After stocking up at the maximum level, all the handsome men in the apocalypse are looking for suppo

Chapter 252 City Reconnaissance After the Storm
The fortress's ventilation system emitted a soft hum. Su Wanqing stared at the city scan map on the system interface; the markers of the purple storm clouds were fading at the edges.

She reached out and tapped the control panel, the metal surface vibrating with a subtle echo—this was how she judged the time; in her previous life, she always heard this sound at six in the morning.

"Six o'clock sharp." Lu Zhao pushed up his glasses, and the time on the screen jumped to 06:00:00.

Su Wanqing looked up and the emergency lights in the fortress dimmed automatically, revealing a faint purplish-red glow through the ventilation openings.

She pulled up the scan image and tapped several green lines with her finger: "There is a safe passage in both the northeast and southwest areas, with pollution indices below 30%."

Lin Che clipped the mutation detector that Lu Zhao handed him to his waist, the metal buckle clicking loudly.

He carried the medical kit in his other hand, the canvas strap leaving shallow marks on his palm.

Xiao Ran had already checked the lenses of the military binoculars. The rubber casing was still warm from his body heat. He clipped the communicator to his collar, with the antenna hanging down to his collarbone.

"Xiao Ran, focus on the southwest direction and keep an eye on military movements." Su Wanqing folded the map into four sections and stuffed it into Xiao Ran's tactical uniform pocket. "You must be back in two hours."

Xiao Ran nodded, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the edge of his pocket. Lu Zhao suddenly reached out and pressed down on his shoulder: "Avoid the red area, and don't touch any purple liquid."

His tone was heavier than usual, and his gaze behind his glasses swept over the two men's shoe covers and gloves. "The mutant bacteria may penetrate through the skin."

Xiaoling had somehow ended up standing at the entrance of the passage, her hair still damp with beads of sweat from her meditation.

She stared at Lin Che's retreating figure, her voice as soft as a sigh: "There are eyes in the purple mist, don't let them see us."

Lin Che turned around, and Xiao Ling's red mole gleamed pale gold in the morning light. He opened his mouth, but in the end only said "I know," before turning to follow Xiao Ran.

The streets of the northeast district were quieter than he had imagined. Lin Che walked forward, stepping on broken glass. Two cars were diagonally wedged in the middle of the road, the driver's seat empty, with an unfinished sweater draped over the steering wheel—as if its owner had only finished knitting it halfway before being called away by something.

The oak trees in the park broke through the iron fence, and purple sap seeped from the cracks in their bark.

Lin Che squatted down, and the red light on the detector began to flash ten centimeters above the ground.

He took out the sampling tube and was about to touch the purple moss on the ground when a stray cat darted out from the bushes and placed its front paws on the moss.

The cat's meow was stuck in its throat. Lin Che watched helplessly as its fur rapidly fell off, its muscles atrophied at a visible speed, and three seconds later, only a dried-up corpse remained, even its bones turning grayish-white.

He held his breath and used tweezers to pick up a small piece of moss and put it into the sampling tube.

He heard a metallic clanging sound coming from the direction of the supermarket. He moved closer to the wall and saw three white figures reflected in the glass window—the protective suits had no markings and the masks were covered with a layer of fog.

"The sample has a 42% contamination rate, exceeding the predicted value." One of them stuffed a medicine box into his backpack, his movements resembling those of someone organizing laboratory specimens. "Target area B has been located, but there's still no news about anchor point number five."

Another person lifted the shelf of canned goods, and the metal cans clattered to the ground: "The energy fluctuations at the anchor point are periodic, which may be related to the time field."

Lin Che's detector suddenly vibrated. Just as he was about to step back, the third person turned around abruptly.

The eyes behind the mask narrowed, and the other person raised a silver disc, a blue light sweeping across his chest: "Abnormal energy reaction, possibly Anchor Point Two!"

Lin Che took off running. He heard hurried footsteps behind him, and as he burst through the back door of the supermarket, mutated vines suddenly wrapped around his ankles.

He gritted his teeth and activated his ability; the blue markings on his arm burned, and the vines withered instantly.

