Chapter 372: Ants

The night was like ink. In the suburbs outside Dawn City, among the abandoned streets and buildings, all kinds of barbed wire and anti-cavalry obstacles were laid out, blocking the monstrous tide of corpses. Almost every few hundred meters, there were reinforced concrete defensive sentry towers. Guards holding guns watched silently, and the infrared fire-control radar of the automated machine cannons constantly scanned for the approach of suspicious, eerie entities.

The roars of the corpse tide rose and fell in the distance, like some ancient and hungry beast grinding its teeth. At this moment, several modified trucks smashed through the zombies' encirclement. Black smoke poured from their hoods, tires crushed rotting limbs, and headlights pierced the darkness as they rushed out. Under the night sky, the 100-meter-high No. 1 City Wall of Dawn City in the distance was like a cliff-like chasm spanning east to west, silently flashing signal lights in the darkness. In many areas, welding sparks still flickered, and a large number of searchlights swept across the area.

"We're here... we're finally here, damn it!" the man in the driver's seat roared hoarsely, his fingers gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white.

The survivors of the convoy were squeezed into the carriages, looking through the bulletproof glass at that giant wall. The searchlight beams on the city wall swept across the wilderness, occasionally illuminating the dense tents, convoy camps, and campfires at the foot of the wall. These were the survivors who could not afford the city entry fee, gathered under the city wall, spontaneously setting up camps to huddle together for warmth. At a glance, the lights of the convoy camps looked like a huge doomsday night market, with no end in sight.

At the city's entrance gate, the queue of vehicles stretched for several kilometers. Countless drones buzzed and circled along both sides of the road, spraying disinfectant mist and screening for dark marks. Large armed mechs patrolled back and forth, the muzzles of their rotary machine guns slowly turning to ensure order.

At the entrance, Federation officials responsible for population control carried out screening in 24-hour shifts. People entering the city had to get out of their vehicles and, after paying the entry fee, pass through several detector channels before they could regain a new Dawn City resident number, enter the old city area within the No. 1 City Wall, and be assigned an area and residence.

"3 Blood Essence per person?! Wasn't the notice yesterday that 2 Tier 1 Blood Essence were enough to enter the city?!"

At the crowded entrance, a commotion broke out. The leader of a survivor convoy shouted in shock and anger at the population security officer: "How did the price go up again after just one day!?"

"Exactly! 3 Blood Essence per person, have eerie entities become our prey now??"

"This is too outrageous!"

"Exactly!!"

"What are you shouting about!" The security officer, wearing power armor and looking resentful, immediately stepped out: "According to the regulations, if the ratio of miscellaneous personnel exceeds 1:2, they must follow this standard. Your convoy only has 15 combat personnel, but there are 34 elderly, weak, sick, and disabled. If it weren't for the fact that you have two Rampage-class, we would charge extra for the excess!"

"You!!" The middle-aged leader walked up with a flushed face, but was instantly targeted by the cannons of the heavy mechs on both sides.

"What are you doing? Want to force your way in?" The security officer sneered and immediately said sternly:

"Do you know why the price went up? Because this is the only place in the world where you can drink water with 95% darkness purification, and only here can we block S-class attacks!"

As he spoke, he stepped directly onto the roof of the convoy's vehicle and shouted loudly to the winding queue behind:

"This is the hope of all mankind. Everyone must take out everything to resist the enemy together. Without resources, where will the city defense weapons and ammunition come from? Without resources, how can we build an invincible fleet that can counter the darkness? It is precisely because of the wise leadership of Vice Chairman Zhou that Dawn City is now the safest place!"

After speaking, he looked at the leader of the convoy just now and said: "Our Dawn City is very humane. Even in the outer city, as long as your combat power exceeds Diamond-class or you possess special skills, you can enter the city to work in lieu of payment and exchange for Blood Essence. If you can't afford the entry fee now, just camp in the outer city first. It's better than being eaten by eerie entities in the wilderness, right?"

