I’m the City Lord of the Last Days

Chapter 5: Survival

[ Mian’an City, Inside of Yamu Villa District POV ]

He Qianshan has already discovered that many surviving humans have a hurdle to bear when they’re attacking zombies. Some are out of fear, and some are out of hope that they will get better.

    But this time He Qianshan was too worried for Song Xingcheng, for he who had read the novel in his dream, had long accepted the reality and knew that the end of the world had come, and that the process of zombification was irreversible.

    So when he sees that Song Xingcheng didn’t hesitate when his assistant lowered the car window, he already set up the rifle, held his breath, aimed at the head of the zombie in the distance, and pulled the trigger.

    The gun equipped with a noise suppressor made a “pounce” sound. Song Xingcheng hurriedly checked the result of the attack, ignoring his sore shoulder from the recoil.

    The shaking of the hand at the moment of shooting caused the bullet that was originally aimed at the zombie’s head to deviate, but it happened to land on the neck of the zombie, and the head of the zombie was separated from the body with one shot.

    Song Xingcheng: Is that okay?!

    Han Qinmin and Zheng Nianhao in the front row cast admiring glances, thinking that Song Xingcheng was a sharpshooter like their boss, and this would explain why the boss bothered to win him over.

    Song Xingcheng knew about his own skills, he was just slightly shooting it wrong, and he could only pat his head in embarrassment when he saw this.

    “Not bad.” he heard He Qianshan praise affirmatively. What he really praised is Song Xingcheng’s decisive shooting, which showed that he had a clear understanding of reality.

    Han Qinmin drove the car to the side of the fallen zombie. In a short time, most of the zombie’s body had dissipated.

    Song Xingcheng got out of the car, and after the zombie’s rotting body completely dissipated, imitating He Qianshan’s action, he used a wet towel to pick up the energy beads on the ground before putting them into the transparent water cup prepared in advance.

    The energy beads fell into the cup, making a crisp “ding” sound.

    Song Xingcheng tightened the lid of the cup, sat back in the car, and raised the water cup to observe the pearl-sized transparent energy beads.

    The energy beads are pure, transparent, smooth, and round, a complete contrast with the dirty and rancid zombies. It is really miraculous.

    “Keep your cup safe by yourself, take it with you, and don’t lose it.” He Qianshan who was next to him suddenly said.

    He Qianshan knows that energy beads are not only harmless to human beings, but are beneficial, and carrying them with him can slowly improve human physical fitness, but he can’t directly come to a conclusion.

    Song Xingcheng also learned this information from the novel, but he didn’t think too much about it and nodded in agreement without even asking why.

    In this way, He Qianshan was surprised. He didn’t expect Song Xingcheng’s reaction to be so straightforward. After all, even the assistants who used to trust him expressed fierce doubts and opposition when they saw him collecting energy beads for the first time.

    He Qianshan was fully prepared that the little guy would open his big round eyes and ask him why, but Song Xingcheng stuffed the water glass into the side pocket of his backpack after listening, obviously ready to do what he said, with no hesitation.

    Feeling Song Xingcheng’s complete trust, He Qianshan’s eyes couldn’t help but become more gentle.

    In fact, Song Xingcheng was eager to check the operation panel of the city management system that popped up automatically after getting the energy beads. The number of energy points displayed in the upper right corner of the panel had changed from 0 to 1.

    The relaxed and simple battle process dissipated a lot of tension and panic in Song Xingcheng’s heart, and the newly acquired energy points also made him more courageous to go out and fight.

    At this time, the off-the-road vehicle drove to Xinghu Lake and drove along the tree-lined road beside Xinghu Lake to the Community Gate of the Yamu Villa District. Song Xingcheng stared at the small wooden house on level 1 built on the grass outside the car window, his eyes were sparkling.

    In the novel, “Song Xingcheng with the two people, Wu Jingran and Su Xin’er”, who were taken in, hid at home for more than a week. After spending most of their food, they had to go out to collect supplies and work together to kill the zombies blocking the door. The management system has passively opened for the first time.

