Chapter 215 - 199: Infection

Chapter 215: Chapter 199: Infection

"And then what?"

Yu Dong had been trying to investigate the disappearance of their cargo ship’s crew.

He even wondered if some massive creature in the ocean had been infected by the zombie virus. Although Ji Luo had said it was fine for fish to drink Zombie Blood, what if there was another method of infection?

"Then all the fish died. They didn’t mutate. I studied them using tissue slices, and this virus doesn’t invade fish cells. It’s a virus that specifically targets human cells... That’s why we don’t see any zombie dogs, zombie cats, or zombie cockroaches on the streets."

"Oh... well, that’s good news. At least we won’t be killed by some weird-ass creatures."

"If that were all, it would indeed be good news... But during my experiments, I discovered another phenomenon."

"Although the zombie virus doesn’t infect fish, the virus from a mutated zombie can infect regular zombies. I’ve already cultivated a Bloater."

"Huh???"

"After a zombie mutates, if its own mutated virus is injected into the body of another regular zombie, there’s a chance the injected zombie will also mutate. I don’t have a large sample size here. I used about ten regular zombies, and so far, one of them has had its skin tissue start to swell and its stomach bloat. It’s mutated into something similar to a Bloater. I haven’t tested it with Climbers yet, but I will..."

"Hiss... I get it now. This must be why the officials said the chance of mutated zombies appearing in a horde is higher. Once there’s one mutated zombie in a horde, it can infect others and create more mutants!"

This reminded Yu Dong of his death in his past life, when a massive number of Climbers had swarmed up the building from the zombie tide.

"By the way, Yu Dong, about those three conditions for mutation you mentioned... they’re not entirely accurate. There should only be two conditions. Rain isn’t one of them."

"But the mutated zombies appeared right after the first rainfall."

"Yes... the appearance of mutated zombies after rain is a correlation, not a cause. The real reason is likely that rain causes zombies to cluster together for shelter, leading to hording behavior. When they’re clustered, zombies can infect each other. Some zombies that have eaten human flesh undergo a strange mutation, and when they’re in a horde, they have a chance to infect other zombies. This increases the number of mutated zombies, making it seem like they appeared after the rain, when in reality, the very first mutated ones just hadn’t been found yet. I’ve studied the rainwater from last time, and it contained no viruses or special substances. It was just ordinary rain."

’So, there are really only two conditions for zombie mutation... The officials were right, and what Wang said was wrong.’

Well, it wasn’t exactly wrong. In his past life, Wang Dingbei had only observed the phenomenon, whereas Meng Dongqing had identified the true cause in her lab.

"Yes, flesh-eating and hording. The former is most likely the fundamental condition for mutation, while the latter is the means of transmission... It’s a shame. There’s no way to experiment on how much flesh-eating it takes to trigger a mutation."

Meng Dongqing’s words sent a shiver down Yu Dong’s spine.

"That’s not an experiment we should be running, Professor Meng."

"Haha... that’s all the information for now. If I have any new research findings, I’ll let you know."

"Okay."

Professor Meng Dongqing had begun her in-depth research on the zombie virus, and she had given Yu Dong an extremely important piece of information.

Mutated zombies could infect regular zombies!

This news was explosive!

’That’s not right... If this is true, the officials in my past life should have reached this conclusion easily. Why was it never mentioned on the radio?’

Wang Dingbei asked, "The official broadcast?"

"Yeah."

"What other reason could there be? Besides causing more panic, what good would telling the public do? According to this, we’ll be facing massive numbers of mutated zombies in the future... In the eyes of ordinary people, humanity would be doomed. If everyone loses hope, the world will descend into chaos. Believe it or not, the news you just heard? The armies everywhere in your past life probably already knew about it."

’Is that so...’ Yu Dong understood. In his past life, Qiao Yunliang had also done his best to give them hope, shouldering all that pressure by himself.

The people needed hope.

"So, this information stops with the three of us. Don’t spread it any further. Even if you know that zombie hordes will create more and more mutants, what can you do? We can only do our best to handle our own affairs. Fortunately, the Climbers aren’t too terrifying. At least we can deal with them."

Lin Mo strongly agreed with Wang Dingbei’s words. "That’s right, Yu Dong. Our current strategy is already focused on destroying smaller zombie tides and reducing the occurrence of hording. The strategy itself is sound."

"I understand. Then we’re in a race against time. We need to use our zombie-tide fortifications to quickly eliminate the smaller tides ahead of schedule. At the very least, we need to eliminate the breeding grounds for mutated zombies in our vicinity."

Time waits for no one!

After the golden ten days, every remaining day was the best time to eliminate zombies.

Because... every day from now on, clearing out zombies would be harder than it was today!

Yu Dong somewhat regretted letting everyone rest for the day.

He picked up the map and continued to study it.

