Chapter 364 - 175: Notification

Chapter 364: Chapter 175: Notification

Early the next morning, Xu Mo drove into Linchuan City.

Linchuan City was quieter than he had imagined. The streets were empty, with no sign of zombies or human life. Buildings stood silently on either side. Some were intact, others had collapsed. The walls of most were covered in climbing vines.

However, due to the intense heat, the vines had withered to a sickly yellow and trembled in the wind. The surrounding roads were overgrown with dry, yellow weeds, among which Xu Mo could occasionally spot animal trails.

These trails, faint paths beaten into the grass by the long-term passage of animals, were barely visible. From their appearance, Xu Mo could tell that only small animals roamed the city.

No traces of large animals, and no traces of zombies...

Xu Mo slowed the car to observe his surroundings. He noticed clear signs that the city had been cleared out.

There were black patches on the road surface. The walls of some buildings were riddled with bullet holes, like honeycombs. Some houses had been completely leveled, their bricks and stones scattered about—destroyed by explosives.

Xu Mo stopped the car, walked to one of the walls, and ran his hand over the bullet holes. They were deep—left by rifle rounds. Judging by their distribution, the shooters had been disciplined, not just spraying randomly. It had to be the combat unit from Ming Pearl Port a year ago.

Xu Mo returned to his car and continued driving. He wanted to see what other traces the Ming Pearl Port combat unit had left in the city.

After about twenty more minutes of driving, the view ahead suddenly opened up to a large public square.

The square was paved with tiles, but many were shattered, and the ground was pockmarked with craters.

Xu Mo walked into the square to investigate and saw signs of a battle everywhere.

The ground was densely peppered with bullet holes, some of which had even pierced through the tiles. Based on experience, Xu Mo judged they were from a heavy machine gun.

The buildings at the edge of the square were in even worse shape. Their walls were riddled with bullet holes from the ground all the way to the rooftops.

The walls of some buildings had been shot clean through, exposing the rebar and broken masonry within.

The area was littered with the aftermath of explosions, including numerous impact craters.

The craters varied in size. The largest were two or three meters in diameter and half a meter deep. The ground around them was scorched black, revealing the charred earth beneath.

Not far away were scorch marks, but it was impossible to tell if they were from incendiary grenades or a flamethrower.

Standing in the center of the square, Xu Mo looked around as a scene from a year ago played out in his mind.

A combat unit of several thousand soldiers, using the square as a defensive position, had encountered a massive horde of zombies. The zombies swarmed from all directions, intent on tearing the intruders to shreds.

Then, the battle began.

Machine guns roared, rifles fired in unison, grenades exploded, and shells whistled through the air. Flames lit up the sky amid billowing smoke. The zombies fell in droves, mowed down like wheat, but more and more swarmed forward...

Crossing the square, Xu Mo came upon an even more shocking sight: a section of street, four or five hundred meters long, that had been burned completely black. It wasn’t an ordinary black, but the carbonized blackness left by an intense fire.

Xu Mo walked over to inspect it. The ground was covered in a thick layer of ash that crunched softly under his feet. Within the ash were bones, charred fragments, and other unidentifiable remains. Xu Mo picked up a bone and examined it—it was a human femur, but it had been burned white and crumbled with the slightest pressure.

Xu Mo guessed that a huge number of zombies had been here. They were either driven or lured onto this street, then incinerated by flamethrowers or incendiary bombs. The intense heat would have reduced everything to ash, including the zombies’ skeletons. That would explain the thick layer of ash and the sheer number of bones.

Xu Mo stood up and gazed at the charred street, a complex feeling welling up inside him. ’For an organized combat unit, dealing with ordinary zombies is almost no different from a massacre.’

As terrifying as the zombies were, with enough firepower, you could mow them down like grass. This was the power of a collective.

Xu Mo was reminded of his time in Jiang City, when he had personally witnessed officials using electricity to fish in the river. He understood then that no matter how strong an individual was, they could never overcome an organized group. Now, seeing this square and this charred street, his understanding deepened.

The combat unit from Ming Pearl Port had truly ventured out and begun to reclaim lost territory. They had cleared Linchuan City, cleared the surrounding towns, and perhaps even more places.

’But the question is, what happened to them?’

The zombies entrenched in Jiangzhou indicated that Ming Pearl Port’s plan to clear the city had failed. And then Ming Pearl Port itself went dark. It was all rather strange.

Xu Mo shook his head, pushing these questions aside for now. He continued to wander through Linchuan City, hoping to find more clues.

Beyond the charred street was a residential area. Most of the apartment buildings were still standing, but they were all dilapidated, so Xu Mo didn’t go inside.

After driving for another ten minutes or so, a thought suddenly struck Xu Mo. He jerked the wheel, turning onto another road.

At the end of that road was the location of Linchuan City’s government complex.

Every city had a place like this. Before the apocalypse, it was the center of power. Afterward, it would often become an information hub. If someone wanted to leave a message, that would be the best place to do it.