I have an Apocalypse City

Chapter 52: The Garbage Station

Translator: 549690339

The straight-line distance from Song Jian’s current location to Fifth Avenue was three kilometers, but to actually get there, he’d need to travel more than five kilometers along the streets, passing numerous hospitals, schools, and supermarkets along the way.

Fifth Avenue was a pedestrian street, surrounded by three high-end residential communities. Apart from three high-rise buildings, ail the other houses were rowed villas or detached houses. The task hints didn’t specify the exact location of Dr. Ebsiting. Even if Song Jian made it to Fifth Avenue, finding the doctor would likely be quire a challenge.

The Urban Waste Collection Center, or ‘garbage station’ as most people called it, was situated on the western side of the city’s ring-road highway, ten kilometers from Song Jian’s location at Camel Square.

Although the garbage station was farther away, all he needed to do was head west along the highway without passing through the inner city. Song Jian could still remember from the first night how the closer he ventured into the city, the more ferocious the creatures he encountered. Going to the garbage station, thus, seemed considerably safer than heading to Fifth Avenue.

“If only 1 knew what rhe doctor was searching for at the garbage station daily,” Song Jian thought to himself, “I could try to find it first and use it to initiate contact with him.”

Finding the place wasn’t the hard part; the real challenge was figuring out how to make contact with the doctor. Anyone who could survive in a zombie-ridden city would be incredibly wary of strangers. Any attempt to initiate contact rashly would likely result in an attack, as the mission instructions had warned.

Song Jian placed the fragment of the high-explosive grenade into the package slot and began walking towards the city’s outer highway.

The highway was littered with wrecked cars, while outside the patches of small woods, many people were now gathering wood and stone materials. It seemed that the previous players’ failures to create safe houses had taught everyone the same lesson: the more wood and stone you gather, the more robust your safe house will be.

Song Jian climbed atop a discarded car and looked around. Westward along the highway, the road was unobstructed for miles, with only a few wrecked cars here and there on the roadside.

“Little Cheap Brother, come gather with us!” Li Ke er called out from the small woods off the highway as she spotted Song Jian, hopping and waving at him excitedly.

Despite her young age, Li Ke’er was quite smart. Although Song Jian had already given her three hundred pieces of lumber, she still continued to gather more to build her safe house even stronger.

Song Jian waved back at Li Ke’er, then headed west along the highway, towards the garbage station.

Seeing Song Jian leave, a disappointed expression crossed Li Ke’er’s face. Her log gathering pace faltered, and her movements lost their previous vigor.

After traveling a kilometer along the highway, Song Jian suddenly spotted a pickup truck on the overpass ahead. The vehicle looked brand-new, as if it had just been driven out of a dealership. The door was open, and the keys were still in the ignition, as if it had been prepared just for him.

Song Jian chuckled. He hadn’t been behind the wheel since he got his driver’s license. Now he had the chance to indulge himself: the entire highway was his; he could drive however he pleased.

He got in, started the truck, and it began to lightly tremble as he awkwardly drove the pickup out. Thankfully, he was the only one on the highway, and he could avoid the wrecked vehicles along the roadside with care.

At first, Song Jian drove quite slowly, but after a few kilometers, he began to gain confidence. The speed of the truck steadily increased from thirty or forty miles per hour to upwards of seventy or eighty.

While Song Jian was on his way to the garbage station, he suddenly spotted a LV3 mutant zombie roaming on the highway. In an instant, he decided to have some fun. Rather than slowing down, he floored the accelerator and charged at the zombie, sending it flying.

“Oh yeah!”

Song Jian was thrilled. He experienced a kind of reckless exhilaration.

System prompt: You killed a LV3 mutant zombie using the vehicle “pickup truck,” and have gained 96 Experience Points.

The roar of the engine attracted the attention of the zombies on the highway. They began to congregate on the road. Ignoring zombies that hadn’t yet made it to the highway, Song Jian zoomed past, leaving behind only a cloud of exhaust. For any that appeared directly in front of him, he drove the pickup straight into them, knocking out over a dozen zombies along the way. Most of these zombies were level 3, a higher level than those around his apartment when he first entered the game.

“This feels good-” Song Jian laughed heartily.

In no time, Song Jian saw a massive sign next to rhe highway: “Urban Waste Collection Center.”

“This must be the place.” Song Jian gradually slowed down the pickup, made a turn on the side road, and headed towards the garbage station.

Soon, Song Jian arrived at a huge iron gate. As soon as he got out of the truck, he felt an intense sense of danger. It was as if someone was aiming a sniper rifle right at his head- a feeling that became stronger the closer he got to the dump.

“Could it be that Dr. Ebsiting is aiming his sniper rifle at me?” Song Jian speculated.

Bang’

A shower of dust sprang up a meter away from Song Jian, leaving a one-finger-wide deep hole right in front of his eyes.

“Stranger, leave now. You are not welcome here!” A raspy voice echoed from the distance.

Song Jian looked around, but the garbage dump was filled with huge mountains of waste, making it impossible to discern the shooter’s location.

Song Jian raised both his hands and shouted, “1 mean no harm. I’m just here to find Dr. Ebsiting. I have something important to ask him.”

“There’s no one here that you’re looking for. If you don’t leave now, 1 won’t go easy on you.” The voice grew stricter.

“Alright, I’ll leave!” Song Jain slowly retreated, took one last look at rhe garbage dump, got back into the pickup, and turned around to leave the way he came.

In the garbage dump, a wooden watchtower was hidden behind a mountain of trash. At this moment, two men in the watchtower were unblinkmgly watching Song Jian’s departing back.

“Boss, why did we let him go? 1 think that kid is a fat sheep for the taking. Look at his weapons, and the pickup truck behind him, they’re worth a fortune.” The younger man had a greedy look in his eyes as he quietly asked rhe man next to him.

“Don’t forget why we put in so much effort to enter this city of death. We can’t afford unnecessary trouble. Completing the mission is key. How do you know he came alone?” A bearded man beside him didn’t even turn his head, his eyes stayed glued to the butt of his rifle. When he rook aim, he could feel that the young man had already sensed his presence.

The young man was slightly disgruntled but didn’t dare to argue. He grumbled a bit and raised his binoculars to look at Song Jian.