Chapter 258: Establishment of the Northern Shelter
In the early morning, the engine of the modified off-road vehicle roared in the silence. Xiao Ran tightly gripped the steering wheel, and the car bumped away from the main road of the city.
The military blockade came faster and tighter than expected, forcing them to dive into the rugged mountain roads.
The scenery along the way made people feel depressed. The vegetation on both sides was no longer the normal green, but a sickly purple with different shades, as if it had been corroded from the inside out.
The corpses of small animals, shriveled and twisted, can be seen on the roadside from time to time.
The air was filled with a pungent mixture of metallic and corrupt odors.
Xiao Ran's driving skills were excellent. His car moved like a nimble beast among the rocks, but he was still forced to stop several times. He jumped out of the car and used an engineer shovel to clear the fallen trees that were blocking the road.
Lin Che sat alone in the back seat, looking down at a portable monitor on her wrist.
The screen displayed a number representing the degree of his body's transformation: 25%.
This number has not changed since leaving the fortress, but as the off-road vehicle goes deeper into the mountains, the number begins to jump slowly at an imperceptible speed, 25.1%, 25.2%...
Su Wanqing didn't look out the window, her attention was all on her own consciousness.
On the light blue interface, Lu Zhao’s real-time information flow was constantly refreshing.
[The outer defenses of the fortress have been reinforced by 70%. Xiaoling and Xiaoyu are in stable condition.]
[The energy fluctuations in the city's core area are abnormal. According to the existing model, the probability of a time rift occurring has risen to 75%.]
This message made Su Wanqing frown slightly. Time was becoming more and more urgent.
When the car reached the foot of the mountain, the road ahead completely disappeared.
A moderate landslide completely cut off the cement road leading to the abandoned mine, leaving only a steep gravel slope.
"Looks like I have to use my legs." Xiao Ran turned off the engine and dragged out three fully stuffed tactical backpacks from the trunk.
The three men checked their equipment, hung the necessary tools and weapons on their bodies, and began to climb up the mountain.
Every step they took would stir up a cloud of fine purple dust, which stuck to their trouser legs and shoe uppers, carrying an ominous smell.
At noon, they finally stood in front of the entrance of the first abandoned mine.
The dark entrance of the cave looked like the mouth of a giant beast and was much wider than what was marked on the map.
Looking inside, the space was deep and large enough to hold thousands of people, but it was littered with rubble and rotten wooden supports, and it was clear that the internal structure was already unstable.
Xiao Ran turned on the tactical flashlight, scanned the cave wall and the rock formation on the top, and stomped on the ground with his feet.
"The main supporting structure has aged, but the rock mass itself is still intact. If we use steel beams and concrete pillars to reinforce key nodes, it will be fine for people to live there in the short term."
He gave a professional assessment.
Su Wanqing thought about it, called up the system interface, and found the building materials option in the resource exchange list.
【Consume 2000 rebate points. 】
The next second, mountains of steel beams, bagged concrete, generators and various engineering tools appeared out of thin air on a relatively flat open space outside the cave entrance.
Xiao Ran was stunned for a moment and looked at Su Wanqing.
"Materials from special channels should be used first." Su Wanqing's explanation was concise and to the point.
The three of them immediately divided up the work. With his knowledge of military engineering, Xiao Ran began to plan fortifications and structural reinforcements, and designed a temporary checkpoint and isolation area at the entrance of the cave.
Su Wanqing was responsible for planning the internal space, using a marker to mark out the future living area, medical area and material storage area on the ground.
“I’ll go check out the water source inside.” Lin Che said, and walked alone into the depths of the mine.
Not long after, he came back with a hint of joy on his face: "The deep groundwater has not been polluted yet, it's very clean. I have the ability to do secondary purification."
Halfway through his work, Lin Che, who was testing the stability of the rock wall in the cave, suddenly stopped.
"Wait," he whispered, "something is approaching... a lot of it, not just any animal."
Su Wanqing and Xiao Ran immediately put down the tools in their hands, picked up their weapons, and quickly walked to the cave entrance to stand guard.
Following Lin Che’s line of sight, they saw a dozen mutant goats approaching them on the hillside in the distance.
Those creatures were larger than normal sheep, with extra, asymmetrical horns and proliferating limbs, and their eyes flashed an eerie purple light.
There is a sense of order and sequence in their movements. They do not seem like disorderly beasts but rather like soldiers commanded by some kind of intelligence.
The purple-eyed goat spotted them, let out a shrill cry, and rushed over at a faster speed.
"Fire!" Xiao Ran growled, raised his rifle, and shot accurately.
The bullet hit the mutant goat in front, causing blood to splatter on its body, but it only made it stagger and failed to stop its charge.
Conventional weapons have limited effectiveness.
Su Wanqing immediately operated on the system interface.
[Activate the primary energy barrier, consuming 300 points. ]
A translucent blue light curtain instantly formed at the entrance of the cave, temporarily blocking the attack of the mutant creatures.
But more things were attracted here. On the other side of the hill, several huge mutant brown bears appeared, which were three meters tall when standing upright.
