A black Jeep Wrangler was weaving through the zombie horde with rather tricky maneuvers.
Tao Yu was steering with one hand, driving just as well as the veteran driver Jack thanks to the "Riding" skill.
Although this Jeep didn't have the modifications like a pickup truck, nor was it welded with any extra equipment.
But under Tao Yu's efforts to minimize collisions, it was still a smooth ride in a retirement city like Henderson.
"Oh ho, gas stations sure do stand out."
Through the windshield smeared with blood and flesh, Tao Yu glimpsed the gas station the trio from West City had discovered.
It appeared that a truck convoy was queuing for fuel here, with no less than five semis, each over a dozen meters long, lined up at this spot.
One of the semis had its cargo door busted open, revealing mountains of boxed goods inside.
At a quick glance, Tao Yu noticed that the boxes in the opened truck were labeled 'tissues'.
Yet at the gas station, a large horde of zombies indeed blocked the place, seemingly drawing even the street's zombies over.
From the opened cargo container, it was likely that survivors had tried to come here for supplies and then made some noise, attracting the zombies.
That's what had caused the zombified crowd.
"It can't all just be tissues, gotta gamble with the rest of these mystery boxes."
Tao Yu quickly reduced the speed, and as he passed the entrance to the gas station, he incessantly honked the horn, immediately drawing the zombies' attention from inside.
Even the other nearby zombies were lured over.
But Tao Yu didn't seem concerned, nor did he increase his speed. He kept driving forward at a low gear, calmly letting the zombies slowly encircle the vehicle.
If these had been normal survivors, getting surrounded by zombies would mean there was no escape, eventually leading to their death trapped inside the car.
But Tao Yu was far from tense. He scanned the surroundings, preemptively parking the car in front of a store on the street, then casually got out with his backpack.
Little Black didn't even need Tao Yu to take action; it quickly took down a few nearby zombies.
Watching the zombies approaching from a distance, Tao Yu and Little Black climbed onto the car roof, then, backpack in tow, leaped to grab the shop's sign next door. Amidst the creaking sounds of the supports, they quickly clambered over.
Leaving the abandoned Wrangler to be slowly surrounded by zombies...
...
Meanwhile, inside the gas station's convenience store, several figures were stealthily observing the outside through the glass window.
A tall, dreadlocked black man was also speaking in a hushed voice to a tattooed Hispanic man next to him,
"Someone's drawing the zombies away, now's our chance!"
On the other side, another Hispanic man suggested to the tattooed man,
"Big bro, must be others after these truck resources, and since they're taking such big risks, there's likely a team coming soon. We need to act decisively."
"Yeah, been trapped here for months. Those two chicks are almost played out, and the food is getting scarce. I can't take it anymore."
The tall black man complained again and took a glance towards a storage room, which was slightly ajar, revealing two more figures inside.
"Shut up! You want to deal with the remaining zombies outside? Or shoot and draw them back again?" the tattooed Hispanic leader hissed in a low voice.
The reprimand made the tall black man and the other Hispanic subordinate shiver.
With an accelerated step, Tao Yu casually slit the black man's throat.
Avoiding the spray of blood, he then kicked the man back toward the zombies following him and walked through the door naturally.
At this point, the two Mexican men inside were finally on high alert and ready to draw their guns.
They'd act without a word—was this guy a psychopathic killer? They hadn't even made a move yet!
Now they didn't care about the noise from the guns; they had to deal with the target first!
The other party had a gun, too!
But Tao Yu gave them no chance to react; one man had his throat slit by Tao Yu up close, and another had a thrown dagger embedded in his eye socket, all in one breath.
Tao Yu even had the presence of mind to step over and grab the collar of a falling corpse to prevent it from hitting a shelf and making a noise.
Within seven steps, a gun is fast and accurate, sure, but that assumes you're ready and the opponent has reaction time.
"Scum."
Extracting the dagger from the corpse's eye socket, Tao Yu shook off the blood on it and wiped it on his wrist before sheathing it again.
Little Black had been arranged to handle nearby zombies, and Tao Yu had just come down when he sensed the malice here.
He had walked over, pretending not to know, simply because firing a gun would make too much noise.
With the skill "Bullet Time," Tao Yu wasn't afraid of a quick reaction contest.
With exceptional vision, he had glimpsed the situation inside the storeroom with just a casual glance.
There were two raggedly dressed women, both looking in very bad shape right now; it was a scene that would need mosaic censorship.
That's why he was so decisive in his actions.
The two women inside, who seemed to have been waiting for death, became aware of the situation outside only later, and began to whimper, seemingly trying to say something.
But they couldn't speak with dirty underpants stuffed in their mouths.
Because the assault didn't make much noise, the zombies outside were relatively calm, and Tao Yu simply went over, then again drew his dagger and said in a calm tone
"I've avenged you, you can rest now. I'll bring you relief; may there be no..."
"Mmm~ wait, wait a moment."
A woman with originally golden hair, now a sticky mess clumped together, with a dirty face, struggled with all her might, managing a difficult yoga move to free her mouth from the gag.
She had tapped into the full potential of life.
"That, I don't want to die yet, please don't relieve me..."
After removing the gag, she spoke with a slightly hoarse voice, then turned her head to help remove the gag from her companion's mouth.
"I, I don't either..."
The other woman, presumably Eurasian, weakly spoke up after removing the mouth gag.
No matter how beautiful a woman is, the strange odor and clumps of hair from not grooming for months, as well as the terrible ordeal of those months, would make her look more exaggerated than a beggar.
To Tao Yu, these two were just two blurs of mosaic, and they even smelled bad.
"Tsk~, so what do you want to do now?"
Tao Yu put away the dagger; he wasn't any devil. Seeing they didn't want relief, he couldn't force it; that wouldn't be right...