TN –
Thanks to Ko-fi Supporter for the donation. Here is the extra chapter (＾▽＾).
Team 0246 traveled day and night toward the direction of City Y. Almost everyone in the car had traveled this route before, but this time it was different from the last. Last time, everyone fled north in a desperate hope for survival, feeling the despair and helplessness that came with the sudden arrival of the apocalypse.
But this time, equipped and well-supplied, the group carried a mentality of becoming stronger and uncovering the secrets of the crystals closely related to the apocalypse, once again setting foot on the road home.
The previous month of adaptation had greatly improved the coordination between Xu Song’s team and Luo Wen’an’s group. Wang An and Tiancheng still led the way, while Xu Song and Tianyou remained vigilant. Several members with strong combat abilities, along with Abu and the others, were responsible for clearing obstacles and dealing with disruptive mutant plants and animals.
The team’s efficiency on the road was very high. Occasionally, they encountered some animals and plants they had never seen before. At these times, Tiancheng would collect seeds along the way, and if they encountered completely new creatures, Luo Wen’an and the others would help take photos to record their special reactions.
If these creatures were aggressive and directly attacked, Abu wouldn’t let them harass the convoy. He would take them out directly, providing an extra meal for himself and stocking up on wild food. Of course, Xu Song would deliberately keep some slices and body parts of these novel creatures, storing them in the special freezer under the experimental vehicle.
“What on earth is that over there?!” Luo Wen’an and Su Daji stood on the roof of the car, staring dumbfoundedly at the distant “mountain range.”
Su Daji took out the Linglan communication leaf from the pocket on his chest. “Target detected, giant marine creatures, lying across approximately one kilometer ahead.”
From just now, Tianyou had sensed mutant creatures in the distance, and many of them seemed to be large in size. Xu Song let Luo Wen’an and Su Daji explore ahead on the car roof. They had been driving below the mountain path until now, and only after reaching this point could they see the situation in the distance clearly.
“How far does their distribution extend?” Yue Zheng asked Tianyou beside him.
Tianyou frowned and sketched out a rough estimate. “Pretty far, all the way to that position.”
“Detour?” Xu Song looked at the vaguely visible “mountain” ahead and asked Yue Zheng.
“Only option.” Yue Zheng confirmed by checking the map. “I suspect they’re occupying City F.”
“City F?! So far from the sea?!” Xu Song widened his eyes. They had deliberately avoided these marine creatures before, taking a different route than the one they had taken when heading north, and they hadn’t even passed by City S. Yet, despite that, they still encountered them.
Yue Zheng shook his head. “We can’t be sure now. The vegetation on the ground has grown again, covering up the abnormalities in the previous satellite photos.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Dea cbk, atja olrt lr rb teuf…” Ktf rqffv bo gfmflnlcu qtbabr jcv wfrrjufr ogbw atf yjrf tjv yffc ribklcu vbkc lc atf qjra akb vjsr, lcvlmjalcu atja atf rlaejalbc atfgf kjr jirb nfgs vloolmeia.
“Ufgtjqr la pera mjwf jrtbgf lc atf qjra vjs bg akb. Coafg jii, lar rlhf lr nfgs ijguf, jcv lar wbnfwfca rqffv wjs yf ojra… gfijalnf ab jclwjir klat rtbga ifur.”
“Su Daji, Luo Wen’an, pay attention. The convoy is preparing to change direction. Be vigilant of the situation outside, especially the situation of that ‘meat mountain’.”
Hearing the voice coming from the lily, Luo Wen’an saluted crisply. “Roger that.”
The car turned its head, preparing to turn from the other side of City F to head further west.
Outside of City B, the combined forces of land, sea, and air have completely surrounded it. Due to the situation with these mutant creatures, the base received reports ahead of time, so the response was relatively fast. But no matter how fast the response, it couldn’t match the direct siege of these creatures.
Fortunately, heavy weapons had been deployed to the outskirts of the base in advance. The people in the base didn’t want a repeat of the situation during the last bird invasion—escaping from mutant creatures only to provoke greater conflicts among themselves.
They would rather die in battle with the enemy than inexplicably lose their lives at the hands of their own kind.
The population in the base was already so small, and if more people died… no one dared to imagine what would happen next. By then, it would truly be the end of humanity.
“How’s the situation?”
“The mutant creatures were met head-on by the base’s firepower and have currently retreated a distance. It seems like they’re waiting for the base to let its guard down.”
“What about weapon damage?” Elder Wu crossed his hands in front of him, elbows resting on the table, forming a tower-like shape.
“The heavy armored units have relatively minor losses. Apart from some initial damage caused by the mutant birds, the situation is still manageable. Combat engineers are repairing as we speak. However, there’s significant ammunition consumption…”
“Can the base’s production line keep up?”
