Chapter 1089: Food

"Leader..."

"The statistics have been counted."

"We have about six thousand Awakened Ones, and we can scrape together 1470 pieces of White Equipment. There are 9 pieces of Blue Equipment, though that includes the one you're wearing."

"As for the remaining mutant materials, we do have some—about ten thousand or so—but most of them are First Level, and they still can't be made into weapons or armor."

"Anything useful, we've already put to use."

"However, after searching, we found over seventy cigarettes and over a hundred bottles of baijiu. They could probably be exchanged for some food."

"Hearing the subordinate report the numbers, the youth silently nodded, letting out a quiet sigh."

"These things are their Safe Zone's last valuable supplies."

"With over six thousand Awakened Ones, on average only one in six has equipment. Of course, if we count weapons it might be a bit better. Roughly one in three has a piece of White Equipment."

"One pack of cigarettes can be exchanged for ten catties of grain; coarse cornmeal should fetch twenty catties.."

"These cigarettes and alcohol together should be worth about eight tons."

"White Equipment is worth grain, but theirs are the most ordinary kind; each piece is worth about seven to eight hundred kilograms. Selling them all could fetch about eleven hundred tons.."

"Blue Equipment is better; if we only keep weapons for ourselves, the nine pieces of equipment are worth about three hundred tons."

"If only we had Spirit Energy Fruit... I've heard that thing is extremely precious; one fruit can be exchanged for six cartloads of grain. At the very least, that's fifty or sixty tons."

"He shook his head, not daring to hope to find such a thing inside the Safe Zone; from the Apocalypse to now, he's only seen it on the trading channel."

"I don't know why that stuff is so expensive—what kind of person would be willing to eat it..."

"No longer dwelling on it, the youth quickly calculated how much food he could obtain through trade."

"Including the materials... subtracting the system's transaction fees..."

"1700 tons..."

"After arriving at the result, he fell silent for a moment, feeling utterly helpless."

"I don't know why, but lately food prices have been rising, as if food is scarce everywhere."

"This number looks large; for one person it could feed them for ten lifetimes. But spread across the Safe Zone's over two million mouths..."

"Even if each person only drinks a bowl of porridge a day, that's a hundred per person per day; ten thousand people would consume one ton of grain per day."

"1700 tons would last everyone about seven days..."

"At most ten days, the entire Safe Zone will run completely out of ammunition and food, with no food source whatsoever."

"What should I... do?"

"His gaze vacant, though he's only in his twenties, he feels a burden weighing tens of thousands of pounds on his shoulders."

"Before the Apocalypse, he was merely a delivery boy; he never imagined he'd become the leader of millions, bearing such great responsibility."

"He merely, after becoming an Awakened One, rescued some here and brought back some there. As time passed, everyone thought he was a good person, a trustworthy boss."

"People kept increasing, more and more. The gathering place began to turn, like a snowball, into the survivors' hope."

"But in reality, only he knows that he's just an insignificant figure, an ordinary person who did what he could."

"\"Leader? Leader? \""

"In the oppressive atmosphere, the subordinates inside couldn't help but softly call their boss."

"As those who know the true situation of the Safe Zone, they couldn't help but whisper their advice:"

"\"Boss, why don't we just run away? \""

"\"Take a few Second Levels with us, and we won't have to worry about this! With your strength, wherever we go we'll be living high on the hog! \""

"\"Leave Blue Sea, leave this damned place! \""

"\"We're few in number; we can definitely escape! \""

"\"Yeah! Boss! \""

"Among them, not a few Awakened Ones who have followed him since before the Apocalypse couldn't help but point to the bowl of noodles on his desk:"

"\"Boss! You're at least a Second Level! Look what we eat every day! \""

"\"Fighting for survival out there, even eating a piece of meat is hard! Have you seen what the leaders of other Safe Zones live like!? Why must we suffer this! \""

"\"Once you return from the trial and become a Third Level, in this Huaxia War Zone there's nowhere we can't go! Joining the military for a minor post would be no problem! \""

"Their voices excited, back when they were surviving in the city they could still pry open a mall, and with decent strength they got by fairly comfortably."

"Since establishing the Safe Zone, every portion of food must be saved; even those not fighting outdoors can't eat their fill! The entire base relies on a single Second Level core for supply!"

"Putting it bluntly, this place isn't a Safe Zone at all—it's a refugee camp!"

"\"Run? Leave this? \""

"The youth lifted his head to look at his comrades who have fought alongside him; his eyes were full of conflict."

"He had thought about this, thought about abandoning this responsibility. But each time the idea arose, he seemed to see the faces of those who believed in him."

"If he led the Awakened Ones to flee, this place would turn into a hell on earth in the next second."

"He dared not imagine that terrifying scene."

"Here, people would eat people. Those who couldn't escape could only wait for death."

"\"Boom!! \""

"Just as he was about to speak, a sudden sonic boom came from far away, approaching rapidly from high above."

"What the hell!?"

"Zhang Qiankun shot to his feet, leading his subordinates straight out the door."

"The massive warplane descended slowly, spewing high-speed airflow that kicked up a cloud of dust and smoke on the ground."

"Like a visitor from beyond the heavens."

"Under the night sky, Qing Mountain Town welcomed its first outside visitors for the first time."

"The crowd panicked; countless Awakened Ones stared in shock at the distant Spirit Energy Fighter slowly descending."

Holy shit...

Lin Dui... Have we come to the zombie's lair?

On the fighter jet, Xiong Hanzi gulped, staring in disbelief at the scene before him.

At high altitude he couldn't see clearly, still thinking the black dots on the ground were rocks; after descending, he suddenly realized that the area marked as Green Mountain Safe Zone was actually a patchwork of huts.

It's hard to imagine, dozens of dung and garbage piles as high as mountains surround the Safe Zone; on just a few square kilometers of land, survivors are packed tightly.

People step on people, people squeeze people.

He even saw seven or eight people 'asleep' on a single rope; these survivors with nowhere to rest pressed their chests against the rope like livestock, half-standing as they slept.

On the few buildings within the Safe Zone, from rooftop to entrance, from wall corners to windows, every usable spot was made into simple shelters with wood and plastic.

From a distance, it looked like a beehive, covered with people.

Sewage flooded the streets; crowds that hadn't bathed in ages were like rats in the sewers, each person covered in black grime, their greasy hair full of white dandruff, looking utterly disgusting.

Sallow-faced and emaciated, packed into a human wall, the endless crowd of survivors just stared at them.

If it weren't for the slight rise and fall of their chests as they breathed, Zhang Tie would have thought he was looking at zombies.

For some reason, he seemed to see only one thing in the eyes of those survivors.

That was...

Hunger.