I Have a Modern Weapon Gacha System in the Zombie Apocalypse

Chapter 192: Push Part 3

The reinforced blast door slammed shut behind them with a deep metallic boom.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Only heavy breathing echoed faintly through respirators while dust drifted slowly through the dark underground corridor.

The outside noise vanished almost instantly.

No screaming infected.

No distant roars.

No gunfire echoing across ruined streets.

Just silence.

Cold.

Heavy silence.

Ryan slowly turned his flashlight farther down the corridor ahead.

"...I honestly think this is worse."

One operator beside him quietly answered.

"Agreed."

The underground passage stretched deep beneath Beijing like the throat of some buried machine. Reinforced concrete walls lined both sides of the tunnel while thick utility pipes ran overhead beside damaged cable trays and emergency lighting systems.

Some lights still worked.

Barely.

Dim red emergency lamps flickered weakly every several meters, casting uneven shadows through the corridor.

Other sections remained completely dark.

The Geiger counters attached to their gear clicked softly.

Lower than outside.

That was good.

At least the underground structure still provided radiation shielding.

Adrian slowly stepped forward.

"Check sectors."

The operators immediately spread into formation.

Two front security.

Two rear.

The others scanned side access corridors branching away from the main tunnel.

Ryan moved beside Adrian while checking the tablet navigation overlay.

"Doctor Lin’s sector should be somewhere ahead past the containment wing."

One operator quietly muttered—

"Containment wing. That sounds comforting."

Nobody laughed.

Because this place genuinely felt wrong.

Not abandoned.

Not dead.

Wrong.

The walls still carried signs of organized evacuation attempts months earlier.

Emergency stretchers remained overturned near one section of the corridor. Blood stains covered parts of the floor while discarded hazmat masks and military equipment remained scattered everywhere.

Several armored personnel carriers designed for underground facility transport sat abandoned farther ahead with their doors left open.

Ryan aimed his flashlight inside one vehicle while walking past.

Skeletons remained strapped into the seats.

Still wearing military uniforms.

"...Damn."

One operator crouched briefly near a nearby body afterward.

"Chinese military."

Another pointed toward claw marks gouged deep into the armored vehicle doors.

"Looks like they were attacked trying to evacuate."

Adrian continued moving.

"Stay alert."

The team advanced deeper into the underground complex afterward.

The deeper they went—

The colder the place became.

The air smelled stale now.

Like mold, old machinery, and decaying flesh trapped underground for months.

One operator quietly checked the motion tracker mounted near his wrist.

"No movement yet."

Ryan looked around uneasily.

"That’s the problem."

Suddenly, a metallic sound echoed faintly somewhere deeper ahead.

CLANG.

Everybody froze instantly.

Weapons raised.

The sound came again.

Something moving.

Slowly.

Then silence.

Ryan narrowed his eyes.

"Contact?"

One operator checked thermal optics.

"No clear heat signatures."

Another quietly answered.

"Too much interference underground."

The operators continued forward slower now.

Every footstep echoed softly through the underground corridor.

The tension became worse with every meter.

Because unlike surface fighting—

There was nowhere to run down here.

Then suddenly—

One of the emergency lights farther ahead flickered violently.

And movement crossed the corridor.

Fast.

"CONTACT FRONT!"

An infected burst from a side access hallway directly toward the team.

BANG BANG.

Suppressed rifle fire dropped it instantly.

But the moment the body hit the floor—

More screams erupted deeper inside the tunnels.

Ryan immediately cursed.

"Oh, here we go."

Dozens of infected emerged from the darkness ahead.

Not ordinary infected.

These looked different.

Paler.

Thinner.

Their skin had almost turned gray from months underground while their eyes reflected strangely beneath flashlight beams.

Several still wore torn hazmat suits.

Others wore military uniforms.

One had an IV line still hanging from its arm.

"Open fire!"

The corridor exploded into gunfire.

THUPTHUPTHUPTHUP.

Suppressed rifles echoed violently through the underground tunnel while infected bodies collapsed across the concrete floor.

But the narrow corridors created a deadly problem.

The infected kept coming directly toward them in concentrated waves.

One operator stepped forward with the MK48.

"Backing!"

The others shifted aside immediately.

THUPTHUPTHUPTHUPTHUP.

The machine gun shredded the front ranks.

Bodies exploded backward while blood sprayed across the tunnel walls and ceiling.

Still—

The infected continued charging.

Some crawled over the bodies of others.

Others slammed themselves directly into gunfire without hesitation.

