The whole nation is trying to survive on the cable car; I'm choosing one of three options at ea

"Um."

There was a long silence on Zhou Zhenguo's end. The message box repeatedly displayed "Typing...", but the message was never sent.

Nearly half a minute later, the message finally popped up, the tone much more somber than before: "Need any help? Although my combat strength is not as good as yours, I have more people and have gathered some supplies. If needed, I'll try to bring some people over."

Su Mu shook his head, though the other person couldn't see it. "Not needed for now."

Zhou Zhenguo didn't press further, only saying, "Okay. If needed, I'll see how I can help and do my best."

"Thanks," Su Mu said.

"Why are you being so polite with me?"

Su Mu thought for a moment, then asked again, "Have you figured out anything about those military personnel? Do they have any special abilities or anything? Or are there any particularly strong individuals among them?"

Zhou Zhenguo replied quickly, but the content surprised Su Mu: "This is also the strangest thing to me."

They looked like ordinary people. Not the kind of ordinary people who "look ordinary but are actually very strong," but genuinely ordinary. Someone in our team can detect attributes, and I had him secretly test a few soldiers. Their attributes were only slightly higher than normal, not even reaching the level of a first-level trial participant.

They relied on weapons... guns, vehicles, explosives, and some things we'd never seen before. If they were gifted or job-changers, their attributes shouldn't be like this.

Su Mu frowned.

Are you sure?

"I can't be 100% sure. But we tested seven or eight people, and the data were all pretty much the same. If they were faking it, their acting skills would be amazing."

"Understood," Su Mu said. "Thank you."

"Still so polite." Zhou Zhenguo sent a smiley face and then logged off.

Su Mu closed the chat window, stood still, and stared at the distant horizon for a while.

There really are people in this world.

Moreover, they appeared here specifically to wait for people getting off the cable car.

This just doesn't seem right. What are they after? Resources? Intelligence? Manpower? Or something else entirely?

Su Mu wasn't the type to easily trust others, especially in the apocalypse. If a stranger suddenly showed you kindness, it was either to use you or to harm you; there was no third possibility.

But Zhou Zhenguo's words also make sense... If it's fake, then the attributes won't lie.

The data detected by the system cannot be faked; those people are indeed just ordinary people who fight with weapons. If they are the survivors of this world, then the technological level of this world should be similar to that of Earth, or even higher... after all, they possess some equipment that Su Mu has never seen before.

Su Mu shook his head, temporarily suppressing these thoughts. If the opponent was just an ordinary person, he wasn't too worried. With his current strength, no matter how many ordinary people came, it wouldn't make a difference.

Moreover, if the military is indeed organizing a breakout for the survivors, then it is indeed a way out for Zhou Zhenguo and his group. As for whether there are any hidden motives, that's a matter for later.

He put away the communicator and turned to look at Lin Xiaohe.

"Let's go, let's find a building first."

......

The two walked around the neighborhood and finally chose an eighteen-story hotel.

The building is located on the edge of the vine-covered area, with a height of about 60 meters from the roof to the ground. It offers a wide view and allows you to see the buildings on the other side of the vines.

There was an office building of similar height across the street, about 80 meters away, which was just within the limit of Lin Xiaohe's gliding distance.

Su Mu inspected the hose connections on the rooftop, making sure each one was securely tied.

Lin Xiaohe tied one end of the hose around her waist and the other end to the fire hydrant on the roof. She took a deep breath, stood on the edge of the roof, and the pair of transparent wings on her back slowly unfolded.

"Are you ready?" Su Mu asked.

Lin Xiaohe nodded.

She glanced at the rooftop of the office building across the street, then at the blood-red vines beneath her feet, gritted her teeth, and leaped.

Wings unfurled in the air, the transparent membrane refracting a faint rainbow of light in the sunlight. Her flight was much more stable than before, no longer wobbling as it had the first time, but gliding in a relatively straight arc from the hotel rooftop toward the office building.

Su Mu stood on the edge of the rooftop, his gaze fixed intently on her trajectory.

The hose was pulled up from the fire hydrant, stretching into a long arc in the air, one end at Su Mu's feet and the other at Lin Xiaohe's waist.

Sixty meters, fifty meters, forty meters... She was descending, her speed was slowing down, and her altitude was decreasing. Su Mu frowned slightly. She was gliding, not flying, and in the latter half of the descent, her altitude would drop very quickly.

When they were about 30 meters away from the office building, Lin Xiaohe's height had dropped to less than 20 meters above the vines.

The crimson vines seemed to sense something moving overhead and began to writhe restlessly. Several slender branches shot up from the ground and lashed out at Lin Xiaohe in the air.

Su Mu's pupils suddenly contracted.

Lin Xiaohe reacted much faster than he had expected.

She gripped the hose around her waist with one hand and drew her submachine gun from her side with the other, firing several shots downwards. "Bang, bang, bang..." The bullets struck the vines, splattering green sap, and the vines recoiled in pain. But more vines surged up, some bouncing off the ground, some climbing the walls, and some even reaching out from the windows of the office building across the street, lunging at her like countless snakes.

Lin Xiaohe gritted her teeth, took out a grenade from her backpack, pulled the safety pin, and threw it towards the densest vines below.

"boom......!"

The flames exploded, shattering the vines into pieces, and splattering dark green sap everywhere.

The shockwave from the explosion created a visible ripple in the air. Lin Xiaohe's body was pushed by the ripple, flipping halfway through the air and almost losing her balance.

But she steadied herself, flapped her wings sharply, and gained several meters in altitude again.

She was less than twenty meters from the office building. The vines were attacking her more and more fiercely, some branches reaching her feet and nearly wrapping around her ankles several times.

Lin Xiaohe fired his gun and threw grenades at the same time. When he ran out of bullets, he would change the magazine. When he ran out of grenades, he would use the flames on his fists to burn the nearby branches.

Su Mu stood on the hotel rooftop, his brow furrowed. He gripped his M500, the muzzle pointed at the vines below Lin Xiaohe, but he didn't fire. It was too far—over a hundred meters—the effective range of a pistol was nowhere near her reach. He could only watch Lin Xiaohe struggle in mid-air, watch her besiege by the vines, watch her break free from their encirclement time and time again.

This was the last time. Lin Xiaohe was less than ten meters away from the office building, but her height had already dropped to less than five meters above the vines.

Several thick vines shot up from the ground at the same time, like a giant hand slamming down from below. Without hesitation, Lin Xiaohe took out the last grenade from her backpack, pulled the pin, and threw it towards the palm of the "hand." Then, with a sudden flap of her wings, she swooped down towards the roof of the office building.

"boom......!"

The shockwave from the explosion threw her forward, sending her crashing onto the edge of the office building's rooftop. She tumbled twice before hitting the railing and finally coming to a stop. The hose had detached from her waist, the other end still tied to a fire hydrant on the hotel rooftop, a long arc stretching across the vine-covered area.

Lin Xiaohe lay on the edge of the rooftop, panting heavily.