I'm bombarding the Supernatural World with my firearms

One can imagine.

If cities were allowed to go to war to determine their ranking instead of using something like the inter-city competition, Fengtian City definitely would not be ranked near the bottom as it is now.

This corps of gunmen could give many cities a sizable difficulty to deal with.

"I haven't found much online about this fixed event," Chen Miao said, turning his head to look at Zhou Shen. "Other than nearly wiping out two cities, there's no news at all. There is no analysis of the zombies' strengths and weaknesses, no information on whether the source of these zombies is contagious, and no details on what the completion conditions for this fixed event are."

"Has the information about this fixed event been sealed off?"

"No."

Zhou Shen shook his head. "As members of the Events Bureau, this history is a required course for us. In fact, there isn't much news, and indeed two small cities were nearly wiped out. To be precise, the first city was wiped out, and the second lost seventy percent of its population."

"There is only one thing that we do know."

"That is, as long as we survive for seven days, these zombies will automatically disappear."

"The key is how to live through these seven days."

"Theoretically, if all the zombies were killed, it wouldn't be impossible to end the event early, but based on observations from the previous two incidents, it seems like the zombies are endless. No matter how many you kill, more will keep coming."

"The zombies, at least, aren't virally infectious, but they are extremely fearless of death and incredibly aggressive, making them very difficult to fend off."

"Beyond that information, there's nothing else. That's all the related news there is."

"It's like whether Broken Pot City survives this time is entirely up to itself. You can't rely on anyone else. Once the fixed event of the Sea of Zombies starts, people from other cities can't enter the city in question."

"The city is essentially temporarily isolated from the Federation."

"Hmm?"

Chen Miao's brows suddenly furrowed as he said in a deep voice, "Then what are we doing here this time? Weren't we supposed to be here for a rescue mission?"

"Theoretically, yes," Zhou Shen said with some helplessness. "But we can't actually enter Broken Pot City. We can only fight zombies on the outskirts of the Sea of Zombies. Our main goal is to show off Fengtian City's fangs, hoping that might somehow be of some help to Broken Pot City."

...

Seven o'clock in the morning.

It was still dark outside.

With a military vehicle leading the way, clearing the path, and the accelerator floored, the group from Fengtian City took just three hours to arrive at Broken Pot City. At that moment, the convoy stopped on a small hill not far from the city.

Everyone was disembarking to rest and began to organize their equipment.

Stationed on the edge of the hill with his walking stick, Chen Miao looked out. He could faintly see the outlines of Broken Pot City, now enveloped by countless zombies. He couldn't see exactly how many zombies there were; all he knew was that numerous dark shadows had swathed the city.

Easily... tens of millions.

Seeing this scene, for the first time, he harbored the thought that perhaps rescue wasn't necessary. The city was almost certainly doomed, and no one could survive under these circumstances.

If this scene were to take place in Fengtian, perhaps he too would die.

Yes, he was indeed fierce in firepower.

But faced with the flood-like swarm of zombies, he wouldn't stand a chance. He could kill ten thousand, a hundred thousand, even a million, but could he kill ten million?

Furthermore, they were unable to enter Broken Pot City and could only fight on the periphery, which essentially dashed any hopes of rescue once again.

...

"What's wrong with you?"

Chi Qiu, who had followed the bulk of Fengtian City's forces, looked at the distracted Ke Gou and couldn't help but ask, "You've been restless since before we set out. What's going on?"

"..."

With a complex expression, Ke Gou was silent for a long time before he hoarsely said, "I know a secret, a secret that I'm not sure I should share."

"What secret?"

"Event number 68, the Sea of Zombies, doesn't occur randomly. It's man-made."

"Man-made?"

Chi Qiu turned his head, looked at the tens of millions of zombies below the hillside, and after standing frozen for a long time, muttered, "Wait, let me get this straight. When you say man-made, what do you mean? I didn't quite understand."

"Sigh."

Taking a deep breath, Ke Gou paused briefly before saying uneasily, "This fixed event will randomly assign a task to someone. It's a complete task chain."

"At the start of the task chain, the panel will tell you what rewards you will receive upon completion of these tasks and what consequences it will trigger."

"One of the consequences is an outbreak of the Sea of Zombies in the afflicted city."

"No more than three people in the whole Federation should know this news."

"I'm one of them."

"Can you be sure it's true?" Chi Qiu's eyes flickered with uncertainty.

It was... unbelievable that only three people in the entire Federation knew, and Ke Gou just happened to be one of them. If this were true, then the person who completed the task chain would undoubtedly be considered a criminal against humanity.

