Hua Rong District, located more than fifty kilometers north of the urban area of Shangbin City.
Originally, it would have taken only a few dozen minutes to reach by highway, but now, with the outbreak of a zombie crisis, Ray, forced to take the highways, spent more than five hours to arrive here.
And that was considered fast!
If it weren't for Jarvis constantly changing his route, helping him avoid all the roads that were blocked and impassable, as well as the large hordes of zombies, it's uncertain how much more time it would have taken to get there.
It's even possible that he could have driven straight into a horde of zombies, ending up with both the person and the vehicle torn to pieces by the zombie tide!
"The Da Xi Street Supermarket, it's in Hua Rong District, right?"
Ray, who arrived here with some scares but no actual danger, suppressed the intense hunger pangs in his stomach, and upon seeing the gradually appearing outline of a bustling area ahead on the road, felt a slight relief in his heart.
It was 5:47 PM now. The sun had set more than a dozen minutes ago, and it hadn't completely darkened yet, but it was estimated that in no more than twenty minutes, it would be thoroughly dark.
Buzz—
The huge armored vehicle was slowly moving on the road.
The Da Xi Street Supermarket, located in the northern part of Hua Rong District, was built in a commercial area. To the east, across a street, was a three-story food court, and further east, a residential area.
To the south was an eight-lane main road. Across it, similarly, was a residential area, but it was surrounded by a high wall.
To the north, across two streets, were office buildings, and to the west was an artificial lake, which wasn't a concern.
Ray, driving the armored vehicle through these deserted streets, was like a beacon in the night, extremely conspicuous, attracting the attention of many survivors who had luckily survived and hidden in these buildings.
Seeing the armored vehicle, which looked very similar to an armed and armored riot control vehicle, these lucky survivors showed excited expressions on their faces. However, fearing to attract the attention of zombies, they dared not make any noise to ask for help.
They could only desperately wave clothes in their hands or hold up large signs with 'SOS' and other distress signals, sending out silent pleas for help.
In response, Ray shook his head, choosing to ignore it. Given his current predicament, struggling to even find a temporary place to stay, how could he possibly bother with others and add to his own burdens?
Five minutes later!
Following the route on the car's navigation system, Ray stopped at a crossroads. Just over a hundred meters ahead was his destination.
The Da Xi Street Supermarket!
However, Ray didn't immediately drive there. Instead, he looked around at the surroundings and the Da Xi Street Supermarket, his brow slightly furrowed.
The situation around the supermarket was similar to what he had seen on the road earlier. Apart from the chaos, there were abandoned vehicles everywhere, some collided, some self-ignited, and some overturned, with splotches of blood all over the ground.
As for the zombies, he didn't see too many. Perhaps because the initial chaos had passed, only a few zombies were still wandering around, leaving the street somewhat deserted.
For Ray, this was actually good news, as it meant there wouldn't be much commotion.
But what really caught Ray's attention was the Daxi Street Supermarket in front of him, which was now in a completely sealed state!
All the rolling doors and iron gates had been lowered and closed!
And the rolling doors used by the Daxi Street Supermarket were electrically controlled, which could only be closed by pressing a switch from the inside!
"Has someone else gotten there first?"
This scene clearly meant there were survivors inside the supermarket.
"Jarvis, can you see what's going on inside the Daxi Street Supermarket right now?"
Releasing the brake, Ray drove around the supermarket, looking for an entrance, while asking Jarvis.
"Sorry, sir, the supermarket's cameras are not connected to the internet, so I can't access them to see inside. However, there are other network signals inside that I can access. Would you like me to access them?"
No more than a second after Ray's voice fell, Jarvis's voice came through the car's speakers, reporting back to him.
"Other network signals?"
Although he didn't quite understand what this meant, since it was possible to view the situation inside the supermarket through these signals, there was no difference.
"Access these signals!"
"Right away, sir!"
Two seconds later, Jarvis's voice rang out again.
"Sir, the network signals inside the supermarket have all been successfully accessed..."
Listening to Jarvis's investigation results, Ray roughly understood what was going on.
It turned out that the so-called "other network signals" referred to mobile phone signals. According to Jarvis's investigation, there were over two hundred mobile phone signals inside the supermarket.
But after hacking into the phone cameras and audio recording permissions and turning them on, it was discovered that the owners of these two hundred plus phones had all turned into zombies!
Moreover, they were mostly gathered on the first floor!
There were eight on the second floor, seven of which were zombies, and one was a survivor!
Beyond that, the rest of the phone signals were all clustered on the fifth floor, about twenty or so, and based on the phone cameras and audio, these were all survivors!
"Are there more than twenty survivors inside?"
Ray had a rough idea in his mind.
Then, driving the armored vehicle, he arrived at the supermarket's outdoor parking lot, lifted his gaze, and it landed on a window on the second floor, towards the north side.
This was the only entrance Ray had found after circling around earlier!
However, this window was four to five meters off the ground, and it was impossible to get in from there without the aid of something.
But that was for others, not for him, Ray.
"Jarvis, proceed as planned!"
After parking the car under that window and stopping, Ray gave the command, then unbuckled his seatbelt, put his phone into his pocket, took out a Bluetooth headset and put it on, and then pulled out a twenty-centimeter long, sharpened knife that he had obtained from a zombie on the road earlier.
"Understood, sir!"
Jarvis responded and immediately gained control of the armored vehicle, opening its sunroof.
Ray pushed up with both hands, climbed through the sunroof, and arrived on the roof of the vehicle.
His plan was simple: use the nearly three-meter height of the armored vehicle as a stepping platform, allowing his 1.8-meter-tall self to easily reach up and hook into the window four to five meters high to climb in. Afterwards, Jarvis would utilize the armored vehicle's autopilot function to drive the vehicle away and park it in a hidden, safe location.
And this plan went off without a hitch!