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

Meanwhile, in the cable car on the other side.

Lin Yuwei closed the chat window, leaned against the wall, and stared blankly at the ceiling for a while.

She had three considerations for giving Su Mu the information about the spinning wheel.

First, she did owe Su Mu some information. Su Mu had helped her deal with that blue giant axe-wielder and given her a small recovery potion, a favor she had always remembered. Although she didn't say it, she wasn't the kind of person who would forget kindness.

Secondly, the small recovery potion Su Mu gave her yesterday saved her life. The bullet went through her shoulder; if it weren't for that potion, she probably wouldn't even be able to lift her arm right now. This favor is worth a piece of intelligence.

The third...and most important reason.

She had terrible luck.

Lin Yuwei recalled her previous experiences opening treasure chests... She opened a silver treasure chest and got three grenades; others got armor, weapons, and skill books, but she got three lumps of iron. She finally encountered a resource roulette wheel, but Su Mu got lucky and spun it three times in a row, leaving her with nothing.

With that kind of luck, going to try your luck at the roulette wheel? That's not going to get something good, that's going to your death.

Instead of wasting this information herself, she should give it to Su Mu. With his incredible luck, he's sure to get something good. She can buy it at half price then—a win-win situation.

Lin Yuwei sighed, picked up the blue professional book "Battlefield Doctor" from the table, and glanced at it.

Job change requirements: Reach level 3.

She's only level 2 now, still a long way from level 3. She needs to level up quickly.

She put away her professional books, slung her backpack over her shoulder, walked to the control panel, and pressed the landing button.

Today, she also has her own goals.

A purplish-black vortex appeared, and Lin Yuwei took a deep breath and stepped in.

......

Su Mu spent a few minutes counting the supplies.

Bullets... Of the thousand 9mm bullets I crafted for free last night using my talent, I still have over five hundred left, so I stuffed them all into my backpack. Two small recovery potions and one freeze reel.

I only brought two pieces of chocolate and a bottle of water.

The spear was stored away in the void, ready to be summoned at any time. The M500 was tucked into the right pocket of his chest suspender, the silencer already tightened.

Everything is ready.

Su Mu walked to the control panel and pressed the landing button. The cable car doors opened, revealing a purplish-black vortex. He took a deep breath and stepped inside.

The moment the feeling of weightlessness subsided, Su Mu had already gripped his pistol tightly.

Before the vision was fully clear, the sound of the wind and the sporadic roars from afar rushed in.

He quickly scanned his surroundings... It was a sparse woodland with low trees and a wide field of vision. In the distance, there were several blurry figures, about two or three hundred meters away, walking in twos and threes in different directions.

Other survivors.

Su Mu ignored them, lowered his body, determined his direction, and walked towards the back of the cable car.

After confirming it was safe, he checked the evacuation point first, as always. However, this time the evacuation point was different from before, because it was the same spot where he had landed earlier.

This approach does have one advantage: it allows for a gradual advance based on individual strength. If danger arises, one can immediately flee to the evacuation point. After all, having come from there, the terrain and potential dangers along the way are readily apparent.

Of course, there are also downsides. One is that the evacuation location is no longer random, making it easier for people to block the way.

However, Su Mu guessed that such a thing was unlikely to happen. Of course, he also didn't know if those foreigners would cause trouble.

......

The military base is in the direction he came from, about an hour's walk away.

He walked at a moderate pace, maintaining a speed that allowed him to respond to any unexpected situations.

The woods were quiet, with only the occasional rustling sound of the wind blowing through the treetops.

After walking for less than ten minutes, a wandering monster appeared ahead... It wasn't a cat demon, but something he had never seen before.

It has the body shape of a dog, but with longer limbs, and its body is covered with gray-black scales. It has a flat head, a wide mouth, and rows of fine, sharp teeth.

It has no eyes, and there is a narrow slit on each side of its head, which looks like an organ used to sense smell.

Su Mu stopped in his tracks as information about the monster appeared before his eyes.

【Scent Beast (Lv2)】

【Strength: 28】

[Physical Fitness: 35]

[Agility: 22]

【Spirit: 5】

[Skill: Tracking (Can track targets by scent)]

Level 2 monster, average stats.

