Chapter 386: Outer City District

Perhaps Lin Xian would never have thought that after the apocalypse, he would need to rely on sneaking in to enter this largest human main city in the Asia-Pacific.

The group had solemn expressions. The 'Swordfish' transport ship docked in a ruined street far from the suburbs of Dawn City. Dozens of zombies were attracted by the movement and gathered around, howling. The cabin door opened at this moment, but no figures moved inside. A sharp metallic light flashed out silently, cutting a patch of zombies to pieces in an instant. Immediately, those metallic lights retracted, and a purple-haired girl with twin tails flew out with psychic fluctuations surging all over her body. Countless sharp blades rushed back to her side, overlapping neatly.

At this time, Lin Xian stepped off the transport ship quickly. Although this was more than twenty kilometers away from Dawn City's Wall No. 1, the place where they docked was already in the outer suburbs of the dense urban area. Looking up, the dark and ruined city stretched like a sea, and in the distance of his vision was a huge high wall like a giant lying between heaven and earth. The hundred-meter-high giant wall was like an industrial wonder, surrounding the large Dawn City. Tonight, under the sparse moonlight, one could vaguely see the black silhouette of the Twin Star Towers.

"Buildings over 100 meters won't have lights on, so outside, you can basically only see the city wall."

Jian Xuwei walked out from Lin Xian's side and said.

"Is building such a high city wall really useful?" Kiki asked at this moment.

"It will still be of some use." Mo Nika smiled lightly at this moment, stood next to Lin Xian, looked at him, and said with implication: "In the Battle of Xilan City, if it weren't for the defense of the industrial city wall, we wouldn't have been able to hold on for two nights."

Lin Xian nodded: "Yes, this wall is not prepared for S-class. If it weren't for the Abyss Worm, it wouldn't be so easy for ordinary A-class or special-class to break in. Dawn City's firepower is a hundred times stronger than Xilan City's."

"It's just a pity, it's all city walls and underground cities, yet you can't see a glimmer of hope."

Qian Dele said with a serious expression: "Chairman Jian, we are stopping here, are we preparing to walk directly into Dawn City?"

Jian Xuwei said nothing, looking at the dark street ahead with a cold gaze.

"Everyone be careful, there are many targets approaching ahead." Lu Xingchen hadn't stretched his muscles for a long time. Following Lin Xian to Dawn City this time, coupled with the previous information, gave him a sense of solemnity that a great task had fallen upon him. His eyes flickered with sparks, as if he had already detected the movement in the distance.

"Not strange entity monsters, it's people," Shizhi said hurriedly at this moment: "A lot of people."

Lin Xian's gaze became stern. At this moment, a roaring sound gradually approached from far to near, firelight erupted everywhere, and engines roared. He saw that in the dilapidated dark street ahead, a well-armed fleet was driving at high speed. The zombies and abandoned vehicles on the street were knocked away by a locomotive like an all-terrain train, followed by more than a dozen heavy trucks and special vehicles of various modifications.

However, in Lin Xian's view, this fleet was actually quite strange. Because although those vehicles were all fitted with various pieced-together steel plates, wild graffiti, and various rainproof cloths on the outside, looking like a very doomsday-style fleet, the strange thing was that Lin Xian noticed at a glance that the configuration of those vehicles was much higher than it looked on the surface. I don't know if it was because they were worried about alerting the enemy, but this fleet didn't use any weapons, just drove in all the way like this.

Jian Xuwei walked forward at this moment and immediately raised her hand to stop everyone's defensive posture: "It's our people, don't worry."

Hearing this, Huo Ge and the others restrained their fighting spirit a bit. As the fleet rushed over mightily and stopped a hundred meters in front of the transport ship, the flashing headlights dazzled Lin Xian's group. At this time, the car doors opened one after another, and a group of people gathered together and walked toward Lin Xian's side.

This group of people's equipment was also extremely high-end, almost all of them were Ghost Wolf or Iron Hunter-class power armor, and the weapons in their hands had considerable power. Lin Xian watched the group walk over. The leader walked quickly to Jian Xuwei, the power armor helmet opened, and a slightly young but troubled face appeared before his eyes.

Lin Xian recognized him. This person was Jian Xuwei's younger brother, Jian Zeyang. When they were at the Yubei Airport before, Lin Xian had had contact with him.

"Sister, everything is ready!"

Jian Xuwei nodded. She looked back at Lin Xian: "Zeyang has been arranged by me to operate in the outer city area of Dawn City. On one hand, it is convenient to pass information, and on the other hand, there are many survivors here, so a lot of power can be accumulated."

Lin Xian said in surprise: "I thought your brother was controlled by Zhou Mingyuan?"

"That's not the case. My forced cooperation was mainly considering the overall situation. The Fenger Group's assets and team personnel are too extensive, and in many aspects, I really need to borrow the power of Dawn City."