Lin Che glanced at the monitor on her wrist and saw that the value had jumped to 35%.
He looked at Su Wanqing: "I have to use my ability, otherwise the barrier alone won't last long, and we won't be able to complete the construction of the shelter."
"Your body..." Su Wanqing's tone was full of worry, "You are close to the safety threshold."
“In order to save more people, this risk is worth taking.” Lin Che answered calmly.
He walked to the edge of the energy barrier and pressed his hands to the wet ground.
In just a moment, blue lines spread from his palms, crawling all over his body like lightning, and his eyes turned pure gold.
A strange, low sound came from his throat, which was completely unhuman.
A shocking scene occurred. The violent mutant creatures outside the cave seemed to have been paused, their attacks came to an abrupt halt, and they even began to slowly retreat due to some unknown fear.
Lin Che's voice became somewhat mechanical and hollow: "They will leave temporarily, but I...can't control them for a long time."
Just at this moment, the monitor on his wrist issued a sharp alarm.
The numbers on the screen soared wildly, directly jumping over the 40% red line and freezing at 45%.
“That’s enough, Lin Che! Stop now!” Su Wanqing took a step forward and tried to catch him.
But he seemed to be in a trance, his golden pupils were unfocused, and he still maintained the output of his abilities, as if he wanted to further expand the range of control.
Finally, Xiao Ran rushed forward, forcibly pulled his hands off the ground, and supported his shaky body.
Lin Che suddenly came to his senses as if the power had been cut off. He began to breathe heavily and his face turned frighteningly pale.
The blue lines that had spread to his neck and part of his cheeks did not fade away immediately when his ability was terminated.
The cost of controlling mutant creatures soon became apparent.
When Lin Che returned to the mine to rest, his condition deteriorated rapidly.
He began to have brief memory confusion, and would suddenly ask "Why are we here", but would return to normal after a few seconds.
Once, he even whispered a few words to the empty cave wall in a language that no one could understand.
His reactions to Su Wanqing and Xiao Ran's concerned inquiries became somewhat slow, and the way he looked at the problem seemed to be shifting towards some purely rational and "inhuman" direction.
"Stop all work." Su Wanqing made a decision, "We must stabilize his condition first."
She contacted Lu Zhao, who was far away in the city fortress, through the system and described Lin Che's symptoms.
Lu Zhao's reply was quick, but the content made her heart sink.
【According to data model analysis, his genetic transformation has reached an irreversible critical point.
If he uses his abilities intensively again in a short period of time, there is a high probability that he will permanently lose his human consciousness. 】
A dilemma was presented to them: without Lin Che's ability to suppress them, the construction of the shelter would always face the threat of mutant creatures and the progress would be extremely slow; but if they continued to let him use his ability, they might completely lose Lin Che as their "companion".
During the lunch break, Su Wanqing monitored Lin Che's condition while distractedly checking the city map provided by the system.
An unexpected discovery caught her attention: suspicious material transfer activities occurred in several large community centers and schools in the city.
She zoomed in on the surveillance footage and saw that all those places had the same sign hanging - a red cross inside a green triangle.
These people acted in a very orderly manner, as if under a unified command.
She thought about it and ordered the system to try to hack into the internal network of one of the locations.
A few seconds later, a file was decrypted. This was a private self-help organization called "Green Ark", whose core members were retired soldiers, doctors and teachers.
Through their own internal channels, they also learned about the military's upcoming "purification protocol" for a nuclear strike.
Su Wanqing immediately sent an order to Lu Zhao: [Try to establish contact with this 'Green Ark', they may be able to become our allies.]
Lu Zhao quickly replied: [The other party's communication channel has been confirmed. The leader is Jiang Hui, a former special forces soldier.
They planned to secretly transfer at least 5,000 civilians to the eastern mountains within 24 hours.
This discovery was like a ray of light, shining into the suffocating predicament.
If we can cooperate with them, the scale of the rescue will be far beyond our expectations.
After an intense discussion, Su Wanqing and Xiao Ran reached a compromise regarding Lin Che's condition.
Lin Che will use his abilities under strict restrictions, in a small range and with low intensity, only to drive away the mutant creatures near the mine area, and will never again carry out large-scale forced control.
At the same time, Su Wanqing spent another 1,500 rebate points to exchange for several "gene stabilizers". After injecting them into Lin Che, they could temporarily slow down his transformation process.
Under this arrangement, the three of them resumed their work with great efficiency.
By the evening, the first safe area that could accommodate approximately two thousand people was initially cleared and reinforced.
System scans confirmed that the structural stability here has reached safety standards and the thickness of the rock layer is sufficient to block more than 80% of the initial radiation from a nuclear explosion.
Xiao Ran has already taken the map and started planning the renovation of the second shelter.
Su Wanqing coordinated remotely with Lu Zhao to prepare to start the next city evacuation plan.
Only Lin Che sat quietly in the shadow of the corner. He stared at his arm covered with blue lines, which seemed to glow slightly in the dim light.
He muttered to himself in an almost inaudible voice.
"I can hear their voices... becoming clearer and clearer... they are... calling me..."
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