47: Reconstructing a new city, envisioning an eternal kingdom

Chapter 49: Reconstructing the New City, Expanding the Army for War, the Foundation of the Eternal Kingdom

The gunshot that executed Wang Decai completely swept away the corrupt atmosphere of the settlement. The next morning, as the morning sun pierced through the clouds and spilled onto Transition Zone 3, Lin Zhou stood before the holographic sand table in the command center. His fingertips traced the outlines of the streets in this area, his gaze sharp as a knife, a grand blueprint far exceeding the present hidden in his heart.

What he wanted to build was not a temporary shelter, but a solid fortress capable of resisting the Mutated Zombies that would appear in a month. It would be the starting point of a "Dawn City" network—one city every hundred kilometers—that would eventually sweep across the globe. It was the cornerstone for humanity to resist potential alien threats and truly enjoy the Eternal Kingdom.

"The scattered housing layout wastes too much space, and the old buildings have poor defensibility. To build a war fortress capable of resisting large-scale Mutated Zombie tides and accommodating tens of thousands of survivors, we must tear it down and start over." Lin Zhou gave orders in a low voice into his communicator, "All Engineering Corps assemble! Deploy multi-purpose personnel carriers to transport equipment and initiate the full-scale reconstruction plan for the safe zone! Target: Build a Level 1 County-level Dawn City, capable of housing 30,000 survivors and 1,000 guards, constructing a defense system like an iron wall! Simultaneously, the Barracks will initiate the limit troop production plan to stockpile combat power for clearing all zombies in this county and preparing for the Mutated Zombie tide!"

Half an hour later, all 20 members of the Engineering Corps were in place, and three multi-purpose personnel carriers, fully loaded with engineering equipment exclusive to the red alert system, drove out of the base. The training pods in the Barracks were activated simultaneously, and the energy points accumulated from clearing zombie swarms were continuously injected to provide ample support for the expansion plan. Lin Zhou divided Dawn City into four major sectors: the Core Command Zone, the Livelihood Autonomy Zone, the Military-Industrial Reserve Zone, and the Defense Buffer Zone, based on the core principles of "wartime self-sufficiency, permanent survival, and no need for centralized management." Each sector strictly matched the dual-use military-civilian building blueprints unlocked by the system, completely discarding the model that required constant intervention from a manager.

The Core Command Zone was located on the central high ground of the area, with the County-level Battalion Command Center (Military-Civilian Dual-Use Version) taking priority. The command center had seven floors. The first floor housed the red alert unit's combat duty room and tactical sand table room. The second floor was the Survivor Autonomous Council Hall, which had no fixed manager, only system terminals and deliberation seats; survivors would elect representatives to discuss livelihood matters. The third to sixth floors were for intelligence analysis and material dispatch centers. The top floor was the anti-aircraft command tower and the Dark Energy Core connection station. Underground, an air-raid shelter capable of holding 5,000 people was excavated, stocked with enough food, medical supplies, and weapons and ammunition to support three months of closed defense.

Adjacent to the core area was the Livelihood Autonomy Zone, where rows of dual-use military-civilian apartment buildings rose from the ground. Each building was six stories high. The first floor contained a canteen, medical station, and convenience supermarket; all supplies were requested as needed, with the system automatically regulating replenishment based on production capacity. The second to sixth floors were standardized dormitories, each accommodating four people, with independent bathrooms and public laundry rooms. The building walls had built-in reinforced steel layers, windows were fitted with anti-theft iron bars, and machine gun sentry positions were reserved on the rooftops. Between the apartment buildings were stretches of military-grade high-yield agricultural greenhouses made of translucent alloy, with built-in temperature and humidity regulation systems. After sowing the base's high-yield rice seeds, the growth cycle could be shortened by half and the yield tripled, enough to support the food needs of 30,000 people. Small Water Purification Stations and Power Generator Stations were built alongside the greenhouses, all automatically operated and maintained by the intelligent system, requiring no manual oversight.

The Military-Industrial Reserve Zone was set in the west of the city, featuring three dual-use military-civilian warehouses and a basic ordnance repair station. The warehouses were used to store food, construction materials, and medical supplies, while the repair station was manned by the Engineering Corps, responsible for maintaining the guards' firearms and vehicles, providing a solid guarantee for subsequent expansion and war preparation. More importantly, weapon request terminals were reserved in the warehouses; in the event of a crisis, survivors could automatically receive basic weapons based on their identity to participate in self-defense.

