Chapter 365 Ants
The night was as dark as ink. In the suburbs outside Shuguang City, all kinds of barbed wire and chevaux de frise were displayed everywhere between the abandoned streets and buildings to keep the surging tide of corpses out. Almost every few hundred meters, there was a defense tower made of reinforced concrete. Armed guards watched quietly, and the infrared fire control radar of the automatic machine gun kept scanning for suspicious and strange bodies approaching.
The roar of the zombie tide rose and fell in the distance, like some ancient and hungry beast grinding its teeth. At this time, several modified trucks smashed the encirclement of the zombies. Black smoke came out of the hoods, the tires rolled over rotten limbs, and the headlights pierced the darkness and rushed out. In the night, the hundred-meter-high No. 1 city wall of Dawn City in the distance was like a cliff running across the east and west, with signal lights flashing quietly in the darkness. There were also flashing welding lights in many areas, and a large number of searchlights sweeping the sky.
"We're here... We're finally fucking here!" the man in the driver's seat roared hoarsely, his fingers gripping the steering wheel tightly until his knuckles turned white.
The survivors of the convoy crowded in the carriage, looking at the huge wall through the bulletproof glass. The searchlight beams on the wall swept across the wilderness, occasionally illuminating the densely packed tents, convoy camps and bonfires at the foot of the wall. These were the survivors who could not afford the cost of entering the city. They gathered under the city wall and spontaneously set up camps to keep each other warm. At a glance, the lights of the convoy camp were like a huge doomsday night market, with no end in sight.
At the entrance gate of the city wall, the queue of vehicles stretched for several kilometers. Countless drones were buzzing on both sides of the way, spraying disinfectant mist and screening for dark marks. Large armed mechas patrolled back and forth, and the muzzles of miniature machine guns turned slowly to ensure order.
At the entrance to the city, federal officials in charge of population control conduct screening in shifts 24 hours a day. Everyone entering the city needs to get off the bus and pass through several detection channels after paying the entrance fee before they can obtain a new Dawn City resident number and enter the old city area within the No. 1 city wall to be assigned an area and residence.
"Three blood essences per person?! Didn't we inform you yesterday that two level one blood essences were enough to enter the city?!"
There was a commotion at the crowded entrance to the city. The captain of a survivor team shouted angrily at the population sheriff, "Why did the price go up again after just one day?!"
"That's right, three blood essences per person, the weird body has become our prey, right?"
“That’s outrageous!”
"that is!!"
…
"What are you yelling about!" The sheriff in power armor walked out with an indignant look on his face. "According to the regulations, if the ratio of idle personnel exceeds 1:2, we must follow this standard. Your convoy only has 15 combat personnel, but 34 old, weak and sick people. If it weren't for the fact that you have two Berserker-level people, you would have to pay extra for the excess!"
"You!!" The middle-aged captain walked up with a red face, but was instantly targeted by the artillery of heavy mechas on both sides.
"What are you doing? Are you trying to force your way in?" The sheriff sneered and said in a stern voice.
"Do you know why the price has increased? Because this is the only place in the world where you can drink water that is 95% purified of darkness. This is the only place that can withstand an S-class attack!"
He said, jumping onto the roof of the convoy and shouting to the winding team behind him:
"This is the hope of all mankind. Everyone must contribute everything to fight the enemy together. Without resources, where will the weapons and ammunition for the city defense come from? Without resources, how can we build an invincible fleet that can fight back against darkness? It is precisely because of Vice Chairman Zhou's wise leadership that Dawn City is now the safest place!"
After saying that, he looked at the captain of the convoy and said, "We in Dawn City are very humane. Even if you are in the outer city, as long as your combat power exceeds the Diamond level or you have special skills, you can enter the city to work in exchange for blood essence. If you can't afford the entrance fee now, you can stay in the outer city first. It's better than being eaten by a weird body in the wilderness, right?"
