The six of them got back into the car and drove out of the alleyway before stopping at an empty street outside.

    "Where are we going now?" Jixi asked as the two switched seat positions, letting Yezi drive this time.

    "Scouting mission, as you said earlier. We are going to scout the main entrance of the casino." Yezi replied, his voice still sounding a little grumpy.

    After driving for three minutes, an entire horde of zombies were right around the corner as they looked to the side.

    "Holy shit."

    Yezi immediately made a U-turn before driving in a random direction, trying to get as far away from the horde as possible.

    But the horde quickly chased after them, and they could feel the ground tumbling a little from the amount of zombies behind the car.

    "Fuck, there''s the zombies that you guys are talking about," Yezi commented as he floored the gas pedal.

    "Thank God the road is all empty," one of the soldiers commented, as he expected the road to be filled with car wrecks.

    "Yeah..." Jixi murmured, seeming to have some flashbacks.

    After driving around the block for twenty minutes, they finally lost the zombies behind them.

    "Shit, did I just drive inside the city?" Yezi asked as he looked around, only to see skyscrapers surrounding them.

    "I think so..." Jixi replied.

    "Any of you know how to drive back?"

    "I know. I have lived in the city for several years now. If you take a right turn and keep driving forward for a few minutes, then take another left turn.

    We will be back on the city''s outskirts... Then we can go back to where we were earlier," one of the soldiers replied confidently.

    "Okay, tell me when I need to turn again."

    One hour later...

    After driving nonstop, avoiding all the different hordes that kept chasing behind them, they were finally back on the city outskirts.

    "Holy shit, I''m never going in the city again. What was that fucking zombie? It just shot some green thing at the car?

    And that giant zombie is throwing a rock at us." Yezi commented in excitement, with the other soldiers looking frightened.

    "Um... sir, the car''s back window is melted." One of the soldiers sitting in the back reported.

    "Fuck." Yezi murmured after checking the rear mirror and realizing it was indeed melted.

    "So that''s how our helicopter got shot down..." Jixi murmured as he began to realize what had happened back then.

    "Anyway, let''s go back to our mission."

    Yezi started driving toward the main casino again. But this time, he stopped right a street away from the hotel that was next to three shops, as the captive described it.

    He drove to the other hotel across from the casino, behind the building, just far enough that people on the other side couldn''t see them.

    "Why are we stopping here?" Jixi curiously asked.

    "What the hell do you even learn in the military? We are ''scouting,'' so obviously, we can''t let them notice us.

    The casino is by the roof of all ten floors below it. Normal customers can only go up to the tenth floor, which is the only middle of the hotel."

    Despite Yezi explaining it in an angry tone, Jixi didn''t try to argue back as he watched him point over to the across the street.

    "Are we going to this hotel building to see what''s happening in the other hotel building?" One of the soldiers curiously asked.

    "Bingo! It looks like we have some smart fellows here. What''s your name?" Yezi asked as they exited the car.

    "My name is Han Bang." The soldier replied.

    "Good job, Han Bang."

    After Yezi patted him on the back, the six of them began entering the extremely tall hotel, which had several zombies in the main lobby wondering.

    After making quick work of them with their bats, the group headed straight up to the highest floor of this building, clearing the zombies along the stairways leading up to it.

    When they arrived at the top floor, there was only one room on the fourteenth floor—a fancy presidential suite with a locked door.

    But Jixi easily kicked it open, as the other four soldiers quickly cleared the entire room before finding it to be empty.

    "Well, we''re going to stay here for a week. You guys go down again to get the food and equipment up here."

    As four soldiers headed downstairs, Yezi took out a binocular, looking across to the other side of the hotel tower.

    "What do you see?" Jixi curiously asked.

    "Many of the balconies on the regular floor held SOS signs, probably when the outbreak had just happened, and the hope of rescue still existed," Yezi explained as he continued to look up.

    When his binoculars were on the twelfth floor, the curtains blocked all of the windows. But the light inside showed that they had power and people living there.

