Just moments ago, Xiangzi had made her way past the main road, which was clogged shut with abandoned vehicles. The few scattered infected she ran into were utterly outmatched by the Xiangzi now clad in her new equipment.
The aiming assist system was absurdly effective. It was like playing a game with cheats turned on. Xiangzi had never been a properly trained soldier, but under the support of the Samurai-3 powered combat armor, the weakest part of her combat ability—her shooting—had been raised to an entirely new level.
Since this area was already far from the active zone of the corpse tide, the sound of gunfire, reduced by the suppressor, was no longer especially loud. At the very least, it would not draw in infected on a large scale.
That was why Xiangzi dared to shoot without holding back.
Her close-quarters ace, the G18C Glock, had been switched to semi-auto. Under the red-dot sight, it was two shots to the chest, one to the head.
The infected dropped under the barrage of death that came screaming in.
Okay. Area ahead cleared. Time to move on.
This place had to be where the military and the infected had clashed, right? And the fighting had clearly been fierce. The scene was a mess…
Not far away stood several buildings and sandbag emplacements. There were iron barriers too, and hanging signs. The ground was in chaos, strewn with helmets, equipment, and corpses in camouflage—clear proof that this had once been a military blockade position.
The infected had broken through here. The fortifications were visibly worn and battered, and beneath the watchtower and the sentry hut off to one side, though the ground was now buried under a sheet of snow, the uneven mounds poking through were probably the bodies of infected cut down in large numbers.
After breaching the defenses, those infected had apparently scattered. Only a few small groups of three or five still wandered through the area.
Maybe it had something to do with the corpse tide Xiangzi had triggered a few days earlier. In any case, only stragglers remained.
And they were dispatched by Xiangzi with ease.
According to the system map, the vehicle marked for her was hidden near a roadside fork close to the edge between urban and rural districts, tucked along a sloped embankment. It was not far from the battlefield at all. Only a few more steps and she was there.
There were also several other vehicles parked nearby.
Because of the snowfall, a thick white blanket covered the imposing vehicle.
But even under the snow, Xiangzi could still tell at a glance that it was impressive.
It was simple—the cannon mounted right on top made it obvious that this was no ordinary vehicle. Its broad body and roughly three-meter height made it stand out sharply against the shorter vehicles nearby, like a giant among children.
As she approached slowly, Xiangzi realized something.
Those lower-profile vehicles were Type 73 armored personnel carriers from the Self-Defense Forces.
Those old machines were wrecked and miserable. Their sloped armor plates were stained with blood, and the battered, uneven surfaces showed they had taken heavy impacts. One of them had even rolled over entirely. The track of its skid was deep enough that even now, the heavy snow had not fully filled it in.
Compared to them, the vehicle designated by the system looked far better. It sat there calmly and solidly, almost unscathed.
The snow had not fully covered the space beneath it, and just from the visible undercarriage and the mounted cannon, Xiangzi had an idea what it might be.
"This chassis… and that weapon system… this has to be the Self-Defense Force's new Type 24 infantry fighting vehicle, right?"
She circled the vehicle once and slapped the armor plating with her palm. As it vibrated, clumps of snow slid off in sheets. Beneath the brushed-away snow, the green paintwork looked surprisingly sleek. The steel hull and modular add-on armor showed no obvious damage at all. The eight wheels were intact too, each wrapped in anti-slip chains. There was barely even any blood splashed across the exterior from running over infected.
Standing beside it, Xiangzi realized there were not many corpses buried beneath the snow around it either.
So this was not the scene of a crash.
Then why had the Self-Defense Forces abandoned such a seemingly intact IFV here?
If she could not tell from the outside, she would just inspect the inside.
Once she got inside, she'd know what had happened.
But not knowing how to open it, Xiangzi ended up asking the system.
"System, this really is the vehicle, right? How do I open the door?"
[That's the external armor plate, not the door. Of course you can't pull it open like that. Go in through the top hatch, or use the rear troop compartment hatch at the back of the hull. Didn't you know you're supposed to board and disembark quickly through the side? The door obviously isn't locked. Just get in.]
The system was speechless at how dumb she was being. The door was huge—how could she not see it? Yet she kept tugging at the armor section on the side, where the engine and drive components were.
Xiangzi was embarrassed too. She liked military gear videos and equipment trivia, sure, and she knew the Type 24 IFV's shape and armament, but she only had a surface-level understanding. She had no real knowledge of the interior layout.
