Chapter 252 - 142: Electrofishing

Chapter 252: Chapter 142: Electrofishing

"Something that would be next to impossible for us as individuals might just be a routine ’environmental cleanup operation’ for an organized collective."

Zhang Yun nodded thoughtfully. "We were only thinking about how to hide or fight, while they were thinking about how to wipe everything out in one go." She hesitated, her tone complicated. "It’s just... seeing it is a little..."

"A little cruel? Or maybe, too efficient and cold?" Xu Mo chimed in, understanding how she felt.

That method of indiscriminately annihilating all life in an entire section of the river was an affront to humanity’s instinctive reverence for nature and life.

"Mm," Zhang Yun agreed.

"But this is the apocalypse." Xu Mo’s tone was calm. "When they threaten our survival—especially a lifeline like our water source—any efficient means of eliminating the threat will be prioritized. Emotions and moral concerns often have to take a backseat to survival. Jiang City is just doing what it has to do."

Zhang Yun fell silent for a moment, then nodded without another word.

She had experienced the despair of watching her squad get wiped out, so she knew that in the face of absolute danger, there were rarely any compassionate options. Still, witnessing such collective violence firsthand was jarring.

In truth, Zhang Yun wasn’t the only one affected. Xu Mo felt his own perspective broadening as well.

The rest of their patrol was uneventful. By the time they passed that stretch of the river again, the cleanup crew was long gone. All that remained were a few scattered drag marks on the bank and the lingering stench of diesel and decay in the air. The river flowed on silently, as if nothing had ever happened.

That evening, after their patrol was over, they parted ways outside the assembly point. They simply nodded at each other, an unspoken understanding passing between them.

After what they had witnessed that day, a new layer was added to their partnership—a deeper, shared understanding of the reality of the apocalypse.

Xu Mo walked back to the Inner City alone, his shadow stretched long by the setting sun. He replayed the day’s events in his mind: the electric grid, the floating corpses, the final destination of the "fertilizer." He felt no great turmoil, only a quiet, profound understanding.

’No matter how strong an individual is, they have their limits and their blind spots. The power a resurgent civilization can mobilize and the logic it employs to solve problems are on a scale far beyond the reach of any lone survivor. It might be ruthless, its efficiency might be unsettling, but this is the instinctive reaction of a collective facing an existential threat.’

’The internal divisions I was worried about—the ones caused by different sources of power—might be temporarily suppressed under Jiang City’s strong, pragmatic control. But they could also be festering in more hidden, twisted ways.’

’And what comes after the "electrofishing"? What if, one day, the threat comes from the sky, from beneath the ground, or from humanity’s own uncontrollable mutations? What kind of "solution" will Jiang City devise then?’

Xu Mo didn’t have the answer, but he knew that more qualified people would eventually step forward with a more reliable solution. It was for this very reason that Xu Mo felt, more than ever, that he wasn’t cut out to be a leader.

Back in his small courtyard, the clamor of the outside world and the memory of the "cleanup" he had just witnessed were shut out. Xu Mo stood in the yard and slowly settled into his training stance. At his command, the vital energy and blood within him began to circulate faster. It was a warm, powerful current, like an unfrozen river flowing deep underground, surging forward through the channels he controlled.