Jian Zeyang's eyes brightened when he saw Lin Xian at this moment, then he walked over in a stride, wiped his hands, and reached out to Lin Xian.

"Lin Dui, long time no see. I haven't thanked you for your help in Yubei City. I have a foul mouth, and my attitude toward you before was a bit bad, don't take it to heart."

Lin Xian was a bit surprised to hear this. It seemed like Jian Zeyang had become a different person after a period of time. He was much more weathered, lost the arrogance he had before, and gained a bit more composure.

"I don't remember you offending me. In that situation, anyone would have doubts." Lin Xian reached out and shook hands with him. Who knew that Jian Zeyang's eyes were eager, and he kept saying: "No, it's mainly because I didn't know you were so powerful, Lin Dui. I've heard about the Xilan City incident, super-large mechs, first kill of an S-class, awesome, awesome." He grinned, and his words actually showed great admiration for Lin Xian.

"Zeyang likes researching mechanical mechs. Ever since you pulled our thousands of vehicles into high-altitude orbit with a gas turbine, he has always admired you," Jian Xuwei said.

"Sister." Jian Zeyang coughed dryly, a bit embarrassed, so he hurriedly changed the subject and said seriously:

"Lin Dui, I have already arranged the way into the city. Now the intensity of city defense patrols is getting higher and higher, so we must hurry, otherwise it won't be easy to get away if we are discovered."

Lin Xian nodded and said immediately: "Alright, let's go."

Jian Zeyang greeted a subordinate behind him at this moment, arranging for him to handle the transport ship. At the same time, Lin Xian's group boarded the all-terrain train, and the fleet quickly turned direction and drove at high speed toward Dawn City.

"Zhou Mingyuan has arranged for a city-wide martial law. An A-class strange entity appeared in the west of the city. The Garrison Army fought for several hours and caused quite a few strange entity tides, which were just put out. This is the 5th A-class strange entity attack on the main city in the last 48 hours. I don't know the reason, but now many people are linking these to the Deep Red World and the Star Abyss's movements."

On the action train, Jian Zeyang was quickly synchronizing the situation in the city with Lin Xian's team.

"How did the strange entity in the west of the city link to the movement of Star Abyss No. 5?" Qian Dele asked at this moment.

"Not Star Abyss No. 5, it's Star Abyss No. 8!" Jian Zeyang said immediately: "Star Abyss No. 8's expansion is accelerating. The entire Funing area and half of Liaohai are already gone. Now the polar night zone is approaching Tianwei. According to information from the outpost there, large S-class entities have been observed in the polar night zone, but no one has encountered them, because they are in the sky, and some people thought they saw illusions."

Lin Xian frowned upon hearing this: "Tianwei, the straight-line distance to Star Abyss No. 8 is not much closer than Yongcheng Port, right?"

"Right," Jian Xuwei said at this moment: "By time, the difference in entering the polar night will not exceed one week."

"And then there is the fact that the number of teams leaving the city is increasing, which has already caused some chain reactions. Then Zhou Mingyuan and the Population Control Bureau found an excuse to ban leaving the city after dark. So now Dawn City looks calm, but in fact, many people want to leave," Jian Zeyang said.

"The Federation is colluding with the Deep Red World, no one wants to gamble," Qian Dele said leisurely.

"That's just one reason," Jian Zeyang turned back and said: "Actually, many large fleets don't want to stay in Dawn City for a long time, mainly because of the approach of the polar night. Everyone wants to run toward the dawn. Only small fleets and ordinary survivors have no choice, so they can only rely on high walls and underground cities to relieve the pressure of panic. Most people can't enter the underground city, let alone the underground city, it's very difficult to even enter within the high walls."

"Dawn City is so big, taking in these people shouldn't be a difficult thing, right?" Lin Xian said sternly: "It's nothing more than a scarcity of resources."

Jian Zeyang nodded: "Yes, water, food, including medical care, hygiene, these are all limited. And the denser the people, once a chain reaction of mutation occurs, the casualties will spread even more. During the time we've been in Dawn City, the night mutation crisis breaks out every night. Dying dozens of people is considered a peaceful night. And 80% of large-scale mutations occur in the outer city area outside Wall No. 1."

"Then in that case, Dawn City is actually safe inside?" Kiki said at this moment.

"By comparison, yes," Jian Xuwei said: "With Wall No. 1, there are no zombies or strange entities in the city. The only threat is the dark invasion."

"And Red Man Ghosts," Jian Zeyang added: "But it is indeed safe inside. There is commerce, entertainment, and even ability duels, underground boxing rings, and even black markets. Some large fleets come here for the purpose of strengthening themselves, so recruiting powerful ability users is public, it just depends on who offers the highest price."

"The Federation itself is also recruiting, right?" Lin Xian asked at this moment.

