Chapter 53: Chapter 53: Assault on the Town
Upon hearing the prompt, Ye Fan immediately checked the Red Alert page and discovered that the amount of money had indeed become ten thousand.
"Nana, is there such a reward? Then wouldn’t there also be rewards when it reaches a thousand people, ten thousand people scale?"
"No, Commander. This ten thousand in money is a reward from selling your mining fields in the virtual world."
"Ah! My mining fields are gone then."
Ye Fan remembered that before the apocalypse arrived, he had built three structures: a power plant, barracks, and mining fields. The power plant and barracks came in handy, but the mining fields idled due to lack of mineral acquisition.
He even forgot at one point that he had constructed this building. Unexpectedly, it now gets liquidated.
Ye Fan wasn’t sure if selling it was a loss or gain, but for now, it solved a significant problem for him.
He had just hit a hundred in troop count and was out of money, so these ten thousand came just in time.
Ye Fan’s allocation for a squad was one hundred and thirty Red Alert Units. He had a hundred now, still thirty short.
Of course, these ten thousand could be used to build a tank factory, but Ye Fan felt that even if he constructed the factory now, it wouldn’t produce tanks—better to fill the existing quota.
It’s better to upgrade the soldiers and gather materials before constructing the tank factory.
Just as Ye Fan was preparing to continue expanding his forces, Nana provided another prompt.
"Commander, I suggest you build the tank factory first."
"Oh, why is that?"
"Because your squad lacks a specific troop type, which only gets unlocked in the barracks after the tank factory is done. This is why the system urgently sold the mining fields as your troop count surpassed a hundred. You’re nearing battalion commander status, but without a tank factory, hence the urgent liquidation for you to build the factory."
Ye Fan thought about it: "Will this troop type help me greatly?"
"Yes, it’s currently the most powerful troop type in your squad rank."
Ye Fan picked up a pen and did some calculations.
He wanted to upgrade to battalion commander rank, but the current ten thousand might still be somewhat lacking.
Because he’s missing several expensive troop types—firstly, one sniper rifle missing costs eight hundred.
Missing two rocket launcher warriors costs two thousand four hundred.
He planned to produce four engineers so that the research speed of the base vehicle could be completed within half a month, which would cost an additional three thousand.
Also, there were medics, the logistics support team, and his planned security unit: everything cost money.
Since Nana said so, anyway, constructing the tank factory was essential. Once the last virtual building got unlocked, it fulfilled one of his wishes.
Rather than being unable to accomplish either goal, it was better to complete one target and see what Nana referred to as the most powerful firepower troop.
"Okay, then let’s build the tank factory; anyway, the soldiers can almost go on a raid inside the town now."
"Confirm building tank factory. It will take 100 minutes, Commander. Please wait patiently."
Ye Fan wasn’t anxious. In the meantime, he turned to look at the newly produced troops.
Standing at the front of the lineup were two scouts.
As Ye Fan directed his gaze toward them, the scouts immediately began to salute.
"Scout Shen Ruihui reporting to the commander!"
"Scout Tan Qiaoge reporting to the commander!"
Shen Ruihui was a sharp young man, with eyes that sparkled brightly, giving Ye Fan an impression of being a sharpshooter.
Tan Qiaoge, on the other hand, was a tall and strong young man with developed muscles and looked to possess strong close-combat abilities.
Each Red Alert Soldier of the same type had unique skill sets, as they were living individuals—impossible to be completely identical.
From the initial impression, these two seemed to surpass Xu Haoran.
Besides the two scouts, Ye Fan couldn’t possibly remember so many names of the other soldiers. For now, his three platoons’ main combat personnel were mostly in place, and Ye Fan proceeded to appoint some platoon leaders.
Xu Haoran, Shen Ruihui, and Tan Qiaoge, the three scouts, were each appointed as leaders of the first, second, and third platoon.
However, Nana informed Ye Fan that these appointments were only temporary. Once physical buildings were done, other means would be used to produce officers.
Ye Fan understood this point, as the advantage of scouts wasn’t in command, but fortunately, the enemies they faced were mindless zombies, a role they could reluctantly fulfill.
