Dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong!

In less than half a minute, the melodious sound of bells rang from the speaker at the head of United Village.

The speaker's setup was quite particular, located a hundred meters away from the villagers' residences, separated by several rows of houses. Everyone could hear it at this distance, and at critical moments, it could attract zombies, creating a buffer for the defenders.

"One, two... Five, damn, six?"

"Six rings, damn it, hurry, grab your weapons!"

"Where's the dynamite, go get the detonator!"

"Do I have to go too? I'm over eighty! What? If I have breath left, I need to go? Got it, got it!

In an instant, the United Village was bustling with people. The laborers from Beita Camp, who had just joined the village not long ago, were momentarily stunned by the situation. But soon, they started moving too—everyone needed to muster their strength to survive in the apocalypse!

Six rings, something nobody ever encountered; some timid people already had their legs shaking...

As the leader of the village, Wang Longzhong could not hide behind others. However, before he could gather the elite fighters of the village, he heard dense footsteps on the village's side, accompanied by zombies' distinctive roars.

Owuuu owuuu.

A horde of zombies swung their legs across the fields, stepping onto the village's concrete road, moving like a flood towards the people of United Village. In the darkness, pairs of scarlet eyes exuded a bloodthirsty glow, intimidating even from hundreds of meters away!

At this moment, Wang Longzhong had two choices before him.

Fight, or flee.

Touched the firearm at his waist, looked at the row of barricades on the street and the already prepared combat forces...

Wang Longzhong decided that battling was an option!

"Folks, United Village's greatest challenge is right before us, prepare to fight!"

As Wang Longzhong saw most people gathered, he immediately started commanding the battle.

"Fly freely in your heart!"

As his words fell, loud singing echoed from both sides of the nearby path, broken speakers blasting with poor sound quality, swiftly attracting zombies' attention. Villagers driving tri-wheelers led the zombies behind them towards the distance without hesitation.

Meanwhile, the village's main speaker started playing explosive tunes, ringing continuously—let alone the zombies in the village, it seemed the whole area could hear it from a kilometer away!

United Village initiated the defense battle, first wave of defense, divert the zombies!

This is the most effective strategy to alleviate pressure; if only a small number of zombies attacked, sound attraction alone could completely resolve it. Zombies crawling out of the quarry were initially lured this way too, now resurfacing, they still fall for the trick.

Unfortunately, this time, it's not just scattered zombies but a hundred-meter-long horde. Sound attraction proves effective but insufficient!

The two tri-wheelers took away many zombies, yet at most half the horde. It seemed a lot, but the remaining zombies still posed a huge threat to United Village!

Thankfully, the main speaker at the village entrance dispersed another small fraction of zombies. Although the lured zombies wouldn't die on their own, it at least bought the villagers time—a full frontal attack or a staggered battle, obviously the staggered battle had a higher chance of survival!

Owuuu owuuu!

The music's allure agitated the entire horde; zombies who couldn't catch up to the music seemed to feel the human attraction in the dark, fervently charging towards the main force stationed in United Village.

Two floodlights lit up behind the villagers, illuminating the zombies rushing forward. Since zombies didn't rely much on light sources, it was better to create a more favorable battle environment for humans!

"First row, aim!" Wang Longzhong shouted, holding his firearm: "Fire!"

Bang bang bang bang...

A stream of fire sparked, smoke from the gun muzzle diffused, dancing in the air in various shapes.

The second wave of defense, hot weapon pinpoint shooting!

With the first row of firearms firing, the zombies at the forefront fell about twenty meters from the barricades, three in total. These zombies were like the first domino piece, causing a series of zombies behind to tumble, leading to a small-scale stampede—significantly affecting the horde's attack speed!

If just relying on zombie bodies couldn't block them for long, but if a tripwire was added, the effect would improve greatly.

"Tripwire!"

With Wang Longzhong's command, a rope stretched across the street, taut and straight.

