Chapter 55: The secret of death, the calm before the storm!

bite.

After the call was hung up, Cheng Ye was stunned for a long time before recovering from the huge amount of information.

Military armored vehicle?

How could Cheng Long leave behind something like this after his accidental death?

No.

Chaotic clues quickly intertwined in Cheng Ye's mind, making him gradually realize one thing.

I’m afraid that Cheng Long’s death was not just an ordinary “accident” as Liu Bi said before.

Otherwise, there would be no need to wait until the first field mission was over before telling him part of the truth.

Fieldwork...

Being able to go out on field work means that you have established a firm foothold at the checkpoint.

However, Ding Yishan's approach was to send Liu Bi to the rapid checkpoint to die before he went on a field mission, but now he suddenly changed his mind and asked Liu Bi to come back to protect him.

Liu Bi's reaction at that time flashed through his mind, and Cheng Ye had a vague guess in his heart.

Cheng Long’s death may be related to the checkpoint, but it is definitely not Ding Yishan who is behind the scenes fanning the flames.

Otherwise, with Liu Bi's hot temper, let alone continuing to obey Ding Yishan's orders, he would have rebelled long ago.

"Brother B wanted me to secure my position as prosecutor, but Ding Yishan wanted to do the opposite."

"Brother B asked me to beg him to stay, rather than just disobeying orders and forcing me to stay. This shows...Brother B should know that Ding Yishan sent me there not just because I was insecure in my position, but because the younger generation of the Dong people was too weak and needed a replacement."

"Damn, why didn't I realize that then?"

"Could it be that there was a miscommunication between Brother B and me? Did he think I already knew the reason for going to North-South Station?"

In terms of value, Cheng Ye believed that the ability he had displayed at the moment, even if not overwhelming, had reached the average level of the younger generation of Easterners, otherwise Harlin would definitely not have contacted and tried to win him over in advance.

But even at this point, Ding Yishan still did not make any big moves.

Cheng Ye raised his head and couldn't help but look towards the inner city, and suddenly realized what the problem was.

My predecessor left the city and died of fright on the same day.

Is it really because he couldn't accept the reality outside that he was scared to death?

"When Brother B comes back, we must get to the bottom of this. We can't continue to be so confused that we can't even figure out who the real enemy is!"

Cheng Ye took a deep breath and suppressed the idea of going directly to ask Ding Yishan.

Since Ding Yishan asked Liu Bi to come back to protect him and also asked Liu Bi to call to inform him, it means that he is on the right path.

"I just came here, I can't think of this at all."

"Now that I've seen the darkness of the wasteland and understood the inner workings of Sanctuary City, I've finally begun to understand things and am no longer living in ignorance."

During the three months in the wasteland, he had indeed changed a lot and had experienced the lives of many people.

Now he has the capital to protect himself. Even if a wave of infection is about to break out in the city of refuge, he has the confidence and strength to survive.

"But the most urgent thing now is...making money and buying equipment!"

The borrowing limit for trainee prosecutors is 100 points, and even if Liu Bi was just told, it would be of no use.

You can only buy it through someone else, but then you won’t be able to get reimbursed at the checkpoint.

Cheng Ye already owed 107 points, and with another 150 points, he felt a bit overwhelmed.

Fortunately, he does have ways to make money, it just depends on how ruthless his methods are.

"It rained a couple of days ago, and I didn't see a single car in Area A that could even get gas. Now that the rain has stopped, there should be a lot more cars. The 30% city entry tax can provide at least 30 points of revenue."

"Compared to this substitute starfish, the rotten vine infection source I gave to Qin Feng before is worth around 60 points, maybe even more!"

"90 points should be enough. If it's still not enough, I can go to the store and ask if I can buy it on credit. It's only 60 points short anyway. I can even try my luck in the quarantine warehouse and maybe I can easily get the full amount."

After thinking it over, Cheng Ye immediately had a goal.

As for the search, we cannot fall behind. It would be best if we could search for shooting skills as well.

Well, the Blood Dragon Army’s standard fighting style that Miao Yang mentioned is also a good choice.

...

The moon sets and the sun rises.

6:30 in the morning.

Cheng Ye woke up in pain.

Before the alarm went off, he rolled over and pressed on his injured leg, almost passing out from the pain.

"Luckily, my Iron Body is immune to pain, otherwise I wouldn't be able to make it to the checkpoint today..."

Strictly speaking, this is only the second day of working at the fast station.

Two nights later, the charge value returned to 39%.

When Cheng Ye thought about being able to replenish his energy again after working for eight hours today, he suddenly felt full of energy.

"Equipment, Iron Body!"

The skill bar flickered, and the piercing pain disappeared in an instant.

I've never felt so good before.

Cheng Ye moved around a few times, thinking that even the most powerful anesthetic injection would not be as refreshing as this instant pain relief.

"Pain is the body's protective mechanism, and relying on it too much is not good."

"But if I can pair it with a recovery-related talent skill in the future, I can use the Iron Body with confidence."

Cheng Ye pondered while walking to the bathroom on the fifth floor.

I turned on the faucet but no water dripped down. The water had stopped flowing. This obviously blocked the possibility of humidity exceeding 99% from the source, and would not allow any latent infection to break out before the rainstorm and cause a disturbance.

Looking out from the window of the bathroom, I suddenly saw many water barriers on the street, cutting the main urban area into several areas.

