Chapter 368: Rain City

Xu Mo’s gaze swept over the streets and buildings, and his heart sank. There were zombies everywhere.

On the streets below, hordes of zombies were wandering about. Some were in small groups, some moved alone, and others huddled motionless in the shadows of buildings.

In the plaza farther off, there were even more zombies. They were packed together so densely they looked like a black sea. Xu Mo did a rough count; there were at least several hundred.

Even farther away, Xu Mo could see even larger clusters of zombies.

Xu Mo’s expression grew increasingly grim. ‘This isn’t right! Something is very, very wrong!’

The report from Ming Pearl Port said that Pinggu City had already been cleared. Even if the cleanup wasn’t perfect and a few stragglers were left behind, there shouldn’t be this many zombies. And their levels weren’t low, either—they were at least Level 1, some even Level 2. ‘Where did they come from?’

‘Could it be that the military unit from a year ago never cleared Pinggu City at all? Or did new zombies flood in after they left?’

RUMBLE!

Just as Xu Mo was lost in thought, a clap of thunder rumbled in the distance.

Xu Mo looked up at the sky. It looked like it was about to rain.

‘This was not a good thing.’

On his journey here, Xu Mo had witnessed firsthand the effect the heat and drought had on the zombies. Dehydrated, they didn’t dare venture out during the day, forced to hide inside buildings. Some had even been baked into dried-out husks by the sun. But rain would change everything. It would replenish the moisture in their bodies and revitalize them.

But Xu Mo couldn’t change the weather. He could only watch as the clear sky turned gloomy and the first drop of rain began to fall.

DRIP.

The raindrop hit the roof, creating a tiny splash before being quickly absorbed.

But it was followed by a second drop, a third, then countless more… Large raindrops began to fall.

Xu Mo left the rooftop and returned to the thirty-third floor, watching the street below through the curtain of rain.

At first, the street below was empty. But after it had been raining for three to five minutes, something began to stir.

A building door was pushed open, and a zombie staggered out. It tilted its head back, opened its mouth, and caught the falling rain.

Then a second, a third, a tenth…

Doors to countless buildings were pushed open, and endless hordes of zombies poured out. They scrambled over each other to get onto the street, tilting their heads back, mouths agape, greedily catching the rain.

Xu Mo saw some zombies even kneeling, sticking out their tongues to lick the water pooling on the ground. In just a few short minutes, the once-empty street was packed with zombies.

Standing by the window on the thirty-third floor, Xu Mo watched the densely packed zombies on the street below, his hands clenching into tight fists.

In just a few minutes, tens of thousands of zombies had appeared out of thin air, as if by magic. 𝖿𝖗ⅇℴ𝑚

Then Xu Mo remembered the signs of battle he’d seen in Linchuan City. Bullet holes, craters, scorched streets, piles of bones—the scale of that fight had been massive, with at least tens of thousands of zombies killed. If that military unit had truly cleared Linchuan City, they should have been capable of clearing Pinggu City as well. Even if the cleanup wasn’t perfect, even if a few stragglers remained, there was no way this many would be left.

An image suddenly flashed through Xu Mo’s mind: Jiang City, the Red Star Industrial Zone.

He had been stationed there for months, watching with his own eyes as wave after wave of zombies surged forward. No matter how many they killed, new ones would always appear the next day. It was as if there was an invisible source there, endlessly spawning more zombies.

“Could it be…” Xu Mo muttered to himself. “Is there a zone here where two worlds overlap? A place like the Red Star Industrial Zone in Jiang City?”

The moment the thought appeared, it took root and grew like a weed.

If Pinggu City also had a source that endlessly spawned zombies, it would explain everything. It would explain why, a year after the Ming Pearl Port combat unit had supposedly cleared the city, it was once again teeming with the undead.

Xu Mo’s expression grew grave.

‘If this theory was true, then things were serious.’

The rain was still falling, coming down harder and harder. The zombies reveled in it. Some tilted their heads back to catch the drops, some licked the ground, and some even tore at each other to fight over a small puddle. The streets were filled with their figures, a dense, shoulder-to-shoulder mass.

There was no point in overthinking it. After one last look at the reveling zombies below, Xu Mo found a relatively clean spot and settled down to rest.

The rain was still falling the next day. When Xu Mo woke up, he looked down at the streets, still piled high with zombies, and felt a sense of helplessness. The rain had well and truly “activated” them. ‘Best not to go down there right now,’ he thought.