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

Chapter 258 The Establishment of the Northern Shelter

In the early morning, the engine of the modified off-road vehicle roared in the silence. Xiao Ran gripped the steering wheel tightly, and the car bumped and jolted away from the city's main road.

The military's blockade came faster and tighter than expected, forcing them to plunge into the rugged mountain roads.

The scenery along the way was disheartening. The vegetation on both sides was no longer the normal green, but a sickly purple of varying shades, as if it had been eroded from the inside out by something.

Small animal carcasses, shriveled and twisted, can be seen from time to time by the roadside.

A pungent smell of metal and decay filled the air.

Xiao Ran's driving skills were superb; the car moved like a nimble wild beast through the rocks, but he was still forced to stop several times. He jumped out of the car and used an entrenching tool to clear the fallen trees that were blocking the road.

Lin Che sat alone in the back seat, looking down at a portable monitor on his wrist.

The screen displayed a number representing the degree of his body's transformation: 25%.

This figure remained unchanged after leaving the fortress, but as the off-road vehicle ventured deeper into the mountains, the number began to fluctuate at an imperceptible pace: 25.1%, 25.2%...

Su Wanqing didn't look out the window; her attention was entirely focused on her own thoughts.

On the light blue interface, Lu Zhao's real-time information feed kept refreshing.

The outer defenses of the fortress have been reinforced by 70%. Xiaoling and Xiaoyu are in stable condition.

[Abnormal energy fluctuations in the city's core area have led to a 75% probability of time rifts appearing, based on current model projections.]

This message made Su Wanqing frown slightly. Time was running out.

When the car reached the foot of the mountain, the road ahead completely disappeared.

A landslide of moderate size completely blocked the cement road leading to the abandoned mine, leaving only a steep slope of scree.

"Looks like I'll have to use my legs." Xiao Ran turned off the engine and dragged three tactical backpacks, which were stuffed full, out of the trunk.

The three checked their equipment, hung the necessary tools and weapons on their bodies, and began to climb the mountain.

With each step they took, a fine cloud of purple dust rose up, sticking to their trouser legs and shoes, carrying an ominous aura.

Around noon, they finally stood in front of the entrance to the first abandoned mine shaft.

The dark entrance resembled the mouth of a giant beast, much wider than it appeared on the map.

Looking inside, the space is deep and large enough to hold thousands of people, but it is full of rubble and rotten wooden supports, clearly indicating that the internal structure is very unstable.

Xiao Ran turned on his tactical flashlight, scanned the cave walls and the rock strata on the ceiling, and stomped his foot on the ground.

"The main supporting structure is old, but the rock mass itself is still relatively intact. If the key nodes are reinforced with steel beams and concrete pillars, it will be fine for people to live there in the short term."

He provided a professional assessment.

Su Wanqing thought for a moment, then brought up the system interface and found the building materials option in the resource exchange list.

[Consumes 2000 rebate points.]

The next second, on a relatively flat open space outside the cave entrance, piles of steel beams, bagged concrete, generators, and various engineering tools appeared out of thin air.

Xiao Ran paused for a moment and looked at Su Wanqing.

"Use the supplies from special channels first," Su Wanqing explained succinctly.

The three immediately divided the work. Xiao Ran, relying on his knowledge of military engineering, began to plan the defensive fortifications and structural reinforcement schemes, and designed temporary checkpoints and isolation zones at the entrance of the cave.

Su Wanqing was in charge of planning the interior space, using a marker to mark out the future living area, medical area, and material storage area on the ground.

"I'll go check out the water source inside," Lin Che said, and walked alone into the depths of the mine.

Not long after, he returned with a hint of joy on his face: "The deep groundwater is still clean and unpolluted. I can perform secondary purification."

Halfway through the work, Lin Che, who was testing the stability of the rock wall inside the cave, suddenly stopped.

“Wait,” he whispered, “something is approaching… a lot of it, not ordinary animals.”

Su Wanqing and Xiao Ran immediately put down their tools, picked up their weapons, and quickly walked to the cave entrance to stand guard.

Following Lin Che's gaze, they saw a dozen mutated goats approaching them from the distant hillside.

Those creatures were a size larger than normal sheep, with extra, asymmetrical horns and proliferating limbs, and their eyes gleamed with an eerie purple light.

Their movements subtly exhibited a sense of order and discipline, unlike chaotic wild beasts; rather, they resembled soldiers commanded by some kind of intelligence.

The purple-eyed goat spotted them, let out a piercing screech, and charged at full speed.

"Fire!" Xiao Ran roared, raising his rifle and firing precisely at the target.

The bullet struck the foremost mutated goat, causing it to burst into a spray of blood, but it only made it stagger and did not stop its charge.

Conventional weapons have very limited effectiveness.

Su Wanqing immediately started operating on the system interface.

[Activating the basic energy barrier consumes 300 points.]

A semi-transparent blue light barrier instantly formed at the cave entrance, temporarily blocking the mutated creature's attack.

But more things were drawn to it. On the other side of the hillside, several mutated brown bears appeared, each a giant and standing up to three meters tall.