Heavily armed patrol officers were walking the streets, their waist-mounted speakers blaring non-stop since early morning:

"Comrade He Fei, the duty chief of the Central Checkpoint, has died. Xingfu City's epidemic prevention level has been temporarily raised to A. Residents are requested to cooperate with the routine inspection. Thank you!"

"central..."

Truth cannot be hidden. The news of He Fei’s sacrifice began to spread in a small circle yesterday afternoon.

Instead of continuing to cover up, it is better to take the opportunity of making the news public to deploy complete prevention and control measures in advance.

However, this prevention and control measure cannot be too absolute. If everyone is forced to stay at home, it will only backfire.

After all, wastelanders are not as mentally stable as modern people, and almost everyone holds firearms in their hands.

Once they discover that a contact-type infected body has entered the buffer zone, there will only be two extreme outcomes:

Either everyone will assume that they are infected and then do extreme things that they would not normally dare to do.

Either open the checkpoints, send all the residents of Happy City to flee, and then in the future the infection wave composed of substitute starfish will roll back.

"Unfortunately, the inner city is already struggling. The entire Happiness Corps is heavily involved in the investigation, leaving them with no resources to take care of the buffer zone."

"The threat posed by this contact infection is truly comparable to a plague-level infection wave. In a sense, the larger the Sanctuary City, the more dangerous it is. A city as large as Happiness City might already have the destructive power of a catastrophic infection wave."

After standing at the windowsill for a long time, Cheng Ye sighed and let go of all his chaotic thoughts.

He suddenly understood why humans have never been able to rebuild civilization and can only rely on refuge cities to survive in the wasteland.

Because as long as there is this strange threat of infection, the higher the concentration of people, the more terrifying the potential crisis will be.

These sanctuary cities that have sprung up in the wasteland may seem like isolated islands of civilization, but in reality they are more like powder kegs surrounded by high walls.

Once the source of infection has the characteristics of contact transmission like the "stand-in starfish", population density itself becomes the most deadly fuse.

When hundreds of thousands of people are compressed within high walls, any lapse in prevention and control could trigger a chain reaction, which would be far more likely to destroy the foundation of human gathering than the threats in the wilderness and urban ruins.

At the same time, this also answers another question in Cheng Ye's mind.

Why are there so many sheltered cities with no restrictions and generous benefits in the wasteland, and there are still so many small gathering places outside.

Perhaps those people were the survivors who escaped from the destroyed city of refuge.

Staying in the wilderness, due to the low population mobility, the most you will encounter is a direct attack from the infected.

But staying in the City of Sanctuary may seem like a life of luxury, but sometimes you don't even know how you died.

“Why is there no water supply yet?”

When we arrived at work, other residents on the fifth floor came over one after another to get water for washing, and they started cursing when they found out that the water supply had been cut off.

"The Public Works Department hasn't come yet since yesterday afternoon. What's the business doing?"

"That's right, you have to file a complaint, otherwise these people really don't take people's livelihood seriously."

"Fortunately, I have some water stored here. If anyone of you needs to wash your face, come over and share it."

"Is washing my hair enough? Never mind, I'll just wash my face."

Someone came over with a bucket of water. Cheng Ye stood by the window, pretending to be sending messages with a defense communication tool, but in fact he was observing these people calmly.

What made his heart sink suddenly was that among the seven people who came to the bathroom, four of them had almost invisible starfish-shaped marks on their foreheads after washing their faces.

The logo flashed by like a light gray line, so fast that it seemed like an illusion. If Cheng Ye hadn't been watching it closely the whole time, it would have been difficult to notice.

"Hey bro, do you want to wash your face? There's still some left in this bucket?"

The middle-aged man with a starfish just flashed above his head walked over with a smile, frightening Cheng Ye so much that he couldn't help but take a step back subconsciously, and his back hit the window glass with a loud bang.

"No need, uncle, I've already washed it."

"Hey, what are you afraid of? Are you afraid that we are not clean?"

When the middle-aged man saw Cheng Ye hide for a moment, he mistakenly thought that he was disgusted with the water used by everyone. He smacked his lips, shook his head helplessly, and left with the bucket.

Before leaving, he was still muttering: Young people nowadays really can't endure hardship. Back then, our generation had to use sewer filtered water to wash.

"Damn, this infected person has no external symptoms at all, no different from a normal person. It's only because Xingfu City has strong tracing capabilities. How can we prevent and control this in other places?"

After the middle-aged man left, Cheng Ye hurried back to the room, poured water from the kettle and wiped his forehead.

Fortunately, no signs appeared in the window reflection.

And compared to this stupid method, he has a more reliable way of verification.

The thought moved slightly, and the panel suddenly flashed.

When switching to the collector page, no "parasitism" prompt popped up and the skill bar did not change.

It is equivalent to a real-time detector, allowing him to understand his own infection status at any time.

"If I'm ever traveling alone in the wilderness, this feature might come in handy..."

Cheng Ye thought about it and opened the wardrobe. He cut open the clothes that didn't fit him before and then used scraps of cloth to wrap up the parts of the clothes that might come into contact with others.

Put on rubber gloves for inspection, and then put on the black mask and brown hood issued by the inspection station.

Glancing towards the window.

He suddenly felt that his memory was a little confused. The familiar attire seemed to have taken him back to a special period.

"Now is the calm before the storm. I hope a way to eliminate it can be developed quickly."

"And I am also going to start a race against time!"

...