As Wang Zhi was thinking, a scream suddenly came over the radio!
"Run! There's a monster! Ah!"
After a shriek, the radio went silent.
Wang Zhi's heart trembled; his earlier feeling had indeed been correct.
Looking back, not far behind them, a Giant Python was writhing and crawling toward them along the ground.
Wang Zhi saw that the Giant Python was nearly twenty meters long, and its body was as thick as a man's waist.
"Damn it!? What the hell is this thing?" Fatty exclaimed upon seeing it.
Over a hundred survivors also panicked and began fleeing aimlessly.
While observing, the Giant Python opened its bloody maw again and swallowed a soldier from the rear whole.
"Everyone, fire!" Captain Wei's voice came over the radio.
Wang Zhi had already pulled out his rifle and unleashed a barrage of shots toward the distant Giant Python.
But the effect caused everyone to feel a bit of despair; the bullets had no reaction after hitting the Giant Python's body, only penetrating the surface, unable to pierce its hide at all.
"Damn it, how is this thing so huge? Did it mutate from eating Zombies?" Wang Zhi said, looking at the Giant Python.
"Forget it, let's just run! Never mind those people!" At this moment, Fatty came up beside Wang Zhi and tugged at him.
"This is impossible to fight, Wang Zhi, let's run!" Su Muying said, already pulling Jia Liuli and running ahead.
Damn it! Wang Zhi looked back at the hundred-plus people, gritted his teeth, and stared intently at the Giant Python. The people they risked their lives to save were being ruined by a single snake!
"Everyone, retreat at full speed! The rest of you, follow us. Whether you live or die depends on yourselves!" After shouting this to those behind him, Wang Zhi also turned his head and sprinted wildly toward the Extraction Point.
As Ying had said, this fight was impossible. The Giant Python's defense was incredibly high; bullets became ineffective immediately upon hitting the surface of its flesh. If they got close, never mind if they could kill it with small Daggers—the Giant Python could crush a person to death simply by coiling around them.
Wang Zhi ran at full speed for ten minutes, and many of the survivors behind him could no longer keep up with his pace and were left far behind.
Because Captain Wei's team was at the rear, when the Giant Python appeared, it had already consumed two of their members. The one whose leg was injured by the grenade was undoubtedly doomed. By this time, only four soldiers, including Wei Zheng, had managed to escape. The survivors who kept up numbered only about thirty, mostly men. As for the Giant Python, after devouring nearly a hundred people, it seemed to have eaten its fill and vanished without a trace.
Wang Zhi and his group found a relatively open area to wait for the straggling survivors to catch up. Old He fired a Signal Flare so that those who were lost but still alive could find them.
*Bang!* A plume of red smoke appeared in the sky.
After firing this Signal Flare, the group decided to wait ten minutes on the spot, and would immediately evacuate once the time was up.
It was too dangerous outside now; a single Giant Python had taken the lives of so many people.
For Captain Wei, this incident meant they had sacrificed six brothers, and as for supplies, those had long been abandoned at the scene. This trip yielded nothing but the loss of six men.
For Wang Zhi, it was a narrow escape from death. The remaining survivors weren't even enough to cover the training expenditure costs for Wang Zhi's own group.
Ten minutes later, another ten people trickled in, but Wang Zhi would not wait any longer for the rest; they were likely already doomed.
The number of survivors was now less than forty; the others had seemingly been killed by the Giant Python.
Wang Zhi felt a flush of heat on his face when facing these survivors. He had just promised to protect them, yet his own team had bolted, running faster than anyone else.
Seeing Captain Wei standing grim-faced beside him, Wang Zhi did not approach to speak. At this moment, Wei was surely blaming him internally, perhaps even wishing to kill him to vent his resentment.
As it turned out, Wang Zhi had overthought things. Their relationship wasn't that close; they were merely a temporary cooperative unit of ten people, just trying to avoid trouble when reporting back.
"Sister Ying, please keep an eye on those Dawn Tower people for me; I'm worried they might try to ambush us," Wang Zhi whispered to Su Muying, leaning close to her ear.
"Tch, did I need you to tell me that?" Su Muying rolled her eyes at Wang Zhi.
In fact, upon careful observation, the members of both sides maintained distance from each other. They could see the other party's movements from the corner of their eyes, each harboring their own secret motives.
During this time, the Giant Python did not pursue them further. Only a few stray Zombies wandering in the wilderness appeared on the path. Compared to the Giant Python, these Zombies were nothing more than minor annoyances. After a three-hour journey, Wang Zhi finally led the dozens of survivors to the entrance.
The moment the iron gate closed, Wang Zhi finally breathed a sigh of relief. He had been extremely anxious and cautious throughout the journey, terrified that another massive mutated beast might appear.
"Captain Wang, can we schedule our next outing for last, okay? Running outside every day, nobody can handle it!" Fatty wheezed, catching his breath.
It was clear that Fatty's month of recovery at the Dawn Tower hadn't fully restored his stamina. Although Fatty was now all muscle, unlike the completely fat man he was when he first arrived at the Dawn Tower, he still couldn't keep up with the physical exertion of Wang Zhi and his group. As for the survivors in the camp, they were unburdened and carried nothing, but even they couldn't endure the non-stop pace set by Wang Zhi's group; every single one of them was bent over with exhaustion, completely lacking the strength to stand up straight.
On the road, Wang Zhi kept thinking about how to explain the situation to Jie Xi and the Dawn Tower. He should consider himself lucky that four people from Wei Zheng's group had returned alive; otherwise, there would be no witnesses, and anything he said would likely be questioned.
Upon entering the Dawn Tower, Wang Zhi and his group quickly passed the security check. After handing over the people they brought back to the personnel in the Mission Hall, he told the others to return to their quarters while he kept Jia Liuli with him to go see Jie Xi.
He had to clarify this matter first. Their inaugural cooperation with the Dawn Tower had ended in failure.
Arriving at the Guard Headquarters, Wang Zhi knocked once and directly entered Jie Xi's room.
"What's the rush?" Jie Xi asked slowly, holding a cup of steaming coffee.
"The mission encountered an accident," Wang Zhi said, looking down.
"Only four of my subordinates returned. Out of the hundred-plus people we agreed upon, only thirty-nine came back. I knew that from the moment you all entered the medical bay."
Hearing that Captain Wei was one of Jie Xi's subordinates, Wang Zhi suddenly looked up, his expression complex as he stared at Jie Xi.
"I'm sorry, Captain Jie Xi! It's my fault, I..."
Before Wang Zhi could finish, Jie Xi raised her hand to interrupt him.
"What I want to know now is what the accident was," Jie Xi said coldly.
"It was... it was a giant python."
"A python? How big?"
"Over twenty meters long, with a diameter of about half a meter."
"Then did you end up killing it?"
"Our bullets were ineffective against it! To avoid needless sacrifice, we could only choose to retreat," Wang Zhi said truthfully, keeping his head lowered.
"However, before we encountered that Giant Python, no one was sacrificed; the operation at the camp went very smoothly!" Seeing Jie Xi remain silent for a long time, Wang Zhi raised his head and added.
"Interesting. I'd like to see it for myself," a sarcastic smile touched the corner of Jie Xi's mouth.