Chapter 1510: Territory Inspection

"All lords, broadcasting now the notice on the December 23, Year 11 of the Calamity, Hui City Special-Case Bombing Incident…"

After Di Ming called out on the lord channel, everyone had just taken out their phones to search online for the contents of the notice. From the loudspeaker hanging on the signal tower in Northern District One's territory, Tan Junjie's solemn voice rang out, and everyone stopped what they were doing to listen.

Fifteen minutes ago, Hui City Main Base and Hui-2, Hui-3, Hui-5, and Hui-8 Bases, where the explosions occurred, had successively issued disaster reports. Ten minutes ago, the official account of Huaguo's highest administrative department reposted Hui City Main Base's disaster report, classifying this disaster as "Special-Case," and clearly defined the perpetrators' crimes—crimes against humanity and biochemical terrorism—ordering Hui City to thoroughly investigate the disaster, severely punish the criminals, and carry out post-disaster reconstruction, plugging the gaps and preventing future trouble.

After Tan Junjie unhurriedly finished reading the notices from Hui City Main Base and Hui-3 Base, he began broadcasting the notice just issued by Hui-3 Territory Management Department:

"Hui-3 Territory Management Department Emergency Notice: To resolutely implement the state's decision, thoroughly purge the lingering poison of terrorism, and maintain absolute safety and stability within the territory's jurisdiction, in accordance with relevant laws and regulations and the 'Basic Regulations on Territory Management,' the relevant matters are hereby urgently notified as follows…"

After broadcasting the contents of the notice twice, Tan Junjie outlined the key points, reminding every lord to pay attention to three key points in the notice: "Every lord is requested to, in accordance with the notice's requirements, immediately and comprehensively inspect their own territory, and strictly fulfill the obligation to report what they know; urge personnel involved in the case within the territory to surrender themselves before 12 noon today, otherwise the lord will bear joint liability; encourage all lords and personnel within the territory to actively report relevant leads, the reporting hotline is…"

"Lord of Territory 1-26, please reply if received."

Yin Jie, inside Territory One, pressed the walkie-talkie button, "Territory One, received."

Lord of Territory Two was dead, and the territory had been reclaimed by the Territory Management Department, so Xia Qing, Lord of Territory Three, pressed the walkie-talkie button, "Territory Three, received."

Zhao Mu replied right after Xia Qing, "Territory Four, received."

"…"

"Territory Twenty-Six, received."

This was the first time in all the notices issued by the Territory Management Department that all lords were required to immediately reply with confirmation, and their replies were broadcast through the loudspeakers.

The voices of lords or their agents, one after another, came from the loudspeakers hung on the twelve signal towers within Northern District One's territory, echoing through the valleys; even the cooking smoke drifting from the chimneys of every territory seemed to bristle with killing intent.

After a few seconds' pause, Tan Junjie's solemn voice rang out again, "Territory Twenty-Three, please reply if received."

After a dozen or so seconds, Fu Xiaodan, Lord of Territory Twenty-Two next to Territory Twenty-Three, came online again, "Captain Tan, the staff in Territory Twenty-Three just called out to me, saying Lord of Territory Twenty-Three, Xu Cunchao, left the territory yesterday for the Safe Zone and hasn't come back yet. The staff in Territory Twenty-Three don't have a walkie-talkie, so they can't reply."

Xu Cunchao's act of leaving the territory without designating an agent had already violated the "Lord Law," but now was not the time to pursue that responsibility.

Tan Junjie replied calmly, "Received. Cao Xianyun, immediately verify the situation in Territory Twenty-Three, ensure the notice is delivered."

"Received." The loudspeaker carried the voice of Cao Xianyun, the newly appointed captain of the Fifth Inspection Squad.

Ding Yongwei, the former squad captain in charge of inspecting Territories 19 through 26 in Northern District One, had already sacrificed himself in this year's third Calamity Rain.

Hearing no more voices coming from the loudspeaker, the lords could no longer bother with their work, and hurriedly, in accordance with the notice's requirements, checked whether anyone in their territory was involved in the case.

Xia Qing, the only person in her territory, had no inspection task. While cleaning chicken droppings on one side and pondering the matter of Xu Cunchao on the other, she heard Shi Mu's voice come through the walkie-talkie.

"Forty-eight dead, one hundred twenty-one injured, direct property loss of 16.5 million points. If those points had been used to open up wasteland and grow grain, how many people could they have fed…" Territory Ten had only the three Shi family members, no hired hands, so they too had no inspection task and had time to chat online.

Hearing Zhu Li, who had been eating at a restaurant in the Safe Zone when the explosion occurred, was still shaken, "Severe punishment means all involved personnel get killed, right?"

The notice did not mention the perpetrators' names, so everyone in the territories still didn't know it was Lie Huo who did it.

Wen Nengjie, already upset because his straw had gone moldy, was assigned a new task and was in a foul mood, "Definitely, the person who used Calamity-13 to make the bomb absolutely deserves to be cut into a thousand pieces. But I feel the death toll in the report doesn't add up—yesterday I alone hauled thirteen corpses. Sister Qing, how many did you shoot yesterday?"

Xia Qing certainly wouldn't say how many she had killed, and only came online to remind, "The report states the number of 'casualties directly caused by the explosion.'"

Wen Nengjie immediately answered, "Right, right! Sister Qing's brain really works, if you hadn't said it I wouldn't have caught on. Most of the casualties in the outer city happened during the unrest triggered by the explosion, they can't be counted in the direct-explosion casualty numbers."

In Territory Eleven, Watching Huo Zhun, holding an axe, also showed a suddenly-understanding expression. Di Ming, working beside him, imitated Lord Huo Lei's tone and gestures, shaking his head and sighing, "Hopeless, hopeless, this lifetime he's nothing but an illiterate!"

Shi Du inquired over the walkie-talkie, "Is this Calamity-13 stuff about the same as the AIDS virus?"

There were over forty kinds of Calamity synthetic elements; the vast majority of survivors only knew these elements were all toxins, and couldn't tell the difference between each kind.

Tang Heng answered, "Calamity-13 and the AIDS virus have similar routes of infection, but after being infected with Calamity-13, even if you take medicine to suppress the toxin from spreading, you'll be accompanied by obvious pain for life."

Hearing this symptom, Qi Fu spoke up, "Better to just be blown up by the bomb than get poisoned with this stuff."

Wen Nengjie disagreed, "A bad life is better than a good death. Alive, you can take painkillers and endure, endure until big shots with conscience and ability like Third Brother develop an antidote. Dead, you have nothing."

The big shot with conscience, Zhang San, came online, "Xia Qing, come over after breakfast."

Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie button, "Received. I'll bring breakfast over and we can eat together?"

Everyone…

Zhang San was silent for two seconds, "Yang Jin made it?"

"No, Yang Jin is busy, I made it."

"Eat first, then come over."

Everyone…

In Territory Two, Tang Huai, who had just woken up, laughed until he rolled around.

After Xia Qing finished breakfast, she handed the territory over to Er Yong and Xiao Jiang, left Territory Three from the north gate, and prepared to run nonstop to Territory Seven. She ran down from the isolation belt on the northern Gao Po of Territory Three, crossed the frozen river channel and climbed up the isolation belt on the north side of Territory Four, and saw Zhao Ze standing outside Territory Four's north gate.

Seeing Zhao Ze's expression, Xia Qing knew that the two deaths in Territory Four last night had not been from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Zhao Ze stepped forward two paces, and in a low, hoarse voice pleaded, "Sister Qing, may I borrow two minutes of your time?"