She had absentmindedly applied the logic of civilian car doors to this thing.
A perfect example of experience backfiring.
Walking around to the rear of the vehicle, Xiangzi reached out and tried to open the hatch.
Even with the help of the Samurai-3's strength boost, the frozen hatch was still hard to move.
It had frozen shut. She yanked backward several times before it finally came open.
"The troop bay's pretty clean. Looks like the crew all got out."
There were no lights inside the dark compartment, but she had a tactical flashlight.
Now she could see the interior clearly. The steel walls were bare, with nothing much inside. There was not a single gun, bullet, or helmet left. Whoever had left this vehicle had done so cleanly.
That meant the crew had abandoned it of their own accord. They had not died trapped inside, surrounded by infected.
Otherwise there was no way the inside would be this empty.
Or possibly other survivors had looted it, but since the door had remained shut, that seemed unlikely.
"So the ammunition's gone too."
The ammo stowage was completely empty. But there were not many spent casings on the ground nearby either, so Xiangzi guessed the ammo had been expended elsewhere.
This vehicle had probably transported troops here to reinforce the line. Then, after running out of ammunition, something had gone wrong with the vehicle; the infected had broken through the defenses; and the crew, needing to retreat, had abandoned it here.
Thanks to her Driver trait, Xiangzi decided to try starting it.
Climbing past the gunner's and loader's positions, she settled into the driver's seat and got a feel for what it was like to be vehicle crew.
There was even a large observation window specially built into the commander's position, so visibility while driving would not be a problem at all.
Buttons, marked control handles, sensor systems, and display screens were arranged around her.
"It won't start at all. There's no electrical power in the vehicle. No idea how much fuel is left either."
Xiangzi complained. This vehicle search card really was much worse than the equipment card. She had to repair the thing herself. What was this, War Thunder crew training online? She might as well pull up the vehicle data first.
"System, give me the vehicle data."
[Here it is. You paid for the service anyway, so read it yourself.]
[Type 24 Infantry Transport Armored Vehicle (Type 24 Armored Fighting Vehicle). This is one of the Land Self-Defense Force's newly commissioned mainline wheeled armored vehicles, a core model in the Common Tactical Mobility Vehicle plan, intended to improve rapid response and logistics commonality.
Crew: 3 (driver, commander, gunner). Rear compartment carries 9 infantry.]**
"Hm…"
The crew and passenger capacity were both fairly large. Carrying nine soldiers made it obvious that the Type 24 could practically serve as a mobile home for their five-person group in the apocalypse. The unused interior space could hold supplies, and the now-empty ammunition racks would offer even more storage.
Its carrying capacity was genuinely appealing.
If they were ever forced to flee, this vehicle would be an excellent option.
[Basic parameters and design. Dimensions and weight:
Length: 8 meters. Width: 3.0 meters. Height: 2.9 meters. Combat weight: 28 tons. Uses an 8×8 wheeled layout. Road speed exceeds 100 km/h. Operational radius: 500 kilometers.**
The chassis is inherited from the Type 16 maneuver combat vehicle, with optimized suspension and transmission systems for complex terrain.
Power system: equipped with a 570-horsepower Mitsubishi diesel engine paired with an automatic transmission, offering better mobility than traditional tracked vehicles.]**
Xiangzi had little to say about that. On to the next section.
[Protection capabilities. The frontal hull can resist 20mm autocannon fire. Other areas can withstand armor-piercing rounds below 12.7mm.
Armor design: all-welded steel hull plus modular add-on armor. Upper glacis uses 20mm steel + 5mm liner at a 79-degree slope, capable of resisting 14.5mm machine-gun rounds and fragments from 30mm shells.**
Hull sides and rear are fitted with anti-spall liners to reduce secondary injury.
Weaknesses: tall silhouette makes concealment difficult. The unmanned turret's internal ammo rack lacks active protection. Survivability against anti-tank missiles is low.]**
Length 7.9 meters, width 2.98 meters, height 2.2 meters, combat weight 28 tons, protection against 20mm cannon fire—
For Xiangzi, that was already more than enough. After all, what she would mainly be dealing with were infected. Special infected capable of penetrating this armor would not be common.
As for armed human raiders, if she could not fight them, she could still avoid them.
Wait.
That might still be dangerous.
The single-use rocket launchers from that airdrop a while back had not gone only to Xiangzi's team.
If someone blindsided her with a rocket, then with this level of protection, the whole vehicle would simply explode.
