96: Chapter 96 A Great Cleansing of Earth

These children were brought out by adults who thought it was an earthquake; no one expected that it wasn't an earthquake, but a second wave of zombie attacks.

There weren't many children in the Safe Zone to begin with, and after this ordeal, only nineteen remained; the situation in other districts was still unknown for the time being.

Soldiers were taking inventory of their weapons; all the weapons that had become dull from killing zombies were gathered together, piled on the steps, and sorted by type.

It was impossible to use firearms when there were many people around, as it was very easy to injure their own side; firearms were only used when attacking from atop the perimeter walls.

This led to cold weapons being more popular than firearms, especially weapons forged by Metal-element ability users. Weapons created by C-rank Ability Users could contend with C-rank zombies and below.

"Nickname, I'm planning to establish a weapon manufacturing facility. Old Zhou and his apprentices..." The Great Leader walked over, looking at Xu Wanning with an embarrassed expression.

"It depends on their own thoughts; I respect their decisions." Xu Wanning didn't say she would release them, nor did she say she wouldn't; ultimately, it depended on Grandpa Zhou and his team themselves.

"Then I'll go talk to them." The Great Leader walked toward Grandpa Zhou, who was currently leading his apprentices in cleaning up the scene.

Jiang Yishen climbed down from the perimeter wall, the sniper rifle in his hand slightly hot to the touch. "The appearance of these zombies is too bizarre, and that gray-green thick fog is even more so."

"Perhaps the previous wave of zombies disappeared too quickly, which wasn't expected, so a second wave began."

Xu Wanning couldn't figure it out either. In her past life, this hadn't happened, because before she died, the zombies had never ceased.

She squatted beside a fissure. No more fog was emerging from it, and the soil at the edges remained spread open.

She used a small stick to scoop a bit of soil from deep inside the fissure, put it into a small glass bottle, and tightened the cap.

Holding it up to the light, the soil appeared dark gray, and there were some things glittering inside—very fine, almost invisible to the naked eye.

"Ningning, let's go." Lu Chengyue called out to her.

Xu Wanning tucked the bottle into her pocket, stood up, and tapped her slightly numb legs.

The statistical results came out in the morning.

Across all 6 districts of Jing City, over 5 million people died overnight, with even more injured.

The number of zombies was impossible to count, currently numbering at least tens of millions, filling up every open space in Jing City, including school playgrounds, amusement parks, hospitals, and so on.

At noon, The Great Leader convened an emergency meeting.

Xu Wanning sat in the conference room, rubbing her ring. Everything was wrong; even though she had been reborn and helped the country prepare, so many people had still died.

Lu Chengyue sat beside her, sensing her anxiety, and reached out to hold her hand. "It's okay, it's already much better."

The Great Leader sat at the head of the table, flanked by his right-hand men. Below them were the captains of the various squads; both the military and survivor squad captains were all present.

"The situation in Jing City has been transmitted out," The Great Leader began. "It's not just us; all cities have encountered the same attack. Communications haven't fully recovered, but it has been confirmed that two cities have completely fallen."

As soon as the words "completely fallen" were uttered, someone couldn't help but gasp.

This meant the possibility of a reversal was extremely low; the entire city would eventually become a living hell, with no survivors left.

When that day arrived, those zombies would converge on other cities where living people remained, and the zombie army would grow increasingly stronger, making victory difficult.

The Great Leader tapped the map on the table with his knuckles. "The cities we can contact are currently holding their ground, and Meng City has the lightest casualties."

Everyone present remained silent, not knowing what to say.

"The problem now is that we don't know the origin of that fog," The Great Leader continued. "Why do zombies appear after the fog appears?"

No one could answer.

"Nickname." The Great Leader looked at Xu Wanning. "Do you have any thoughts?"

Xu Wanning stood up, holding that small glass bottle, and raised it for everyone to see.

The dark gray soil lay quietly in the bottle, and those tiny glitters could still be seen shining under the conference room lights.

"This is a soil sample I took from the fissure. This soil doesn't look like surface soil; surface soil should be yellow."

"When I came here, I asked the people at the Research Institute. After they examined it, they said this dark gray soil has a dense texture and contains a large amount of hornblende and mica fragments."

"This combination of components is only found at least 1,500 meters below the local surface."

She paused for a moment.

"One thousand five hundred meters?" The Great Leader repeated.

Xu Wanning nodded. "Yes, at least 1,500 meters, perhaps even deeper."

She placed the bottle on the table. "Those fissures didn't crack from the surface; they cracked from deep underground upwards. The zombies didn't run here from elsewhere either; they were pushed out from underground."

The conference room was silent for about ten seconds, then Uncle Guo, who was sitting in the middle, spoke up. "You mean to say the zombies grew out from underground?" This was too incredulous.

"Not grew out," Xu Wanning deliberated on how to phrase it. "They were released. That fog might be some kind of carrier, transporting the zombies up from the deep layers."

"More accurately, it is actually the Earth transporting them from the center to the surface."

"Of course, this is just my conjecture. I feel that the appearance of the zombies is Earth's Great Purge."

"That's impossible," Uncle Guo immediately retorted. "How could the Earth use such a method to purge?"

"Two years ago, would you have thought there was a possibility of zombies appearing?" The Great Leader interrupted him. "Nickname, please continue."

Xu Wanning took a deep breath. "We brought enough zombie samples to the Research Institute for testing, and the conclusion is that these zombies were not mutated by viral infection, nor were they transformed after people were bitten. These zombies are more complete, similar to how they were always meant to be; they are a species."

"A species? You mean to say they have always fed on human flesh, were originally suppressed at the center of the Earth, are immortal, and are now being released to purge humanity?" Another uncle spoke up.

Xu Wanning didn't answer. She didn't know either; everything was just her conjecture. Perhaps it wasn't that complicated at all; perhaps humanity's time was simply up, and it was time to die.

The Great Leader picked up the small bottle from the table, held it up to his eyes, and turned it; those tiny glitters slid back and forth behind the glass.

"Regardless of where these zombies came from, we are now facing a problem: do we stay hidden and not go out, or do we start clearing the zombies again?"

They had just checked: the Underground City had not been damaged. Living in the Underground City meant avoiding contact with zombies, but the cities above ground might be completely occupied by zombies, including inside every building.

When night came, more zombies might appear again, and eventually, there would be no land left for humanity.

As soon as this question was raised, the conference room immediately split into two factions.