Mobile Shelter

Chapter 162 An Abrupt End and the Collapse of the City

Upon seeing this, Lu Ziye's expression immediately became somewhat awkward. Then, just as Lu Ziye was about to take out the two metal cards he usually used from his pocket...

Perhaps sensing that Lu Ziye had murderous intent, a middle-aged man from the opposite crowd, with a face full of apology, stepped forward, pulling the ear of another boy who looked only sixteen or seventeen years old.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. It was just that the child was being ignorant. Luckily, no one was hurt."

95

Hearing what the other party said, Lu Ziye did not stop what he was doing. The two metal cards he had just taken out disappeared from his hand in the blink of an eye, as if they had identified their target.

However, the metal card, which had been invincible, suddenly loosened its grip on the boy's ear when it got close to the opponent, and the middle-aged man's entire arm then gleamed with a metallic sheen.

When the metal card is about to hit them, they cannot catch it accurately, so they can only swing their arms to knock the metal card away.

The metal card, after being attacked and deviating from its original target, did not fall directly to the ground. Instead, it spun in mid-air before returning to Lu Ziye's hand as usual.

Perhaps because they had attacked first and were in the wrong, the middle-aged man's smile did not disappear after he blocked the metal card's attack.

However, compared to the middle-aged man's deep composure, the young man's anger was displayed without reservation after he discovered the attack from the metal card.

Before the metal card could even be returned to Lu Ziye's hand, the young man immediately shouted angrily, "How dare you attack us who are adjusting salaries? Let's all fight back!"

"Kill them and seize their vehicles. With vehicles, we won't have to waste time and energy walking like this anymore."

The young man's words immediately caused a stir among the crowd, most of whom had originally migrated by vehicle.

However, due to various reasons, the vehicles they were traveling in could no longer move, so they had no choice but to abandon the vehicles and choose to walk.

Having walked for so long, I already knew the pain of migrating on foot. I thought that I would only have a chance to get a vehicle when I reached the next city.

But now that they have the opportunity to obtain a vehicle, everyone can teleport instantly. Even if it goes against their previous moral values ​​and they are likely to get injured in the process of seizing it, they don't want to give up this opportunity to get a vehicle.

The middle-aged man, who had been very polite, did not reprimand the young man after hearing his words, nor did he intend to ease the tense atmosphere.

Instead, they stood still and said nothing, as if letting things develop freely.

Upon seeing the reaction from the other side, Dong Qi and his group immediately realized that the middle-aged man's actions were merely a performance to lower their guard.

On the other hand, if the other party truly wanted to apologize, they should have appeared and apologized as soon as Lu Ziye's windshield was smashed. Why would they only apologize after their second sneak attack failed?

The reason he came out to apologize at this time was because he realized that Dong Qi and his group were not easy to mess with, so he stepped forward to ease the tension.

But after seeing Lu Ziye take action without hesitation, and confirming that everyone else on his side, whether willingly or not, had been passively dragged into the fray, he no longer concealed his malice.

Just as the battle between the two sides was about to break out, perhaps because the crowd had lingered for too long, the situation changed.

On both sides of the highway, dense mounds of earth gradually rose up. Then, one by one, the mounds broke open, and mutated insects crawled out of the broken mounds.

Neither side, aware of the situation, took immediate action.

Dong Qi and his group were actually alright. After all, the convoy members who got off the bus were all awakened individuals with superpowers. Even if they were besieged by the mutated insect swarm, it would be difficult for them to suffer too much harm.

But the group on the other side is different. If they are surrounded by the insect swarm, they not only have no vehicles to get around, but they also cannot quickly escape the swarm.

There weren't many awakened individuals with special abilities among the crowd, so when they discovered the swarm of mutated insects around them, although the other side didn't immediately end the standoff, there was still some commotion among the crowd.

Noticing the increasing number of mutated insects around them, Dong Qi and his group were in relatively good condition, but some of the people on the other side gradually began to panic.

Looking at the expressions on Dong Qi and the others' faces, they still seemed completely relaxed and unhurried, as if under no pressure.

Now, middle-aged people are left with only two choices.

The first option is to recklessly engage the opposing convoy in battle, braving the attacks of the mutated insects. As long as he can successfully seize their vehicles, any losses they suffer will be within his acceptable range.

But seeing that the other party remained relaxed and unhurried in the face of the sudden insect swarm, one could guess that the people who stepped forward were probably all awakened individuals with superpowers.

Therefore, middle-aged people don't think they have a high chance of successfully snatching a vehicle from someone else.

Therefore, after much hesitation, the middle-aged man finally gave up the idea and chose a safer option: to leave the area before the insect swarm surrounded them.

