Chapter 149 - 108: Discovery

Chapter 149: Chapter 108: Discovery

Perhaps because he now had a clear objective, Xu Mo felt as if time itself was slowing down. At times, he even imagined he could hear the ticking of an invisible second hand in his mind, its crawl laborious, each second stretching into an eternity.

The public channel of the regional walkie-talkie was left open. According to their prior agreement, one hundred and forty-four fortress occupants were theoretically online at this moment. However, the channel was dead silent. Only a faint, almost negligible electrical hum proved the communication line was still open.

No one spoke. Not even a single cough to clear a throat. An invisible, shared tension filled the airwaves. Everyone was holding their breath, their focus absolute.

Xu Mo’s gaze peered through the observation port, out into the world beyond the fortress. The thick night was like impenetrable ink, completely swallowing the distant ruins, leaving not a single glimmer of light. Only a few fortresses, his own C-07 among them, stood like lonely lighthouses in a dark ocean, emitting a faint but stubborn glow.

Xu Mo shifted his position and aimed the beam of a high-powered flashlight down through the narrow observation port. The beam pierced the darkness, landing precisely on a few zombies milling about near the fortress’s base. Their rotting skin looked even more grotesque and terrifying under the intense light. Startled by the beam, they let out deeper, more agitated and hostile growls, uselessly reaching their twisted arms toward the light’s source.

「After who knows how long in the oppressive silence—」

"KSSHH... D-03 calling. Anomaly detected in Zone D-03. The zombie horde is moving outwards. Repeat, anomaly detected in Zone D-03. Zombies are moving toward the outskirts of the Red Star Industrial Zone."

A slightly rushed voice from Fortress D-03 suddenly broke the public channel’s silence.

That report was like the first stone tossed into a calm lake, instantly creating endless ripples.

"L-01 confirming. Edge of Zone L. Zombies have turned simultaneously, moving toward the perimeter."

"B-04 reports the same. The entire horde’s movement has changed. They’re heading for the perimeter."

"G-07 reporting, observing a similar phenomenon..."

"H-12 confirming..."

In an instant, the walkie-talkie was flooded with confirmations from fortresses in different zones and with different designations. The voices varied—some were calm, some surprised, some held a trace of imperceptible excitement—but they all clearly pointed to the same fact: the zombies’ behavioral patterns had changed.

Xu Mo’s spirits lifted. He immediately adjusted the angle of his flashlight beam to track the movement of the horde below his fortress.

Sure enough, the zombies that had been aimlessly wandering and even clawing at the fortress moments before now moved as if they had all received some invisible command. They turned, their movements stiff but purposeful, and began to move slowly but steadily away from the core ruins of the Red Star Industrial Zone—in the general direction of the Jiang City Shelter.

At the front of the horde, Xu Mo could even clearly see two Level 1 Strength Type mutated zombies. They were a full size larger than the others, their arms mutated into bone hammers. Like vanguards, they used their brute force to push aside smaller debris blocking the way, clearing a path for the common zombies behind them.

Picking up the walkie-talkie, Xu Mo reported his own observations.

A report from Fortress C-05, located closer to the core area, came in: "C-05 reporting. A large number of zombies are pouring out from the core and passing my fortress’s flank. They’re flowing toward your outer zones."

"F-08 has also spotted them. The flow of zombies is significant, and they’re spreading outwards."

"A-12 confirming. Horde sighted on the perimeter. No end in sight..."

More information poured in from fortresses at different locations. As Xu Mo watched the situation in his own area, he rapidly processed the data, piecing together a mental map.

From this series of reports from various angles, a relatively clear picture began to form in Xu Mo’s mind: the zombies weren’t attacking any specific fortress or location. Instead, they were exhibiting a large-scale, outward migration from the core of the Red Star Industrial Zone toward the entire periphery, including the direction of Jiang City.

It was as if a full reservoir had begun to overflow, or as if worker ants were undertaking some kind of massive migration from their nest.

Furthermore, based on reports from fortresses on the absolute outer edge of the array, like L-12 and K-12, the horde was spreading outwards in a fan shape. It wasn’t concentrating into a few specific channels to form a targeted zombie tide. This dispersal seemed more "natural," more in line with the instinctive expansion of a species seeking more living space after its population has grown excessive.

’This at least suggests that there probably isn’t a Level 2 "Zombie Leader" with Mind Control abilities orchestrating this,’ Xu Mo quickly made a preliminary judgment. ’Otherwise, they should have gathered into one or several forces to form a more powerful zombie tide, not just spread out relatively haphazardly like this. This looks more like a natural expansion caused by the zombie population in the core area reaching some kind of threshold—a lack of living space, resources, or just room in general.’

This speculation allowed Xu Mo to breathe a small sigh of relief. There was no evidence of a higher-level, more organized threat, which was a silver lining to this unfortunate situation.

As for the specific purpose of this zombie expansion, where they would ultimately end up, and how much pressure they would put on Jiang City—these were not the most pressing questions for a frontline Observer like him to figure out right now.