By the time he turned into the alley, the white figure had already disappeared.

At the same time, Xiao Ran showed his credentials at the checkpoint in the southwest district.

The soldier's helmet was pulled low, and as he took the identification, he noticed purple spots peeking out from the soldier's cuff—the same symptoms seen on the patient's screen in the hospital.

"Let him through." The soldier slapped the ID back into his hand, his movements a beat slower than usual, as if he were being dragged along. A triple cordon had been set up around the water conservancy project. Xiao Ran lay prone behind the earthen slope, his pupils contracting at the sight through his binoculars.

Several people in white coats were installing a silver device on a cement block. The pattern on the base was exactly the same as the time field stabilizer drawn by Lu Zhao.

"The third group continues sampling, please keep your distance." An old man's voice came from the loudspeaker, and Xiao Ran's fingers paused—this voice was so similar to the recording of his father in Lu Zhao's video that even the ending of his cough was the same.

Suddenly, waves burst open on the water's surface. By the time Xiao Ran saw the dark figure, it had already leaped out of the water.

The five-meter-long fish was covered in purple scales, and the fluorescent light from its dorsal fin was so bright that it was hard to open one's eyes.

The soldiers' rifles began firing, bullets striking the scales and sparking. The fish lashed its tail, smashing an armored vehicle, and opened its mouth, spewing out purple mist.

The first soldier to be sprayed clutched his throat, his skin ulcerating at a visible rate.

Xiao Ran crouched down and reached for the scientist's tent. The computer was on, and the global map on the screen was full of red dots.

He quickly pressed the shutter button, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a piece of metal the size of a fingernail on the ground, with regular hexagonal edges—exactly the same shape as the remains of the Weaver from his previous life.

By the time he stuffed the metal plate into the lining of his tactical boot, the mutated fish had already crashed through half of the wall.

As he evacuated alongside the truck, he heard an officer shout into his walkie-talkie, "Activate Level Two Alert, all non-essential personnel," but the rest of his words were drowned out by the explosion.

As the fortress's metal doors closed behind the two men, the wall clock pointed to 08:02.

Lu Zhao took the sampling tube from Lin Che. As soon as the readings from the detector appeared, his fingers trembled: "Time-accelerated microbial flora, the aging rate of contact materials is increased by a hundredfold."

He looked up and said, "The spread rate is two meters per hour, and it will cover the entire Northeast region in three days."

Xiao Ran placed the metal plate from his tactical boots on the table. The system's blue scanning light swept over it, and a notification popped up: "Wreckage of the Weaver's Spaceship."

Xiaoling and Xiaoyu came closer. Xiaoyu reached out and touched the metal piece, her eyes gleaming with silver light: "It's older than Earth, and it came from beyond the stars."

Xiaoling's red birthmark lit up: "It has existed in many worlds."

Lu Zhao quickly took notes on the tablet: "Time vision, their abilities complement each other."

He pushed up his glasses. "The man in white that Lin Che mentioned might be a Watcher."

"They were active in the early stages of their previous life, but later..." He didn't finish his sentence, then lowered his head and continued typing.

Su Wanqing's system suddenly emitted a piercing alarm, and red text flashed on her retina: [Time Observer's location success rate increased to 78%, it is recommended to relocate the base within 48 hours]

Lin Che touched the blue lines on his arm; the lines were deeper than before he left home.

Xiao Ran pulled up the photos taken by the military; the red dots on the global map looked like drops of blood.

Lu Zhao's fingers stopped on the keyboard, and when he looked up, his glasses reflected the light: "The situation is worse than expected."

Su Wanqing stared at the rebate points in the system, where a multiplier of 15x was flashing.

She placed her hand on the table, and the metal surface vibrated with a subtle echo: "Start expanding the fortress tonight, first build the biological purification device."

Xiaoling suddenly grabbed Xiaoyu's hand, and both girls' foreheads glowed at the same time.

In the holographic projection, purple moss in the northeast area is spreading rapidly, while mutated fish in the southwest area are swimming towards the city's pipes, flicking their tails.