Chapter 467: Looking to the Future

After eating and drinking their fill, an important announcement was due; just as Zhang Su was putting on his portable speaker, Li Zongkai pulled him aside.

"Mr. Zhang, those eight brothers before… they came to me and said a lot, deeply regretting their impulsive actions—what do you think?"

Before the meal, the eight who had chosen to leave Civil Protection collectively approached Li Zongkai, expressing remorse and apologies, hoping to rejoin Civil Protection and return to Tianma Island.

"Right, I almost forgot about them!"

Zhang Su slapped his forehead; from the numerical data, it was clear those eight genuinely wanted—or even longed—to join Tianma Island, for in this northern stretch of Qincheng, if they didn't join Tianma Island, they'd have to leave entirely…

It wasn't feasible for eight men to start their own small faction; not only would others not tolerate it, there was barely any space for their survival.

"Those guys fought hard during the battle—clearly not bad at heart—but those eight are easily swayed. Even if they come back, don't put them together. Split them up: two per household. Once their conduct proves solid, treat them as ordinary members."

Zhang Su didn't bother overthinking it; with the population growing, he needed to delegate some authority to subordinates—Li Zongkai was the ideal candidate.

Li Zongkai nodded slightly upon hearing Zhang Su's words and said, "Alright, I'll discuss this with Commander Liu and the others. But who should we approach on the Survivors' Alliance side?"

"Survivors' Alliance?" Zhang Su gave a wry smile and patted Li Zongkai's shoulder. "Didn't I already tell you before?"

With that, Zhang Su left the dining hall, leaving Li Zongkai bewildered.

"Hey, hey! Cough, cough!"

Zhang Su stood at the second-floor window of Xiao Xingyun Folklore, testing the microphone; below in the courtyard, heads surged in a dense crowd, packed so tightly no one could move—those who couldn't stand inside lined the gate, but all could still hear.

"Brothers, I'm sure you all know one thing: dense populations attract zombie hordes. The more people gather, the larger the hordes drawn. Exact figures are unclear, but the correlation is definite. You may not have noticed it much inside the city before, because outer survivor camps absorbed the disaster."

Zhang Su spoke to lay the groundwork for absorbing the four factions.

Everyone nodded, half-understanding; they'd heard such claims before, though not everyone believed them. Since the King of Hell was speaking now, they'd take it as truth for now.

Zhang Su noticed some were skeptical, so he shared incidents from his three-month stay in Qingxian, along with the Qinglong Corps' experiences—events worth everyone's caution.

"King of Hell…"

After hearing the cases, a diligent member timidly raised his hand: "May I ask a small question?"

All eyes turned to the speaker—a regular member of the Tianqi Corps.

Yang Xinji rolled his eyes; he knew his men well—this guy always asked endless questions. Now, with so many present, he shouldn't be speaking—but just as Yang was about to stop him, Zhang Su nodded.

"If it's about zombies, go ahead." "Hmm… I understand your claim that humans emit magnetic fields attracting zombies, but where did all the zombies in the city go?"

Qincheng, including its subordinate counties, spans roughly 7, 00 square kilometers with a population of just over three million, yet over a million reside in the harbor district, which covers only 700 square kilometers—nine percent of the area housing over thirty-five percent of the population.

By this ratio, zombie density in the urban core should be extreme, yet currently, no large hordes have appeared in the city.

"In the early days of the disaster, we wandered through the city ourselves and saw massive hordes moving across—toward unknown destinations. I think… they have their own goals, just unknown to us. And another point we can't ignore…"

"The urban environment is complex. Many zombies are trapped in sealed spaces, undiscovered. Their proportion must be significant too. That's all I can answer you—zombie conditions are varied and complex, with much still unexplored."

After hearing Zhang Su's explanation, the crowd nodded slightly; no one had yet fully unraveled the zombies—many aspects remained unknown.

"Returning to my earlier point! To counter zombie traits, Tianma Island uses a satellite-village model to disperse population—details later. For now, the priority is integrating personnel: return to your groups and inform those still unaware of the merger of our five factions!"

Zhang Su said "merger," but everyone knew it meant their factions were being absorbed into Tianma Island.

None of the original leaders—Li Zongkai and others—objected to this decision.

Seeing his own men dared to speak, Yang Xinji raised his hand, signaling he wished to speak.

Zhang Su suppressed a smile and gestured: "Commander Yang, what do you have to say?"

"It's like this, King of Hell. I see Tianma Island's geographic advantage—steep, winding paths, easy to defend, hard to attack. With modifications, it could become an impregnable fortress. Should we consider developing in this direction?"

Dispersed living would inevitably limit growth; once population reached a certain scale, it would scatter. He believed concentration offered greater advantage.

Zhang Su nodded, not denying Yang Xinji's suggestion: "I know Tianma Island has potential to become a large safe zone. Broadly speaking, even building a new city-state centered on Tianma Island, enclosing farmland and land around it, is entirely feasible—but there's one condition…"

"It's freezing now—not a good time for large-scale construction. We'll use this winter to stabilize the situation, strengthen our troops and people, refine our systems. Once spring comes, we'll begin building walls, forging our steel fortress!"

"By then, even hordes of thirty or fifty thousand won't trouble us—let alone a hundred or two hundred thousand. And during this time, we won't stop exterminating zombies. Optimistically, other survivors are also relentlessly killing zombies. By spring, the zombie threat may no longer be a concern!"

This wasn't Zhang Su painting a pie-in-the-sky dream—it was his true vision for the future. He didn't believe eliminating zombies meant they could rest easy; once external threats weakened, internal human conflicts would escalate.

Peace is everyone's dream, but that dream is destined to remain unrealized for a very long time—longer than the lifespans of everyone here, perhaps longer than any of them will live to see it.

Now, we fight for population, territory, and basic supplies. When true peace finally arrives, production resources will become the most coveted prizes—anything that accelerates industrial recovery will be fiercely contested.

(End of Chapter)