Once these words were spoken, the people in that convoy all quieted down, and the queue behind was even more restless. Many convoys that did not have enough Blood Essence began to spontaneously discuss and withdrew from the queue.

On the other side, a convoy that had just completed registration drove back on the road, slowly entering behind the drones responsible for resident placement. The co-pilot of the convoy was a young girl. She opened the car window and watched as the convoy passed through heavy checkpoints, the original stench of rot being replaced by the crowded smell of humans.

Old City District.

Cramped, crowded, and packed with people, the original urban buildings of the old city district were not only dilapidated but had also undergone various doomsday-style renovations, like shelters. Windows were sealed with steel bars, and countless doomsday-modified vehicles were parked closely along the roadside. Some communities were even heavily surrounded, and even various shopping malls and office buildings had been converted into residential areas. Dawn City did not prohibit weapons, and all kinds of long and short guns were mounted on the buildings in the streets and alleys.

"D-47..." The convoy leader looked down at the electronic card and led everyone through the noisy streets. Behind every window, three or four households were squeezed. On the street, the crying of children, the quarrels of couples, and the groans of patients were mixed together, like a symphony of despair.

Dawn City had network communication, and former mobile phones and the internet could still be used. Various trading and information communities had a large number of active survivors.

Standing on the roof and looking up at the original Twin Star Tower core main city area, it was surrounded by the No. 2 City Wall. The tall steel jungle climbed continuously from low to high. At the very center were the two former star-marked Twin Star Towers. This was not only a landmark building but also a famous space starport. In the neon-intertwined cyberpunk inner city, there were few floating vehicles in the sky, leaving only the armed ships of the Federation Garrison and guards patrolling back and forth.

And from the starport downwards was the huge entrance to the Federation's No. 1 Underground City, a super-large underground project that went 300 levels deep. The circular platform was like an inverted Tower of Babel, spiraling downwards. The entire underground city was like an independent underground honeycomb metropolis, spanning dozens of kilometers. Every level area was accessible in all directions. Unlike the No. 9 Underground City, in addition to its huge scale and population, it also had an extremely perfect public transportation system. Hundreds of maglev cabins shuttled at high speed, circulating through this underground world that was a thousand meters deep like meteors.

Dawn City, No. 1 Underground City, Core Administration Hall.

This place did not look like an office because the interior space was very large. The sky had a blue cloud light curtain projection, lacquer gold carvings, and cloud patterns winding around. A huge palace lantern hung in the center, but the wick was a holographic projection of an "artificial sun," and the light cast down was deliberately adjusted to a warm golden color of dusk.

The entire office had been converted into a miniature Jiangnan garden, with white jade steps, gurgling water, scattered rockeries, vermilion pavilions, and a large clear pond. Under the water lilies, there were actually some freshwater koi that had survived after the doomsday, still swimming joyfully.

Bang!

A gunshot broke the silence here. Soon, two armed guards sprayed a dissolving agent on the face of Zhou Mingyuan, who had fallen in a pool of blood. After his face rotted, they put him into a body bag and dragged him away.

"Didn't I tell you not to bring him back."

By the clear pond, a middle-aged man with a plump figure was dressed in gorgeous clothes, holding a dish of fish food in his hand. He pinched a pinch with his fingers and threw it into the clear pond, watching the fish churning.

The person speaking was a woman beside him, with short, capable hair. Wen Hui was 42 years old this year, but she looked like she was only in her thirties. Her eyebrows and makeup had a coldness that kept people at a distance.

Wen Dong looked at Zhou Mingyuan's corpse being dragged away and said to Wen Hui:

"Many people were watching this trip to Silent City, so I didn't dare to deal with it outside."

After speaking, he said to the middle-aged man: "Chairman Zhou, Silent City has already docked in Ningnan, but Mochizuki Shinji has activated microwave protection, and news from the inner city cannot be transmitted for the time being."

