Apocalypse: I can control zombies

Chapter 102: Huge Gains, Return!

In Sunshine Garden, besides Zhao Lei, there are no other survivors worth paying special attention to, and there are no superhumans either.

In fact, given the population size of Sunshine Garden, it should normally produce at least one or two people with superpowers.

But whether a person with superpowers can be born is one thing, and whether they can survive is another.

After all, aside from offensive abilities, auxiliary abilities like Shen Qingci's perception and Zhou Yuanqing's hurricane have limited impact on survival in the early stages of the apocalypse.

Shen Qingci survived because she met Lu Chen, while Zhou Yuanqing survived purely out of luck.

If the zombies break down the door, these two people will still die.

So perhaps there are people with superpowers in Sunshine Garden, but they died under the claws of zombies before they could even use their abilities after awakening.

The next two teams continued rescuing the other survivors at a steady pace.

They can rescue survivors from one building every half hour, and with two teams working together, they can take care of four buildings in an hour.

As more and more people gathered under the pavilion, Wei Dong's drone kept hovering overhead, and even the high-altitude camera transmitted the rescue progress of Sunshine Garden back to the security room of Xiangyang Community in real time.

Gao Yuan saw the dense crowd below the pavilion on the security room's monitor screen and began to make advance arrangements for logistics to prepare to receive this group of new survivors.

By 4:30 p.m., all the survivors from the 12 buildings had been rescued.

After the final count, the total number of survivors in Sunshine Garden was actually more than the combined number in Xiangyang Community and Cuizhu Garden, reaching a total of 255 people.

If they can all be brought back, the total number of survivors in Xiangyang Community will reach 495, just 5 short of the 500 mark.

In Xicheng District, an area far from being covered by rescue forces, a stronghold of nearly 500 people is definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Of course, besides the survivors, there are also an unusually large number of Iron Pillar-class and Great Strong-class individuals here.

Sunshine Garden has a large population and a large number of zombies. The absolute number of Iron Pillar-level zombies is naturally more than in other communities. A total of 10 Iron Pillar-level zombies were captured alive during the rescue.

It should be noted that Lu Chen currently only has 11 Da Zhuang-level dogs under his control, and two of them are still left in Xiangyang Community, so he only brought nine with him.

Even if you replace all 9 Great Strong-level monsters with Iron Pillar-level monsters at once, there will still be 1 left over.

As for the "Big Strong" level zombies, that's even more exaggerated; a rough estimate puts their number at over 60.

Why is it a rough estimate? Because the quantity is so large that Lu Chen never intended to take them all.

There were already 47 reserve Mighty-class zombies, and with another 60 brought back, the warehouse now has over a hundred. Keeping so many reserve zombies takes up space and is energy-consuming, and managing them is also a hassle.

So after some consideration, he decided to keep only 33, making a total of 80 spare zombies.

The reserve force of 80 is sufficient to deal with any emergencies; any excess will be killed on the spot.

Lu Chen spent another 10 minutes replacing all 9 of the Big Strong-level monsters he brought with Iron Pillar-level monsters.

Of course, the most time-consuming part of those 10 minutes was actually the field crew changing the equipment of the newly recruited Iron Pillar-class soldiers. They had to remove the fully enclosed combat helmets, neck armor, heavy torso armor, and limb arm guards from the replaced Da Zhuang-class soldiers one by one, and then put them on the new Iron Pillar-class soldiers one by one.

Nine Iron Pillar-class battleships were being refitted simultaneously, and Ning Tieshan and several field crew members were working up a sweat.

In the process, the true identities of these "soldiers" were naturally exposed.

As the 255 newly arrived survivors lined up under the pavilion, they witnessed the field crew removing the armor from the "soldiers," revealing their grayish-blue skin and sharp fangs underneath.

They also witnessed Lu Chen placing his hands on the strong zombies that were bound like dumplings, and ten seconds later the zombies stood up and obediently followed his instructions.

It turns out that these seemingly invincible "soldiers" were actually zombies.

After the initial panic, the survivors were left only with amazement at the power of Lu Chen's superpower.

This is undoubtedly a good thing for them—the stronger Lu Chen is, the better he can protect their safety.

Seeing this scene confirmed the truth of Zhao Lei's previous guess.

He silently raised his previous assessment of the team's combat strength by another level, feeling more grateful than anything else—grateful that in this post-apocalyptic environment, there were still superhumans like Lu Chen willing to step forward and protect other survivors.

If a superhuman only wanted to live comfortably, they could easily take a few zombies and occupy a building all to themselves, with enough supplies to last for several years, without needing to risk coming out to rescue others.

As the team gathered at the pavilion, Zhang Wei emerged from the last apartment building, his tool bag bulging and hanging from his waist, filled with disassembled cameras and their associated cables.

The Iron Pillar-level zombie quietly followed behind him, carrying a bundle of semi-circular surveillance brackets that had been removed from the ceilings of the corridors on each floor.

"Sir, we've dismantled 30 in total." Zhang Wei walked up to Lu Chen, put his tool bag on the ground, and neatly stacked dozens of dismantled cameras inside, their casings still covered in white dust from the ceiling.

"Some of the elevator entrance cameras in the buildings are positioned too high, and you can't reach them without a ladder. Some are already broken, and removing them won't help. These 30 are all working; they'll be ready to use once connected."

Thirty cameras—this isn't all the cameras in Sunshine Garden, but it accounts for more than half.

In addition to the old cameras that were previously removed from various buildings in Xiangyang Community, the coverage of the community's internal surveillance is more than sufficient.

If it's not enough in the future, we can continue to demolish—there are still several residential areas nearby that we haven't been to, and there are plenty of surveillance cameras that we can exploit.

"You've worked hard." Lu Chen glanced at the bag of cameras and nodded. "You've taken risks on this mission. When we get back, I'll have Gao Yuan distribute your contribution points according to the quota for field staff."

Upon hearing this, wrinkles appeared on Zhang Wei's sun-darkened face.

After all, the contribution points for field staff are more than five times that of logistics staff. He only earns a few contribution points by squatting in the power distribution room for a whole morning. The contribution points he earns from this field trip can be used to get more meat and vegetables for his family.

Lu Chen patted him on the shoulder and told him to rejoin the group. Zhang Wei slung his tool bag back over his shoulder and happily ran back to the survivors' group.

The team was assembled and then began their return journey.

Elite zombies and zombie cats led the charge, followed by 24 Iron Pillar-level zombies, arranged in two columns, with 255 survivors guarding both sides.

Behind the group were reserve zombies bound like dumplings, dragged along by ropes pulled by several iron pillars.

The 255 survivors were caught in the middle of the horde of corpses as the long procession left Sunshine Garden and headed towards Yang Community along the streets they had cleared on their way there.

The survivors walking in the middle of the group would occasionally turn their heads to look at the Iron Pillar-level zombie and then at the elite zombie at the front, who was over 2 meters tall and carrying a horse-slaying saber. Their expressions showed both the relief of surviving a disaster and the awe of this silent army.

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