The copy has 0 error tolerance, and the last words on the ground are all wrong for me.

Chapter 535 Survivors

Base 44 is still under siege by a zombie horde. Although the Bureau members discovered a way to harm the zombies thanks to Wu Chang's tip, this is not a long-term solution.

Putting aside the disparity in raw strength between the two sides, the spatial rules of Base 44 alone made the battle unsustainable.

In order to minimize the weakening effect of the spatial rules on their side, most of the members of the Administration chose single-hit high-damage skills. These skills consume a lot of resources and can only be used to temporarily fight against powerful zombies.

Once the city walls are breached, Base 44 will fall very quickly.

According to Flash's estimate, the walls of Base 44 can only hold for 2 hours. Including the street fighting after the walls are breached, they will have at most two and a half hours to break through the erosion instance.

To achieve a speedrun, you must act swiftly and decisively.

Unlike other dungeons, becoming a zombie in the "Plague Source" dungeon is not true death, but rather a continuation of life in another way, and it does not generate resentment.

This left the city of Ain in chaos, with few survivors remaining, yet the streets were "clean," with no resentment to help Wu Chang gather intelligence.

If we can't start with resentment, but still need to quickly clear the Erosion instance, then there's only one way: contact the survivors.

Because the projection instance of "Plague Source" is easy, a large number of players have completed the instance, bringing out a lot of information, including the areas where several survivor organizations frequently appear, as well as the ways to actively contact survivors.

Wu Chang and Shan Guang immediately followed the instructions in the intelligence report and left markers at the designated locations to search for survivors.

With the instance out of control, the number of survivors decreased significantly, and the four markers left behind received no response from the survivors.

In the Bureau's intelligence database, the contact markers are sorted by the size of the survivor organization. The first four did not respond, either because they had retreated and abandoned most of the observation points in Ain City, or because they had been completely wiped out.

The two split up and spent twenty minutes setting up markers and waiting. If they still didn't get any feedback after the last two markers, they would have to find other ways to break the deadlock.

Looking at the list of markers, Wu Chang skipped the fifth and sixth markers based on his inspiration and directly selected the seventh marker.

The two of them arrived at the Brenbridge bus stop and tied a red ribbon to the billboard. Five minutes later, a faint white light shone from the tenth floor of the gray building not far from the bus stop.

Wu Chang took out a flashlight and shone it three times on the light source to indicate his response.

A few minutes later, a modified heavy-duty bus stopped in front of the two men.

Several heavily armed men scrutinized the two men through the glass, opened the window a crack, and threw out two test strips.

The two people dripped blood onto the test strip, waited a moment, and then showed the results to the others.

The bus doors were only opened after it was confirmed that neither of the two people were carrying the zombie virus.

Besides the driver, there were five other people on the bus, led by a bald man with a thick beard, a beer belly, a shotgun in his hand, and wearing a studded leather jacket.

The bald man waved to the two men and said:

"Come up."

Wu Chang and Shan Guang sized up the bald man. The man looked like an ordinary fat guy with a motorcycle, but Wu Chang could feel his vigorous vitality as he passed by him.

Clearly, the bald man possessed extremely strong physical strength, far surpassing that of ordinary people, and even special zombies were no match for him.

In the rules of the Plague Source Plane, even ordinary Root players might not be his match. Flash, with Wu Chang on his back, made a four with his fingers.

This was a pre-arranged code between the two. The number four indicated that the bald man was at level four strength, which Flash could handle, but even if they won, they would have to pay a heavy price.

As for the other henchmen, Flash gave them a danger rating of three, meaning he could defeat them with minor or no damage, but would need to use consumables or long-cooldown skills.

Flash looked at Wu Chang with worry in his eyes. Wasn't it said that the interior of the Erosion Dungeon was empty? How come such a strong guy could be pulled out from just any survivor organization?
Wu Chang gave Shan Guang a reassuring look, then found a seat on the bus and waited to head to the survivors' settlement.

The bus picked up the two passengers and, after a brief detour, turned into an underground parking lot.

