Chapter 86: Population Growth
" !?"
Almost instantly, , who was standing off to the side, changed expression.
Having spent several days at , he knew all too well what meant.
The monsters inside were no pushovers, and it also had the dangerous ability to cause mutation in people.
And , this battle-hardened old regiment commander, also had his pupils suddenly contract the moment he heard the words " ."
Although he had never seen it with his own eyes, the report had just given did contain a key description of this phenomenon.
Without any hesitation, he immediately issued the order: "All hands, emergency assembly! Abandon the camp, move to the eastern reserve position! Move!"
The order was carried out swiftly.
In less than ten minutes, the entire temporary stronghold had completed its evacuation, leaving only a mess of tents swaying in the night wind.
The convoy sped along the rugged roads until it had driven more than ten kilometers, reaching the vicinity of a highway toll station at the southeastern edge of proper, before finally breaking completely free of that rapidly spreading fog zone.
Everyone turned to look back, and saw that in the direction they had come, the entire center of had already been swallowed by milky-white , with only faint outlines of some buildings visible.
Under the night sky, the fog rolled and churned endlessly, like the breath exhaled from a giant beast's nostrils, and from within it came shrill, spine-chilling howls from time to time, heralding that something was out of the ordinary.
stood at the edge of the fog zone, glanced at the " monitor" on his wrist—the number on it had already reached "Level 1-52," and it was still rising slowly.
"What does this mean?" asked in a low voice.
[It means the inside is very likely at the third stage, and a fairly powerful at that—possibly even something beyond the third stage.]
's tone was also somewhat grave. This fog zone's scope had already exceeded the level of that " " from before.
"I see," nodded. When had given his report earlier, he had already learned about this kind of classification system for monsters.
Then, he continued curiously, "So what kind of monster could be in there? Have you encountered one before?"
[I don't know. We haven't encountered fog zones too many times either, and this is the first time I've heard this kind of eerie howling,] answered honestly.
[Also, my ' ' can't penetrate this fog zone to scan it either.]
In the footage transmitted back by the drone, that layer of fog was like a huge curtain, cutting off all effective means of reconnaissance.
[However, since the fog spread out from the city center,] shifted the topic, [maybe I should be the one asking you—what was originally there?]
At these words, was silent for a few seconds.
"Come with me."
Then, he turned and walked back into the temporary tent, with the following closely.
Inside the tent, picked up a waterproof document bag from the table beside him, took out some photographs from inside, and spread them on the folding table.
scanned the contents of the photos through the 's optical lens, and was somewhat surprised as well.
In the photos was a colossal, organism-like structure occupying the center of —a giant mushroom of exaggerated diameter and a height of nearly thirty meters.
It was perched in the city's central plaza, crushing and piercing through what had once been landmark buildings and skyscrapers, forcibly carving out a space of its own.
Its top was an umbrella-cap-shaped structure over forty meters in diameter, with jagged edges that curled downward.
But its composition seemed rather bizarre—it looked as though it was made of layer upon layer of intertwined, gnarled dark-red keratinized rotting flesh.
Its surface was also covered in countless sponge-like pores and deep wrinkles, and from the edges of the cap hung countless fleshy tentacles dripping dark-red viscous fluid.
This dark-red, rotting-flesh-like substance immediately made think of those groups—the Rot-Beasts—which came in various forms but were uniformly covered in dark-red rotting flesh.
Could there be some connection between the two?
[I remember mentioning that you killed quite a few Rot-Beasts here, right?] 's voice sounded again. [Were they all beside this mushroom?]
"That's right." brought up a few more photos. In the images, nearly a hundred canine, bird, and giant python type Rot-Beasts were densely perched on the cap and stalk of this "rotting-flesh mushroom," like a flock of birds returning to their nests.
"They seem to have made this place their nest. At the time, we paid a considerable price to clean these things out." 's voice was somewhat hoarse.
[And this mushroom? Couldn't it be eliminated?]
"Yeah." A trace of bitterness and helplessness appeared on 's face. "We tried many methods. Heavy artillery bombardment could only leave shallow pits on its surface, which would be filled in by newly grown rotting flesh within a few minutes.
