Chapter 173 - 116: Supplies

Chapter 173: Chapter 116: Supplies

Regardless of Xu Mo’s doubts and wariness toward the deathly silent Sector F, the gears of time continued to grind forward with their own cold, unyielding rhythm.

Four or five more days passed, and the zombie tide receded from the Red Star Industrial Zone once again, much like an ebbing tide. It was during this relatively "clean" window that the large-scale supply operation promised by the Jiang City Shelter finally commenced.

The procedure matched what was stated in the A-02 notice. The operation was coordinated by the command center, which informed each fortress of its specific supply time via an encrypted channel. Xu Mo’s fortress, C-07, was scheduled for three in the afternoon on the third day.

And so, a new sound came to dominate the silent sky: the roar of helicopter rotors tearing through the air. The aircraft arrived from the direction of Jiang City, shuttling back and forth over the steel jungle like busy worker bees.

The engine’s roar swelled from a distant hum to a deafening thunder before fading away again. Each arrival and departure signified the extension of a lifeline to an isolated fortress, and it was a relentless drumbeat on the frayed nerves of every Observer.

Over the past few days, Xu Mo had increased the frequency of his training in the Thirteen Grand Protectors’ Cross Training. The qi and blood within him felt like slowly heating lava, tirelessly surging through him to wash over and nourish his bones and fascia.

Xu Mo could feel the barrier to the Cowhide Realm growing thinner. Beneath that tough, leathery membrane, a tingling itch and a faint thrumming from deep within his bones grew increasingly distinct.

The gate to the Iron Bone Realm was right before him. It would only take one final push—perhaps the right catalyst—to blast it wide open. The profound principles of enduring and releasing power circulated through his mind. ’I need some real pressure to finally detonate all this accumulated energy.’

On the afternoon of the third day, Xu Mo did a preemptive check on the fortress’s rooftop hydraulic seal, confirming it was in good working order. As three o’clock approached, the familiar roar sounded in the sky, right on schedule, growing steadily closer.

Xu Mo took a deep breath and peered through the largest observation slit. His field of view was limited, but it was enough to see what was happening in the sky. A dark green transport helicopter, like a sturdy iron bird, was flying toward Fortress C-07. Slung beneath its fuselage on high-strength cables was a massive, camouflage-painted, cube-shaped supply crate.

The helicopter didn’t drop its cargo immediately. Instead, it began to circle above the fortress, its massive sound waves shattering the surrounding silence like a stone thrown into a stagnant pond.

Soon, the "residents" in the shadows of the ruins below—who had been as still as statues or moving with languid slowness—were startled. They tilted their rotting, mutilated heads upward, their clouded eyes staring toward the source of the sound. Hoarse, meaningless groans rumbled in their throats as they instinctively began to shamble after the scent of life in the sky.

This was the standard procedure for luring the dead. The helicopter deftly adjusted its flight path, now dipping lower, now changing direction, successfully drawing most of the scattered zombies within a several-hundred-meter radius of the fortress. It led them toward an open area far away.

After two or three minutes, once the horde had been lured a sufficient distance, the helicopter suddenly accelerated and dove. The massive thrust allowed it to instantly shake off its slow pursuers on the ground. It carved a sharp arc through the air and raced back.

The cable hook released with an audible CLICK. The supply crate paused for a fraction of a second in mid-air before plummeting with a heavy whoosh. It landed with a dull THUD on a relatively flat patch of open ground next to the fortress, kicking up a small cloud of dust.

This was it.

Xu Mo moved like lightning. He opened the hydraulic seal, scrambled out of the fortress, and grabbed the tow strap on the supply crate, dragging it toward the entrance.

The crate was heavy, clearly stuffed with all sorts of survival supplies, but to Xu Mo, the weight was nothing special.

After shoving the crate into the fortress, Xu Mo glanced back. With the helicopter gone, the zombies that had been lured away had fallen back into disarray.

Back inside with the entrance sealed, Xu Mo was about to take stock of his new supplies when he heard the roars of zombies nearby. Evidently, having lost their target, they were wandering back toward the fortress.

’Scream all you want. You won’t touch a single hair on my head.’ Xu Mo ignored the commotion outside and prepared to take inventory of the supplies.

Xu Mo used a rope ladder to haul the new supplies up, then pulled the ladder in and sealed the passageway.

Only after all that was done did he formally take inventory of the crate’s contents. It was another two months’ worth of supplies.

He opened the crate. The contents were sorted by category, consisting mainly of food and living essentials.

There were stacks of MREs—Meals, Ready-to-Eat—with the Jiang City Shelter logo printed on the packaging. The flavors were the usual rotation: beef with potatoes, chicken with shiitake mushrooms, and shredded pork with pickled vegetables. After a while, they all started to taste like cardboard, but they were essential for maintaining his strength. There were also some compressed biscuits and several large bags of fruit-flavored hard candies—a rare sweet comfort in this gray world.

For living essentials, there was toilet paper, disinfecting wipes, high-efficiency water purification tablets, and the like. Additionally, Xu Mo found a small, separately wrapped, and surprisingly heavy package. Inside were two boxes of gleaming brass 7.62mm intermediate-power rifle cartridges for his AK-47. Each box contained 30 rounds, for a total of 60.

It wasn’t a lot, clearly the standard allotment provided by the logistics department based on the weapon he had previously reported. To Xu Mo, this small amount of ammunition was better than nothing. But at the very least, it proved Jiang City was keeping records and had provided the resupply without him even asking.