You were supposed to hoard supplies, why the heck did you hoard zombies!

The bright lights were so piercing they made one's eyes ache.

But the sound that erupted, like a massive stone, instantly crashed down upon Chen Bingjiang and Zheng Youcai's hearts.

Struggling to open their eyes, they finally made out who the figures on the truck were.

Zhang Ye.

It was indeed him!

But how come he wasn't in the villa?

There were a few other figures on the truck, one of them especially familiar—it was Ai Bing, whom they had met in the shopping mall before.

The woman was looking at them with an icy and disgusted expression.

Then there was a series of thumping sounds as more than a dozen tall figures, each with a shield and a steel helmet, poured out of the truck's cargo space.

They were the very same team of bodyguards who had accompanied Zhang Ye to the shopping mall that day, and now almost all of them were here.

The people who were converging from all around were dressed in various clothes.

Bloodstains were everywhere.

Zheng Youcai, watching the vague silhouettes approaching in the darkness, finally began to panic.

At this moment, their adversaries' numbers had started to match their own.

Even exceeded them.

And the noise at the south gate seemed to be continuing.

Logically, these people shouldn't be here unless they're not worried at all about any problems arising over there.

But why?

Given the noise just now, it would surely attract all the zombies nearby toward the direction of the south gate.

At least hundreds of zombies gathered in one place—he dared to ignore them?

If any zombie took advantage of the chaos to sneak in—

It would inevitably cause turmoil.

But the current situation indicates that Zhang Ye had deliberately left an opening to lure them in.

The south gate probably wasn't even prepared for reinforcements.

Isn't he afraid?

No.

Zheng Youcai suddenly calmed down.

Even with the villa area's strength, it's impossible to ignore a horde of hundreds of zombies.

Could it be that this kid was pretending to be calm to scare him and Chen Bingjiang away, intending to hurry and deal with the zombie horde at the south gate?

As this thought struck him, a glint of determined resolve flashed in his eyes.

It didn't matter if they couldn't take over the villa area.

After all, this place was never really a safe sanctuary.

But the secrets Zhang Ye carried were different; they were key to his survival here.

"Just agree to one thing for me, and we will leave immediately," Zheng Youcai finally spoke.

His eyes and tone were very firm.

It was as if it was not them who were encircled, but Zhang Ye.

Chen Bingjiang, standing next to him, had a grim expression. He'd been covertly sizing up the ring of fully armed bodyguards around the truck, calculating the possibility of breaking through by force.

Zheng Youcai's words left him somewhat confused.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Had he heard wrong?

Weren't the two of them the ones who had walked into an ambush and were now surrounded by others?

But it sounded as if they had the upper hand, and it was Zhang Ye who was the unlucky one in danger?

He subconsciously looked toward his business partner, but the latter only gave him a reassuring glance, signaling him to stay silent and just watch.

Chen Bingjiang's face turned sour.

What did this guy mean?

Did Zheng really consider himself the boss now?

In front of all these people, he was tempted to argue, but the situation didn't leave him much room to maneuver. After hesitating for a moment, he chose to keep silent.

Zhang Ye, sitting atop the truck, also became curious.

"Conditions?"

"You're negotiating conditions with me?"

"Mr. Zheng, it seems you haven't quite grasped the seriousness of your situation," he said.

He stretched out his hand, drew a circle in the air around them, and then pointed to the crowd huddled at the villa's entrance:

"I have you surrounded."

"Do you understand?"

Zheng Youcai, seeing that Zhang Ye did not immediately make a move, felt even more certain of his guess.

This kid is definitely bluffing.

"Heh, Zhang Ye, stop pretending," he chuckled.

"I know you're in a hurry."

"If you drag this out too long, there's going to be trouble over there."

"By then, the whole villa area might be doomed. Can you really bear to watch your foundation crumble like that?"

Seeing Zhang Ye shake his head, Zheng Youcai immediately felt a secret delight.

The kid is definitely wavering.

But just as he was about to say a few more words to completely break through the opponent's psychological defenses, Zhang Ye suddenly clapped his hands and laughed:

"You're right."

"It's indeed not easy for you two to survive in the business world and carve out your own foundation."

"How about this?"

"Considering the two generators,"

"if you agree to one condition and fulfill it, I'll let you go back. How does that sound?"

Before Zheng Youcai could speak, Chen Bingjiang let out a loud shout, leading his men to charge towards the truck where Zhang Ye was.

"To hell with it!"

"Mr. Zheng, stop wasting words on him!"

"This kid is clearly just playing you, just finish him off!"

The standoff instantly shattered.

The onrushing Chen Bingjiang unexpectedly knocked a bodyguard at the forefront to the ground.

And those who charged with him, like madmen, screamed as they swung steel pipes and wooden clubs studded with nails at the shields held by the bodyguards.

At the same time, Zheng Youcai, coming back to his senses, also immediately led his men in a charge.

The negotiations had already broken down.

Their only path to survival was to kill Zhang Ye.

Once this kid dies, the survivors gathered around him will surely scatter.

What's strange is that Zhang Ye seemed to have not given an order, yet those encircling shadows had already charged forward with a strange noise.

Sharp nails viciously pierced into the enemies' skin.

The man suddenly felt a bit surprised.

Doesn't it hurt?

Before he could react, the enemy in front of him suddenly lifted their head, revealing a pale face under the light with eyes soaked in blood!

It fiercely embraced the man before it and bit down!

"Aaaah!"

The scream was like a siren going off.

The clamoring crowd suddenly fell silent.

Then, following another scream, a man stumbled backwards a few steps, trembling his lips as he looked at the wound on his arm:

"There, there are zombies!"

"They're not human; they're all not human!"

As soon as the word "zombies" was uttered, everyone's bodies stiffened in an instant, an inexplicable chill enveloping them from all sides.

It seemed as though only then did they clearly see the faces of those enemies.

They exuded an aura of decayed gray-whiteness. Read latest stories on empire

And those men who had followed Chen Bingjiang in the charge were equally panicked, beginning to fall back.

One bodyguard lost his helmet, revealing a bald head still sporting a wound, with peeled flesh looking extra eerie under the light.

Yet he continued to move, even bending over to pick up his helmet and put it back on his head.

These bodyguards were not alive.

They were zombies.

Zheng Youcai was surrounded by his subordinates in the middle.

He watched the zombies around him knock down the living and tear at them, and his mind suddenly flashed back to the two security guards Xu Wei had mentioned and the workers on the construction site that required no protection at all.