44: The army breached the city, and the resources were stored away.

Chapter Forty-Five: Breaking into the City, Resources to the Warehouse

As the morning light pierced the thin mist, the Mountain Stronghold Base had already transformed into a war machine ready to strike. On the open ground in front of the Command Center, 120 Red Alert Soldiers stood in a neat square formation; the barrels of the Rifleman's guns glinted with a cold light, the portable recycling devices on the shoulders of the Engineering Corps hummed, and the communicators at the waists of the six squad leaders flickered with a red standby light.

Lin Zhou stood atop the high platform, and behind him, a 3D holographic sand table projected the terrain of the county town with meticulous detail—dense red light dots occupied various parts of the urban area, marking the gathering places of tens of thousands of ordinary zombies; the yellow markers at the East City Hardware Factory and the West City Warehouse District were the core resource points of this trip; while the light purple signal from the North City Abandoned Hospital was pulsing irregularly.

“We are backed by a continuous supply of groundwater, so we never lack the essentials for survival!” Lin Zhou's voice resonated through the loudspeakers, his gaze as sharp as an eagle's. “But for the base to develop, for the War Factory to be unlocked, and for technology to be upgraded, what we lack are energy points and resource points! Today, we will flatten the county town, wipe out the zombies to exchange for energy, and scavenge core materials for resources. We'll leave everything else behind to let the survivors take root here! Remember, Mutated Zombies might only appear in a month; right now is the best time to harvest resources!”

“Flatten the county town! Resources to the warehouse!” The soldiers' roars shook the morning dew from the treetops.

With a wave of Lin Zhou's hand, three columns set off immediately: the Scout Squad, wearing stealth camouflage, infiltrated first to mark zombie clusters at street corners and on building rooftops; the Extermination Squad advanced in a pincer movement, with the Rifleman's precision shots and the Engineering Corps' explosive packs taking turns to sweep away swaths of zombies in the streets; the Engineering Corps squad followed closely behind, aiming their shoulder-mounted recycling devices at the zombie corpses. Wherever the blue energy beams swept, the bodies instantly decomposed into data streams and flooded into the system panel.

【Recycled Ordinary Zombie Corpse × 12 → energy points +240】

【Recycled metal fragments from zombie remains × 47 → resource points +94】

As the numbers on the panel jumped rapidly, the corners of Lin Zhou's mouth couldn't help but turn up. The recycling mechanism of the red alert system was truly a weapon for the apocalypse; without needing tedious processing, corpses were directly converted into energy points, while materials like bones and metal were instantly exchanged for resource points, an efficiency far exceeding manual collection.

The advance was faster than expected. The zombies in the old residential areas of the South City were vulnerable, and the Extermination Squad tore through the defensive lines like a hot knife through butter. The Engineering Corps had a clear division of labor, focusing only on recycling core materials that could be converted into resource points—rebar, pipes, metal parts, and even the fibers from clothes on the zombies that hadn't completely rotted. As for scattered furniture, bedding, and ordinary daily necessities, they were all left in place. In less than three hours, the energy points on the panel had surpassed 5,000, and the resource points had soared to over 8,000.

“commander, a large number of machine tools and steel have been found at the East City Hardware Factory!” a report from a Scout Soldier came through the communicator. “The West City Warehouse District has stockpiles of canned food, medicine, and three intact generators!”

Lin Zhou immediately ordered: “The Extermination Squad will continue to advance toward the core area; ensure the main roads are cleared of zombies before dark! The Engineering Corps will split into two teams, carry heavy recycling devices, and only recycle the core components of machine tools, steel, and generators. All other supplies are to be left behind!”

The soldiers moved at his command, and wherever their blades reached, zombies fell one after another. When the Extermination Squad reached the North City Abandoned Hospital, a Scout Soldier suddenly sent an emergency signal: “commander, there are signs of human activity inside the Hospital, but the signal is abnormal—it looks like an armed conflict!”

Lin Zhou's eyes narrowed, and he immediately led an elite squad to provide support. The Hospital's main gate was welded shut with thick rebar, and a faint firelight shone through the cracks, mixed with the sobbing of women and the wild laughter of men. “Blow it open!” At Lin Zhou's command, the Engineering Corps quickly set up explosives. After a loud bang, the rotten wooden door collapsed, and a wave of air mixed with the smell of alcohol, blood, and rot rushed toward them.

The scene before them made even the battle-hardened Red Alert Soldiers' pupils shrink. In the Hospital lobby, a dozen survivors were chained to pillars, dressed in rags and covered in wounds. Some had broken arms, others had rotting, pus-filled ankles, and their eyes were as hollow as dead ashes. In the center of the lobby, seven or eight young men in strange outfits were reveling around a table piled with canned food, liquor, and cigarettes. One Yellow Hair youth was grabbing a frail girl's hair, throwing half a piece of bread on the ground, and grinning as he forced her to bark like a dog.