The middle-aged man turned his head. He was exactly the same as Zhou Mingyuan. The difference was that the one dragged away just now looked more radiant, while this Zhou Mingyuan was full of wind and frost, with shallow wrinkles on his face, but both had a pair of smiling eyes, giving people an aura of a superior.

"Just get things done." He said calmly, then scanned the dragged corpse indifferently, and said coldly: "He acted as the master for a few days and took himself seriously. I get annoyed when I see him."

"Uh, Chairman Zhou, that Jian Xuwei... how to deal with her?" Wen Dong asked.

Zhou Mingyuan pinched the fish food and said solemnly: "The alliance established by this Silver Star has about 60,000 people now. It is said that many cores were recruited all the way from the Yubei City airport. Now it is a considerable force in Dawn City, mainly concentrated in the inner city area. Some organizations in the old city area also have close ties with them. Plus, half of the construction team of the Jinhai Starport are engineers and robot teams from the Finger Group. This Jian Xuwei is not a fuel-efficient lamp. We can't move her now."

Wen Dong nodded and said with a fawning smile: "Now that we have successfully killed the S-class Gray Mist, plus the issue of purified water, more and more people are entering the city. Many large organizations preparing to defect to the Phoenix Society have also turned to join Dawn City. Among them, there are many Rampage-class and Destroyer-class combat powers, and even several powerful ability users whose evaluations have reached Angel-class have come. The momentum of our Dawn City is becoming more and more magnificent."

Zhou Mingyuan, however, had a cold posture when he heard this.

"Resources are always limited. This is a more severe test for us, so we can only raise the threshold while stepping up construction. Also, materials are a big problem... All these need to be worried about."

"Yes, yes." Wen Dong nodded and then said to Zhou Mingyuan:

"Now many people in the Dawn City network are discussing the news of Silent City defecting and merging into Dawn City. This is also a major benefit for us. Everyone says it is your wise leadership, Vice Chairman Zhou. Now facing the darkness, the public's confidence is also growing."

"Oh~?"

Hearing this, Zhou Mingyuan's drooping eyelashes lifted slightly: "Is this already being discussed on the network?"

This news seemed to be somewhat satisfying to Zhou Mingyuan, but he did not show it. He waved his hand and said: "Silent City is not so easy to cooperate with us, but our sincerity has been shown. The rest depends on them."

Wen Hui and Wen Dong exchanged glances, and the latter understood and said: "I will closely monitor their response next."

After speaking, Zhou Mingyuan waved his hand, and Wen Dong left the Core Administration Hall.

At this time, only Wen Hui and Zhou Mingyuan were left in the Core Administration Hall. Wen Hui pressed her earpiece, and then a metal door not far away slid open silently. Cold air mixed with a faint smell of disinfectant rushed towards them. Three special cryogenic pods were slowly transported out by drones and docked above the clear pond.

In these three cryogenic pods, three naked young male bodies were lying quietly, all in low-temperature sleep. Not only did they look very young, but their facial features and body shapes were quite handsome.

Wen Hui walked over with short steps: "Chairman Zhou, here are two B-class flight and energy gathering, and one A-class resonance system. Their physical potential and intelligence tests are very excellent, and there are no diseases or genetic defects."

These three people seemed to have been carefully selected. Whether it was physical fitness, appearance, or intelligence, even their lower bodies had extremely high requirements.

Zhou Mingyuan lifted his eyes and scanned them calmly, but continued to look down and feed the fish as if he hadn't seen them.

"Where has the Zhen Tian ship reached?"

Seeing Zhou Mingyuan's reaction, Wen Hui's eyes flashed with a trace of disdain that was extremely difficult to detect. Then, while letting the cryogenic pod retreat, she said:

"In Qingbo City, the news returned from the outpost, the Phoenix Society encountered an A-class aerial eerie entity and engaged in a battle, but their firepower was very strong, and they solved it quickly. Now they are parked outside Qingbo City, possibly waiting for the troops of Yongcheng Port to assemble."

