Chapter Summaries

Wang Tao tested Nie Siyan's Bone-Corroding Poison Needle and Gao Hua's Poison Explosion, learning how their poison-based awakenings worked and where they fell short. He discovered Gao Hua could detonate poison gas released by Corrosion Armor, leaving Gao Hua worried that he had become a poison gas bomb.

• Wang Tao learned that Nie Siyan could store up to three poison needles that inflicted stacking damage over time, though they were difficult to aim and limited by a cooldown.
• Wang Tao examined Gao Hua's Poison Explosion, which let him release poisonous gas and detonate it, making it powerful but dependent on cooperation.
• Wang Tao had Nie Siyan test whether Gao Hua could detonate her poison needles, but he could not.
• Wang Tao tested whether Gao Hua could detonate gas from Corrosion Armor, and the test succeeded.
• Gao Hua looked despondent at being turned into a poison gas bomb, despite the awakening's considerable power.

Wang Tao led his newly Awakened companions outside the base to test their combat abilities, while discovering that Li Qiu Yu’s Tree Essence could restore stamina and mental strength. After finding almost no zombies, he received a radio call from Commander Cheng, who hinted that the Sixth Army Corps might need help.

• Wang Tao agreed with Xiang Hongbin to take the group outside for actual combat testing the next day.
• Wang Tao tested the Tree Essence ability with Li Qiu Yu and found that her essence restored stamina and mental strength without side effects, though it quickly lost its effect and was produced in small amounts.
• Lan Yulian obtained approval for the group to leave the city, and Qu Shilin joined them with an Iron Beetle and sixty million crystal coins from Night Demon Heart sales.
• Qu Shilin realized that most of Wang Tao’s companions had Awakened, and Wang Tao offered to look for a way to give her a Hidden Attribute.
• The group drove far beyond the base but found only a few weak zombies, so they could not properly test their combat abilities.
• Commander Cheng contacted Wang Tao over the Sixth Army Corps’ encrypted radio channel and said the Corps might need help.

Wang Tao and his team reached the zombie horde surrounding Cheng Yiyi’s trapped Sixth Army Corps and began the rescue plan. After Cheng Yiyi prepared her soldiers to break out, Wang Tao attacked the zombies with a growing fireball, drawing their attention.

• Cheng Yiyi explained that a Tier 5 Giant Eagle and a zombie horde had trapped her soldiers in a subway, and Wang Tao planned to lure zombies away so they could escape.
• Qu Shilin chose to stay with Wang Tao’s team for the rescue, and He Jijun drove them toward Cheng Yiyi’s location.
• Cheng Yiyi told the soldiers that Wang Tao was coming, raised their morale, and ordered Pei Hai to watch for the Giant Eagle.
• Wang Tao’s team reached the subway entrance and told Cheng Yiyi they would attract the zombies in one minute.
• Wang Tao and the other Awakeners left the vehicle, and Wang Tao hurled a large fireball into the zombies.

Wang Tao and his allies drew the zombie tide away from Cheng Yiyi’s trapped group, but the battle grew too dangerous to continue. Cheng Yiyi led her people toward safety while Wang Tao’s team prepared to retreat, leaving their reunion uncertain.

• Wang Tao tested Qu Shilin’s Attack Type Power Armor, mowing down zombies with its guns before running out of ammunition and switching to its chainsaw blade.
• Xiang Hongbin joined Wang Tao, and the Awakened fighters and fourth-order creatures formed a line to hold back the advancing zombie tide.
• As stronger zombies appeared and radio contact with Cheng Yiyi failed, Wang Tao ordered his group to retreat in one minute.
• Cheng Yiyi told her soldiers that Wang Tao had arrived with reinforcements and led them out once the zombies had been drawn away.
• Lin Kaiyang urged Cheng Yiyi to leave without joining Wang Tao, and she led the group away while telling Wang Tao to survive.

Wang Tao and his group escaped the zombie horde in the Crystal Energy Car and headed back toward Long River Base. Before they could get far, Xiang Hongbin spotted the Giant Eagle following them, and the group took shelter in an underground garage.

• Wang Tao called a retreat as the zombie horde overwhelmed the group, and Han Rui drove them away in berserk mode.
• Qu Shilin became carsick during the escape, then learned about Wang Tao's Nutrient Solution and Food Compressor and asked to study the machine after they returned.
• Wang Tao decided the group should abandon their planned sparring and return home by a route that went around the zombie horde.
• Xiang Hongbin spotted the Giant Eagle circling high above and warned that it had seen them.
• Wang Tao changed course toward nearby buildings, and the group reached a residential complex and drove into an underground garage before the Giant Eagle attacked.

Wang Tao and his team took shelter in an underground garage while hiding from the Giant Eagle and met a wary group of survivors led by Shang Qin. After Han Rui discovered that more than ten women were being held elsewhere in the garage, Wang Tao went to investigate and learned that Shang Qin believed all bases were destined to fall.

