Chapter 182 Not All Is Wonderful

Zombies' perceptual abilities significantly decreased at night, so if one was to go to Ji City, of course, they would choose the evening.

This time Gao Yuan went into battle lightly, but this so-called light gear only meant he was without a Shield.

Why didn't he bring a Shield this time? Because it wasn't really necessary. This was an exploration mission, but not obligatory. If Gao Yuan sensed danger, even the slightest hint of it, he would immediately turn back.

So how could Gao Yuan be sure that he could detect danger in time and avoid it? Because he had a drone overhead.

The Serpent People had unleashed a powerful Electromagnetic Pulse, and in one fell swoop, unprotected electronics were rendered useless. Moreover, this was a global storm, so the current electromagnetic environment was unprecedentedly clean.

In the cities, the range of radio transmission was quite short. Apart from blockades by buildings, the complex electromagnetic environment was a major factor in shortening the range of radio communications. But now, the purification of the electromagnetic environment had significantly extended the control distance of drones.

Plus, the drone above Gao Yuan's head wasn't some small, consumer-grade model. It was a military-grade, long-endurance, long-distance reconnaissance drone.

Using the drone was somewhat of an adventure, because it was uncertain whether the Serpent People would attack it. However, the necessary tests had to be done, so Gao Yuan had to go back to the mall where survivors might be, and the military also just happened to test whether the drone could provoke the Serpent People.

With the high-altitude view provided by the drone, Gao Yuan felt as if he had activated a God's-eye view, which simplified his re-entrance into Ji City tremendously.

Barely any zombies could escape the aerial drone's scouting. Watching the screen filled with red dots, Gao Yuan felt like he was using a x-ray cheat. If there were too many zombies, he would bypass them, and if there were few, he would go straight through them.

Less than an hour after setting off, Gao Yuan had once again approached the mall.

How was he to get into the mall?

A few hundred meters from the mall, Gao Yuan stopped.

The live footage captured by the drone could be transmitted to Gao Yuan's helmet. This was a simple matter of battlefield coordination, not difficult to achieve, yet only a handful of countries could make it happen.

Gao Yuan couldn't control the drone, but he could contact the person who could.

"I need the footage of the space above the mall, over," he said quietly into the walkie-talkie, and he soon heard Panxin's low voice respond over the radio, "Received, over."

The drone started moving, eventually hovering above the mall.

The rooftop was cluttered with a lot of trash and even two tents.

"Decrease altitude, observe the surroundings of the mall, and search for possible entrances, over," Gao Yuan ordered.

"Received, decreasing altitude, observing surroundings, over," was the reply.

The altitude of the drone lowered, showing zombies encircling the entire mall, dense and numerous. There was no chance of entering from ground level. The main entrance to the mall was a rolled metal gate, not the usual glass doors, which was likely a major reason why survivors could persist inside.

How to get inside then?

First, it was essential to draw the zombies away, and breaking through the doors wasn't practical. Destroying the doors would be detrimental if there were indeed survivors inside and Gao Yuan failed to evacuate them. What would they do then?

Nonetheless, entry was still feasible.

"I plan to enter the mall from the third floor. Now we need to draw the zombies away. Use the drone to lead them east, over," he instructed.

"Received, the decoy drone will lower altitude and prepare to release a decoy, over," came the confirmation.

Another drone began to descend. By the time it was hovering just twenty meters above the ground, the buzzing of the drone's rotors had already caught the zombies' attention.

The drone suddenly began to dispense plasma, and the scent of blood stimulated the already restless zombies below, causing them to intensely flock towards the center beneath the drone.

Suddenly, the drone started to play a voice.

"This way, line up, don't fall behind, come this direction," said the drone in a serious tone devoid of humor. Yet, it worked effectively; as the drone flew off to one side, the zombies surrounding the mall quickly followed.

If one drone struggled to accomplish all tasks, use two, and if two weren't enough, then deploy three or four.

These were hardly issues at all.

The second drone lowered its altitude and repeated the process of luring the zombies away. In less than ten minutes, not a single zombie was left surrounding the mall.

Gao Yuan thought that if there were survivors inside the mall, they should have noticed by now what was happening outside.

Indeed, in the reconnaissance drone's footage, anomalies were spotted on the rooftop.

Two people had run up there.

Gao Yuan's heart surged with excitement. He left his hiding place and quickly ran towards the vicinity of the mall.

The drone had full and clear visibility of the entire mall, thanks to the reconnaissance drone's night vision and thermal imaging. However, the people upstairs couldn't see what was below, as it was night.

Knowing that there were people on the rooftop and their location, Gao Yuan ran to a corner of the mall, took out a flashlight, shone it towards the rooftop, then quickly turned it off.

