Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Survivors Gather, We Need to Arm Ourselves
Lin Qi paid no mind to the sounds coming from the cargo container. The Mecha’s every move was aimed at rescuing survivors with maximum efficiency.
As the number of survivors in the container grew, more Zombies sensed the presence of the living and swarmed toward the Mecha.
Ordinary Zombies posed no threat to the Mecha, but their sheer numbers severely hampered its speed.
He placed the cargo container on high ground.
The Chainsaw Sword whirred to life.
It was like mowing grass.
Faced with an attack from a war machine like the Mecha, the ordinary Zombies fell in droves.
Lin Qi maneuvered the Mecha to avoid the Zombies’ heads, trying not to damage the Crimson Crystal Stones.
However, he hadn’t deployed any collection bots for now. The top priority was to gather the survivors.
Once the survivors were gathered and organized, collecting these Crimson Crystal Stones wouldn’t take much time.
In Lin Qi’s preliminary plan, the entire Modu University would serve as his temporary base in the Doomsday World.
"Holy shit! The mechanical engineering guys are insane!"
"A god, a true god! Is this a master from the Iron Man Club? So badass."
Inside the cargo container, the survivors watched Lin Qi’s actions through a gap and whispered in amazement.
After finishing a round of "mowing," Lin Qi continued his work.
He filled the cargo container.
A small-to-medium-sized truck container, yet he had somehow managed to stuff in over fifty survivors.
If Lin Qi hadn’t been worried about the container’s weight limit, he could have shaken it a bit and squeezed in a few more.
Carrying the container, the Mecha returned to the Club Activity Building. He lined it up with a second-floor window to serve as an entrance, completing the delivery of the first batch of survivors.
Lin Qi continued his mission, rescuing batch after batch of survivors by following the markers they had placed around Modu University and using the sensory perception granted by his Spiritual Vision.
He worked from sunrise to sunset.
The first cargo container couldn’t bear the load and had long since been discarded. Lin Qi had to replace the container twice before the search and rescue operation was complete.
The vast majority of survivors were now gathered in the Club Activity Building.
The few who remained were mostly lone hiders, Lucky Ones who hadn’t answered the initial broadcast’s call and were concealed in hidden corners.
They were hidden so well that not even Lin Qi could find them.
A new broadcast was transmitted.
"This is the Mo University Club Activity Building. The first phase of the search and rescue is complete. We ask any remaining survivors to please wait patiently. The second phase will begin tomorrow."
"After tomorrow’s search is complete, high-power communication devices will be deployed at the following locations. Anyone who was missed, please proceed to those locations to request assistance."
"We will now announce the preliminary deployment points: Building 13, 1st floor, Dormitory Area A; 1st floor, Second Cafeteria..."
As the broadcast played, Lin Qi and Xia Chu exited the Mecha and entered the Club Activity Building.
Before entering the building, Lin Qi retrieved three uniquely shaped Crystal Stones from the Mecha’s storage unit.
The Crystal Stones were reddish—one pink, one black-red, and one orange-red—each from a different type of Zombie.
By making contact with his Spiritual Power, he determined that all three were different types of Tier One Extraordinary Items.
’Three different Crystal Stones, all from survivors who mutated under the Red Moon’s light.’
’Three different types of Zombies: one was incredibly fast, one was incredibly strong, and another had off-the-charts Spiritual Power.’
’The power of these Zombies all comes from the gaze of the Red Moon. It’s hard to understand why the manifested Extraordinary Power would have such great differences.’
’Perhaps the Extraordinary Power of the Red Moon itself contains all sorts of different properties...’
He pondered this as he headed for the sixth floor.
As arranged by Lin Qi, all the survivors were gathered on the sixth floor and above.
The sound of him walking in the Exoskeleton was jarringly conspicuous inside the building.
The gazes of the survivors resting on the corridor floor immediately converged on him.
"Holy shit! An Exoskeleton!"
"The mechanical engineering god is badass!"
The chorus of praise rose and fell, but Lin Qi paid it little mind.
In contrast, Xia Chu, who was walking behind Lin Qi, listened with a sparkle in her beautiful eyes.
Lin Qi stopped and looked out at all the survivors.
There were three hundred and fourteen of them in total, with males accounting for over three-quarters of the group.
Most of the survivors were around twenty years old, all students at Mo University.
A small minority were over thirty, members of the Mo University faculty and staff.
To think that only this many people were rescued from the entire Modu University... one could only imagine how terrifyingly low the survival rate had become since the Red Moon’s gaze.
"Everyone, please be quiet."
The moment Lin Qi spoke, the entire floor fell silent.
No one tried to stand out; even the young scholars and professors among the survivors turned their attention to Lin Qi.
"Everyone, do you want to live?" Lin Qi posed the question.
But before anyone could answer, Lin Qi continued, "Before you answer that, I want you to first listen to what I’ve seen over the past two days."
"I’m sure many of you saw me leave Modu University in the Mecha before I started the rescue operation."
"Initially, my thinking was the same as most of yours: find the rescue team mentioned in the broadcasts. I didn’t want to be some hero; I just wanted to protect myself in this doomsday."
"Whether it was building this Exoskeleton or hastily constructing this Mecha, my goal from start to finish has been self-preservation—to survive."
"But what I saw after leaving the Mo University Campus changed my mind."
"I saw the battlefield where the rescue team fought the Zombies, but I didn’t see the rescue team."
"I was confused. Where did the rescue team go? I’m sure many of you have the same question. Our radios haven’t picked up an official broadcast in a long time."
"I did a quick search, and I think I found them. I found the rescue team!"
His voice rose slightly as he reached the crucial part of his story.
"I discovered something strange in a high-rise office building on Shuqing Road. There seems to be an extremely terrifying monster on the top floor. It didn’t show itself, but it was emitting special pheromones into the air."
"The pheromones lure all living things to ascend the building. I almost went up myself, but luckily, the Mecha was too big to fit."
At this tense juncture, Lin Qi lightened the mood slightly, but he quickly returned to the serious narrative: "But the rescue team must have gone up. That building is only a hundred meters from the site of the firefight."
"Their trail went cold right there. I think you’re all smart enough to figure out what happened."
The entire floor of survivors fell silent.
’The rescue team... is gone?’
’At the very least, the team responsible for this area was completely wiped out.’
’If even the fully-armed rescue team is gone, what are we supposed to do as unarmed civilians?’
"How are we going to survive?" Lin Qi asked the crucial question—the one that would unite this group of survivors and motivate them to work for him.
A smart person in the crowd shouted, "Weapons! We need to arm ourselves!"
"Master, teach us how to build Mechas! Teach us how to build Exoskeletons! I have a Master’s in automotive engineering—I have a foundation!"
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