Doomsday police, please show your god/demon ID card.

Two hours later.

The convoy arrived at the edge of the city center.

The streetlights along the road were already off, and abandoned vehicles were blocking the road haphazardly.

Wang Hu gripped the steering wheel, his voice tense: "Something's not right! The fog in the city center seems much thicker than where we are."

Unlike the light mist around the base, the fog thickened as you walked closer to the city center, taking on an eerie grayish-white hue.

The car headlights only illuminated a distance of less than ten meters ahead; beyond that, it was all a blur.

"Indeed!" Su Yan, sitting in the back seat, looked out the window, her brows furrowed, her hands gripping the first-aid kit on her knees tightly. "This is very abnormal."

"Furthermore, I can sense that the air here... is filled with its scent."

"You mean, it has discovered us?" Tang Long asked, frowning.

Su Yan closed her eyes, as if sensing something.

After a while, she opened her eyes and shook her head slowly with a slight hesitation: "There shouldn't be! But everything here is permeated with its scent."

She paused, seemingly considering her words.

"Just like the entire area, it's an extension of its body."

Tang Long frowned, picked up the walkie-talkie and ordered, "Attention everyone, we are five kilometers from the edge of the city center."

"Everyone, disengage the safety and load the bullets."

"yes!"

Click, click.

The sound of guns being loaded in unison echoed throughout the carriage.

......

Twenty minutes later.

The convoy officially drove into the city center.

Suddenly, Luo Yongchao's voice, tinged with surprise, came through the walkie-talkie from the car behind.

"Wait... Captain Tang! Look to the right."

Tang Long immediately turned his head to look to his right.

The fog was thick, but it was still barely visible that a figure was standing on the second-floor platform of an abandoned office building by the roadside.

Or rather, a corpse.

He was wearing a tattered suit, his body was emaciated, and his skin was ashen.

It has no head.

The neck area had the same smooth incision.

He just stood there quietly, his body stiff as a statue.

Facing the city center, put your hands together and raise them in front of your chest.

It's like...praying.

Wang Hu couldn't help but curse, "What the hell is this thing?!"

Tang Long frowned slightly: "Ignore him, let's go!"

Wang Hu nodded and stepped on the gas.

then.

Just as the car turned the corner.

next second.

Nourishing~

The car braked suddenly, and the tires scraped several streaks of asphalt on the ground.

Everyone in the carriage was thrown forward by inertia and then slammed back into their seats. Tang Long almost hit his head on the train window.

But at this moment, no one cared about the pain; everyone's eyes were fixed on the front, their pupils contracted.

The car headlights swept through the thick fog ahead.

Under lampposts, beside bus stops, on the roofs of overturned buses, even inside the broken windows of shops along the street…

It was densely packed with headless zombies.

Without exception, they all faced the city center, hands clasped together, standing silently.

It was like a grand yet silent pilgrimage, or a collective ritual of some kind of sinister religion.

"Holy crap! This...this...this..." Wang Hu stammered, his legs trembling.

He would rather face the horde of corpses rushing towards him like a tidal wave, howling madly, than watch this scene unfold before him for even a second longer.

"This...this is a pilgrimage?" Su Yan's voice trembled slightly, her eyes filled with doubt and uncertainty.

Tang Long gripped the Type 95 rifle tightly, somewhat at a loss.

The main thing is this scene before my eyes.

It's so bizarre, so sinister!

Wang Hu gripped the steering wheel tightly and glanced at Tang Long.

"Captain Tang, what do we do now? Charge in?"

His voice was very low, with a slight, almost imperceptible tremor.

"Don't rush it." Su Yan's voice rang out from the back seat. Her face was pale, and beads of sweat were seeping from her forehead.

"I can feel that each of them is like a signal node, connected to each other to form a network."

"A forced collision could instantly detonate this net, and then we would be facing not these puppets, but the Queen's direct will."

However, just as the words fell,

Crunch~

A headless zombie stiffly turned its body to face the convoy.

Even though it had no head, everyone inexplicably felt as if they were being stared at by a cold gaze.

Immediately afterwards, another headless zombie turned around.

One after another...

Densely packed.

At this moment, the entire street was deathly silent; there were no roars, no friction, not even a breeze.

But everyone's heart was in their throat.

Tang Long took a deep breath and picked up the walkie-talkie: "Wu Zheng, how's the situation on your end?"

Wu Zheng's somewhat nervous voice came through the walkie-talkie: "Team Leader Tang, I... I used to deliver goods, and I know a side road that can bypass this main road."

"explain."

"Turn right at the intersection ahead, enter the commercial plaza, and go through the underground parking lot to get directly to Jiefang Road, which is closer to the city center." Wu Zheng's voice quickened.

"Is there any danger in the square?" Tang Long pressed.

"There must be something, but it's better than wasting time here dealing with these weird things."

Tang Long glanced at the eerie headless corpses outside, then at the increasingly thick fog.

"Okay, let's take this route."

He gave the order into the walkie-talkie: "Luo Yongchao, you guys stay close. Wang Hu, turn right and enter the commercial plaza."

"receive!"

Wang Hu gritted his teeth, jerked the steering wheel, and turned the armored vehicle around, heading towards the shopping center entrance on the right.

The glass doors at the entrance were already shattered. The car drove over the broken glass and into the dark hall.

Once inside the building, the pervasive sense of being watched from the outside world seemed to lessen somewhat.

But a new sense of oppression loomed over everyone.

The mall was in a mess, with various goods scattered all over the floor, and dried bloodstains and drag marks everywhere.

The air was filled with a strange smell of rot and dust.

"Turn on the high beams," Tang Long commanded.

The blinding beam of light instantly tore through the darkness, illuminating the scene ahead.

Then, everyone was stunned.

In the center of the spacious shopping mall lobby, hundreds of headless zombies stood.

Unlike the ones standing by the roadside outside, they are arranged in concentric circles around the central circular fountain, forming a huge concentric circle.

Still with hands clasped together, silently "worshiping" the long-dried-up fountain.

"Damn it, it's in here too!" Wang Hu cursed under his breath, gripping the steering wheel tightly.

"They don't seem to have... noticed us." A young police officer's voice was a little weak.

Tang Long didn't speak, but simply made a gesture.

Wang Hu understood, slowed down, and carefully drove around the edge of the circle formed by the headless zombies, heading towards the entrance of the underground parking lot.