The bus went down to the third basement level. With the passengers acting as a mix of escort and guidance, Wu Chang and Shan Guang passed through a heavy metal door that looked like a vault and arrived at an extremely spacious area.

On the wall next to the gate, there is a striking black and white graffiti painting. The graffiti depicts the back of a human holding a chainsaw, sawing a zombie facing him in half, with internal organs and blood splattering everywhere.

This graffiti is also the name of the survivor organization, "Doomsday Saw".

There are three or four hundred survivors in the space, including the elderly and children. The survivors are not in good condition, looking haggard and anxious. This condition is not only due to the lack of resources, but also due to the dramatic changes that have taken place in Ain City.

Led by the bald man, Wu Chang and Flash passed through the group of survivors and arrived at the central area of ​​the space.

A huge bonfire burned in the center of the area, and seven or eight leaders sat around it.

In the main seat, directly opposite the two, sat a young woman with red hair, sitting on a supply crate.

The woman had the typical physique of an athlete, with well-defined, toned muscles that were firm but not particularly large. Beside her stood an enormous, exaggerated chainsaw, over two and a half meters long, as if it had just ripped down the front door of some villa.

The intelligence from the Bureau mentioned a red-haired woman named Wendia, who was the founder and leader of the survivor organization. The name "Doomsday Saw" came from her favorite tool.

Upon seeing Wendia, Flash became breathless and gestured towards Wu Changbi.

This doesn't mean that Flashy has fallen in love with Wendia at first sight and given her a five-star rating; rather, it means that he considers Wendia to be a five-star difficulty character.

Five-star difficulty means the power is close to that of a flash. If he fights desperately, he might win. It is not recommended to confront him head-on. You should turn around and run away immediately.

Flash's face was extremely pale at this moment. Not to mention the boss of the Corruption dungeon, even Wendia and this group of survivors were not beings that the two of them could deal with.

He's not going to be led astray by Wu Chang and end up getting himself killed along with him, is he?

Wu Chang didn't feel any psychological pressure. In his opinion, Wendy's level was only on par with Peach Fairy, not even as good as Lü Changgeng, and half a level below the Demon King.

The fact that even this level of flashing light made him shake his head could only mean that the skill level of the players in the Realm of Reason was not as high as he had thought.

Wendia's gaze swept over the two of them; as the leader of the organization, she had her own skills in discerning them.

Although Flash looks more powerful, he's clearly a brainless thug. The young man next to him, who looks like a noob but has a calm and collected expression, is the one who makes the decision.

She looked at Wu Chang and asked:

"I've never seen you before. Who are you? Where did you get our code? What do you want?"

Wu Chang did not smile, and said:

“We two came from outside Ain City, so of course you haven’t seen us before.”

“We not only know how to contact the Doomsday Saw, but we also know that its leader is Miss Wendy.”

"As for what we should do, before answering that question, let me ask you a question in return."

"Where do you think Ain City is now, or rather, what lies outside of Ain City?"

Wu Chang was very curious about Wendia and the survivors of the Doomsday Saw, because they were the first natives of the eroded dungeon he had ever seen.

Before this, he had seen two erosion instances: one was the "wish fulfillment" triggered by the painter in Wanghai City, and the other was the erosion instance that spawned around Wanghai City before the world instance started.

In the "Wish Fulfilled" instance, the original inhabitants of the plane were assimilated by the Great Miracle, turning into puppet-like beings who dissipated along with the Great Miracle upon its death.

The setting of the next erosion instance is no longer a city; the entire space is swallowed up by the extraordinary calamity, and there are no survivors.

This has always made him very curious: how do the original inhabitants of the eroded dungeon understand that their space has broken away from the original world and is merging with a strange space?

Upon hearing Wu Chang's question, Wendia and the survivors around the campfire fell silent. After a moment, Wendia slowly said:

"In fact, we also want to know what the area outside Ain City has become."

"Five days ago, a massive explosion occurred in Ain City, triggering a second outbreak of the zombie plague and bringing the situation to the brink of collapse."

"Shortly after the explosion, we saw a bright flash of light over Ain. At the time, we thought the military had dropped a nuclear weapon or some more powerful weapon."