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in that convoy turned off their engines. The teams behind were talking about it. Many teams that were short of blood essence began to discuss spontaneously and withdrew from the queue.
On the other side, a convoy that had just completed the inspection and registration got back in the car and slowly drove in following the drone responsible for the resettlement of residents. The co-pilot of the convoy was a young girl. She opened the car window and watched the convoy pass through many checkpoints. The original stench was replaced by the crowded smell of people.
Old town.
Cramped, crowded, and packed with people, the original urbanized buildings in the old city were not only dilapidated, but had also undergone various doomsday transformations like shelters. The windows were sealed with steel fences, and countless doomsday-transformed vehicles were parked closely on the roadside. Some communities were even heavily surrounded, and even various shopping malls and office buildings were transformed into residential areas. Dawn City did not prohibit weapons, and all kinds of guns and cannons were mounted on the buildings in the streets and alleys.
"D-47..." The leader of the convoy looked down at the electronic sign and led everyone through the noisy streets. Three or four families were crowded behind each window. On the street, the crying of children, the quarrels of couples, and the groans of patients mixed together like a symphony of despair.
Dawn City has network communications, so mobile phones and the Internet can be put to use. There are also a large number of active survivors in various trading and information communities.
Standing on the roof and looking up at the original core urban area of the Twin Star Towers, it is surrounded by City Wall No. 2. The tall steel jungle rises from low to high. In the center are the two former star-symbol Twin Star Towers. This is not only a landmark building, but also a famous space starport. In the neon-lit inner city of the cyber city, there are very few airships in the sky. Only the federal garrison and the guards' armed ships are patrolling back and forth.
Going down from the star port is the huge entrance to the Federation's No. 1 Underground City, an ultra-large underground project that goes three hundred stories underground. The circular platform is like an inverted Tower of Babel, spiraling down. The entire underground city is like an independent underground honeycomb city, spanning dozens of kilometers, with each floor area connected to all directions. Unlike the No. 9 Underground City, in addition to its huge scale and population, it also has an extremely complete public transportation system. Hundreds of magnetic levitation cabins shuttle back and forth at high speed, circulating like meteors through this underground world that is a thousand meters deep underground.
Dawn City, Underground City No. 1, Earth Core Administrative Hall.
This place doesn't look like an office, as the space inside is very large. There is a blue cloud light curtain projection in the sky, with lacquered gold carvings and winding cloud patterns. A huge palace lantern hangs in the center, and the wick is a holographically projected "artificial sun". The light it sheds is deliberately adjusted to the warm gold of dusk.
The entire office was transformed into a miniature Jiangnan garden, with white jade steps, gurgling water, scattered rockery, dotted red pavilions, and a large clear pond. Under the water lilies, there were some freshwater koi that survived the apocalypse and were still swimming happily.
Bang!
A gunshot broke the silence here. Soon, two armed guards sprayed ablative agent on Zhou Mingyuan's face, who was lying in a pool of blood. After his face was rotten, they put him in a body bag and dragged him away.
"Didn't I tell you not to bring it back?"
By the clear pond, a portly middle-aged man in fine clothes was holding a dish of fish food in his hand. He pinched a handful with his fingers, threw it into the clear pond, and watched the fish tumbling.
The person who was speaking was a woman next to him, with short, neat hair. Wen Hui is 42 years old this year, but looks only in her 30s. Her eyebrows and makeup give her a cold feeling that keeps people at a distance.
Wen Dong looked at Zhou Mingyuan's body being dragged away and said to Wen Hui
"There were a lot of people paying attention to me when I went to Silent City this time, so I didn't dare to deal with it outside."
After he finished speaking, he said to the middle-aged man, "Chairman Zhou, Silent City has docked in Ningnan, but Shinji Mochizuki has activated microwave protection, so news from the inner city cannot be transmitted for the time being."