“So far, so good. If the enemy can give us some breathing room, we can completely replenish the supplies…”
Breathing room…
Elder Wu sighed deeply. Since the apocalypse, there had hardly been a moment to truly focus on production and construction. The siege by these mutant creatures, no one knew how long it would last. Hopefully, those fish couldn’t stay out of the water for too long, but… would it really be like that?
“Have them tally up the consumption of raw materials. The weapons factory must persevere.” Although the base had a considerable stockpile of metal for weapons and ammunition, it couldn’t be depleted too much. Otherwise, if those animals outside really besieged them for a year or more, they would truly run out of resources.
“Yes! The research institute is currently collaborating with earth-elemental ability users to experiment on digging tunnels and collecting minerals from the deep underground.”
“This aspect also needs to be researched intensively. And what about food supplies?”
“Although we can’t replenish meat through hunting, the production momentum of the several types of crop seeds newly delivered to the agricultural college last time is very good. It can fully supply the current consumption of the base…” This “supply” referred to the reduced population of the base now…
On one hand, the yield and growth rate of these two crops were very fast, and on the other hand, the reduced population meant less consumption in the base… Whether this news was good or bad, no one knew for sure.
“By the way, Chief, the data from the agricultural college indicates that among the new fruits obtained, two types are extremely nutritious. One of them has high calorific value, and the juice products made from it can completely provide the energy previously provided by chocolate!”
“This is good. Let them plant more under circumstances they can manage, striving to provide some to the frontline soldiers every day.” Elder Wu finally felt slightly relieved, and quickly gave instructions.
“Chief! There’s movement again among the mutant animals outside!”
The combined forces of land, sea, and air were currently stationed about a hundred meters outside the base, but they still kept the base completely surrounded.
Amidst the mixed group of these creatures, some relatively smaller figures suddenly emerged.
They have heads, limbs, and four limbs, and they can walk upright, looking just like humans. But unlike humans—their bodies are dry and pitch black, seemingly enveloped in a layer of black mist.
“Zombies?! They’re zombies! Zombies have actually teamed up with the mutant animals!!” A scout suddenly exclaimed.
There was a commotion among the defense forces. Many people, who hadn’t faced these zombies face-to-face for a long time, had almost forgotten about their existence.
Because nowadays, once people died, they were either directly eaten by mutant creatures or cremated and buried by their fellow humans, except for a few who died from illness and were not immediately discovered in the base. There had been few reports about these things in the base.
And now, they were actually mixed in with the mutant creatures? Looking at their charcoal-like appearance, everyone couldn’t help but wonder—had they turned so black after being burned by the fire?
A single zombie wasn’t terrifying to people who had been through countless battles, but a group of zombies would become terrifying. Almost any attack couldn’t directly affect them, and only by completely dismembering their bodies could their movements be stopped. Moreover, now these things were mixed in with the mutant creature group! It was simply cheating!
“Chief, it’s zombies, zombies! There are at least three or four hundred!” Upon hearing this news, the secretary immediately reported to Elder Wu.
But Elder Wu seemed to relax and smiled as if relieved: “No need to panic, call Colonel Lu and have him bring his subordinates from Squad Four.”
“Squad Four?” Seeing Elder Wu nod, the secretary reluctantly relayed the message to Colonel Lu.
Colonel Lu had already received the message from other commanders. He had just sent a message to his subordinates and received Elder Wu’s instructions: “Don’t worry, we’ll go right away.”
A squad of about ten people rushed to the location where the zombies appeared. Seeing these soldiers, who didn’t look like battle-hardened troops or members of any special ability teams, the frontline personnel couldn’t help but look at them suspiciously.
As soon as those few people saw the zombies, their eyes lit up one by one.
“There are so many!”
“At least three or four hundred.”
“How should we divide them? Equally or based on abilities?”
“Hmph, of course, based on abilities.”
“That’s right, whoever gets more or less, don’t blame anyone afterward.”
The group of soldiers watched in astonishment as those people seemed to be fighting over the zombies. They were just about to ask Colonel Lu if these people were sane.
What was even more strange was that among these people, there were young and old, but the youngest one also looked about thirty years old, and the rest had beards.
Colonel Lu asked them after they divided the zombies, “Do you need any assistance from us?”
“Block those mutant creatures and don’t interfere with our actions.”
“No problem.” Colonel Lu nodded and saluted the commanding officer responsible for defense. “We still need your assistance.”
“No, no problem!” Although they didn’t know what these people could do to get rid of those mutant creatures, it didn’t prevent them from defending while watching the show.
Thank you for the chapter ☺️.
“Firemen”? 🤔. Thank you