most sensible course of action was for everyone to jump into the vehicles and flee this cursed place as fast as possible, but she could not bring herself to tell Cheng Xianglong that they wouldn't come in to save them.

Several of their companions were still inside, and with severe injuries confirmed, they could not simply abandon their comrades to their fate.

After hanging up the phone, Ling Lan made a decisive choice.

"Ling Zhe, drive straight into the Slaughterhouse! Everyone, get in the vehicles and buckle up right now!"

"Big Sis, have you lost your mind? Can a car even drive in there?!" Chang Qing stared, dumbfounded.

"Copy that!" Ling Zhe replied without a single second of hesitation. Whatever his big sis said went; those who questioned her usually met a grim end.

The main gates of the Slaughterhouse were relatively wide. With careful steering, a small cargo truck should be able to force its way in, though they would have to negotiate a short flight of low stone steps leading up to the entrance—that would be tricky and somewhat difficult.

Rather than doubting whether he could pilot a cargo truck up a flight of stairs, Ling Zhe was actually itching to try. This was the ultimate opportunity to test his driving skills.

Last time, Bai Ge had taken them on a wild ride, crashing into a supermarket to shake off the Future Corporation's pursuit, and Ling Zhe had thought it was the coolest thing ever. Now, he finally had his chance to shine!

With a mixture of apprehension and resolve, everyone gripped the handrails tightly, their hearts suspended in their throats.

The cargo truck roared to life, first violently fishtailing as it plowed through and crushed a vast swathe of surrounding zombies, then slammed its accelerator down and charged straight toward the stone steps!

The pilot of the downed helicopter not far away was none other than Ouyang Hong.

Using Mu Qing’s safety as leverage, he had extorted this helicopter from Mu Zongxing, never dreaming that Mu Zongxing would rig the machine.

Mu Zongxing was a veteran of the business world, well-accustomed to committing murder without spilling blood. Though his cunning and ruthlessness might not match Zhou Shiwen's, he was still a formidable and vicious character to have climbed to the upper echelons of the Future Corporation.

The helicopter had indeed been prepared in advance for emergencies, but it was fitted with a time bomb as a safeguard. Anyone who stole it without the proper deactivation code would cause it to detonate shortly after takeoff.

Naturally, Mu Zongxing had not bothered to mention this to Ouyang Hong. The parting roar he had hurled at Ouyang Hong before hanging up—"Don't think you'll have the last laugh"—meant precisely this.

Although Ouyang Hong had mastered the basic operations of piloting a helicopter, time had been too short for a thorough search of the aircraft.

Even though he had neutralized the original pilot with an anesthetic and disposed of him, ginger still grew hotter the older it got; he had ultimately fallen victim to Mu Zongxing's trap.

At that moment, Ouyang Hong was completely unrecognizable, a mass of bloody flesh pinned beneath the wreckage of the helicopter.

He was lucky to be alive, though his lower body had lost all sensation.

As a highly trained physician, he accurately assessed the extent of his injuries and desperately fished emergency medication out of his medical kit, administering coagulants and stimulants to keep himself conscious.

He refused to die here!

With these emergency measures, he could hold on for roughly another hour, but if no one came to his rescue, death would still be his ultimate destination.

The black rain pattered relentlessly against the ground, kicking up ripples of dirty water. Sheltered beneath the wreckage of the helicopter, Ouyang Hong was at least spared from direct viral infection.

Yet his heart sank lower with every passing second. Before long, there might not be a single living soul left in this city.

Those with the capability to leave were already on the road. And those without the means to escape would soon swell the ranks of the zombie horde!