• Wang Tao's team escaped the Giant Eagle by driving into an underground garage, where Han Rui sensed survivors ahead.
• Wang Tao's group met Shang Qin and two other malnourished survivors, who let them pass and offered them a place to stay for the night.
• Wang Tao's team paid Shang Qin with Protein Blocks and settled near the survivors' tents and cooking fires.
• Han Rui sensed more than thirty people in the garage and found that over ten weak women appeared to be imprisoned.
• Wang Tao and Nie Siyan approached Shang Qin for information, and he said that any base was destined to fall.

Wang Tao learned that Shang Qin’s group ran an underground flesh trade, then rescued two chained women and discovered they were being used to lure victims. When the women suddenly attacked him and began turning into zombies, Wang Tao knocked them unconscious, and their zombie-like traits started to fade.

• Shang Qin told Wang Tao that his group traded access to chained women and that outsiders came to their garage as customers.
• Shang Qin gave Wang Tao two chained women, whom Wang Tao brought to his group and freed with Xiang Hongbin’s help.
• Wang Tao saw three outsiders pay Shang Qin for a chained woman and restrain her in the garage.
• The two women thanked Wang Tao, then suddenly attacked him as their impurities surged and zombie-like traits appeared.
• Wang Tao knocked the women unconscious with a glance, and their black veins and other zombie-like traits began to disappear.

Wang Tao investigated two women whose zombie-like traits and impurity readings had behaved strangely, but they remembered nothing about attacking him. He learned Long River Base had rejected them as high-risk outsiders, leaving their fate unresolved.

• Wang Tao and Qu Shilin found that the two women looked normal despite a detector reading their bodily impurities at level 10.
• Wang Tao questioned the women after waking them, but they had no memory of attacking him.
• Wang Tao offered to take the women to Long River Base, but they refused and said the base had driven them out.
• Qu Shilin explained that Long River Base barred outsiders whose bodily impurities exceeded 80 percent.
• The women revealed they had fused many white Zombie Crystal Cores before reaching the base, and they begged Wang Tao to give them food rather than freedom.

Wang Tao learned that the chained women had entered Shang Qin’s arrangement willingly, though their strange tendency to attack people remained unexplained. After spending the night in the underground garage, Wang Tao’s group left to check whether the Giant Eagle had gone.

• Wang Tao questioned the two women, who said they had chosen to earn food and did not want to go to Long River Base.
• The women told Wang Tao that other Long River Base residents had visited them, and Wang Tao asked them to keep up the pretense that he had been with them.
• Wang Tao returned the women to Shang Qin, who explained that they sometimes went mad and attacked customers, and said his group had been driven out of Long River Base.
• Wang Tao declined Shang Qin’s offer to visit again, then told his companions they would wait until morning and check whether the Giant Eagle had left.
• Wang Tao’s group found no sign of the Giant Eagle and drove out of the underground garage.

Wang Tao’s group fought through numerous zombie groups on their return to Long River Base and rescued Wen Guocheng, Fu Yu, and their companions. As they traveled onward, Wen Guocheng described a terrifying zombie horde whose Lord they suspected was Sixth Order, prompting Wang Tao to ask for details.

• Wang Tao’s group killed several zombie groups led by Fourth Order Lord Zombies while cautiously traveling back toward Long River Base.
• Wang Tao discovered Wen Guocheng, Fu Yu, and their companions trapped in a building surrounded by zombies, and his group rescued them.
• Wen Guocheng’s group joined Wang Tao’s convoy and explained that another zombie horde had forced them to remain outside the city.
• Wen Guocheng said his group suspected the Lord of that horde was a Sixth Order Zombie, and Wang Tao asked him to describe it carefully.

Wang Tao escorted Wen Guocheng’s convoy toward Long River Base, avoided a suspected Sixth Order Lord Zombie, and hunted Night Demons during the night. After destroying a nest and gaining powerful loot, he caught up with the convoy and led everyone safely into the base.

• Wen Guocheng told Wang Tao about a thin zombie whose presence suggested it might be a Sixth Order Lord, so Wang Tao detoured around its route and continued toward Long River Base.
• When Night Demons gathered around the convoy after dark, Wang Tao used ultraviolet lamps to keep them away, then left with Jiang Shixue and Lightning to find their nest.
• Wang Tao defeated a Fifth Order Lord Night Demon with his Hellfire awakening, collected its loot, and let Lightning devour its corpse before it turned to ash.
• Wang Tao used parasite eggs and the nest’s Incubation Flesh to hatch and kill more Night Demons, while Lightning gained enough health to reach 180,000 HP.
• Wang Tao caught up with Wen Guocheng’s convoy, and the group reached and entered Long River Base safely in the early morning.

