Chapter 595 - Colossal Size Base
Since the apocalypse broke out until the present day, members of the Transcendent faction found many human camps. Some of them were nothing more than minor villages occupied by some low-ranking bandits who after gaining some power and having lost their senses in the face of the arrival of the "end of the world" began to do atrocities of all kinds and to indulge in their desires.
On the other hand, there were also human camps duly led by a person with at least some capacity. These people, while not saints in the same way that Bai Zemin himself was not, at least maintained a base level of their humanity without being damaged.
Among these camps, there were some large ones with several thousand survivors and, there were also small ones with no more than a few dozen at most; the worst ones did not even have wooden fences around them as a basic defense.
As for the best ones such as the Baiquan Camp and the North Camp; these types of camps were the largest that Bai Zemin had seen so far. Like his faction, the leaders of these two bases had managed to take advantage of the terrain and constructions of the past to erect wooden walls at least about five meters high with which they could keep the zombies at bay in case any tried to sneak in and they could also buy at least a few seconds of time for the smaller and weaker but still dangerous mutant beasts for normal survivors.
Bai Zemin was honestly proud of what he had accomplished as a leader so far; he went from being an ordinary college student without any prior training or backing to becoming the leader of a human base with over 30,000 survivors under his command and thousands of subordinates waiting for a single command from him to mobilize and sweep in the direction he pointed.
Today, however, Bai Zemin realized for the first time that he was far behind when compared to someone who had a smoother and easier start or beginning stage than someone like him had.
"For the love of god..." Shangguan Bing Xue looked at the huge structure several kilometers away with wide eyes.
In the distance, a huge wall could be seen which had been built using mutant trees over 300 meters tall. From the position where they both stood, a long line could be seen stretching several kilometers across and in the eyes of Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue that line was not unlike a world divider as neither of them could see what was on the other side.
As if that were not enough, more than twenty towers could be seen rising for at least another 100 meters high above the walls, making it a lot easier to take out the enemies for the troops stationed there as well as providing the entire base in general with great security in the form of vision and terrain analysis.
But the walls and the huge watchtowers were not all.
Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue noticed line after line of pits dug in the ground about 4 km from the base while 3 km from the base there were all sorts of obstacles that would definitely be useless against intelligent beings but would certainly serve a wonderful function against slow zombies with no ability to think or reason.
Even without turning around, the two knew in their hearts that the line they saw was but one of probably four large lines that made up a huge box or rectangle to protect the inside from the outside.
This was without a doubt the firmest and sturdiest human base that Bai Zemin or any other member of his faction had ever seen!
"... What do you think?" Shangguan Bing Xue took a deep breath before looking at Bai Zemin for his opinion.
He smiled bitterly and said with some self-conscious embarrassment, "I was feeling proud of our base and the idea of building a city but it looks like someone beat me to it by at least a month away."
Shangguan Bing Xue frowned as she noticed Bai Zemin's slightly low mood and said in a slightly disappointed voice, "Bai Zemin, since how long have you become a man whose shoulders fall for something so simple?"
"Ah, that's not it." Bai Zemin shook his head and clarified, "I admit it's a bit depressing but, that's all. At the end of the day, I'm sure that the person ruling this base definitely possessed great power since before the apocalypse which allowed him or her to prepare for everything better."
Shangguan Bing Xue's expression eased a bit after hearing this. She nodded and while looking straight ahead said calmly:" Em. Unlike the ruler or rulers of this base, we had to strive to pull together each and every little grain of sand to get here. From mere college students we made it this far without help from anyone but ourselves. We should be proud of that."
"Of course." Bai Zemin nodded as if it was natural.
Suddenly, Shangguan Bing Xue thought of something funny and chuckled as she said, "Besides, what's the use of having high walls when a single blow can bring everything down in a heartbeat? Do you want me to go and try it?"
A shiver ran down Bai Zemin's spine as he heard Shangguan Bing Xue's words and unconsciously said in an altered voice, "Don't do it!"
To begin with, they were not enemies of this base. Besides, Bai Zemin was 90% sure that if his family was really alive then they should be somewhere beyond those giant walls.
Shangguan Bing Xue stopped chuckling and looked at him indifferently as she said in a clear voice, "Of course, I am joking."
The corner of Bai Zemin's mouth twitched and he subconsciously thought of something but wisely decided to keep it in his heart instead of saying it out loud. Unfortunately, even if he didn't speak his mind, there was someone else who definitely wouldn't hold anything back; much less when it came to annoying Shangguan Bing Xue.
"Little bitch, you better practice your jokes a bit because they're so bad it makes you feel like crying."
Who else besides Lilith could enjoy seeing Shangguan Bing Xue angry so much?
