Chapter 3.1: Upgrade
Coriander Safe City——
A towering, broad-shouldered man with a full beard and a height of two meters was looking at the chat group.
“Did the newcomer still not accept the wood I sent? Could it be that they got scared by the Cosmic Lord, so they don’t dare to interact with other city lords?”
But it didn’t really matter. Originally, when he sent the wood to the newcomer, it was just to show a harmless image of himself and build some goodwill.
Even though a newcomer’s goodwill probably wasn’t worth much, what if it was?
Besides, one ton of wood wasn’t really much to him anyway.
It was like the three energy crystals he gave away—what could three energy crystals even do? It was better to give them to Withered Star instead, hoping that, out of gratitude, he would share more information.
The key issue right now was that the city’s grain storage was almost empty.
The man looked at the residents who were working hard building quarantine shelters and trying to set up protective nets along the upper parts of the city walls. They all seemed busy, but progress was almost nonexistent.
Because the residents were all thin and emaciated, their clothes in tatters, and they spoke weakly with no energy.
He originally thought this world might allow them to get some food, but they couldn’t even get out of the gate.
If they didn’t let the residents eat their fill soon, forget killing zombies—they might end up killing the city lord first.
The man thought for a moment and continued posting in the group chat:
[My safe city is already building quarantine shelters. I hope we can survive this. My AI is basically a useless intelligence—it only replies “Sorry, I cannot recognize your question.” Thankfully, I still have Withered Star’s advice, sob sob sob, grateful to the big boss, may you live a long and peaceful life~]
[All bosses, I’m begging to buy food. The residents really can’t hold on anymore. I’m willing to trade all resources in the safe city for food! Please, please, please sob sob sob!]
For a long time, no one responded.
Eventually, Withered Star Safe City sent a message:
[I suggest you stop thinking about trading for food. Food is hard currency in every world—no one will sell it.]
[Gu Gaga Safe City: I’m willing to sell, but I want energy crystals—and you don’t even have any.]
[Withered Star Safe City: The only way for a safe city that’s run out of food to survive is to take the residents outside and fight for resources. Whether you live or die depends on your own fate.]
The city lord of Coriander Safe City felt half his heart go cold.
He looked at his handful of residents—barely a few dozen—and all of them were in a state of starvation. Then he stood on the city lord’s tower and looked down.
—Outside the city, thousands upon thousands of zombies were gathering, continuously howling as they closed in.
He did want to fight his way out, but the problem was—how was he supposed to fight that?!
Originally, the safe city’s coordinates were set in a place like a stadium. When he looked around, there wasn’t a single person in sight. It should have been unused before the apocalypse.
At the time, he even thought this world seemed safer than the previous one.
But then the twenty-person scouting team he sent out ended up bringing back this massive horde of zombies.
‘Were you guys freaking triggers? How did you set off a bomb like that?!’
He was utterly desperate.
No food. No weapons. Surrounded on all sides.
Then he looked at the city wall status—it was already showing 40% damage.
Once it reached 100%, the wall would be broken open by the zombies, and everyone would die.
Energy crystals. He needed energy crystals to repair the walls.
The burly man turned around and shouted at the residents:
“Get ropes! Lasso the zombies and kill them! Kill them and harvest energy crystals!”
But the residents didn’t move.
Someone shouted in complaint:
“If you want us to kill zombies, we need strength first! We only ate one meal today!”
“Yeah! Yesterday we only ate two meals!”
Not only the original residents of Coriander Safe City, but also the newcomers recruited from the previous world joined in shouting:
“The city lord can’t just not give us food!”
“Open the stores! Give us food! Otherwise we’re not working anymore!”
“Right! We quit!”
Some people also quietly pulled their family members aside and advised:
“Dad, don’t get involved. What if the city lord expels you?”
“Scared of what? A safe city needs enough residents to leave this world. He’s desperate for manpower!”
“Exactly! Everyone, don’t be afraid! His guard squad is down to just this many people—what is there to fear?!”
The burly man’s expression gradually changed from anxious, to helpless, and then to completely expressionless.
The city guard team stepped forward to maintain order, but with little effect.
“City Lord, what do we do?”
“Should we detain the troublemakers?”
The man shook his head.
Then, gritting his teeth, he pulled out a gun and shot one of the loudest protesters in the head.
The resident collapsed.
The chaotic scene instantly fell silent.
Keeping his shooting posture, the man said coldly:
“Anyone who refuses to work—dies.”
The residents obediently went back to hunting zombies and extracting energy crystals.
It was a foolish method. The rate at which residents could capture zombies and extract energy crystals could not keep up with the speed at which the zombies were pushing against the city walls. But at least it could delay the inevitable collapse.
Maybe—just maybe—that delay could create a chance of survival.
That was what the man told himself. In truth, he didn’t believe there was any real hope left. His eyes were filled with despair.
The only comfort he had now was that in this dangerous world, there was someone even worse off than him.
He closed his eyes, hiding the faint tears in his eyes:
Stay strong, Wen Huahua. You’re not the most miserable one.
His residents had followed him for an entire world already, yet they still wouldn’t fully obey orders. The newcomer’s residents hadn’t even been trained or integrated yet—they should be even harder to control.
In a world where viruses could infect people, where unity was fragile, things were bound to go badly.
Maybe, by now, the newcomer’s city had already fallen.
——
“Break—!”
The door was smashed open. A squad wearing gas masks stood at the entrance with guns, covering each other as they quickly took down the few zombies trying to rush out.
The newcomer, Cheng Qisheng, was watching the Blue Sea tactical squad clear the zombies.
