Daijing, Base No. 2.
A soldier hidden in a dark watchtower was scanning the surrounding Oddities with an Oddity energy detector, fully alert. According to the city defense team, ever since the seventh-tier Oddity awakened, the Oddities throughout the city had become more active. Defense Line No. 3 had already fallen, and if the Oddities advanced any further, Base No. 1 would be completely doomed.
Defense Line No. 3 had originally been abandoned, but the emergence of Base No. 2 led to this line being put back into use. The city defense team dispatched elite soldiers to patrol in twenty-four-hour shifts, monitoring the Oddities throughout the entire block.
At that moment, a soldier noticed thick dust rolling in the distance. A convoy was heading toward Base No. 2, with a dense mass of Parasitized and Oddities following behind it.
“They’re back! Captain Fang and the others are back!” The soldier immediately grabbed the communicator to report to the command camp while pressing the alert button.
What was coming back was not just Fang Mingyue’s convoy, but also the Oddities and Parasitized from the entire block.
Although the command center had known this would happen before Fang Mingyue led the team to retrieve the resources—because even after multiple improvements, the transport combat vehicles would inevitably attract the attention of surrounding Oddities and Parasitized—the soldiers on the watchtower were still badly frightened when they saw the swarm of Oddities as dense as ants.
Fortunately, the New Council had arranged a reception in advance. After receiving the sentry’s alarm signal, they immediately activated the emergency response plan.
Deng Yuqi had been on standby at Base No. 2. After receiving the signal, she immediately connected to the surveillance feed and picked up the communicator: “After Captain Fang’s convoy enters the lockdown zone, activate interception programs 1 through 3 in ten seconds, and block the Oddities and Parasitized behind them outside the lockdown zone.”
The interception programs Deng Yuqi mentioned were set up by the research department using the abandoned defensive facilities of Defense Line No. 3, combined with the latest Oddity energy defense devices.
After Fang Mingyue’s convoy drove into the lockdown zone, once Interception Program No. 1 was activated, a series of loud “rumble rumble” sounds immediately followed. A metal wall two meters thick slowly rose from the street ground, standing four to five meters tall. Although this height was insignificant compared to some third-tier Oddities, it could block the most numerous low-tier Oddities and Parasitized outside the lockdown zone.
Because the metal defensive wall rose slowly, some Oddities were pushed up by it, and some could even climb over it.
Don’t be fooled by how sturdy a three-meter-thick defensive wall looked—in reality, when it encountered those three-to-five-meter-tall third-tier Oddities, it was immediately dented and deformed, and even breached.
But this was only the first step of the defense program. After the defensive wall was breached, a thick black mist of Oddity energy immediately dispersed from within.
This was the high-tier Oddity aura collected by exploration team soldiers who had risked danger to enter the seventh-tier Oddity’s lockdown zone. There was strict hierarchical suppression between Oddities. Unless they were first-tier Oddities or Parasitized—low-tier beings that did not even possess the instinct of fear—most second and third-tier Oddities would be suppressed by the Oddity energy of higher-tier Oddities.
Sure enough, after the black Oddity energy mist appeared, some third-tier Oddities immediately stopped in their tracks and charged in the opposite direction, or rushed into nearby ruins to hide.
But this hierarchical suppression was not absolute. Because Fang Mingyue’s convoy had drawn back far too many Oddities, a large number still broke through the defense line.
At that point, Defense Program No. 2 activated—collapsed ground, electric nets, Oddity energy blast bombs, and so on. In an instant, explosions echoed throughout the entire block.
Finally came Defense Program No. 3. The hatches of bunkers hidden in the surrounding ruins opened, and Oddities that had long been trained by the research institute and the shelter immediately fled out, running in the opposite direction from the shelter.
They emitted delicious Oddity energy aura, immediately luring away a large swath of Oddities. At this point, the soldiers of the Third Regiment, who had been on standby in the surrounding area, launched their attack.
The city defense team held several key defense lines, while the exploration team and the Oddity Hunting Team—soldiers more skilled at fighting Oddities—charged to the front lines.
After Fang Mingyue directed the convoy into Base No. 2’s underground passage, she immediately led her team to reinforce the front lines. This was the most intense defensive battle the shelter had experienced since its construction.
In the apocalypse, the most scarce resource was resources themselves, and among them, food was the scarcest. Everyone understood that the resources Fang Mingyue brought back could support the shelter’s people for at least one or two months, so they all risked their lives to block the Oddity assault.
