Jian Shengtong had no idea that his scouts had actually been bought off.
They had a smooth ride until they arrived at a zombie-gathering area. Near that area, Jian Shengtong abruptly raised a hand to signal for the driver to stop.
"Stop!" Jian Shengtong gazed at the area about five meters away from his car and had his expression change suddenly.
"What's wrong, boss?" The driver looked at him confusedly.
Jian Shengtong didn't respond. With a frown, he opened the car door and got out, then hopped onto the car roof to look ahead through a telescope. He saw a giant crowd of zombie shambling on the road ahead. The nearest ones had already stopped moving, looking at his troop and sniffing at the air.
Jian Shengtong looked around a few times to confirm that there was indeed a huge group of zombies before his troop. After that, he leaped off the car.
"Dong!" Jian Shengtong gave a shout. However, no one responded or showed up.
He glanced backward, then asked someone in the van behind, "Where are Dong and the others?"
The people on that minivan looked at each other, then realized that a few of them were missing. "They're gone… They were here just now!" said someone.
"What's wrong?" Xia Yushen got off his car and walked up to Jian Shengtong.
"There's a thick zombie crowd before us, just hundreds of meters away. Dong and his people should have seen it earlier, but they told me that this road was clear!" said Jian Shengtong with a deep frown.
"Where are they?" On hearing that, Xia Yushen glanced backward automatically and saw that the people in that minivan were also looking around for Dong and his friends.
Jian Shengtong blinked, then abruptly turned around and said, "This might be a trap!"
"What do you mean?" Xia Yushen failed to understand him immediately.
Jian Shengtong told his assistant to search every single vehicle. As he thought, Dong and his friends weren't in the troop.
Seeing that, Xia Yushen figured it out. "Are you saying that they lied to us earlier to trick us to here?"
Jian Shengtong looked around. There was only one road that led through the area. To take a detour, they needed to move back for miles. They had no choice but to fall back, because it was impossible for them to make a way through the zombie crowd.
Xia Yushen dropped the telescope and said, "Let's go. I think they have smelled us." He saw some zombies at the front seem to shamble toward the troop.
"Fall back! Turn around! Chen Xian, Li Zhen, get your squads out, be ready to fight zombies!" Jian Shengtong immediately shouted toward the troop.
"Yes, sir!"
"Yes, sir!"
Two level-five superpowered men each led a twenty-men squad toward the zombie crowd. They lined up and raised their guns, prepared to shoot any zombie that pounced on them. By doing that, they would at least buy some time for the troop to turn around.
Right at that point, a few figured flashed over and landed behind the two armed squads. "Wait!" said one of them.
Chen Xian, Li Zhen, and their people all gave a start. They automatically turned their guns around and pointed at those strangers.
Jian Shengtong and Xia Yushen both stared vigilantly at the five strange people who showed up suddenly and were all wearing sunglasses.
"You are…" The five showed up for an unknown reason, but no hostility was detected from them. Jian Shengtong and his people were nervous and highly alert, but still, they stayed calm and polite. Jian Shengtong asked the question while observing the five.
The one in the middle was a young girl, slim, short-haired, and wearing a black sports suit. About half a meter behind her were a man and a woman, both around twenty years old. Standing on her right side was a gray-haired old man who was wearing a traditional styled robe, and a boy, seemingly ten-years-old…
The boy was wearing a mask and a pair of sunglasses, some boy's clothing. He was exactly a boy in the eyes of Jian Shengtong and his people.
The five of them were standing together, all wearing sunglasses, looking a little strange and slightly funny…
The young girl said to the group of people expressionlessly, "You're heading toward All Beings Base, aren't you? It'll take you one more day to get to the base if you decide to go back and take a detour. Are you sure about that?"
Jian Shengtong and Xia Yushen glanced at each other, then looked at the girl. They didn't know what the strange five wanted, so they raised vigilance.
"What do you mean? There is a zombie crowd, a huge one! We have a lot of people here who need our protection, so we can't take the risk to go through here," Jian Shengtong looked at the girl and said.
"We are from All Beings Base. We are here to help you get through this area. But, if you think you have the time for the detour, we won't stop you from doing that. We are able to lead you through the zombie crowd safely, believe it or not. I do need to warn you that even if you take a detour from here, you'll still need to go through a zombie crowd before entering All Beings Base. This isn't the only zombie crowd between you and the base," said the girl blandly.
She made it pretty clear. The zombie crowd before the troop wasn't the only barrier. Avoiding this crowd of zombie wouldn't allow them to enter the base smoothly. According to her, there might be another path jammed by zombies waiting for them.
All Beings Base was located in a zombie city, so that was normal.
Jian Shengtong and Xia Yushen each thought for a moment. Was there a special requirement for the people who wanted to join All Beings Base? Or, did they have to make it through zombie crowds to earn the qualification to join the base?
Clearly, the two of them were overthinking. They thought the girl was trying to tell them that all survivors who wanted to enter All Beings Base had to go through the zombie crowds.
They still had doubts, of course. "Are you really from All Beings Base? Why should we trust you?"
When a couple of people showed up suddenly and claimed that they were from somewhere, people normally tended to doubt what they said.
"Who else do you think will be here to help you guys? Or, who will have the time to come all the way here to lie to you? It's alright. You can take the detour if you want. We'll be expecting you at the second roadblock." The five weren't unhappy because of Jian Shengtong's doubts. They responded casually, as they seemed to have foreseen that.
Then, the old man, whose hands were behind his back and back slightly hunched, abruptly started talking. "You can now observe the zombie crowd with your telescopes, then decide if you want to take a detour or not." His voice was weird and hoarse.