Chapter 1092: Questioning the Corpse

The exact location, and what happened?

After confirming that the information from this Second Level individual was related to the Zombie Emperor, Lin An directly asked.

He also didn't expect that the Zombie Emperor's clues were not among the zombies, but rather related to a human cult.

After swallowing hard, the burly Second Level man being questioned looked at Lin An's suddenly solemn gaze; even if he was dense, he realized his earlier words might be useful to the other party.

He forcibly suppressed his shock in his heart, stammering:

"Are you asking about that man-eating gathering place?"

"I've had contact with them, but.."

"But you have to promise me, after I finish speaking I'll help you guys. I know your military has this capability."

"Our demands aren't high; we just need some food, or for you to take us away."

His face was bitter.

"One month's worth of food; in a month, the sweet potatoes we planted should be partially mature. We have Awakened Ones who grow food."

Listening to the other party discuss demands, Lin An's brows furrowed slightly. A faint killing intent flashed in his heart and was quickly suppressed.

It hasn't come to that point yet..

"One month's worth of food is impossible."

"Two million mouths mean at least nearly ten thousand tons of grain."

He replied lightly.

He directly ignored the sweet potatoes mentioned by the other party. Sweet potatoes are not bad, easy to grow and high-yielding. But only when they are harvested do people desperately realize they cannot be eaten at all; otherwise there would not have been a food crisis.

Regarding Green Mountain's predicament, even if Lin An had previously considered bringing them under his wing, he actually never thought of directly feeding so many people.

The biggest problem of the Green Mountain Safe Zone is having consumption without production.

To be frank, cramming so many people into such a small place is itself a mistake. Put bluntly, the two million survivors are almost all 'useless'.

Take Faction: Long An as an example; actually, its food supplies are not abundant either.

But thanks to ample spiritual energy reserves and high node levels, just absorbing spiritual energy can reduce some food consumption. Combined with system tasks and outgoing resource gathering, that's how they manage to survive.

In the Apocalypse, hoping to survive by just eating without working is a dead end; even a powerful safe zone cannot support that many people.

Turning the population into Awakened Ones, who then obtain food through tasks, dungeons, and various means to support the safe zone—this is the only way to survive!

"You're unwilling!? Half a month, half a month would also work!"

Seeing Lin An directly refuse, several people were shocked and thought they had asked for too much.

"I'll give you a Third Level node, but the condition is that you later merge into the Military Region."

"With a node providing spiritual energy, food consumption will drop significantly. Besides that, I can first allocate some food."

The utmost concession.

If it weren't for seeing that the other party genuinely wants more people to survive, given his personality he would have already taken action.

His face turned grim.

Allocating some food? A Third Level node? They didn't grasp how significant a node's meaning was. After all, the nodes they occupied were only Second Level, normally just slightly speeding up spiritual energy recovery. In their view, Lin An's conditions were practically nothing.

However, just as several people were about to speak again, Zhang Qiankun, who had remained silent, suddenly stopped his subordinates.

"Colonel Ye, thank you for your help."

"Really sorry, my few subordinates aren't very sensible. Please don't take it to heart."

Unlike what the others thought, the youth suddenly realized the value of Lin An's proposal upon hearing it. Especially, he picked up on Lin An's implied meaning.

Ten days... merging... swapping spiritual energy nodes...

Isn't this just letting us join the military? As long as we join, will the military still not care about our life or death?

After figuring this out, he simply stopped beating around the bush:

"Colonel Ye, the gathering place my brothers just mentioned, its nearest outpost is actually a breeding base to the west."

"There are wind turbines and a small river there; the conditions are still quite good. Initially we had thought about exchanging supplies with them."

"But after contacting them, we discovered those people are outright lunatics! Besides eating people, they also go around capturing survivors!"

"Inside there are a few Awakened Ones who are relatively strong, so afterward we didn't dare to contact them."

Listening to Zhang Qiankun speak while marking the location on the map, Lin An nodded without changing his expression.

Man-eating and capturing? Zombie Emperor?

Although the youth didn't realize the other party was a cult, Lin An knew.

Under such a strange combination, Lin An quickly conjured an image in his mind.

Devout humans knelt on the ground, with a humanoid Zombie Emperor above their heads.

After offering their own kind as sacrifices, that mutant sat enthroned on the divine seat, greedily enjoying the 'feast'.

Belief in the Zombie Emperor... worshiping a mutant as a deity?

The clues connected.

Although it seems somewhat far-fetched, there is a considerable possibility.

After taking the map drawn by the youth, Lin An didn't waste time, directly instructing Yun Tian to stay behind and handle the aftermath.

Green Mountain Pass.

An hour later, Lin An concealed his form and brought Xiong Hanzi to the gathering place mentioned by the youth.

Uncertain whether the Zombie Emperor was present, Lin An chose not to fly, lest he startle the snake.

Seeing that the mountainous entrance was indeed excellent, he simply concealed the two of their presences and observed carefully.

Not far from the entrance, there were obvious fortifications.

Several tall watchtowers were built on either side, with sentries on the towers aiming sniper rifles outward.

On the muddy ground, tangled wheel tracks and footprints stretched all the way into the valley. Clearly, people here frequently go in and out of the outside world.

Looks like there's nothing special.

But Lin An keenly detected the abnormality.

There were no basic city walls; instead, many caltrops were scattered on the ground. Normally, guards on duty would let Awakened Ones with ranged abilities hold crossbows or bows, so as not to make too much noise when shooting wandering zombies.

But here it's different; all the defensive arrangements here seem aimed at humans. It seems there's no intention to guard against zombies.

"Lin Dui? What should we do?"

Under the compass illusion, Xiong Hanzi licked his lips and made a throat-slitting motion.

He pondered briefly.

After a moment, Lin An nodded slightly; his form instantly dissolved into the air and vanished on the spot.

On the watchtower, the guard who should have been keeping watch knelt on the ground, hands clasped as if silently praying for something.

"May the Lord's grace be upon you; I hope you grant me..."

He hadn't finished speaking.

Without his noticing, a black shadow suddenly emerged from the shadow behind him.

The next second.

"Pfft!"

"Pfft!"

Two consecutive soft bursting sounds.

Having crushed their hearts, Lin An, appearing like a ghost, expressionlessly slowly pulled his arms out of their chests.

Killing.

Questioning the corpse.

"Your 'god,' who is it?"