Don’t be fooled by how one or two months did not seem long—the shelter was already planning to evacuate Daijing, and these resources were the key to whether they could survive and reach the next habitable location.
The battle lasted nearly two hours. The Third Regiment’s soldiers suffered nearly thirty percent casualties before they barely stabilized the assault and blocked the Oddities outside the lockdown zone.
Fang Mingyue’s combat suit was soaked black with blood. When she walked into the command center, she dragged a trail of blood across the floor.
“Reporting to Captain Deng, the resources brought back this time include not only large quantities of food but also various weapons and ammunition.” Fang Mingyue reported the full harvest of this operation. According to the logistics department’s preliminary estimate, if these food supplies were used only for Base No. 2’s consumption, they could last at least three and a half months.
“Good work!” Deng Yuqi praised her a few times, then began asking about Fang Mingyue’s injuries and the details of this operation.
When she heard that Shen Ge had stayed behind to hold off the enemy so that Fang Mingyue’s team could escape the lockdown zone and evade the high-tier Oddity pursuit, she became thoughtful.
In fact, Deng Yuqi had never understood why Shen Ge helped them so tirelessly. Even after hearing that he came from another world, that another version of them existed in that world, and that they were his comrades-in-arms, she still harbored doubts about Shen Ge’s “motives.”
The reason was simple. “Loving the house and its crow”—extending affection to what is associated with the beloved—was fine as a bonus, but when someone risked their life to help like this, it was hard not to be suspicious.
But no matter what, Shen Ge’s contributions to the shelter so far were obvious to all. He had even helped the shelter uproot the cancer that was the New God Cult.
Although Shen Ge’s plan to replace the New God Cult as a fraud and let the New Council control the shelter’s civilians through both force and spirit had failed, it had at least given the New Council a good start.
“Captain Deng, do you think… we should organize a team to go back into the lockdown zone and search for Shen Ge?” Fang Mingyue asked.
The reason her tone was somewhat conflicted was not because she was afraid of high-tier Oddities. Rather, after several collaborations with Shen Ge, she had gained a clear understanding of her own strength. If they formed a search team and went back, they might not be able to help Shen Ge at all—and might even drag him down again.
At the thought of this, Fang Mingyue suddenly became somewhat dejected. This was the first time she felt her own strength was so weak. As a captain-level fighter, she had not been of any help in several operations and had relied entirely on Shen Ge to escape danger.
Just as Deng Yuqi was struggling with whether to send people to support Shen Ge, a soldier ran into the command center: “Reporting to Captain Deng, Captain Tu of the Oddity Hunting Team, who went on the reconnaissance mission, has sent back a video. When the councilor tried to contact us, Captain Liu was at Base No. 1 suppressing a riot and we couldn’t reach him. Should we go to the council to report?”
Strictly speaking, veterans of the Third Regiment like Liu Jiayi and Deng Yuqi were also members of the New Council, so any new decisions by the council had to go through their opinions.
And the biggest difference between the New Council and the Old Council was that Third Regiment officers were not directly dispatched by the New Council. This was to prevent another situation like what happened at Base No. 1.
Moreover, during Third Regiment operations, the New Council was not allowed to interfere with their combat actions. At this critical moment for Base No. 2, Deng Yuqi had the right to refuse to attend the meeting.
“Captain Tu?” Deng Yuqi naturally knew Tu Doubi. He was one of the lead commanders of the main survey teams at several evacuation points this time.
Currently, both Base No. 1 and Base No. 2 had problems, Defense Line No. 3 was also in critical danger, and there was a sixth-tier Oddity in the lockdown zone about to complete its seventh-tier breakthrough. The shelter’s relocation was imminent, so Deng Yuqi had to handle this matter cautiously.
“Where are they?” Deng Yuqi asked.
The soldier replied: “Meeting Room 3-2.”
“I’ll head over now.” With that, Deng Yuqi looked at Fang Mingyue and told her to go back and rest first, treat her wounds, and that she would send people to handle the matter of Shen Ge.
Although Fang Mingyue wanted to say that given Shen Ge’s strength, they should not go and cause trouble, she was still somewhat worried about his safety. She opened her mouth, but in the end only nodded.
When Deng Yuqi arrived at the New Council’s meeting room, she found that far more cadres from various regiments had been summoned than she had imagined. Even several senior researchers from the research department, who had spent years immersed in Oddity research in their labs, were present. This was enough to show that the information Tu Doubi sent back this time must be of great research value.