Indeed. Shangguan Bing Xue clenched her teeth and fists as she whispered through her pearly teeth, "This vixen..."
Surprisingly, she did not erupt as Bai Zemin and Lilith expected. Instead, Shangguan Bing Xue took a deep breath and filled her lungs with air before slowly exhaling while gradually releasing her clenched fists.
"Oho?"
The sound of Lilith's surprised voice even though she was invisible was clearly heard by both of them.
"I won't lower myself. You can argue all you want and act like you've won something even though I don't know what you're playing at. I don't care." Shangguan Bing Xue spoke into the air but her words definitely reached those for whom they were intended. She didn't wait for a reply and looked at Bai Zemin calmly, "Bai Zemin, what do we do now?"
"... Right..." Bai Zemin frowned slightly and looked at the huge base in the distance as he carefully thought about the next move.
At this moment, night was reigning over the sky of Changping District. Earlier, Bai Zemin had asked Lilith if the explosive growth of the Earth would also affect its orbit and thus its nature such as the distance between the period of day and night. However, to his relief, Lilith told him that he did not need to worry about that matter.
When the Soul Record reached the Earth, it actually reached the entire Solar System as well. Therefore, all the planets in the Solar System and certainly the entire galaxy were growing and evolving. In fact, the reason scientists were previously unable to explain the constant expansion of the universe was because it was caused by the Soul Record and mana constantly expanding the size of everything in its path and extending farther and farther.
With the Earth growing more than three times as large, the Solar System (not the other planets) also grew the same size to accommodate the change and thus the orbit of the world was not affected in the same way as day and night continued working the same way.
"Let's return to camp." Bai Zemin said after suspecting several factors. He tried to keep his head cold at the moment despite wanting to charge forward and force everyone to find their loved ones.
After all, he was pretty sure that the leader of this base was Wu Yijun's father and surely her mother would be there too. Bai Zemin was in debt to Wu Yijun and he promised to do his best to try to reach a peaceful settlement with her family; therefore, he would keep his word as a man instead of charging like an immature child to the front.
Before Shangguan Bing Xue could say anything else, Bai Zemin suddenly vanished and disappeared from her sight, taking her by surprise.
"I'll be right back. Wait here."
She heard his voice before faintly feeling a whirlwind of wind rush past her before the place regained calm.
"Unfortunately, this base has several heat sensors installed on the walls and troops with advanced technology hidden everywhere." Lilith appeared beside Shangguan Bing Xue and said in a lazy voice, "Invisibility is only a First Order skill that allows the user to become invisible by modifying the surrounding light or taking advantage of shadows, but it cannot hide the heat released by the human body."
Shangguan Bing Xue's expression changed slightly before she regained her calm. She looked at Lilith coldly and asked in an indifferent voice, "Why didn't you warn him if you know?"
Lilith looked at her with a bitter smile and shrugged, "I'm afraid that's not how it works, princess. I have my own limits too and I'm honestly not sure that giving out that kind of information doesn't break the rules. Better safe than sorry... Besides, do you really think a few small heat sensors could present danger to someone like him?"
Shangguan Bing Xue stared at her for several seconds before turning her attention to the base in the distance. Although she could warn Bai Zemin using the military radio, Lilith was right; it would be truly ridiculous to think that heat sensors would represent problems for someone with the talent and ability that man had.
...
In a state of invisibility, Bai Zemin hovered and in an instant closed the distance between him and the great wall of the base. Just as he was preparing to jump to the top of the wall, a shadow jumped out of one of the trenches and in an instant pounced on him.
Although this soul evolver was fast, in Bai Zemin's eyes it was a turtle movement. Still, he was a bit surprised when he saw the strange goggles over the woman's eyes and two words flashed in his mind: Infrared Goggles!
Bai Zemin didn't bother too much and his enemy couldn't even do anything about it when she was knocked unconscious after receiving a heavy blow to the back of her head.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!....
Hundreds of bullets fell around Bai Zemin's position among which there was no shortage of skill-enhanced bullets. However, he didn't even bother too much and simply moved away easily ignoring the bullets that hit his armor without even causing his skin to itch.
"These guys sure don't mess around." Bai Zemin chuckled and threw the woman's body over his shoulder as he disappeared from everyone's sight.
By the time the soul evolvers who were on the wall standing guard came down, Bai Zemin had already disappeared without a trace and leave them perplexed as to what to do next other than to report to the higher-ups what had just happened.
His goal was to sneak through the wall and capture a soldier to ask just one or two questions before letting them go free, but things didn't always work out the way you wanted them to. Even then, Bai Zemin was satisfied that his objective had been accomplished in one way or another.
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