Chapter 169 It's not okay now

It was much smoother than during the day, although the change of routes played a role, when Gao Yuan penetrated much deeper than he had in daylight, he still didn't encounter a large scale pursuit by zombies.

Zombies had begun to appear in larger numbers on the road ahead, scattered around with about a dozen or so, but one must not underestimate these dozen zombies – if detected and chased by them, a large swarm of zombies could quickly be drawn in.

Gao Yuan had always suspected that zombies had a unique way of notifying their own kind of prey's presence; at first, he thought it might be ultrasound, but scientists at the base had experimented and found no evidence that zombies could emit ultrasonic or infrasonic waves.

Should he just run straight past? Even if discovered by zombies, they wouldn't be able to catch up with him, but doing so would seem to have the same effect as during the daytime.

Urban combat was always the most troublesome, whether the enemy was human or zombie – the narrow spaces always meant danger.

Gao Yuan didn't hesitate too much; he looked around and then decided that a two-story building not far away was a good spot.

Gao Yuan watched the zombies' movements, slowly approaching the place he had chosen – it was a restaurant, the doors wide open, the interior a mess.

Gao Yuan walked in, took out a sphere, turned the switch on, set the timer, and then placed the sphere, about the size of an orange, in a corner of the small restaurant.

Gao Yuan walked out of the restaurant and then crossed to the other side of the street, walked forward another few dozen meters, and started to wait quietly.

After two minutes, a loud voice of Li Jingang shouting could suddenly be heard from inside the restaurant.

"Help! Help... Don't bite me, man, why does this sound so awkward to shout, can I say something else? Can I stop shouting for help? Maybe I should sing a song, what should I sing..."

Li Jingang's voice was loud, and when recording this voice, there was no need to care about what he said – as long as it was loud enough.

The zombies heard the noise and without hesitation, those standing motionless on the street as if dead instantly sprang into action, all racing towards the source of the sound in the restaurant.

Gao Yuan didn't move, only shrinking into the shadows, and as expected, the zombies didn't notice his presence, all rushing toward the restaurant.

After the zombies had passed, Gao Yuan left his hiding spot and began to run forward; while running, he pressed the remote control, and the sphere that had been making noise immediately fell silent.

Gao Yuan ran past the intersection with ease.

Zombies didn't have the ability to actively hide or take cover, but sometimes their positions did serve as concealment. However, with his thermal imaging turned on at night, Gao Yuan's observational effectiveness was even better than it had been during the day.

Ji City was completely silent, devoid of any sounds.

Perhaps birds don't make noise at night, and although spring is when wild cats should be howling for mates, now there was no sound at all.

Not only was there no sound, Gao Yuan also didn't see any heat sources other than zombies.

Any heat sources – it wasn't hard to imagine that all the animals in the city that could be eaten must have been consumed by zombies.

Gao Yuan still had the luxury to consider these things because the zombies he encountered along the way were not many, but he soon began to feel puzzled.

Why were there so few zombies?

Unless the zombies had all gathered together, but why would they gather? That would surely mean that the zombies had found prey.

There were many situations that could lead to a large number of zombies gathering, such as the discovery of survivors, but in an abandoned city, many factors could create a loud noise, attracting zombies there.

Like a gas explosion, like a TV or stereo left on – one must remember, the disaster struck suddenly, and when it hit, the whole city was still in operation.

Some people escaped the city, and many more unfortunately perished, but the process for this functioning city to lose all its sounds was not going to be a short one.

Gao Yuan vividly remembered the scene when he fled the city.

He had been to this place before.

He turned his head to look at a huge shopping mall; he had been inside that mall before. But now, the mall was nothing more than a massive shell. Even though many goods remained inside, a mall without people naturally lost its soul.

Gao Yuan couldn't help but reminisce about the times before the disaster struck, here on the streets that were familiar but not very well-known to him.

Scenes he once knew well, even found tiresome, now seemed so precious when recalled.

Uncontrollably, tears streamed down inexplicably; Gao Yuan felt he wasn't sad, yet what was the deal with these tears?

Gao Yuan quickly realized he was indeed somewhat sad—no, very, very sad. Even if he was now treated in a way he couldn't have imagined before, even if he had mutated into a person with extraordinary physical capabilities, he still missed that world in his memory. That world where he hustled to survive, sometimes exhausted, sometimes annoyed, and at times even finding it detestable.

But that familiar world was gone, never to return.

One doesn't know what they have until it's gone; Gao Yuan learned to cherish it, but it was too late, although the disaster had nothing to do with him.

Gao Yuan lifted his goggles, wiping away the tears because they blurred his vision.

Then, when Gao Yuan put the goggles back down and took another glance towards the mall, he understood why there had been so few zombies on the way over.

That's because the area around the mall was swarming with zombies.

Gao Yuan stopped in his tracks, looking up at the mall, and then he saw many cardboard signs and red banners fluttering in the wind on the edge of the mall's rooftop.

Switching from thermal imaging to night vision mode for a closer look, Gao Yuan noticed that the cardboard signs were written with words.

SOS, help, rescue—The words on the signs were huge, written over and over in black, conveying the same message.

There were people up there.

Gao Yuan thought hard for a moment; he was indeed very excited, extremely excited, yet he still pondered very seriously.

Then, Gao Yuan changed his direction and started running.

Since the zombies were all attracted to the area beneath the mall, the nearby paths should be relatively easy to traverse.

As for whether the people on the mall's roof were dead or alive, Gao Yuan was still very curious. He also really wanted to go up there to check or to shout out, to know if there were any survivors inside the mall.

But not now, definitely not now.

Ji City was too large, and there were too many people. It wasn't surprising that there were still survivors, but Gao Yuan's mission and goal weren't to rescue them. His task was to obtain the nuclear materials, not to save survivors.

As Gao Yuan ran in the opposite direction, he couldn't help but look back, hoping to see some signs of activity on the rooftop. But he saw nothing.

Now wasn't the time, it just wasn't possible, not even to figure out if there were any survivors at all.

But after getting the nuclear materials, it would be possible, after the mission was completed, it would be.