After Deng Yuqi sat down, an assistant to a councilor placed the materials in front of her and briefly introduced the situation of this meeting.
Tu Doubi had gone north. Logically, given the current season, the north should have been a world of ice and snow. Yet what they saw upon entering the Sanshen City lockdown zone was not ice and snow, but a primeval forest.
“Captain Tu’s video was corrupted and some footage was missing due to interference. Colleagues from the research department worked all day and night to repair it, and finally restored the footage. Please look at the screen,” a researcher said after standing up to adjust the equipment. Then a video with very blurry footage played on the projector.
As the image gradually became clearer, one could see a group of soldiers striving to climb up a large mountain covered in what looked like a primeval forest.
The leader was the fully armed Tu Doubi. An exploration team had already come here to investigate before them, and they had rushed over to provide support after receiving the signal.
After climbing to the camp halfway up the mountain and linking up with the originally stationed team, the recorder turned on the recording device and began documenting the conversation, then attempted to transmit the information back to headquarters.
The leader of the exploration team that arrived first was named Cai Hua, a senior exploration team captain assigned by Deng Yuqi. He extended his hand to Tu Doubi and said: “Hello, I’m Cai Hua from the exploration team, in charge of surveying this **** area. The reason the exploration team sent me to lead is that I grew up in Sanshen City and am very familiar with this place. But this operation has made me doubt my childhood memories. What has changed here is not just the weather—even the terrain has undergone massive changes.”
As he spoke, Cai Hua spread out a map on the meeting table and pointed to the route from Daijing to Sanshen City: “Because this evacuation is of great importance and time is of the essence, we chose the route most suitable for combat vehicles to pass through. But you also noticed on your way here—the mountain roads here are very difficult to traverse, and the vegetation is as lush as a tropical rainforest or primeval forest.”
“But the problem isn’t these lush plants. It’s that… there is no ‘mountain’ on this route at all!”
Tu Doubi was stunned for a moment, then looked at the map Cai Hua had produced. According to the map, this area had very few hills, let alone tall mountains.
Yet his team could clearly feel how steep this mountain was after entering the mountainous area. Even if some Oddity characteristic had triggered geological changes, it was impossible for a great mountain to appear.
Cai Hua continued: “After we set up a temporary camp here, we conducted a comprehensive survey of the surroundings and found that the plants here grow very quickly. Although there are many plants I’ve never seen before, there are also many plants we are familiar with and can eat.”
“The reason I listed this place as a habitable area is that the plant resources here are very abundant, and the soil is fertile. If we could build a defense line to keep the Oddities at the foot of the mountain, this place would be a paradise.”
Tu Doubi asked, somewhat puzzled: “If that’s the case, why not just report to headquarters that we’ve found the best evacuation point, send back the data from here, and arrange the evacuation? Why request support?”
Cai Hua lit a cigarette, and his expression turned grave: “Because we found a passage on the mountain leading into the mountain’s interior. Strong Oddity energy reactions were detected in this passage. The deputy captain and several team members who entered the cave to scout went missing. I tried entering the cave to look for them, but the situation inside is very complex. Without the support of pathfinding equipment, I didn’t dare go deeper recklessly, so I could only request support from headquarters.”
Hearing this, Tu Doubi immediately understood Cai Hua’s meaning. This suddenly appeared mountain had lush vegetation, abundant resources, and fertile soil—indeed suitable for building a base for surviving the apocalypse. But if there were caves on the mountain hiding Oddities, then not dealing with them would be like building a base on top of a time bomb. No one knew when it would explode—perhaps during peacetime, or perhaps while facing an Oddity assault.
The former was manageable—they would only need to arrange personnel for twenty-four-hour vigilance. But if it were the latter, when combat personnel were on the front lines fighting Oddities and a large number of Oddities suddenly emerged from the cave, they would be attacked from both front and back, and everyone could perish there.
Therefore, Cai Hua had to treat this cautiously, which was why he sought support from the Oddity Hunting Team, intending to have them search the cave with him and confirm whether this place was safe.
“Besides the Oddity energy reactions in that cave, how many Oddities are on this mountain?” Tu Doubi asked.
Cai Hua said in a heavy voice: “Not a single one. That’s what worries me the most. Ever since the apocalypse broke out, you can hardly find a place anywhere in the world without Oddity activity. Yet here, not to mention high-tier Oddities, you can’t even find a single low-tier Oddity or a single Parasitized. That in itself is a huge problem!”
