Chapter 72: New Discovery
Actually, if the goal were merely to bring the 's to full-capacity operation, it wouldn't have required all this trouble at all.
After the catastrophe, the city itself was a colossal "mine"—countless abandoned steel buildings and vehicles were all "raw materials" waiting to be dismantled and put to use.
Especially after the population surpassed one thousand, and with a handy concealment tool like the pheromone in hand, organizing people to scavenge across the city was hardly difficult.
What had been truly bottlenecked was the system's requirement of a "stable mineral collection line."
That condition locked the source of raw materials to "minerals" and demanded a complete, stable mineral collection and transport route.
But as luck would have it, the , the closest to , had been occupied by the for so long that this mission of his simply could not be completed. Until now.
Three days later.
mining area, entrance to the underground tunnel.
As the final section of track was laid, the first ore cart, laden with raw iron ore, glided steadily along the enclosed track into the deep underground passage.
And when the conveyor belt slowly fed that first batch of dark-brown ore into the raw material feed port of the , the system notification had been waiting for finally rang out.
[Ding!]
[ IV: Industrial Raw Materials, completed!]
[Mission Evaluation: Average.]
[Calculating rewards...]
[ gained: 50,000.]
[Building unlocked: Ă— 1]
[Blueprint unlocked: Blueprint Ă— 1]
[Current : 58,830]
[Ding! population detected as meeting the threshold. V triggered: Tempering the Blade.]
[Mission Description: The has taken its initial shape, yet peace must be protected by force. The is required to construct a stably operating medium-scale comprehensive , allowing the power of civilization to once again dispel the darkness.]
[Mission Rewards: 80,000 , unlock " " electromagnetic main battle tank Ă— 5, blueprint Ă— 1.]
Looking at this long-awaited system notification—especially that windfall of a full 50,000 — finally let out a long breath of relief.
He had never been this rich before! With these , even if did cook up some kind of trouble later, at least he'd have more confidence to deal with it.
For convenience, chose to materialize the right next to the , and generated a sealed raw-material conveying pipeline connecting the two upon materialization.
***
"Mr. , are you saying... has unlocked new places again?"
, who had just received the notice, was driving an ore cart with several mining team technicians, transporting the second batch of ore.
[That's right. I've successfully unlocked a new smelting center. From now on, just deliver the ore directly to the newly unlocked .]
"Got it!"
suppressed his curiosity, drove the ore cart along the new map on his , and turned into a side tunnel.
A moment later, a massive alloy door rimmed with glowing blue light strips appeared before them.
" ... we're here."
The alloy door sensed the group approaching and slid silently open to both sides.
The scene behind the door made everyone hold their breath at once.
It was a vast space even more cavernous and more science-fictional than the .
The dome ceiling was a full fifteen meters high, covered in lighting panels that emitted a soft white glow.
At the very center stood four cylindrical high-temperature furnaces in a row, each three meters in diameter, their shells made of dark silver heat-resistant alloy and covered with cooling fins and status indicator lights.
Above the furnaces, enormous robotic arms hung from overhead tracks, handling feeding and slag removal.
To the right of the furnaces was a bank of electrolytic cells and centrifugal separator units, with stainless steel pipes winding among them like an intricate vascular network.
The various separated metal solutions would be automatically channeled into the ingot mold array on the left.
And at the far end of the workshop, a conveyor belt led straight into a sealed duct in the wall—the interface connecting to the 's raw-material conveying system.
From ore entering at one end to high-purity metal ingots emerging at the other, the entire process was automated, requiring no human intervention whatsoever.
and the others stared blankly at all of it, feeling their worldview being rewritten once more.
[Just dump the ore into Furnace No. 1's feed port, and leave the rest to the machines.] 's voice came from the speakers in the ceiling.
"Oh my god..." muttered to himself. "This is way too convenient!"
After that exclamation, he turned and waved to those behind him, signaling the crew to unload the ore.
When the first batch of ore had gone through the smelting center's high-temperature melting, electrolytic separation, and refining into ingots, the resulting high-purity iron ingots and trace amounts of other metals were automatically delivered into the .
The results were excellent. The ore that had previously counted as low-grade raw material for the became premium raw material after refining, and the center's efficiency jumped by 30% at once.
After confirming the smelting center was operating normally, 's attention shifted to how to transport ore more efficiently.
Without question, the smelting center was still far from operating at full capacity.
The underground tunnel was certainly safe, but the transport capacity of the single-track electric flatcars was ultimately limited.
To increase throughput, ground transport would have to be considered.
There were plenty of routes from to the , and the road conditions weren't all that bad either.
The only things to worry about were the zombies and mutants.
It seemed that once the problem was dealt with, he'd need to consider a large-scale "road cleaning," thought to himself.
As for now? Looking at his civilization point balance, which had never been so flush.
unhesitatingly spent another 10,000 to materialize 5,000 replication drones.
As the command went out, thousands of slots lit up at once inside the colossal deep beneath .
Brand-new replication drones appeared one after another, silently, then flew out of the garage and began executing the most primal mission they had been given—collect, and replicate.
Now that had gained a " " on its side, rapid replication and efficient combat readiness could no longer be delayed.
Although those " " hadn't made a move so far, who knew whether they were cooking up something big?
All could do now was stockpile enough strength before danger arrived.
Just then, a communication request suddenly came in.
It was .
[ , we have a new discovery here in .]
***
Unlike 's industrial positioning, and District together formed the most prosperous twin-core commercial hub in the city's center.
