In the dark of night, this group of zombies surrounded Lu Wang, but did not pounce to eat.
The one-armed zombie leader squatted down and looked at Lu Wang's face.
"Chief Lu!"
The voice was hoarse and unpleasant. The zombie spoke.
"It's really unexpected. Back then, you and I were running rampant in the wholesale market. But today, we have both fallen to this state."
"I have become a zombie, neither human nor ghost. But you died and your corpse was left to rot in the wilderness, without even someone to collect your remains."
"All this is thanks to Xiao Fan!"
The zombie's face twisted, looking extremely angry.
This zombie was Li Nanfeng, who had mutated in Yanshan Town.
At this moment, he had about a thousand zombies behind him, all his men under his control.
He had come to the farm supply market, but did not dare approach here during the day. Although he had over a thousand zombies under him, if he faced Xiao Fan's troops, he would be wiped out in minutes.
So he only dared to appear when it was deep in the night and no one else was around. He came to Lu Wang's corpse.
"For the little friendship we once had, I'll give you new life. Although your new life will have no human consciousness, at least your body will be alive again."
"Also, your body has already gone through one mutation. After I give you new life, I will focus on cultivating you, to see how far you can grow."
"If you do well, perhaps one day, we'll have a chance to take revenge on Xiao Fan!"
After saying this, Li Nanfeng lowered his head and bit Lu Wang's throat.
The zombie virus entered Lu Wang's body. This person who was already dead gradually showed signs of life.
After about twenty minutes, Lu Wang stood up again.
But the Lu Wang now was no longer the previous Lu Wang.
His height had shockingly grown to over two meters and three centimeters. His whole body was covered with thick bio-armor. His eyes flashed with red light, like a fierce beast let out of its cage.
He had mutated again, becoming an iron-armored zombie even stronger than ordinary ones!
Seeing Lu Wang complete his mutation, Li Nanfeng laughed gleefully.
"Very good, now come with me. We will build our great army!"
The group of zombies followed Li Nanfeng away, disappearing into the night.
********
When Xiao Fan's convoy returned to Yanshan Town after two days, they were greeted with cheers.
The people didn't know what had happened during Xiao Fan's trip, but they could see his troops had grown even stronger.
On the way back, Xiao Fan carefully reviewed the changes after reaching the rank of Commander.
In his soldier list, there were still the Engineer and Spy units.
Xiao Fan remembered that constructing the Base Vehicle required assistance from 30 Engineers.
So on the way back, he directly produced 30 Engineers.
These 30 Engineers together with the 10 Engineers from before would form an Engineer platoon, specialized in constructing the Base Vehicle.
Therefore, when he returned to Yanshan Town, the people he brought back exceeded eighty. Adding the two platoons from before and the Engineers, his total troop number had surpassed one hundred and seven.
Xiao Fan returned to the police station, first meeting with his father and sister, and giving them some supplies.
His father needed some relatives to care for him, and his sister had some good classmates to look after her. At times like these, care was not as practical as giving them a few eggs and a bowl of rice.
Xiao Fan was not stingy at all with his loved ones.
But now there were also many problems. The police station could no longer accommodate so many people.
Luckily these past two days the Red Alert troops had not been idle. Not only had they eliminated most of the zombies in Yanshan Town, they had also recovered many places.
The town's elementary school was temporarily requisitioned by Xiao Fan. He arranged all the students like Xiao Tian to go there, and stationed three platoons there.
The town's middle school was also requisitioned by Xiao Fan. He gathered a large amount of tools, equipment, etc. there and used it as the construction site for the Base Vehicle.
When all the Engineers were in place, Xiao Fan's chief engineer Ai Yin reported to him.
"Commander, we still lack a lot of steel. As long as we have steel, we can officially start constructing the Base Vehicle. I guarantee completion within one month."
Xiao Fan nodded. "Are there any nearby places with a lot of steel?"
A platoon leader Xu Qiang said, "Commander, we discovered a steel factory at the other end of Chishui County. But the roads there are impassable. Too many zombies in the city districts along the way."
Xiao Fan took out a map to look at the location of the steel factory.
Indeed, as Xu Qiang said, the steel factory was not far, less than 300 km away.
But taking the highways would have to pass through the main city districts.
Chishui County was not a big county, but still had around 4-5 million zombies.
Xiao Fan's current strength had improved a lot, but trying to directly break through the zombie hordes in Chishui County was wishful thinking.
"How can we get to the steel factory without alerting the zombies?"
Xiao Fan was very troubled. He let everyone leave his room and pondered alone.
Transportation had always been a big problem plaguing him.
Not just steel, but also when he wanted to leave Chishui County and expand elsewhere there were issues.
For example, he had his eye on one location, but was hindered from reaching it.
Unfolding the map, he searched it inch by inch.
"Kaoshan Farm, with mountains and water, easy to defend, not too far from the city districts, and has water sources."
He picked up a pen and circled a place called Kaoshan Farm in another city in red.
"The steel factory is 300 km away from here, but hard to reach. Previously we could take the train there, but the trains stopped running long ago..."
"Wait!"
Xiao Fan had a flash of inspiration and suddenly realized a key point.
Train!
If the highways were difficult, he could take the railways!
The areas around the rails were fenced off to keep zombies out. Naturally he could reach his destination unhindered.
As long as he got a train, he could go straight to Chishui County Train Station.
And the steel factory was near the train station!
Xiao Fan immediately realized he had discovered an opportunity!