100

In late December, there was a light rain mixed with snow. Although it only lasted half an hour, it could barely be called the first snow of the year. From then on, the winter of this year officially began.

On the second day after the snow fell, all the staff went out to harvest all the remaining crops in the fields and store them in storage. On December 25th, Dayan Mountain officially entered the hibernation mode.

Winter arrives earlier in the north than in the south, and several small snowfalls have already occurred. However, the conflict surrounding zombies shows no signs of easing as the weather gets colder, but instead becomes more and more intense.

At the end of November, someone revealed that most of the survivors brought to the Dongyang base from the south this year were not registered. Their names were not found on the base list, and their whereabouts were nowhere to be found inside or outside the base.

Then, an anonymous person who participated in the mission to search for survivors in the south said that Dongyang Base's attitude towards these survivors was very strange from the beginning. They always chose to bring them into the base at night, away from everyone, and arranged them in a special place. After that, these anonymous people never saw those people again.

So some people suspected that those people were used as food for the zombies.

The five major bases in the north have long been connected to each other through the Internet. This post was exposed on the Internet and spread everywhere immediately.

Not long after, someone found out that every year there was a group of missing people in the Dongyang base. They were mainly the poorest and weakest people at the bottom of society, the kind whose disappearance would not attract attention.

Furthermore, the Dongyang base, despite its relatively good conditions, suffers the highest number of deaths from starvation and disease annually of any base. Those killed are taken away before they even have a last breath. Ostensibly for centralized rescue, the rescue efforts often fail, and the bodies are never returned to their families. In reality, the families never even see a single ashes.

Regarding the above two incidents, the opponents of Dongyang Base immediately conducted private visits to verify and finally proved that the things exposed in the posts were true. Many people immediately organized themselves to ask the management of Dongyang Base for an explanation.

Dongyang Base chose to avoid the first point for now, but for the second, they immediately produced evidence, claiming the bodies had been collectively cremated and their ashes buried. The burial site did exist, but someone had reached the crematorium and unearthed the bodies of the latest batch of victims, allegedly killed by starvation or disease. They found a bloody heap of broken bones, clearly gnawed away, beyond recognition.

These bones were taken away for analysis and proved to be human skeletons. Zombie viruses that had not yet been completely inactivated were also found on them.

When this conclusion came out, not only the opposition but also most of the neutral parties were in an uproar. This was equivalent to exposing the ironclad evidence that the Dongyang base fed people to zombies as food. Even though some people had guessed it long ago, when the bloody evidence was laid out before their eyes, some still found it hard to accept.

For a time, the mainstream of the four major bases began to attack the Dongyang base.

It was at this time that Lin Zhongrong joined forces with the other three bases and mobilized troops to surround the Dongyang base.

The Dongyang Base is based on Dongyang City and was renovated and expanded on it. It has extremely tall and solid city walls, like a square and impregnable city.

The base leadership saw the sight of fighter jets lining the sky and armored vehicles and troops on the ground, and they broke out in a cold sweat. Had the entire combat force from all four bases been mobilized? How could it be possible? How could they be so united? And there hadn't been a single word of warning from here!

They clearly have so many "allies" in various bases, and they have even grown to a considerable scale.

Lu Youzhuo soon got the news as well. He was also shocked: "How could this happen? We didn't hear anything at all!"

He had been having a very tormenting time these days. One piece of news after another that was unfavorable to them came out, and those who originally supported them were also shaken. Countless people took to the streets to smash and destroy administrative departments, demanding that the base get rid of the zombies, and more people chose to leave the base. If the base had not closed the gate in time, I'm afraid most of them would have left.

What did they say? They didn't dare live above a group of zombies, fearing that one day they would be captured and used as food, and then they would say that zombies crawled out from the ground and ate everyone.

A bunch of foolish and ignorant people, they only see the danger, but don't know that it is actually a treasure! As long as he is given time, he can make all the superpowers in Dongyang Base stronger, making Dongyang Base the most powerful base and swallowing up other bases!

In order to cope with the pressure and regain the support of those with special abilities, the base asked him to come up with more favorable research results. However, the statement he hastily issued when Lin Zhongrong left the Reunion Base was itself full of water, and he had not yet really found an effective way to restore his special abilities.

"Now those people are strongly demanding that the base hand over the main person in charge." The assistant said with sweat on his forehead: "Mr. Lu, what should we do?"

Lu Youzhuo pushed his glasses, his face calm. Just as he was about to speak, someone else came over and said that the base leader wanted him to go out and appease the enemy.

Lu Youzhuo's face froze: "I'm afraid this is impossible."

"Back then, how did you convince everyone to let you raise so many zombies? Now, why don't you just continue to persuade Lin Zhongrong?" The newcomer said sarcastically. "Besides, you were the hero who led humanity to victory over the zombies back then, and you still have countless admirers among the people. Your presence is always more effective than others... Or are you trying to stay behind the scenes and let others take the blame for the trouble you caused?"

Lu Youzhuo almost lost his expression. That was when he was at the peak of his powers and had the most say in the base. It would have been easy for him to persuade those leaders, but now there were more than 100,000 people besieging the base!

But no matter how unwilling he was, the situation did not allow him to refuse. He was pushed out as the main person in charge of the zombie plan. When people saw it was him, they all showed extremely surprised and shocked expressions.