"Yes," Jian Zeyang said: "The Federation's recruitment is the most powerful. They are even snatching people internally, mainly for the Seraphim and the Night Patrol. After all, the factions are different. For this reason, Zhou Mingyuan even created a 'Light of Human Evolution' ranking. Anyone who makes the list, besides obtaining permanent residency in Dawn City's Underground City, can also get a large amount of prize money."

Lin Xian frowned upon hearing this: "Ranking? That's a good way."

"Indeed, so the Federation side has also recruited many powerful ability users to join."

"Destruction-class?" Kiki asked.

"More than that," Jian Zeyang said: "After killing that S-class last time, several powerful ones on the evolution list have already grown to Angel-class."

"That's 10,000 ability peak value?" "That's right!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Kiki, Huo Ge, Qian Dele, and others all changed their expressions. Speaking of which, from the ability detection in Xilan City until now, they had been in constant crisis along the way and hadn't paid much attention to their ability growth. Lin Xian also didn't know what the ability peak values of several people had reached now.

After all, when they were in the Star Abyss, those crises didn't seem to be solvable by abilities.

*Buzz buzz. *

At this time, as the fleet moved forward, the surrounding sounds gradually became noisy, and gunshots rang through the sky from time to time.

Lin Xian and the others opened the blackout panels. Instantly, a scene like a disaster apocalypse appeared before their eyes. As the fleet gradually drove toward the city wall, a large number of fleet camps appeared on the streets of the dilapidated city outside. From sparse to dense, countless tents, steel-framed machine gun towers, and vehicles of all sizes occupied all the open spaces in the city, leaving only the main road heading vertically to Dawn City clear.

The propaganda slogans and alarms of helicopters, drones, and patrol mechs rang out in the air constantly. All areas were like an endless refugee camp, and the firelight extended to the end of the line of sight.

"Be cautious at night, please check the Soul-Oscillation Value detector at any time, slackness is disaster."

"Warning, the fleet in the G67 Xianglan Street Square camp area, please extinguish all campfires immediately!"

"The Dawn City Night Patrol reminds you that building a safe zone together is everyone's responsibility. Be vigilant, check diligently, prevent highly, and do not miss any dark marks or the occurrence of mutations."

In his line of sight, the fleet camps of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of doomsday survivors combined into a grotesque city scene. Some large, sturdy building structures were occupied by survivors. The rooftops were full of machine guns and sentry towers, and every block was covered with wire walls. Even so, the zombies howling and gunshots echoing in the distance would make it hard for people to sleep.

Seeing this scene, the expressions of Qian Dele and the others all became solemn. This doomsday scene felt even more suffocating than in the Star Abyss. They hadn't even entered Dawn City yet, and it was already a million-refugee-camp-level scene. It was hard to imagine what kind of tragic scene this place would be if it encountered a large-scale monster tide or a large strange entity.

On the buildings along the road, countless survivors' gazes fell on the fleet speeding past. Lin Xian discovered that most of the fleets here had a large proportion of elderly, women, and children, while young adults were relatively few. But whether it was middle-aged women or elderly people with gray hair, they were all fully armed and holding steel guns. Even on the rooftop of a supermarket, patrolling were a dozen children of uneven height but all holding heavy machine guns. The oldest among them probably didn't exceed 15 years old.

Jian Xuwei saw Lin Xian and the others' surprised gazes and said: "Entry regulations, the ratio of combat personnel to family members cannot exceed 1:2. There is no restriction on the age and gender of family members here, but combat effectiveness, that is, the peak value of Soul-Oscillation Value, will be assessed. However, Dawn City does not measure the limit coefficient, which seems very loose. But the peak value of Soul-Oscillation Value for the elderly and children is difficult to grow beyond that of young adults, so in the fleets left outside, the internal members are mostly the old, weak, sick, and disabled."

"Guessed it."

Lin Xian's gaze flickered, his face a bit heavy. At this moment, besides sighing, he didn't know what to say.

From the day of the apocalypse, everyone silently accepted this cruel elimination. Even Lin Xian himself was the same. When he first established the Ring Star Train Project, he also required strong combat power and sufficient resources. At such times, except for family, no one would sympathize with the elderly, women, and children around others. Philanthropic fleets died quickly, and even Shu Qin's fleet lost members all the way until they joined the Infinite, after which the team's survival rate improved.

It was also after the United Train's strength became powerful that Lin Xian's mindset began to change. He accepted the joining of these fleets, including Li Yi's team. In fact, strictly speaking, although children like Mo Xiaotian and Duoduo were sensible and obedient and could help with logistics, they were not of much help to the team. However, Lin Xian's current team allowed him to accept and accommodate these people, rather than just calculating by cruel value.

