Chapter 100
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Chapter 100: The Cleanup
When the word "kill" escaped the lips of the city defense officer, Wang Xiao immediately grasped the true intent behind his words—or rather, the intent of those in higher authority.
Nothing holds greater importance than the defense of the city walls, not even the very things those walls are meant to protect.
Whether by choice or by force, the moment those individuals chose to assault the city walls, their allegiance had already shifted.
Wang Xiao glanced around at his teammates and finally declared,
“I’ll stay behind alone.”
“What?”
The other members of the Fresnel team turned to him, their eyes demanding an explanation.
“It’s not strange at all. If the Captain stays, more lives will be lost, both on the front lines and here.
“And I alone am enough to hold the stairs leading up to the city wall.”
Hearing this, the others suddenly found his reasoning sound; time was critical, and they needed to act swiftly.
Noticing his teammates’ lingering hesitation, Wang Xiao added the final push:
“For them, losing a hand or a foot is still better than having a gaping hole burned through their chest, don’t you think?”
Fresnel was struck by the thought of his most frequently used attack method. The mere idea of turning those abilities against fellow humans of his own kind sent a shiver down his spine.
“Alright, I agree with Wang Xiao’s plan.”
Seeing their captain take the lead, the others quickly raised their hands in agreement.
Time was running out. Once the arrangements were confirmed, Wang Xiao stayed behind while the others hurried back to the front lines, bracing themselves for the next wave of extraordinary beasts.
At the stairway, only Wang Xiao, the city defense officer, and a handful of soldiers who would later provide fire support remained.
“Do you have any decent weapons here?”
“……”
“Bang!”
With a deafening crash and a billowing cloud of dust, the gate of the military camp below was completely demolished. The infected, their eyes glowing blood-red, began to flood in with frenzied desperation.
They howled, jostled, shoved, and trampled over one another, spreading like an ever-expanding mycelium mat.
The guarding soldiers quickly signaled the alarm and, after reloading their last magazine, began retreating toward the stairs.
The camp was already encircled by the infected, and while the city wall marked the frontline, it was also their only path of retreat.
As they ascended the stairs to the city wall, the two soldiers suddenly sensed something blocking the light ahead.
They looked up to see a towering figure—a man with taut skin and muscles, exuding an aura of unyielding strength—descending toward them.
Recognizing the battle suit he wore, the two soldiers realized this was no ordinary man but a formidable superpowered individual.
Their panic-stricken hearts instantly calmed, and they even felt a strange urge to linger and observe him further.
The two retreating guards pressed themselves against the stairs to make way for Wang Xiao. The tall man strode past them, revealing the black staff he carried in his hand.
“Whoa, that’s definitely a weapon crafted by the research institutes specifically for warriors like him. Let’s just sit back and watch the show!”
One soldier exclaimed with excitement.
His partner glanced a few more times in the direction of that retreating figure and scratched his head.
“Why does that staff look so familiar to me?”
Within seconds, the leading Infected had charged up the lowest staircase, its blood-filled maw gaping wide like a beast unleashing its intimidation, rushing straight toward Wang Xiao.
In the next instant, one end of the wrist-thick staff was thrust into the Infected’s open mouth.
The strength transmitted through the staff sent the creature reeling backward, crashing into several other Infected behind it.
The walls of Hope City towered dozens of meters high. For safety, the troop transport stairs were designed with landing platforms every five meters or so.
Wang Xiao stood on the platform closest to the ground.
With a single powerful thrust of the staff, he pushed the most aggressive Infected away, then pivoted and delivered two whip-like kicks, shattering the nearby railing.
Immediately after, he swept all the oncoming Infected out through the gap, as though he were clearing debris from the ground.
A five-meter fall would likely be fatal for an ordinary person. Wang Xiao wasn’t entirely sure about the physical resilience of the Infected, but this was his final act of mercy.
This was only a five-meter-high platform. Beyond it, there would be ten meters, then fifteen…
He hoped that the Infected who had broken their legs would stay down there, quietly waiting for the antidote to be developed or for some other solution to emerge.
Seeing the superpowered individual’s straightforward and unpretentious solution, the soldiers manning the machine guns above let out a collective sigh of relief.
Though the Infected numbered in the thousands, their advantage was nullified in such a narrow stairwell.
As long as the superpowered individual’s body held up…
This would be the stage where he would forge his legend!
And physical strength was Wang Xiao’s greatest asset.
The two soldiers who had retreated to the top of the wall watched the scene unfold, their hearts swelling with excitement.
One of them was about to boast again about his theory regarding the opponent’s weapon when he noticed that a corner of the temporary command center on the wall had collapsed.
“Hey, what’s going on over there?”
He grabbed a comrade on the wall and voiced his confusion.
The soldier he’d grabbed looked in the indicated direction and chuckled.
“That ridiculously strong guy wanted a weapon, and the city defense officer had no choice but to dismantle a ridge from the temporary command center for him.
“I heard it’s made of carbon fiber, so it’s got both strength and flexibility. The city defense officer even told him to come back for more if it wasn’t enough…”
Down below, Wang Xiao continued to refine his combat skills in this rare close-quarters battle with cold weapons.
He scattered the clustered Infected and sent them tumbling off the High Platform one by one.
He struck the knees of those who ran too fast and smashed the heads of those who tried to bite. In the process of fighting these beast-like creatures, Wang Xiao unexpectedly found a sense of training in the chaos.
Moreover, the staircase was only two meters wide, so as long as he prevented the Infected from getting past him, he didn’t have to worry about protecting anyone else.
The occasional straggler was swiftly picked off by the snipers on the wall.
In short, this section of the city wall in the Southern District of the outer city was successfully defended in an incredibly cost-effective manner. The minimal gunfire went unnoticed by the frontline soldiers and had no impact on morale.
Just as Wang Xiao began to feel an unwarranted sense of ease, the Infected’s assault suddenly ceased—and it stopped in a horrifying way.
In an instant, all the Infected froze in place, as though someone had pressed a pause button on a horde of robots.
The next moment, every single Infected turned their gaze directly toward Wang Xiao.
Whether they were pushing forward, waiting to ascend, or crawling on the ground with broken legs after being swept off the platform, in that moment, they all stared at Wang Xiao from every angle, leaving no blind spots.
Time seemed to stand still.
