Chapter 121: Chilling Upon Reflection

Another person was dragged out by Fang Xia. None of those captured offered any defense; all accepted the facts as given. Everyone assumed that Fang Xia must already have sufficient evidence.

In reality, apart from the first two, who had been followed by the young ladies last night, no one else had gone out to leak information. But Fang Xia was indifferent to this. As long as he focused everyone's attention on the matter, none of the spies standing before him could escape.

In total, seven people were caught, and it was unlikely there were any more. Of course, there were still some lower-level employees receiving paychecks, but as long as they weren't in leadership positions, they couldn’t cause much trouble.

"I'm tired. You handle the rest. As for what to do going forward, everyone should already have a clear understanding," Fang Xia said.

"The farm and ranch will be guarded and managed by people assigned by Ludezhi from now on."

After saying this, Fang Xia left. If the others failed to do their jobs properly, he would have to consider replacing the team leader.

Fang Xia returned to the second floor. He had initially thought he was only dealing with one case of internal theft but ended up uncovering so many traitors. Dawn City was just beginning to rise; the surviving humans were only starting to live normal lives, yet the major groups were already restless.

Indeed, human nature was prone to infighting. This was also why humans were incredibly strong. When there were no external enemies, internal strife seemed to be the only option.

But now, were there truly no opponents left?

Fang Xia knew that outside Dawn City in the previous life, there was a powerful eighth-tier zombie. For some unknown reason, it had never attacked the city.

Since he last heard about that fifth-tier zombie, Fang Xia’s suspicions had grown. Zombies could advance by absorbing human energy, and that eighth-tier zombie’s intelligence was at least equal to an average person’s. Why would it pass up the chance to become stronger?

It didn’t make sense.

After much thought, Fang Xia suddenly recalled an important detail.

The fifth-tier zombie had two inner voices.

The first was: "Humans, food, delicious."

The second was: "He, food, advancement."

Fang Xia had always ignored the first sentence but suddenly realized its significance.

The inner voice that he could hear must include himself. “Humans” certainly included him. But the first voice only described food as delicious, without mentioning advancement.

The second voice referred to “he,” which, since Fang Xia could hear it, must mean himself. Only food like himself could enable the zombie to advance.

A chill ran down Fang Xia’s spine.

He finally understood something.

Humans could upgrade by consuming upgrade crystals, but there were limits. When advancing from third to fourth tier, first-tier upgrade crystals couldn’t be used. Similarly, moving from fourth to fifth tier required second-tier crystals, and from fifth to sixth, fourth-tier crystals were needed.

At that time, Fang Xia was a fourth-tier fighter. The fifth-tier zombie needed to consume someone like him to advance, indicating that zombies had similar limitations.

The higher the level, the stronger these restrictions became.

At the eighth-tier zombie level, the highest humans in Dawn City were only seventh-tier, likely unable to provide any power boost.

Therefore, the zombie had been waiting—for an eighth-tier human to appear before it acted.

Realizing this, cold sweat broke out on Fang Xia’s back.

How did the apocalypse truly come about? What was the mastermind’s purpose behind it all? Were human survivors just food bred by high-tier zombies?

Furthermore, the fact that he could hear the zombies’ inner voices—did that mean zombies were actually a part of humanity?

Thinking carefully, eighth-tier zombies looked no different from humans, with intelligence equal to or surpassing that of an average adult.

Was it really reasonable to keep calling them zombies?

You might say they carried a zombie toxin.

Well, I have teleportation, Chen Gang can breathe fire—so what if they carry a bit of poison? It’s entirely plausible.

Maybe eighth-tier zombies weren't even the end. Could there be ninth or even tenth tiers?

The more Fang Xia thought, the more convinced he became.

Based on what he had seen in his previous life and combined with his current experiences, he felt he was drawing ever closer to the truth.

The rift in the sky seemed like a time-space tunnel connecting two completely different worlds.

Humans were like the energy they raised.

They eliminated the weak, strengthened the strong, then absorbed them to surge to higher levels.

If this was true, another conclusion could be drawn: as long as there weren’t enough fifth-tier humans in Dawn City, the fourth wave of zombie rain wouldn’t come.

There was still time, Fang Xia quietly reassured himself.

He needed to become stronger, but that also required time to consolidate.

The one fortunate thing was that the zombies’ arrival mechanism was linked to their strength.

When their strongest fighters were only fourth-tier, only one fifth-tier zombie appeared.

That was Fang Xia’s chance.

As long as he stayed at the forefront of human combat power, he could maintain parity with the zombies, unless the puppeteers behind the scenes grew fearful and decided to stop.

But Fang Xia doubted such a thing would happen.

The masterminds clearly wanted to create the strongest food to help themselves advance.

“Sigh!”

Fang Xia sighed.

A pair of soft little hands rested on his shoulders and gently massaged.

Fang Xia reached back, grabbed the small hand, and gently pulled Liu Rui into his embrace.

“How many third-tier upgrade crystals do we have?”

Fang Xia’s restless hands caused Liu Rui’s breathing to quicken slightly. After a moment’s thought, she answered.

“972.”

Fang Xia was surprised and stopped his movements. That many? They were close—soon he could upgrade.

Perhaps because Fang Xia’s hands paused, Liu Rui felt a bit dissatisfied. Her small hand covered his larger one, urging him to continue.

His hands resumed their movement as Fang Xia continued.

“We still need to increase the exchange of third and fourth-tier upgrade crystals, aiming to trade in all the high-tier crystals from freelancers. Also, every day we must send at least two teams out of the city to kill zombies. There must be a steady flow of freshly acquired upgrade crystals.”

Fang Xia now had two tasks.

First, rapidly enhance the team’s strength; second, stockpile enough food.

Once both were achieved, Fang Xia planned to set out and leave Dawn City.

“Yes, it’s being done every day, mostly heading toward Magic City,” Liu Rui replied.

Fang Xia had long mentioned going to Magic City, and Liu Rui had it firmly in mind, though she wished to stay comfortably in Dawn City.