This time, when the zombie virus broke out, the internet was especially quiet.
All the posts you could find were cries for help—from almost every major city.
The big forums were nationwide, and from that, it was clear that this outbreak, like the last one, was nationwide.
Those once-famous big forums now only had the occasional new post.
Someone would ask “Is everyone still there?” and after a long while, someone would answer “I’m in T City, what about you?”
Then there’d be no further word.
It was as if the bustle of the last time—when everyone was trapped at home, able only to connect, communicate, and exchange information through the internet—had been a dream.
Since the first outbreak, no overseas information had appeared online.
The “Foreign News” sections on those portal websites had also stopped updating, and even after the last outbreak ended, they never resumed.
The national news was all about resuming production and reconstruction.
There was no sign of any foreign head of state visiting, nor any of our leaders going abroad.
Only in the trade section was there a brief mention of import-export data. From the data, imports and exports had completely stopped.
In fact, Jiang Cheng’s company had also lost contact with overseas clients because domestic enterprises couldn’t reach them, causing planned exhibitions to be canceled and business to suffer greatly.
In the past, President Peng might have needed to lay off staff to keep the company running.
But after the outbreak, there were so few people left that there was no need to cut anyone. That was how the company had managed to keep going.
Normally, when the TV was on, it stayed on the national channel rather than the city channel.
In their hearts, people still hoped that someone in the government was alive, that someone would step forward and tell the citizens “We’re still here.”
But there never was, and gradually, people’s hopes died.
They’d also cycle through other regional channels—all pre-recorded programs.
Because the only out-of-province channels they could get were provincial satellite TV stations. Satellite channels were different from real local stations.
For example, the station Jiang Cheng used for her live broadcasts and announcements was S City’s local channel. Only some surrounding areas—like N City and others—could receive it. People in the capital couldn’t see this channel.
The phone numbers they’d found at the city government for other regional national agencies all went unanswered.
Occasionally one or two got through, and the person who answered knew nothing: “I don’t know—we don’t know either. There’s no one here!”
It sounded like ordinary people who’d broken into a government building.
Under these circumstances, when the internet was no longer active either, it was hard to know what was happening in other regions.
—
On September 17th, twenty days after the second outbreak, Jiang Cheng and Song Jingshuo finally approved Zeng Qiang’s “fertilizer plan.”
Mainly because Zeng Qiang himself had eaten vegetables grown with zombie fertilizer for so many days, and there had indeed been no mutations.
The other reason was the pressure of fertilizer demand.
So many people were waiting to be fed. With large-scale planting, the soil’s fertility couldn’t keep up.
If it could have, Song Jingshuo wouldn’t have wanted to eat food grown with zombie fertilizer either.
He was the most particular—he used to buy only organic vegetables at the supermarket.
Now this was truly organic.
Zombie corpses were the least scarce resource, and their fertility was enormous—truly abundant.
It was just that the whole thing made people feel a bit queasy.
So the burying of zombies to fertilize the fields was done as nighttime overtime, after everyone had gone to sleep.
Everyone knew the logistics team was using zombies as fertilizer, but “just don’t let me see it with my own eyes—as long as I don’t see it, I can still eat happily.”
Late at night, with a cool breeze, they mobilized all the earth-types and some laborers.
First, they dug deep enough pits in each area, then buried the collected zombie corpses inside.
The key was depth—deep enough that there’d be no smell and no maggots.
The downside was that if it was too deep, the surface plants would have trouble absorbing nutrients. But that didn’t matter—this wasn’t normal cultivation anyway.
When accelerating growth, they just needed to drive roots down hard first.
Song Jingshuo had tested it—roots reached the zombie layer in seconds, and the plants suddenly perked up, greedily devouring nutrients.
The fertility was truly abundant. Bok choy grew to the size of napa cabbage, cucumbers like winter melons—the cafeteria staff didn’t even know how to stir-fry them.
Under these circumstances, after a meeting and discussion, everyone decided to periodically release a portion of green vegetables to improve everyone’s quality of life.
Feeding people potatoes wasn’t fundamentally about shortchanging anyone—it was about keeping more people alive under limited conditions.
The ultimate goal was still to keep people alive—that goal couldn’t be forgotten.
After much deliberation, they decided to start with cucumbers.
Cucumbers as big as winter melons—you couldn’t count them by “stalks” anymore, only by “pieces.”
Distributed by household—one “piece” of cucumber per household.
Too unwieldy to carry in your arms—you had to hoist it onto your shoulder and haul it back.
The cafeteria aunties developed a soybean paste.
Because there wasn’t enough time for proper fermentation, it wasn’t traditional bean paste. The aunties had done their best.
Song Jingshuo also provided as many seasonings as he could—scallions, ginger, garlic, chili—plus peanuts.
In the end, the paste they came up with tasted pretty good—especially mixed into mashed potatoes.
It instantly became the bestseller, and everyone rushed to redeem it with their performance points.
The hardworking aunties also received bonus performance points—they were living quite well.
Jiang Cheng communicated the zombie-fertilizer operation to the district leaders as well.
Because this could effectively push each district to clear zombies from the streets.
The areas around human settlements would naturally be cleared anyway. Even the zombies killed around No. 14 High School had been buried.
