The C7 outside-wall encampment is about half a day's drive from the second sample collection point.
The second sample collection point on Route 18 was in the countryside. However, Xie Xuan later compared it with a map from a hundred years ago. Although the description given by the Development Department was a village, because the township was well developed before the outbreak of the infection, the location of the second sample point was more like a small town than a village.
Before even reaching the C7 outpost, they entered the remains of a small human settlement.
It has been a few days since the end of this year's rainy season. Cities are not as suitable places for fungi to grow as fields. After entering areas with a large number of remains of human civilization, fungi as tall as trees began to become much less common.
But after a hundred years of continuous infection year after year, the buildings here can no longer be seen in their original appearance.
After being infected, the walls turned into hyphae, dried up and collapsed after the rainy season ended, and were once again covered by new hyphae after the rainy season came the following year. Over time, the buildings left here became as strange-looking as dolls that had been patched up repeatedly.
The roads built in the town can still be distinguished. Xie Xuan and his RV are driving on a road that is also covered with mycelium, and there are buildings around that are covered with mycelium that is about to dry up.
"Will there be new humans living here?" Yang Jiayue suddenly asked.
"No," Song Zhixian answered firmly. "The area near the garrison is a key patrol area. No matter which faction the new humans are from, they don't like to live too close to us."
He paused, "More than a decade ago, the friendly faction among the new humans revealed to us where they lived."
Song Zhixian gestured on the map in front of the car that showed the directions of all the teams. "Most of them live outside the black line."
"Do they live in their original city?" Ding Qiaoyun asked.
"I don't know." Song Zhixian replied, "They don't want to reveal the specific location."
Chongming said, "Are you afraid we'll just charge in? But so far, no Reclamation Division team has ever made it out of the black line and returned alive. Isn't this worry unnecessary?"
"Just because humans haven't explored beyond the Black Line doesn't mean they won't pose a threat to the new humans."
Xiao Yao suddenly said, "Before the outbreak, humanity's thermal weapons were so advanced that a single location could destroy an entire city. If the new humans revealed their specific coordinates, those inside the wall would be able to wipe them out with just the push of a button."
Xie Xuan looked at Xiao Yao. She didn't know if it was her illusion, but she always felt that Xiao Yao was a little resistant to the topic of new humans.
Yang Jiayue was stunned for a moment and said, "But the people inside the wall don't have any reason to exterminate the new humans, right?"
"No?" Xiao Yao asked back, "You'd say that if you haven't seen a new kind of human. They're completely different from the superpowered people you've seen. Their state is more like an infected object, like a moldy human. What would you do if you saw someone like that inside the wall?"
Of course, we must eliminate him before he causes a wider range of infection.
When Song Zhixian heard Xiao Yao's words, he looked at him in surprise, as if silently asking him how he knew what the new humans looked like.
Theoretically, apart from those stationed outside the wall and the senior officials of the Ecological Bureau, no one would even know that there are humans outside the wall.
"I used to work for the Ecological Organization," Xiao Yao explained. "The Ecological Organization's research on new humans wasn't kept so secret. I've stumbled across relevant information a few times."
Song Zhixian said, "That's true. Because the ecological organization was integrated with the so-called human rights organization, it held many activities for people outside the Great Firewall in its early days, and even invited a few people from outside the Great Firewall to give speeches."
Xie Xuan asked curiously, "Oh, what happened next?"
"Later, these individuals caused an infection incident within the wall and were killed on the spot by members of the ecological organization who overreacted at the time."
Ding Qiaoyun said, "And as Xiao Yao said, the first generation of new humans look like moldy oranges, making it difficult for ordinary people to identify with them. This speech event not only failed to achieve the desired effect, but instead created a strong fear and rejection of those outside the wall among those inside."
Yang Jiayue frowned. "But no matter what, the new humans outside the wall and the humans inside the wall won't have any intersection. There's no need to kill them all, right?"
"But what if the new humans intend to enter the wall and replace the humans inside?" Song Zhixian coughed, "And this is happening now. Paradise Lost is the best example."
Yang Jiayue remained silent. As a vested interest living within the wall, whatever she said seemed a bit hypocritical.
At this moment, the RV suddenly heaved, as if the wheels had run over a stone.
It was a very trivial thing, but it was like they triggered a switch, and the surrounding environment suddenly changed completely.
The buildings on the roadside that had been completely covered by mycelium and had lost their shape have returned to their previous appearance, and the road surface has become smooth, with neat white virtual and real lines on the blue-black asphalt surface.
There were even pedestrians walking slowly on the sidewalk by the road. Suddenly, a red car came driving towards them on the road, and Bai Ze, who was driving automatically in the car, chose to brake suddenly.
The car honked its horn and drove around their RV. Xie Xuan looked out the window and even saw the driver lower the window and extend his hand toward them, making an international friendly gesture.
They entered the realm. Without warning.
The spore concentration nearby did not rise, remaining at the 40% concentration common outside the wall.
This seems to be a very safe concentration, but just looking at the realistic environment around it, it is not difficult to know that the level of this area will not be low.
Song Zhixian coughed and offered information. "There are many heartbeats here. I can't find the heartbeat of the fungus."
Yang Jiayue was also confused. "But before I came in, I didn't sense any A-level bacteria nearby..."
Before she could finish her words, she was suddenly stunned. She didn't sense any A-level bacteria, but they had entered the field. The only possibility was that the radius of this field was at least one kilometer.
So far, Xie Xuan has not entered such a large field.
Although there is no evidence that the size of the field is necessarily proportional to the degree of danger, everyone's heart sank when the scope was so vast and the scenes within it were so realistic and detailed.
They were in big trouble.
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