True Apocalypse Game

Days passed in the game, and more and more Salvation Army Warriors escaped from New York City, making their way to the Salvation Army’s temporary base in the suburbs.

A day had even passed unnoticed in the real world. Many Salvation Army Warriors who had died in the game had already logged back in, and with their newfound experience, they easily escaped New York City to regroup with the main force.

By now, the number of Salvation Army Warriors worldwide had reached around fifty thousand. Including the survivor NPCs they had rescued from the game’s urban ruins, the total population of the base had swelled to between fifty and sixty thousand—a formidable force.

These elites, hailing from all professions, proposed numerous ingenious ideas for destroying the tower in New York City, including using full-band jamming to block its signals.

All of these suggestions were adopted, and personnel were assigned to begin research on various fronts.

Following these arrangements, the entire Salvation Army began to operate like a precision instrument.

The medical support unit, led by Li Tongchen, began studying the properties of the Evil Spirit Virus within the game, while also working to cultivate and extract the Stone Statue Virus.

They now faced the same problem Shen Feng once had: the Stone Statue Virus could also infect this world’s survivors, a risk they had to mitigate.

Meanwhile, other squads hadn’t given up on direct physical attacks against the tower. Seven suicide demolition teams had been dispatched. The first six were spotted by the zombie horde while approaching the tower and subsequently annihilated.

The last team that successfully approached the tower detonated high explosives at close range, only to discover that a blast powerful enough to destroy a skyscraper had practically no effect on the tower!

The flesh-and-blood tissue composing the tower had obviously undergone advanced mutation. It perfectly absorbed the explosion’s shockwave, light, and heat, forming a thick layer of biological armor on its surface. It was merely scorched black, having sustained no critical damage.

In fact, after sustaining the explosive attack, the tower visibly underwent a new evolution. A layer of bone-like armor surfaced across the entire structure, which one could tell at a glance possessed immense defensive capabilities.

The other plans—tunneling underground, creating zombie bombs, building containment walls, freezing it with liquid nitrogen, and so on—all failed without exception.

The research of the medical support unit led by Li Tongchen also hit a bottleneck.

Although they had located the Stone Statue Virus in this game world, they found it incredibly difficult to alter its properties or induce a useful mutation.

After all, even for the Salvation Army’s doctors, their research into the Stone Statue Virus wasn’t actually that extensive.

Back then, their acquisition of the Medicine for Lichen Disease was entirely due to the Commander’s direct intervention.

And once they had the Medicine for Lichen Disease, much of the related virology research had been discontinued.

Because of this, their understanding of the Stone Statue Virus was far less profound than Shen Feng’s.

The entire induction and cultivation process was extremely arduous. They hit many dead ends, and it was taking far longer than expected.

Soon, they had tried nearly every conceivable method, all of which ended in failure.

Several days later, the two-hundred-person special operations team led by the Legion Commander also returned from Nebraska in defeat.

Of the two hundred who had set out on the mission, fewer than fifty returned to base. Many were wounded, clear evidence of a brutal fight.

With guidance from Fres, the Deputy Commander of Strategic Command, the operation should have, in theory, gone very smoothly.

And at first, it did. The team’s formation of fighters and transport planes landed directly at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, crushing the ground-level zombie horde to pieces.

Then, after a bitter fight, they broke into the Strategic Command headquarters.

But who could have predicted it? When they reached the command center of Strategic Command, they were horrified to find that every piece of equipment inside had been utterly destroyed.

Much of the equipment had been hacked apart with blades and axes or even blown up with explosives; some control rooms had been doused in gasoline and burned to ashes.

The signs of destruction everywhere were clearly deliberate—no, they had to have been made by zombies.

It was as if the world’s zombie horde possessed some vast, unseen collective consciousness that made them understand the threat posed by Strategic Command. After the apocalypse descended, they had systematically destroyed the facility, leaving humanity with no chance to use nuclear weapons.

The moment they saw this, the Legion Commander and his men instantly deduced that the various missile silos and mobile launchers must have also been intentionally destroyed by the zombies.

Just as they were preparing to leave, the horde outside Offutt Air Force Base began to shriek madly. It was as if they had sensed the team’s intentions, and they swarmed forward to attack.

If the Legion Commander hadn’t acted decisively, blowing up the air base’s armory to halt the horde’s advance, everyone might have died there. Even so, they still lost the majority of their team.

"Mr. F, how did it go?" Vasily couldn’t help but ask, even though he could already see the answer on everyone’s faces.

Nick shook his head, his face dark. "Motherfucker, it’s like those zombies knew what we were planning..."

Mick, standing nearby, offered a comforting smile.

"It’s okay. We can keep trying different methods. We’ll find a way eventually. To be honest, all these tests these past few days... it almost feels like I’m back at Stanford..."

The Legion Commander, meanwhile, had gone to Li Tongchen’s lab. He asked with a grim expression:

"Old Li, how is the bioweapon development coming along?"

Though the zombies had been quiet for a long time, the Legion Commander felt an inexplicable anxiety upon his return, a nagging feeling that he had forgotten something.

Li Tongchen gave a bitter smile and said:

"Time. Just give us more time. Our understanding of the Stone Statue Virus is too shallow. I should have done more research back in the real world... At this rate, we’ll need at least another month..."

Hearing this, the Legion Commander nodded. Just as he was about to say something, an alarm suddenly blared from the base’s guard post.

Then, Nick strode up to his side and said in a low voice:

"Legion Commander, a group of zombies has arrived outside..."

The Legion Commander looked at Nick, waiting for him to continue.

’A zombie attack on the base isn’t a big deal. Nick wouldn’t have rushed to find me over something like that.’

"...These zombies... they want to see you... They said... they want to negotiate!"

As Nick spoke, a look of disbelief filled his eyes. After all, the idea of over a thousand zombies speaking in unison to demand a negotiation with the Salvation Army’s leader was simply too bizarre.

This was all just too strange.

The Legion Commander’s eyes lit up. He finally remembered what he had overlooked.

The intelligent zombies they had encountered before in New York City!

’If the zombies really are intelligent, maybe we don’t have to fight them to the death right away. We could try to communicate, to negotiate. We could buy ourselves some time and maybe even find a new way forward.’

Soon, a few zombies dressed in suits were brought before the Legion Commander.

These zombies were impeccably dressed and appeared to have bathed; they were quite clean. If not for their slightly staggering gait and unfocused eyes, one could barely identify them as zombies.

"You are... the leader of the living?" the zombies asked. Each one spoke only a piece of the sentence, but their voices came so quickly in succession that it sounded like a single person speaking.

Witnessing this, the Legion Commander’s gaze sharpened, sweeping over the zombies. He spoke slowly,

"That’s right. I am. And you are... Symbiotes?"

The surrounding Salvation Army Warriors were equally shocked. They had been pondering how a zombie’s withered brain could achieve intelligence, never imagining it involved Symbiotes.

The zombies didn’t answer, instead speaking rapidly:

"I have been observing you for many days. We must unite and tear down that damned tower. He is about to awaken. We’re running out of time!"

The words had barely faded when everyone suddenly felt the ground tremble. Then, a low roar came from the direction of New York City, as if some monster was awakening deep underground!