But on the roads they traveled, the many zombies killed by the blade vehicles were often left on the city streets, rotting and breeding maggots.
S City had once been a model civilized and hygienic city—now large groups of rats could be seen.
People at some small safe points couldn’t get meat, and even caught rats to eat.
The potential health risks were too great.
The bases of each district were essentially residential areas.
In densely populated residential areas, there were usually more than one pocket park or greenbelt nearby.
If zombie fertilizer was used, these places could all be developed into food-growing zones, and food production would increase dramatically.
The urban environment could also be cleaned up.
In recent days, cars other than the provisional government’s had occasionally appeared on the city’s streets.
Most belonged to people from small safe points built by small groups. When they saw the provisional government’s vehicles, they’d stop and greet them.
The Tech District people had also asked these people whether they wanted to move to the Tech District or seek refuge at a larger base like No. 14 High School.
Many refused.
They said that although their safe points were small, they had everything they needed. Usually there were a few superpower users, and everyone was capable of finding food and protecting themselves.
They’d already developed a sense of security and attachment—they didn’t want to move to an unfamiliar place.
The Tech District people didn’t force it—they just asked them to stay in contact and seek help from the provisional government if needed.
This situation existed in every district.
Like wild sprouts growing from barren soil.
Though many parts of the city still had many zombies, signs of life were gradually returning.
Human vitality was truly tenacious.
By the end of September, the city’s appearance had changed dramatically.
On the main roads, only occasional scattered zombies could be seen.
Cars occasionally passed on the streets—though pedestrians were still nowhere to be seen.
The entire Tech District had taken in over forty thousand refugees.
To solve the problem of feeding so many people, the Tech District’s Cultural Park was completely transformed into a grain production base.
This base mainly grew staple crops—potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, soybeans.
It also grew cucumbers, eggplants, and a few basic vegetables.
Other refined vegetables were still grown within the youth apartments’ own community.
The daily consumption was astonishing.
The zombie composting step had made tremendous contributions.
Zeng Qiang was truly a great hero.
After Jiang Cheng announced the Tech District’s “Wartime Public Order Management Measures” on the TV station, the district leaders all contacted her one after another.
Jiang Cheng not only maintained contact with these district leaders, but through her efforts, the district leaders also got in touch with each other—especially those in adjacent, bordering districts.
The so-called “districts” were administrative divisions from the past, but in reality, the current boundaries weren’t so strict—you could even say there were no boundaries.
It was simply that the strongest and most principled groups in each administrative district had gathered, raised their banners, and done their best to save the people within reach using their own abilities.
Because they identified with Jiang Cheng and the Tech District’s ideals, they stepped forward under Jiang Cheng’s and the Tech District’s influence.
Because of shared beliefs, they drew closer to each other.
Especially after Jiang Cheng’s speech on the 16th, the connections between districts became even tighter—mutual aid, mutual exchange.
Several times, the Tech District was invited to join other districts in hunting down difficult mutant zombies.
The hardest one to kill was at Binhe Sports School.
Binhe Sports School was in Changxing District. The Changxing District Provisional Government had lost quite a few people trying to eliminate the dangerous mutant zombies there.
Since the invention of armor, human fighters wearing armor against zombies had rarely suffered such heavy casualties in a single engagement.
It was truly heartbreaking.
Because the sports school had many super-speed zombies. Their speed rivaled that of wind-type superpower users.
Changxing District had no choice but to request aid from the Tech District.
When the Tech District people arrived, Zhou Wang and Brother Dong went in to scout and nearly didn’t make it out. It scared them badly.
Xiao Huang couldn’t even hold it together on the street outside the sports school. Because his speed was ordinary, the sheer number of super-speed zombies meant there was truly nowhere to dodge. Every path was a death trap—no way out.
They sent Moli in. Moli wasn’t afraid of these creatures and could keep up with them.
But these things would dodge and flee. They were numerous and fast, and they knew Moli was dangerous—they didn’t engage head-on.
Moli went in, made a round, and only caught a dozen or so before coming back out.
The two districts’ people met up to discuss.
Zhao Yi analyzed: “From the way they avoid Moli, they seem highly organized. I suspect there’s a mind-control zombie in there.”
Director Guo at the TV station had been able to control other zombies through mental power.
Though they hadn’t encountered a second one since, that didn’t mean a second one didn’t exist.
Everyone held a meeting to brainstorm and formulate a battle plan.
The final strategy was “deceleration.”
They contacted other districts and eventually assembled nearly all the electric-type superpower users in the city. Gao Yuxuan held a meeting to explain the battle strategy.
For armor, they’d initially wanted fighters to wear full-body armor, but full-body armor was troublesome to make and hindered movement.
President Xu suggested to Cui Haiyang the “pen holder” design they’d used to escape—and in the end, the pen-holder-style armor was adopted.
They found many office chairs in nearby office buildings and removed the wheels for the pen-holder armor.
This time, each person had their own pen-holder—four wheels at the bottom, moving fairly smoothly.
Once equipped, the electric-type superpower users began entering the school.
Sure enough—without Moli there, seeing only humans coming in, those cunning zombies all came out.
Each one fast as lightning.
But the most cunning creatures on this planet had always been humans.
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