Chapter 840: and ===GLOSSARY===

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He flipped through the thick report in front of him; in the silence, Lin An's expression grew even more solemn.

The information on the report was shocking; thus, the squad members who knew part of the inside information dared not speak out to disturb him at this moment.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Facing Lin An's solemn gaze, Chu An slightly shook his head:

"What you've seen, the base situation isn't complicated; the real problems mostly lie around the war zone."

"Many things, before your strength is sufficient, even if I told you, they would only affect your condition for the trial."

"Rather than that, it's better to wait until you return and then speak."

Setting down the report, Lin An gave a slight nod.

Chu An's words he couldn't refute; he just didn't expect that as his strength and 'vision' increased, the corresponding problems would become even more complex.

The two locked eyes, Chu An calmly opened his mouth slowly:

"Lin An, as you've seen. We currently have three main problems."

"1, the base's food and personnel numbers problem."

"2, the spread problem of the three major special-type events, and the preparation for the catastrophe one year later."

"3, near the war zone, even other countries' war zones, the impending huge changes, and their impact on us."

"Besides that, there are several hidden threats that we need to resolve."

"And as the core, you must also quickly increase your strength."

The atmosphere was heavy.

"Your current strength, compared to humans, is temporarily ahead, but facing mutants and various monsters, you should know that the Fourth Rank is far from enough."

Nodding, Lin An signaled Colonel Chu to continue.

"Indeed, after advancing to the Fourth Rank, he only then realized how huge the gap in strength is between each level within the Fourth Rank."

"Not to mention the Fourth Stage. Mutants don't care about reason; their speed of strength increase far surpasses that of humans."

"Upon careful calculation, he actually hasn't formally fought any Fourth Rank opponent."

"The girl in red can only be considered a special Fourth Rank; she does not possess the true combat power of a regular Fourth Rank mutant."

"As for the aberrant giant corpse, that monster wasn't killed by 'himself'."

After a brief pause, Chu An picked up a thick report:

"First is the food problem."

"Based on the base's current reserves, without external resupply, our food would last only 13 days, and that's after sweeping nearby most granaries."

"The population is too large."

"Especially with the launch of the Million Awakened Ones plan, the consumption rate of food far exceeds the replenishment rate."

"One Awakened One's consumption equals at least 4-6 ordinary survivors. To maintain training, this number must double and redouble as strength increases!"

Conservation of energy.

Lin An glanced at Xiong Hanzi, who was smacking his lips even in his sleep, and also knew Chu An's words were true.

"Awakened Ones consume enormous amounts of calories; if they couldn't regain some strength during the absorption of spiritual energy, each Awakened One would be a veritable food monster."

"Should we mobilize the supplies team to scour all resources in the surrounding war zone?"

"I recall there are still many strategic reserves around the Huanjiang area."

"Including cultivated crops.."

As he spoke and thought, Lin An recalled his past life; in his memory, the food problem shouldn't have been too hard to solve, he remembered that even in the late Apocalypse, industrial food could still be found in cities, and he'd heard that some Safe Zones were even raising cockroaches and earthworms.

"Could we also artificially raise earthworms? I recall they have high protein."

Seeing Lin An's thought, Chu An slightly shook his head:

"As for planting crops, that's hard to achieve. We tested beforehand; crops sown in the outside world simply cannot survive. Even if the catastrophe temporarily halted, whether it's spiritual pollution or drastic weather changes, they would deal a devastating blow to ordinary crops."

"As for relying on material searches to sustain.."

"It's meaningless."

His expression turned serious; Chu An quickly produced a white sheet, drawing circles of various sizes and data.

"Lin An, you might have overlooked something."

"That is, the reward you obtained this time has a negative impact on the entire Huaxia war zone."

"Huh? Negative?"

Lin An blinked slightly, then he heard Chu An explain rapidly:

"The number of survivors... is too many!"

"Lin An, the reward you obtained this time, whether it's the halt of the catastrophe or the all-attribute increase, undoubtedly greatly raises ordinary people's survival odds."

"Critical point effect!"

"Even now in the Apocalypse, over 60% of survivors are stuck at the boundary between ordinary people and Awakened Ones; the appearance of the reward has broken this boundary!"

"This means that the number of Awakened Ones will skyrocket over this insignificant 1 point!"

"A large number of survivors who should have died in the zombies' mouths will not die; instead, due to mass enhancement, they will begin to acquire food on a large scale that they previously could not obtain."

"Previously, even 1000 people dying couldn't kill a mutant; now 100 people can do it."

"Malls, cities, granaries.. people will swarm like locusts, clearing out everything they can see!"

"Under the advantage-accumulation cycle, this mere 1-point reward is enough to let survivors numbered in the hundreds of millions survive!"

Large amounts of data and formula derivations.

After a dozen seconds, Chu An slowly pushed the final conclusion before Lin An.

According to the drill, the food in Wangjiang Three Provinces will be completely exhausted within two months without production.

Note, it's any type of food reserve!

As for the Huaxia war zone, even if we return to before the Apocalypse, any grain reserves can be found, with no loss or contamination...

In about three months, the entire Huaxia war zone will have eaten the last grain.

Meanwhile, the war zone will gain an additional over 400 million, whose food consumption equals that of at least 2 billion Awakened Ones!

He spoke, word by word.

Chu An lightly tapped the numbers on the report and sighed:

This is an irreversible disaster...

In fact, by the second month, the various war zones will start fighting each other; people will eat everything they can find.

Especially when there are many Awakened Ones and everyone has a 'gun', the largest-scale 'war' in human history will break out...

Looking at that shocking report, Gao Tian and the others were all stunned and wanted to say something.

Then according to what you say, Lin Dui is not doing good deeds but causing bad outcomes!? We shouldn't have taken first place!

In disbelief at the retort, they had considered the food problem, but never imagined it would be this severe.

Facing the shock of Gao Tian and the others, Chu An merely shook his head slightly:

The Apocalypse was originally a cruel selection, survival of the fittest.

You should be well aware of a principle.

For example, before the Apocalypse, if global food supply decreased by 10%, the result would not be that everyone could only eat 90% full.

But would cause the death of 10% of the global population, or even more.

One cannot say that Lin An's reward is actually a bad thing; one can only say that everything has two sides.

If we can solve this problem, a large number of people will survive, undoubtedly enabling us to better face future disasters.

But on the contrary, if we handle it poorly, we will all be dragged down.

Though not spoken aloud, everyone's mind conjured an image.

In the face of famine, humanity's performance will be only more terrifying than zombies.

That is the most terrifying description in the countless famines of human history.

Years of great famine, eating each other's children.