The middle-aged man turned around and looked exactly like Zhou Mingyuan. The difference was that the one who was dragged away looked more radiant, while this Zhou Mingyuan looked weathered and had shallow wrinkles on his face. However, he had a pair of smiling eyes, giving people the aura of a superior.
"Just get the job done." He said calmly, then glanced indifferently at the body being dragged away, and said coldly: "He has been the boss for a few days, and he takes himself seriously. I get annoyed when I see it."
"Uh, Chairman Zhou, how do we deal with Jian Xuwei?" Wen Dong asked
Zhou Mingyuan pinched the fish food with his fingers and said in a concentrated voice, "The alliance established by the Silver Star now has more than 60,000 people. It is said that many core members were recruited from Yubei City Airport. Now they are a strong force in Shuguang City. They are mainly concentrated in the inner city. Some organizations in the old city are also closely related to them. In addition, half of the Jinhai Star Port construction team are engineers and robot teams from Finger Group. This Jian Xuwei is not an easy person to deal with. We can't touch her now."
Wen Dong nodded and said with a flattering smile, "Now that we have successfully killed the S-level gray fog and the problem of purifying water has been solved, more and more people are entering the city. Many large organizations that were preparing to join the Phoenix Society have also turned around and joined Dawn City. Among them, there are many violent and destructive level fighters, and even several powerful psychics who have been evaluated to have reached the angel level have come. The momentum of our Dawn City is getting stronger and stronger."
Zhou Mingyuan looked stern when he heard this.
"Resources are always limited. This is a more severe test for us, so we can only raise the threshold and speed up construction. Materials are also a big problem... We have to worry about all these."
"Yes, yes." Wen Dong nodded and said to Zhou Mingyuan
"Now many people in the Dawn City network are discussing the news that Silent City will surrender and merge with Dawn City. This is also a good thing for us. They all say that it is because of your good leadership, Vice Chairman Zhou. Now facing the darkness, the people's confidence is growing."
"Oh~?"
Hearing this, Zhou Mingyuan raised his drooping eyelashes slightly: "Is this already being discussed on the Internet?"
Zhou Mingyuan seemed to be somewhat pleased with the news, but he did not show it. He waved his hand and said, "It is not so easy for Silent City to cooperate with us, but we have shown our sincerity. The rest is up to them."
Wen Hui and Wen Dong exchanged glances, and the latter understood and said, "I will pay close attention to their response next."
After that, Zhou Mingyuan waved his hand, and Wen Dong left the Earth Core Administration Office.
At this time, only Wen Hui and Zhou Mingyuan were left in the Earth Core Administrative Office. Wen Hui pressed the headset, and then a metal door not far away slid open silently. Cold air wrapped in a faint smell of disinfectant hit them in the face. Three special freezing chambers were slowly transported out by drones and parked above the clear pool.
In these three freezing chambers, there were three naked bodies of young men lying quietly, all in low-temperature hibernation. Not only did they look very young, but their facial features and body shapes were also quite handsome.
Wen Hui walked over in short steps: "Chairman Zhou, here are two B-level flight and energy gathering, and one A-level resonance system. They are very good in physical potential and intelligence tests, and have no diseases or genetic defects."
These three people seemed to have been carefully selected, with extremely high requirements for physical fitness, appearance, intelligence, and even genitals.
Zhou Mingyuan raised his eyes and glanced around calmly, but continued to feed the fish as if he didn't see anything.
"Where is the Zhentian Ship?"
Seeing Zhou Mingyuan's reaction, Wen Hui's eyes flashed with a barely perceptible disdain, and then she asked the freezer to retreat while saying
"In Qingbo City, the outpost reported that the Phoenix Society encountered a Class A aerial monster and engaged in a battle. However, their firepower was strong and they resolved the battle quickly. Now they are parked outside Qingbo City, probably waiting for the troops at Yongcheng Port to gather."
Zhou Mingyuan smiled solemnly: "One 83rd Iron Guard Brigade cannot intimidate Dawn City. Ye Lan must have other purposes besides coming to warn us."