The top priority of the entire Dawn City was the construction of the Defense Buffer Zone. Lin Zhou ordered the removal of all existing walls, replaced by an alloy explosion-proof wall twenty meters high and five meters thick. The wall was cast from system-recycled reinforced concrete and Dark Energy Alloy, its surface as smooth as a mirror, making it impossible for ordinary zombies to climb. An automated Machine Gun Turret was placed every thirty meters on the wall, equipped with heavy machine guns and infrared sensors that would fire automatically upon detecting approaching zombies. Every hundred meters, a twin-mounted anti-aircraft gun was installed, forming a firepower link with the base's anti-aircraft positions to handle both air defense and ground strikes, sufficient to deal with future flying Mutated Zombies or even low-altitude alien aircraft. On the inner side of the wall, an Anti-tank Trench eight meters wide and six meters deep was excavated, with spikes laid at the bottom and power grid interfaces reserved along the edges, which could be electrified during wartime to form a deadly barrier. Between the trench and the apartment buildings was a twenty-meter-wide combat readiness corridor, serving as both daily streets and a mobile route for troops and material transport during wartime.

To address the hidden danger that "a large forest contains all kinds of birds," Lin Zhou added two major check-and-balance systems outside the Autonomous Council:

First was the Dawn City Law Enforcement Team, composed of veterans and physically outstanding individuals among the survivors. The red alert units were responsible for training but not direct management. The law enforcement team was only equipped with non-lethal weapons, and their duty was to handle civil issues like neighbor disputes, material misappropriation, and violations of public order. The rules of adjudication were jointly formulated by the Autonomous Council and were fully transparent to prevent personal despotism.

Second was the System Monitoring Terminal, with non-intrusive monitoring equipment deployed at key locations in the city. It did not interfere with daily privacy and only issued alerts for two types of behavior: inciting division and colluding with external threats (such as intentionally leading zombies into the city). Once an alert was triggered, the terminal would directly sync the information to the red alert command center. The guards would then be dispatched to handle it with the cooperation of the law enforcement team, nipping any sparks that could destroy the Eternal Kingdom in the bud.

If survivors had objections, they could submit requests through the Autonomous Council's appeal channel. Council representatives were required to provide a response within three days, ensuring that power always operated in the light. This avoided the drawbacks of centralized management while preventing the chaos of "bad money driving out good."

The Engineering Corps worked at full capacity with system machinery. High-energy cutters precisely dismantled old buildings, and the dismantled materials were directly converted into usable resource points through the system's recycling module—every abandoned residential building dismantled yielded +1,500 resource points; every ton of rebar recycled yielded +800 resource points. The numbers on the panel skipped continuously. The energy points from clearing zombie swarms and the recycling gains stacked, quickly accumulating to a considerable figure, providing sufficient funds for the troop production plan.

The survivors were not required to participate in combat, but they all voluntarily joined the construction army. They helped the Engineering Corps carry light construction materials, cleared debris, and brought water and food to the sweating soldiers. Watching the brand-new dual-use military-civilian buildings rise from the ruins, everyone's face beamed with longing for the future. They didn't know about the existence of Mutated Zombies or alien threats, but they knew that this city was truly their home. They didn't need to be controlled by anyone; they only needed to follow the rules and fulfill their duties to live in peace.

Meanwhile, the Barracks' troop production plan was progressing rapidly. Lin Zhou adjusted the unit composition entirely according to his tactical needs, expanding the guards to a full-strength scale of 1,000 men to prepare fully for clearing the county of zombies and facing the Mutants:

- 400 Riflemen (500 energy points/person) as the main combat force, responsible for street clearing and position defense;

- 200 Machine Gunners (700 energy points/person) equipped with heavy machine guns to strengthen medium-to-close range firepower suppression and deal with massed zombie tides;

- 100 Grenadiers (800 energy points/person) carrying grenade launchers to target fortified strongholds where zombies gathered;

- 150 stealth Scout Soldiers (1,200 energy points/person) to infiltrate various areas of the county in advance and map out zombie distribution and terrain data;

- 150 Engineering Corps (600 energy points/person) responsible for battlefield repairs, fortification construction, and resource recovery to ensure the unit's endurance.

Additionally, Lin Zhou added 5 Company Grade Commanders (5,000 energy points/person) to refine the command system, ensuring the troops could efficiently execute the full-area clearing tasks he set. The core responsibility of this guard force was never to manage the survivors but to defend against external threats—clearing zombies, hunting Mutants, and resisting alien invasions, keeping the threats outside the walls of Dawn City.