Ye Fan’s first platoon consisted entirely of Three-Star veterans, while the second and third platoons were mixed forces of new and veteran soldiers—new soldiers were those just born, and veterans were the starred soldiers.
Three flamethrower warriors also temporarily joined the three combat platoons, serving as reinforcements.
Logistics support team soldiers were assigned under Huang Jian, starting to cook.
With over a hundred people, Ye Fan didn’t want to let the troops idle. There were still two hours before darkness; they could certainly accomplish something.
"The first platoon leaves two squads; the second squad guards the large hotel, the third squad stays at the police station, and the personnel of the first squad and all of the second and third platoons move into the town!"
The reason for this was to enable the new recruits to quickly mature and hopefully upgrade to Three-Star Soldiers.
With two platoons and six combat squads, there were forty-eight people, plus one military dog per squad, one flamethrower warrior per platoon, rocket launcher warrior Su Mo, and sniper Lin Qing were also dispatched by Ye Fan.
With Ye Fan sitting in the Fierce Dragon Vehicle, leading with the personnel of the first platoon’s first squad and several medics following behind the two platoons as rear support, any unexpected situation could be handled promptly.
A force of seventy move, advancing toward the town.
Ye Fan turned on the radar, starting to check the town’s situation.
In this period, Ye Fan had roughly assessed the situation within the town. There hadn’t been much change among the zombies.
At the beginning of the apocalypse, Armored Zombies and Agile Zombies emerged rapidly, which initially worried Ye Fan.
He worried about the zombies evolving too quickly, leaving no room for his development.
However, looking at things now, at least ten days had passed without new zombie types emerging; those Mutated Zombies showed no sign of further evolution.
According to Ye Fan’s analysis, possibly due to a larger number of people at the start of the apocalypse, zombies had greater food opportunities, and the energy required for the first evolution might have been lesser, leading to faster evolution.
But subsequently, as survivors became fewer, zombies’ food sources dwindled, naturally slowing down the evolution pace.
At least from the current situation, it was unlikely for new types of zombies to appear within a month.
Ye Fan intended to seize this period, aiming to eliminate as many zombies as possible, accelerating development, because if zombies evolved again later, it wouldn’t be that easy.
The two platoons of soldiers had advanced to less than three hundred meters from the zombies.
This was already near the town center, where abandoned vehicles formed a natural battle terrain for cover.
"Prepare to open fire, don’t hold back the elixir; keep combat to thirty minutes without expanding scale."
Based on Ye Fan’s experience, battling here would attract around three thousand zombies, accounting for about one-ninth of the zombie group within Chengguan Town.
With warfare nurturing, he planned to clear out Chengguan Town within five days.
Second platoon leader Shen Ruihui fired the first shot.
The suppressed submachine gun had infrared targeting, one shot to the head!
Then pops of gunfire rang out, and zombies attracted by the gunfire roared as they pounced.
********
As Ye Fan’s battle in Chengguan Town unfolded, at the railway side, ten motorcycles proceeded along the tracks.
"Lao San, how much farther? This railway side is not made for motorcycles riding; my butt is going to split!" The bald man on the second motorcycle complained.
"This isn’t bad; while it’s bumpy, at least it’s safe. Not far now; once we round this bend, Chengguan Town will come into view."
"Jiang Shilong is absurd! It’s been days without a word after contacting Boss Xing, making us come over. When we arrive in his territory, I’m going to make him bleed a bit to compensate me."
"Let’s stay focused; Boss Xing has vast ambitions, the prison base benefits from its geographical advantage, survivors flocking to it. In the entire Coal City Region, only the Hot Spring Base might rival us. Boss Xing recruits everywhere; sooner or later, he’ll contend with Hot Spring Base. Don’t become a hindrance that displeases the boss."
"No problem, the boss wouldn’t blame me; I’m just concerned Jiang Shilong is too gutless, wouldn’t dare say a word seeing me. Heard he himself is a Superpower User—wonder if he dares challenge me?"
"He probably wouldn’t; who would dare fight you? That’d be suicidal... Hmm? Look over there!"
Several motorcycles stopped because, not far ahead towards Chengguan Town, there was a train stopped on the tracks!
The man named Lao San first paused in surprise, then quickly showed a grin.
"A train still here! Looks like we have fun in store today!"