“You useless trash, you're even slow at finding a bottle of water!” Yellow Hair kicked the girl's back, and she screamed as she fell to the ground, humiliatingly gnawing on the dirt-covered bread. The accomplices nearby laughed; some used iron rods to beat the bound survivors, while others toyed with shotguns snatched from the warehouse, occasionally firing into the ceiling for fun.

Lin Zhou understood instantly—this wasn't an ordinary group of survivors, but a pack of demons in human skin. They didn't dare to fight zombies, yet they extended their claws toward their weaker kin, monopolizing resources and enslaving others to live a life of base pleasure in the apocalypse.

“Stop!” Lin Zhou's voice was as cold as frost.

Yellow Hair and the others whipped their heads around. Seeing the soldiers armed to the teeth at the door, their faces turned pale, but seeing that Lin Zhou's squad was small, they became arrogant again. Yellow Hair pulled out a machete from his waist, craned his neck, and roared, “Where did you punks come from? You dare meddle in Lord Huang's business? If you're smart, get lost now, or I'll feed you to the zombies too!”

These people were all street punks before the apocalypse who had survived until now by relying on stolen weapons and a bit of ruthlessness, having long since lost their humanity. The male survivors they captured were forced to go out and scout paths or find supplies, while the women became their playthings. The slightest disobedience resulted in a beating, and if they died, they were simply dragged out to feed the zombies; their hands were stained with the blood of innocents.

Lin Zhou's eyes were cold enough to freeze. He had seen the cruelty of the apocalypse, but he had never seen such insane scum. “Red Alert Soldiers, hear my command!” His voice was devoid of emotion. “Kill the slavers without mercy! Rescue all survivors!”

Gunfire suddenly erupted. The Red Alert Soldiers' precision shots were peerless, and the machetes and shotguns in the hands of those thugs were no match at all as screams rang out one after another. Yellow Hair watched in horror as his accomplices fell one by one. He turned to flee through the back door but was kicked to the ground by a soldier. He lay on the floor, kowtowing repeatedly: “Big brother, spare my life! I was wrong! I won't do it again!”

Lin Zhou walked slowly up to him, looking down at his grime-covered face: “In the apocalypse, it's instinct for zombies to eat people, but you are animals who chose to do evil.” Before he finished speaking, a gunshot rang out, and Yellow Hair's head blossomed. The Engineering Corps' recycling device immediately swept over him, a blue energy beam instantly enveloping the body, and the system prompt sounded urgently—【Recycled Vile Individual Corpse × 1 (Extremely High Sin Value) → energy points +5000】.

This recycling rate, dozens of times higher than that of an ordinary zombie, caused a flash of surprise in Lin Zhou's eyes, followed by understanding: the system seemed to accurately identify the degree of a life's sin. The more an individual committed evil, the more energy points their corpse would convert into, as if punishing evil while providing an extra gift to the righteous.

The soldiers unchained the survivors and handed out compressed biscuits and water. Among these survivors were workers who knew mechanical repair, nurses who could perform first aid, and Technicians skilled in circuit modification. Lin Zhou pointed to the canned food, medicine, and daily necessities left in the Hospital and added: “The county town has plenty of groundwater; I'll have the Engineering Corps dig a well to solve the drinking water problem. The supplies here are enough for you to live on for now. The zombies have been mostly cleared, so you can rebuild your homes here. Just take care of yourselves.”

The survivors looked at the supplies covering the floor and thought of the stable days ahead without worrying about water. Tears mixed with excitement fell as they bowed one after another to thank Lin Zhou.

Just then, a victory report came from the Extermination Squad over the communicator: “commander, the core area of the county town has been cleared! Total recycled ordinary zombie corpses × 3,721 → energy points +74,420, Vile Individual corpses × 7 → energy points +35,000! Recycled various metal materials × 1,247 → resource points +28,930! Core materials from the West City Warehouse and East City Hardware Factory have all been recycled, yielding an additional energy points +12,000 and resource points +15,600!”

Lin Zhou looked down at the panel; energy points had soared to 121,420, and resource points had surpassed 53,374, far exceeding the requirements for building an Ore Refinery. The 35,000 energy points contributed by the Vile Individual corpses were equivalent to the recycling total of over 1,700 ordinary zombies, becoming an unexpected windfall. He looked out the window; the setting sun was coating the county town in a golden glow. The roar of zombies could no longer be heard in the streets, only the busy figures of rescued survivors gathering supplies and building temporary shelters.

The Engineering Corps were using heavy recycling devices to process the battlefield, focusing only on zombie corpses, core components of abandoned vehicles, building rebar, and other convertible resources. As for the supplies that could meet the basic needs of the survivors, they were all left in place. The numbers on the panel continued to grow, while the survivors in the county town, relying on these remaining supplies and the continuous groundwater, reignited the hope of living on.

Lin Zhou knew that controlling the county town was only the first step. Next, he would take the massive amount of energy points and resource points back to the base to first unlock the Ore Refinery to stabilize resource output, and then push for the construction requirements of the War Factory to prepare in advance for the Mutated Zombies that might appear in a month. This county town, and the survivors staying here, would become a buffer zone outside the mountain base; by taking care of themselves, they would be the best guardians of this land.