Chapter 149: Earthquake

“So, is the current headquarters of your Phoenix Society located in the sky?” Lin Xian asked.

Wei Kexue nodded.

“The Phoenix Society currently has three headquarters, all of which are globally mobile. Headquarters One is Phoenix City, in the sky, and its current coordinates should be near Star Abyss No. 9 in North America. Headquarters Two is the sea city Noah, currently moving in the Pacific Ocean. Headquarters Three, and our largest land-based mobile center, is Dawn, now deep within the Yun’an Mountains.”

He shrugged and looked at Lin Xian. “The land-based mobile center is similar to your situation, a combination of railway trains and vehicle convoys following the direction of the Star-Ring Orbit. So, it’s good news for you because most of the tracks are intact. However, the land-based mobile center has strong all-terrain capabilities. We don’t maintain every area. If some areas are severely damaged or have terrain fractures, we will leave the tracks and detour.”

“Currently, all our emergency teams in the Dragon Country are under Dawn’s command, providing support to survivors in areas not covered by the Star Abysses, helping more people to survive.”

*Beep, program initiated.*

Another PX-05 engineering robot was successfully repaired and started by Lin Xian. It wobbled into the air, flew towards the high-altitude channel, and headed to its designated area to begin maintenance work.

“Just as I thought,” Lin Xian took a deep breath. “The most important thing is to first ensure our living strength. The polar night came too quickly, and the whole world was unprepared, which caused the world to collapse too fast.”

“Yes, I was still at work back then. When I got home, my wife and child were gone…”

Wei Kexue typed on his computer, laughing self-deprecatingly. “Later, I kept searching for them in the zombie hordes on the streets, to see if they were having an easier time as zombies, if they were being bullied by other zombies or anything…”

Lin Xian fell silent for a moment, then said in a comforting tone, “No one knows what tomorrow will bring. Since the world is already on the brink of destruction, we only have one way to go: up.”

“Right! Our metahuman abilities will also get stronger. Maybe in the future, it won’t be those things in the dark hunting us, but the roles will be reversed, and we’ll be hunting them!” KIKI said, gritting her teeth.

“I completely agree.”

Wei Kexue nodded. “Although it’s only been a few months, the Phoenix Society has already made many breakthroughs in the research of shadow encroachment and metahuman abilities. This information will be continuously synchronized via radio to survivors fleeing all over the world. Our principle is that if more people become stronger, and more people survive, sooner or later we will stop running.”

“From order to chaos, and from chaos to order. Many convoys are now starting to unite. As survival capabilities improve, the transmission of information will also become faster.” Lin Xian buried himself in his work, and his experience in Mechanical Manufacturing was constantly increasing. This support mission was also a significant gain for him.

He planned to take the opportunity later to scan the blueprints for the electromagnetic railgun and the Iron Guard’s battle armor and mechs. After passing Jiazhou City, he would study them thoroughly and arm himself and his team.

“The Nightwalker department under the Phoenix Society now, its predecessor was composed of core members from the former Federation’s Angel Project. It’s mainly responsible for researching metahuman powers and is also recruiting metahumans to join,” Wei Kexue said.

“Recruiting?” Lin Xian asked, “Is it just for research?”

“Research is only a small part.”

Wei Kexue said, “The Nightwalkers are also continuously cultivating metahumans in the process of exploration and dispatching them to various places for rescue and collection of anomalous objects. As of now, the Nightwalkers’ research on metahuman abilities is much more detailed than the early Angel Project.”

“Captain Lin, your ability is incredible, and this young lady with telekinesis, the Nightwalkers need talents like you.” Wei Kexue adjusted his glasses. “Actually, you could join the Nightwalkers or cooperate with our Phoenix Society. We can provide a lot of help you might need.”

“Where is your Nightwalker organization? It’s not in those three headquarters you mentioned, is it?” KIKI said.

“Yes, the closest one is the Dawn headquarters. After crossing the high-altitude corridor, it will take a few days to catch up.”

“It’s not that easy to catch up.” Lin Xian thought for a moment. “After Jiazhou City, Hengshan Pass, Wei River, and Longjiang, to the northeast is the Xidi Gobi Desert swallowed by Star Abyss No. 5, and to the southeast is the Haidong Star Abyss No. 7. To cross these two star abysses, we can only cross the Palma Prairie and go through Jinhai and Star City. I guess the Dawn center is taking the Yun’an Mountain route, which means they don’t plan to take the trans-oceanic track to bypass the northern continental shelf and cross the Qionggu Strait…”

It’s good to have a big tree for shade. Lin Xian certainly knew that if his ability could cooperate with the Phoenix Society, there would be great room for development. In this perilous apocalypse, besides thugs, who wouldn’t want to band together for warmth?