    "Jixi, write this down: the enemy is on the twelve floors. They have light, power, and several shattered windows."

    "Okay, write it down. Anything else?"

    "Not yet. We will have to wait until they send people outside..." Yezi put down the binoculars as it couldn''t see anything higher due to the angle.

    "What if they don''t send anyone out?" Jixi asked.

    "They will... they already don''t have enough food. Or else they wouldn''t be trading people for food."

    The four soldiers were backed with boxes of food. More importantly, it had a whole detachable telescope.

    "Now we got professional equipment... Let go to the roof."

    After arriving at the roof entrance, Jixi simply kicked the door open, allowing them to start setting up the telescope.

    "Okay, let''s see what they have."

    As Yezi took a peek with the telescope, he quickly readjusted it back to the twelve floors before starting to look up again.

    Finally, the thirteenth floor did not have a curtain like the twelfth floor. Instead, several people were inside playing cards, each with a pistol or knife next to them.

    After seeing nothing interesting, Yezi moved up to the fourteenth floor.

    This time, several women were surrounded by a bunch of men, all naked as they lay on the sofa.

    "I''m going to need eye bleach after this," Yezi murmured as he moved onto the fifteenth floor.

    This floor only had one person on it. He was sitting in an office chair, seemingly thinking about something.

    "That''s the new boss I''m going to kill with my hand," Yezi murmured as he continued checking the floor.

    To Yezi''s surprise, he could see several crates of some unknown chemical, all in a different language.

    "Anyone chemist or graduated college?" Yezi asked as he turned to five of them.

    "I graduated college." Han Bang raised his hand.

    "Perfect. Can you tell me what those chemicals are for?" Yezi pointed for Han Bang to look in the telescope.

    "Um... those are to make TNT, if I remember correctly." Han Bang replied.

    "How the hell did they get that in there..."

    Yezi''s face was in complete shock as the amount of crates he saw up there was more than enough to blow up an entire skyscraper.

    But Xiaoyun held him back, not letting him leave the driver''s seat.

    "Wait, Renqin. I need you to drive the bus," Xiaoyun asked urgently.

    "To where?"

    "I need you to drive to the city outskirts. It''s the second tallest hotel on the outskirts near the Songjia skyscraper——"

    "Hell no, that''s too dangerous. I''m not going back to the outside world. That place is a hellscape." Renqin interrupted as he rejected Xiaoyun''s proposal within seconds.

    As Xiaoyun tries to convince Renqin, Yueyue finally catches up and walks inside the bus.

    "Wait, Xiaoyun. You didn''t tell me you wanted to go outside." Yueyue angrily asked as she heard his last few words.

    "It''s urgent, okay? Yezi is in trouble. Please Renqin. Just once, okay?" Xiaoyun pleaded again.

    After a short silence, Renqin backed down.

    "Fine, fine, I will drive there... I think I know what you are talking about."

    As Renqin finally started the bus back up, Yueyue immediately stopped it again.

    "Wait, you guys can''t just drive there. Let me call Yiming to get more people, at least." Yueyue pointed out as she pulled out her phone.

    Renqin turned over to Xiaoyun, who nodded in agreement after a short consideration.

    "Mr.Yiming, can you hear me?"

    "Yes, Yueyue, what do you need?"

    "Can you call the militia——I mean the soldiers to get to the front gate? It''s an emergency."

    "Okay, I will do that right now."

    As Yueyueh hung up her phone, Renqin didn''t waste any time and started driving the bus towards the entrance.

    Two minutes later, the soldiers were already at the front entrance when the bus arrived.

    "Get on the bus," Xiaoyun waved at the soldiers as the bus opened its door, getting ready to explain the emergency mission.

    ---

    After taking several wrong turns and with a miracle, it avoided the zombie horde and arrived at the hotel.

    However, it was the wrong one.

    Renqin drove right in front of the casino, which led him to drive another loop before finally getting to the right one.

