“Big Dragon, separate out a hundred people, form groups of four to watch each other, and extend the gun line."

"Yes!"

"Second Dragon, take fifty people to follow Zhu Xiang in harvesting infection sources. We absolutely cannot let these things cause secondary infection."

"Understood."

"The rest follow Huang Sheng and Wu Zhihong to temporarily bury the harvested infected. These things will devour each other and grow stronger. We can't let them easily find food."

"Yes!"

Cheng Ye hadn't expected his first time commanding to be so smooth, without any hint of awkwardness.

It was much easier than when he organized a forty-person picnic during university gatherings, without worrying about who hadn't finished their mobile games, who had dietary restrictions, or who was a germaphobe.

The three hundred people from Tianyuan Mall were like soldiers in a game, following orders without question, doing whatever he said.

Fundamentally, this was because their coordination had reached its peak, and secondly because...

"After the former Pioneer Corps disbanded, many people were assigned to our B-7 district."

The humid moisture hit his nose, and Elder Song couldn't help coughing twice. "Like the Sunrise Electronics Factory residential area where you live, Inspector, it's basically all Pioneer Corps veterans. When we were in the wilderness, we had already received defensive training for dealing with infection tides. As long as we haven't forgotten our skills completely, even without anyone commanding, we can spontaneously find that coordination point, act together, advance and retreat as one to resist enemies!"

"Pioneer Corps..."

Cheng Ye suddenly paused, thinking of something. "Did my father also serve in the Pioneer Corps?"

"He was the first inspector in the Pioneer Corps."

Elder Song immediately nodded in response. "And just like you, when he was young, your grandfather accidentally passed away. He joined the Pioneer Corps as an inspector, swearing to avenge your grandfather. He stayed for two and a half years before leaving to return to the inspection station."

Revenge?

A trace of oddness arose in Cheng Ye's heart.

With Cheng Long's abilities, was he really going out there for revenge?

Or did Cheng Wu also leave Cheng Long a pile of messes, making it impossible to even go to the inspection station, forcing him to run to the Pioneer Corps to hide outside until he developed the power to protect himself before daring to return?

If that were the case, then Cheng Long's starting situation was even more catastrophic than his own!

"Just heard shouting from over there... was it a fusion body?"

Tianyuan Mall had already defended against four waves of ordinary infected. At first, everyone was somewhat nervous, but later they discovered that these monsters, aside from being more durable, were actually easier to deal with than mutant beasts because they lacked intelligence.

"It was a fusion body. I couldn't handle it alone, so I had to come ask everyone for help."

"Inspector Cheng, this isn't helping you, but you coming to protect us!"

Cheng Ye was about to speak more about the fusion body's danger when Elder Song immediately interrupted him.

"The fact that the electronics factory residents fought alongside you already shows they completely accept you. I'm guessing you definitely didn't flee when facing that monster, right?"

"Mm, no!"

Cheng Ye was slightly stunned. He indeed hadn't fled.

After driving the fusion body away, he immediately chased after it, not passive stronghold defense.

Only then did everyone start shooting, firing at the fusion body, and bursting into those battle cries that made his soul tremble even now when he recalled them.

"Fleeing would be us helping you."

"Fighting is you protecting us."

"This is a fundamental difference, Inspector Cheng. You must not confuse this most important point. This concerns faith, concerns..."

Elder Song patted his heart area, his lips moving slightly, his voice lowered so only the two of them could hear, "What exactly we're fighting for!"

Rumble.

Tianyuan Mall's metal rolling door fell again, separating thousands of gazes inside.

Turning to look at the three hundred people already formed in neat ranks, Cheng Ye couldn't help but feel his heart surge with excitement.

This was absolutely a grand scene!

He had been to Hengdian to watch extras filming and had seen similar scenes.

But those extras' eyes absolutely didn't have this almost tangible, magnificent killing intent that seemed to blend together, mixed with iron blood and valor, almost condensing into visible sharpness.

However, facing the starfish infected, the three hundred people from the mall had almost no protective gear. Everyone could only imitate his previous method, wrapping exposed body parts with cloth scraps.

Weapons were even more inadequate. More than half the people's pistols were severely worn, each person only equipped with two magazines, scraped together from others in the mall.

If these bullets ran out before clearing B-7's infection tide, they would have to charge with cold weapons.

However, for Cheng Ye as an inspector, this wasn't a big problem.

He took out his defense communicator and operated it quickly, instantly locating two emergency supply points for materials and ammunition in B-7 district.

One was located at the western end adjacent to B-6 district, the other near the A-11 district border.

Although unclear about the quantity of hidden ammunition, it could at least delay the time before firepower was exhausted.

"Let's go, head toward B-6 first to get equipment and ammunition!"

