Survivors Gather, We Need Arms

Lin Qi ignored the sounds inside the carriage. The mech's every movement was dedicated to the more efficient rescue of survivors.

As the number of survivors in the carriage increased, more zombies detected the presence of living beings and began to gather around the mech.

Regular zombies posed no threat to the mech, but their sheer numbers severely hampered its movement speed.

The carriage was placed on high ground.

The Chainsaw Sword whirred to life.

Efficiently, it was like mowing down grass.

Regular zombies fell in swathes under the attack of a war machine like the mech.

Lin Qi maneuvered the mech to avoid the zombies' heads, preventing damage to the Crimson Crystals.

However, he hadn't arranged for the Collecting Robots to gather them yet. The priority now was to assemble survivors.

Once the survivors were gathered and formed a certain scale, collecting these Crimson Crystals wouldn't take much time.

In Lin Qi's initial plan, the entire Modu University was to be his temporary base in the post-apocalyptic world.

"Holy crap, the Mechanical Engineering department is awesome!"

"God, this is a true god! Is this the big shot from the Iron Man Society? So fierce."

Inside the carriage, the survivors, seeing Lin Qi's actions through the gaps, marveled in hushed tones.

After completing a round of "mowing," Lin Qi continued his mission.

He filled the carriage.

A medium-sized truck carriage was crammed with over fifty survivors.

If Lin Qi hadn't been worried about the carriage's load-bearing capacity, he could have jostled and squeezed in even more.

Carrying the carriage, the mech returned to the student activity building. It positioned the carriage towards a second-floor window as an entrance, completing the transport of the first batch of survivors.

Lin Qi continued his operations, rescuing survivors in batches based on the markers placed by survivors throughout Modu University and the visual perception provided by his Psychic Vision.

From sunrise to sunset.

The initial truck carriage, unable to bear the load, had long been discarded. Lin Qi replaced it twice before completing all the rescue work.

The vast majority of survivors had already been gathered at the student activity building.

The remaining few were mostly lucky individuals hiding alone. They hadn't responded to the initial broadcast and had hidden in secluded corners.

They were so well-hidden that even Lin Qi couldn't find them.

A new broadcast was issued.

"This is the Modu Student Activity Building. The first phase of search and rescue is complete. Remaining survivors, please wait patiently. A second phase of search and rescue will commence tomorrow."

"After tomorrow's rescue is complete, high-power communication equipment will be deployed at the following locations. Those who have been missed, please proceed to these points for assistance."

"Broadcasting preliminary deployment points now: Dormitory Area A, Building 13, 1st Floor; Second Cafeteria, 1st Floor..."

As the broadcast played, Lin Qi and Xia Chu exited the mech and entered the student activity building.

Before entering, Lin Qi retrieved three crystals of different shapes from the mech's storage unit.

The crystals were reddish, with one each of pink, black-red, and orange-red, originating from three different types of zombies.

Through mental contact, he determined that these three were different types of First Rank Extraordinary Items.

"Three different crystals, all from survivors mutated under the scarlet moon's irradiation."

"Three types of zombies: one incredibly fast, one with immense strength, and one with explosive psychic power."

"The power of these zombies comes from the scarlet moon's gaze. I can't comprehend why the manifested extraordinary powers differ so greatly."

"Perhaps the scarlet moon itself contains various properties within its extraordinary power..."

While pondering, he headed towards the sixth floor.

Under Lin Qi's arrangement, all survivors were gathered on the sixth floor and above.

The sound of walking in an Exoskeleton was jarringly out of place in the building.

The survivors resting on the corridor floor immediately turned their gazes.

"Holy crap! An Exoskeleton!"

"Mechanical Engineering god, you're amazing!"

Praise erupted from all sides. Lin Qi didn't pay much attention.

Instead, Xia Chu, walking behind Lin Qi, listened with her eyes shining.

Lin Qi stopped and looked at all the survivors.

There were a total of three hundred and fourteen survivors, with males making up over three-quarters.

Most survivors were around twenty years old, all students at Modu University.

A very small number were over thirty, belonging to the university's faculty and staff.

The entire Modu (Shanghai) University only managed to rescue this few survivors. One could imagine how terrifyingly low the survival rate had become since the Crimson Moon's gaze.

"Everyone, please be quiet."

Lin Qi spoke, and the entire floor immediately fell silent.

There were no show-offs; even the young scholars and professors among the survivors turned their attention towards Lin Qi.

"Everyone, do you want to live?" Lin Qi posed a question.

But before anyone could answer, Lin Qi continued, "Before you answer that, please listen to what I've seen over the past two days."

"I believe many of you have seen that I left Modu (Shanghai) University in a mecha before commencing the rescue operation."

"Initially, I had the same thought as most of you: to find the rescue team mentioned on the radio. I didn't want to be some hero; I just wanted to protect myself in the apocalypse."

"Whether it was manufacturing this Exoskeleton or hastily building this mecha, my sole purpose from beginning to end was self-preservation, to survive."

"But what I saw after leaving the Modu campus changed my mind."

"I saw the battlefield where the rescue team was engaging Zombie, but I didn't see the rescue team."

"I was confused. Where did the rescue team go? I believe many of you have the same question. Our radios haven't received any official broadcasts for a long time."

"I did a simple search, and I think I found them. I found the rescue team!"

His emotions slightly elevated, Lin Qi had reached the crucial part of his narrative.

"I discovered something unusual in the high-rise office buildings on Shuiqing Road. It seems there's an extremely terrifying monster on the top floor. It didn't show itself, but it emitted special pheromones into the air."

"The pheromones lured all living creatures to ascend the office building. I almost went up too, but luckily, the mecha was too large to fit."

At a tense point, Lin Qi adjusted the atmosphere but quickly continued to connect the emotions: "But the rescue team must have gone up. It was only a hundred meters from the engagement point."

"From here, the rescue team lost their tracks. I believe with your intelligence, you can all imagine what happened."

The entire floor of survivors fell silent.

The rescue team... was gone?

At least the rescue team responsible for this area had been annihilated.

If even the fully armed rescue team was gone, what about them, ordinary civilians with no weapons?

"How should we survive?" Lin Qi raised the critical question, the key to uniting these survivors and motivating them to act for him.

There were intelligent people in the crowd: "We need to arm ourselves!"

"Big brother, teach us how to build mechas, teach us how to build Exoskeleton. I'm a master's student in automotive engineering, I have a foundation!"