Chapter 172: The Sprint

Zombies were rapidly gathering.

Although the zombies weren't massing together in groups, there were so many of them in the area where Gao Yuan was that once there was any sound, zombies would run over in a very short time.

And then, upon seeing Gao Yuan, those zombies would of course quickly lock onto their target.

Gao Yuan sheathed his knife, and at this critical moment, he actually gave up his weapon.

Then Gao Yuan took a sound-emitting sphere from his pocket, but he didn't immediately throw it either.

With a shield in his left hand and the sound-emitting ball in his right, Gao Yuan slightly lowered his posture and squeezed between two zombies.

What to do?

Don't hesitate, just run for your life with all your strength.

Zombies were becoming more and more dense, and Gao Yuan's objective was to never let a situation arise where zombies were packed tightly next to each other without any gaps.

Having a speed advantage is predicated on having space; without space, speed becomes meaningless.

So in an instant, Gao Yuan exerted all his strength.

It was like how he could never run under ten seconds during regular training, but could easily do so during a race, because during training he held back, while in a race he ran for his life.

Running too fast and colliding with a zombie could cause injury to himself, but Gao Yuan truly had no care for that anymore.

Unable to dodge in time, Gao Yuan's shield struck a zombie head-on, and then his body stumbled, but that zombie flew out to the side as if hit by a car.

Now, Gao Yuan's speed was about five seconds per hundred meters, which wasn't his maximum sprint speed, but this was the pace he achieved under the burden of his gear, in complex terrain, and with zombies blocking his way in front. Moreover, the zombies were charging at him with great speed as well.

The two speeds combined meant that when Gao Yuan collided with a zombie, their combined speed was definitely over 120 kilometers per hour.

Gao Yuan felt a sharp pain in his arm; his shoulder was pressing against the shield, so while his arm hurt intensely, he felt as though all his internal organs had been shaken.

But after just one stagger, Gao Yuan's speed didn't decrease as he continued to sprint forward.

Gao Yuan leaped up, landing heavily on the roof of a sedan.

The roof caved in and all the windows shattered, but Gao Yuan jumped up again, this time landing directly on the roof of a bus.

After running along the bus for a bit, Gao Yuan leaped again, and upon landing, immediately collided with another zombie.

Another heavy jolt, but Gao Yuan hardly slowed down and, on the contrary, he sped up even more.

The loud noises were attracting more and more zombies to this area.

This was not the limit of Gao Yuan's strength or his speed, but Gao Yuan needed to rush forward at the fastest speed while fighting, which couldn't be compared to simply running.

Consequently, Gao Yuan's energy was depleting very quickly.

A normal person would be panting after running a hundred meters, but might only be slightly sweaty after a thousand meters, due to the difference between explosive power and stamina.

Now, Gao Yuan was using the speed of the most intense sprint to run a marathon; that was the concept, so naturally, his stamina was being drained extremely fast.

The zombies never managed to form a crowd close enough to encircle Gao Yuan, but he was only a dozen meters away from reaching a patch where the zombies were sparser, yet he couldn't quite get there.

Zombies were converging, marking a process from sparse to dense, and behind Gao Yuan, the zombies were packed tightly, one against the other. But in front of him, there were always dozens, if not hundreds of zombies, like what exactly? Like a boat moving fast on a calm lake, creating small waves at the bow, followed by a long trail of waves behind it.

Gao Yuan still hadn't thrown the sound-attracting sphere, because he was waiting for an opportunity.

What opportunity? The chance to break away from the zombies' line of sight, even if just temporarily.

Finally, Gao Yuan saw a row of buildings lower than the rest appear ahead.

In the prime areas of Ji City, finding a bungalow or a two-story house was quite difficult; while there were no skyscrapers, low buildings were also scarce.

But now, Gao Yuan had finally found a house he could jump onto.

He jumped onto a car once again, and from the roof of the car, he leaped towards the rooftop of the house.

Gao Yuan barely made it onto the roof, his legs buckled, and he almost fell on the rooftop. However, bending his knees, he stumbled forward a couple of steps and eventually ran on steadily.

After pressing the button, Gao Yuan gently tossed the sound ball behind him.

The sound ball immediately began to make noise.

"Help! Lalalalala..."

The voice of Yu Shunzhou suddenly rang out, the kind that involved screaming at the top of his lungs.

Gao Yuan didn't stop for a moment, he ran across the rooftops at the fastest speed, and when he reached the edge of the rooftop, he lightly jumped down.

It was necessary to create noise out of the zombies' line of sight; only then could their attention possibly be diverted. Otherwise, it would be hard for Gao Yuan to break free from their gaze.

It worked; the zombies rushed towards the source of the noise, and thousands of zombies instantly crowded together.

Gao Yuan finally shook off the pursuit of the large horde of zombies, significantly reducing his pressure.

He could finally break free from his sprint.

Now Gao Yuan just felt exhausted, his legs were sore, and his breathing became extremely rapid.

The four-to-five-minute run had nearly pushed him to his physical limit.

His speed inevitably slowed down, but less than a minute after Gao Yuan's pace slackened, another dozen zombies appeared in front of him.

He could either hide or repeat the previous process and rush forward.

Gao Yuan had no choice but to keep rushing.

It was as if he had played a full ninety minutes of a soccer game and was immediately forced to run a ten-thousand-meter race, with a tiger behind him so that slowing down meant being bitten to death. That was Gao Yuan's situation.

"Ah..."

Although he knew that he shouldn't make any noise, Gao Yuan couldn't explode into action without a loud shout.

He charged through the crowd of zombies, but more appeared in front. Gao Yuan took out another sound ball from his pocket, pressed it, and directly threw it to the side.

Attract as many as it could.

Then Gao Yuan slowed down, not intentionally, but because he had to.

But it seemed like the most dangerous time had passed, and it was time to start thinking.

Another intersection appeared, and with it, more low buildings. Gao Yuan immediately rushed over, swung the Shield, knocked down a zombie, and directly lunged for the rooftop.

Then, watching the eaves rapidly enlarge before his eyes, Gao Yuan had to hastily raise the Shield in front of him, and with a bang, the Shield collided with the eaves, and Gao Yuan fell backward.

He didn't have enough strength; he couldn't make it up there.

Gao Yuan couldn't perform any effective actions midair, so he fell hard to the ground. The airtight can made contact with the ground first, emitting a dull roar, and then Gao Yuan fell on his back to the ground.