Su Mu didn't draw his spear; instead, he summoned it from the void and thrust it out. The spear tip pierced the head of the smelting beast precisely, and it fell to the ground before it could even scream.

[Defeated a Lv2 Scent Beast, gain 0.1 experience points. Scent Beast Scale x1.]

Su Mu glanced at the notification; the drop rate was indeed higher than before... Yesterday, killing level 2 monsters, you were lucky to get one box out of ten. Now, the first monster dropped materials.

He continued walking forward.

The closer they got to the military base, the higher the density of monsters. There were all kinds of monsters—level one, level two, level three. Most of them were species he had never seen before... some looked like giant lizards, some like mutated wild boars, and some like fleshy balls covered in tentacles.

Su Mu fought his way through, his spear thrusting and sweeping, each strike aimed at a vital point, each strike guaranteed to kill.

What made him frown slightly was that he encountered several level 3 monsters.

Although they are all of ordinary quality, they are no different from paper in front of his current strength of 123 points and agility of 59 points.

One shot, one kill; clean and efficient.

The problem is that level 3 monsters appear too frequently.

He hadn't seen a single level 3 monster when he was hunting cat demons in Xishan before. But now, he encountered five or six in just half an hour.

The monster's level is increasing.

No, it's not that the monster is getting stronger, it's that the area it's in is changing.

The cable car continued its journey, passing through increasingly dangerous areas. The first day brought goblins and zombies, the second day cat demons, and the third day poisonous fireflies and scent beasts. The further they went, the higher the average level of the monsters became.

Su Mu kept this discovery in mind and quickened his pace.

After walking for about twenty more minutes, the trees ahead suddenly thinned out, and the view opened up. A wide open space appeared before us, and at the end of the open space was a gray cement wall.

We've arrived at the military base.

The wall was two or three people high, with rusty barbed wire strung on top. The iron gate that should have been the main gate had been blown away and was lying askew to one side, its frame twisted and deformed, covered with charred marks.

Su Mu slowed his pace, pressed himself against the edge of the wall, and cautiously peeked inside.

The scene inside was even more horrific than he had imagined.

The location of the ammunition depot has become a huge crater, at least 20 meters in diameter and estimated to be two or three stories deep.

The bottom of the pit was covered with a layer of dark gray dust, mixed with dried blood and bits of flesh.

Several surrounding buildings were damaged to varying degrees... The nearest barracks was almost completely razed to the ground, with only half of the wall remaining.

The roof of a warehouse further away had collapsed halfway and the walls were cracked, but the main structure was still intact.

The three-story building furthest away suffered the least damage; only the windows were shattered and the walls were covered with shrapnel marks.

The ground was littered with traces of the explosion... charred craters, scattered debris, and the wreckage of vehicles overturned by the shockwave. A faint smell of gunpowder lingered in the air, mixed with the stench of blood and some indescribable burnt odor.

There are no monsters.

There wasn't a single one, at least not within sight.

Su Mu waited for a while to make sure there was nothing wrong before walking through the gap in the wall.

He first checked the outer area... open spaces and building edges outside the blast radius. He hadn't gone far when he found the first box next to a collapsed wall.

The gray metal box was half-buried in a pile of rubble, its surface covered in dust.

Su Mu squatted down and opened it.

[Received: 1 steel ingot.]

Okay.

He continued walking and found more boxes in various corners of the ruins.

Some were buried under rubble, some were wedged in the cracks of twisted steel bars, and some were half-buried in ashes. Each one was left behind after the monsters were blown to pieces, as the shockwave from the explosion had scattered them everywhere.

Su Mu picked them up one by one, opened them, and put them into his backpack.

Steel ingots, iron ingots, glass essence, strange crystals, teeth and scales of various monsters, several small bottles of recovery potions, and two level-two breakthrough runes.

There were odds and ends, quite a few different kinds, but nothing particularly valuable.

Moreover, the quantity was much smaller than he had expected.

Last night's explosion reported that at least thirty or forty monsters were killed... including level three, four, and five monsters. There should have been at least twenty loot boxes.

But after searching for a long time, he only found a dozen or so.

