Shen Feng drove the armored car at full speed into the ruins of Huicheng.
The roar of the engine echoed through the ghostly city ruins, sounding particularly jarring.
Judging by the panic of those Brain Apes just now, there was no ambush waiting in Huicheng ahead.
'My appearance must have been a surprise to these Brain Apes,' he thought. 'They probably just hastily gathered a few dozen cavalrymen to ambush me.'
Now, Shen Feng just wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible—the farther, the better.
Only by completely shaking off their pursuit could he turn the tables, ambush them, and complete his mission.
As he drove, thoughts raced through Shen Feng's mind.
'Based on the various materials I've come across and my understanding of the Petrification Disease, this virus is likely a brand-new silicon-based virus.'
'And the name Silicon-Based Half-Brain Ape is probably also related to the Petrification Disease.'
'On Earth, there was that movie series, *Rise of the Planet of the Apes*. It was about a vaccine for Parkinson's, invented by humans, that ended up causing a deadly plague. But it also drastically developed the brains of apes, giving them intelligence comparable to humans.'
'Could that be how these apes gained their intelligence too?'
'But if that were the case, after nearly ten years of the Stone Statue Apocalypse, these apes should have completely taken over human cities and inherited human technological civilization by now.'
'But from the looks of it, there aren't that many apes, and they're only using leftover human tools. You couldn't say they've fully inherited our civilization.'
'Otherwise, what appeared today would definitely not have been Ape Cavalry, but ape tank drivers and ape artillerymen.'
Soon, he reached the central district of Huicheng. As long as he could cross the entire city and re-enter the wilderness, he would be able to completely lose these apes.
Cavalry was fast, but they were no match for the engine of an armored car.
Just then, the armored car's engine let out a loud BANG! A plume of black smoke billowed from the engine, even filling the cabin with haze, and the vehicle abruptly slowed.
Fuck!
Shen Feng swore, stopped the armored car, and opened the cabin door.
The thing he had worried about most had happened.
The diesel fuel he was using had been stored for too long and had undergone chemical changes. It wasn't burning completely. He'd been experiencing engine knocking the whole time he was driving, and now it seemed the residue from the incomplete combustion had completely wrecked the engine.
After all, so many years had passed; many of the lines inside the armored car had aged.
Shen Feng stood beside the armored car and looked back the way he came. Two tire tracks stretched into the distance, clearly visible.
It would be ridiculously easy for the apes to find him.
Trying to run out of Huicheng and into the wilderness on his own two feet was basically impossible. Besides, once he was alone in the wilderness, he would become their prey.
'I have to use these city ruins for urban warfare!'
Shen Feng gritted his teeth and quickly returned to the armored car. He took an automatic rifle with a scope, a pistol, three grenades, a large amount of ammunition, and the food and water from his pack.
Still in the vehicle were plenty of weapons and ammunition he'd collected, as well as several hundred autocannon shells.
If they fell into the hands of the Brain Apes, it would give them a massive advantage.
Shen Feng unwound a spool of fiber optic cable from the armored car. After making some arrangements, he dragged the long cable and ran quickly toward a nearby building.
The fiber optic cable was light and long, nearly several hundred meters. Shen Feng hid on the second floor of a shopping mall a few hundred meters away, concealing himself behind a stone statue and quietly waiting for the apes to appear.
'The beginning of these apes' intelligence was the beginning of humanity's extinction. They surely have little concept of human cunning.'
This was a life-or-death struggle between two species!
Shen Feng didn't have to wait long. After resting in the mall for less than an hour, he heard the sound of hooves in the distance. At first it was faint, but it gradually grew, rolling across the desolate landscape like muffled thunder.
Over a thousand members of the Ape Cavalry advanced in a mighty torrent, following the tracks left by the armored car.
When they saw the armored car stopped in the middle of the street, the foremost Ape Cavalry scout let out a joyful roar, passing the message along.