"Chairman Zhou, our engineering team is still in Jinhai, as well as Lu Tianye's garrison regiment..." Wen Hui looked at Zhou Mingyuan and spoke with some deep meaning in her words.
"I have arranged it."
Zhou Mingyuan turned his back to Wen Hui, staring at the fish in the clear pond, and said, "A strange tide appeared in the Qilian Mountains, and a convoy of more than a thousand people was trapped. I asked Lu Tianye to mobilize troops to rescue them. He is a very proactive person."
After saying that, he seemed to have lost interest in feeding the fish. He walked to a luxurious sofa not far away and sat down. He said in a stern voice: "It's okay to smash some bottles and cans, but we can't cause damage to our Jinhai industrial zone. Shuguang City still needs those equipment to give residents confidence."
"In addition, there are more than 100,000 people in Silent City, and information is flowing. At this critical juncture, cooperation is more important than confrontation, and human camps cannot attack each other. Do you understand what I mean?" Zhou Mingyuan looked at Wen Hui, his words carrying a hint of reminder.
"Don't worry about that." Wen Hui said calmly, "We expected that Silent City would encounter a terrifying monster tide late at night. Chairman Zhou, you personally led the fleet to provide full support, rescued a large number of survivors, and helped take over Silent City for repairs..."
Zhou Mingyuan nodded, and then looked at Wen Hui meaningfully.
"The Crimson World incident has already caused quite a stir in the city, and now the Phoenix Society has arrived. At this point, no matter what the outcome, the label of anti-humanity cannot be pinned on Dawn City."
Wen Hui understood, bowed slightly and then turned and left.
Wen Hui walked through the dark corridor in high heels and returned to her personal office. At this time, she turned on a secret holographic communicator, and a white man with sunglasses and a stern face appeared on the screen.
Julius Litt!
"Zhou Mingyuan has already transferred the city defense of Jinhai. No one in that area will go to support Silent City." Wen Hui reported to Julius with a respectful look on her face.
"Well done. This may just make up for our recent lack of experimental subjects."
"Are there many vacancies for experimental subjects now?"
"The coverage of Xingyuan is getting larger and larger, and there are fewer and fewer survivors." Julius said in a cold and calm tone: "The mechanical mutant named Lin Xian killed all the sand bandits in the direction of Aksai. Although Zhou Mingyuan opened a passage for us in Shuguang City, the group of survivors organized themselves to defend themselves. In addition, Lu Tianye of the garrison army has been sending people to keep an eye on several of our dark spots. As a result, the number of experimental subjects we captured recently has decreased by 70%, and the quality is not high. With the current invasion power of Xingyuan, the evolutionary level can't even survive for three days, so it's useless."
"But the armed forces of Silent City are very powerful. We are worried that such a large-scale conflict will cause trouble for Dawn City?" Wen Hui said.
"We will not have a direct conflict with Silent City. We are only trying to recover Crimson Three and conduct a necessary experiment."
"Experiment? What experiment?" Wen Hui asked
"You don't need to know."
Julius did not answer, but looked at Wen Hui and changed his tone: "Has Zhou Mingyuan considered it?"
"No."
Wen Hui quickly adjusted her mood and said, "Vice Chairman Zhou hopes that the safety performance of the mycelium consciousness transfer technology can reach a higher level. To this end, he said he can be more patient."
"What a cautious guy." Julius said indifferently: "Tell Zhou Mingyuan that Chu Zhaonan and the Phoenix Society seem to have lost their patience and will not give him much time."
"Are you worried that Phoenix will bring down Dawn City?"
Julius did not comment: "I just need you to remind him how much time he has left as the vice chairman to cooperate with us. In addition, you have to tell him that the Crimson World studies mycelium technology in order to escape from the inferior and fragile life form of humans and achieve a higher dimensional life form. Immortality is not a necessary condition. He wants to transfer his consciousness to young humans to achieve cyclical immortality. When darkness comes, it will be meaningless."
