Chapter 177 – Road Crisis, Desperate Run

Starting from Crescent Moon Community to Gaoxin Zone actually takes nearly half an hour by car.

The roar of the engine attracted zombies by the roadside, with zombies desperately lunging from all directions.

Fortunately, the military armored jeep leading the way was of excellent quality. Although muffled thuds could be heard from time to time, the vehicle remained undamaged.

Xia Na stood at the rear of the jeep, wielding a long scythe, cutting down the zombies that lunged from behind.

The zombies attacking from the sides were kept at bay by Li Yalin and Ye Lian on one side, while the other side was defended by 2, a fairly strong fighter, and another survivor, barely holding them off.

Old Wang, the driver, demonstrated his high-level skills, occasionally playing with short bursts of acceleration to shake off the zombies that managed to climb up.

However, one persistent zombie fell onto the hood, grabbing the side mirror and desperately trying to climb up. Despite several attempts, it couldn’t be shaken off.

Seeing that Old Wang’s view was almost completely blocked by the zombie, Ling Mo leaned out of the car and dispatched it with two consecutive crossbow bolts.

“Wow, Ling-Ge, your accuracy has improved a lot!” Xia Na sincerely praised from the side.

Ling Mo felt a bit embarrassed by this. He had almost blown off Meng Jiayu’s head before.

“It’s a pity we have a limited number of crossbow bolts; otherwise, we could take down a lot of zombies,” Ling Mo said regretfully.

“Save them for the Food Production Base; we’ll need them to deal with those Mutation Beasts,” Guo Chao, sitting in the passenger seat with a short knife ready to fend off incoming zombies, said during a brief moment.

The situation was tense but not too dangerous initially. However, as the number of following zombies increased, the threat became apparent.

As a large number of corpses were thrown off, the off-road vehicle following them naturally slowed down when running over the bodies, quickly becoming swarmed by a dozen zombies.

The high body of the off-road vehicle and a slightly open window helped, but with over a dozen zombies piling on, seven or eight zombies soon clung to the vehicle.

Yu Lan and the Bald Guy were inside the vehicle, trembling with fear as zombies clawed at the windows.

The survivors’ faces were pale, with only the driver, Meng Jiayu, remaining calm. The others frantically jabbed at the attacking zombies through the narrow window gaps with their weapons.

Ouyang Lian was so terrified that she covered her eyes and cowered in her seat, not daring to move.

However, as more zombies clung to one side of the off-road vehicle, it began losing balance and even started to veer off course.

“Help! Somebody, help us!”

“I don’t want to die!”

Yu Lan’s voice was the loudest, prompting another survivor to turn around and angrily shout, “Shut up!”

The Bald Guy, equally scared, gritted his teeth and picked up a short knife from the floor. Pulling the blade free, he began desperately stabbing at the zombies outside the window.

This off-road vehicle, loaded with some food supplies and most of the survivors, was intended to serve as a support vehicle. The crisis it encountered had not been anticipated by Ling Mo’s group.

Even Ling Mo had assumed that the primary danger would be faced by the leading armored jeep.

It seems that without experience, it’s tough to consider all aspects thoroughly.

“The vehicle behind is in danger,” Ling Mo said, standing at the rear of the car and clearly seeing the situation, a frown forming on his face.

Guo Chao also grew tense instantly, but the current situation allowed no room to stop for rescue.

“What should we do? Can they hold out?” Guo Chao shouted.

Ling Mo thought that if it were an armored jeep, they’d be fine, but looking at the off-road vehicle almost covered in zombies and swerving erratically…

“Crash!”

The sound of a car window shattering made Ling Mo’s expression tense, followed by sudden screams from behind.

“Not stopping?” Old Wang’s face turned pale as he asked in a panic.

Stopping was out of the question, but Guo Chao’s continued silence made Ling Mo think that Guo Chao might not be as righteous and upright as he appeared.

Fearful for his own life? In retrospect, even when Guo Chao had turned back to save a companion before, it was because he was lagging behind…

Though Guo Chao did have some skills, Ling Mo’s impression of him had significantly worsened.

If they didn’t make a decisive move soon, nearly ten people and many supplies would be lost to the zombie siege.

Not to mention, Meng Jiayu and Ouyang Lian were also in that vehicle.

“Honk the horn! Quick, honk the horn!” Ling Mo shouted twice. Seeing Old Wang look at Guo Chao, who hesitated to give the order, Ling Mo grew furious.

In this crucial moment, Ling Mo didn’t dare use the crossbow bolt; hitting a target at such a distance was practically impossible.

He decisively pulled out his handgun—a simple tool Old Wang had shown him how to use once. For an ordinary person, a handgun was much easier to handle than any kind of assault rifle.

