Chapter 105: Silver Ring Sanctuary Zone

Inside the base, the original researchers’ dormitory area was requisitioned to serve as a rest area for the heavily wounded members of the Dawn Squad.

Whether it was the Transcendent Long Ying or the remaining six Awakeners like Qiao Jun, their injuries were too severe to endure a long, bumpy ride in a vehicle, so they had no choice but to stay at the base and recover for a while.

In another room, the smell of blood filled the air. Two burly white guards were hanging, their bodies drenched in blood, heads drooping down, completely dead.

Chen Chong stood before the two corpses with a dark expression, clearly unhappy.

He had painstakingly dug these two barely-alive guards out from a pile of dead men. But just as he woke them up, before he could even savor the thrill of harsh interrogation, these two white men, terrified beyond measure, bit into poison capsules hidden in their teeth and died on the spot, ruining all his plans.

The deaths of these last two white guards meant that all clues regarding the organization behind the base were completely severed.

“The organization behind Diris is no ordinary group.”

Chen Chong narrowed his eyes.

“They’d rather commit suicide than be interrogated by me and reveal secrets. Were these two idiots severely brainwashed, or is the deterrence of this organization just too terrifying?”

Chen Chong understood that either possibility pointed to this organization’s mystery and power. What he knew of Diris and Katherine seemed to be just the tip of the iceberg of this organization’s strength; perhaps an even greater force lurked beneath the surface.

If nothing else, the way Katherine was elevated to rival a Transcendent, and the strange serums Diris used in battle, were ample proof of this.

And what Chen Chong considered now, naturally, was whether this organization would seek revenge once they learned of the base’s destruction.

However, judging by Diris’s act of evacuating the researchers in advance, this mysterious organization was quite low-key and cautious, seemingly unwilling to expose itself too much. Moreover, the dangerous Wilderness served as a natural barrier. Even if the organization wanted to launch a large-scale retaliation, it was highly unlikely; at most, they would send some elites.

Thinking this, Chen Chong strode out of the interrogation room and came to the room where Long Ying was resting.

Inside the room, a strange herbal smell permeated the air. Long Ying, his face pale and his upper body wrapped in thick bandages, was leaning against the bed to rest.

“How is it?”

Long Ying opened his eyes, having shed much of his wariness toward Chen Chong, and asked,

“So, did you get anything out of them?”

Chen Chong shook his head. “Those two guards took poison and killed themselves. I couldn’t get anything. It seems the organization behind them knows how to discipline its underlings. However, this organization has quite the background; it’s best we don’t stay here for long.”

Long Ying frowned deeply and couldn’t help but give a bitter smile. “I understand. Pull up the radish and you bring out the mud. This time, I truly lost the wife and the army.”

Chen Chong chuckled and offered some insincere consolation.

“Leader Long Ying, it’s not like you’ve gained nothing at all. Didn’t you gain an ally like me? There’s no one else here, so let’s be frank. I’m not like the Blood General; I have little interest in your Territory. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have let you all off so easily. The world has already turned into this, we should help and watch out for each other. There’s no need to slaughter one another, don’t you agree?”

‘You clearly kill more ferociously than anyone else!’

Long Ying’s eye twitched.

He knew full well that if it were someone like the Blood General, none of his people would have escaped a brutal fate. Even putting himself in Chen Chong’s shoes, he couldn’t guarantee he wouldn’t have had malicious thoughts. And because Chen Chong hadn’t shown any ill will up to now, his anxious heart had finally settled completely.

This was also why, even though Chen Chong was blatantly exploiting the situation with his exorbitant demands, he harbored no real resentment.

Chen Chong had not come here simply to comfort Long Ying. He rolled his eyes and asked, “Right, I’ve heard this area referred to as the Wasteland before. What’s the reason for that?”

“The Wasteland?”

Long Ying frowned, a little surprised.

“If I’m not mistaken, that term probably came from those large-scale gathering places, right? Only they would give a name like that to our region.”

Thinking of how the Blood General originated from a large gathering place, Chen Chong nodded.

“Others might not know, but as the leader of a gathering place, I do know a bit. The reason they call our area the Wasteland is that it suffered intensive nuclear strikes during the Cataclysm. The radiation was so intense it made the land barren of life, with maybe only one in a hundred survivors. Even after eighteen years, it hasn’t recovered, hence the name.”

Long Ying sighed.

“But as far as I know, although the Wasteland is barren and poor, its dangers are far fewer compared to the outside world. Because this place was once extinct-cleansed by nuclear strikes, only some mutated Radiation Species remain. As long as we avoid certain danger zones, survival isn’t a problem. Outside the Wasteland, however, it’s different. The rampant Radiation Species there, influenced dually by the Cataclysm and radiation, have now transformed into extremely terrifying monsters.

I’ve also heard of monsters called Wasteland Gods. Each one is incredibly fearsome. A single Transcendent like you or me is simply no match; just one could annihilate a small gathering place like ours. It would take an entire army equipped with heavy firepower, plus the coordination of New Humans at least at the Transcendent level, just to possibly contend with such an existence!

And those large gathering places are basically built on the ruins of cities. Though they have abundant resources and a high level of development, the survival pressure they face from terrifying creatures like Wasteland Gods might be far heavier than ours.”

‘The Wasteland Gods in the Blood General’s notes were that powerful?’

Listening to Long Ying’s account, Chen Chong’s brows raised. “How do you know so much?”

Long Ying smiled.

“Although we’re isolated here, information doesn’t stop flowing completely. A few hundred kilometers from here, where the provincial capital was before the Cataclysm, is a large gathering place called the Silver Ring Sanctuary Zone, with a population of nearly a hundred thousand. This Sanctuary Zone occasionally sends out elites to search for seeds of various Spiritual Plants to bring back for artificial cultivation. I have encountered these elites in my Territory before, and that’s how I learned some information about the outside world.”

‘Silver Ring Sanctuary Zone? Nearly a hundred thousand survivors?’

Chen Chong felt a stir in his heart and asked, “What was the strength of these elites you met? And how much do you know about the state of this Silver Ring Sanctuary Zone?”

“All the elites I met gave me a significant sense of threat; they were at least Transcendents.”

Long Ying said very bluntly.

“By my estimation, in a Sanctuary Zone like that, the number of Awakeners must be at least a thousand, the number who have unlocked Gene Locks likely in the dozens, and there might even be Controllers who have unlocked the Second-order Gene Lock. Compared to such a place, we’re indeed like local tyrants ruling a tiny, out-of-the-way corner.”

‘Over a thousand Awakeners? Dozens of Transcendents? And possibly Controllers who have unlocked the Second-order Gene Lock?!’

In an instant, a sharp gleam flashed in Chen Chong’s eyes. He immediately asked, “So do you know what kind of existence a Controller is?”