    Xiaoyun pulled out his phone and started calling as everyone waited patiently for it to connect.

    "Jixi, you there?" Xiaoyun asked as the call finally went through.

    "This Mr.Xiaoyun?"

    An unfamiliar woman''s voice asked, surprising Xiaoyun a little. But he quickly recovered his composure.

    "Yes. Who are you? Where is Jixi and everyone else?"

    "If you want your friend to be safe, come up by yourself without any weapon. We can see you." The voice replied.

    Xiaoyun hesitated for a second but answered it in the end.

    "Fine, just don''t hurt them. I will go there myself."

    As Xiaoyun hung up the phone, Yueyue immediately held him back, not letting him go as all of the soldiers, including Renqin, watched it unfold.

    "You can''t go there yourself." Yueyue pointed out as she blocked the exit to stop him from getting off the bus.

    "I promised Huayi that Yezi would come home safely. This is an order, Xiaoyue, stay back."

    Xiaoyun forcefully moved Yueyue to the side, showing zero leniency as he left the bus by himself.

    "Ugh! This idiot!"

    As Yueyue sat down in defeat, none of the soldiers knew what to do until Renqin reminded them to follow Xiaoyun''s order that was given.

    ---

    When Xiaoyun walked into the hotel lobby, he took out his phone and called again.

    "I walked in alone like you wanted it. Which floor are you on?"

    "The roof."

    Xiaoyun hung up again and began heading towards the roof. But when he arrived at the door, it was already open.

    A whole crowd of people were standing there, some armed with swords and some with axes or bats.

    Some are even armed with rifles from Yezi and the soldier, with all six of them being tied up on the floor.

    "What do you want?" Xiaoyun asked, showing zero fear on his face despite all of them pointing the rifle at him.

    A woman looking to be in her late thirties stepped up from the crowd before pulling out Yezi''s pistol after noticing Xiaoyun''s gun on the side.

    "We heard you wanted to attack the hotel next door?" The woman asked.

    "Yes, Last week we killed several of their henchmen that came to threaten our town. We also rescued several people that they kidnapped in an RV.

    So we are planning to attack them to rescue the rest... Are you guys a part of that group?" Xiaoyun asked, but the woman didn''t answer.

    "I don''t trust you. How can you prove that you saved those people?" the woman demanded.

    "Let me make a phone call right now."

    As Xiaoyun reached to the side, the atmosphere immediately got a little tense. But it quickly cooled down as he pulled out a phone and began dialing a number.

    "Hey Yuqi, can you get the record on the people we saved from the RV? Yeah, can you get them to your office and answer this phone?

    Oh, does one of them work in the office right now? That''s perfect... Okay, I found some people who know you. Can you explain how they treated you?"

    Xiaoyun threw his phone over to the woman, who caught it one-handed before turning it on speaker mode.

    "Hello?" The girl on the other side asked.

    "Qi Ai, is it really you? Oh my god, I thought I would never see you again! Are you okay?" One of the women at the back asked excitedly.

    "Yeah, I''m fine, Mom. They had treated me extremely well. They saved me from those kidnappers. Where are you guys——"

    Before the phone call continued, the woman in the front ended the call and threw the phone back to Xiaoyun.

    "Sorry for the misunderstanding. We have several people who they kidnapped, so we are just taking extra precautions."

    The woman signaled her crew to untie Yezi and the soldier before apologizing to Xiaoyun.

    "I should have never fallen for an innocent-looking woman. How could I fall for the classic blunder——"

    "It''s okay. Everybody makes mistakes. Don''t be so harsh on yourself." Xiaoyun interrupted Yezi as he gently patted him on the shoulder.

    But Yezi, Jixi, and the four soldiers still seemed disappointed with themselves as they all now stood by Xiaoyun''s side.

    "Well, unfortunately, we can''t return these rifles to you," the woman said, as her men still had them all pointed at Xiaoyun.

    "It''s all good. You can keep it... All I care about is them getting back home alive. Come on, let''s go home."