The Radio

Mosaic-like images appeared across the grassland, then pieced together into the figure of a fully armed man.

A tactical helmet, combat fatigues beneath a bulletproof vest, a large backpack, and a sleek black Assault Rifle in his hands—he was armed to the teeth.

"Sure makes a difference when you change your gear."

Using his Dynamic Vision, Tao Yu swept the area with a few tactical movements, confirming it was safe before relaxing a little.

He was right where he had been when he left. This new set of gear was all spoils from the Li family, too.

After more than half a month had passed without attracting much attention, Tao Yu checked on the buried supplies that night and eventually took out some more common, ordinary items to use himself.

All of it was stuff that could be found in the Outer City.

Tao Yu had a legitimate source of income here from selling skills and Blood Orchid, so using this equipment wouldn't attract attention.

Besides, he wasn't selling it—he was only using it himself. And he always teleported from his own room, which naturally kept the risks to a minimum.

He had an Assault Rifle, a submachine gun he could wield one-handed, and two pistols. One of the pistols was a Wish Power item with the "Precise Ballistics" trait.

He also had a Wish Power dagger with a trait, along with two kukris that were easy to swap out.

Combined with protective gear like his tactical helmet, combat fatigues, bulletproof vest, and tactical boots, it greatly improved Tao Yu's margin for error.

Just like Winuo's full suit of metal armor, Tao Yu's gear gave him a much better chance of surviving gunfire and ambushes.

Li Hui had been far stronger than Tao Yu in a head-on fight, yet Tao Yu had killed him instantly with a sneak attack. He didn't want to suffer the same fate himself.

In Zombie World, relying on bullets was pointless. Even if he carried nothing but ammunition, it wouldn't do him any good—and the gunfire would only attract those things. It was a waste of money and trouble. In general, it was better to rely on close combat.

"But first, I need to find that fragment. The intel says to keep heading north. That world's elevation is about ten meters lower than the Alien World, but its fragment barrier is stronger than the rainforest's, and it can keep Wish Power Creatures like the aliens out..."

Tao Yu easily climbed back over to the rainforest, then found a tree near the edge and climbed it to look north. Even with his astonishing eyesight, he could see nothing but grassland. There wasn't a building in sight.

"If the Alien World's curvature is similar to Earth's, it'll be at least another twenty or thirty kilometers. Hopefully it's not too far..."

Tao Yu climbed back down and couldn't help feeling a little exasperated.

He had wanted to get a motorcycle, but after using Deification on Five Forms Unification, he was just too broke.

Looking up at the tree and feeling the weight of his backpack, Tao Yu also felt how much stronger he had become.

Climbing up had been easy. Where there was nothing to grip, he could simply dig his fingers into the bark. It was nothing like his first time climbing a tree, when he'd had to leave his backpack behind and still ended up gasping for breath.

Following the edge north, Tao Yu walked for three days.

He stayed close to the rainforest the whole way and wasn't bothered by any more aliens. There was plenty of food in the rainforest, so he never had to touch the emergency rations in his backpack.

This time, since he could return every five days, Tao Yu had also brought a military-green tent to make camping in the wild more comfortable. It was much better than having to rough it before...

"...The fragment we're in now is extremely cold. It's a civilization frozen solid—even the tsunamis are frozen. The fragment barrier isn't very strong, but the aliens still don't come here. Fortunately, it hasn't affected the climate of neighboring fragments. We're provisionally classifying it as having no value. We'll contact you with new exploration assignments. The rewards will be half those of Zombie 01 World..."

As Tao Yu basked in the sun to charge his watch, he listened to the new broadcast from the young master and young lady of the Floating City.

They certainly had guts. They were either exploring or on their way to explore.

But once they had a general understanding of a place, they usually assigned the details as missions. Tao Yu had learned that the New Frontier now had a ranking for cannon fodder points, but they had no plans to introduce it yet.

