After preparing everything, Zhang Yi packed the "special" food and rode his motorcycle back to the Yuelu Community.
Upon arrival, Zhang Yi called Uncle You, Jiang Lei, Li Chengbin, and a few others to maintain order on-site.
Soon enough, they arrived at the community courtyard, armed with iron rods, shovels, and kitchen knives.
"Zhang Yi, we're here!"
Zhang Yi glanced at Uncle You and the others, nodding slightly.
"Alright, wait here. I'll call them down to pick up the supplies."
Zhang Yi picked up his phone and notified the building heads through their group chat to come collect their goods.
Uncle You, holding an iron rod, stood beside Zhang Yi like a loyal guard. Li Chengbin and Jiang Lei, leading a few others, stood slightly behind Zhang Yi, surrounding him in the center.
Zhang Yi's peripheral vision swept over them. Today, both Li Chengbin and Jiang Lei seemed more focused than usual.
Out of instinct for self-preservation, Zhang Yi took a few steps back, positioning himself behind the group.
Before long, the representatives from each building arrived at the courtyard. Seeing them, a smile flickered across Zhang Yi's face.
His plan had worked! Using rare items like cigarettes and liquor, he had successfully lured the building heads out.
Only Li Jian from Building 18 was missing—he seemed to be sticking to his principles and refused to come pick up the goods himself.
Zhang Yi didn't mind. As long as most of them were here, it was fine.
What they didn't know was that the cigarettes and liquor they collected were laced with a high dose of rat poison.
Once ingested, it would take just 10 to 30 minutes to kill them.
Narrowing his eyes, Zhang Yi smiled, "Alright, come pick up your supplies!"
Starting from Building 1, Zhang Yi tossed the goods about two or three meters away, letting the representative walk over and pick them up.
One by one, the representatives came forward to claim their items.
"Building 21!" Zhang Yi called out, his gaze fixed on Wang Qiang.
Wang Qiang approached with his head down. Just as Zhang Yi bent over to pick up a bag of food, a loud shout rang in his ears, "Do it now!!"
Wang Qiang pulled a pistol from his pocket and fired at Zhang Yi!
Zhang Yi's pupils shrank as he instinctively tried to dodge.
At that moment, Uncle You, standing to Zhang Yi's front-left, suddenly shoved him aside.
Bang!
...
Bang!
...
Bang!
Three gunshots echoed in quick succession, but to Zhang Yi, the intervals between each shot felt agonizingly long.
Uncle You's body gradually went limp, his knees buckling as he collapsed to the ground.
A high-pitched ringing filled Zhang Yi's ears. He raised his head and saw a group of men, faces twisted in ferocious expressions, charging at him!
Wang Qiang, wielding a handgun, Huang Tianfang, pulling a kitchen knife from his coat…
And just two meters to his front-left stood Li Chengbin and Jiang Lei!
Among the thirty or so people present, at least half of them were rushing at Zhang Yi, their weapons glinting coldly under the light.
They had waited for this moment for a long time too.
Zhang Yi had planned to lull them into complacency before wiping them out.
But they were equally fed up with Zhang Yi and wanted him dead!
As long as Zhang Yi, the strongest person in the community, remained alive, any of them could be killed at any time.
Moreover, someone had told them that Zhang Yi's home was a perfect shelter, with a comfortable environment and abundant food.
For whatever reason, they couldn't allow someone as powerful as Zhang Yi to exist in Yuelu Community!
At that moment, with so many of them working together, they had even managed to bribe Jiang Lei and Li Chengbin, who were standing right next to Zhang Yi.
They thought Zhang Yi was already doomed!
Even if he had a gun, how many people could he possibly kill at such close range?
Zhang Yi's gaze shifted between the fallen Uncle You and the approaching enemies.
His eyes turned cold and deadly.
He hadn't told anyone about today's plan, not even Uncle You.
Uncle You had no idea that Zhang Yi was wearing a bulletproof vest and bulletproof pants.
Those three gunshots wouldn't have hurt Zhang Yi at all.
But Uncle You, out of gratitude for Zhang Yi, had selflessly taken those bullets for him.
For the first time since the apocalypse began, Zhang Yi felt a pang of guilt.
Immediately following that guilt was a rising tide of fury!
Jiang Lei, who was closest to Zhang Yi, let out a roar and swung his shovel at Zhang Yi's head.
Zhang Yi rolled on the ground, quickly moving behind a snowmobile for cover.
He steadied himself and got up from the ground.
Suddenly, a black submachine gun appeared in his hand.
A fully loaded assault rifle.
The faces of the charging enemies, once filled with aggression, quickly shifted from rage to shock, and finally, to sheer terror.
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Faced with the life-and-death crisis, Zhang Yi squeezed the trigger tightly, holding the gun steady as he began to spray bullets!
Li Chengbin and Jiang Lei, the closest to Zhang Yi, were riddled with bullets in the blink of an eye, their bodies torn apart.
At this moment, Zhang Yi didn't care about anything else. Anyone standing upright became a target for his bullets!
Behind Li Chengbin and Jiang Lei were a dozen members of the patrol squad. They had been stunned when Wang Qiang fired the first shot, seemingly unaware of what was happening.
They hadn't joined Li Chengbin and Jiang Lei in attacking Zhang Yi.
But when the bullets tore through their bodies, there was no distinction.
With so many enemies in front of him, Zhang Yi had no time to discern who was truly trying to kill him.
He defaulted to the assumption that they all had to die!
Better to kill the wrong person than let the real enemy go—this was Zhang Yi's first rule of survival in the apocalypse!
One by one, the figures in front of him collapsed, and the arrogant, overconfident leader of the Wild Wolf Gang, Wang Qiang, didn't even manage to get close to Zhang Yi before being turned into a sieve.
His face still showed disbelief in his final moments.
He couldn't understand where Zhang Yi had pulled that assault rifle from.
If not for that rifle, they definitely would have won!
That pistol had given him false courage.
But just as Zhang Yi hadn't known Wang Qiang had a gun, Wang Qiang hadn't known Zhang Yi had bulletproof gear and an assault rifle.
The difference was that Zhang Yi, despite not knowing about the gun, had prepared for it.
So from the very beginning, Wang Qiang had no chance of winning.
"He's got a rifle! Run!"
Huang Tianfang was so terrified his legs went weak, dropping the kitchen knife as he turned to flee.
The other building heads, equally terrified, screamed and bolted, cursing their lack of extra legs as they fled for their lives.
Zhang Yi's eyes were filled with rage.
He saw the snow beneath Uncle You, now stained red with blood, his body unmoving.
He might already be dead.
Even with all the harshness in Zhang Yi's heart, he wasn't a cold-blooded monster. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of emotion.
"Uncle You, thank you for taking those bullets for me. I'll avenge you and kill every last one of them!"
Zhang Yi's voice was icy as he spoke.
Since the apocalypse began, this was the first time he had faced so many enemies at once. But the battle's outcome was nothing short of a massacre.
As Zhang Yi had said before, in the face of absolute strength, all schemes and plots were meaningless!