Lu Youzhuo has always been a legendary figure. He researched and summarized the various weaknesses and key points of zombies, and wrote several papers on how people with special abilities should correctly use their special abilities. He illuminated the way for countless people and was regarded as a mentor. But who would have thought that he was the initiator of the plan to raise zombies.

Lu Youzhuo panicked for a moment, but quickly calmed down. He then began to speak freely about his views, concluding, "Zombies can be controlled. There's no need to worry about them getting out of control. We were able to defeat zombies that far outnumbered us back then. Now there are only a few thousand zombies, so there's nothing to be afraid of."

Someone sneered, "You keep saying you can control them, but how did the zombies in Pit 1 and Pit 2 get out? Don't tell me you didn't raise those zombies."

This man was from the Xihe base and was a good friend of Yan Ming, the captain of the Lion Head Squad who had died in the No. 2 zombie pit. He was deeply saddened by his friend's death, and what made him even more resentful was that this tragedy was actually the result of human intervention. At that time, he swore that he would make all those behind it pay with blood.

Lu Youzhuo froze for a moment, then said sadly, "I'm completely unaware of those two locations. I advocate for complete control of the zombies. How could I possibly leave them in a place where accidents could happen?"

The man sneered, not believing a single word he said. Someone else asked, "Even if what you said is true, how many people have been eaten by these things you claim are nothing to be afraid of over the years?"

Lu Youzhuo had been prepared. "A zombie only needs one meal a year, so a piece of meat weighing over ten pounds can sustain it for a year. We initially used animals, but later..." He said sadly, "We did release corpses into the zombies, but they were definitely corpses, not living people. Even so, this is truly inhumane. We are willing to provide material compensation to the families of the deceased. This is what you deserve for your contribution to the progress of all mankind."

There were also ordinary people among the people who besieged Dongyang Base this time. Some of them had dying relatives who were taken away and never appeared again, and some of them had relatives and friends who disappeared inexplicably. They held banners with red letters on them, and were determined to make Dongyang Base pay the price. It looked shocking.

However, some of these people came spontaneously, but more were organized by people with ulterior motives. Lu Youzhuo's hypocritical "compensation" could not move them at all, and only brought back shouts of condemnation.

Lu Youzhuo didn't take these people who only talked big seriously. He turned to Lin Zhongrong, who was sitting in the car with his arms folded and his eyes closed, and shouted from afar, "Commander Lin, zombies can help people with special abilities become stronger. As long as we work together, a few thousand zombies are nothing. Even if you don't think your special abilities will weaken in the future, you still have to think about the countless people who have already weakened. Do you really want to force everyone into a dead end?"

Lin Zhongrong opened his eyes. "The most serious problem humanity faces right now is the zero birth rate. If you're truly so concerned about the country and its people, then use your brain to research this instead of destroying more lives."

As he finished speaking, a number of tall trucks slowly drove over and people jumped out of the trucks: "Sir, mission successfully completed!"

Lin Zhongrong nodded slightly: "Let everyone see it!" The four iron plates on the trucks were lowered, slowly revealing the cage on the truck. Lu Youzhuo felt something was not good at first sight, and when the cage was completely exposed, his face suddenly became extremely ugly.

Everyone was also in an uproar.

They were several zombies, their faces and figures were barely recognizable, and someone immediately called out the names of several of them.

"Zhang Zixin! Didn't he quit his position as the leader of the combat team because his abilities were weakening and he went to relax?"

"Zhou Shan, that's Zhou Shan, right? Two years ago, his powers stopped being used much. Then one day, he disappeared and couldn't be found anywhere. We even speculated that he might have committed suicide!"

As the names were called out one by one, people discovered that these were people whose superpowers had weakened or completely disappeared, and now they had all turned into zombies. What exactly happened?

Lin Zhongrong looked at Lu Youzhuo and shook his head slowly. "You said you wanted to help people regain their abilities, but why didn't you tell everyone how risky it was? You were also feeling your way through the process, using these people as test subjects, weren't you? You even didn't spare your own brother. This, is Lu Youjie?"

He pointed at the zombie in the nearest cage.

Lu Youzhuo took a sudden step back. Yes, it was Lu Youjie! But he had other failures, weren't they all locked up by him? That place was so secluded and so safe. Who could get in and bring so many zombies out silently?

"Impossible, how is it possible!"

"Surprised?" A voice suddenly came from the other side. A handsome young man, holding a long, narrow, red knife with the tip almost touching the ground, slowly approached. "While Mr. Lu was being so impassioned, I dug a tunnel under Mr. Lu's house and stole your treasures. I'm really sorry."

Lu Youzhuo didn't know what expression to put on his face.

Digging a tunnel? Stealing it?

How is that possible? The ground is covered with a two-meter-thick layer of cement and a half-meter-thick steel plate on all sides and above and below. It would take a long time to drill. How could it be done in such a short time?

Lin Cheng curled his lips slightly. "Are you talking about the cement layer and steel plate? Sorry, they don't seem to be very strong. They broke with one cut."

A knife? A knife?

Lu Youzhuo's eyes fell on the red knife in Lin Cheng's hand, and he suddenly felt something was wrong. He turned around and was about to leave, but the next moment a red light struck down, and he was shocked and flew backward. He felt a sharp pain as if his internal organs were dislocated, and the ground shook like an earthquake, and gravel flew everywhere.

When everything calmed down, a huge crack appeared on the ground in front of him, more than one meter wide and more than ten meters long.