064 Leaving the Novice Village

"Keep up, alright?"

Zhang Su observed the Highlander following closely in his rearview mirror, only to find yet another vehicle trailing right behind it. Judging by the shape of the headlights, it was an Audi Q5.

"Damn it, I'm being played too!"

The Audi Q5 was quite clever. It hadn't reacted when the Toyota iA35 drove off earlier, likely deducing that another group of people was pulling the strings behind that smartphone. Sure enough, it had waited them out!

With no time to worry about the situation behind him, stray zombies were still lunging at the van from both sides. Zhang Su maneuvered the vehicle in a clumsy and desperate attempt to dodge them, not daring to randomly plow into the zombies hurling themselves at the car for fear that the aging van wouldn't be able to take the impact.

"Dammit, the moment I get my hands on an armored vehicle, I'm going to crush you all to paste!"

While dodging the leaping zombies, Zhang Su thought bitterly to himself.

Soon, the van reached the bottom of the exit ramp, but the scene waiting for him on the slope made his hair stand on end!

Between ten and twenty zombies were scattered loosely across the slope, which was about forty or fifty meters long. It wouldn't have been entirely impossible to drive around them—it was only slightly harder than the second stage of a driving test.

Yet zombies moved, and they didn't run slowly at all!

Hearing the approaching roar of the engine, some zombies near the bottom of the slope already lunged toward the van, their fearless determination almost touching.

"Damn it, do or die!"

A wild look flashed in Zhang Su's eyes. Salvation was right before his eyes; he refused to believe he would fall right before dawn. With a hard stomp, he drove the accelerator pedal practically into the engine bay.

Vroom! Vroom!!

The engine let out a defiant scream, the tachometer needle slamming straight into the redline at over six thousand RPM, unleashing the wildest burst of power the van had ever produced in its lifetime.

Thud! Thud-thud!

Knocking aside the three closest zombies, Zhang Su flicked the steering wheel slightly and squeezed into a gap. The surging speed gave him infinite possibilities, carving a path straight through the horde by sheer force of will!

"Punch it! Go, you can do this!"

Zhang Su didn't dare ease up on the accelerator for even a second. The van rocketed out of the underground parking garage, flying high into the air off the final step and launching with the sheer momentum of a rally car!

In just a second or two, the van crashed back down to the ground. The landing posture was a bit clumsy, rocking side to side, but it ultimately leveled out without flipping over!

"Ha! Yahoo!"

As the street scene came into view, Zhang Su couldn't help letting out a cheer. He had finally left the damn darkness behind him.

Knowing that this was merely the first step of a grueling journey, he immediately refocused the moment the cheer subsided.

Scanning rapidly, the situation on the street south of the residential complex was somewhat better than he had anticipated. It wasn't as disastrous as the blasted street on the west side, nor had it experienced the violent gunfire exchange between the SWAT team and the zombies on the east side street.

However, more than a dozen vehicles still lay scattered across the street. A breakfast cart on the other side of the road was stained red with blood, and the upper half of a corpse hung over the display window—it seemed someone had tried to take refuge from the pursuing zombies in the breakfast cart, only to fail.

Debris was scattered everywhere across the pavement, somewhat hindering navigation, but as long as the road wasn't completely blocked, he would keep driving forward even if the tires blew and he was left riding on bare rims!

According to his original plan, Zhang Su drove right onto the street, only to find that the zombies ahead were noticeably denser than the ones behind. He figured that the car which had driven out of the complex earlier must have headed in the opposite direction.

Although there were quite a few zombies, a wide main road was far easier to navigate than an underground parking garage. There was plenty of room to dodge, so they weren't a major obstacle.

Just as Zhang Su turned onto the main road, he caught sight of the Highlander emerging from the underground parking garage from the corner of his eye, with a flailing zombie sprawled across its windshield...

With a sudden jolt, the zombie on the hood was shaken off and flung onto the roadside.

"It's fine..."

Just as Zhang Su exhaled a breath of relief, he saw that black Audi Q5 tailing right behind the Highlander out of the garage!

"You'd better not follow me, damn it, you motherf—”

As Zhang Su muttered under his breath, he watched the Q5 make an unhesitating right turn right behind the Highlander, its intent glaringly obvious.

"Not good!"

A momentary lapse in concentration almost caused Zhang Su to crash into a slanted vehicle ahead. He stopped getting distracted and focused entirely on being the lead vehicle.

The street no longer resembled its familiar self; scenes straight out of a doomsday blockbuster had bled into reality. The roaming zombies, while not overly dense, were certainly numerous, scattered across street corners, median strips, sidewalks, and roadside storefronts.

Rolling down the car window just a crack, the chilly wind carried a strange, foul scent into the cabin.

"It's the end of the world. Truly the end of the world."

While trapped inside the residential complex, the impact hadn't felt quite so visceral. Only by immersing oneself in it could one truly feel the desolation of the apocalypse.

After a short while, Zhang Su's van turned onto Qingbin Road by the gas station.

Qingbin Road was one of the busier streets in Qincheng. The road conditions right now were far worse than the street outside the entrance of Shengqing Homeland. Vehicles abandoned dead center in the road had nearly blocked it off entirely, and various mutated forms of zombies wandered through the wreckage of the traffic accidents, creating a grisly scene.

Right at that moment, a shrill voice rang out.

"Help! Save me!"

Zhang Su turned his head to look. In the lane adjacent to the intersection, a woman had thrust her upper body out of a sunroof, frantically waving her arms in his direction.

"There's nothing I can do..."

Without a moment's hesitation, Zhang Su swerved into the non-motor vehicle lane, riding the right-hand curb as the tilted car sped forward at high velocity, harboring no intention whatsoever of stopping to rescue her.

Right now, he was relying purely on high-speed driving to shake off the pursuing zombies. The moment he stopped to save someone, there was only one possible outcome: being surrounded!

"I just pray Zhong Xiaoshan doesn't suddenly get a rush of saintly empathy!"

As Zhang Su was thinking this, the shadow of the Highlander appeared in his rearview mirror. Its speed was not a fraction slower than his, and the zombies couldn't even brush against the car before losing their target.

Judging by the vehicle's posture, he could tell that Zhong Xiaoshan had turned without the slightest hesitation, proving she was no bleeding-heart pushover.

"Decisive enough. Good!"

Zhang Su had miscalculated. Zhong Xiaoshan and her companions hadn't noticed anyone calling for help at all. Zheng Xinyu's face was pale white and her eyes were tightly shut, while Wang Guangjun in the back row had a sallow complexion, his eyes also firmly closed.

Whoosh. Whoosh.

Trailing closely behind the van, both the Highlander and the Q5 followed suit, careening wildly forward with their bodies tilted.

Once she drove out of the complex, Zhong Xiaoshan completely let go. She neither slowed down nor yielded her path; whenever a zombie lunged toward her, she simply drove straight into it. Doing so might cause some damage to the vehicle, but at least it would prevent an unrecoverable catastrophe like a rollover.

Her eyes were locked firmly onto the rear of the van, bloodshot from straining too hard. Forget about someone else crying for help—even if the building next to them had collapsed, she wouldn't have spared it a single glance!

The driver of the Audi Q5 also possessed seasoned skills, practically projecting an aura that they could overtake the Highlander at any second.

The three vehicles sped swiftly past the zombie-infested streets. With damaged vehicles and green belts blocking the way, many zombies stopped chasing after only a few steps, relapsing into a state of bewilderment.

Soon, Zhang Su's gaze hardened as he looked ahead—the sign of the gas station appeared not far away!