At least millions had died because of this.

All this sin had to be counted on this person's head.

"I'm sure," he said.

Ke Gou fell silent for a long time before he spoke softly, "The first task chain was completed by me. That Sea of Zombies destroyed my hometown, taking away nearly all the people of that city."

"That was the first time this fixed event made an appearance in the federation."

"The consequences of completing the task chain were clearly stated on the panel, but if you refused the task, you would only lose the memories related to it, with no punishment."

"That night, I stared at that task chain and sat silently in the living room, just like now."

Chi Qiu's expression grew complicated as he turned to glance at Ke Gou, "But in the end you still chose to complete the task chain. It's said that 800,000 people died that time, almost everyone in the city died, not a single survivor left. Since then, the name of the city has gradually vanished from history."

"800,000 people."

"How rich must the reward for completing the task chain have been to make it worth it for you to do such a thing?"

"I don't consider myself a good person; I've done things such as bullying women and indulging in food, drinks, gambling, and prostitution, but to dismiss the lives of 800,000 people like that... Isn't that a bit too inhumane?"

"Humanity?"

Ke Gou shook his head, his expression slightly dazed as he turned to murmur toward the distance, "What is humanity? Is it inhumane to end the lives of 800,000? Do those 800,000 know me, do I know them?"

"The reward for completing the task chain was the resurrection of my wife."

"That night, after sitting and thinking for a long time in the living room..."

"I sent all those who had been kind to me, friends, family, out of the city. A month later, I completed the task chain, the Sea of Zombies arrived as planned, and I finally... saw her again."

"Your wife?"

Chi Qiu's expression complex and without commenting, he thought Ke Gou was wrong; even a child knows that it's not worth it to exchange one life for the lives of 800,000.

It could be figured out with just your toes.

But he wasn't in a position to say much. When he had first met Ke Gou, the man was just a vagrant, filthy all over, his long-unwashed beard and hair matted together, his clothes tattered.

At that time, who could imagine that this unremarkable vagrant was one with 800,000 lives on his hands?

If he had known.

Perhaps he wouldn't have saved the vagrant back then, letting him die in the cold winter. But over the years, he had developed a good relationship with Ke Gou, who as his 'dog-headed military advisor' had helped him a lot, so he couldn't bring himself to turn against Ke Gou now.

But one thing he knew.

Was that when he met Ke Gou, there were no women with him.

This meant either the resurrection hadn't been successful, or there had been some other accident afterward.

"My wife, ah..."

Ke Gou murmured with a dazed look, lowering his head, "She was indeed resurrected, you know, boss. When she first came back, I was overwhelmed. I felt like the luckiest man in the world."

"I felt it was all worth it."

"It wasn't just 800,000 people; even if another 800,000 died, I would think it was worth it."

"But I quickly started to notice the problem, not until the last link of the task chain was revealed before me."

"I thought I had long completed the task chain, that everything was over, but that was actually the last part of the fixed event, the Sea of Zombies."

"The final task was for me to kill my own wife."

"Huh."

Ke Gou lit a cigarette, slowly raised his head, and blew a stream of pale blue smoke into the air, then suddenly let out a bitter laugh, "The punishment for failing the task was for the Sea of Zombies to break out across the entire federation."

"That would be tantamount to the end of the world."

"I admit I'm not a good person, but I can't bear the sin of starting the end of the world."

"I could harm 800,000 people, but I can't bear the deaths of all the people in the federation."

"What's more, after living with my wife for several months, I gradually noticed something was off. She was not my real wife; she was more like a clone of my wife, the same personality, the same body, the same speech habits, but I knew she was not her."

"Later..."

"Later, I killed her with my own hands and ended this farce; after that, I began to wander. I didn't know what the meaning of life was, not until I met you, boss, which made me feel my life could shine."

"The reason I'm telling you all this is that I consider you, boss, as family. If you decide to report me, I'll have no complaints. I've kept this inside for too long—it's suffocating me. I've wanted to talk for a long time; keeping it in makes me uncomfortable."

"..."

After a long silence, Chi Qiu pulled Ke Gou into an embrace, "Don't worry, I won't report you."

"There's one more thing, boss. If we can find the person who completed the task chain and kill him, we can end the Sea of Zombies ahead of time."

"This person will have a distinct feature, a plum blossom tattoo on the back of his hand."

...

"Kid, you've got some nerve!"

Inside Broken Pot City, a man grabbed a gimlet and, after gesturing on Doctor Gou's hand back for a long time, grinned ferociously, "This plum blossom tattoo is pretty nice. If I drive this gimlet in, do you think it'll hurt?"