With napalm, flames simply couldn't sustain burning on its surface—that mucus seemed to be a natural fire extinguisher.
We even tried drilling and blasting from underground, but its structural strength was absurdly high, and the drill bits couldn't penetrate it at all."
[So you gave up?]
"What else could we do?" let out a sigh. "After confirming that it had no active aggression and just grew there, we could only designate it a restricted zone.
Then, we put our energy toward gathering survivors and getting in contact with the authorities. After all, we didn't have the energy to throw into a drawn-out fight with some unknown thing like that."
[Did you collect any samples?]
"We did, but our analysis capabilities were limited. Other than knowing it was rich in some unknown protein and possessed extremely strong proliferative ability, we got nothing."
[That's fine. Give us the samples when you get the chance—we have relatively well-equipped laboratories and researchers on our end.] 's voice turned resolute.
[But now, since the situation is urgent, I suggest you move up your evacuation plan. Leave at dawn tomorrow, with ordinary survivors priority.]
[What do you think?]
"Yes, I feel the same way." nodded. He had already been inclined to believe 's words; now, with the situation urgent, he was hardly a man to hem and haw.
And so, after an urgent, brief meeting, the relocation plan was settled.
would lead the group, temporarily abandoning supplies that couldn't be transported in one trip, prioritizing the evacuation of all personnel. On the 's end, would send people to provide support.
At the same time, 's drone formation would also be responsible for escort, ensuring the smoothness and safety of the transfer process.
***
The next day, just as dawn was breaking, a massive convoy of nearly two hundred vehicles of all kinds rumbled out of the temporary stronghold in full force.
In the convoy, more than twelve hundred survivors were placed in the modified trucks and buses at the center of the column, their faces carrying unease about the unknown and confusion about the future.
split the soldiers into three groups—front, middle, and rear—to escort the convoy along the way.
On 's end, he dispatched led by , along with over a thousand " " laser drones, to provide aerial cover and reconnaissance throughout the journey.
The road was not peaceful. The massive transfer naturally drew the attention of quite a few zombies, and even a few second-stage Rot-Beasts.
But for the combined convoy, these were only minor troubles.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Amid the deafening roar of gunfire, small clusters of the horde were annihilated in an instant.
Following that, the Rot-Beasts besieged by the drones lost their vitality under the baptism of laser rain.
The entire process went off without a hitch. The transfer took four and a half hours in total, without a single casualty.
And when personally witnessed how easily nearly a thousand drones in the sky could shoot a full of holes, he seemed to finally make some kind of resolution.
When the convoy arrived at and that twelve-meter-tall black ring-shaped came into view, all the survivors from fell into a long daze.
A young soldier pressed against the window stared blankly at the slowly rotating turrets on the , his lips trembling for a long time before he managed to blurt out: "Are they filming a movie?"
The auto-opening , the vicious six-barreled rapid-fire turrets on the , the clean and tidy streets inside the base, the aroma of food wafting through the air, and the members with their spirited, upward-looking demeanor...
All of it struck like a heavy hammer against their hearts, leaving them unable to calm down for a long time.
This was... ?
Was this really what should exist in the apocalypse?
Meanwhile, 's attention swept over every person entering the .
The composition of 's survivors was more complex than he had anticipated. Around six hundred soldiers, ranging in age from nineteen to forty-five, with uneven equipment levels but passable discipline.
Of the remaining eleven hundred-plus civilians, workers and technicians made up nearly thirty percent, and there were even a few engineers with considerable seniority—that was good news.
But he also noticed some not-so-good signals.
A few young men mixed in with the civilian crowd had shifty eyes. The first thing they did after entering the wasn't to look where they were going, but to size up the distribution of the robots and drones.
Only after discovering that surveillance seemed to be everywhere did they suddenly start behaving themselves.
There were also a dozen or so people wearing military uniforms but whose demeanor was clearly different from regular soldiers, huddled together whispering, commenting on everything they saw.
Their mouths made sounds of wonder, but their eyes were full of calculating shrewdness.
These people were all very interesting! silently noted the general situation of each and every one of them. No matter what kind of people they were, was determined to nip any possibility of troublemaking in the bud.