Still, besides the one rocket her own team had fired, she had not heard any other rocket explosions over the past few days.
Better just stay cautious.
At that moment, Xiangzi found herself wishing she had pulled a Type 10 tank instead. Or, failing that, even a Type 90 MBT. Hell, even a Type 74 would have done.
She did not need an electronic warfare platform anyway.
(Though honestly… the Type 10's side skirts were so cool. She really wanted one.)
She kept reading.
[Interior layout and operational flexibility. The hull uses a modular internal arrangement, and the troop compartment can be reconfigured for different mission types, including medical evacuation and cargo transport.
However, it is not equipped with dedicated firing ports, meaning infantry must dismount and coordinate with the crew via the vehicle's communication system.]
[Firepower configuration.
Main weapon: 30mm Mk44 Bushmaster II chain gun. Rate of fire: 250 rounds per minute. Effective range: 2000 meters. Standard ammunition includes Mk258 AP rounds (penetration: 116mm rolled homogeneous armor) and HE shells, suitable for suppressing light armor and clustered targets.**
Secondary weapon: Mk52 7.62mm coaxial machine gun for infantry suppression.**
No anti-tank guided missiles installed. Firepower ceiling is limited. Ammunition rack located low in the hull and vulnerable to detonation by shell fragments. Please exercise caution.]
Well, there wasn't any ammo in it anyway, so it hardly mattered at the moment. She would worry about that after finding resupply.
In an emergency, she could always buy some through the system.
[Electronics and battlefield networking.
Digital combat network.
Integrated with the 10NW C4 system, allowing data sharing with Type 10 tanks, drones, and other units for multi-domain cooperative strikes.
Equipped with thermal imaging, laser rangefinder, and uncooled infrared sensors, supporting all-weather combat.]
That was all useless to Xiangzi for now. She did not know how to operate most of it.
"Alright, time to fix this thing."
Leaving such a treasure sitting out here made Xiangzi genuinely anxious.
Since she wasn't really a professional, she had to turn to the system again.
[One-time diagnostic fee: 500.]
"Fine. Hurry up."
Not short on points, Xiangzi bought the service immediately.
[Engine assembly intact. Wiring intact. Cylinder… intake abnormality. There. You can handle that part yourself. Go fix it.]
So that was it—the intake had been clogged.
And since Xiangzi possessed the Beginner Mechanic [Vehicles] trait now, she could actually fix that kind of issue.
Walking to the relevant part of the vehicle, she was greeted with a rather startling sight.
The intake was jammed shut with shattered gore.
No wonder the vehicle would not start.
If intake airflow was blocked, then clearing the obstruction to restore airflow was all that was needed.
Because her powered armor made using her hands awkward, clever Xiangzi dug around inside the vehicle and found some half-complete maintenance tools.
After a bit of work, it was fixed.
To think that such a simple repair meant she could just claim an IFV for herself… it almost felt too easy.
Those Self-Defense Force salarymen—had they really just abandoned it because fixing it was a hassle?
She tried starting it again.
This time the engine responded.
The hum of the machinery came alive, the vehicle's gauges flickered, and the internal lights came on.
It was a wonderful feeling.
"Good. Time to get moving."
She hit the throttle, and the IFV lurched forward sharply.
Then, after that single surge—
it lost all power.
"What now?"
Xiangzi stared in shock.
After the sudden jolt, she was thankful she had been wearing a helmet. Otherwise she might have cracked her head open.
"Don't tell me it's out of fuel…"
The fuel gauge had dropped all the way to zero.
That really was the problem.
Alright then.
Time to go find fuel.
There were no spare fuel drums in the vehicle. Xiangzi turned her attention to the overturned Type 73 APCs nearby.
Maybe one of them still had some usable fuel left.
As Xiangzi focused on scavenging fuel from the other vehicles, she failed to notice several unwelcome newcomers appearing on the map.
"What was that sound?!"
Just as she was messing around with another vehicle's fuel tank, a noise echoed from the distance.
Damn it—why now, of all times?
Throwing down the fuel container, Xiangzi readied herself for a fight.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 138)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter155)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter98)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter172)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 158
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 144
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 100
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 165
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 140
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 120
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 69
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 90
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 95
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 70
Uma Musume: I Want All 80
I Can Copy Unique Skills 65
Summoning an Evil God, but the 52
Supernatural Multiverse 65
My Harem Is Indescribable 50
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 55
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 40
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 50
Still playing traditional Honk 30
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