CHAPTER 42: CHAPTER 42: 3-STAR MILITARY DOG XIAOTIAN

Arriving at the edge of Lingshui, part of the zoo was already within the radar’s coverage, and Ye Fan opened the Red Alert page to check the radar.

The radar screen revealed everything within a ten-kilometer radius.

Within this range, Lingshui Middle School was not yet visible, but the street leading to it and part of the zoo were already in sight.

Because of its large population and vast territory, even a small city like Qin Han is quite large in scale.

Thus, a unit like the zoo, which usually only exists in urban areas, is also set up in Lingshui.

Lingshui is named so because of its beautiful mountains and clear waters.

With the Star River and Lingshui River crossing through, the area is rich in forest resources and has a wide variety of wildlife species.

Lingshui Zoo rivals the city-level zoo in Coal City, with countless animals inside.

Among them, the most famous is a northern specialty beast, the West Tiger.

This tiger is the largest feline on the entire Blue Sea Star, and there’s even a special West Tiger section in Lingshui, taking up a large area.

Ye Fan had visited Lingshui Zoo many times during his childhood, so he has some understanding of it.

Reaching the edge of the city, he checked through the radar. These two roads each had their pros and cons.

Choosing to take the street to the high school was too dangerous, as the number of zombies was densely alarming.

At a rough estimate, at least half a million zombies are entrenched in this city area.

To advance little by little would conservatively take a week.

And that’s assuming he had money at hand and could fight while using the spoils to sustain the battle.

Ye Fan certainly couldn’t wait that long, so taking the zoo to enter the city became a shortcut.

However, the zoo wouldn’t be easy either, because when the apocalypse broke out at noon, there were quite a few tourists in the zoo.

Zombies aren’t the main concern; compared to the city, there are far fewer zombies here. The main issue is the mutant beasts.

From the radar screen, the zoo is dotted with what seemed like hundreds of purple light points.

These purple points represent mutant beasts, which are even harder to deal with than zombies.

So far, Ye Fan has only seen one mutant dog, which had almost the strength of Xiaotian, and there were countless fiercer beasts in the zoo.

Were it not for the urgency of knowing his sister’s situation, Ye Fan would rather advance steadily through the streets, keeping a firm footing, and sustaining his battle with spoils.

But thinking about his sister’s current uncertain fate, he felt he couldn’t take the streets.

Although the zoo is full of mutant beasts, a cautious approach would indeed be much quicker.

"Let’s go, we’ll cross through the zoo."

The twenty-plus Red Alert soldiers under his command quickly followed Ye Fan, heading through the wilderness. Here, there were almost no zombies, occasionally encountering one or two farmer zombies at work in the fields, which the soldiers easily dealt with using bayonets.

After walking a section, they reached the zoo wall ahead.

The wall here wasn’t made of bricks, but a circle of trees, with a high double-layer barbed wire fence inside.

It was impassable for both animals and humans.

Ye Fan peeked through the gaps in the trees and saw that inside was a wild animal free-ranging area.

A herd of wildebeests, zebras, antelopes, and similar herbivores lived here.

However, ordinary animals were no longer in sight. This apocalyptic crisis had caused some animals to mutate, while those that didn’t were mostly devoured by mutants or zombies.

Ye Fan could even see many animal bones.

"Xu Haoran, can you open this barbed wire?"

"Yes, Sir."

Xu Haoran came over, took out his multifunctional dagger, and tried to start cutting through the wire.

At this moment, Engineer Huang Jie came over, took out his toolbox, and pulled out a large pair of metal pliers from it.

With a few snips at the wire fence, he cut open a hole.

Ye Fan was behind, seeing the engineer’s toolbox for the first time.

He found this guy’s toolbox to be incredibly large, with countless varied tools inside, most he didn’t know the use of; it seemed the box had its own storage pouch function, able to hold many things.

"Sir, please go through!"

Huang Jie respectfully gestured to Ye Fan, pointing to the hole in the wire fence.

Ye Fan glared at him, thinking that while Red Alert Soldiers’ loyalty was unmatched, they sometimes lacked a little social tact. Didn’t he know to make the hole a little bigger?

Seemingly sensing Ye Fan’s thoughts, Huang Jie said, "Sir, if the hole is too big, mutant beasts can easily escape."

Ye Fan had nothing more to say, resigning himself to squeeze through this doghole-like spot.