After all, these people are mostly his relatives and clansmen. He had finally managed to gather them together and win their sincere allegiance.

Having already designated these individuals as the core of their future power struggle, they naturally do not want to risk any loss of these people.

Upon hearing the middle-aged man order a breakout and departure, the young man, though still somewhat angry, did not utter a word of protest and instead silently returned to the crowd.

Seeing that everyone resolutely carried out his orders, even if they had some reservations, the middle-aged man's smile became even more genuine.

As the other group moved slowly forward, Lu Ziye and his group remained in place without moving. Therefore, when the middle-aged man finally retreated slowly, he only glanced deeply at the convoy before leaving silently without threatening or making any harsh words.

After the group left, looking at the mutated insects that had surrounded and approached the vehicle, Lu Ziye said directly, "It's not suitable to go through the wilderness now. Let's go through the opposite lane."

Normally, fences or flower beds are used as barriers between the two lanes of a highway to prevent vehicles from driving in the wrong direction.

However, while this type of barrier can effectively isolate ordinary vehicles, it is completely ineffective against heavy vehicles that have undergone multiple modifications.

The other vehicles followed the lead car, which had forced its way through the intersection, and drove directly into the opposite lane.

With no obstacles in front of them, the convoy moved quickly and soon caught up with the group that had been confronting it earlier.

However, with the barrier in place, even though they had already spotted the convoy approaching, it was unlikely that they could block the road again as before.

Seeing the convoy approaching from behind and soon overtaking them, the young man was about to make some small moves when he was immediately stopped by the middle-aged man who was watching him closely.

Then the middle-aged man spoke up: "If you make a move now, then the two sides will really fight to the death."

I know you want to get your grandma a comfortable vehicle, but if it really comes to a fight to the death, no one can guarantee that the other side won't attack ordinary people during the battle.

Upon hearing what the middle-aged man said, the young man, who had been somewhat indignant, froze instantly. After hesitating for a long time, he finally watched helplessly as the vehicles drove away.

The convoy was traveling at a high speed on the clear road. To prevent accidents, the convoy returned to its original lane after getting away from the crowd.

"We'll reach the first supply point we were originally planning to go to not far ahead. Now that everyone has a general idea of ​​the situation in the city, shall we go and scout out this supply point?"

Upon hearing Lu Ziye's inquiry over the radio, Dong Qi immediately opened the map he had purchased and then checked the factory situation in the city where the supply point was located.

To Dong Qi's surprise, there were three large metal processing plants and one large metal smelting plant in the city's industrial park.

If nothing unexpected happens, even if the factory doesn't have a large quantity of raw materials in stock, Dong Qi can still obtain a considerable amount of metal materials just by collecting the smelting and processing equipment in the factory.

Therefore, upon hearing Lu Ziye's question on the radio, Dong Qi replied without hesitation, "I need to enter the industrial park to collect some metal materials for upgrading the vehicles."

After hearing Dong Qi say this, some others chimed in, "Everyone knows the current situation. The sooner we enter the city, the more supplies we can gather. I agree with Dong Qi's idea."

Subsequently, more and more team members echoed Dong Qi's ideas on the team radio.

After all, no one is stupid. In the current world, the further we go, the fewer opportunities there will be to obtain industrial products as easily as we do now.

Although they had only been away from Kyoto for a short time, they had not used up much of the supplies they had brought with them.

But don't forget that they all own heavily modified vehicles; at the very least, they have enough power to tow other vehicles.

If it's difficult to find a vehicle that can still run normally right now, it's not difficult to find vehicles that can't run normally in the city.

So once they enter the city, they just need to find a vehicle with a large carrying capacity and use it as a temporary warehouse.

As for the extra fuel consumption from towing vehicles, don't forget that temporary warehouses can also be used as fuel depots.

Not to mention, if you're lucky enough to encounter a tanker truck, its transport capacity can definitely guarantee the fuel consumption of the entire fleet for a long time.

Therefore, with everyone's consent, the convoy left the highway and headed directly to a nearby city.

"Everyone, I need to go to the industrial park to collect metal materials, so I will have to separate from you temporarily. You will go into the city to collect supplies, while I will go to the industrial park to collect metal materials."

After hearing Dong Qi's words, Lu Ziye asked, "Do you need someone to accompany you?"

"No need. At this time, the danger level in the industrial park should not be high. In addition, apart from metal raw materials, there shouldn't be many useful resources there."

So you guys should go to the city to resupply, I'll go to the industrial park by myself.

I estimate it will take me about two days. If you finish resupplying ahead of time, you don't need to wait for me. Just leave a clear marker at the highway exit, and I will follow the highway to catch up with you.