The two newcomers from the Floating City understood that they were short on people for the time being. If they forced people into cannon-fodder missions, even fewer would choose the New Frontier in the future, creating a vicious cycle.

By limiting how often they used cannon-fodder missions and raising the standards for who they sent, they could instead foster healthy competition with the old settlements. Add in money and resources, and they might really make the place thrive.

As for the investment they were making now, once projects like large-scale alien farming started producing results, they might even recoup it all later.

"We've confirmed the Alien World stretches at least ten thousand kilometers from east to west. Some areas may extend farther, while others may be shorter. They must have some decent transportation."

Tao Yu thought it over. The fragment boundaries weren't fixed, nor were they perfectly straight. The estimate was probably only approximate.

The Alien World wasn't much of a challenge for the siblings, so they could use it as a base and keep exploring the surrounding regions.

"The Sun Family seems to be one of the companies on the Board of Directors. I just don't know how much influence they actually have..."

If two young people could set up such a huge operation, Tao Yu couldn't help feeling awed by the power of the factions on the Floating City.

"Maybe it's like some start-ups back in the day. If they make a splash, more and more factions will invest and buy in..."

After listening to the day's broadcast, Tao Yu switched off his watch and began charging it.

He could use solar power, but he obviously couldn't keep the thing running the whole time in the Abyss.

The main problem was that there was no electricity at home, so he could only charge it with solar power or Wish Power.

After listening to the day's broadcast, Tao Yu climbed a tree again. This time, at last, he spotted something new beyond the monotonous grassland: the faint outlines of some rooftops on the horizon.

"Well, finally made it."

There were probably another twenty or thirty kilometers to go. But since he could only see the tops of a few buildings, he would likely have at least that much farther to travel after reaching the fragment's edge before he got to the city.

Tao Yu decided to pick up the pace.

With more than fifty kilograms on his back, he had hiked for three days. At last, he had reached the world fragment described in the intel.

When Tao Yu reached the edge of the world fragment and stood on the grassland, ten meters above the scene before him, he couldn't help feeling moved.

The main feature ahead was the Gobi Desert, with the look of the American West: barren wasteland, withered cacti, and a highway running straight toward him, severed halfway along.

In the distance stood the outline of a city, its high-rises filling the skyline, but an air of death hung over it.

Beyond the city, distant mountains rose and fell like a painted backdrop.

Figures wandered across the desolate Gobi and along the highway. There were also wrecked cars scattered across the road, some crashed into one another.

Near the city's entrance, two long lines of abandoned cars stretched into the distance, trapped behind a pileup blocking the road.

Some vehicles had even gotten stuck in the desert.

Sand blew in the strong wind, and the whole place reeked of a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

"There really is a fragment barrier."

Tao Yu reached out and felt a faint resistance, but he quickly slipped through.

It was an ability granted by the World Will, and these fragment barriers couldn't stop him.

But the aliens and giant pythons next door probably couldn't get through.

The drop was ten meters, and Tao Yu was carrying fifty kilograms. Instead of jumping down, he nimbly stepped across the uneven gaps, descending lightly on his feet like a mountain goat climbing down a cliff.

"I wonder if they have any newspapers. Oh, right—the radio."

Tao Yu remembered the information in the intel and turned on his watch again. The radio frequency was listed there, and the watch could scan automatically. Before long, he heard a voice through the Abyss's steady hiss of static.

"...It's been seven months since the virus outbreak. I don't know how much longer I can hold out. There isn't much food left around here. We've already found all the food that was easy to get. Soon we'll probably have to risk going somewhere with more zombies. And as time goes on, we'll have to worry about the food going bad, too. Some people say strange highlands and a rainforest have appeared in the south, but no one dares go there..."

It was spoken in a standard American accent. Thanks to Tao Yu's past as an office drone, he could more or less understand it. That was a major advantage over other pioneers, who could only communicate through Wish Power once they met in person.

For now, though, he still couldn't tell what kind of world this was.