At this time, the fleet drove into a place like a school. There were more and more armed fleets on the street. Self-made steel plate iron walls, wire nets, fence buildings, and machine gun towers surrounded the entire school tightly. It looked like a large alliance fleet. Just the modified vehicles parked in the open space and playground inside were no less than hundreds, and there was even a row of aircraft. Two small nuclear-powered polar vehicles were parked in front of the teaching building and on the playground respectively to supply power to all camps. Judging from the neatly arranged fleet and internal order, the strength of this fleet was definitely not weak.

"Zeyang, how many people do you have here now?" Jian Xuwei asked just as the fleet drove in from the armored school gate.

"About eight thousand." Jian Zeyang licked his lips, looked in Lin Xian's direction, and said with some pride: "In the past two days, I have successively merged a few more fleets, and their strength is not weak. Now there are very few medium and large fleets coming here, and even if there are, they won't enter the city. Many fleets in the outer city area are expanding in the alliance, all preparing to rush toward the center of the dawn."

"Eight thousand, so many?"

"As long as the restrictions are lifted, eighty thousand is possible," Jian Zeyang said helplessly at this moment: "In Dawn City, the thing least lacking is people. Everyone wants to survive, everyone wants to unite, but a fleet cannot support too many non-combat or low-combat personnel. Even to get blood essence to enter the city, many fleets have to run back, risking their lives to kill strange entities. You tell me, what can be done about this."

"Strictly speaking, it's only been 100 days since Apocalypse Day. 99% of global humans died overnight. Even with existing materials, the remaining 1% can't use them up at all," Mo Nika said loudly at this moment: "It's just a pity that more than 85% of the main cities were lost, and those strategic materials and food were heavily polluted, otherwise they wouldn't be so scarce."

"Yes, and water," Jian Xuwei said: "Now water resources are basically relied on hard resistance, which is why the mutation rate in the outer city area is so high."

"Sister, Lin Dui, we're here."

At this moment, the fleet stopped in the open space behind the school's scientific research teaching building. Lin Xian and the others got off the car. Jian Zeyang led the group into a teaching building that was almost half-collapsed and tilted, walking through the damp and dilapidated corridors.

"The air defense offensive under this school is connected to the maintenance section of the original Star City Ground Track Line 12. We use this channel to enter the city to engage in activities and get materials," Jian Zeyang walked in front with a large flashlight, introducing as he walked.

The group turned from the stairs into a spacious basement, and then, at a hole that had been artificially destroyed, arrived inside an abandoned subway track.

An old-fashioned electric locomotive pulling several subway cars was parked quietly. Those cars seemed to have been simply modified to hold various materials.

"Sister, do you really not need me to go in with you?" Jian Zeyang sent Lin Xian and the others onto the train. The driver was a younger brother of Jian Zeyang's side. He looked at Jian Xuwei getting on the train and couldn't help but ask.

"No need," Lin Xian said at this moment: "Your sister letting you stay outside here is to facilitate supporting us later."

After he finished speaking, he beckoned with one hand, and a burst of electric arcs lit up in the tunnel. This startled everyone. Before they could see what happened, they saw Lin Xian pointing behind Jian Zeyang.

"I'll leave an assistant here, it will be convenient for me to communicate and contact you later."

Jian Zeyang rubbed his eyes fiercely: "When did this thing appear?"

A group of subordinates were also full of horror at this time, all shaking their heads.

Even Kiki and Mo Nika next to Lin Xian were full of confusion. Where did Lin Xian's robot come from, and why did no one notice it along the way?

Only Qian Dele, who was sitting in the corner, witnessed everything with his transcendent speed. At this moment, he looked at Lin Xian, unable to help but smile in surprise.

This guy... did he just open a door to another world?

Without too much explanation, Lin Xian, Jian Xuwei, and the others set off immediately. The subway electric locomotive traveled at high speed in the abandoned track, relying only on the lights of the train head to illuminate the darkness.

"Dawn City people can't possibly not know about this thing driving into the city, right?" Kiki said at this moment.

"Yes, but it doesn't affect anything," Jian Xuwei said blandly: "It's nothing more than a question of price."

She said this while looking at Kiki: "In this apocalypse, everything can be priced. Professional ethics and conscience are the cheapest."

"That's true," hearing this, Qian Dele smiled.

Lin Xian looked back at Shizhi, who had been silent along the way. After meeting Lin Xian's gaze, Shizhi gave a look of innocence, as if saying, do you need me to speak?

No response was received.

Then she slowly moved to one side and hid in Lin Xian's blind spot.

"Let's talk about the plan," Lin Xian said to Jian Xuwei: "Wanting to take down the control of the main control hub shouldn't be too easy, right?"

"That depends on who it is for."

Jian Xuwei looked at Lin Xian: "For you... it should be very simple."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 387 =====

Jian Xuwei looked at Lin Xian: "For you... it should be very simple."

(End of chapter)