And with the influx of more than fifteen hundred new members, the 's population abruptly more than doubled, which naturally brought with it some unavoidable brief chaos.
For example, during survivor registration.
"Why the hell are you confiscating my gun? I found this gun myself!"
A burly bald man kicked up a fuss at the registration desk. He clutched a shotgun in his hand, veins bulging on his neck, wearing an indignant expression.
, who was in charge of maintaining order, lifted his eyelids but said nothing.
The several team members behind him directly trained their muzzles on the man, and the bald man's voice immediately got stuck in his throat.
"Article One of the 's weapon management regulations," read out slowly and deliberately, "All lethal weapons held by individuals shall be uniformly registered upon entry and stored and distributed by the .
If you have objections, you may appeal to the management."
"Of course, you can also choose not to join. You can leave right now, and no one will stop you."
The bald man was silent for two seconds, then placed the gun on the table.
Similar minor frictions occurred several times on the first day. Some people complained that housing assignments weren't fair, some expressed dissatisfaction with the drones and surveillance, and there were even a few hotheads who thought they were tough, trying to provoke the veteran members maintaining order.
The 's initially gentle welcome measures seemed to have had the opposite effect, making them mistakenly believe that this was a place where a group of people willing to unconditionally listen to their own "reasoning" lived.
In the end, these "shining stars of humanity" who "firmly" believed that this was too inhumane were all escorted out of the .
There was nothing to be done—they had already kindly advised them three times, but the more they advised, the more energized these people became. truly admired this unbending spirit.
He believed they would surely be able to overcome the world's cruel malice on their own. Thinking about it, felt his reactor core was about to be moved to pieces by "emotion"—how could he possibly defile their longing for a high-quality life?
"Those people are still crying outside the wall!" At the , spoke to the air as she browsed the profile materials of the newly joined members.
[I've already sent drones to drive them away. After all, they were the ones who declared with such fervor that they wanted independence and freedom—I have to help them stick to it.]
's voice came from the she wore.
"Oh, that's good then," shook her head, then sighed in admiration, "There really are all kinds of people!"
[In the future, as the scale grows, this kind of thing will only increase. You'll have to get used to it.]
"I understand."
***
In the evening, a "Welcome and Code of Conduct Orientation Meeting" for all new members was held in the power station plaza.
To open, assembled the nearly ten thousand swarm drones, which had once again been restored to their previous numbers, along with nearly a hundred Robots, and distributed a copy of the to everyone.
Then, on the massive holographic screen, , in the persona of " ," used the calmest tone to explain to everyone the core rules of :
First, absolute order and discipline. Everyone must abide by the rules; contributions are tied to rewards, and anyone who attempts to break the rules will be severely punished.
Second, the absolute value of life. Here, every person's life is equally precious. Any form of internal killing and oppression is prohibited.
Third, a shared vision for the future. This is not the end of mere survival, but the starting point for rebuilding civilization.
Every member, having chosen to join, having chosen to enjoy everything the provides, has the responsibility to contribute their strength to this goal, rather than becoming an unstable factor that destroys it.
Finally, 's voice rang out from every corner of the .
[Here, I once again sincerely welcome every newly joined member, and I also ask you to remember.]
[Every mouthful of food, every brick, and every bullet in this comes from the joint efforts of all people.]
[This place does not keep idlers, does not indulge evildoers, and does not owe anyone anything.]
As the voice fell, the entire venue was silent as death. At this moment, all the newcomers felt a chill that made them involuntarily hold their breath.
And that was exactly what needed. In this era, caution was a virtue.
Integrating into the as quickly as possible was not 's task—it was their own. From start to finish, there was only one thing had to do.
That was to tell them this was not a lawless place. He had both the will and the ability to enforce the law, to keep some people from making irreparable foolish mistakes.
***
Having dealt with the ordinary survivors, the next matter was the military.
Regarding the integration of nearly six hundred soldiers, after discussion between , , and .
More than four hundred of them would be dispersed and merged into the existing Squad One and Squad Two of the to supplement the high-combat-level soldiery, while the rest would be reorganized into , led by former battalion commander .
