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"Hello, um, is there anything I can help you with?" Nie Ying asked Frank in a low voice.

Frank glanced at Nie Ying, then tapped his arm to reveal a miniature computer, which he handed to Nie Ying. "Just enter the information you know as instructed on it."

At the same time, Frank took out a small ball, pressed it gently, and the ball expanded more than ten times in size. After the cover was opened, there were all kinds of compressed food and purified water inside. "Eat this when you are hungry or thirsty. Don't eat too much at once, or you will upset your stomach."

Frank never stopped Nie Ying from eating the slightly dirty rice crackers. He understood the feeling; after being hungry for so long, giving up even a little food was unacceptable to them.

Nie Ying nodded, took the half-eaten bag of rice crackers from her sister's hand, carefully rolled up the opening and placed it aside. Throughout the process, her sister didn't cry or fuss, and her little face only returned to a slightly blank state. It wasn't until Nie Ying picked out a smaller energy bar and put it in her hand that she smiled again.

Then she squatted down next to Nie Ying, quietly munching on an energy bar and watching her brother operate it.

By this time, Frank had looked through the entire house. It was an ordinary house, except that the windows had been reinforced with wooden boards and nails, the gaps in the security door had been filled with some things, and the view wasn't very good. In short, it was barely suitable as a base.

However, given that this is the initial landing site, and it's best not to move around unnecessarily before understanding the virus, staying here is acceptable. In any case, the shuttle has already entered its designated orbit and can provide them with information and fire support at any time.

Chapter 116 Plants vs. Zombies

After working for several hours straight and completing the initial data entry as required by the smart assistant, Nie Ying finally came to her senses. She glanced down at the indicator light, which was still green, meaning she was out of danger.

After stretching her stiff muscles from sitting for too long, Nie Ying stood up from her chair and found that her younger sister had fallen asleep against the table, with a third of her energy bar in her hand, and was sleeping soundly while holding the rest of the food.

Frank was inspecting and reinforcing the house. This outpost probably wouldn't last long, but even if it was only used for a day, it still needed reinforcement. Besides, even if they left, if any survivors came, they could use these things to sustain themselves for a while longer.

Seeing Frank's professional movements and the equipment that she couldn't understand at all, Nie Ying didn't go up and cause trouble. She walked to the window and planned to look into the distance to relieve the dryness in her eyes.

The moment Nie Ying saw the outside, she froze, rubbing her eyes several times.

Am I in a primeval forest?!

The streets outside and several nearby buildings have been completely covered by rapidly growing vines. At the nodes of these vines are strange little creatures, such as pea shooters with eyes that keep swaying, and sunflowers that follow the sun to photosynthesize.

What surprised him even more was that there were potato-like things on the ground and even on the walls, and each potato had a small red joystick on top, which was flashing red light.

The remaining trees by the roadside have also been transformed to look more lively. They have sprouted hands, and the bark patterns on the trunks resemble human faces. Brown fruits have also grown from the leaves in the canopy.

Just then, several zombie birds swooped down from the sky and pecked at Vernon and Rogers, who were still busy on the ground.

Once the zombie bird entered a certain range, the Peashooter with a short cannon immediately spotted the target, turned around and aimed at it. The Treant beside the street also moved, and a brown seed fell into its hand.

The next moment, the brown seed was hurled by the Treant and exploded as it approached the zombie birds. The shockwave, along with the scattered fragments, disoriented several of the zombie birds. Before they could regain their balance, the Peashooter's cannon fired a green projectile, which accurately hit its target.

One shot, one kill; not a single one wasted. In the blink of an eye, the attacking zombie birds vanished from the world.

During this automatic counterattack, Vernon, who was collecting the virus from the blood, and Rogers, who was continuing to guide the plant's growth, did not even turn their heads and continued working steadily.

At this moment, Nie Ying seemed to understand who these people were. She tentatively sent out a video, which was actually received. The civilization that received the video actually came to this planet to help them.

Instantly, Nie Ying felt a sense of security, and at the same time, drowsiness washed over her. She turned around, picked up her younger sister, and walked towards the bed in the bedroom.

Someone has come to help us. Our civilization is saved, our country is saved, and everything will be alright.

Nie Ying whispered in her sister's ear, and then they both drifted off to sleep.

That evening, the preliminary analysis results of the virus finally came out.

“This is a virus that has been artificially selected and modified. It is extremely invasive, but the human body’s own immunity can still help. It’s just that most people’s immunity is not enough to kill the invaders.” Vernon breathed a sigh of relief. If his analysis was correct, these viruses posed no threat to the three of them at least.

For professionals, their immune systems can easily kill these viruses.

“Furthermore, through reverse engineering, I discovered that this type of virus seems to originate from a certain plant,” Vernon said confidently. “And based on functional analysis, this should be the plant’s self-protection mechanism, only it has been interfered with and exploited by humans.”

"So this is a classic man-made disaster, not a natural one," Frank sneered. Humans are truly a species that keeps courting death, no matter the world.