The Red Alert soldiers quickly followed through, and now they were inside the zoo.

Just as they entered, Xiaotian and another military dog perked up their ears and looked forward.

Ye Fan glanced in that direction and knew they had encountered the first mutant beast inside the zoo.

A zebra the size of a camel appeared in his line of sight.

Its eyes were crimson, and there were bones around it.

"This thing, after mutating, has actually turned carnivorous. It doesn’t look easy to deal with."

They saw the zebra, and the zebra saw them. It stood there in a daze for a moment, then let out a neigh.

"Neigh Neigh!"

It spread its four hooves and charged towards Ye Fan and the others.

Ye Fan was hesitating about whether to shoot, but Xiaotian and the other military dog had already pounced.

Despite the zebra’s large size, Xiaotian and the two military dogs were no easy opponents.

Xiaotian, already a Two-Star military dog, was as big as a lion, and the other, a One-Star, was the size of a lioness.

The two military dogs leapt forward, entangling the zebra before it got close to Ye Fan and the others.

Unlike ordinary dogs that bark in a fight, these two military dogs hardly made a sound and went straight for the zebra’s belly and rear.

These are the soft spots of animals, and this fighting style reminded Ye Fan of some beasts on the prairie.

The zebra was equally fierce, its iron hooves flying up and down, occasionally biting at the two dogs. But the dogs were very agile, cooperating with each other. When the zebra attacked one, the other attacked from behind.

Gradually, the zebra accumulated more and more wounds.

It seems a mutant zebra can’t defeat two star-rated military dogs.

Seeing the situation stabilize, Ye Fan instructed the soldiers beside him, "Spread out, groups of four. Hunt zombies in the nearby areas. Remember, focus on female zombies and those... distinctive male zombies, the ones with resources on them."

"Understood, sir!"

The Red Alert Soldiers remembered Ye Fan’s orders: female zombies and some special male zombies.

The Army Soldiers and Conscripts formed four assault groups, each with four members, and began spreading out to the surrounding areas.

Ye Fan continued to watch the performance of Xiaotian and the two dogs.

About ten minutes later, the scarred zebra could no longer hold on.

Xiaotian seized the opportunity, locked its jaws around the zebra’s body, and forcibly dragged it to the ground.

The other military dog also bit fiercely, and the zebra’s struggle grew weaker and weaker.

When the zebra stopped struggling, Ye Fan noticed that Xiaotian had grown larger again!

If it was the size of a lion before, now Xiaotian was comparable to a mature male West Tiger!

Its muscles were well-developed, its lines smooth, its fur black and shiny, its mouth wide open, extremely strong.

"This is... upgraded to a Three-Star Military Dog!"

A Three-Star Military Dog is an excellent unit in Red Alert, capable of biting any infantry unit to death with one bite if given the chance.

Looking at Xiaotian now, it seemed it could easily bite someone to death.

"Nana, what abilities does a Three-Star Military Dog have?"

"Sir, a Three-Star Military Dog is stronger, with greater combat power, is immune to infection, and can sense malice and hostility in people’s hearts, making it the best unit for detecting spies. A Three-Star Military Dog can detect hostile lifeforms within a 200-meter diameter from our units. I recommend that the sir carries at least one in the future."

"This is a divine dog, truly worthy of the name Xiaotian!"

Ye Fan was in high spirits, noting the zoo trip could use more dogs.

After killing the mutant zebra, Xiaotian dragged the giant zebra corpse to Ye Fan.

Then it looked at Ye Fan with big eyes, as if inviting him to a meal.

Ye Fan glanced at the zebra, which had been bitten to death, feeling a bit speechless.

Not wanting to reject Xiaotian’s goodwill, he patted the dog’s head and then the zebra’s corpse, "Good boy, I won’t eat it. It’s for you..."

As his hand touched the zebra’s body, Nana’s prompt rang out, "Sir, high-energy meat detected, consuming it greatly benefits the human body."

"Oh!"

Ye Fan immediately showed interest.

"What benefits?"

"Relieves fatigue, restores energy, promotes healing, stimulates potential, makes one stronger, less prone to illness. According to biology, consuming a part benefits the corresponding body part more."

Ye Fan immediately called Huang Jie without hesitation.

"Come over, use your tools, dissect this zebra for me. Pack the five... four leg meats. Sir, I want to make myself run faster."