And would become the deputy head of the , assisting in his leadership work.
"Regiment Commander Li, this isn't right, is it?" looked at the tall, upright old man in a bit of a daze.
In fact, it wasn't just —even was somewhat surprised. Although he wouldn't go so far as to completely overhaul his external operations command system because of the latter's position.
But he had never thought of having such an obviously capable old general just do auxiliary work. He had originally planned to establish a second .
"Oh! I should have retired this year anyway. If it weren't for running into this damn mess! There's no way in hell I'd want to do this!
Besides, this Emergency Reconstituted Independent Regiment was organized temporarily by us anyway—it's not a proper regular unit."
Facing the clearly bewildered , just waved his hand. "And besides, I think you're doing a pretty good job, kid!"
"But I was just thrown into the role. Honestly, I don't have much experience." rubbed his head helplessly.
"If you lack experience, just fight a few battles and you'll have it! I've looked at your battle records—you've all fought pretty well!
Or what, are you saying you think this old geezer isn't qualified to be deputy head?"
"No, no, that's not what I mean." quickly shook his head.
"Then it's settled. You have no objection, I have no objection. Mr. , what do you think?" looked at the beside him.
[Understood. Then let's arrange it that way.]
And so, the newly arrived children were led by teachers into the warm and bright ;
workers and technicians with professional skills were quickly assigned by to the positions that needed them most;
and the ordinary survivors would begin receiving basic military training and production training the next day.
Three days later, with the end of the adaptation period, the returned to order once again.
The newcomers' identity cards began to have records of and . In the cafeteria, new faces and old faces sat together eating, and the 's atmosphere regained its liveliness.
It was only at this point that the 's total population truly reached 2,941 people.
***
Five days later, , Meeting Room No. 1.
The 's core members gathered together.
"...In general, the integration work for the new members is basically complete." closed the report in her hands. "The population growth has directly driven the expansion of the . Currently, the expansion plan for the ' ' production line has been put on the agenda."
"The production line has been debugged and is expected to achieve stable production next week. The 's construction is also only short a few special pieces of equipment—we plan to tear them out from existing factories." added.
[Very good.] 's voice sounded.
[In summary, the increase in population and industrial scale has finally given us the capability to execute some plans we couldn't complete before.]
"Do you have a new plan in mind?" asked.
[That's right.]
As 's words fell, a holographic map unfolded in the center of the conference table.
Three areas were highlighted.
[First, the .] 's electronic voice pointed to the marker on the map closest to the .
[According to exploration reports, the iron ore reserves there are very abundant, but transportation is a big problem—the capacity of the underground passage is too small.
Now that we have enough manpower, we can completely try to open up a highway transport route from the mine to the .]
"This is indeed feasible. As long as we clear out the zombies and deploy sonic repulsion devices along the way, we can maintain a relatively clean road."
nodded in approval.
[Exactly. And afterward, I'll also arrange for swarm drones to monitor the road conditions to further raise the safety level. At the same time, we can also try to further investigate the specific situation in and gather survivors from over there.]
"Hmm, then what's the next target?" asked, looking up after briefly jotting down some notes.
[Second, . That's City's pre-disaster high-tech industrial cluster, with the highest density of research institutes, laboratories, and tech enterprises in the entire city. There may be large amounts of technical data and precision equipment that are extremely valuable to us.]
"But the situation there may not be all that great!" shook his head. He still had a vivid memory of the huge outline that had risen from the ground at the . That was way too damn big, wasn't it?!
[So, I don't plan to launch a frontal assault. My initial idea is to have lead the exploration team to complete underground survey work first, and after confirming the enemy, then develop a further combat plan.]
[ Wang, I'll leave this matter to you.]
"Understood! I'll have a proposal ready as soon as possible." immediately stood up solemnly.
[As for the third target...] projected a photo of the giant mushroom in the center of onto the screen.
[According to the observations of the Sentinels I left there, the mysterious fog zone in is still slowly expanding, and has now even encompassed the suburbs.]
[I have a feeling we need to formulate a plan to counterattack as soon as possible.]