Chapter 354 - 172: Person in the Sand

Chapter 354: Chapter 172: Person in the Sand

The excitement and joy were like seeing a long-lost relative.

Xu Mo couldn’t help but smile. It was a wonderful thing to feel such pure joy in this desolate desert. Those people probably hadn’t seen an outsider in a long time; they could hardly believe their eyes when a car suddenly appeared.

Xu Mo pressed the accelerator and drove over.

The SUV moved slowly across the sand and soon reached the group. Xu Mo parked on a relatively flat patch of ground, pushed open the door, and got out.

The people immediately swarmed him, bombarding him with questions.

"Where are you from?"

"Are you from Jiangzhou?"

"Have the zombies in Jiangzhou been cleared out?"

"Are you alone? Are there others?"

"..."

The questions barraged him, and Xu Mo didn’t know which to answer first. He raised a hand, signaling for quiet.

"One at a time. I’ll answer the first question."

The people quieted down, all of them staring at Xu Mo with wide, hopeful eyes. Their eyes were full of anticipation, as if they were awaiting a momentous answer.

"I’m from the shelter in Jiang City, and I’m heading to Ming Pearl Port to deliver a message."

As he spoke, Xu Mo’s gaze swept over their faces. It was only then that he noticed their physical characteristics.

Of the seven people, only one looked completely normal. He was a young man, probably in his early twenties, with a slender build and a somewhat boyish face. His eyes were bright as he stared at Xu Mo, full of curiosity.

The other six were Mutants.

Each of them had a different degree of mutation—one had an extra finger, another had a patch of keratinized skin on his face, and another’s neck was a size thicker than normal.

But their gazes were normal. There was none of the twisted hatred he’d seen before, only the curiosity and hope of ordinary people.

Furthermore, they got along well with the normal young man. He stood right in the middle of them, completely at ease, as if they were all old friends.

’This group is different from the other Mutants I’ve met,’ Xu Mo realized. ’There’s no hatred or division among them. Normal people and Mutants can coexist peacefully here.’

Xu Mo turned to one of the others who had asked a question. "You were asking about Jiangzhou City?"

"Yes, yes, that’s the one! Jiangzhou City." The man nodded eagerly. "It’s that big city across the river. From here, it’s about..." He paused to think, apparently unable to estimate the distance, and finished lamely, "Anyway, it’s not too far."

Xu Mo’s brow furrowed slightly.

"Why do you ask if the zombies in Jiangzhou have been cleared out?"

The man was taken aback for a moment, then exchanged a glance with the others.

Their expressions shifted. The initial excitement and anticipation became something more complex. The change was subtle, but Xu Mo saw it clearly.

"What is it?" Xu Mo asked.

The group exchanged another glance, and then the man who had first spoken up answered.

"Well, it’s like this," the man began. "About a year ago, a squad passed through here. They said they were a combat unit from Ming Pearl Port on their way to clear out the zombies in Jiangzhou. They told us that once they finished, we could go back to live in Jiangzhou. So we’ve been waiting ever since. Waiting for them to finish, waiting for the day we can go home."

Xu Mo froze. ’A year ago? A combat unit from Ming Pearl Port? Clearing out the zombies in Jiangzhou?’

The pieces of information clicked together in Xu Mo’s mind, forming an unbelievable scenario.

"Are you saying," Xu Mo began slowly, "that a year ago, a combat unit from Ming Pearl Port passed through here on its way to clear out the zombies in Jiangzhou City?"

"Yes, that’s right." The man nodded repeatedly. "They had so many vehicles, so many people, all wearing the same uniforms and carrying guns. They stopped to rest with us for a while when they passed through and even gave us some supplies. Their leader told us that once they finished clearing out the zombies in Jiangzhou, we’d be able to go back."

"Go back?" Xu Mo asked. "You’re from Jiangzhou originally?"

"Yeah," the man said. "We all escaped from Jiangzhou. When the apocalypse first began, the city was crawling with zombies. We barely made it out and ended up here, on the edge of the desert. We’ve been living here ever since, wanting to go back but too scared to try. We didn’t have any hope until we met that squad."

Xu Mo fell silent. The information was as sudden as it was important.

’A combat unit from Ming Pearl Port passed through here a year ago to clear out the zombies in Jiangzhou City. That means that, at least a year ago, Ming Pearl Port was still capable of dispatching combat units for large-scale operations. Order must have still existed there, and they hadn’t lost contact with the outside world yet.’

’But the question is, did they succeed?’

’Jiangzhou City has millions of zombies. Even if Ming Pearl Port is a major shelter, it would be impossible to clear them all out. Did they fail and get wiped out? Or did they succeed, but something happened later that caused Ming Pearl Port to go dark?’

Countless possibilities flashed through Xu Mo’s mind.

"Um..." The man looked at Xu Mo and asked tentatively, "You said you were going to Ming Pearl Port to deliver a message? Has... has Ming Pearl Port gone dark?"

Xu Mo looked at him and nodded.

"That’s right," he said. "I’m from Jiang City. It’s another shelter, a long way from here. We managed to establish a temporary communications network by launching a satellite, but we still couldn’t reach Ming Pearl Port. So, I was sent out as a Messenger to find out what’s going on and re-establish contact."