"But after the white light, we didn't die, and the city buildings remained the same, only our connection with the outside world was completely severed."

Wendia paused for a moment, met Wu Chang's gaze, and said:

“These past few days I’ve led a team out to scout and discovered that a transparent boundary has formed around Ain City, preventing us from leaving. We suspect it’s a special weapon deployed by the military to trap us inside the city.” “Since you came from outside Ain City, you should know what’s going on outside. Tell me everything you know. Don’t try anything funny. Trust me, you don’t want to be locked in a cage and spend the night with a whole room full of zombies.”

Wu Chang spoke calmly, showing no sign of being intimidated by Wendia's threat, and said:

"Have you ever considered that you and the entire city of Ein might already be dead in the original world?"

Upon hearing this, the expressions of everyone present changed visibly. The bald man who had led Wu Chang and Shan Guang grabbed Wu Chang by the collar and roared:
"What the hell are you spouting nonsense!"

Wu Chang, expressionless, pulled out a handkerchief, wiped the spit off his face, and continued, ignoring everyone's feelings:
"So urgent, it seems you've already sensed something, haven't you?"

The bald man was really anxious. He shouted "Son of the Beach" and raised his fist to smash Wu Chang.

Wu Changke wasn't going to tolerate the bald man. He grabbed the bald man's wrist by the collar and pulled him down, easily breaking the bald man's balance. He didn't even need to do anything more; the bald man's punch sent him flying.

His Musou style combines master-level hand-to-hand combat with master-level melee weapon use; it is not just an ordinary combat skill, but an all-around combat technique.

In the realm of combat, he is a force to be reckoned with against bald men, easily subduing them without using much strength.

Back in the Desolate Realm, he was the only one in the Wanghai Branch who could beat Zhao Yan in hand-to-hand combat. His file recorded that he was skilled in combat, so he had no worries about using his skills now.

Only after the bald man flew through the air, smashing a wooden crate nearby, did Wendy belatedly shout:
"Green, stop!"

Wu Chang reached out and straightened his collar, gently reminding him:
“Miss Wendia, you’re too late.”

Wendy's face turned ashen, and she reached out to press down, stopping the person next to her from drawing their gun.

The outsider in front of her was unpleasant. She originally wanted Green to punch him to make him restrain himself before she could stop him, but she didn't expect that the other party was not easy to deal with and actually threw Green away.

This is going to be a difficult situation to resolve.

Greene climbed out of the broken wooden crate and charged towards Wu Changfei like a human tank.

Wu Chang seemed to have anticipated Green's movements. He began to retreat before Green acted, and when Green rushed to his original position, he was just out of Green's attack range. Then, with a gentle push, he broke Green's balance and threw him away again.

It's not very harmful, it's very insulting.

Like a bull provoked by the red cloth, Green was panting heavily and about to charge again, but before he could move, he was interrupted by the ear-piercing sound of a chainsaw spinning.

Wu Chang looked in the direction of the sound and saw Wendia holding an exaggerated chainsaw in front of her, starting the chainsaw while coldly staring at Green.

Grimm was afraid of Wendia, so he could only snort and return to the campfire, finding an empty seat to sit down.

Wendia put down the chainsaw, turned her gaze to Wu Chang, and said:

"I need an explanation."

Wu Chang said:

"It's difficult for me to give you a detailed explanation. To make it easier for you to understand, you can think of the area you are in now as another world."

"For unknown reasons, your entire city has descended into my world and is attempting to bring the zombie plague to my world."

Wu Chang gave Flash a wink, and Flash immediately took out a tablet computer and started playing the footage of the zombie siege that they had recorded before they came.

He continued:
"The city we are in is under siege by zombies, and the city walls could be breached at any moment."

"In order to stop all of this from happening, we were sent to the suddenly appearing city of Ein to investigate information about the zombie plague and find a way to break the deadlock."

"Within the city of Ain, we found information and contact details for several survivor organizations through intelligence left behind by previous survivors. We tried five times, and only the Doomsday Saw responded and brought us here."