After returning safely to Long River Base, Wang Tao reviewed the spoils from his trip and caught up with Cheng Yiyi. Cheng Yiyi suspected someone had tampered with the Sixth Army Corps’ radios to endanger her and her troops, while Wang Tao’s investments had restored and strengthened the corps.

• Wang Tao took Qu Shilin to the research institute, returned to his villa, and sorted through the loot from the trip.
• Wang Tao replied to messages from Cheng Yiyi and others, confirming that he would attend the New Year events and arranging for his business partners to handle sales and negotiations.
• Cheng Yiyi hurried to Wang Tao’s villa, thanked him for saving her people, and explained how her group had escaped and returned to the base.
• Cheng Yiyi told Wang Tao that the Sixth Army Corps’ radios had failed repeatedly at crucial moments, and Wang Tao agreed they might have been tampered with.
• Wang Tao advised Cheng Yiyi to investigate quietly and asked who would benefit if she died and the Sixth Army Corps collapsed.
• Cheng Yiyi told Wang Tao that his investments had replaced the corps’ losses and greatly increased its strength.

Wang Tao and Cheng Yiyi discussed investments and potions before a sudden snowfall blanketed Long River Base on New Year's Eve. After learning the blizzard might last one or two months, Wang Tao drove to the research institute to have his vehicle modified and deliver Qu Shilin a Food Compressor.

• Cheng Yiyi thanked Wang Tao for bringing investment to the Sixth Army Corps, bought combat-enhancing potions, and explained how her team had obtained two Night Demon Hearts.
• Wang Tao realized Cheng Yiyi had bought one of his Night Demon Hearts from Qu Shilin, then agreed to reserve his Iron Beetle for Gu Yun and attend the New Year's Eve events.
• Wang Tao and his companions woke to heavy snow, lit a fire, and began preparing for the holiday before having to help clear the accumulating snow.
• Qu Shilin told Wang Tao that researchers predicted the snowstorm could create an icy winter lasting one or two months and asked him to bring his Crystal Energy Car and Food Compressor to the research institute.
• Wang Tao agreed to drive to the research institute for the vehicle modifications and set out carefully on the slippery roads.

Wang Tao brought a Food Compressor to Qu Shilin at the research institute and agreed to sponsor her research, learning that a cure for the constantly mutating Zombie Virus might require the Progenitor Virus. He then showed Qu Shilin research records from the first outbreak, giving her and the institute a chance to study the Progenitor Virus.

• Wang Tao drove through heavy snow to the research institute, where Qu Shilin explained that the storm had disrupted wireless signals and could threaten the base's normal operations.
• Wang Tao let the institute modify his car and gave Qu Shilin a Food Compressor to study, telling her he had found another one for himself.
• Qu Shilin asked Wang Tao for ten million crystal coins to fund one research project's startup, and he agreed after hearing about her work on power armor, weapons, and viruses.
• Qu Shilin explained that Zombie Virus mutations made a cure seem impossible unless researchers could find and study the Progenitor Virus from the first outbreak.
• Wang Tao brought Qu Shilin to his villa and gave her the Green-Eyed Zombie's research records on the Progenitor Virus, which she eagerly accepted for the institute.

Qu Shilin stayed with Wang Tao’s group after the blizzard delayed her return, and they attended the Municipal Government’s New Year’s Eve party together. At the venue, Wang Tao learned more about the Giant Eagle and met Changhe Base City Mayor Yao Guodong.

• Qu Shilin accepted Wang Tao’s invitation to attend the Evening Party, and Wang Tao transferred her ten million crystal coins for her research.
• Wang Tao and his companions cleared the snow, then Cui Sheng arrived with invitations for the group and their creatures.
• Wang Tao’s group drew attention at the Municipal Government, where Duan Xuchang examined Xiang Hongbin’s Mechanical Prosthetics and Qu Shilin warned that the experimental modifications were risky.
• Duan Xuchang told Wang Tao that the Giant Eagle kept other flying zombies and monsters away from the area, though the base’s weapons could deter the eagle from attacking.
• Gu Yun explained that the Evening Party would be broadcast citywide to display the base’s strength, and Wang Tao’s group took seats near the front.
• Mayor Yao Guodong introduced himself to Wang Tao as the party began.

Wang Tao discovered that Mayor Yao Guodong’s repeated Crystal Core fusion failures came from a curse that would lift after thirty days without fusing a core, and he arranged to help Yao while making it appear that a special Crystal Core was the solution. As the Evening Party began, Wang Tao observed the many concealed Awakened among the base’s leaders and sat with Cheng Yiyi’s group for the livestream.