"There are three residential compounds east of the university. This time, we won’t take them on one by one. We’ll lure them all out, lead them all into the corpse pits of the T-shaped fortification, and burn them!"

"We’re in a race against the zombies’ evolution!"

If they waited until all the zombies had evolved, they would probably be finished.

"Lin Mo, call Qiao. Tell him that once he gets the ammunition, he shouldn’t wander around. He needs to rendezvous with us at full speed. We have to get to the military sub-district for ammo quickly."

After Lin Mo made the call, Qiao Yunliang said on the other end:

"Perfect timing, I was just about to contact you. Last night, I received a classified document from my superiors... about evolved zombies. It’s not supposed to be disclosed, but you guys are practically part of our system, so it’s not really a leak. The document is titled ’Report on the Infection of Regular Zombies by Mutated Zombies.’"

The three of them looked at each other, speechless.

...

「Day 25 of the Apocalypse.」

After the first batch of ten trainees mastered the basics of using crossbows and spears, they joined the combat team!

The combat team expanded to 56 members.

Yu Chengfei and Yang Ze began training the second batch of 15 vetted Ocean University students, who had also volunteered to join the combat team.

Meanwhile, Yu Dong assigned the other students to various development teams to assist with their progress.

Zhou’s chemistry workshop had the most people. Not only was it steadily producing a large number of Molotov cocktails, but Zhou was also separating coal and heavy oil to create even more terrifying chemicals...

Wang Xiuying’s greenhouse vegetables were also coming along nicely. She was working with several university students who had taken farming for granted, providing fresh vegetables for the cruise ship.

Huang Henian had been fishing less recently. He was raising a lot of live fish and shrimp at B Port to provide food for the cruise ship, which also served as excellent bait for Yu Dong and the others to lure zombies.

Occasionally, when he saw a zombie floating by, he still couldn’t resist casting a line to feel the pull of a ’trophy-sized fish’.

The new energy development team gathered all the solar panels Yu Dong’s group had collected from various public facilities and residential buildings. They also salvaged some public energy storage stations and car batteries to build their own solar charging station at B Port.

This solved the charging problem for their new energy vehicles, and they supplied some of the electricity to the city defense team.

Using professional equipment Yu Dong had purchased before the apocalypse, the city defense team set up a high-voltage electric fence specifically to guard against Climbers.

All the major development teams were resuming production to protect the port.

Yu Dong had grown even more urgent recently.

He had the logistics team clean out the three corpse pits in the T-shaped zombie-tide fortification, then eagerly led the combat team to start clearing the three residential compounds to the east.

Once again, they triggered a small-scale zombie tide!

The freshly cleaned corpse pits were filled with zombies and set ablaze once more!

Because they needed to use the fortifications to kill zombies, and also transport coal from the rear and build various temporary structures, the logistics team expanded again!

It grew from 60 people to 80!

They spent two days dealing with the zombies from three densely populated residential compounds!

More survivors joined the cruise ship settlement.

After dealing with this small zombie tide, Yu Dong didn’t let them rest. Faced with some complaints, he directly raised the pay for both teams significantly!

The combat team’s daily wage reached 200 points, and the logistics team’s reached 160 points.

"Yu Dong, if you do this, those two teams won’t have any complaints, but our overall wage level will be thrown completely out of whack. The people working back at the base will be earning far too little compared to them."

Yu Dong’s reckless move made Lin Mo a little angry.

"There’s no other way. The people in these two teams are truly exhausted. If you have to, just give the people back at base a small raise."

"But then our resource consumption rate will also increase, and the whole cycle will be broken. The consumption of cigarettes and alcohol has been rising sharply every day, and electricity usage has multiplied. It’s because everyone has too many points in their hands and they can afford to indulge."

"Then figure out a way to overcome it. We have to be fast!"

Yu Dong really didn’t have time for the slow-burn motivational speeches Lin Mo was suggesting. He needed to use material incentives to push them forward and kill zombies at high intensity!

Subsequent recruits were also being continuously screened and trained.

And so, Yu Dong charged eastward along Binhai Avenue, pushing for speed.

The military was advancing from the other end, heading west to meet Yu Dong.

The two sides were clearing the way together!

...

「One month later.」

Yu Dong and the 80-person combat team were walking along Binhai Avenue. They were getting closer and closer to the military.

After cracking a few more tough nuts, they would be able to rendezvous.

As they walked, Yu Dong looked out at the sea. Faintly, he saw a ship drifting on the distant horizon.

"Wait, is that our missing ship? Drone, go take a look!"

After Liu Ye’ye’s reconnaissance drone flew over, it revealed the cargo ship was empty. A dead silence hung over it.

"It’s empty, Senpai."

"Wait... what’s that in the water next to it?"

The camera focused. In the water near the cargo ship, there were zombies whose bodies had swollen into spheres, blanketing the surface in a dense mass.

They were just like the ones Huang Henian had been fishing up every day.