Zhou Mingyuan laughed in a deep voice: "An 83 Iron Guard Brigade cannot deter Dawn City. Besides coming to give us a warning, Ye Lan must have other purposes."

"Chairman Zhou, our engineering team in Jinhai is still there, and there is also a garrison regiment of Lu Tianye..." Wen Hui looked at Zhou Mingyuan, her words carrying some deep meaning.

"I have already arranged it."

Zhou Mingyuan turned his back to Wen Hui, his eyes looking at the fish in the clear pond, and said: "A monster tide appeared in the Qilian Mountains, and a convoy of thousands of people was trapped. I asked Lu Tianye to mobilize troops to rescue them. He is a very active person."

After speaking, as if he had lost interest in feeding the fish, he walked to a luxury sofa not far away and sat down, saying sternly: "It doesn't matter if some bottles and jars are broken, but we cannot cause damage to our Jinhai industrial zone. Dawn City still needs those equipment to give residents confidence." "Also, Silent City has hundreds of thousands of people and is well-informed. At this juncture, cooperation is greater than confrontation. Human factions cannot attack each other. Do you understand what I mean?" Zhou Mingyuan looked at Wen Hui, his words carrying a hint of reminder.

"You can rest assured about this." Wen Hui said lightly: "Our expected result is still that Silent City encounters a terrifying monster tide in the middle of the night, and Chairman Zhou, you personally lead the fleet to support the whole line, rescue a large number of survivors, and help take over Silent City for repair work..."

Zhou Mingyuan nodded, then looked at Wen Hui meaningfully.

"Now the matter of the Deep Red World has caused quite a stir in the city. Now that the Phoenix Society has come, at this time, no matter what the result is, the hat of being anti-human cannot be put on my Dawn City."

Wen Hui understood, bowed slightly, and then turned and left.

Wen Hui walked through the deep corridor in high heels and returned to her personal office. At this time, she opened a secret holographic communicator, and a white man with sunglasses and a cold face appeared on the screen.

Julius Lite!

"Zhou Mingyuan has already transferred the city defense of Jinhai. In that area, no one will go to support Silent City." Wen Hui reported to Julius with a respectful face.

"Well done. This might just make up for our recent lack of experimental subjects."

"Are there many vacancies for experimental subjects now?"

"The Star Abyss is covering more and more, and there are fewer and fewer survivors." Julius said in a cold tone, calmly: "That mechanical ability user named Lin Xian killed all the sand bandits in the Aksai direction. Although Zhou Mingyuan opened a channel for us in Dawn City, that group of survivor organizations spontaneously organized to defend, plus Lu Tianye of the garrison army has been sending people to watch our several dark spots, which has led to a full 70% reduction in the experimental subjects we have captured recently, and the quality is not high. With the current invasion power of the Star Abyss, evolutionary-class can't even live for three days, which is useless at all."

"But the armed strength of Silent City is very strong. Is there any worry here that such a large-scale conflict will cause trouble for Dawn City?" Wen Hui said.

"We will not have a head-on conflict with Silent City, just to recover Deep Red No. 3, and by the way, 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, his tone changed: "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. For this reason, he said he can show more patience."

"What a cautious guy." Julius said indifferently: "Tell Zhou Mingyuan that Chu Zhaonan and the Phoenix Society seem to have no patience, and there won't be much time left for him."

"Are you worried that the Phoenix Society will make Dawn City collapse?"

Julius was noncommittal: "I just need you to remind him how much time is left for his value as Vice Chairman to cooperate with us. In addition, you must also tell him that the Deep Red World's research on mycelium technology is to break away from the inferior and fragile life form of humans and reach a higher-dimensional life form. Immortality is not a necessary condition. He wants to transfer consciousness to young humans to achieve circular immortality. After the darkness comes, it makes no sense."

