Chapter 1088

Qinghai

On the repaired spirit-energy fighter, Lin An looked at the map on the table, his brows furrowed tightly.

After staying at the base for half a day, he directly took Zhang Tie and Yun Tian to Qinghai. Along the way, he didn't even get to see AnXia.

However, from what An Jing Tian said, AnXia and the Red-Clothed Mutant actually had company, the two often going out to 'play' with zombies.

Not bringing Mo Ling was purely because the enemy was the Zombie Emperor; Mo Ling might not be able to seize control of the zombies from him.

Besides, the series of tasks for the newly built Safe Zone also required manpower, so Lin An simply had Mo Ling cooperate with the main force.

No choice.

The matter of the Zombie Emperor is too important; not only is the threat high, but it also concerns subsequent missions. After much consideration, Lin An still decided to give it the highest priority.

"It's about a 9-hour journey to the Qinghai war zone."

"If nothing unexpected happens, we should be able to arrive by tomorrow dawn."

"But the problem is, where is the Zombie Emperor?"

Looking at Qinghai beside the Heaven's Secret war zone, Lin An's gaze was thoughtful; he could only continuously speculate based on the available information.

Qinghai, East Three, and the two major war zones—one west, one east—without having been to Qinghai, Lin An also couldn't use a teleport command to go directly there.

According to the available information, before the Apocalypse outbreak, Qinghai had a large population and was an important province of the second major western development. However, due to its large population, after the Apocalypse the Qinghai war zone established very few Military Regions, so the number of survivors in the entire war zone is actually quite low.

That's the reason.

Many zombies, few people, lacking heavy industry and weapon equipment.

To the upper left is the scarcely inhabited Xijiang; to the lower left is the plateau-located Tiancang; directly below are two great circumfluent rivers that are hard to cross; to the right and above lies the Jizhou war zone of towering mountains and steep ridges. One can say that both the geographical and living conditions have become extremely harsh.

Within the entire war zone, survivors had nowhere to flee; under the overwhelming zombie horde, not even a few Safe Zones were established. Moreover, being outside the core of the Huaxia war zone, even calling for help was impossible.

"Huff...."

Lin An kept flipping through the information organized by the Long An Intelligence Department, only feeling it somewhat troublesome.

Qinghai survivors rarely appear in the war zone channel. On one hand, survival pressure is too great; on the other hand, there really isn't much to say.

Survivors from other war zones often post about Special Events occurring at certain locations in the war zone, or suspect that certain points have equipment and dungeon missions. But for Qinghai war zone survivors, their information is always just the two words 'call for help'.

Either they are surrounded by a zombie tide, or a zombie tide has moved over them. The survivors of the entire war zone often dare not leave the Safe Zone, fearing that going out to scavenge supplies will attract a zombie tide. Thus, unable to explore, they naturally cannot find anything.

After too many pleas for help went unanswered, they simply stayed silent to conserve energy.

"Lin Dui, which Safe Zone in Qinghai should we go to? Or should we fly around? Let's see where there are more zombies."

Without Mo Ling to scold him, Zhang Tie propped his feet up, took over two seats, and contentedly ate his canned food.

"How about the Qing Shan Safe Zone?"

"Flying around isn't realistic; the entire Qinghai war zone is even larger than Korea. By the time we find the Zombie Emperor, that monster will already have reached the Fourth Stage."

Lin An didn't even think before rejecting Zhang Tie's suggestion.

Looking for large zombie hordes from the air seems reliable, but the problem is how they would know which horde is commanded by the Zombie Emperor? Moreover, unlike other war zones that only have a few large hordes, Qinghai has no shortage of zombies! It's as easy as finding a sheep in a city, but try doing that on a vast plain.

"Hehe, I was just saying."

"Hey, I don't know where Colonel Chu ran off to. That pervert said he wanted to build a satellite, but the base ended up taking it from him—damn it, he just ran away!"

"If we had a satellite, it would probably be much easier to find."

Hearing Xiong Hanzi's complaint, a hint of helplessness also flashed in Lin An's eyes.

Indeed, after the satellite is launched, relying on positioning and reconnaissance, it might not be impossible to find the Zombie Emperor's trail. Moreover, he originally also planned to discuss the Soviet war zone in detail with Chu An. He didn't expect this guy to not reply to messages, as if he had disappeared.