"He knows this very well." Wen Hui said solemnly, "It's just that he can't stop himself from giving up the primary desire of human immortality and power. And out of caution, he has left himself a lot of ways to escape. Before the real death comes, he should not easily transfer his consciousness."
Julius smiled and looked at Wen Hui: "Power is desire, fear of death is also a desire. That's why Zhou Mingyuan will cooperate with us, including you, right, Miss Wen?"
Wen Hui's eyes flickered nervously, and her knuckles clenched unnaturally until they turned white, trying to hide her panic.
"Do your job well, Miss Wen." Julius looked at her calmly and said, "Your loyalty to the organization will bring you and your family the rewards you deserve."
“It’s my honor.”
Ding. It was not until Julius turned off the holographic communication that Wen Hui looked at the empty office space and took a deep breath, slowly calming down from the suffocation and uneasiness just now.
The only sounds in the entire office seemed to be her breathing and heartbeat. She came to the window and looked indifferently at the huge Underground City No. 1. Looking at the huge and depressing underground city, her eyes kept flickering, and no one knew what she was thinking about.
At this moment, the door suddenly opened. She turned around suddenly and said sternly:
"who!?"
Behind the door, a young man with a proud face and wearing power armor poked his head out. After seeing the person coming, Wen Hui breathed a sigh of relief.
"I told you not to come to my office unless necessary."
The young man came in without a care, picked up an ornament on the desk and played with it without restraint, and said, "I just ran into my second uncle, and he said he saw the girl named Wen Qi in Silent City. My cousin is really lucky. She survived the corpse chasers in Yijin City, and she even escaped from Star Abyss No. 5. How can I not have such an awesome ability as telekinesis?"
He raised his chin towards Wen Hui and said, "Mom, has the Crimson World researched the technology of transferring or seizing superpowers? I also want to be able to fly, or fire, electricity, and the natural system is so awesome." Li Jian clenched his fists, and suddenly a strange scale flashed across his skin. He said, "My C-level superpower is really a bit lame."
"Yes." Wen Hui glared at him angrily: "Digital life, mycelium consciousness, clones, you choose one."
"Bah!"
Li Jian immediately spat with disdain: "The digital life clones are all other people, they have nothing to do with me. Only mycelium consciousness is a bit promising. And even if I succeed, I don't want to replace someone else's body, let alone a woman's."
"So I told you, don't think about these nonsense." Wen Hui looked at him seriously, "What superpowers, what evolution, all of them are meaningless. How long can this world exist? Survival is the kingly way. Don't look at Zhou Mingyuan and his group. They value the Crimson World so much, but I don't care at all. Digital life, immortality of mycelium consciousness, human evolution, they are all delusions. It is more practical to break through the sky curtain and escape from Blue Star."
"Then why are you working for the Crimson World? According to what you said, you are more optimistic about Chu Zhaonan's Far Star Project, right?" Li Jian sat down on Wen Hui's desk, holding the ornament in his hand and said with a smile.
"Do I have a choice?!"
Wen Hui crossed her arms, turned around and looked at the underground city outside the window, and whispered: "If I hadn't used the Wen family's resources to join the Crimson World, the Wen family would have been divided up long ago. Isn't it because of this identity that I can have this status in Dawn City now?"
She continued, "There are two factions in the Federation. The Chu faction wants to save human civilization and fly out of the blue planet. The Zhou faction wants to be immortal and powerful. No one cares about the lives of millions of people. The underground city? It cost so much to build a thousand-meter-deep tomb. It can't solve the invasion of darkness. It's just waiting for death in vain."
Li Jian was incredulous when he heard this: "We can't possibly follow the Crimson World and try to regenerate our consciousness. I don't want to become a monster!"