    It’s a pity that “Song Xingcheng” has been restricted by his so-called “friends”, so the city’s development was extremely slow. When it was taken away from him, the city developed to level 2.

    But the reality and the novel are different from the very beginning. On the first day of the end of the world, the first system residence has landed, and there are no hostile residents in his house. Song Xingcheng also walked out of his house, successfully borrowed weapons, and even took the initiative to attack. As for killing zombies and collecting energy beads…

    Song Xingcheng is looking forward to it. By adding up little changes, will the final ending be completely different?

    The off-the-road vehicle drove to the Community Gate of the Yamu Villa District, and the railing was lifted automatically. Song Xingcheng noticed that the security room next to them was in chaos. There were no security guards nor zombies in sight.

 [ Mian’an City, Outside of Yamu Villa District POV ]

    After driving out of the private road in the community and turning onto the public road, Song Xingcheng saw the real apocalyptic scene.

    There are almost no surviving humans on the road, and they should all be hiding. Only the zombies are wandering around swaggeringly. Occasionally, vehicles rushing to escape from the city roar past them, which will trigger the eager pursuit of the roadside zombies, but most of them only chase for a few meters. As soon as they lose the target, they just continue to wander.

    The road conditions were not good, and many vehicles in serial collisions blocked the road, but no one dealt with them, so more and more vehicles were involved in the accident, and the road was even more and more blocked.

    Some road sections even have to use green belts or even the sidewalks to pass. Even if the chassis of the off-the-road vehicle is high, Han Qinmin drives the car, and it usually only takes about ten minutes. Finally, it took less than half an hour to finally arrive at the Duo De Supermarket.

    During the entire journey, only He Qianshan shot and attacked twice, both of which were to rescue passers-by who were accidentally seen being chased by zombies. The rest of the time, he focused on driving, and no zombies could catch up to their car.

    After finally arriving at the destination, Song Xingcheng noticed that the glass door of the supermarket had been violently smashed, and he could vaguely see the chaos in the supermarket.

    He just doesn’t know if the chaos was caused by the customers who got up early to visit the supermarket when the mutation happened or if there were quick-response survivors who came to search the supermarket or both.

    Han Qinmin drove past the gate of the supermarket but did not stop. Instead, he went around to the unloading area behind the supermarket and stopped in front of a small gate marked “Employee Passage Only”.

    Song Xingcheng got out of the car but saw that He Qianshan was not in a hurry to go into the supermarket to find supplies. Instead, he was picking and choosing from a row of trucks parked in the unloading area.

    Song Xingcheng was stunned for a moment and then realized, oh, yes, on the return journey, driving a truck can indeed carry more supplies than an off-the-road vehicle.

    After choosing the truck, Zheng Nianhao entered the password to open the closed staff access door, and a group of four people entered the building.

[ Mian’an City, Inside of Duo De Supermarket POV ]

    He Qianshan was the first to walk in the front. Seeing a zombie just took him one shot, and he never needed a second shot to deal with it. Zheng Nianhao followed behind to help pick up the energy beads. The four of them usually went all the way without hindrance, and soon found the person at the supermarket warehouse door.

    The warehouse door was also locked with a code, but the door didn’t open after Zheng Nianhao entered the code. Confused, Zheng Nianhao pushed the door vigorously and heard uncontrollable screams of horror from inside the door.

    “…We are human beings.”

    After a short pause, Zheng Nianhao shouted towards the crack of the warehouse door and soon met up with the supermarket manager hiding in the warehouse.

    Knowing that his immediate boss was waiting outside the door, no matter how reluctant he was, the manager of the supermarket who was hiding in the warehouse had to order people to remove the obstacles against the warehouse door and open the heavy warehouse door.

    The survivors hiding in the warehouse hid behind the cargo boxes in fear. The round supermarket manager could not hide, so he was highlighted and was wiping the cold sweat off his head with a tissue.