"Yes!"

With Cheng Ye's command, three hundred voices responded in perfect unison.

Previous generations plant trees, later generations enjoy the shade.

The significance of the Pioneer Corps was far more than expanding Happiness City's radiation boundaries, but more importantly, cultivating this group of militia who could immediately form combat effectiveness.

Like embers hidden in a furnace, just waiting for the air vent to open to ignite again!

However, just as the team turned out of the district, Cheng Ye's gaze suddenly sharpened. He saw that escaped fusion body again!

The monster was clinging to a small building wall several hundred meters away. After glancing at the team from afar, it fled at high speed without hesitation.

Obviously having learned its lesson, it clearly understood its strength was insufficient to directly confront this team.

"Going to other districts?"

Cheng Ye took out a map and glanced at it. Less than a kilometer forward from the small building was B-3 district.

If they could avoid direct confrontation with this fusion body, that would naturally be good.

But he had a vague feeling that this monster had targeted him and definitely wouldn't give up so easily.

"Now it's a race against time, to see whether it evolves faster or we organize our battle line first!"

Urgency surged like a tide. Cheng Ye immediately shouted orders, and the three-hundred-person formation instantly accelerated.

When infected charged out along the way, without his command, Big Dragon and Second Dragon on the team's flanks could lead people to kill them.

Huang Sheng and Wu Zhihong at the rear also had certain command abilities, able to lead the militia in evolving eight-person squad battle formations.

At first, everyone was still somewhat afraid, shooting with guns.

After crossing one street and killing dozens of infected, only the squelching sounds of short blades entering flesh remained.

Cheng Ye's steps were elusive, occasionally gliding past fallen infected.

Pleasant notifications rang in his ears.

[Detecting dissipating...]

[Successfully supplemented information degrees this time: 0.07, 0.12, 0.15, 0.01]

Even though three drones were circling overhead, providing auxiliary monitoring to help the team avoid infection tides, prevent ambushes, and calculate contribution distribution.

He wasn't worried at all that these actions would reveal anything unusual.

[Detected that Trainee Collector 'Cheng Ye's' information acquisition progress has reached Trainee 30%!]

[Please continue working hard!]

"30%?"

Cheng Ye nodded slightly. This speed was indeed much faster than before.

If consciousness was absorbed when infected died, the speed of fighting alone might not be slow.

But the problem was that after infected died, their heads still needed to be cut open to extract the infection sources inside.

No matter how skilled Zhu Xiang's movements were, he couldn't match thirty people operating together.

"Almost there!"

B-7 district had seven streets total. The straight-line distance to any location wasn't far.

The team charged all the way, and from far away they could see more than ten sneaky figures crouched in front of shops, prying doors.

When those people saw the large force approaching, they turned to flee. Cheng Ye was quick to draw his gun and fire.

Bang.

The bullet precisely hit the ground in front of the leader's feet. The flying debris instantly frightened everyone into freezing in place.

"Capture them!"

Big Dragon immediately led people forward to restrain them, questioning their identities. "They're from the pedestrian street. They heard that equipment had been moved in here before and wanted to take it to protect themselves."

"Protect themselves?"

Cheng Ye sneered coldly. He would never believe such ghost stories again.

"Later, use them to lure the fusion body. If they survive, let them go. If they don't survive, they deserve to die."

"Understood." Big Dragon wholeheartedly agreed with Cheng Ye's decision.

In wartime, there should be wartime rules.

If they released these people and were resented, getting shot in the back at a crucial moment while dealing with the fusion body, it might ruin a good situation.

[Searching for nearby emergency supply points for materials and ammunition]

[Search successful, opening!]

[Inspector Cheng Ye, your remaining opening quota: '3']

The defense communicator flashed a notification.

The storage door that had been pried at for a long time finally slowly rose, and a rich smell of gun oil wafted out.

Cheng Ye glanced down at the door panel. Good heavens, it was actually solid blast-proof steel plate, at least a finger's width thick. No wonder those people couldn't pry it open despite great effort.

The people restrained by Big Dragon saw the door open and immediately showed expressions like they'd seen ghosts.

"He, how can he... open it?"

"Shut up, if you keep barking like a dog, I'll chop you up directly." Big Dragon didn't even think before slapping the speaker on the head, but his eyes were still staring straight at the shop interior.

Rumble.

The moment the steel plate was completely raised, the internal lighting automatically turned on.

Gasps rose and fell continuously. Even Cheng Ye was stunned in place.

This wasn't any emergency supply point, it was clearly a complete small armory!

Although Happiness City was a powerful industrial sanctuary city where mass-produced weapons and ammunition costs were low as cabbage prices, after this door opened, the wealth before their eyes still overturned everyone's understanding.

