Industrial Cthulhu doesn't believe in the end times.

Chapter 107 The Tilted Scales

While the young couple in the safe zone were planning their wedding, Su Xun had already embarked on his journey back to the Taimon base.

The grand convoy once again entered the highway, and each unit set off one by one.

For the main force, the road back was relatively clear. They had already gathered the survivors along the way when they came, and even if they needed to speed up their journey later, they had made records of the survivor groups that had stayed behind. During their time in Haiqu, someone had already led them to the safe zone.

As a result, when passing through various villages and towns again, it was rare to see any living people, with only a few wandering zombies emitting eerie roars.

The desolation of ten thousand households and the singing of ghosts—there is no more fitting description than this.

When the troops passed through a village, they took a short rest, and an officer came to report the situation to Su Xun.

"Report to the Commander-in-Chief! The convoy encountered 51 Tier 1 zombies, 12 Tier 2 zombies, and 1 Tier 3 zombie along the way. All have been killed, and there were no casualties!"

"We've encountered a Tier 3?"

"Yes, it is suspected to be a third-tier body enhancement mutation. After the firepower reconnaissance battalion conducted fire coverage on the zombie settlement in Xiaoyujiadun Village, they discovered a zombie with relatively minor physical damage that had not been completely killed. A spiritual energy crystal was found inside its body, so it was determined to be a third-tier existence."

Someone brought over a box, which Su Xun opened. Inside was a blood-red crystal. He was extremely familiar with this thing; it was indeed something that would form inside a third-tier zombie.

Su Xun did hear a cannon shot, but he didn't expect to gain something unexpected. A third-tier zombie, even if it wasn't a proper mentally mutated zombie lord, was already capable of influencing a small number of ordinary zombies. It could be considered a minor leader among zombies and could launch a small-scale group attack.

If the zombie horde could have formed, it might have posed some obstacle to the advancing team, but now it has been directly killed in the fire reconnaissance. To be honest, as a third-tier zombie, this way of dying is a bit frustrating.

Su Xun closed the box, handed it back, and instructed, "Zombie crystals are much more dangerous than alien crystals. Whether it's collection, transportation, or storage, you must strictly follow the procedures and regulations to prevent accidents."

"At the same time, don't give up on what you can collect just because it's dangerous. If these things are left exposed in the wild, they could very well spawn new high-level zombies."

The types of zombie mutations are basically the same as human superpowers, but their path to advancement is very different from that of humans.

Human advancement depends on knowledge and willpower, but instinct is equally important. There was a saying among the high-level superhumans in Su Xun's previous life that spiritual power would provide the answer, which speaks to the dependence of advancement on instinct.

Everyone has a unique physique and different talents. In reality, there is no standardized method that can guide everyone's progress. What works for one person may not work for another.

The saying goes that scholars who merely imitate others will die. For advanced experiences, it is necessary to learn from them according to one's own conditions. However, if one blindly copies them, the outcome will often not be good.

This situation gave rise to some forms of master-disciple inheritance in Su Xun's previous life, but the situation in this life is very different. How to study a teaching method that is more suitable for the present is also one of the tasks that Su Xun will study when he returns to the base.

Getting back to the point, zombies are basically driven by instinct, and they crave the favor of the collective will, which makes their evolution far more savage than that of humans.

The fastest way to advance is naturally to eat people. Devouring the spiritual energy crystals left behind by high-level zombies is also an excellent choice. Their advancement speed is often faster, but when they use their mutation abilities, they are more instinctive and their methods are far less flexible than those of humans.

So, setting aside their numerical advantage, zombies are actually relatively weak in combat. This habit persisted even after they developed intelligence, continuing into higher levels.

The most typical example is the natural disaster Mahishi, an existence formed from zombies, who is actually the weakest among the many tier 10 beings. Of course, a tier 10 being is still a tier 10 being; it can't be that weak. It is precisely because of Mahishi's 'weakness' that it can remain awake and active for a longer period of time. Whether this is an advantage or a disadvantage is hard to say.

However, the time for natural disasters to occur in the real world is still far off, and the increase in the number of survivors means that the number of living people eaten by zombies has decreased significantly. This, in turn, means that the overall growth of the zombies' strength has slowed down considerably compared to the previous life.

With each side gaining and losing, the balance of power has already shifted.

Even if this world has to compete with natural disasters, Su Xun no longer worries too much. Humanity has already stood on the same starting line as those peak beings, and even slightly ahead. The future world will definitely not be a world of natural disasters.

……

Taimon Base.

The division of the blocks under the jurisdiction of each hub base in the post-apocalyptic world is based to some extent on the administrative divisions of the civilized era. This facilitates hierarchical management and the transfer of materials. Some more remote areas within this division actually rely on some additional transit stations to transmit signals. These transit stations are built using superconducting materials and cannot achieve nationwide interconnection.

This results in some blocks being able to connect to shelters further away within the same block, while those closer outside the block seem to be separated by an insurmountable chasm.

But now, this problem has been solved. A powerful spiritual energy fluctuation was emitted through an antenna the size of the entire base. After touching the gale layer, it was reflected to a distant place. And those signals that were originally extremely weak and difficult to distinguish were now captured by this huge spiritual energy antenna.

Qin Chang stood in the base command center, looking excited.

"Quickly, first confirm the basic situation in other areas, compile it into a document, and send it to Commander Su, who is still on his way. The sooner the better!"

The communication disruptions that lasted for days were like a huge fog of war covering the entire world. Survivors who had lived through the civilized era could hardly bear the feeling of being blinded.

The initial completion of this communication device is like a ray of sunlight piercing through the gloom. Although it cannot completely dispel the darkness, it seems to allow people to see a brighter future.

Moreover, the function of establishing such a broadcasting mechanism goes far beyond simply sending broadcast signals to other regions; there is still a considerable amount of technology waiting to be developed behind it.

"Commander Qin, look at this!" An old engineer from the research area walked over with a document. Qin Chang had been dealing with this group of people a lot recently, and seeing the joy on his face, he knew that there was another technological breakthrough.

As expected, the contents of the document represent a more in-depth application of the spiritual energy broadcasting technology.

"Thank you for your hard work, Engineer Liu. These things are very important, and we need to produce results as soon as possible. The chief commander is already on his way back, and it would be best to finish them before he returns so we can give him a surprise. I wonder if there are any difficulties?"

The engineer surnamed Liu pondered for a moment: "Although the principle is relatively simple, it may not be easy to actually do it. If we really want to do it..."

A smile appeared on his face: "If it can be done so quickly, I would like to borrow Comrade Tao Yue again to go to the research area to help out."

Tao Yue, who was sitting in a corner of the control center, was dozing off while holding the Hetu oracle bone when she suddenly felt a chill. She looked up and met the gazes of two old men.

(End of this chapter)