110: Those with virtue shall live there

"You're saying that besides the anomalies and some mining spots, there are still human survivors in the Eternal Night Zone?!"

After half a day of rest, Rui Ran, Train Captain of Ghost Princess learned that Lu Yang was preparing to go to the next location. She found Lu Yang and respectfully reported some information she had gathered during her many days of wandering in the Eternal Night Zone.

Besides a few tier 1 and tier 2 mining spots, thousands of humans were actually living in the ruins of the former Youshan County Town.

This greatly exceeded Lu Yang's understanding.

Didn't they say that the more humans there were in a place, the more it would attract the attention of anomalies and zombies?

A population of over a thousand, with the accumulated popularity from long-term gathering, should be enough to attract a large-scale zombie horde of hundreds of thousands, right?!

Rui Ran, Train Captain of Ghost Princess: "Under normal circumstances, that would be true, great Holy Spirit Master."

"However, the situation in the ruins of Youshan County Town is a bit special."

"Although my ghoul nature outweighed my human nature before, I still had a few traces of humanity, so I occasionally needed to eat some food."

"Moreover, even though I was passively bound by the Ghoul Pact Soldier Talisman, I didn't lose my sanity. So I entered the ruins of Youshan County Town, hoping to find some food."

"There, traces of human activity were very obvious. The reason they could survive was because a giant mutated zombie monster called 'Flesh Mountain' lived there."

"The Flesh Mountain is enormous, almost occupying half of Youshan County Town. It not only eats humans but also likes to eat zombies."

"I even suspect that it deliberately uses the surviving humans to attract zombies, which is why it hasn't completely annihilated the active humans."

"In some places where the Flesh Mountain's sight couldn't reach, starving people would even cut off some proliferating tissue called 'white meat' from its body to eat."

"I've eaten some before; that stuff has a slight toxicity. Eating it makes one feel dizzy, but it's not fatal. The taste is similar to marinated, tender chicken."

"But one cannot eat too much. If too much is eaten at once, one will lose sanity and then, like a hungry ghost, rush into the Flesh Mountain's body, gnawing madly. The body will also swell increasingly until it can no longer walk, eventually merging with the Flesh Mountain."

Lu Yang frowned: "That evil?!"

"But Youshan County Town is located deep within the Eternal Night Zone. Wouldn't it attract the attention of anomalies? Zombies are afraid of the 'Flesh Mountain,' but anomalies shouldn't be, right?!"

Rui Ran, Train Captain of Ghost Princess smiled: "Reporting to the Holy Master, yes, the anomalies are not afraid of the Flesh Mountain. So, to survive, the human survivors in Youshan County Town raised the most powerful tier 3 anomaly, 'Evil Puppet Humanoid,' and regularly offered live human sacrifices."

"After each live human sacrifice and consumption, the 'Evil Puppet Humanoid' would leave behind a layer of exuviae. Then, other survivors would force an unlucky fellow to wear the exuviae and impersonate the 'Evil Puppet Humanoid,' wandering in areas where humans were concentrated to deter other anomalies."

"However, this period wouldn't be too long, a maximum of one month. The human wearing the exuviae would be assimilated by it and become a sub-puppet of the 'Evil Puppet Humanoid.' Then, the survivors would need to begin a new round of sacrifices."

As for why they didn't run away?!

Lu Yang didn't ask such a foolish question.

When they first crossed over, just a trip to the outskirts of the Eternal Night Zone cost the Amethyst hundreds of slaves.

Lu Yang and his group were also abandoned as bait.

The survivors of Youshan County Town live deep within the Eternal Night Zone. It's likely that as soon as they leave the county town's vicinity, they would attract a large number of anomalies and zombies.

It's better to cling to a precarious existence within the county town, living one more day at a time.

Actually, regarding this information provided by Rui Ran, Train Captain of Ghost Princess, Lu Yang initially felt no ripples in his heart.

Although the Xinhuo Train currently lacks some population to meet the basic requirements for a tier 3 train to advance to a tier 4 train, the survivors of Youshan County Town are scattered throughout the county town, and there are also the 'Flesh Mountain' and 'Evil Puppet Humanoid,' clearly not a good place to gather people.

From Rui Ran, Train Captain of Ghost Princess's description, both the 'Flesh Mountain' and the 'Evil Puppet Humanoid' are not ordinary monsters.

If Lu Yang were to rely on the Xinhuo Train's strong power and casually go to Youshan County Town to gather survivors, the likely result would be to expend a large amount of resources to clear out the 'Flesh Mountain' and 'Evil Puppet Humanoid,' ultimately leading to a deficit.

Making a losing business deal.

In today's apocalypse, a losing business deal is essentially slow suicide.

Without resources, the train's only outcome is to wait for death.

Therefore, Lu Yang would never do anything detrimental to the Xinhuo Train for a shred of compassion.

However, Rui Ran, Train Captain of Ghost Princess's next words made him change his mind.

"What, there's also a tier 3 Iron Mine, a tier 3 copper ore, and a tier 2 psionic mine in Youshan County Town?"

"The Iron Mine and copper are at the foot of the 'Flesh Mountain's' main body, and the psionic mine is in the 'Evil Puppet Humanoid's' habitat?!"

"These are not problems for the Xinhuo Train. Right now, I only want to rescue the survivors of Youshan County Town from their dire situation."

"Resources and treasures belong to the virtuous!!"