No choice, he could only entrust the spatial command to Wen Ya for safekeeping, to return it to Chu An when he comes back.

"After we arrive at the Qing Shan Safe Zone, it'll be the same as usual. We three will pose as military representatives and ask them if they've recently noticed anything abnormal."

After a moment's thought, Lin An still decided to start from the local survivors, and have the forces covertly controlled by Long An release purchase inquiries to see if any clues could be found.

The Zombie Emperor couldn't have appeared out of thin air; as one of the most terrifying mutants of the Apocalypse, there should have been survivors who encountered it.

As for his whereabouts, Lin An still intended to keep them hidden.

If, in the battle against the Zombie Emperor, he were to be pursued and killed by alien species, then no matter how strong he is, he would meet his end there.

Qing Shan Safe Zone.

Inside the Industrial and Commercial Courtyard, a Second Level Awakened One gazed grimly at the report handed up by his subordinate.

The kerosene lamp swayed, casting light on the numbers on the paper that were shocking to behold.

"Chief, our food is insufficient again."

"The grain depot we occupied last time has almost been eaten up; even the sprouted wheat soaked in water has been finished. Many people who ate that batch of grain later had sprouts growing out of their noses after death..."

Hearing the report that sounded like a joke, the youth called Chief had a bitter expression; he really couldn't laugh.

Indeed, he is the strongest of the Qing Shan Safe Zone, a Second Level peak Awakened One.

Unlike the leaders of other Safe Zones, who are at least Third Stage, among the Awakened Ones of the Qing Shan war zone there is only one Third Stage. If the war zone's strength were ranked, they would certainly be the bottommost.

"Can the fish in the reservoir be eaten? Weren't a batch of fry found earlier? How big have they grown now?"

Zhang Qiankun covered the numbers on the paper, sighed, and looked at his subordinates with hope.

The Qing Shan Safe Zone is called a Safe Zone, but in reality it's only a gathering place. Although the number of survivors taken in throughout the Safe Zone is sufficient, it lacks any decent defensive fortifications. Had it not been built in a remote town surrounded by mountains, they would have long been trampled flat by the zombie tide.

"Chief... although everything grows fast after the Apocalypse, but those fry were only put in a little over a month ago..."

The Awakened One responsible for reporting gave a wry smile; he also knew that his boss asked this only because he truly had no other option.

It's hard to imagine that in the Safe Zone they built, on just six square kilometers of land, they accommodate 2.2 million people. Except for the area centered on the former county party building, which is relatively spacious and used for Awakened Ones to reside, the rest is just a contiguous refugee camp.

Just like fish fry in a bottle, their living conditions are extremely harsh to the point of extremity.

Seeing that the fish in the reservoir were inedible, Zhang Qiankun fell silent for a moment, then hesitated to speak:

"Then how much do we still have that we can sell?"

"If there's really no other way, we can only sell things in exchange for food..."

Like being driven to a dead end, the youth glanced at his equipment, as if making up his mind. The food for over three million people is consumed in astronomical amounts each day. Previously the county had a large grain depot that held out for quite a while. Ordinarily, they could also organize teams to go to nearby villages to scavenge for food.

But as the corpse tide kept moving, they hardly dared to go outside anymore.

With consumption and no replenishment, the food shortage had already reached a critical point.

If it weren't for everyone periodically receiving system tasks and exchanging them for a steamed bun and a bottle of water, large-scale starvation would have already begun.

But even so, many people have already begun, in secret, to consider using the corpses—or rather, they have already started.

His body shuddered violently, and the several Awakened Ones in the hall instinctively looked toward the youth. They knew their leader's plan.

Sell things? What resources do they have left to sell? Aside from the life-saving equipment on their persons, what else is valuable?

"Sir, sell the equipment! Once the mutants come to kill us, we'll just be waiting to die!"

"Even if we step back ten thousand steps, there will be no day we can escape."

Hearing his subordinate's excited tone, the youth's face grew bitter, but he firmly repeated the past:

"Let's tally up and see how much equipment we can still gather."

"Weapons need not be sold; count everything else."

Not selling..

What can we do if we don't sell? He couldn't just watch the ordinary people following him starve to death.

Once chaos erupts here, it will be hell.