Chapter 40 Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland 3

There were survivors.

This discovery caused Zhou Jue to hesitate briefly.

Should they immediately head to Titan Industries to find clues about the power armor, or go and rescue these strangers who are survivors?

"In the apocalypse, the most terrifying thing is often not zombies, but the human heart."

This was a lesson she had learned through countless apocalyptic novels and movies she had read in her previous life: rashly contacting other survivors was extremely risky.

[Host, don't forget your main quest.]

The voice of System 001 echoed in my mind.

[Build a shelter that can safely sustain 100 people. You can't build it alone.]

A single word awakened me from my dream.

Zhou Jue patted her head. Yes, she almost got stuck on a rut. Her mission wasn't simply to survive, but to "build."

Construction requires manpower.

"Okay, I'll do as you say. But we need to observe first."

She quickly cleaned up the scene, collected the zombie monkey's body, and then sent out the "Hummingbird" drone again, flying towards the roof of Building B, where the signal was coming from.

The drone's camera quickly locked onto the scene on the rooftop.

There were about five or six survivors, their backs against the water tower on the rooftop, staring in terror at the stairwell blocked by debris. They were ragged and emaciated, clearly having been trapped there for quite some time.

One of the young men was holding an old walkie-talkie, calling for help in vain.

A middle-aged woman held an unconscious little girl in her arms, her face filled with despair.

The leader appeared to be a tall man in a worn-out security guard uniform, who was tightly gripping a fire axe and nervously staring at the direction of the stairwell.

At the stairwell, a dozen zombies were frantically attacking the makeshift barricade they had erected using metal cabinets, tables, and chairs. The barricade was teetering on the brink of collapse; it was only a matter of time before it was breached.

"This situation isn't good," Zhou Jue frowned.

Instead of immediately transforming into a savior and rushing over, she controlled the drone, lowered its altitude, and turned on the loudspeaker function.

"Can the people on the roof hear me?"

A clear, calm, and even slightly electronic female voice suddenly rang out from the rooftop.

The survivors, who were in despair, were startled by this voice from beyond the heavens. They all looked up at the sky, their faces filled with astonishment and confusion.

"Who...who is speaking?" the young man holding the walkie-talkie asked in a trembling voice.

“I’m just passing by,” Zhou Jue said succinctly. “I can save you. But after I save you, I need you to work for me in exchange.”

In the end times, there is no such thing as unearned kindness. Making the conditions clear beforehand can avoid a lot of unnecessary trouble.

"Work? Work for you?" The head of the security team was stunned for a moment, then a bitter smile appeared on his face: "As long as you can get us out of here, I'll do anything, let alone work!"

"good."

Having received an affirmative answer, Zhou Jue no longer hesitated. She slung her tactical rifle over her back, gripped the breaching shovel in one hand, and leaped directly out of the window of her third-floor office.

The built-in cushioning system of her Obsidian combat suit allowed her to land steadily on the second-floor platform. Without pausing, she nimbly used the air conditioning units and pipes on the building's exterior wall for leverage, and like Spider-Man in a movie, she quickly climbed towards Building B.

This scene was clearly seen by the survivors on the rooftop.

They stared in disbelief at the black figure moving at high speed along the vertical wall in a way that defied the laws of physics.

"Oh my god... what is that?"

"Is...is it Superman?"

Amidst their shocked discussions, Zhou Jue had already flipped over and leaped onto the rooftop.

She was dressed in a jet-black, futuristic combat suit, her face completely obscured by a tactical helmet, making it impossible to discern her expression. She stood there silently, like a killing machine from the future.

The survivors were so intimidated by the powerful aura emanating from her that no one dared to utter a sound for a moment.

Zhou Jue ignored them and walked straight to the crumbling stairwell.

"roar--!"

A zombie finally broke through the barrier, squeezing half its body through, and lunged at Zhou Jue with its gaping maw.

Zhou Jue didn't even glance at it, and swung his knife backhand.

"Pfft!"

The zombie's head flew into the air.

She took a step forward, directly stepping over the roadblock, holding a knife in each hand, and walked into the stairwell crowded with zombies.

Next, the survivors witnessed a sight they would never forget.

In the narrow stairwell, the black figure seemed like a tiger among sheep. The two knives in her hands transformed into two whirlwinds of death; with each swing, one or more zombie heads would inevitably fall to the ground.

There were no screams, no unnecessary movements, only the dull sound of a sharp blade cutting through rotting flesh and the thud of a corpse falling to the ground.

That wasn't a battle; it was a one-sided, highly efficient massacre.

Less than a minute.

When Zhou Jue walked out of the stairwell carrying his twin swords stained with black blood, there was no one left standing behind him.

The entire rooftop was deathly silent.

All the survivors looked at her with the eyes of someone looking at a god, filled with awe, fear, and a touch of fanatical hope.

“My name is Zhou Jue.” Zhou Jue sheathed his twin swords, his voice coming through the voice changer on his helmet, still cold and calm: “Now, tell me your names, and everything you know.”

The security captain was the first to react. He threw down the fire axe he was holding, strode over to Zhou Jue, and stammered excitedly, "I...I'm Wang Yong, the security captain of this building. Thank you! Thank you for saving us!"

“I need intelligence,” Zhou Jue interrupted his thanks. “About this city, about the infected, about other survivors, and about something called ‘memory metal’.”

She casually asked about the last goal on her task list as well.

“Memory metal?” Wang Yong paused, seemingly trying to recall: “I think… I’ve heard of it. Before the apocalypse, the new landmark in the city center, the ‘Twin Towers,’ seemed to have used this material for the earthquake-resistant structure of its exterior walls…”

This information delighted Zhou Jue.

“Very good.” She nodded, her gaze sweeping over the other survivors. “Now, come with me. I need manpower to clear a safe area as our new base.”

With Zhou Jue as their powerful ally, the survivors seemed to have found their backbone and immediately expressed their willingness to follow him.

However, at that moment, something unexpected happened!

The little girl, who had been held unconscious in the arms of the middle-aged woman, suddenly began to convulse violently, letting out a roar that was not human.

Her skin turned bluish-gray at a visible speed, and her eyes snapped open, revealing a pair of scarlet pupils!

"Oh no! It's a mutated infection!" Wang Yong's expression changed drastically, and he exclaimed in shock.

The little girl opened her mouth and let out an extremely sharp shriek, as if it could pierce eardrums!

The whistling sound, like a pebble thrown into a still lake, instantly stirred up a thousand waves.

The next second, from all directions of the city, the howls of countless zombies rose and fell in response. The ground began to tremble slightly.

For the first time, Zhou Jue's expression became extremely solemn.

Through the drone's wide-angle view, she saw countless black dots emerging from every corner of the city, converging into a black torrent, rushing madly toward the hospital!

This mutant... can actually "call for help"!