"He is very clear about this." Wen Hui said solemnly: "It's just that he can't stop his primary desire to abandon human immortality and hold great power. And out of caution, he has left himself many retreats. Before real death comes, he should not easily carry out consciousness transfer."

Julius smiled and looked at Wen Hui: "Power is desire, and fear of death is also desire. Precisely because of this, Zhou Mingyuan will cooperate with us, including you, isn't it, Miss Wen."

Wen Hui's eyes flickered nervously, and her knuckles clenched unnaturally, trying to hide her panic.

"Do your job, Miss Wen." Julius looked at her lightly and said: "Your loyalty to the organization will earn you and your family the rewards you deserve."

"It's an honor."

Beep. Until Julius turned off the holographic communication, Wen Hui looked at the empty office space, and then took a sharp breath, slowly calming down from the suffocation and anxiety just now.

In the entire office, it seemed that only her breathing and heartbeat could be heard. She came to the window and looked at the huge No. 1 Underground City indifferently, watching the huge and oppressive underground metropolis, her eyes flickering constantly, not knowing what she was thinking.

Click. At this time, the door suddenly opened. She turned back suddenly and said sternly:

"Who!?"

Behind the door, a young man with an arrogant face and wearing power armor poked his head out. After seeing the visitor, Wen Hui breathed a sigh of relief.

"I told you, don't come to my office if you have nothing to do."

The young man didn't care and walked in uninvited, unscrupulously picking up an ornament on the desk to play with, and said: "I just met the second uncle, and he said he saw that Wen Qi on Silent City. My cousin really has a big life. It's fine to survive meeting the corpse driver in Yijin City, but she actually ran out of the No. 5 Star Abyss. Awesome. Why don't I have such a powerful ability like the mind power system."

As he spoke, he raised his chin at Wen Hui: "Mom, does the Deep Red World have any research on that kind of ability transfer or seizure technology? I also want to get an ability that can fly. What fire, electricity, natural system, how awesome." Li Jian said, clenching his fists, and in an instant, a strange scale armor flashed across his skin, saying: "My C-class ability is really a bit lagging."

"Yes." Wen Hui glared at him with resentment: "Digital life, mycelium consciousness, clone, you choose one."

"Bah!"

Li Jian immediately spat with disdain: "Digital life clone, that's someone else, it has nothing to do with me. Only mycelium consciousness is a bit promising, and even if it's done, I don't want to change someone else's body, let alone a woman."

"So I told you, don't think about these things." Wen Hui looked at him seriously: "What ability, what evolution, all have no meaning. How long can this world exist? Living is the kingly way. Don't look at Zhou Mingyuan and his group who value the Deep Red World so much, but I don't care at all. What digital life, mycelium consciousness immortality, human evolution, are all delusions. It is more practical to break the sky curtain and escape from the Blue Star."

"Then why do you work for the Deep Red World? According to you, you are more optimistic about Chu Zhaonan's Far Star Project, right?" Li Jian sat on Wen Hui's desk, weighing the ornament in his hand and smiling.

"Do I have a choice?!"

Wen Hui hugged her chest, turned to look at the underground city outside the window, and said in a low voice: "If I hadn't used the Wen family's resources to defect to the Deep Red World, the Wen family would have been divided up long ago. Now that I can have this status in Dawn City, isn't it because of this identity?"

She continued: "These two factions of the Federation, the one surnamed Chu wants to save human civilization and fly out of the Blue Star, the one surnamed Zhou wants to be immortal and hold power all day long. No one cares about the life and death of these millions of people. Underground city? Spent so much cost just to build a 1,000-meter-deep tomb, which cannot solve the darkness invasion, but is just waiting to die in vain."

Li Jian heard this and looked unbelievable: "We can't follow the Deep Red World to do any consciousness rebirth, I don't want to become a monster!"

Wen Hui looked at him and said: "I asked you to join the Break Curtain Project, but you are good, running to train abilities all day, doing underground fighting. This is the end of the world. Even if your broken ability is upgraded, it's still just a foot-stomping death by an S-class!"

