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Chapter 349: Chapter 349: An Unwinnable Competition

Looking at the woman’s thin arms and cheeks, Chen Xuan could basically imagine the kind of environment this group of survivors lived in. At just over twenty years old, in a peaceful era she might not have even graduated from college, yet now she bears the heavy responsibility of her group’s continuation, risking her life at any moment to move around the city, bringing vital survival supplies to her compatriots.

Humanity is indeed not extinct, but they live no better than rats.

This kind of future... is definitely not the happy ending Lin Qing hoped for.

"The giant nano-living body you mentioned isolating the city, does it have four long legs with its whole body hidden above the clouds?" Liuli curiously interjected.

"Have you seen a Celestial Patrol?" Zhuang Yu was greatly surprised, "That’s right... as long as that thing exists, no one can leave Jiang City. It’s already extremely fortunate for you to have survived after seeing it."

"Celestial Patrol... does it really have a nickname too?" Wang Baihu muttered.

"All large living bodies have nicknames. The first lesson every newcomer of the search team has to learn is to remember their names, their territories and patrol routes." She paused, "Of course, the Celestial Patrol is an exception, it’s too big... so it can reach any part of the city in a very short time. The general fate of anyone who runs into it is one—no burial place for them."

"Haven’t you thought about destroying it?"

"It’s not that easy! The strength of nano-living bodies increases significantly with size, we’ve tried everything, even tried mini-nukes!" Zhuang Yu clenched her fist, "And the result? Besides hundreds of casualties, we couldn’t even blow off one of its legs."

The scene inevitably fell into silence.

Finally, Honglian broke the silence, "By the way... one of our main purposes of coming here is to find a person."

"...What person?"

"Her name is Lin Qing, about the same height as me... bears some resemblance to me, but her hair color is a bit more flamboyant. And... she used to live in this city."

"Lin Qing..." Zhuang Yu scrutinized Honglian, "Is she your sister?"

"Sort of."

"I haven’t heard of this name. However... Sha River Station is just one of the survivor outposts, if you have a chance, you can check out other places."

"Is that so?" Honglian said with some regret, "How many outposts are there in this city?"

"Initially there were twelve, but now I can’t say for sure how many are left. Some outposts haven’t been in contact for almost half a year, and nobody knows the situation there." She thought for a moment and said.

"Okay... thank you for your answer." Honglian didn’t ask further, "It’s already dark outside today, and it’s not safe to travel at night. You better get some rest. Tomorrow, we will escort you and your companions back to the base. If you’re worried about the outpost’s location being exposed, we can separate halfway."

"How could we..." the other party showed an embarrassed expression, "The outpost is not a hidden location, we actually welcome new faces to join, especially like you, Ability Users who migrated from other places, you will definitely be valued by the leader."

"That’s good." She smiled, "We’ve been eating and sleeping rough for a long time, having a place to rest peacefully is the best thing ever."

After Zhuang Yu went back to the tent to rest, Chen Xuan called Honglian aside, "Why didn’t you ask her about the Dimensional Limit Mechanism? And when did the Evangelical Association and the nano-bug plague rise?"

"Like you, I also want to know the answers to these questions, but their impact is not limited to just one Jiang City." Honglian motioned for him not to rush, "No matter where we come from, it’s unlikely that we know nothing about this information, so it’s best not to ask them all at once to prevent arousing suspicion. Once we reach the outpost, there will naturally be plenty of opportunities to gather intelligence."

"How much do you know about the Evangelical Association?"

"Probably less than you do." She said frankly, "It’s an Ability User organization that refuses to accept the mechanism’s control. If it weren’t for their good hiding, they would have been wiped out by the mechanism long ago. What about Shixin? Did it foresee this scene happening?"

"Shixin is not a prophecy Q&A machine, the way it provides information is somewhat... complicated." Chen Xuan vaguely replied, "The only thing we can do next is take it one step at a time."

Honglian agreed, "Actually, it’s already quite fast, isn’t it? We only arrived here on the first day, and we met the local survivors, the subsequent exploration also has a direction. I believe it won’t be long before we can find the flaw to overturn the mechanism!"

After Chen Xuan turned and walked away, she only then watched his back and murmured, "Moreover... I will definitely help you find Lin Qing."

...

The next day, another Searcher, Zhou Zhixuan, also slowly woke up. His condition was clearly worse than Zhuang Yu’s, still having a fever, so even though he was also shocked by the current situation, he couldn’t react as quickly as his partner.

They must return to the base as soon as possible to treat Zhou Zhixuan.

"Can’t you call the outpost to send someone for rescue?" Chen Xuan curiously asked.

"Can’t do it. The outpost has a shielding device, it blocks the perception of nano-living bodies to humans and also disrupts electronic signals." Zhuang Yu hoisted her companion on her back with seemingly no effort, from this angle, they couldn’t be considered ordinary people.

"When we’re on the move later, please stay close to me. The protective suit also has a similar shielding device, but the effective range is limited; beyond two meters it’s not very effective." She added.

"No problem, you lead the way." Chen Xuan gladly replied.

The door leading to the warehouse was sealed up again to prevent it being damaged by wild animals. Everyone clustered together, weaving through the city around the two. Zhuang Yu’s choice of route was also very clear—if you can take the underground, don’t go on the surface; if you can walk through alleys, don’t pass through buildings. According to her, the danger level inside buildings is far higher than outdoors, being high-frequency areas for nano-living bodies; the underground is lined with pipelines, not suitable for living body disguise.

According to this theory, the danger level on the streets is similar to alleys, but they might encounter Celestial Patrols. Additionally, their enemies are not just the nano-living bodies... those who worship living bodies and have almost turned themselves into inhumane Evangelicals love to attack the supply convoys of outposts on the streets.

"Are Evangelicals really not attacked by nano-living bodies?" Honglian asked confusedly.

"That’s just what they claim." Zhuang Yu scoffed at this, "I’ve seen Evangelicals without protective suits being devoured by nano-living bodies more than once. Maybe some can coexist with living bodies, but that doesn’t mean the entire Evangelical Association is like that. Sadly, some people always believe in or succumb to their power, ultimately abandoning the outposts to join the Evangelical Association."

"You said the outpost isn’t hidden, aren’t you afraid of them attacking you?"

"Heh..." Zhuang Yu chuckled softly, "Evangelicals, after all, are just human; even if they have Ability Users, they can’t withstand the bombardment of electromagnetic guns and energy concentration lasers. Even with this railgun in my hand..." She suddenly paused, her expression a bit awkward, as the gun was still in Chen Xuan’s hands, "Anyway... they only dare to attack the solitary. Essentially, they’re a bunch of cowards! Forcibly attacking an outpost is beyond their courage."

"I thought they teamed up with nano-living bodies..." Little Pigeon stuck out her tongue, "So this group has no influence over the living bodies at all."

"Of course. If the Evangelical Association could control the nano-living bodies, we would have been doomed long ago."

"No one can control nano-living bodies... not even understand them... cough cough..." Zhou Zhixuan, being carried by Zhuang Yu, suddenly spoke, "They are a new species born on Earth... they just happen to occupy the same ecological niche as humans..."

"Stop talking, be careful not to pull on your wound." Zhuang Yu frowned.

"Do you see this yellow sand all over the sky..." He took a deep breath, forcing himself to speak, "Those aren’t sand, but countless tiny nano-bugs, even if they haven’t conglomerated or spawned consciousness, they still proliferate themselves out of instinct... so nano-living bodies will continue to be born, we’ll never truly defeat them."