“Obviously,” Vernon shrugged and replied, “The next focus of virus testing will be on the effects of various antidotes and vaccines. We don’t have much time, only a month. After a month, the teleportation point must be established, and soldiers will be deployed. So we need a lot of infected people for testing, as well as support from local forces.”

At this point, Vernon pulled up two messages, two publicly available communications received today, both from places about 100 kilometers away.

“I need you two to split up and depart tonight. I will grant you launch authorization for the orbital weapon, which can be activated at any time, should an attack occur or at a time you deem appropriate. Also, be sure to gather information along the way. Don’t forget, our ultimate goal is to save the entire civilization,” Vernon said, turning to Frank and Rogers.

“No problem, but now that we’ve all left, won’t your defenses be weakened a bit too much?” Rogers said with some concern.

"Don't worry, the plant defenses are fully deployed. With them here, those zombies won't be able to eat my head so easily," Vernon said confidently, the Peashooters, Treants, Throwers, and Potato Mines outside providing him with the confidence to say that.

“Don’t worry too much.” Frank patted Rogers on the shoulder. “If this place is attacked, we can provide support at any time via the shuttle’s teleportation array. I’ve also reinforced this house with nanobots and added multiple defensive spells. I specifically consulted with Mage Blaze about magical defense construction. I can guarantee that even a nuclear bomb wouldn’t be able to break through the defenses here immediately.”

“Okay, then I have no problem with that. I’m ready to leave anytime,” Rogers nodded and said.

"If you find any special zombies, you can collect the virus if it's safe to do so, and then send it to me. I will provide you with sufficient logistical support here. I will definitely be able to completely defeat this virus. After everything is over, I will ask the creator of this virus what he is trying to do!" Vernon said angrily.

“No problem. When you arrest him, save me a spot to kick him a couple of times,” Frank added.

"Okay, that's settled then. Remember to bring all sorts of magic potions, technology, vaccines, antidotes, and the like. Make sure you have at least a hundred of each kind," Vernon added as a final reminder. "Also, have a safe journey and be careful."

Chapter 217 The Umbrella Company

"Navigation connected, route selected successfully, destination Xinghuo Construction Factory, JC County, NC City, total distance 167.9 kilometers. Please be careful while traveling at night."

After Frank left, the armor directly connected to the shuttle's intelligent navigation system. The three satellites launched earlier were dedicated to serving them, which was much more convenient than a large group of people using a satellite network. The distance control was precise, and the travel route was clearly planned, including how many mountain roads there were and whether there were any obstacles on the road.

Frank chose the longest route and activated the armor's assisted movement system. If he had to run the entire hundred-plus kilometers, stamina wouldn't be the problem, but fatigue and boredom would be unavoidable.

The journey was very smooth. The most common zombies they encountered were those mutated from human corpses, and occasionally some mutated from animal corpses. Apart from these, Frank did not see any of the high-level zombies that Vernon had speculated about in the file.

However, it's not necessarily true that there was no gain at all. Frank saw an airdrop crate with "White Umbrella" written on it on the way, and his intuition told him that there was something wrong with it.

Unfortunately, the world's public network has been completely destroyed, and the existing networks are basically local area networks within a certain area. Therefore, although the supercomputer on the shuttle has a computing power far exceeding that of this civilization, it still did not obtain any useful information.

At least the system didn't capture anything about White Umbrella. Instead, it captured information about Umbrella Corporation, a large international company that produces a variety of high-tech products, including pharmaceuticals, medical hardware, defense industry, and computers. Its influence even dictates the direction of some technologies.

Simply put, it's a massive, terrifying monopoly formed by Apple bringing together multiple sectors.

However, the company has been dissolved because a serious leak occurred at its biological laboratory, spreading multiple virus strains. In the chaos, workers at a nearby small nuclear power plant made an operational error while escaping, causing the nuclear reactor to explode. This series of events caused Umbrella Corporation's stock price to plummet, ultimately leading to insolvency and the company's declaration of bankruptcy and dissolution.

Of course, this is official information that the system found on the remaining public network.

Frank, who had done all sorts of shady work for the government in the past, knew this claim was nonsense as soon as he saw it. He estimated that the leaked virus was probably just a small-scale leak of the virus that was sweeping the world this time. As for the small nuclear reactor explosion, he could just say it was a nuclear bomb and that would be enough. Why bother with such tricks?

Frank glanced at the route map on the screen. He was still forty kilometers away from his destination, and it would probably take another half hour to get there. So he decided to continue searching for information about the company.

The intelligent system of a supercomputer can only provide the possible truth or falsehood of various information. In its weighting, it has a very high weight relative to official information. Therefore, in this kind of matter, it is much easier for Frank himself to find the information than for a system that has not been specially debugged.

Frank actually found something during his search.

After the Umbrella Corporation dissolved, its assets, technologies, and laboratories around the world were acquired by many companies at low prices, including the national public enterprise Tri-Hospital in Japan, and the more international Wilt Pharmaceuticals, among others.