In addition, was home to a nationally renowned 5A-level tourist attraction—the —so its population density was in no way inferior to District's.
But a dense population also meant that after the catastrophe broke out, this place had that many more zombies.
So had always marked it as a high-danger zone, and exploration operations there had been carried out with exceptional caution.
In fact, the environment here gave him no choice but to be cautious.
The moment one entered Huining's urban limits, the sky seemed to have been swapped for a different backdrop.
A thin, never-dissipating mist and heavy clouds so gloomy they seemed ready to break into a downpour at any second shrouded the entire area in an oppressive dimness.
Whether it was sunny and bright outside or drizzling with rain, stepping into Huining's limits instantly switched the sky to a thick layer of clouds, as if the sky over here had been sealed off from the outside world.
had once tried sending the up through the clouds to investigate, but the absurd electromagnetic environment in the high altitude—like an ionosphere—forced him to give up.
Besides the strangeness of the environment, the density of mutants on the ground in was terrifyingly high, with first-stage mutants and ordinary zombies almost at a one-to-one ratio.
A casual sweep by the Sentinels' scanning modules would pick up several intense heat sources suspected to be second-stage mutants in those ruined high-rises, as if the environment here was uniquely suited for mutation and evolution.
Only the underground here was oddly quiet.
No insect swarms. No mutated root systems. No aberrant flesh. It was the easiest stretch and his crew had ever dug.
But the more this was the case, the more vigilant became.
When things are abnormal, there must be something sinister behind them.
So 's exploration strategy for this area had always been "advance one step at a time, dig quietly, and keep the disturbance as small as possible."
And at this very moment, was standing at the entrance of a large membership-based supermarket. The glass doors were shattered, and the interior was in complete disarray.
" , look here." pointed at the empty shelves.
Inside the supermarket, the supplies that were easy to store and carry—instant noodles, biscuits, canned goods—had all been swept clean. Not even bottled water was left.
On the wall beside the entrance, a yellow sticky note was fixed firmly with tape.
The 's camera zoomed in. The handwriting on the note was clearly legible, scrawled but forceful.
[If any rescue personnel find this, please come to the area. We need rescue.]
[This does look like it was left by survivors,] 's voice came from the 's speaker. [This supermarket is quite large. For it to be cleaned out this thoroughly, the group of survivors must be a sizable one.]
nodded, then added, "I checked several streets nearby too. Quite a few convenience stores are in similar shape. It looks like the same group swept them systematically."
[But judging from the dust accumulation here, they came many days ago.]
[Whether they're still in the ancient city now, and how many of them are left, are both unknowns.]
"That's right," nodded, his tone slightly hesitant. "So, Mr. , what do you think our next step should be? Should we tunnel toward the ancient city?"
Although the area wasn't located in the center of , as a tourist attraction, the number of zombies there was likely just as considerable.
Rushing over rashly would carry enormous risk.
[We can try,] deliberated for a moment before issuing the order. [But sink the 's excavation depth a little deeper, and make sure to avoid all mapped underground pipe networks and building structures.]
[Set up beacons and safety measures along the way. Report to me the moment the tunnel breaks through. Until further instructions from me, absolutely no reckless surface exploration.]
"Copy that!" replied crisply.
***
, on the top floor of a cleared three-story shopping mall.
The rich aroma of a self-heating hot pot dispelled the chill that had been gradually growing in the air.
picked up a slice of beef tripe with his chopsticks, swirled it through a simple oil dip, and popped it into his mouth, then took two more bites of rice.
The taste was decent, though not as good as the 's cooking.
As a survivor of the , he had joined after being rescued by , naturally becoming a member of .
Later, as the 's membership grew and manpower was no longer as stretched as before, he and several other members familiar with 's situation were stationed here in .
They were responsible for resource collection within the county town, searching for any survivors who might have been overlooked, and coordinating with the Sentinels to observe and record the activity passing through this land.
If they spotted any trace of the Pilgrims, they were to report it immediately.
After all, was on the horde's inevitable route. According to the observation records of the Sentinels had placed here, the hordes here were truly in constant flux, ceaselessly passing through and pushing north. No one knew what, exactly, was so attractive about the north.
But precisely because of this, figured that if he wanted to find the Pilgrims, lying in wait here was far more likely to run into them than searching blindly across the world.
Unfortunately, since that perilous, bizarre dense fog last time, not a single one of those white monsters had shown up on this migration route again.
's gaze drifted past the steam rising before him, out the window.
On the street, thousands of zombies formed a gray-black "river," moving slowly and steadily northward.
It was almost no different from any of the past days. Who knew when it would ever end.
shook his head and went back to eating.
Once this batch of supplies was collected, all the easily portable valuables in town would have been carried off, and by then he probably wouldn't need to stay stationed here.
was making calculations in his mind when he picked up another bite of wide noodles.
However, just then—
Boom!
A muffled explosion came from the distant horizon. It wasn't loud, but it was clearly audible.
's chopsticks froze mid-lift. Professional instinct snapped his head up.
In one stride he was at the window, binoculars raised, looking toward where the blast had sounded.
There, on the northwestern skyline, a column of black smoke—not particularly thick—rose straight up into the air.
At the same time, the "corpse river" that had been flowing steadily in the street below instantly turned frenzied.
Countless zombies, like sharks catching the scent of blood, wheeled around in unison and sprinted howling toward the source of the black smoke.
's expression changed instantly. He pressed the communication button on his , his voice steady but urgent.
"Report! —signs of a suspected exchange of fire observed fifteen kilometers to the northwest!"