Chapter 95 - 86: Forward Base 6

Chapter 95: Chapter 86: Forward Base 6

After confirming that everything was clear, Xu Mo slowly approached. He stopped again about ten meters from the vehicle, the muzzle of his AK casually aimed at the strange SUV.

As he got closer, Xu Mo could see inside the vehicle more clearly. It was empty. The back seat was a messy pile of old blankets and empty water bottles. He tried the door and found it unlocked.

He pulled open the door, and a foul odor—a mixture of sweat, smoke, and mildew—assaulted him, causing him to frown.

Xu Mo did a quick search. The cockpit contained nothing but trash. There was nothing under the blankets in the back seat. The trunk was a bit more promising: he found half a case of bottled water with assorted brand names, a few unopened packages of compressed biscuits and cans of luncheon meat, and a wooden box. Inside the box were several dozen assorted rifle and pistol rounds, some of which matched the calibers of the weapons he had acquired. Other than that, there was nothing of value—no maps, no documents, no radio.

Just as Xu Mo was about to close the trunk, his eyes caught a few small, metallic tags wedged in a crevice in the corner. He reached in and pried them out. They were three identical Identity Cards. They bore no names, only a string of laser-engraved numbers:

[Jiang City: 383457]

[Jiang City: 383458]

[Jiang City: 383459]

The numbers were consecutive, with the serial numbers already past three hundred thousand.

Xu Mo clutched the three cold Identity Cards, his gaze flickering with thought. ’These must be the IDs of those three attackers.’ And judging by the numbering system, they were almost certainly from the Jiang City Shelter. A serial number over three hundred thousand... that figure gave Xu Mo a new and shocking realization about the sheer scale of Jiang City.

Xu Mo had previously guessed that Jiang City might hold a few hundred thousand people, but seeing this concrete, enormous number still shook him. It meant the Jiang City Shelter had become a massive human settlement with a population in the hundreds of thousands and an established administrative system.

At the same time, Xu Mo confirmed the three men’s origin—they had come from Jiang City.

After moving the bottled water, food, and ammunition to his own vehicle, Xu Mo wasted no more time. He drove his windshield-less SUV over the tire tracks the three men had left and continued on his way.

This time, Xu Mo had a much clearer guide. Though washed by the rain, the tire tracks on the ground were still clearly discernible. Following them would most likely lead him to the road to Jiang City—a far more reliable method than trying to follow his crude map.

The rest of the day’s journey was much calmer. He wasn’t harassed by any mutated creatures, nor did he encounter ambushes from other survivors. The scenery outside was still desolate, but the road showed signs of having been roughly cleared, with large obstacles pushed to the side. Xu Mo followed the distinct tire tracks, crossing hills and dry riverbeds, occasionally spotting birds flying on the distant horizon.

This tranquility, however, didn’t allow Xu Mo to relax in the slightest. He knew that the closer he got to a human settlement, the more complex and insidious the potential troubles would become.

By evening, the rain had let up, though the sky remained overcast. Xu Mo noticed a distinct change in the tire tracks on the ground. It was no longer just one or two sets of tracks, but many, which crisscrossed and overlapped in a chaotic, frequent pattern. There were different types of tire patterns as well—the deep treads of large vehicles and the fainter impressions of smaller cars.

Seeing the increasing number of chaotic tire tracks, the tension in Xu Mo’s chest eased slightly. It meant he had entered a relatively "active" zone and was approaching an area of frequent human activity.

It was a common understanding that when individuals rejoined a group, they tended to subconsciously retract the fangs they had bared in the wilderness and become more "orderly."

This didn’t mean it was absolutely safe, but rather that an unspoken rule was beginning to take effect: here, blatant attacks and looting carried a greater risk of backlash from the community.

It was an invisible deterrent, a sense of order that came with numbers. One didn’t need to see other vehicles or people; these dense "imprints of human activity" alone were enough to make most people with ill intent suppress their urges.

Sure enough, after about another half hour of driving, Xu Mo saw a vehicle at a fork in the road. Its dim, yellow headlights were on as it slowly merged from a side path onto the main road he was on. It was a modified pickup truck, and several figures sat in the bed, all clutching weapons and warily scanning their surroundings.

After the pickup merged onto the main road, its headlights flashed rhythmically three times—a gesture that seemed to be either a customary courtesy or a signal of non-hostility.

Xu Mo understood immediately. It was a common, informal signal of friendship on the roads of this new world. He followed suit, flicking his headlight switch and flashing three times in response.

The pickup truck seemed to relax upon seeing his response and maintained a steady speed up ahead.

As time went on, more and more vehicles began to merge onto the main road from various side roads and paths. There were SUVs like Xu Mo’s, buses reinforced with steel plates and barbed wire, and even motorcycles roaring as they weaved through the traffic.

Most of the vehicles maintained a cautious distance from one another, yet they all followed a sort of invisible procession, heading in the same direction. In the growing twilight, their headlights formed a broken ribbon of light, and the combined roar of their engines shattered the dead silence of the wasteland.

Driving amidst this impromptu convoy of strangers and their vehicles, Xu Mo felt a mix of emotions. On one hand, he enjoyed the long-lost sensation of being part of a crowd, which eased the loneliness of his journey. On the other, he was extra vigilant, watching every vehicle that drew near, his right hand always resting by the weapon at his side.

And so, following the flow of traffic, he drove for another forty or fifty minutes. As his vehicle crested a gentle slope, the sight at the top made Xu Mo’s eyes widen.

Several kilometers ahead, a brightly lit cluster of buildings stood starkly on the horizon. The light was dazzling in the darkness, like a giant bonfire lit in the boundless, dark wasteland, exuding the comforting glow of civilization.

However, as he studied the silhouette and scale of the buildings, a seed of doubt was planted in Xu Mo’s mind.

Based on what he knew and what his map had indicated, the core area of a major shelter like Jiang City should have been enormous. But the brightly lit area before him, while not small, seemed to be only the size of a town. The outlines of tightly packed buildings were clear, but it was a far cry from the sprawl of a metropolis.

’Maybe this isn’t the main Jiang City Shelter? Or am I mistaken?’ Xu Mo wondered.

Xu Mo’s confusion didn’t last long. As the convoy slowly descended the slope and approached the outskirts of the lit-up area, a conspicuous, man-made sign on the right side of the road came into view.

It was a simple, three-meter-high frame holding a massive board. On a red background, a few lines of large text were painted in eye-catching bright yellow:

Welcome to

Jiang City’s Sixth Forward Base. Welcome home!~

The words on the sign made everything click into place for Xu Mo.

’So, this isn’t the main urban area of the Jiang City Shelter, but an outpost—a satellite town called the Sixth Forward Base,’ he thought. ’It seems that to cope with the post-apocalyptic world, manage its massive population of survivors, and develop external resources, the Jiang City Shelter has adopted a strategy of building multiple outlying forward bases. This is just one of them.’

’Number six... that means there are at least five other similar bases, maybe more,’ Xu Mo mused, his understanding of the Jiang City Shelter’s organizational power and scale growing even deeper.

He followed the stream of traffic, slowing as he approached the brightly lit forward base. In the distance, he could already see tall walls and watchtowers ringing the perimeter. Beams from searchlights swept the area both inside and outside the walls, and he could faintly make out the silhouettes of guards on patrol. A checkpoint was set up at the entrance, where vehicles were lined up, waiting to pass through slowly.

He was finally here. Xu Mo let out a soft breath. A new Chapter was about to begin. He steadied his breathing, tightened his grip on the steering wheel, and followed the convoy toward the lights of the Jiang City Sixth Forward Base—a symbol of both order and danger.