Apocalypse: I'm Bound to a Mobile Lottery Shop

Chapter 27: Chapter 27: The Controlled Zombie Tide

Soon, Lily Hart heard the sky-shattering roars of zombies, as if they were trying to tear a hole in the heavens.

The sound of artillery fire erupted, one blast after another. The southeastern section of the base’s perimeter wall looked like a fireworks display, illuminating the night and shaking Lily Hart’s RV with its force.

The residential area was quiet. It seemed its inhabitants were accustomed to events like zombie hordes, as they orderly followed The Guardian Corps to the underground shelter. No one caused trouble. Everyone wanted to live.

The endless artillery fire dyed the horizon red.

Lily Hart looked at the app on her Light Brain. The red dots near the base’s blue circle were decreasing significantly, but a ceaseless stream of zombies was still pouring in from behind them.

’Didn’t they say they regularly spray "Zombies Go Away" potion outside the base? How can there still be a zombie horde?’

Lily Hart didn’t understand. With all the commotion, it was already nine at night. She had only eaten some takeout today and nothing since. Her stomach had been protesting for a while.

Wanting to get it over with quickly, Lily Hart ordered a boxed meal with two meat dishes and one vegetable. She scarfed it down in just a few bites, pacifying her protesting stomach.

Meanwhile, the battle line had stretched out, no longer confined to the southeastern section. The zombies seemed to have gained some intelligence, even employing crude tactics.

Even if their tactics weren’t sophisticated, their strength was in their sheer numbers. They used the bodies of their fallen comrades as ladders to slowly scale the perimeter wall and get right in the faces of the heavy artillery crews.

The perimeter wall wasn’t just a simple wall. A deep trench ran along the top, originally designed to hold floodlights.

Now, to fight the zombie horde, soldiers stood inside this trench, which also housed heavy artillery shells and other weapons.

Hunter Lowell stood on the wall, surrounded by five superpower user bodyguards. He couldn’t help but frown as he watched the organized, disciplined zombies.

A zombie’s brainstem was replaced by a Crystal Core, allowing only the simplest of thoughts. Their intelligence was like that of a five-year-old child.

But now, they seemed to be under some kind of control, becoming tactical and intelligent, and even knowing how to protect themselves.

’Could it be? Is there a High-level Zombie behind this horde?’

The thought alarmed Hunter Lowell. ’We have to find the High-level Zombie as quickly as possible. Hope Base’s Guardian Corps is limited; we can’t hold out against this mountain of corpses and sea of bodies.’

At the same time, he used his Light Brain to send a distress call to nearby bases and to Central Command.

Lily Hart had thought it would be over quickly, but as midnight approached, the artillery fire outside was still raging.

Shells were fired as if they were free, WHIZZING into the zombie hordes. A single blast killed dozens of zombies at a time.

But new zombies immediately filled the gap. They were endless, impossible to kill.

Everyone inevitably sank into a state of weary numbness, loading and firing shells like robots.

Their arms grew numb from the recoil, but there was no time to rest. A moment’s distraction was all it would take for the zombies to breach the high wall and pour into the base.

That absolutely could not be allowed to happen. If it did, it would be hell on earth.

Supplies began to run short; even the medical team was nearly out of hemostatic agents.

For a moment, despair crept into everyone’s hearts. They never got even half a year of peace before another zombie horde arrived.

’Are we really going to let these brainless zombies stomp all over us?’ The members of The Guardian Corps were all hot-blooded youths; of course, they wouldn’t stand for it.

"Damn it all! I refuse to believe we can’t kill them all!" someone roared.

"Motherfuckers! Pathetic little zombies! I’m gonna crush you!" someone else swore.

A brief moment of passionate fervor surged along the wall, but it was quickly ground back into numbness by the endless, black tide of zombies.

Exhaustion was written all over Hunter Lowell’s face. ’This can’t go on,’ he thought. ’Our shells, our resources, our people—they’re all finite.’

’We can’t win a war of attrition against the zombies.’

’I wonder how the Vanguard Squad I sent to find the High-level Zombie is doing.’

Hunter Lowell was worried about the Vanguard Squad, but he also had to constantly monitor supply consumption and manage the rotation of the heavy artillery crews.

He was mentally and physically exhausted. The rest of the management team had already joined the battle, leaving him with no one to share the burden.

He glimpsed a Level 3 Zombie dodge a shell, scramble over the bodies of other zombies onto the wall, and attack a member of a heavy artillery crew.

The soldiers nearby couldn’t react in time. Their comrade showed no signs of life. They were filled with hatred, but there was nothing they could do.

Scenes like this were happening frequently all along the wall. He was suddenly struck by a wave of despair. ’Is the great Hope Base really going to be destroyed by zombies?!’

The Light Brain on his wrist lit up. Hunter Lowell glanced down, the soft light from the screen illuminating his face.

The light revealed the deep-set wrinkles crisscrossing his face. In that instant, he found a sudden surge of spirit and motivation.

Hunter Lowell gathered his energy and shouted, his voice booming, "Everyone, hold on! The Vanguard Squad has found the High-level Zombie and is engaging it now! They’ll annihilate it soon!"

His words were effective. Many of the defenders let out a roar and quickened their pace.

Shells launched, killing hundreds of zombies in an instant. But the zombies were insensate; they felt no pain, only obeying the command to mindlessly attack.

Lily Hart was not in her RV in the residential area. Only Lily the cat remained, guarding the home. She was curled up pitifully in her cat bed, her big eyes wide, too scared to sleep.

As for Lily Hart, she was two kilometers southeast of the base, lying on the ground as still as a corpse.

Covered in a pile of dry grass, she was almost invisible in the darkness. Lying next to her was a squad leader from Hope Base.

Neither of them made a sound, quietly observing their surroundings. They were in a city district filled with towering buildings, which offered plenty of cover.

He whispered, "Are you sure the High-level Zombie behind all this is here?"

Lily Hart nodded firmly. "Obviously. Why else would I be here?"

「One hour earlier.」

Hunter Lowell had sent the Vanguard Squad to find Lily Hart, hoping she would lend them a hand.

At the time, Lily Hart had been pressed against the glass, watching the battle. ’They are my people, after all,’ she thought, her heart aching for them.

When she heard their plea for help, Lily Hart wondered what she could possibly offer. ’I can’t just pull out a stack of scratch-off tickets and start playing right here, can I? I don’t even know what I’d get.’

The squad leader from the Vanguard Squad spoke up. "You knew the zombie horde was coming in advance," he said. "An ability like that is the greatest help you could possibly give us."

’Sorry,’ Lily Hart thought, ’but the system gave me that.’

Then she suddenly remembered: the Light Brain that came with her system had an app that could detect the presence of zombies.

She agreed to help them. She just couldn’t stand by and watch her people die one by one in front of her. She couldn’t do it.

She then followed the Vanguard Squad out of the base through a small gate, killing a few low-level zombies swarming toward the walls along the way.

On the way, she opened her Light Brain and tinkered with it for a good while before figuring out how to display any detected zombies of Fifth Rank or higher as a green dot.

The squad leader leaned in closer, surprised. "Hey, your app is different from ours."

Lily Hart felt a pang of guilt. ’That piece of junk app from your Central Command only detects a zombie horde when it’s practically at the gates,’ she thought. ’How could it possibly compare to the one my system gave me?’

She fibbed, "It’s the latest version. The latest version."

The squad leader studied it for a moment and muttered, "Huh. It’s not showing an available update for me."

Lily Hart cut him off. "Found it! Right here!" As soon as the words left her mouth, all ten members of the Vanguard Squad crowded around.