Once everyone had regrouped in the Industrial Park, they exported their explored areas from their computers and merged the maps. After confirming that the entire Industrial Park had been scouted, they hurriedly began their return journey.

The danger in Guanghan City had truly far exceeded everyone’s expectations. Even Lin Xinghai had absolutely no desire to stay a moment longer.

Especially since he had already used his Thunder Power twice, Mjolnir only had enough charge for one more shot. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

If they ran into any trouble later, such as another Death Claw, it would be extremely dangerous.

In any case, leaving as soon as possible was the right move.

However, as the group retraced their steps, they ran into a new problem.

They had fought their way in, so the path they took was littered with Zombie corpses.

These corpses had undoubtedly attracted other Zombies to feast on them. So, when the group started back, they discovered that far from being cleared out, the area was now teeming with even more Zombies.

"Let’s find a new route," Lin Xinghai said finally, a hint of resignation in his voice.

’Otherwise, if we stubbornly try to force our way back, we’ll probably run into even bigger problems.’

No one objected. They immediately chose an alternate route and started back from a different direction.

On the way back, they encountered three more Mutated Zombies: one Death Claw, one Iron Corpse, and one Hunter.

So when they finally made it out of Guanghan City’s limits, even Lin Xinghai couldn’t help but heave a long sigh of relief.

The return journey had been anything but easy, especially the encounter with the Death Claw, which had given even Lin Xinghai a huge scare.

The Death Claw was one of the few Mutated Zombies capable of stalling them.

Here in Guanghan City, if an enemy could stall them for just ten minutes, it could easily gather a massive horde and call over other Mutated Zombies.

’If that had happened, even I wouldn’t have been able to get the entire Heaven-Sundering Mercenary Corps out safely. We would have had to save whoever we could.’

Fortunately, they had come well-prepared, and this particular Death Claw had been acting alone.

So they immediately went all out. Fang Tianhe acted as bait and used a personal missile to grievously wound it.

Then, Lin Xinghai seized the perfect opportunity to use his final charge of Thunder Power. With both of their trump cards deployed at once, they managed to kill the Death Claw in a short amount of time.

All in all, Guanghan City was far more dangerous than they had anticipated.

They didn’t even need to say it; one look at the Mutated Zombie corpses piled high on their four Armored Vehicles told the whole story.

They had just entered Guanghan City when they encountered two Hunters. Then, on the way to the Industrial Park, they ran into one Iron Corpse and one Spitter. That was four Mutated Zombies already.

Upon arriving at the entrance to the Industrial Park, another four Mutated Zombies appeared, led by a Giant Arm. This meant they had already faced eight Mutated Zombies before even setting foot inside the park.

Later, while exploring, another Spitter showed up. Then, on the way back, they ran into three more Mutated Zombies.

Over the course of the round trip, they had encountered a staggering total of twelve Mutated Zombies.

This count included one Death Claw, one Giant Arm, one Blood Worm, two Iron Corpses, three Spitters, and four Hunters.

Honestly, many Mercenary Corps might not encounter that many Mutated Zombies in over half a year.

And yet, they had faced all of them on a single expedition.

After a moment of private reflection, Lin Xinghai input the data into his computer and ran a projection against the complete map of Guanghan City.

Based on the data they had gathered, his calculations suggested that the total number of Mutated Zombies in Guanghan City was over a thousand.

If they wanted to fully scout the Industrial Park and establish a safe, stable route, they would have to face at least fifty Mutated Zombies.

Factoring in other Mutated Zombies that would inevitably wander into the area during that time, they would have to deal with at least one hundred of them.

This number might not sound like a lot, especially since the Heaven-Sundering Mercenary Corps had already killed twelve Mutated Zombies on this one trip alone.

’But you have to remember, in the entire Star Shield Shelter, there’s only one Heaven-Sundering Mercenary Corps.’

’Any other Mercenary Corps, even the Third Level ones, would have been wiped out long ago if they’d faced this.’

’Don’t be fooled by how easily I killed those Hunters and Spitters. That was only because I have an absolute advantage in Speed, letting me get in close before they can even react.’

’But for anyone else, how could it possibly be that easy?’

’Take the Hunters, for example. No one else can keep up with them. If a corps runs into one and fails to kill it in the initial attack, it’ll just harass them endlessly from a distance or even summon a horde. No one could withstand that.’

’Then there are the Spitters. Give one enough time, and even without other Mutated Zombies, it can send a hundred High Level Zombies into a frenzy and simply overwhelm a Mercenary Corps.’

’On top of that, the Zombies in Guanghan City have had it easy for too long. No Mercenary Corps ever dared to come here before, so these Mutated Zombies had let their guard down.’

’But once we launch a full-scale clearing operation, the other Mutated Zombies will feel threatened and will definitely start grouping up. That’s when the real headache will begin.’

’It wouldn’t take many. Once ten or more Mutated Zombies group up, even I wouldn’t dare to charge in recklessly.’

Of course, Lin Xinghai only worried about these things for a moment before pushing them to the back of his mind.

’My mission is complete, and I’ve brought back the intel. When the operation actually begins, how to deal with these Mutated Zombies is a problem for the Military Department.’

So, what came next for them was celebration.

Judging by this mission alone, the Heaven-Sundering Mercenary Corps had far exceeded expectations. Not only had they flawlessly completed the reconnaissance, but their haul was also exceptionally large.

Setting everything else aside, the twelve Mutated Zombies alone represented a massive fortune.

Although the price for each type of Mutated Zombie was different, they would sell for at least 30,000 Points each on average.

For twelve Mutated Zombies, that came out to 360,000 Points.

In addition, they had also collected Elemental Crystals. While the quantity wasn’t huge, they had gathered around 1,500 of them.

Moreover, this time they hadn’t bothered with ordinary Elemental Crystals; they had only collected Intermediate and High Level ones.

This included about 1,000 Intermediate Elemental Crystals and 500 High Level Elemental Crystals. At a rate of 40 Points per Intermediate Elemental Crystal and 60 Points per High Level one, this added up to another 70,000 Points.

Between the Mutated Zombies and the Elemental Crystals, that was a total of 430,000 Points.

On top of all that, there was the mission reward itself. The Guanghan City mission was considered hell-level in difficulty, and the Mercenary Guild had posted an astronomical reward of 100,000 Points.

Well, at least for other Mercenary Corps, a 100,000-Point mission reward was definitely considered astronomical.

Thus, their total earnings for this mission came to a whopping 530,000 Points.

With such a massive payday, how could the members of the Heaven-Sundering Mercenary Corps not be ecstatic?

Many of the Mercenaries even started discussing how they would celebrate once they got back.

Fang Tianhe said nothing in response to this.

After all, the Heaven-Sundering Mercenary Corps was no longer the fledgling group that had to tread carefully.

Aside from places like Guanghan City, a designated Mercenary Restricted Area, there was truly little out there that could pose a threat to them.

Amid this celebratory atmosphere, after a two-hour drive, the group finally returned to Star Shield Shelter.

As the convoy drove into the mountain tunnel, the soldiers on guard duty all froze in place without exception as they watched the vehicles slowly approach.