Perhaps it was because he had spent so much time with Jianxing that Wu Chang became very adept at telling true lies.

His words, coupled with the zombie siege scene in the video, plunged Wendia and the others into silence once again.

As survivors, they had dealt with zombies quite a bit, and the special zombies that appeared in the video were all familiar faces, easily recognizable at a glance.

As for the premise that Ein City descended into another world, it was actually a good thing for them.

After all, in their original world, once the authorities discovered that the zombie plague was out of control, the next thing to happen to Ein City would be nuclear annihilation.

If nuclear weapons were to fall, it's uncertain whether the zombies would die, but they definitely wouldn't survive.

Perhaps there's a glimmer of hope if we venture into other worlds.

Wendia said:
"What do you want us to do?"

"Let's make this clear beforehand: with our strength, we are not capable of defeating the zombie horde head-on. Even if we go back with you, it won't help the battle."

Seeing that Wendia had relented, Wu said:

"Our objective this time is to investigate the origin of the zombie plague and to identify the controllers who control the zombie horde."

"Once we find the zombie king, we can mark it and eliminate it. Without its leader, the zombie horde will be no longer a threat. After that, whether we clear out all the zombies or find an effective drug against the zombie plague, it's just a matter of time."

“We don’t need much practical help from you, we just need you to tell me what happened in Ain before the big blast.”

Flash took a deep breath, looked down at the ground, and hesitated to look up.

Having witnessed the strength of Wendia and the others, he began to re-evaluate the fighting power of the zombie horde, questioning whether he and the four leaders could truly defeat the zombie king.

It's important to understand that Doomsday Saw was only the seventh-ranked small survivor organization, and its leader, Wendia, was no less capable. The combined strength of the six survivor organizations ahead of them far surpassed that of Base 44.

However, the current situation is that the top six survivor organizations have been almost completely wiped out.

Is Wu Chang bragging just to gain Wendy's trust, or does he genuinely believe they can eliminate the zombie king?

Flash started sweating again. He not only suspected that he would be led astray by Wu Chang, but he was also worried that the people in charge of Base 44 might be wiped out by him.

Wendy and the others were focused on Wu Chang and did not pay attention to Flash's condition.

The Doomsday Saw was in bad shape. Since the explosion, the zombies in the city had become increasingly powerful, making them afraid to leave their stronghold easily.

Although they had stockpiled some supplies, they couldn't sustain themselves for long with the needs of hundreds of mouths to feed. The cities of the outsiders couldn't sustain themselves for long either, and neither could the doomsday chainsaw.
For them, collaborating with outsiders is neither good nor bad; it's simply the only option.

Wendy and the other managers exchanged glances and began to talk about what had happened in Ain City.

The emergence of the zombie virus and the official handling of the aftermath are consistent with the intelligence from the Administration Bureau.

According to Wendia, although Ain City was under official lockdown and no one was allowed to leave the city, the outside world was aware of the existence of survivors and continued to send supplies to Ain City.

Not only government officials, but also representatives from many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have made deals with them across the blockade.

These companies are incredibly resourceful; as long as the survivors can help them collect the data they need, they can find a way to smuggle large quantities of supplies into Ain City through the blockade.

It was thanks to the continuous supply of resources that many survivor organizations were able to survive.

For this reason, whenever explorers from the outside world enter Ein City, they will proactively lend a helping hand, assist them in completing their missions, and escort them away safely.

It wasn't that they were happy to help others; it was simply that as long as people could get out alive, they would soon receive supplies from the opposing force.

As these companies collect and study the data, rumors begin to circulate that the development of a serum to suppress the zombie plague has reached its most critical stage.

In particular, a pharmaceutical company called Burton Technology claims that it has passed mouse trials and will be able to begin human trials in two or three months after further refinement.

However, all the changes began precisely because of this.

Wendy's eyes showed a hint of reminiscence as she said:

"Two months ago, Burton Pharmaceuticals sent a team of fifteen people into Ein City. Although we were not involved in the explosion, I am certain that the explosion was related to the final operation."

(End of this chapter)