The speed of the dissolution and mergers made Frank wonder if it was a reverse takeover, with Umbrella Corporation bearing too much public pressure and simply abandoning it, dispersing its original capital and technology to other companies around the world, leaving Umbrella Corporation dead in name only.

Unfortunately, this happened several years ago, and very little information remains online, so Frank's conjecture cannot be verified for the time being.

Suddenly, the system issued an alarm, and Frank slammed on the brakes, stopping on the road. An unusual swarm of zombies appeared around him.

Within a 30-kilometer radius of Frank, the zombies on the ground began to move in one direction. The most obvious example was the zombie birds flying in the sky. These birds, which usually lived in groups of three or five, suddenly exhibited their living habits and formed a giant flock of thousands, flying towards a single destination.

The system simulated and predicted all movement trajectories, and the final result was that the zombies' destination was the same as Frank's: the Spark Factory in JC County, which was also the nearest survivor base.

"Vernon, Rogers, did you see my system notification? How's the situation on your end?" Frank asked in the team voice chat as he continued forward.

"Everything is normal on my end. I haven't detected any unusual behavior from the zombies yet," Vernon replied.

“Something’s not right here. The system has issued an alert. Most of the zombies are behaving incorrectly. However, it seems that the zombies on my side are not united, so there hasn’t been any gathering behavior like on your side yet,” Rogers said.

"I understand. I'll log in to the orbital weapon access first. Also, keep an eye on a company. Its international name is Umbrella, and its common names include Umbrella and Umbrella Corporation. I suspect this virus is related to them." Frank shared his current information.

Vernon: "Okay, I'll be careful. Once Nie Ying wakes up, I'll ask him again if he knows anything about this."

"Wait a minute!" Rogers suddenly realized something while looking at the information Frank shared. "I think I also found a similar airdrop crate on my end, but the name is slightly different; this one is called Blue Umbrella."

"Alright, one of the culprits has been found." Frank looked at the images Rogers provided, and the system's comparison showed a similarity of 90%. "I suggest listing Umbrella Corporation as a key target, adding it to the planned elimination list, and marking all related members as extremely dangerous individuals."

Rogers: "Agreed."

Vernon: "I accept your suggestion."

After the three reached a consensus, Umbrella's mark was directly entered into the system database. From then on, they didn't need to observe it specifically; as long as the system scanned it, it would be marked immediately, and it would be marked with a red highest danger mark.

As they reached a consensus, Frank, who had sped up, was already close to his destination. It wasn't some easily defensible valley or anything like that; it was just an ordinary, renovated residential area.

It appears that the Spark Construction Plant had already ceased operation before the virus outbreak, and was only restarted after the outbreak because of its remote location and the presence of some equipment.

Take eight hours off

I'm too busy at work today. I'll update you all after I get home from get off work. I'll make sure to post three chapters a day!

Chapter 218 With official approval, we've come to save you!

After Frank continued to approach the vicinity of the Starfire Construction Plant, he immediately chose a high point to observe the overall situation in the surrounding area.

Clearly, during the time he was there, quite a few zombies had successfully gathered near the Starfire Construction Site survivor base.

The density of zombies was on a completely different level compared to other places he had seen along the way.

Even more important than the density of zombies were the flocks of zombie birds that gathered together, soaring endlessly through the sky under the cover of darkness.

These flying zombies are clearly the greatest threat to this survivor base than other zombies.

Because the entire survivor base has four connected city walls as the first line of defense, and judging from the various marks on the walls, these walls should have been recently built.

There are multiple fixed firing points on this city wall. It can be said that as long as the zombies appearing below are all zombies transformed from ordinary human corpses, then there is only one way for them to break through this survivor base: exhaust all the bullets in the entire base, and then, like water dripping on stone, bite through the thick city wall little by little.

During Frank's observation, the observers at the Spark Construction Plant also noticed the unusually large horde of zombies gathering outside. Within minutes, without any obvious alarm, the soldiers immediately assembled and entered the firing port in a very orderly manner.

Immediately afterwards, all the searchlights on the city wall were turned on, and several huge beams of light shot straight into the sky, sweeping across the entire battlefield as the searchlights swayed from side to side.

The flock of zombie birds in the sky seemed to have anticipated this situation, hiding in the nearby woods before the searchlights were turned on.

Meanwhile, the ordinary zombies below cooperated perfectly, staggering towards the wall of the survivor base, clearly trying to attract everyone's attention and deplete the base's ammunition reserves.

To Fleck's surprise, when these ordinary zombies reached the foot of the city wall, none of the soldiers on the wall fired a single shot.

Everyone's eyes followed the searchlight's movement, as if the base's command was convinced that a greater danger lurked in the shadows.

Crunch, crunch.

The sound of fingernails and teeth rubbing against the wall echoed continuously, as if a bunch of mice were gnawing on your bookshelf at the same time.

This sound is not only annoying, but also, under the cover of night, it inevitably evokes an overwhelming sense of fear.

After all, what's below isn't just a bunch of rats.

Frank waited another 5 minutes, then raised the base's overall rating by two levels in his personal system.