Chapter 1805: The Safe Zone That Can't Be Found
Hearing his question, Fan Yunhong became a bit unsure of himself, stammering, "It should be correct. According to my dad, CK12 isn't far from the old Xiong City. How about we look for it? CK12 was built on rock. Even if the people have moved away, the safe zone definitely couldn't have completely disappeared. Maybe if we dig through the sand, we can find it."
After saying this, he actually sat down right there, wiping sweat and digging through the sand with his bare hands. After a few scoops, he felt his hands burning and immediately stood up. His expression shifted slightly as he apologized to Xu Huo, "It's been too long. My memory might be a bit off."
Xu Huo had no choice but to take out the three robots that the 019 District Government had compensated him with, hoping to use the detection instruments to find some clues.
Under the scorching sun, as far as the eye could see, there were undulating yellow sand dunes. Not a single blade of grass or any other color could be seen. The temperature in District 010 was naturally a bit higher than in other districts, and this desert was like a boundless steamer, making it difficult even to breathe.
Before long, Fan Yunhong couldn't take it anymore. He wanted Xu Huo to stuff him back into the painting.
"Stay outside for a while," Xu Huo said, taking out a "Simple Means of Transportation"—a small RV from a game reward. It had built-in temperature control and was stocked with some drinks and instant food.
After getting into the RV, Fan Yunhong touched this and that, saying, "So this is what the outside world is like..."
Xu Huo took two bottles of water from the cabinet and handed them to him, but Fan Yunhong was more interested in trying some alcohol.
Xu Huo gave him a small bottle of liquor.
"Thank you, thank you." Fan Yunhong was almost overwhelmed by the favor. He excitedly opened the bottle, took a small sip, then savored it with a nostalgic and intoxicated smack of his lips. After a moment, he let out a long sigh, "This really is a life of the gods."
Half an hour later, all three robots returned. They had searched the area within a five-kilometer radius but found no safe zone beneath the sand.
The RV couldn't drive on the sand, so Fan Yunhong had to go back into the painting frame. Xu Huo then headed to the nearby CK11 safe zone. This time, he deliberately slowed down, using "Destination Arrival" to walk slowly so he wouldn't miss any safe zones along the way. Unexpectedly, not only did he find nothing, but the place marked as CK11 safe zone was also completely empty!
Xu Huo first sent the robots out to search, and he also used his spiritual power to scan the vicinity. He found nothing—not even a metal plate!
He brought Fan Yunhong out again and said with a smile, "Where is CK11?"
Fan Yunhong looked around, and the next second, he fell into self-doubt. "Could I have mixed everything up? That shouldn't be. The location must be right. Could it be that since I haven't been out all these years, there have been earthquakes in the district, and these safe zones have sunk?"
"It's impossible for all the safe zones to have sunk," Xu Huo said.
The information about District 010 on the Under Dimension was fragmented, mostly coming from players who had visited this district. However, players might not need to cover that many safe zones to clear instances, so the information wasn't comprehensive. Moreover, there was a time span involved. The time in each district was different. By the time players left District 010 and sent out messages, a long time might have passed since the events occurred. And with District 010's environment being so harsh, safe zones could easily change during that potentially long or short period.
"Right, right. It's impossible for all the safe zones to be gone. There must be other people!" Fan Yunhong said, grasping at straws. "We can go find Safe Zone 13!"
Xu Huo tried again, but this time, he also came up empty.
Three strikes and you're out. Even if Fan Yunhong wasn't intentionally giving wrong information, Xu Huo no longer planned to follow the map he had drawn.
Besides the administrative map, he also had some books of mountain and river topography. Of course, he couldn't see their original appearance now, but he could roughly deduce possible locations for safe zones from these materials—a relatively tedious method with a low success rate, but it was worth a try for now.
After staying in the RV for a while, Fan Yunhong seemed to have calmed down. He looked at the map Xu Huo was drawing and suddenly said, "I don't think this is going to work. There aren't that many safe zones in this area, and not every safe zone has the conditions to choose a good location. How about we go to a nearby city to see if there are any other people? If we're lucky, we might run into a convoy from a safe zone."
"Are there safe zones mining in the desert?" Xu Huo asked casually, not stopping his work.
"Yes," Fan Yunhong said. "There are mines underground, but they're not easy to extract. However, sometimes you get lucky and a windstorm uncovers the sand dunes. The ore can be taken out and traded for better machines and seeds."
Xu Huo nodded, loaded up the man and the vehicle, and sped off to a nearby larger city.
At least this time, he didn't come up empty. Even on the sand dunes, he could see the city still standing. Thanks to its dense and towering buildings, this city hadn't been completely swallowed by the yellow sand.
Entering from one corner of the city, Xu Huo found that although this wasn't a safe zone, people had likely lived here for a long time. Some buildings or residential areas had protective nets set up outside, but most had been destroyed. In the few that were still relatively well-preserved, only dried corpses or piles of white bones remained.
From some tally marks, it seemed the survivors here had gradually died off about four or five years ago, mostly killed or starved to death. Occasionally, he could see some animal traps and a few mutant bones.
However, the method of using mutants as emergency rations hadn't worked. Of course, the main reason was that mutants were hard to catch. Someone had recorded the changes after eating mutant meat—the Black Thorn disease accelerated and worsened.
Xu Huo found a total of five animal traps. Three of them had been successful, either catching a whole mutant or picking up a severed limb the mutant had abandoned. Those who had successfully eaten mutant meat kept detailed records. One of them even mentioned that he believed what he caught wasn't an animal mutant but ordinary people in District 010 who had degenerated or been infected by mutant toxins but hadn't died yet.
As the mutant level increased, more and more mutants had become indistinguishable from animals or humans in appearance. But he believed this was the result of special evolution or deliberate hybridization experiments, not the initial state of an evolver's degeneration. Under normal circumstances, even if people in District 010 degenerated, they should be closer to those outside the initial trial train.
Unfortunately, this person left no pictures or photos.
Xu Huo scanned all this information into his luggage compartment and prepared to leave. Just as he exited the underground parking lot, several mutants, so thin they were just skin and bones, lunged at him. They had huge, sharp claws and teeth and tough skin, making them more adaptable to the high-temperature, arid environment than humans. But having strong vitality didn't mean they didn't need to eat. These mutants drooled as they attacked fiercely, their desire for food overcoming their fear of pain.
"Thud!" A severed mutant leg hit the ground with a metallic clang.
(Chapter End)