Even if they didn’t join, just cooperating would be much better than fleeing in the dark as they had been.

However, catching up with the main force was clearly not an easy task…

“Correct.” Wei Kexue nodded. “With so many people, it’s impossible for all of them to take the ocean track. The migration is still primarily land-based.”

Lin Xian asked, “Without satellite communication, how does the Phoenix Society coordinate globally with so many dispersed emergency teams?”

“There are many methods, it’s a bit complicated to explain. First, there are unmanned aerial vehicles for fixed-path guidance. All emergency teams report their positioning anchor points before their action plans, and the contact points will carry out saturation launches. In addition, there is multi-point serial communication, commonly known as ‘postman.’ For broad directives, our long-wave radio also has special secret codes, but it’s not convenient to tell you about that…”

“Positioning anchor points, wow, a cyber-beacon fire!?” KIKI looked shocked. “Then why don’t you just use the principle of the dark radio, use blood crystals to strengthen land-based signal relay devices, and then lay them out along the route according to the maximum distance? Wouldn’t the two places be connected then?”

Wei Kexue frowned upon hearing this. Lin Xian looked at her speechlessly. “Hey, do you hear what you’re saying? All units are moving. What’s the use of laying down fixed signal relay devices? And it requires so many anomalous blood crystals. Once it gets dark, even if no survivors take them, won’t the monsters eat them?”

“Oh, right…” KIKI face-palmed in embarrassment.

Wei Kexue gave a wry smile. “Information transmission is indeed a big trouble…”

“Then after you evacuate from here, will you also go directly back to the Dawn center?” Lin Xian asked.

“No.” Wei Kexue’s face turned serious. “Our missions are all one-time. If the emergency team is not completely wiped out, we will turn to the north line in Jiazhou City and will not take the Star-Ring East line.”

*BOOM!!!*

Just as Lin Xian and Wei Kexue were working together to repair the maintenance robots, the entire airport suddenly began to shake violently. The tremor went from weak to strong, lasted for several seconds, and then gradually disappeared.

On the airport plaza outside, countless survivors felt the dust on the ground churn. They felt dizzy, and the car windows vibrated. In an instant, everyone cried out in alarm and commotion.

“An earthquake?!!”

“What’s going on…”

“What happened?”

On the “Infinity,” Ding Junyi was sitting in the research car. The dark radio was on the table. While collecting various information from the Phoenix Society, she was also beginning to study the Hell Black Chrysanthemum. At this moment, the tremor sounded, and she immediately frowned.

She immediately got up and walked to the front car. “Ms. Chen, this earthquake reminds me of the underground creature we encountered in Underground City No. 9 last night. I suggest contacting Lin Xian and the airport emergency team immediately.”

“I’m contacting them now.”

Chen Sixuan was currently using the transponder to call the control tower, while also contacting Lin Xian with the walkie-talkie in her hand.

*BWOOM! BOOM!*

Unexpectedly, at this moment, above the airport, the electromagnetic railgun seemed to have automatically locked onto something. It suddenly emitted a dazzling blue light, and the kinetic energy launched, immediately causing a series of explosions on the high-altitude platform.

*Boom, boom, boom!*

The blazing flames burned the sky. Countless survivors looked up and saw a huge, strange creature with bat-like wings suddenly dive from the dark night towards the outer wall of the high-altitude ascension elevator platform. The monster was pale all over, with extremely long arms. A long, snake-like neck grew from its torso, and on top of the neck was a bizarre human head.

*Thud, thud…*

The unknown anomaly quickly climbed down from the outer wall. The electromagnetic railgun below began to quickly change direction, its target lock accelerating.

*BWOOM! BOOM!*

Another shot from the railgun fired, instantly blasting off one of the strange creature’s side wings, causing it to fall directly onto the platform. But suddenly, the monster’s extremely long neck shot out and bit onto the railgun’s magnetic energy barrel. It opened its large mouth, and countless black insects crawled out from it, swarming onto the railgun. In an instant, sparks flew, and the arc light on that railgun quickly extinguished.

*BANG!*

The other electromagnetic railgun fired at this time, directly shattering the anomaly’s head. Blood splattered, and in an instant, it stopped moving.

“This thing attacks weapons first?!”

Below the port, Jiang Yun was in Area A, fighting alongside Dalou, Shasha, and Lu Xingchen against the surging zombie horde from the outside. Seeing this scene, his face showed astonishment.

Attacking weapons directly meant that the monster definitely possessed some kind of intelligence, and was not simply preying on survivors.