    The manager of the supermarket immediately recognized He Qianshan, the immediate boss of his immediate boss, and saw the gun in He Qianshan’s hand at a second glance, and immediately burst out with a strong desire to survive. He rushed to He Qianshan’s side in three steps at a time. He bowed his head and flattered him and said, “Mr. He! You see, I am also very wronged by this matter… Mr. He, it’s really not that my management is bad…”

    He Qianshan stopped Manager Yuanrun’s sincere criticism with a gesture, There is no sense of accountability. After all, the end of the world is a natural disaster rather than a man-made disaster. It is an accident of force nature, and no one wants to see it.

    He Qianshan glanced at the more than 30 employees and more than 20 customers hiding in the warehouse and calmly announced:

    “Now I need people to help carry the goods, and I will give you weapons or escort them home as rewards. Those who are willing can do so. Stand up for me to see.”

The hidden survivors stared at He Qianshan through the gaps, completely unable to react after hearing his words.

    Fortunately, someone always responded quickly, and soon a middle-aged employee took the initiative to stand up.

    Ever since a major accident happened in the morning and he hid in the warehouse of the supermarket, Zhao Zhenhai wanted to go home and visit his family every second he stays in the warehouse, but he couldn’t get through to his family even when mobile phone still had signal, so he was very anxious and didn’t dare to act rashly.

    The horrifying news on the Internet and the horrified screams from outside the warehouse made the survivors who hid in the warehouse afraid to come out like frightened birds. Occasionally someone proposed to open the door and leave, which would lead to a unanimous siege by others.

    The arrival of He Qianshan and others made Zhao Zhenhai realize that this might be the best chance to leave, so he was the first to stand up and sign up to express his willingness to obey the arrangement and help carry the goods.

    Someone started, and more than a dozen other employees stood up one after another, and even three customers stood up. The manager of the supermarket even said that he would definitely handle the errands assigned by Mr. He.

    Most of the employees who stood up were old employees of Duo De Supermarket, and they had a natural foundation of trust in their old owner, the He’s Group. Some timid new employees and some customers didn’t make any moves, so it didn’t matter to He Qianshan, as there were enough people.

    He Qianshan left Zheng Nianhao in charge of dispatching the manpower to carry the supplies, he also asked the supermarket manager to fully cooperate with Zheng Nianhao’s command and left the storage area with Song Xingcheng and Han Qinmin.

    ***

    As soon as the big boss left, the manager of the supermarket immediately approached Zheng Nianhao mellowly, smiled flatteringly, and said: “Special Assistant Zheng, if you have anything to do, just ask me, and I promise to handle it properly for you, hehe “

    “Then I’m not going to be polite, Manager Ma.”

    Zheng Nianhao wore gold-rimmed glasses, he smiled gracefully, took out a few long lists from his backpack, and immediately began to arrange tasks for everyone.

    Following Zheng Nianhao’s command, large boxes of food, drinking water, frozen meat, and various daily necessities in the supermarket warehouse are generally moved to trucks, including a refrigerated truck dedicated to storing frozen products.

    When Manager Ma himself received the transport task, he was stunned for a moment.

He thought that he just needed to stand beside him and direct, but as soon as his suspicious gaze met Special Assistant Zheng, he immediately stopped being troublesome. He went and helped move the supplies onto the carts and push the carts next to the trucks.

    However, every time he passed by Zheng Nianhao, Manager Ma always raced against time to inquire about Zheng Nianhao’s tone:

    “Special Assistant Zheng, how is Mr. He going to arrange us?”

    “Special Assistant Zheng, the gun on your hand, is it real? Mr. He said that he will be sending us weapons, is he going to give us a gun?”

    “Special Assistant Zheng, can you send me home first, and then I will take my family and go to Mr. He?”

    …

    Zheng Nianhao is busy He commanded and dispatched and occasionally responded briefly. As a result, Manager Ma asked more and more questions. The other people around who helped carry them all listened, and the pace of work slowed down.

    Zheng Nianhao finally became impatient with the question, and he glanced at Manager Ma who was next to him again with a half-smile until he immediately shut up.