Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

"Sir, you cannot enter——"

Just as one of the soldiers before room 209 was about to stop Xiaoyun, the other soldier immediately saluted Xiaoyun and pulled the other soldier back.

"Good afternoon, sir!"

"Good afternoon to you, too."

The soldier looked puzzled as he couldn't understand why his partner was letting Xiaoyun right into the room.

But the soldier on the right didn't say anything until Xiaoyun went inside the room as Kate and Tianci closed the door.

"You idiot. Do you have any idea who you were talking to?"

"Who? I don't know who that guy was. Why did you just let him in?"

The right soldier rolled his eyes in disbelief as soon as the left soldier finished talking.

"That was Commander Xiaoyun. Have you not seen him in any of the——"

"Oh shit. No wonder why he looked so familiar..."

---

Inside the room, Zhen Ti was alone on top of the bed, with nothing else in the hotel room.

Xiaoyun moved a little closer to check his pulse, only to find a completely normal pulse.

"He's still alive... I guess he really did fall into a coma."

Xiaoyun thought to himself as he lifted Zhen Ti's hand and began imagining the old Zhen Ti he had met just a month before.

A short shock appeared in his head, but it quickly dissipated as Zhen Ti suddenly opened his eyes.

"Zhen Ti, you there?"

Despite Xiaoyun waving his hand before Zhen Ti's face, he doesn't flinch a single bit as if he couldn't see at all.

"Zhen Ti! Can you hear me?"

Xiaoyun yelled right into Zhen Ti's ear, only to see him not react for a single bit.

"Zhen Ti! Wake up!"

Xiaoyun patted his forehead once, then decided to slap him right on the face after still not getting a reaction back.

"Ouch, why did you slap me?" Zhen Ti finally responded as his pupil reappeared in his eyes.

"You fell into a coma. Don't you remember?"

"Coma? When did I fall into a coma?

"You fell down the stairs and hit your head. Do you not remember any of it?"

Zhen Ti froze for a second, and then a moment of realization suddenly set in as he nodded his head.

"Oh shit. I did trip off that stupid brick on the stairs... Wait, how long has it been?"

"About a week since you fell from the coma. How did you even manage to trip over a brick?"

"I was too focused on resolving the food deficit and didn't notice it when I was going down... Wait, wait, wait, why are you here?" Zhen Ti asked in shock, realizing he had been talking to Xiaoyun the whole time.

"I just came here to help you since you fell into a coma. Don't ask how... Anyway, since you're awake now, you better deal with the mess you left at Qingyuan."

As soon as Xiaoyun finished talking, Zhen Ti started having a bad feeling.

"What mess?"

"What do you think? Your city is an absolute mess. I'm surprised it's still functioning without flat-out exploding into pieces."

"I... Mr.Xiaoyun... Can I have a personal request?"

"What? If you're suggesting that I take this city over, that's not happening."

Zhen Ti hesitated for a second but asked his question in the end.

"I can't run this city. There are just too many factions and infighting. Everything I try to do always gets pushback and delays. Please, just take this job away from me."

Seeing Zhen Ti's begging on the bed, Xiaoyun felt a little bad as he couldn't imagine running a city where nobody followed orders at all.

But his rational mind quickly rejected the idea as he shook his head.

"We both know that's not happening... How about this? I'll station Han Bang's brigade here permanently, and you can direct him to clear all your internal problems. Whether it's your small infighting or just enforcing orders."

Zhen Ti immediately nodded in agreement and accepted the offer.

"Thank you so much! You're truly the most generous person I have ever met. I can never repay you for what you have done for me."

"No need to thank me. I just want to see a stable Qingyuan that isn't on the edge of collapse or full of human traffickers."

Xiaoyun pointed out as he thought back to what he saw earlier in the streets, with families selling their own kids for food.

"I swear on my life I won't mess up this time."

"Good. Then I'm going back home. You can catch up with Han Bang. He's probably out there already enforcing laws."

---

Just as Xiaoyun left the room, there were suddenly ten people standing in the hotel hallway.

Tianci and Kate immediately moved in front of Xiaoyun as they readied their hands in their pocket.

"What business do you guys have here?" Xiaoyun curiously asked as the ten stood right at the stairway.

"You went inside Mr.Zhen Ti's room, didn't you?" One of them asked as the nine of them readied their bats and knives.

"Yeah. What business do you guys have here?"

Xiaoyun pushed Tianci and Kate back, opting to stand in front as he asked his question.

"We're just worried about Mr.Zhen Ti's health. That's all."

"If you're asking about his health, you'll see that he's perfectly healthy when he walks out. Anyway, excuse me. I need to go now."

The ten watched the three walk down the stairs, with all ten of them noticing Kate and Tianci showing the tip of a pistol on purpose.

"How do they have guns?"

One of them murmured the question they all had in their heads as they quickly went downstairs to report their encounter.

---

When Xiaoyun arrived back at Wuli's camp, he noticed it was practically empty beside the temporary camp.

"Where did they all go?" Kate murmured as she noticed all the cars and vehicles were still at the back of the camp.

"Some sort of emergency must have caused them to run north..." Xiaoyun explained as thousands of steps were on the floor, heading towards north.

"Should we go check it?" Tianci curiously asked.

"We should just wait——"

Before Xiaoyun could finish talking, gunshots and explosions suddenly appeared from the north.

"Let's go check."

Xiaoyun changed his mind as he got a little worried for Wuli, but the more he thought, the more he calmed down, as Qingyuan had no zombies and no faction that could put her in danger.

After walking for five minutes...

In the distance, Xiaoyun could finally see Wuli's troops right before a metro entrance, which they surrounded with barricades.

As he got closer, he could finally see what was happening.

There was a massive concrete block that blocked off the entire metro entrance, but right in the center was a large enough hole to fit five people through.

Wuli immediately noticed the three moving closer and closer to the front.

"Commander Xiaoyun! Can you come over here for a second?"

Xiaoyun changed his direction as he headed towards Wuli, and all the soldiers finally noticed Xiaoyun was walking among them, going completely unnoticed the whole time.

"What are we doing here?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.

"We heard a massive explosion earlier, so we came over to check it. By the time we got here, there was a massive hole in the blocked-off metro."

"Explosion? Is there any trace of human-made explosives? Have you sent anyone inside?"

"Yeah, I sent two people to check what's check it... But they haven't come out——"

Suddenly, several gunshots came out of the metro inside, followed by more explosions.

Immediately, all the soldiers got behind cover as they readied their weapons and aimed them at the hole.

After a minute, a dark figure emerged from the hole.

"Finally, they are out. What did you two——"

Before Wuli walked closer, Tianci suddenly pulled out her pistol and pointed at the two.

"Tianci, what are you——"

Everyone looked confused at Tianci, as nobody could understand why she was pointing a gun at the two soldiers.

"Put your hands up! Get on the floor, or I'll open fire." Tianci warned as she didn't explain herself at all.

But Xiaoyun didn't question Tianci's choice. He repeated the same line to the soldiers, ordering them to throw their guns to the floor.

To everyone's surprise, the two soldiers reached for their guns on the back instead of following Xiaoyun's order.

Still, none of the soldiers opened fire, but by now, they all realized something was wrong with their fellow comrades.

Within seconds, Tianci unloaded several rounds at both of the soldier's arms.

Despite being shot at and bleeding severely, neither of the soldiers screamed in pain. Instead, they reached for the gun on the floor again.

This time, Kate opened fire right at both of their legs, making both of them fall onto the floor.

"Enough! What the hell had happened to them..."

Xiaoyun murmured as he raised his hand to stop the two from firing any further.