Dark Moon Era

Night arrived after all the squads fell in.

The heavy rain during the day exhausted the thick dark clouds, leaving the deep blue sky with bright stars and a misty Purple Moon. Back in the old civilization, if the sky was full of stars, the moon would not be as bright. However, in this era, the Purple Moon was like the most dutiful guard that would show up at its post regardless of the weather or situation.

“What amazing weather!” thought Tang Ling.

In front of him was an elite warrior kissing his weapon which was a folding spear, and was muttering his prayers.

The whole group had been briefed with the details of the operation and they were heading out soon. Who knew how many lives would be lost tonight? Praying seemed to be the only comfort.

However, was it useful? Tang Ling never believed in theoretical matters. He was only interested in the general commander of the operation that night, Larf.

Larf was the Purple Moon branch captain who maintained the order during the iron cage exam. It was less than two months since then, and they were already fighting on the same side. Life was always unpredictable.

******

It was 2216 hours on 11th July 2177, a Friday night.

It was less than two hours since the group moved out, yet the freezing temperatures blanketed the battlefield and shrouded the night.

The heat of the summer nights was gone. What replaced it was a spine-chilling wind, blowing through the garage area that was lit up by the searchlights.

Under the bright lights, half-collapsed walls were revealed around the garage area. There were a total of 37 rectangular garages lined up in the area like well-arranged boxes.

One could not help but wonder what was in the boxes.

Garage No. 19 was located in the north-west corner.

Among all the garages in the area, No. 19 was considered small but it was also rectangular. Maybe because the garage was storing items that required good ventilation, at the top of the roof was a row of small windows for airing purposes.

As time went by, even though No. 19 was close to the Universal Source Rock, it could not escape its worn-down state. The night wind entered the garage through the row of windows, causing the frame of the windows to screech and rattle.

Phew.

Tang Ling took a deep breath. Even though the wind was freezing, it could not lower the heat in his body that was generated from all the exercises. Small beads of sweat filled his forehead before they converged into bigger beads and rolled down the edge of his eyes.

“Andy, take three steps back towards the left.” A groan came from Tang Ling’s throat, and as his voice subsided, he darted out.

Tang Ling crossed more than three meters with a single hop forward. Before he even landed on his feet, his body stiffened in mid-air and he did a forward roll while brandishing the grade C alloy longsword in the air.

A splash of black sticky blood spewed out after he landed.

A zombie to Andy’s left stopped moving, and at the next moment, the withered head fell off its neck before it rolled four to five meters away.

“T-thanks,” Andy muttered, still a little frightened. Tang Ling pulled Andy behind him and said, “Something is not right...” Before he could even finish, his eyes widened.

He quickly grabbed Andy and ducked.

A mutated zombie with a slightly deformed body but possessed extraordinary jumping ability, a Level 1 crawler, leaped over them and grazed their heads by inches.

“Sorry, my mistake.” Yu’s voice followed and he also jumped over Tang Ling and Andy right after the Level 1 crawler. He thrust his right hand with the golden luster into the Level 1 crawler’s back immediately after he landed. His fingers curled around the spine and he tugged powerfully, removing the Level 1 crawler’s spine whole.

The crawler twitched for a few times before it died.

Covered in black blood, Vian jumped out from a corner full of torn rucksacks and ran forward. She gave another crawler a flying kick to the ground before she skillfully and swiftly sliced open its chest to search for the crawler’s heart.

A slightly dirty crystal was pried out from the crawler’s heart. Vian tossed the crystal to Tang Ling who accepted it and put it into his little pouch without even looking.

Orston, Amir and Christina came over from the south-east corner. All three of them were panting heavily and covered in black blood.

“Any more water?” Orston went to Tang Ling straight away and said loudly before he even sat down.

Tang Ling tossed a pack of water to Orston and gave him a reminder, “We are running low on water. Remember to wipe your hands. Don’t drink the zombie’s blood. It’s difficult to tell whether there are lethal bacteria inside or not.”

Orston took several big gulps from the water pack before he tossed it back to Tang Ling. “How are you even caring about all this? What now? Can we go out from the north?”

Andy looked down dispirited. His expression stated that things were not great. The exit at the north of the garage was completely sealed off by almost a thousand zombies.

Orston cursed when he saw Andy’s reaction. He kicked one of the zombies’ torso away.

“Save your strength.” Tang Ling slightly furrowed his brows at Orston’s reaction. He leaned on the wall and seized the time to recover his stamina.

“So what if you can recover? We are going to die here anyway. I’ll let you choose. Do you want to continue living as a zombie or kill yourself at the very last moment before the transformation?” Orston chuckled coldly.

Through the broken window of the garage, the stars and the Purple Moon in the sky were visible. It felt so near when you looked at it as if you could touch it by extending your hand, yet it somehow become a chasm that they could not cross.

No wonder Orston was so dejected.

The situation had totally gone south since an hour ago. It completely deviated from the original trajectory of their plans. No one expected that the exit at the north-west corner of the garage area, the little area that was deemed the safest at first, would be flooded with endless waves of zombie though the situation did not have a bad start.

The whole operation was very clear. The vanguard formed by the 10 Purple Moon Warriors was tasked to clean up and lure away the zombies that were wandering outside the garage.

The garage area was divided into 12 areas.

The hundred-man elite regiment made up of the First Reserved Camp and the hundred-man group that consisted of the warriors on duty that night were responsible for cleaning up the different sized areas.

Their mission was to clean up the interior of the garage and the lingering zombies outside the garage.

There were two squads from the First Reserved Camp that participated in the operation, and they were in charge of the areas that were relatively safer, which included the area near the exit at the north-west corner that consisted of three smaller garages.

The Summit Squad was in charge of the first two garages while the Fierce Dragon Squad was tasked with the last one.

If someone ran into mutated zombies that they could not defeat like the Iron Slaughterer or the Five-element Evolver, they could fire the signal flare and the Purple Moon Warriors would provide support.

At first, the Fierce Dragon Squad carried out the mission smoothly and did not run into any major hindrances on their way to garage No. 19.

According to Andy, there were around 400 zombies occupying the garage they were in charge of. Since he was the fastest among them, Tang Ling sent him for reconnaissance.

400 zombies were considered a safe number for the Fierce Dragon Squad. After finding out about the number, Tang Ling even suspected that he might have overreacted about the danger.

So, the Fierce Dragon Squad decided to charge into the garage without any further arrangements.

If things proceeded smoothly, they could clear out the 400 over zombies in less than an hour and the Fierce Dragon Squad could withdraw from the battlefield.

However, the facts proved otherwise. Things only went smoothly for the first 40 minutes. After that, the small little garage No. 19 was flooded by a sea of zombies.