Chapter 966: Dead Hand System

Above the high altitude, sharp, whistling fighter jets burst out, speeding through the cloud layers.

At noon, under the fierce sun, the aircraft's paint reflected a piercing light, like a sword that patrols the heavens.

"Captain Lin, are we just leaving like that? Abandoning that little girl alone—can we? What are we having for lunch..."

Inside the cabin, Zhang Tie smacked his lips, his big hands like palm fans constantly rummaging in the fridge for ingredients, ready to show off his skills.

It was already approaching noon, and with his energy consumption, he was already hungry.

He asked that, but the few people inside the aircraft didn't pay much attention to it.

"Whatever."

"Yuan Feng will be out soon."

Lin An slightly opened his eyes, answered casually, then once again focused his thoughts on the power of catastrophe.

He was unwilling to waste even a single minute or second.

Under the use of catastrophe power, every minute and second, his strength kept increasing.

The matters of Heiyu and Yingshan were settled; the next step was to speed to the satellite launch base.

Although he didn't know why Chu An valued satellite matters so much, after working together for so long, Lin An also knew that whatever Chu An wanted to do was usually important.

He was using his mind in two ways.

Lin An silently endured the pain of muscle tissue tearing and reorganizing, while distractedly checking the map around the satellite base.

On the battle zone map compiled from a large amount of information, dense dots of various colors were marked.

Black indicated safe zones, red marked places where third‑rank mutants appeared, and blue indicated locations where high‑quality equipment might have appeared.

The whole map clearly divided the situation around the satellite base into clear sections.

Thirteen third‑rank mutants, six safe zones, thirty‑three large gathering places, over four hundred medium gathering places...

Looking at the red dots scattered far from the major safe zones, Lin An's eyes flickered as he silently calculated the optimal route.

The satellite base lies in the plains of Dongshan Province, belonging to the "wilderness" far from urban areas.

Around it, aside from a supporting industrial park and a small military region nearby, there is hardly any population.

Vast land, few people, rarely visited.

Accordingly, the numbers of mutants and zombies are also low.

Going straight, one could pass two third‑rank mutants, one safe zone, and four large gathering places along the way.

He didn't care about the latter, nor did he intend to waste time checking it out.

After all, in the coming time, his movements needed to be highly secret, minimizing contact with survivors as much as possible.

The former—hunting mutants to level up—was exactly what he needed.

His only worry was that the mutants marked at those spots might not stay in place.

Just like Fang Hai's safe zone, sometimes third‑rank mutants are drawn away by humans and leave their strongholds directly.

After a moment's thought, Lin An quickly marked a semi‑arc on the map and then decided on the route.

Avoid safe zones and gathering places.

Along the way, if he could bump into a third‑rank mutant discovered by survivors, he would kill it; if not, he would head straight to the satellite base.

As the satellite base with the sparsest population, according to the intelligence compiled by Long An, not only was information scarce, but after a comprehensive assessment, Long An gave it a danger rating.

The reason is simple.

Under Chu An's arrangement, intelligence gathering on the satellite base began two months ago.

However, neither the battle‑zone channel nor the nearby small military region had any news about the satellite base leaking out.

It was like a blank space, with no one alive there.

This is obviously abnormal.

Even if only a few people remained inside the satellite base, they were researchers who would have struggled to survive at the start of the apocalypse.

But there was a specially stationed troop in the surrounding area.

No matter what, someone should have survived, and given the low zombie numbers nearby, the satellite base could obviously develop into a decent gathering place.

Familiar with military deployments, he clearly knew how much supplies a troop stationed near a research unit would store.

That was a high‑tech specialty department; its pre‑apocalypse supplies were absolutely made to the highest specifications.

Moreover, in an inconspicuous piece of news, a gathering place about 700 kilometers from the satellite base had once eyed the base's supplies.

As a result, after sending two awakened‑one squads to scout, that gathering place had no one return.

No one escaped, and no distress call was made.

It was as if they had vanished.

Therefore.

That gathering place had also posted a bounty on the local battle‑zone channel, seeking news of whether anyone had seen the missing persons.

"I don't know... what it could be..."