Construction and expansion proceeded simultaneously. The system's notification sounds rang out continuously, but they only concerned the completion of buildings and troop expansion, without any mission constraints:

[Ding! County-level Battalion Command Center (Military-Civilian Dual-Use Version) completed! Regional communication network unlocked, resource points +2,000, energy points +1,000!]

[Ding! First batch of fifty military-civilian dual-use apartment buildings completed! Can accommodate 12,000 survivors, 'Livelihood Stability' buff unlocked, unit morale +10%!]

[Ding! One hundred military-grade high-yield agricultural greenhouses completed! After sowing high-yield rice seeds, the first batch of food is expected to be harvested in one week, resource points +3,000!]

[Ding! Alloy explosion-proof wall, automated Machine Gun Turrets, twin-mounted anti-aircraft guns, and anti-tank trenches completed! Dawn City defense level upgraded to Grade A, 'Fortress Guardian' permission unlocked, dark energy shield can cover the entire area!]

[Ding! Dawn City Law Enforcement Team training base completed! 'Order Maintenance' buff unlocked, urban crime warning rate dropped to 0%!]

[Ding! 1,000-man guard expansion completed! Unit coordination efficiency increased by 30%!]

[Ding! Level 1 County-level Dawn City construction completed! Verified capacity limit: 30,000 survivors, 1,000 guards!]

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

When the first ray of morning light fell on the brand-new Dawn City, all the survivors were stunned. Uniform apartment buildings replaced dilapidated houses, wide and flat combat readiness corridors ran through the city, the high-yield agricultural greenhouses were lush with green, and the twenty-meter-high alloy walls stood majestically. Machine Gun Turrets and anti-aircraft guns were lined up on the walls, emitting a cold metallic luster. On the roof of the Battalion Command Center, a flag bearing the red alert emblem fluttered in the wind. On the training ground, 1,000 guards were lined up in neat squares, well-equipped and imposing. In the Autonomous Council Hall, survivor representatives sat around discussing crop rotation plans, while law enforcement team members patrolled the streets with non-lethal weapons. Everything was in perfect order.

Lin Zhou stood on the roof of the command center, looking down at this rejuvenated city and the troops standing ready, a surge of pride in his heart. He raised his hand and pressed the communication button. His voice spread throughout the safe zone and the military camp, every word carrying unquestionable determination, making his grand blueprint public for the first time:

"From today on, this is no longer a temporary settlement. It has a new name—Dawn City! A Level 1 County-level fortress, capable of holding 30,000 people and 1,000 guards! You must remember, this city was built not for someone to rule over you, but for the Mutated Zombies that will appear in a month—they will be stronger and more ferocious than ordinary zombies. Only a fortress like this can protect your lives!"

"And this is just the beginning!" Lin Zhou's voice suddenly rose as he looked toward the distant horizon, as if he could already see Dawn Cities rising one after another. "In the future, we will build a Dawn City every hundred kilometers, driving the zombies completely out of this land! One day, these cities will connect, covering the entire country and sweeping across the whole Earth! When the warships of alien beings descend, humanity will no longer be a heap of loose sand—Dawn City will be our Noah's Ark, the true Eternal Kingdom of mankind!"

"As for you," Lin Zhou's tone softened as he looked at the shocked survivors, "you don't need anyone to manage you. You only need to farm, live, and multiply here, and guard your own home. The law enforcement team will maintain order, the council will discuss livelihoods, and our troops will sweep away all threats for you!"

Cheers and shouts erupted instantly as survivors waved their arms and yelled "Dawn City," while soldiers raised their weapons and shouted "Victory," their voices echoing through the sky. At this moment, everyone understood that Dawn City was not a cage but a sanctuary; Lin Zhou was not a ruler, but the guardian of human civilization.

Just then, a Company Grade Commander stepped forward and handed over a summarized material list and unit organization chart. Lin Zhou took it, glanced at it, crumpled the paper in his hand, and cast his gaze toward the distant old city area—it was still a playground for zombies, and in a month, Mutants would be born there. But there was no hint of fear in his eyes, only the sharp edge of being determined to win.

"Pass down the order," Lin Zhou turned around, his voice firm, "open the gates of Dawn City and welcome all survivors who are willing to settle here! Scout Soldiers, set out immediately to complete the final mapping of zombie distribution in the county! Logistics Department, tally the supplies and make full preparations for the full-area clearing—we must sweep away all ordinary zombies in this county before the Mutated Zombies appear, building the first line of defense for the Eternal Kingdom!"

As the sun set, the lights of Dawn City lit up one by one, connecting with the training lights of the military camp like a lighthouse standing on the ruins of the apocalypse, illuminating the direction for the continuation of human civilization.