After disengaging the safety and chambering a round, Ling Mo pointed the gun skyward and squeezed the trigger.

“Bang!”

The gunshot immediately drowned out the screams from the off-road vehicle. The zombies all turned their heads toward the loud noise.

Though the recoil made Ling Mo’s arm snap back, and he had no idea where the bullet hit, he kept firing several more shots in quick succession.

At this moment, Old Wang gritted his teeth and pressed the car horn.

The continuous blaring of the horn finally redirected the zombies’ attention fully to the military armored jeep at the front.

Simultaneously, more zombies were drawn out from hidden corners.

“Drive down the middle of the road!” Ling Mo shouted, lowering his now numb arm.

“Thud!”

Out of nowhere, a zombie jumped from a higher floor and crashed into the rear of the car, splattering blood everywhere. Although Ling Mo turned his head just in time, he still got splashed. The car shook from the impact.

“This is on you!” Guo Chao’s face turned ashen, his eyes wide with shock as if he had seen a ghost, watching nearly a hundred zombies rush towards the armored jeep.

Even someone like him had probably never encountered such a situation.

“What are you afraid of? Isn’t this car just for collision? Old Wang, as long as you don’t stop, I’ll handle the rest.”

Ling Mo’s fearless demeanor left Old Wang momentarily stunned, but the thought of their fellow survivors in the vehicle reignited his courage.

“Alright, you cover the back, and I won’t stop no matter what!”

For ordinary people, facing nearly a hundred zombies hot on their trail would be utterly hopeless before the fight even began.

But for Ling Mo, having encountered thousands of zombies before, this was nothing.

He dared to fire his gun because he was confident he wouldn’t end up buried here.

The zombies were running at full speed, and with more ahead blocking the way, the vehicle couldn’t pick up much speed.

Seeing the nearest zombies just a few meters from the car’s rear, Ling Mo quickly extended his psychic tentacle, using the invisible appendage to control the front few zombies, forcing them to slow down.

The zombies following them crashed into the slowed ones, tumbling in a mess. Falling at high speed wasn’t pleasant, with many breaking limbs. Nonetheless, a few quickly got back up, only to be trampled by the zombies surging from behind.

Ling Mo continued to disrupt the zombies’ advance this way while holding his handgun for aiming.

However, after a few failed attempts, he gave up; his aim was just too poor…

But the gunshots kept attracting the zombies, significantly easing the pressure on the off-road vehicle behind.

Meng Jiayu, initially red-eyed and convinced of her imminent death, was astonished by Ling Mo’s decisive actions at the crucial moment.

From afar, she watched the figure standing at the rear of the vehicle, feeling a complex mix of emotions.

“He saved me again… No, he saved us all again…”

Ouyang Lian couldn’t help but burst into tears, though she quickly covered her mouth, curling up in her seat and sobbing quietly.

Yu Lan and the others also breathed a collective sigh of relief. Though there were still many zombies around, they had escaped immediate peril…

“We’re saved…”

“Yeah, we’re not going to die!”

“Stay strong! With Ling-Ge here, we’ll definitely make it out alive!”

After narrowly escaping death, everyone’s spirits soared, and their will to survive reached an unprecedented peak.

The side window had been smashed but wasn’t completely shattered, indicating its decent quality…

By this time, Ling Mo saw that he had successfully drawn the attention of most of the zombies, and his bullets were spent, so he immediately switched to his Tang Sword.

Ye Lian and Li Yalin, being close-quarters fighters, weren’t suitable for battling these zombies, leaving him and Xia Na as the main combatants.

As zombies continued climbing up from the rear, Ling Mo’s Tang Sword swung down repeatedly, coordinated with his psychic tentacle, making him unstoppable for the moment.

Xia Na wielded her scythe with a violent grace, turning every swing of the crescent-shaped blade into an arc of blood.

2 climbed up from the back and said, “Ling Mo, I’m here to bond with you guys.”

“Get lost.”

“Just kidding, I’m here to help.”

With that, he took a deep breath, fixed his gaze on a few zombies fiercely pursuing the jeep, and let out an angry shout.

From Ling Mo’s psychic perspective, he saw an invisible psychic storm sweep over, causing the leading zombies to momentarily freeze.

“Hmm, this feels a bit like my psychic tentacle… but mine controls and misleads, whereas his attacks. Interesting that the psychic storm affects even mindless zombies.”

Ling Mo paused, thinking, “But maybe not entirely; zombies lack reason, but they still have some psychic remnants. They are mindless, not devoid of all psychic activity.”

However, 2’s second shout had no effect. The psychic storm dissipated almost immediately after leaving his body, a clear result of his psychic disorder.

“Ah, it’s happening again, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sorry, I did my best…”