You were supposed to hoard supplies, why the heck did you hoard zombies!

Chapter 147 Jiangbei District

Compared to other canned meats, chicken doesn't actually possess higher nutritional value or the attributes of other luxury goods.

But its production is what it is, just around a hundred pounds of chicken meat per week.

Supply and demand determine the price.

Meanwhile, outside the safety zone in a vehicle, a man was wolfing down the canned food in his hands.

He occasionally grabbed the water bottle beside him and took a few gulps.

"Ah—"

"I'm full."

"Got to say, chicken still tastes the best, even if the flavor is a bit light."

The man's expression relaxed, and his unkempt beard grew wildly around his jaw like weeds.

At first glance, it looked as though he wore a fur collar around his neck.

His nickname was indeed Big Beard.

Outside the car window was darkness, and if one looked ahead, they could vaguely see the arcs of the bridge spanning toward the other bank.

He was at the southern entrance to Sanjiang City's cross-river bridge.

"Big Beard, I heard the waters are rough."

"Shall we just call it off?"

There was another man in the passenger seat, who looked to be in his thirties as well, and he stared at the bridge ahead with a look of faint fear.

The incident at the hydroelectric station had already spread throughout the entire safety zone.

The fish and shrimp in the river were very dangerous.

Big Beard glanced at him with a hint of scorn in his eyes, "Call it off? You think you can just call it off because you said so?"

As he spoke, he opened the car door next to him.

"If you're scared, go back on your own."

"I'm not forcing you."

The two were employees of the Market Intelligence Department, so their main mission was to find more survivor settlements for the company.

But by now, they had already been everywhere they could in the downtown area.

The remaining places were all off-limits.

These locations typically concentrated in the busiest areas, such as the business streets and squares near the city government.

Then there were the high-rise buildings with narrow terrain and complex, changing conditions.

Once inside, it was a case of nine deaths and one survival.

In the end, a job was a means to stay alive. If one lost their life, what was the point of working?

Therefore, the staff of the Market Department never ventured into these places.

Including the two department managers above.

Tian Gou and Zhang Wei.

Although they hadn't needed to put their lives on the line in the front lines for a long time, they still occasionally led the team on search and rescue missions personally, avoiding these places whenever they could.

Because of this, the employees in the Market Department quickly found that there were no new places left to go.

The area was only so large, and they had been everywhere they could go.

But the performance targets wouldn't be lowered.

So it wasn't long before some people started looking beyond the downtown area, such as the remaining portion of the industrial zone located in the Fourth District.

Or the densely populated old city area.

But nobody dared to venture into the areas to the east of the city center, Jiangbei District and Jiangnan District.

Why?

Big Beard knew very well.

Because the company had never sent anyone to explore those two places.

And Jiangbei District and Jiangnan District were famously large and populous, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the entire population of Sanjiang City.

Beyond that, they connected to the suburbs and the several nearby towns.

This made it all the more dangerous.

Not just for them, even Tian Gou and Zhang Wei would leave as early as possible whenever they passed by this area, fearing any accidents.

Ultimately, the man in the passenger seat didn't get out of the car.

He needed the salary to support his family.

It was precisely because of this that Big Beard had decided to choose him as his partner to go check out Jiangbei District together.

If by chance they really discovered some large survivor settlement—

That was a major achievement.

Getting promoted might be a bit difficult.

After all, there are fewer than ten people in the entire marketing department.

But getting a raise or other benefits, that should be doable.

So the two of them went straight to the bridge.

On the other side was Jiangbei District.

That place was once the first economic development zone in Sanjiang City, with factories, schools, commercial streets, and even two or three hospitals.

Its prosperity was no less than that of the city center.

"Made up your mind?"

"Pfft."

Big Beard looked at him disdainfully.

Wanting to get ahead but too scared to take risks and fight for it, are you waiting for pie to fall from the sky?

His gaze returned to the bridge ahead, a hard-to-suppress excitement quickly filled his chest, giving him a sudden urge to floor the gas pedal and barrel across.

No, that definitely wouldn't do.

Stay calm.

Thinking this, Big Beard controlled his foot to slowly press down on the gas pedal, driving the black pickup truck onto the bridge at a deliberately slow speed.

Below the bridge, the sound of water was tumultuous, rushing against the bridge piers.

There was also a faint scraping noise, as if something was rapidly sliding across the bridge surface, and then disappeared into the distance.

Neither of them dared to speak, just silently watching the road ahead.

Shadows on the broad bridge surface were everywhere.

They were the remnants of car accidents.

It took them over an hour to cross the two-kilometer-long bridge.

Luckily, there were no zombies among the wreckage of the vehicles.

Even bones were rare.

But just as the two were about to breathe a sigh of relief, they suddenly heard sounds of combat ahead, faintly accompanied by screams and cries for help.

Big Beard's face lit up with glee, damn, is my luck this good?

We've come across living people just after crossing the bridge?

What a great start!

He didn't even ask his partner for an opinion, grabbed the crooked knife at his feet, pushed the door open, and jumped out of the truck.

Seeing this, the other hesitated briefly but then also jumped down.

"Beard, it's better to be careful," he said.

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Without turning his head, Big Beard replied irritably, "Alright, alright, I get it, Hou Shubin, you're just too timid."

As he spoke, he was already running towards the sound.

The sound was coming from over there.

Hou Shubin's face turned slightly angry, but he didn't lose his temper, instead, he silently followed.

He knew very well that they were partners now.

Infighting would only lead to a short life.

To minimize the chance of being discovered by enemies, both implicitly agreed to leave the vehicle where it was and proceeded alone.

Apart from the two human employees, there were actually two other partners in the truck.

More accurately, they were zombies.

This was the standard configuration for the marketing department when carrying out tasks: human employees and zombie task force members working together.

Typically, each human employee would be assigned a zombie by the department manager.

They could be seen as a single unit.

When carrying out tasks, the main responsibility of the zombie task force member was to cover for their partner, and when necessary, they could also serve as bait for mutant zombies or Mutant Beasts.

The two zombies were wrapped in a thick layer of clothing.

Underneath was a set of light armor.

The clothing was to hide their zombie identities, preventing panic among survivors they might encounter and avoiding unnecessary conflicts.

The armor was to maximize their use as a shield and bait.

The two men and two zombies quickly went around the corner of the building.