Ryan fired controlled bursts into the closest targets while backing slowly with the team.

One infected suddenly crawled out from beneath a maintenance hatch near the floor.

It grabbed an operator’s leg instantly.

"CONTACT LOW!"

The operator slammed the rifle downward before firing directly into the creature’s skull.

Blood exploded across the floor.

Another infected lunged from the side corridor immediately afterward.

Adrian shot it point blank.

BANG.

The creature spun backward into the wall hard enough to crack bone audibly.

"Move up while firing!" Adrian ordered.

The team advanced slowly through the corridor afterward while maintaining suppressive fire.

Spent shell casings bounced across the concrete floor.

The tunnel filled with smoke and blood.

Then suddenly—

One of the infected stopped charging.

The creature stood farther back inside the corridor darkness.

Watching.

Ryan immediately noticed it.

"...Adrian."

"What?"

"That one’s not attacking."

Adrian looked immediately.

The infected stood unnaturally still beneath the flickering emergency lights.

Its head tilted slightly.

Observing them.

Then it slowly retreated backward into the darkness.

Ryan felt his stomach tighten slightly.

"That’s not normal."

No.

It wasn’t.

And everyone there knew it.

One operator quietly muttered—

"Smart infected..."

The atmosphere immediately became heavier afterward.

Because now they knew Captain Liu and Doctor Lin had not been exaggerating.

Something underground was changing.

Adrian immediately pointed forward.

"Push faster. Now."

Nobody argued.

The team advanced deeper into the containment sectors rapidly afterward.

The tunnel layout became more industrial farther in.

Heavy blast doors lined several sections while warning signs written in Chinese covered portions of the walls.

BIOLOGICAL HAZARD.

AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.

CONTAINMENT SECTOR B.

Ryan quietly looked around.

"Yeah. This definitely used to be a research facility."

One operator pointed toward a shattered observation window.

Inside the room beyond—

Rows of containment cells remained visible.

Most were broken open from the inside.

Ryan slowly stared at them.

"...I really don’t like this place."

Suddenly, the lights died.

The corridor plunged into darkness instantly.

"Night vision!"

Green-tinted visuals immediately filled their optics.

Then screaming erupted from ahead.

And behind.

The infected attacked from both directions simultaneously.

"CONTACT FRONT AND REAR!"

The tunnel exploded into chaos.

The infected charged directly through the darkness while operators opened fire from both sides.

THUPTHUPTHUPTHUP.

Muzzle flashes illuminated pale bodies sprinting through the corridor.

Several creatures slammed directly into the front operators before getting shot point blank.

One infected wearing a torn laboratory coat lunged toward Ryan with horrifying speed.

Ryan sidestepped before driving his knife upward beneath its jaw.

The blade punched through the skull.

He kicked the body away immediately.

Another operator screamed.

"LEFT SIDE!"

An infected burst through a ventilation shaft in the wall before tackling one of the soldiers into the floor.

The operator jammed his rifle sideways into its mouth while struggling.

Adrian reacted instantly.

BANG.

The infected’s skull exploded.

The operator shoved the body off himself while breathing heavily.

"Thanks."

"Move!"

The team pushed forward aggressively now.

The narrow corridors actually worked in their favor once they stabilized firing lanes.

The infected could not fully surround them.

The MK48 continued hammering the corridor nonstop while rifles covered side hallways and ceiling vents.

Bodies piled across the floors.

Black blood spread beneath combat boots.

Then finally, the attacks slowed.

The remaining infected retreated deeper into the underground sectors.

Not fleeing blindly.

Falling back.

Ryan noticed it immediately.

"...They’re herding us."

Nobody answered.

Because they all realized the same thing.

Something intelligent was watching them underground.

And it was letting them come deeper.

The team finally reached another massive reinforced blast door farther ahead.

Unlike the others, this one still had power.

Dim green lights glowed faintly above the frame while emergency systems hummed softly nearby.

One operator checked the navigation tablet again.

Then slowly looked up.

"This is it."

The atmosphere immediately changed again.

Because beyond this door—

Doctor Lin waited.

Or at least, they hoped she still did.

Ryan slowly approached the reinforced door while aiming his flashlight toward the Chinese warning labels printed across the steel surface.

LEVEL 4 BIOLOGICAL CONTAINMENT.

AUTHORIZED ACCESS ONLY.

Then suddenly, a voice echoed faintly through the intercom speaker beside the door.

A weak female voice.

"...Who’s there?"