"Hoo-hoo, Kuafu, the human, as expected, did not escape!" a tall Brain Ape on horseback shouted to Kuafu.
Kuafu nodded, his eyes flashing with sagacious light behind his glasses.
"Human vehicles, need blood. Their blood, has dried up."
Over the years, the Brain Apes had also studied the vehicles left behind by humans.
At first, they could barely run them using the remaining fuel. But as time went on, the fuel degraded, and the vehicles became completely inert.
Moreover, the "blood" for these vehicles was extremely precious and scarce. Even if they could manage to drive one, they couldn't go very far.
The robust Brain Ape shouted loudly: "Human, is in, vehicle! Apes, follow Iron Head, kill human!"
After shouting, Iron Head whipped the warhorse beneath him and charged toward the armored car with a hundred Ape Cavalry.
They could already smell the human. The scent was both strange and familiar, and it drove them into a frenzy!
A group of Ape Cavalry quickly surrounded the armored car, warily raising their guns and aiming at the cabin door, ready to shoot the human inside at any moment.
The cabin door was ajar.
Iron Head reined in his horse beside the armored car and let out a hoot at a young ape. The ape immediately dismounted, walked to the car, and grabbed the door handle. At the same time, he glanced back at his comrades, signaling them to be ready to fire.
In the distance, Kuafu waited quietly for the final act, but he had a nagging feeling that something was wrong.
The moment the young Brain Ape grabbed the door handle, a question surfaced in Kuafu's mind:
'Why didn't that crazy, formidable human use the vehicle's cannon to attack?'
'No, something's wrong!'
Kuafu shouted, "Iron Head, get away, now! All apes, take cover!"
At the same time, the young Brain Ape had already pulled the cabin door open.
On the second floor of the distant mall, the moment he saw the door open, Shen Feng immediately grabbed the fiber optic cable and sprinted in the opposite direction.
The cable, which had been lying loosely on the ground, was suddenly pulled taut.
The hundred-plus Brain Apes led by Iron Head surrounded the armored car. They stared at the empty cabin, all wearing puzzled expressions.
There was only a pile of autocannon shells and various guns and grenades stacked together.
The fiber optic cable was pulled to its limit. It snapped tight, then yanked the pins from two secured grenades.
Iron Head had just heard Kuafu's shout. He turned on his horse to look quizzically at his spectacled leader, not understanding why he was ordering a retreat.
A crisp metallic CLICK sounded, and Iron Head finally saw the grenade pins being pulled by the fiber optic cable.
Horror spread across his face. He roared, "Quick—"
BOOM! The two grenades exploded simultaneously, scattering thousands of steel balls and a fiery blast in all directions. The explosion also detonated the surrounding ammunition, along with the armored car's fuel tank!
The sympathetic detonation created a massive fireball that engulfed the surrounding Ape Cavalry. Countless steel ball bearings and shrapnel shot out like a steel rain!
The shockwave and shrapnel formed a second wave of lethal force, piercing the bodies of the outer ring of Ape Cavalry and their horses!
A huge, fifty-meter-radius kill zone formed, centered on the armored car!
The hundred-plus apes led by Iron Head were completely wiped out, and nearly a hundred more on the periphery were severely wounded.
The howls of the Brain Apes and the neighing of warhorses filled the air. Some terrified Ape Cavalry even bolted, fleeing on their mounts.
Kuafu gritted his teeth amidst the fiery glow, a look of terror finally appearing deep in his eyes, intertwined with hatred.
From the time they gained their freedom until now, they had never suffered such a devastating blow. At this moment, they finally remembered the fear of being dominated by humans.
If the apes had their own Hell, this place would surely be one of its levels.
"Help the wounded! The rest of you, find the human, and kill him!!!"
...
When the explosion sounded, Shen Feng had already dashed out of the mall. He crossed an overpass to a room on the other side, then continued through a series of quiet buildings, heading for a structure he had noticed on his way in.
The Huicheng City Epidemic Prevention Center Building!
'The most dangerous place is the safest place!'