Chapter 634: Attacking the Fog
The more Xiaoyun thought about Tianci’s explanation, the more it started to make sense to him.
Shenzhen was the perfect place for the secret society. Close enough that they could need to drive around their settlement.
It was killing two birds with one stone, slowing or even potentially blocking their expansion in Guangdong, while keeping it away from their Taishan base.
"No wonder all of this looks so familiar... Those fucking bastards really set this up to get revenge on us."
"What are you going to do about it?" Tianci asked quietly.
"You’ll see..."
---
The next few days quickly flew by as the ’death zone’ in Shenzhen remained mostly inactive.
No zombies ever came out, nor did the death zone itself expand any further.
It just remained still as if it just wanted to be a hindrance to their expansion, preventing them from fully clearing Shenzhen.
Meanwhile, the unconscious soldiers finally woke up.
When Xiaoyun and Yiming visited them, they were all perfectly fine. They felt like they had just had a long, long nap.
Their memories of the trip mostly matched up with Wuli’s story, other than the whole thing about the loops they encountered.
Based on Tianci’s diagnosis, the troop had been exposed to the fog for too long, causing them to experience hallucinations where they were stuck in one place.
Xiaoyun quickly sent Lingang and his troops back to Luoping, letting them rest as the 1st week of July soon came to an end.
---
Inside the HQ tent...
Xiaoyun and Yiming were all sitting at an empty table, with Colonel Li Miao, Li Qing, Yan Lin, and Han Bang all present.
The only two missing were Colonel Zhen Ren and Colonel Fei Gan, who were still busy dealing with Dongguan’s sudden surge of zombie activity.
"What day is today?" Xiaoyun suddenly asked.
"July 11th, sir."
As Xiaoyun looked over to the three massive crates stacked on top of each other, it was full of hazmat suits inside.
Twenty pairs in total, all with their own air system, just like the ones that Wuli used when they entered the death zone.
They were all brand new, sent straight from Luoping, which had just arrived here yesterday.
"Xiaoyun, are you sure you’re going in?" Yiming questioned, with all four Colonels looking just as doubtful about his decision.
"How many times do I have to repeat this? I’m the only one who has experience dealing with this kind of toxic fog."
All of them fell into silence, as Xiaoyun had already brought Tianci in a few days ago to explain all the findings she had made.
From the Longxue islands to disabling the fog, he was really the definitive person who had experience dealing with this kind of disaster.
"Can we not just have someone else lead? I’m willing to volunteer myself." Han Bang suggested, not wanting him to face the risk.
"My decision is final... I’ve brought you here today to hear the announcement, not to argue back about it."
As Xiaoyun looked around, he could feel the nervousness in their faces. It was clear they were all against his decision.
But still, he was going to go through with it for one reason and one reason only.
"Everyone, you’re dismissed. Yiming, you stay."
With the Colonels left the tent, Xiaoyun moved his seat closer to Yiming, sitting right across from him as he handed him a letter from his jacket.
"Before you say anything. Have a little look at this... Houqin sent this to me yesterday along with the hazmat suits."
Yiming was a little intrigued as the letter cover had the label ’Top Secret’ and ’For Command In Chief only.’
As he began to read the first line in the letter, his eyes immediately widened as if he had just read something unbelievable.
After reading through the entire thing, he slowly handed the letter back to Xiaoyun as he still looked a little shocked.
"Is the supply situation that bad?" Yiming nervously asked.
"We have two army corps. Yezi is in the west, dealing with Zhaoqing and Jiangmen, and you’re in the east, dealing with Dongguan and Shenzhen.
With the 4th Army Corps guarding the south, and both the 11th motorized division and the 3rd Army Corps here.
You tell me, how long do you think I can remain here? Yiming, I just want you to understand why I’m going in."
Xiaoyun paused for a second, then continued.
"I can’t stall this any longer. I had to do something, or I’ll be forced to bring the 3rd Army Corps back to Luoping by the end of the week."
After a long silence, Yiming’s face finally seemed to have gotten over it as he gave a short response.
"I understand..."
---
"Everyone ready?"
Xiaoyun was in a hazmat suit, with nineteen other soldiers who were all in hazmat suits as well, standing right before the fog.
Five of them had a familiar look, as Wuli’s troop and Wuli herself were brought in as well to guide them into the fog.
Everyone was armed with the tooth, with RPGs, grenades, rifles, and even three pickup trucks with machine guns attached to them.
"We’re ready, sir."
The moment Xiaoyun hopped onto one of the pickup trucks on the back, all nineteen soldiers quickly split themsleve into the three pickup trucks.
With the air valves turned, everyone reported ready one last time as the driver finally drove into the fog.
---
When the hazmat suit came in contact with the fog, Xiaoyun felt a weirdly tense pressure pressing down onto his body for a split second.
It was almost as if the air particle was trying to get inside, only to give up after realizing the fabric was too thick.
At the same time, Xiaoyun was starting to realize how hot the hazmat suit was, as his body already started to sweat a little.
"Wuli, you wore this hazmat suit from Luoping to here?" Xiaoyun curiously asked as he turned to the person next to him.
"Of course not. We only put it on when we are about to arrive in Shenzhen—Hey, you tricked me."
"Mhm, so you weren’t supposed to be in the hazmat suit in the first place... No wonder the second patch of hazmat suit had no one in it."
Wuli fell into silence, as she was in clear violation of being on this mission in the first place.
"But it’s fine... Next time you want to be on a mission, just tell me, okay?"
"Really?"
Seeing Wuli turning her head over to look back at him, he nodded his head in acknowledgment.
"Yes, really. You’re much more capable than I had imagined... I shouldn’t have kept you in a cage in Luoping."
Hearing his answer, she couldn’t help but feel a little weirded out by it. Just something in his tone that sounded different than usual.
"Are you really the Xiaoyun I know?" Wuli questioned.
"Of course I am. Ahem..."
As Xiaoyun cleared his throat, he shifted his attention back to the road. They were starting to go deep into the fog.
He could see the red tentacles next to the corrupted buildings. Its height and look were exactly what Wuli and her soldier had described.
"How much longer before we arrive at that sphere place?" Xiaoyun asked as he turned to the person to his right.
"About one minute, sir." The soldier answered.
Looking over to the pressure gauge, there were still around thirty minutes of air left, which meant two minutes had gone by since they had driven into the fog.
"Everyone, get ready. We’re going to fire everything we’ve got when we see that ball of flesh in the distance."
"Yes, sir!"
One minute quickly flew by as the soldiers soon saw an oddly big shadow in the distance, right in the middle of the road.
As the pick-up truck came to a stop and started reversing, they could barely see the outline of the sphere through the dense fog.
Everyone in the back of the pick-up trucks raised their rifles, all eighteen soldiers in three different pick-up trucks.
"Fire!"
With the first shot fired by Xiaoyun, it was quickly followed by eighteen different firing squads all raining their bullets towards the sphere.
Although no one could see if their bullet had worked, no one dared to stop as they kept holding down the trigger.
"Reloading!"
As the rifle fires started to die down, three soldiers all hopped onto the truck’s turret, firing an even stronger wall of bullets.
The turret barrels instantly caught on fire as they kept firing nonstop, but it didn’t matter at this point as ammunition ran out within seconds.
"Grenades!"
"RPG!"
After exhausting every single weapon they had in the arsenal, the sphere finally disappeared as the nearby fog started to disperse.
However, it only lasted a few seconds as the fog instantly rushed back in, filling up the small vacuum created by the explosion.
"What? How is the fog still here?"