At the entrance, five boxes of defense pistols were stacked like tofu blocks, each box clearly marked with specifications of 45 guns on the side.

The wooden box in the front row had already been opened, with pistols lying across the top gleaming with ice-blue cold light under the illumination. The factory serial numbers engraved on the gun bodies still had the luster of fresh oil, obviously new products just off the production line before the infection tide outbreak.

Behind them, three more boxes of defense rifles were arranged in the same manner, 30 guns per box.

The gun body streamlines looked somewhat like the M4s Cheng Ye often saw in games, equally brand new from the factory.

And the heavy shelves reaching to the ceiling were packed tight with ammunition boxes.

The red markings of 2,500 rounds per box were particularly prominent on the box bodies. Ammunition boxes of different calibers were stacked together in massive quantities, at least twenty to thirty thousand rounds to start.

But these weren't the most outrageous things, because at the very back, Cheng Ye saw four defense machine guns mounted on tripod stands, their barrel heat sinks gleaming with intimidating cold light.

Beside them, two olive-green rocket launchers leaned against the wall. Ten rocket rounds with yellow markings on their tails were neatly arranged on a special rack, the armor-piercing patterns on the warheads clearly visible.

"This..."

Cheng Ye's Adam's apple rolled, and he could only silently say in his heart, "Praise Happiness City!"

At this moment, he was incredibly grateful to have transmigrated to an industrial sanctuary city rather than an agricultural one.

Facing infection tides, Happiness City might be short on other things, but weapons and ammunition would never disappoint anyone with the will to stand up.

"What are you standing around for? Go in batches to change guns, put away all those broken guns!"

Cheng Ye shouted loudly.

The crowd, stunned like wooden chickens, finally awakened from their dream, each rushing into the warehouse with burning eyes.

Previously, when Cheng Ye said he would take them to get weapons and ammunition, they weren't excited because everyone was uncertain whether they could get any.

But now, these weapons were completely sufficient!

Just the new pistols alone numbered 225, plus 90 rifles, completely enough for 300 people with extras to spare.

After all, each of the four machine guns required two people to operate.

Big Dragon and Second Dragon also rushed in and came out with rifles, grinning foolishly like children who had received candy.

Seeing Cheng Ye's strange look, Big Dragon rubbed the gun body and explained, "The last time I touched this gun was six years ago in winter. When the infection tide came, the higher-ups issued a few to the community. I was fortunate to fire a few magazines, but never touched one again after that."

Cheng Ye hummed in acknowledgment and curiously asked, "How did the Pioneer Corps end up disbanding?"

"This is a long story, with factors from above and reasons from below."

Big Dragon’s fingertip caressed the gun stock. "But ultimately, it was because everyone was unwilling to pioneer anymore. Settlements built with great difficulty could be destroyed in an instant by one infection tide."

"Moreover, Happiness City's scale kept growing larger, and they no longer needed the Pioneer Corps to dig for resources outside. Now there are plenty of small settlements voluntarily bringing resources to trade."

He looked at the excited crowd in the shop, his tone carrying some vicissitudes. "Times have changed. Life has stabilized, and pioneers are no longer necessary."

"So everyone actually still wants to go out in their hearts?"

"Of course. How can people spend their whole lives cooped up in narrow mall stalls, living and dying there?"

Rich ambition almost overflowed from his words.

Cheng Ye smiled slightly, not finding it strange at all, and reached out to pat Big Dragon's shoulder.

"Work hard. The opportunity has come. You must seize it yourself."

A simple sentence, yet more burning than any grand words.

Visibly, Big Dragon's face began to redden, and his breathing became heavy.

Wasn't this exactly the purpose for which they were willing to follow Cheng Ye out?

To fight for survival!

To fight for ideals!

More than ten minutes later, the team had completed their equipment upgrade. Regrettably, the warehouse still contained no grenades or other area-effect individual weapons.

It seemed that even with infection tides coming, in the higher-ups' view, the harm of explosive weapons still far exceeded that of infected, or perhaps...

Remembering the previous footage where several fusion bodies immediately evolved from the starfish infection tide after explosions.

Cheng Ye's heart jolted. It seemed there was still partial information that the higher-ups hadn't released publicly.

However, having rocket launchers and machine guns now wasn't bad either. As long as it wasn't the terrifying tide surge on the scale of A district, even if over a thousand infected came, this armed team had the confidence to face them head-on!

The three hundred people reformed ranks, their gazes burning like torches as they looked toward Cheng Ye.

He didn't shout any more motivational slogans, but lifted the Thunder 1 from his back to the front, pointing the barrel toward the sky:

"Everyone!"

"Gun in hand, follow me!"

"Tonight, we sweep through B-7 district!"