Wen Hui glanced at him and said, "I asked you to join the Broken Curtain Project, but you spend all day training your superpowers and engaging in underground fighting. This is the end of the world. Even if you upgrade your crappy superpowers, won't you still be crushed to death by an S-class?!"
"Damn it, more than a dozen of the planned test ships have crashed. Am I still your biological son? You want me to die?" Li Jian swallowed hard and blurted out: "Besides, even if we wait until the curtain is broken successfully, it won't be too late to leave on a large starship. And don't we still have the "Sky Class"? Why do we have to take the Vanguard? That's the death squad!"
Wen Hui immediately glared at him with a useless look: "It's not that simple. Chu Zhaonan asked his son to be in charge of the Curtain Breaking Plan. Do you think he is a fool?"
"Chu Jing is the person in charge, but he didn't say he must go on the Pioneer." Li Jian sneered, "It's just a pretense. Oh, Chu Zhaonan let his son be the vanguard for the sake of human civilization. Bah, hypocrisy. Believe it or not, if Chu Jing really dares to go on the Pioneer, I'll write my name upside down!"
Wen Hui glanced at him unhappily, shook her head and said in a deep voice: "No, I don't think so. I have a hunch that all the plans may not be what we think, and they are not subject to our will."
Li Jian frowned: "Are you saying that the Crimson World doesn't trust you and is hiding something from you?"
Wen Hui sneered and said, "For the Crimson World, we are just pawns they use. They don't care about Chu Zhaonan's Far Star Plan or Zhou Mingyuan's need for immortality. They cooperate with Dawn City for resource acquisition. In order to achieve their goals, Dawn City is just a hotbed for them to realize the new human civilization. Let alone Dawn City, even if everyone in the world died except them, they would not care at all!"
Li Jian was very secretive when he heard this and asked nervously:
"Mom, does that mean we're going to have a war?"
"Where did you hear that?" Wen Hui asked.
Li Jian shrugged. "It's being rumored everywhere in the city that the global Xingyuan is expanding at an accelerated pace, and the Phoenix Society is here to rescue the refugees from Dawn City. Those who haven't entered the underground city can either run away or wait to die."
Wen Hui's eyes flashed with a complex expression. She wanted to say something but stopped herself and said in a concentrated voice, "For the time being, we shouldn't fight. At least... not with humans."
After she finished speaking, she glanced at Li Jian and said, "The main structural sections of the Sky Dome Class have been built, and the hull has been outfitted. The only important parts left are the weapon system and the star gravity ring. As for the other transport carriages, it doesn't matter at all. Tell your second uncle and the others that even if the starport is destroyed, this train must be saved. With this thing, even if the Far Star Project fails, we can still cross the Pacific Ocean through the circumstellar orbit. If the sky curtain opens, we can also take off and escape to seek a chance of survival. This is our way out, do you understand?"
"I understand. We should be prepared for everything. Zhou Mingyuan is unreliable, and the Crimson World is even more unreliable." Li Jian nodded seriously, then frowned and said, "But aren't we thinking too much? Even if the Phoenix Society goes out in person, it may not be able to take down Jinhai in a short time. It's still a question whether a mere Silent City and a group of shrimp soldiers and crab generals can survive tonight. Why are we still worried about Jinhai?"
snort.
Wen Hui sneered, "The world is just a huge makeshift team. Don't think that the Crimson World is so powerful. They are just a group of psychopathic fanatics. The Yijin Lingsu Center and the White City Research Institute were easily taken over by Lin Xian. Even Crimson No. 3, Dark Erosion Cells and various research materials were robbed. Although I admit that the Crimson World does have an advantage over other organizations in the study of dark creatures, in the final analysis, they are just a group of pitiful creatures who think they can put on weird skins and worship dark creatures as gods and beg for mercy. So I am not worried about Silent City or Crimson World, but I am worried that their conflict will bring other unavoidable risks to Jinhai and Dawn City. Facing the real terror of the dark world, we are ants..."
"Them too!"
(End of this chapter)
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