Back at the unfinished building, Su Wan pulled up the system panel. The timer on her personal terminal showed that the travel cooldown had long since ended.
Without any delay, she immediately communicated with the system to initiate the transfer.
The familiar sensation of spatial shifting washed over her, and the scenery before her eyes changed instantly.
The scent unique to the apocalyptic ruins lingered at the tip of her nose.
Outside the window was the eternal, murky gray light of the sky; time seemed not to have progressed much since she left.
As soon as her feet were steady, a series of system prompts rang out eagerly in her mind:
【Notice: During the Host's absence from this plane (approximately 8 hours Blue Star time, time flow variance has been calibrated), shelter operations continued.】
【New Tenant Recruitment: 98 new Official Tenants added.】
【Current Main Quest “Foundation of the Shelter” Progress Update: 98/500.】
【Time Remaining for Quest: 29 days (this plane's time).】
【Point Income Summary (Period): First month's rent from new tenants (including some shared-room conversions): +62,400 Star Coins (Points).】
【Star Coin Exchange Machine fees and Convenience Store/Medical Station profits: +22,100 Star Coins (Points).】
【Current Total Points: 87,180.】
【Points required to activate “Basic Infrastructure Expansion” authority: 100,000. Current Progress: 87,180/100,000.】
Nearly a hundred new tenants!
Her points were approaching ninety thousand!
The progress on the Main Quest was explosive!
Su Wan felt a bit more at ease. The gloom brought by the night of tension and killing on Blue Star was diluted significantly by the solid feeling of her “family business” steadily expanding.
She was less than thirteen thousand points away from unlocking the infrastructure expansion authority.
First, she connected through the system to confirm that order within the shelter was stable.
Robots C1 and C2 were efficiently handling the registration of new tenants, room assignments, and the completion of skill archives.
Ah-Lan also seemed to be helping with the coordination.
Due to the population surge, the hallways and lobby were more crowded and noisier than before, but basic order was being maintained, and no major disturbances had occurred.
Next, she pulled up the summary of intelligence automatically collected, organized, and uploaded to the system database by robot C4.
This information came from various tidbits revealed by tenants during small talk, mission completions, or active reports. After preliminary screening and categorization by the robot, it was uploaded to the database.
Su Wan quickly browsed through the entries. Most were routine content regarding nearby ruin resource points, signs of small groups of Rot-Walkers, or movements of vagrant groups.
However, one piece of intelligence caught her eye.
The provider was a male vagrant designated as T-089.
According to the notes, this person originally survived by scavenging in the border zone between the Outer City and the Ruin Zone. For various reasons, he had ventured deep into the Ruin Zone and was eventually drawn by the reputation of the “Terminal Station.”
This intelligence was related to the Purge Artillery bombardment of this ruin sector yesterday.
According to this vagrant’s statement, he had fled from Area A1 of the Ruin Zone.
Just about a week ago, the Inner City military and the armed teams of those large corporations had been searching for something in the vast region from Area A1 to Area A4 like they were mad, making a huge commotion.
Supposedly, they were chasing a special Aberrant that had escaped from the Inner City experimental zone.
They blocked the passages leading to other sectors and then started using artillery!
They didn't just bomb one place; they did it in several waves, starting from Area A1 and blasting through the ruins sector by sector!
This man had risked his life to cross the blockade line and flee deeper into the ruins just to stay alive. Only then did he manage to survive and eventually make his way here through various detours.
According to rumors he heard from other vagrants, the artillery eventually bombed all the way to Area A6 and even further.
Therefore, he speculated that the bombardment Area A7—where the shelter is located—took yesterday was likely also because of that escaped Aberrant!
Those people from the Inner City would rather kill ten thousand by mistake than let one escape. They wanted to plow the entire Area A with artillery to force that thing out or simply blast it to death in the ruins!
Attached below the intelligence was C4's preliminary analysis:
【Information provider T-089 is in a stable state; the described experience partially matches other scattered intelligence.】
Key points extracted: 1. The Purge Artillery was not targeted at ‘Terminal Station’ or the local vagrants; the primary target is suspected to be a special escaped Aberrant.
The artillery coverage was progressive, spanning the vast territory from Area A1 to Area A7 of the Ruin Zone.
The special Aberrant likely originated from the Inner City experimental zone, indicating its value or threat level is extremely high.
【Recommendation: This intelligence has a potential connection to the shelling the Host encountered previously.】
【Recommendation: Increase the priority for collecting intelligence related to the special Aberrant and strengthen the concealment and defensive measures around the shelter to prevent follow-up inspections by Inner City forces or the Aberrant drifting into this area.】
A special Aberrant...
Escaped from the experimental zone...
Progressive artillery purging covering the entire Area A...
Su Wan’s gaze became sharp.
It seemed her guess was correct; the shelling wasn't specifically aimed at the Terminal Station. It was just that the Terminal Station happened to be within the purge range.
More importantly, if that Aberrant was truly so important that the Inner City would not hesitate to use saturation bombing to clean a massive area of the ruins to search for it or silence it...
Then where was it now?
Was it killed by the artillery?
Or, just like this vagrant who luckily escaped, had it also slipped deeper into the ruins, or even... was it hiding nearby?
She couldn't help but recall that trace of abnormality she had sensed coming from underground before she traveled.
Could it be...
A bold and heart-pounding hypothesis formed in her mind.
She immediately issued a new command to the system:
“Strengthen passive monitoring around the shelter, especially underground and deep within the building structure. If any non-tenant life signs or abnormal energy fluctuations are detected, alert me immediately.”
...
At the temporary checkpoint between the Outer City and the Ruin Zone.
On the potholed road, several soldiers wearing Outer City standard armor stood lazily, their gazes scanning the surroundings alertly.
A tall figure walked toward the checkpoint.
This person wore old, dark brown leather hunting gear and carried a modified sniper rifle on his back. Various pouches and tools of unknown purpose hung from his waist and thighs.
He wore a half-face breathing filter mask, revealing only a pair of eyes as sharp as a hawk's.
“Halt! Identification and purpose?”
A guard raised a hand to stop him, asking as a matter of routine, his gaze lingering for an extra second on that exaggeratedly styled sniper rifle.
The man stopped and pulled an engraved badge from his coat, waving it before the guard’s eyes.
“I am a registered hunter of the Gray Rat Guild, code name Eagle Eye. I’ve taken a mission to track a Shadow-Stalker Beast and am heading out of the city now.”
His voice was somewhat muffled through the respirator.
Seeing the badge clearly, the guard’s attitude became a bit more serious. “Eagle Eye? Never heard of you...”
“Then again, those crazies at the Guild will take any job.”
“But hey, friend, are you new here? Don't you know about Area A...” The guard pointed to the desolation behind the hunter and continued,
“Just a few days ago, those lords from the Inner City plowed that place from end to end with shells.”
“Right now, forget about Shadow-Stalker Beasts, even decent-sized radiation rats are nearly extinct in that place!”
Rate on N.U.