If I don't see the marks you left at the highway exit, I will wait for you there for two days.

If I don't see you within two days, I will also leave a clear sign at the highway exit to remind you that I have left.

After hearing Dong Qi say this, no one objected. After all, even if there were still some supplies in the industrial park, the quantity should not be large.

The reason they were willing to enter the supply point to collect supplies again, even though their reserves were not much used up.

It's all to store up more resources in advance, so that it won't become too difficult to obtain resources later when the difficulty of collecting resources increases.

Because the industrial park is located outside the city, Dong Qi had already separated from the convoy before they even got close to the city.

After leaving the convoy, to prevent any accidents, Dong Qi launched four drones to patrol around his assigned vehicle.

Just as Dong Qi had predicted, the industrial park did not show signs of decay or desolation, but it was a scene of utter desolation.

This time, when entering the industrial park, Dong Qi did not choose to honk the horn as he had done before, hoping to lure out the mutants hidden in the corners of the buildings.

Instead, they simply closed the car windows to isolate the air inside and outside the car. Although collecting metal materials would inevitably cause some noise, it would be better to remain as quiet as possible.

Just as Dong Qi was peacefully collecting metal materials in the industrial park, the somewhat chaotic situation in Kyoto gradually stabilized.

Leaving aside the fact that the original urban area has been occupied by mutants and there are basically no Blue Star creatures left to survive, let's talk about the newly completed survival base.

Having already suffered several large-scale attacks from mutated insect swarms, the imperial court has finally confirmed that the number of mutated insects, which was originally thought to be endless, has been greatly reduced after multiple battles.

The insect swarms initially attacked relentlessly for three consecutive days, ignoring casualties. In the middle stage, large-scale swarms occurred only every two or three days. Recently, only sporadic mutated insects have appeared around the base.

Only then did the imperial court belatedly realize that the mutated insects lurking underground around the base had apparently been almost entirely killed by them.

In this battle against the mutated insects, the most outstanding performers were not the awakened ones with various superpowers, but the large war weapons that were designed and built specifically to deal with those giant mutated marine creatures.

When fighting those mutated insects, those large war machines didn't need to wield their heavy weapons at all. They could simply move around the battlefield and crush all the mutated insects in their path.

Even when those mutated insects fought desperately against these steel monsters, they could not inflict any damage on those steel behemoths.

Therefore, even though those steel behemoths consume a lot of energy, in order to prevent those mutated insects from getting close to the survivor base, the imperial court can only frequently use those large-scale war weapons when facing a large-scale insect swarm.

Unfortunately, while these large war machines are very powerful in open field battles, they are not suitable for urban warfare.

Putting aside other aspects, the first thing these large weapons of war will do when they enter a city is to cause serious damage to the roads.

Therefore, the imperial court has not yet found a suitable way to deal with the humanoid mutant creatures that have taken over the city.

Although at this time the survival base had gathered many awakened individuals, as well as soldiers who had been safely evacuated from the original camp.

However, for the sake of the future safety of the survival base, the Kyoto government was unwilling to needlessly lose its security forces in order to clear out the mutants in the city.

After all, putting aside other aspects, the residents of the Kyoto city area that they originally governed had already been relocated to the survival base.

To put it bluntly, the original jurisdiction of the city was still in the hands of the Phoenix City government, and they had previously argued with high-ranking officials in Phoenix City about the ownership of the capital city.

Although they are currently accepting high-ranking Phoenix officials into the survivor base, if one were to consider the darker aspects...

Even if we take over Kyoto now, there are not many living people left in Kyoto. After taking over Kyoto, we will definitely need to allocate some residents from the survival base to the area.

Otherwise, if we take it over but don't send someone to occupy it, then it would be a waste of effort.

And most importantly, after the residents are relocated, who would be willing to give up their current safe environment to manage the residents in the urban area?

If the Phoenix City officials, who are now largely idle, continue to manage the city as before, then all their hard work in eliminating the mutants in the city will only benefit others.

Therefore, after much consideration, even knowing that the mutants existing in Kyoto city were an unstable and dangerous source, they decided to proceed.

However, the Kyoto government maintained a laissez-faire attitude.

At this time, only a very small number of high-ranking officials in the Kyoto government knew that three sizable convoys, each carrying a large war machine, had left the survival base.

This further severely reduced the already limited number of guards within the survival base.

This is why the Kyoto government is unwilling to expend the effort to eradicate the mutants within the city.

Apart from a few large, densely populated areas like Kyoto, most of the cities in the Great Xia Dynasty collapsed when the torrential rain struck.

The vast majority of survivors who escaped the city, led by the awakened ones, formed various convoys and headed towards the nearest safe zone.