“Finish them off!”
“Check!”
More gunshots rang out—bang, bang—and the zombies’ heads on the ground were blown apart to make absolutely sure they were dead.
It might seem like a bit of a waste of ammunition, but it minimized the risk as much as possible.
The combat squad switched on their flashlights, sweeping the room from the doorway before cautiously entering with guns raised.
Whenever they came across spaces that could hide a person—cabinets, rice jars, and the like—one member would use a hooked pole to open them from a distance, while the others kept their guns trained on them from a safe range.
If a zombie leapt out, it would be killed instantly.
Only after everything had been checked did the squad withdraw:
“Report: room cleared, no abnormalities.”
The squad leader nodded and gave the order:
“Harvest team, move in!”
The harvesting team from the logistics group rushed forward. Everyone wore gloves—some used small cutters to slice open the zombies’ heads, while others used tweezers to extract diamond-like energy crystals from inside.
Once the crystals were taken out, they were sprayed clean with high-pressure sprayers and carefully stored in bags.
These energy crystals were something the great Creator God required. They had to be properly collected and transported back to the safe city as an offering.
Throughout the process, the combat squad remained armed and on high alert, watching their surroundings and protecting the harvesting team at work.
“Report! One energy crystal recovered!”
Not every zombie had a crystal in its head—getting one from four kills was already considered good.
The captain nodded. “Next target group!”
The fifteen-member team, including the harvest unit, continued advancing.
There were fifty such teams in this village.
At the village entrance, the logistics group had already finished off the wounded and was now dealing with hundreds of corpses piled together.
These hundreds of zombie corpses were gathered by using drones to lure the wandering zombies out into an open area, where mortar shells were then launched to blow them up in one concentrated strike.
The zombies trapped inside houses, or those that for various reasons didn’t follow the drones to the open ground, became the targets of the fifty combat squads.
While the logistics team was cutting open zombie heads and the combat squads were clearing buildings one by one, the drone unit was also operating drones high in the air—monitoring the battlefield and reporting the coordinates of zombie positions.
From the moment the reconnaissance vanguard set out—discovering the zombie village, launching the attack, to completely clearing it—only four hours had passed in total.
Most of that time, in fact, was spent traveling.
Now that the battle was over, the entire village had been sealed off by the combat units, and the logistics team could safely begin collecting supplies.
Food, medicine, fuel; seeds, hoes, plastic buckets—even door panels and wire fencing were gathered, all to be taken back.
“Team leader, should we just leave this torn burlap sack behind?”
Zheng Yihe shook the fertilizer bag in his hand. “It’s already ripped.”
The team leader shook his head. “Take it back. We don’t have anywhere to build factories right now. Even something this cheap-looking can still be useful once we’re back.”
When the Blue Sea civilization fled into the safe city, they brought a lot of supplies—but when it comes to resources and energy, the more the better.
As he spoke, the team leader gestured for several people to send the collected books and illustrations to the expert group.
The experts would use them to analyze the civilization of this world—their writing system, language, and culture—and to determine what had happened to turn them into this cursed state.
Research into their biological structure didn’t fall to those experts. The white-robed bishops sent by the temple had already begun dissecting zombie corpses.
The logistics team leader checked the time. “Move faster! We’re about to head to the next search point.”
The drones had already relayed information ahead—this region had more than just a single village.
The god had given them twenty-four hours.
The people of Blue Sea had to use these twenty-four hours to push forward as much as possible, carving out a safe zone centered around the temple.
—On this day, gunfire and explosions echoed frequently through the once-silent mountain forests.
At the same time, large numbers of engineering troops left the city. After securing the area, they began rapidly cutting down trees and building roads.
The roads weren’t neat, but they were good enough for infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, assault vehicles, and military transport trucks to pass through.
The combat units had already advanced to the third village when, just as they were preparing to push forward, an unexpected situation occurred.
“Report! Thermal imaging has detected a human-shaped figure inside a cellar!”
Zombies don’t produce heat. This meant that a local person was still alive.
For the Blue Sea civilization, this was a shocking discovery.
They had assumed all the locals had been cursed into becoming monsters.
Cheng Qisheng, however, wasn’t surprised. Coriander had already said that people from the previous world had been brought in as residents—so it was perfectly normal that there were still living locals in this zombie world.
It was only because her safe city had appeared in a remote mountain area, with just five villages in sight; otherwise, they would probably have found even more survivors.
The Blue Sea advance force’s supreme commander quickly made a decision: the combat units would proceed with the original assault plan while staying alert and locating the detected local survivor.
They lured the zombies, dropped explosives, and cleared the houses one by one. The third village was soon temporarily marked as a “green safe zone.”
Next, all members rechecked their protective suits, put on their highest-grade gas masks, prepared explosives at their sides, and had the rest of the team fall back a certain distance. A twelve-person combat squad cautiously approached an outdoor cellar.
It looked like an ordinary rural cellar, the kind used to store grain and vegetables.
One soldier used a hooked tool to pry off the cellar lid.
“Come out!!”
All gun barrels were aimed at the cellar entrance.
Although a human heat signature had been detected, no one knew whether what was inside was truly a communicative, living person.
What if zombies had evolved—becoming mutated variants that emitted heat?
There was no movement from inside the cellar, but faint, rapid breathing could be heard.
—It sounded more like a mutated zombie.
Two combat personnel received orders and cautiously stepped forward, shining their flashlights inside.
It was a human little girl, about seven or eight years old, covering her mouth as she cried silently, her face filled with terror as she looked at them.