The people on the rooftop certainly noticed Gao Yuan, but they didn't make any sound.

Gao Yuan turned on the flashlight again, this time shining it on himself.

Clothed in camouflaged combat gear, night vision goggles mounted on his head, he cut the figure of a standard soldier. Anyone on the rooftop seeing him would surely understand what this meant.

But the next actions of the people on the rooftop puzzled Gao Yuan.

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The two people on the rooftops turned and ran, quickly disappearing through a passageway on the roof and then not appearing again.

According to Gao Yuan's intuition, those two people ran in a very flustered and frightened manner.

That's not right, people on the rooftops shouldn't be scared of rescuers coming for them, especially since the zombies had been lured away. The only emotion they should be feeling now is ecstasy, so why the fear?

Gao Yuan had been worried that the survivors inside the mall would be shouting loudly, but now, the people on the rooftop were in a panic, which was problematic.

"Gao Yuan, there's something wrong with the people upstairs, they are not behaving like survivors should, over."

"Received, I think so too. I'm going to enter on my own, over."

Gao Yuan was concerned that he might have misjudged the situation because he was receiving the drone's footage through the monocular of his helmet-style night vision goggles. However, Panxin, who had better observational conditions, said the same thing, so there must be a problem.

Normally, survivors surrounded by zombies would feel afraid upon seeing soldiers. The only explanation is that these people find soldiers more terrifying than zombies, which raises the question: who would be afraid of soldiers?

The answer is only one, the bad guys.

To have made such a judgment before meeting anyone is indeed somewhat ironic.

But there is nothing new under the sun.

Gao Yuan sighed softly. Although he had made a judgment, he still had to finish the task at hand.

Gao Yuan drew his hammer. He stepped back a few paces, then ran forward, his feet hitting the wall before leaping upward. His hammer then hooked onto a spot almost two storeys high. Clinging with one hand to the ledge that was at most five centimeters wide, he smashed the pointed end of the hammer into a corner of the glass.

The mall was mostly clad in glass walls on the outside, and with Gao Yuan's hammer blow, a large pane shattered immediately with a loud crash, and broken glass poured down like rain, much of it falling on Gao Yuan himself.

Gao Yuan kept his eyes closed, then he opened them and with a strong push, he flipped himself over and up.

Behind the glass facade was a window. Gao Yuan broke the glass again and entered through the window.

"Successfully entered, over."

"Received, stay safe, over."

Gao Yuan didn't speak again. He was now on the second floor of the mall, scanning around, the front was all women's clothing.

Gao Yuan walked out into the mall's circular layout, which was full of brand stores, but the entire second floor was deserted.

He started running towards the escalators, trying not to make too much noise.

He only needed to search the top floor, as it is human nature. Since the entire mall was surrounded by zombies, the survivors inside couldn't possibly be staying on the lower levels.

Seeing the state of the second floor also indicated that the survivors barely dared to come down; otherwise, the entire floor would have been a complete mess.

The sixth and seventh floors were dining areas. When Gao Yuan reached the fifth floor, he saw someone running on the seventh floor.

"Has someone come?"

"Don't know!"

"What do we do?"

"Hurry... let's kill that one."

"Bullshit, what about the corpse!"

"It's just one person, what's the rush, they definitely can't get in."

"How come the zombies are gone! What do we do now? Either we kill the person and throw them downstairs, or... let's just finish them off first, what if the main force comes in."

"What if the main force doesn't come? Then what do we eat!"

Three people were in conversation. Hearing this, Gao Yuan pretty much knew what was going on.

Then, Gao Yuan became furiously angry.

Some things, if you think about them for a moment, you can understand what they are talking about.

Gao Yuan suddenly sprung into action, and in just a brief instant, he reached the seventh floor, then he snapped on the flashlight, shining it on three men dressed in luxury and style.

The clothes were high-end, and so were the shoes.

All three instinctively raised their hands to shield their eyes.

Gao Yuan said coldly, "I heard everything you said, now take me to the others."

"You... you've misunderstood."

One man lowered his hand, his face panicked but desperately trying to conceal it, loudly said, "We are good people."

Gao Yuan stepped forward, his voice grave, "Lead the way."

Among the three, one on Gao Yuan's right, suddenly drew his hand from behind his back, a shiny object in his hand stabbing towards Gao Yuan's chest.

Gao Yuan reached out his hand, slowly bending, and the knife fell to the floor. Amid the pained screams of the knife wielder, his forearm was broken in two.

Gao Yuan let go, slowly saying, "Take me there, or I'll find them myself. No, I think I'll look on my own."

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