Thud thud thud...

The effect of the trip rope was pretty good, immediately causing the zombies at the forefront to fall headlong, collapsing into a chaotic heap like a pot of porridge.

"First row, keep shooting... Fall back to reload... Second row step forward, aim, fire!"

While Wang Longzhong was fighting, he also commanded, with a loudspeaker hanging from his waist, his voice very clear. Given the situation, he wasn't afraid of attracting zombies.

Bam bam bam...

"Second row fall back, third row..."

Fortunately, Wang Xingui participated in Zhang Su's campaign to wipe out Beita Camp and managed to trade food for more than a dozen firearms. Otherwise, with United Village's original firepower, they could only support two rounds of shooting. Now, there was a third row.

Never underestimate this third row; with its participation, the cycle of reloading the firearms closes effectively, achieving the most efficient firepower coverage under the given conditions.

Bam bam bam...

Bam bam bam...

...

Orderly shooting, flickering fire and smoke filled the air. Each row of bullets shot out meant several zombies met their end!

However, despite all the firepower coverage, the villagers' homemade firearms were nowhere near standard automatic rifles. After a few rounds, the ground was littered with sparse bodies, and the zombies finally charged to the barricade!

Howl!

The villagers were caught by surprise.

Due to using firearms, the villagers were three to five meters away from the barricade. As everyone thought the zombies would be blocked by the barricade, the leading zombie clumsily leapt up, although it got tangled in the barricade, it awkwardly rolled over to the other side. Now, it faced no obstacle between itself and the villagers!

Bam!

Before the zombie could rise, Wang Longzhong fired a shot at its head, shouting, "Switch weapons, fight!"

The zombie's actions shocked him, but there was no time for pondering. The primary task was to keep the zombies on the other side of the barricade!

He inserted the firearm into his waistband in haste, but it fell to the ground, and there was no time to pick it up. He drew out a specially made large fire tong and lunged!

"Fight!"

"Kill..."

"Finish them off!"

With the villagers' shouts, they finally engaged the zombies in close combat!

However, at this moment, everyone realized the clumsy leap was nothing; the biggest surprise had arrived, and the scene before them sent shivers down their spines!

Previously, when killing zombies, a strike with a machete would at least sever an arm, and sharpened steel bars would pierce them through. However, this time, fighting the zombies was different.

It couldn't be denied that some zombies were like before, without much resistance against sharp weapons. But some were unusual; when villagers struck them with machetes or hoes, it didn't bring up flesh, but a puff of dust. The hard sensation was like hitting stone, and the zombie would only slightly recoil from the force, leaving gouges but remaining uninjured!

Only sharp weapons could inflict some damage on such zombies, but it was still very strenuous.

"Damn it, what's up with this zombie? Why is its skin as tough as stone? Damn, damn..."

Someone voiced a soul-wrenching question, furiously swinging a sharp double-edged sickle but struggling to breach the zombie's defense. Only jabbing the sickle's tip into the zombie's eye socket killed it, with a stark decline in killing efficiency compared to before!

"Everyone, pay attention. Some zombies have extremely strong defenses; don't attack other parts, aim for the head, aim for the eye sockets!"

Wang Longzhong shouted, encountering zombies resembling armored ones during the killing, having no idea what was happening. Unfortunately, there was no time to stop and study; his fire tong moved like a piston, his arm the connecting rod, thrusting and pulling back repeatedly!

The villagers fought desperately but grew more anxious as they battled. Against ordinary zombies, it wasn't too difficult, handling them within three to five blows, a maximum of five to six would end the fight, at worst severing the legs to limit their mobility, indirectly improving their chances of survival.

But encountering one with a strong defense...

Vigorous hacking and stabbing scarcely yielded results, depleting energy and increasing risk as the battle dragged on. Ultimately, they had to resort to shooting it in the head, but clearly, this was not a sustainable plan!

As killing efficiency dipped, United Village gradually fell into decline!