Lin Che glanced at the monitor on his wrist; the reading had jumped to 35%.

He looked at Su Wanqing: "I have to use my abilities, otherwise the barrier alone won't last long, and we won't be able to complete the construction of the shelter." "Your body..." Su Wanqing's tone was full of worry, "You're already close to the safety threshold."

"It's worth taking this risk to save more people," Lin Che replied calmly.

He walked to the edge of the energy barrier and placed his hands on the cold, wet ground.

In an instant, blue lines spread from his palms, spreading across his entire body like lightning, and his eyes turned pure gold.

He made a strange, low sound from his throat that was completely unlike any human language.

A shocking scene unfolded. The frenzied mutated creatures outside the cave seemed to have been paused; their attacks abruptly ceased, and they even began to slowly retreat out of some unknown fear.

Lin Che's voice became somewhat mechanical and hollow: "They will leave temporarily, but I... cannot control them for long."

Just then, the monitor on his wrist emitted a sharp alarm.

The numbers on the screen skyrocketed, jumping over the 40% threshold and settling at 45%.

"Enough, Lin Che! Stop right now!" Su Wanqing stepped forward, trying to grab him.

But he seemed to be in a daze, his golden pupils unfocused, yet he continued to output his power, as if he wanted to further expand the range of control.

Finally, Xiao Ran rushed forward, forcibly pulled his hand off the ground, and supported his swaying body.

Lin Che suddenly snapped back to reality as if he had been electrocuted, breathing heavily and looking frighteningly pale.

The blue lines that had spread to his neck and parts of his cheeks did not fade away immediately when his abilities ceased.

The cost of controlling the mutated creatures quickly became apparent.

When Lin Che returned to the mine to rest, his condition deteriorated rapidly.

He began to experience brief periods of memory confusion, suddenly asking, "Why are we here?" before returning to normal a few seconds later.

On one occasion, he even whispered a few words to the empty cave wall in a language no one could understand.

His responses to Su Wanqing and Xiao Ran's concerned inquiries became somewhat sluggish, and his way of looking at problems seemed to be shifting towards a purely rational, "dehumanized" direction.

"Stop all work," Su Wanqing decided. "We must stabilize his condition first."

She contacted Lu Zhao, who was far away in the city fortress, through the system and described Lin Che's symptoms.

Lu Zhao replied quickly, but the content made her heart sink.

According to data model analysis, his gene transformation has approached the point of irreversibility.

If he uses his ability at a high intensity again in a short period of time, there is a very high probability that he will permanently lose his human consciousness.

A dilemma lay before them: without Lin Che's ability to suppress it, the construction of the shelter would be constantly threatened by mutated creatures, and the progress would be extremely slow; but if they continued to let him use his ability, they might completely lose Lin Che as their "comrade".

During her lunch break, Su Wanqing kept an eye on Lin Che's condition while also glancing at the city map provided by the system.

An unexpected discovery caught her attention: suspicious transfers of supplies had occurred in several large community centers and schools throughout the city.

She zoomed in on the surveillance footage and saw that all those places had the same sign—a green triangle with a red cross inside.

These people acted in a very orderly manner, as if they were under unified command.

She thought for a moment and ordered the system to attempt to infiltrate the internal network of one of the locations.

Seconds later, a document was cracked. It was a grassroots self-help organization called "Green Ark," whose core members consisted of veterans, doctors, and teachers.

They also learned of the military's "purification protocol" for the impending nuclear strike through their own internal channels.

Su Wanqing immediately sent an instruction to Lu Zhao: [Try to establish contact with this 'Green Ark'; they might become our allies.]

Lu Zhao quickly replied: [Communication channel confirmed. The leader is Jiang Hui, a former special forces soldier.]

They planned to secretly relocate at least 5,000 civilians to the eastern mountains within 24 hours.

This discovery was like a ray of light shining into a suffocating predicament.

If we can cooperate with them, the scale of the rescue will far exceed expectations.

After a heated discussion, Su Wanqing and Xiao Ran reached a compromise on Lin Che's situation.

Lin Che will use his abilities under strict restrictions, on a small scale and with low intensity, merely to drive away mutated creatures near the mine area, and will never again use them for large-scale forced control.

At the same time, Su Wanqing spent another 1500 rebate points to exchange for several "gene stabilizers," which, when injected into Lin Che, could temporarily slow down his transformation process.

Under this arrangement, the three of them resumed their work and became highly efficient.

By evening, the first safe zone, which could accommodate approximately two thousand people, had been initially cleared and reinforced.

System scans confirmed that the structure here meets safety standards, and the rock layer thickness is sufficient to block more than 80% of the initial radiation from a nuclear explosion.

Xiao Ran already had the map in hand and began planning the renovation scheme for the second shelter.

Su Wanqing then coordinated with Lu Zhaoyuan remotely to prepare for the next phase of the city evacuation plan.

Lin Che sat quietly in the shadows of the corner. He stared at his arm covered with blue patterns, which seemed to glow faintly in the dim light.

He spoke to himself in a barely audible voice.

"I can hear their voices... getting clearer... They're... calling me..."