"Damn, that project test ship has already crashed more than a dozen, am I still your own son, you let me go to die?" Li Jian swallowed hard and blurted out: "And having said that, even if we wait for the curtain breaking to succeed, it's not too late to leave by the starship of the large army. And don't we have the 'Sky Dome-class'? Why must we take the Vanguard? That's a suicide squad!"

Wen Hui immediately glared at him with a look of disappointment: "It's not that simple. Chu Zhaonan let his son be personally responsible for the Break Curtain Project. Do you think he is a fool?"

"Captain Chu Jing is the person in charge, but it doesn't mean he must be on the Vanguard." Li Jian smiled disdainfully: "Isn't it just pretending to make a show? Oh, he Chu Zhaonan, for the sake of human civilization, let his son be the vanguard. Bah, hypocritical. Do you believe it? If Captain Chu Jing really dares to be on the Vanguard, I will write my name upside down!"

Wen Hui glanced at him angrily, shook her head, and said solemnly: "No, I don't think so. I have a premonition that all plans may not be what we think, nor will they be transferred by our will."

Li Jian frowned: "You mean, the Deep Red World doesn't trust you and is hiding something from you?"

Wen Hui sneered and walked: "For the Deep Red World, we are just pawns they use. They don't care about Chu Zhaonan's Far Star Project, nor do they care about Zhou Mingyuan's immortality needs. Cooperation with Dawn City is for resource acquisition. To achieve their goals, Dawn City is just a hotbed for them to realize a new human civilization. Let alone Dawn City, even if the whole world except them dies, they don't care at all!"

Li Jian heard this and was deeply thoughtful, asking nervously:

"Mom, so, is there going to be a war?"

"Where did you hear that?" Wen Hui asked.

Li Jian shrugged: "It's spreading everywhere in the city, saying that the global Star Abyss is expanding rapidly, and the Phoenix Society is here to rescue the refugees of Dawn City. Those who haven't entered the underground city either run away or just wait to die."

Wen Hui's eyes flashed with a complex color. She wanted to say something but stopped. She said solemnly: "It shouldn't start a war for the time being, at least... not with humans."

After speaking, she looked at Li Jian: "Several main structural segments of that 'Sky Dome-class' have been built, and the hull part has also been outfitted. The only remaining major things are the weapon system and the starry sky gravity ring. As for other transport carriages, it doesn't matter at all. You tell your second uncle and the others, even if the starport is destroyed, this train must be preserved. With this thing, even if the Far Star Project fails, we can cross the Pacific Ocean through the orbital ring. If the sky curtain opens, we can also take off and escape, seeking a chance of survival. This is our retreat, understand!"

"I understand, prepare for both hands, right? Zhou Mingyuan is unreliable, and the Deep Red World is even more unreliable." Li Jian nodded seriously, and then frowned and said: "But will we think too much? The Phoenix Society personally taking action may not necessarily take down Jinhai in a short time. A mere Silent City plus a group of shrimp soldiers and crab generals driving a train, whether they can survive tonight is a problem, why worry about Jinhai?"

Hmph.

Wen Hui sneered: "The world is a huge stage, and you don't think of the Deep Red World as too powerful. It's just a group of psychopathic fanatics. The Yijin Zero Element Center and the White City Research Institute were easily taken down by that Lin Xian. Even Deep Red No. 3, dark erosion cells, and various research materials were snatched by others. Although I admit that the Deep Red World is indeed more advantageous in dark creature research than other organizations, in the final analysis, they are just a group of poor worms who think they can put on eerie skin and treat dark creatures as gods and wag their tails for pity. So what I worry about is not Silent City, nor the Deep Red World, but that their conflict will bring other unavoidable risks to Jinhai and Dawn City. Facing the true terror of the dark world, we are ants..."

"They are too!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 373 =====