He pondered it silently in his heart.

Lin An frowned slightly, recalling whether he had any related information from his past life.

If it were mutants, as long as they weren't high‑level, he wouldn't have much to worry about.

But what he feared was that the satellite base might have all kinds of messy things.

Is it a meme or a special event?

A supernatural incident occurring inside the satellite base seems unrealistic; after all, according to the pattern of events, the origin of any event usually corresponds to some related thing.

In his contemplation, as Lin An was searching his own memory, a suddenly flashing private message caught his attention.

Unlike the usual flashing of private chats, this time the private message flashed red, like an urgent alert, for fear he wouldn't see it.

Huh?

He opened his eyes.

Lin An looked at the flashing red dot, a hint of doubt flickering in his eyes.

Someone must have used some Prop to forcefully send a message to produce this effect.

Being familiar with the Reputation Shop, he instantly recognized it as a certain single-use consumable Prop capable of ignoring private message shielding, or perhaps ignoring war zone barriers for cross-border communication.

Who is it? How willing they are to spend!

One Prop costs at least twenty reputation points; compared to physically crossing borders to send a message, the effect of this Prop is often too wasteful.

With the red dot flashing incessantly, even Lin An, who usually doesn't check private messages, couldn't help but click to view it.

Moments later, a line of red text entered his field of vision.

"Lin An!"

"I am Tel from the Soviet Union war zone!!"

"Our war zone..."

"We are suffering a devastating strike! Please, help us!!"

In the Soviet Union war zone, snowflakes fell across the sky and piled up on the fortifications, dyeing the machine-gun bunkers in the snow white.

Tel sat slumped in the core of the Safe Zone, his face ashen as he watched the blood-red line advancing in the distance.

The hall was deathly silent, everyone's faces filled with fear.

Watching the blood-red countdown constantly jumping in his field of view, Tel's face showed a grim smile as his finger slowly pressed the red button before him.

"War Zone Mission: Disaster of the Red Tower"

"Please, within 36 hours, stop the spread of the disaster."

"Current remaining time: 9 hours 59 minutes..."

"If the mission fails, this war zone will enter a state of disaster. In the disaster state, the Red Tower disaster will generate one ThirdFourth Rank Mutant per hour and trigger random viral infection."

"Tel... what should we do!!"

In the freezing command hall, a ThirdFourth Rank Awakened Ones trembled all over while watching the battle reports from various war zones.

In just a few hours, the Special Event erupting from the Red Tower region directly destroyed all gathering places and Safe Zones within a 600-kilometer radius.

That, like an enhanced version of the blood-red zombie, spread wildly in all directions at super high speed.

The incident happened so suddenly that they didn't even have time to organize their forces.

Moreover, in the underground cavity at the center of the Red Tower region, various monsters kept pouring out.

"What can we do..."

"What can we do!!"

His face was mad.

Tel gazed vacantly, his heart filled with despair.

We can't stop it... we simply can't stop it!!

He had no idea why the system would issue such a mission to them, clearly their disaster progress wasn't that high!

Looking at the red line in the distance, he knew the mission was likely to fail!

Taking a deep breath, veins bulging on his forehead, he stared fixedly at the launch button beneath his hand, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes:

"Blast them to death!"

"I have already called for aid from all major war zones!"

"Destroy the Red Tower! We still have a sliver of hope!!"

Incredulous, the people in the hall sensed Tel's madness, and at this moment they didn't know what to say.

The meaning of these words clearly is to launch a nuclear missile!

Has it really come to this?

Releasing a nuclear bomb on home soil, this cost is too great...

He gulped, as if pressing a suicide button, Tel clenched his eyes shut and his right hand heavily pressed that red spot.

"Activate the Dead Hand system, part A!"

" -Boom-crack!"

" -Boom-crack!"

On the vast white expanse, the dark nuclear missile silo opened, exposing the nuclear bomb that represents destruction.

Ignition triggered.

The Dead Hand system, once capable of destroying the world and never activated even at humanity's most perilous moments, slowly rose into the air.

But its target was the Soviet Union homeland, the border of the Far East and Ukraine, the Red Tower.