• Wang Tao met Mayor Yao Guodong and saw that a curse had prevented him from fusing Crystal Cores successfully.
• Yao Guodong explained that he had repeatedly failed to fuse even high-quality Crystal Cores and had stopped after doctors warned that his Internal Impurities were dangerously high.
• Wang Tao learned that Yao Guodong had gone twenty-nine days without fusing a Crystal Core and decided to wait until the curse lifted before giving him a special core, hoping to earn his gratitude.
• Wang Tao asked Yao Guodong about the place where he had fallen ill, then claimed that a special Crystal Core had helped another person with the same problem and offered Yao one.
• Yao Guodong agreed to spend a day quietly in his room before trying the Crystal Core, exchanged contact information with Wang Tao, and left to prepare his speech.
• Wang Tao noticed that many arriving leaders were fourth-order Awakened, then joined Cheng Yiyi’s group as the Evening Party began.

At the Evening Party, Wang Tao learned about the commissioners and watched the Prairie Fire Society and Sixth Army Corps draw attention, then offered Qu Shilin and Cheng Yiyi Snake Eggs. After the speeches and demonstrations, Mayor Yao Guodong told Wang Tao to stay for a separate activity, leaving him curious about what was planned.

• The host introduced the twenty-three commissioners, Mayor Yao Guodong, the officials, and the guests, including Lan Yulian, Wang Tao, Lightning, and the Black Snakes.
• The Black Snakes crawled onto Cheng Yiyi during the introductions, prompting speculation that the Prairie Fire Society and Sixth Army Corps had formed an alliance.
• Wang Tao offered Qu Shilin one Snake Egg and Cheng Yiyi four, and Cheng Yiyi agreed to pay for them.
• Mayor Yao Guodong and other leaders gave speeches before performances, sparring matches, ability demonstrations, and displays of new equipment.
• Mayor Yao Guodong quietly told Wang Tao to stay after the Evening Party for another activity intended for the leaders and guests.

After learning that the horde outside Long River Base had been slowed by the freezing weather, Wang Tao and the others considered joining a major expedition to hunt the zombies. The chapter left them at the trade fair, where someone asked Lan Yulian to help awaken them.

• Gu Yun announced a trade fair and a voluntary expedition led by the Six Army Corps to attack the frozen zombie horde outside the base.
• Cheng Yiyi explained that survivors had returned from outside and reported the slowed zombies, and reconnaissance confirmed the report.
• Wang Tao agreed that eliminating the horde was an opportunity but wanted to hear the base's detailed plan before deciding.
• Qu Shilin questioned whether another blizzard could trap the expedition, while Xiang Hongbin said he was willing to go.
• The factions began trading for ways to improve their combat strength, and someone approached Lan Yulian to request help awakening.

At the trade fair, Wang Tao rejected requests to escort people seeking Awakening Keys and declined to form a temporary alliance, while the Prairie Fire Society drew attention for Lan Yulian’s healing and Xiang Hongbin’s Mechanical Prosthetic. After visiting the Six Army Corps’ trading area, Wang Tao learned the no-fly zone was descending and realized it might eventually disable all electronic devices.

• Lan Yulian rejected three offers to escort people in killing fourth-order lords, and Wang Tao explained that he would not take the jobs regardless of the price.
• Wang Tao declined Qi De and the others’ proposal for a temporary alliance but agreed that Lan Yulian could prioritize healing them if a serious crisis arose.
• Xiang Hongbin displayed his Mechanical Prosthetic, prompting people to ask the research institute about future Prosthetic Body Modification experiments.
• Wang Tao visited the Six Army Corps’ trading area under his advisor identity, where Cheng Yiyi chose to buy fourth-order Snake Eggs instead of Weapon Equipment.
• Duan Xuchang explained that the Second Army Corps’ fighter jets were nearly unusable because the no-fly zone had descended, and Wang Tao asked whether it would eventually disable all electronic devices.

Wang Tao explored buying heavy weapons and aircraft from the First, Second, and Third Army Corps, whose commanders were eager to sell equipment before the approaching Hidden Crisis made it unusable. He agreed to negotiate discounted prices and offered potions and other equipment as trade, leaving the deal unresolved.

• Wang Tao asked Cheng Yiyi whether he could purchase weapons under the Sixth Army Corps' name, and she approved as long as he paid for them and their maintenance.
• Cheng Yiyi and Duan Xuchang introduced Wang Tao to Tian Xuesong, Du Longfei, and Hou Zhiyuan, who explained that their corps were trying to sell surplus equipment.
• Hou Zhiyuan showed Wang Tao tanks and artillery, while Du Longfei promoted aircraft and Tian Xuesong offered missiles and rockets with warnings about their risks.
• Wang Tao said the equipment was tempting but too expensive, prompting the commanders to offer discounts, loans, and other arrangements.
• Wang Tao brought out potions and equipment to trade, and Tian Xuesong immediately expressed interest in a Strength Potion.