Chapter 376 - 179: Encounter

Chapter 376: Chapter 179: Encounter

As he got closer, the two of them could finally see his face. He was young, probably in his twenties, with a calm expression that betrayed no emotion. But within that calmness was something that warned them not to take him lightly.

"Hello." The young man walked up to them and said, "I’m a Messenger from Jiang City, sent to Ming Pearl Port. My name is Xu Mo. I was wondering if I could visit your settlement to resupply?"

His tone was nonchalant, as if he were stating a simple fact.

But his words struck them like a clap of thunder.

A Messenger from Jiang City?

Ming Pearl Port!!!

Zhong and Bingbing looked at each other, both seeing the shock in the other’s eyes.

The newcomer was, of course, Xu Mo. After leaving Pinggu City on his powered paraglider, Xu Mo had continued flying southeast. The orange canopy was particularly conspicuous against the sky, like a floating cloud.

The view of the land from above was completely different than from the ground.

The wilderness stretched to the horizon, a vast carpet of withered yellow grass rolling toward the vanishing point.

The roads snaking across the ground looked like gray ribbons winding through the wilderness. Xu Mo watched them, a thought rising in his mind—’If only I’d learned to fly sooner.’

’Even this powered paraglider is so much better than traveling on the ground. From the air, I can fly in a straight line without detours, without having to cross mountains and bridges, and most importantly, without having to face those dense hordes of zombies.’

’If I’d known how to fly from the start, would the journey from Jiang City to Ming Pearl Port have taken this long? Would I have had to encounter so many of those damn zombies?’

But alas, there were no ’if onlys’ in this world.

Xu Mo’s powered paraglider was a single-seater. He had filled the tank before leaving Pinggu City, but its range was very limited—it could only fly for a little over a hundred kilometers at most.

After flying for the better part of the morning, Xu Mo noticed his fuel was running low.

So, Xu Mo began to pilot the paraglider to a lower altitude. It was then that he saw a plume of dust rising from the ground below.

It was dust kicked up by a moving vehicle, especially conspicuous in the wilderness. Behind the dust cloud, a dark figure was sprinting frantically, chasing the vehicle.

Xu Mo’s gaze sharpened. He recognized the silhouette of a fiend.

What happened next was a matter of course.

Xu Mo maneuvered the paraglider closer, raised his Barrett in mid-air, took aim at the fiend, and fired. A follow-up shot finished it.

Only after landing did Xu Mo say what he had said earlier...

He had spoken nonchalantly, but the reaction of the two people in front of him was somewhat surprising.

They were certainly shocked—Xu Mo had seen that kind of shock many times before. But besides shock, there was something else in their eyes: confusion and hope.

A thought struck Xu Mo.

"Do you know of Ming Pearl Port?" Xu Mo asked. "You should, right?"

He looked at the two of them, awaiting their answer.

Zhong and Bingbing glanced at each other, their expressions growing even more complicated. There was an indefinable mix of something else in there, like memory, and also like fear.

After a few seconds of silence, it was Bingbing who spoke first.

"Of course we know it." Her voice was a little hoarse, as if she were trying hard to control something. "We used to be from Ming Pearl Port."

Xu Mo’s pupils contracted slightly.

’They *used to be* from Ming Pearl Port? What does "used to be" mean?’

"It’s just..." Bingbing paused, taking a deep breath. "Later, Ming Pearl Port was breached. We all fled from there."

Ming Pearl Port was breached!

Those five words struck Xu Mo’s heart like a heavy hammer.

"It’s not safe here. We can talk on the way."

Seeing the silent Xu Mo, Bingbing spoke, then helped him pack up his paraglider. She also retrieved the Crystal Core from the fiend’s head and handed it to him, after which the three of them left the area.