Su Mu frowned, searched the outer area again carefully to make sure nothing was missed, and then walked towards the huge pit.

The ground around the edge of the pit was cracked, with fissures spreading outwards like a spider web. Su Mu stood at the edge of the pit and looked down... There was nothing at the bottom except for ash and rubble.

There was no box. There was no body. Not even a slightly larger bone could be seen.

The box containing that level 5 monster isn't here either.

Su Mu's brows furrowed even more.

He went around the pit and headed toward the nearest building.

It was a two-story barracks. Half of the roof had collapsed, and the walls were cracked, but the overall structure was still relatively stable. The main gate had been blown off, the door frame was crooked, and the inside was pitch black.

Su Mu summoned his spear, held it in his right hand, and reached for the pistol at his waist with his left hand, then quietly walked inside.

The barracks were in a mess.

A large section of the ceiling had collapsed, with rubble and wooden beams lying haphazardly on the floor. Several cracks ran through the walls, letting in dappled sunlight that cast patches of light on the floor. The air was thick with dust and the smell of mildew, mixed with a faint odor of blood.

Su Mu quickly searched the first floor... several rooms, each one was similar: bunk beds, a crooked wardrobe, and scattered personal belongings.

There were no monsters, no boxes, and nothing of value.

He went upstairs to check the second floor, and the situation was similar. There were beds, wardrobes, and miscellaneous items, but no supplies or treasure chests.

The only thing that caught his eye was a map hanging on the wall... a detailed map of Ash City, showing the layout of streets, buildings, and even the underground pipe network.

There were several pages of documents next to it, densely filled with data, mostly inventory records of certain materials and personnel allocation tables.

Su Mu rolled up the map and documents and stuffed them into his backpack. He might need these things later.

He walked out of the barracks and headed toward the second building.

It was a three-story building with beige tiles on the exterior walls and dark glass windows, making it look much more upscale than the barracks.

The main door was made of tempered glass; one pane was broken, and the other hung askew on the frame.

Su Mu walked in. The first floor was the lobby, with marble floors. Behind the reception desk hung a bronze plaque that read "Ash City Military Management Zone".

He quickly scanned the area...no monsters, no boxes. Just as he was about to go upstairs, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a small pile of ashes on the ground next to the reception desk.

It's not ordinary ash.

It was left behind after the charcoal had burned; several charred wooden strips were scattered around, clearly taken from the nearby table and chairs. The ashes were still warm; you could feel a slight heat when you held the back of your hand close to them.

Someone lit a fire here. And just recently.

Su Mu's pupils contracted slightly, and he gripped his spear even tighter. He moved quietly, hugging the wall, towards the stairwell.

Upon reaching the second floor, the corridor was quiet. On both sides were rows of closed doors, each labeled with a nameplate: "Archives," "Conference Room," "Command Room."

Just as he was about to push open the first door, he suddenly heard a rustling sound coming from ahead.

It was very light, intermittent, like something moving slowly.

Su Mu stopped and listened intently.

The sound came from the end of the corridor, behind the door to the "command room." It wasn't a monster's roar, nor a scraping sound, but... a human voice. A muffled, suppressed sob, like something gagging the mouth.

Su Mu frowned, and quietly approached the door step by step.

The door was ajar, with a faint light shining through the crack. He gently pushed the door open a crack with the tip of his gun and peeked inside.

Then his pupils suddenly contracted.

The sight behind the door made him freeze in place.

A woman was tied to a standing table, her limbs were fixed, and her body was spread out in a "T" shape.

Her clothes were gone, and her hair was disheveled and covered most of her face.

Her mouth was gagged with a pinkish-white garment, and she could only utter muffled whimpers. Her skin was covered with purplish-blue bruises, red and swollen patches, and some areas were oozing blood.

Her eyes were vacant, as if her soul had been ripped out, leaving only an empty shell.

But the moment Su Mu pushed open the door, her gaze slowly turned to the doorway and looked at him.

The moment those empty eyes saw Su Mu, terror flashed across them... Her body shrank abruptly, and she desperately curled up in the corner of the table, letting out even more rapid sobs.

But then, fear turned into hope.