Xingfu City, Your Top Choice for Wasteland Refuge!

July, the height of midsummer, the sun was scorching.

The asphalt roadway curled into scales under the high heat, with thick, hideous vines embedded in every crack.

The man held a short blade, laboriously hacking through the vines blocking his path, and followed the signs along the road.

"Xingfu City, your first choice for a wasteland refuge!"

"Xingfu City, the hope for the next era of humanity!"

"Xingfu City, we possess endless food and inexhaustible energy!"

"Xingfu City, everyone receives their share of respect!"

"Xing..."

The further he went, the denser the slogans on the signs became, nailed to crooked utility poles, spray-painted on the outer walls of collapsed banks, and even carved into the surfaces of weathered shop signs.

Like some sort of bewitching spell, the man, despite being exhausted, suddenly felt a constant surge of strength within his body, making even his trembling legs seem much lighter.

Following the signs through several turns, the city's shadows receded like a tide, and the blinding sunlight spilled down, the boundary line formed by light and shadow leaving the ruins of buildings behind.

Although the descriptions of Xingfu City on the radio had been incredibly exaggerated, when he saw this scene with his own eyes, the man still couldn't help but open his mouth in exclamation.

The first thing that caught his eye was the legendary 'Xingfu Great Wall'!

According to the radio, this great wall was about thirty meters high and stretched for over ten kilometers, forming a massive living area of ten square kilometers.

But in reality, it was far more than that, because the shape of the great wall was an irregular oval.

Based on the population density of wasteland refugee settlements, it could accommodate at least a million people inside!

In front of the great wall was the quarantine buffer zone that every sanctuary city established.

The difference was that the quarantine zone of Xingfu City was just like that great wall—over ten kilometers long and five kilometers wide, equally orderly and massive.

Although most of the interior consisted of old buildings preserved from the Old Era, and one could even vaguely see a few dilapidated pedestrian streets interspersed among them, the checkpoint at the very front of the quarantine zone exuded a heart-stopping sense of majesty.

Constructed from orderly iron mesh, the checkpoint was divided into front, middle, and rear areas, corresponding to preliminary screening, observation, and resident registration, respectively.

In the screening area, after passing through the front double-leaf metal gates, one entered an isolation cage placed on a conveyor belt, which transported them to different windows to face inspectors and undergo disease checks.

After completing the screening, survivors confirmed to be disease-free could directly enter the rear area to process their resident paperwork.

Survivors with questionable status had to go to the central observation area to spend three days inside a canvas tent.

[You have entered the Xingfu City alert zone]

[Please follow the yellow marked line forward to undergo quarantine]

[Trespassers will be killed without mercy]

As he approached the quarantine zone, the style of the roadside signs changed significantly.

The man swallowed nervously, hoisted his backpack, and continued forward, soon blending into the queue.

"Please queue in an orderly fashion, do not crowd, and enter the isolation cage as a family unit for inspection!"

A hoarse, synthesized electronic voice echoed over the screening area, with eight bunker-like guard towers perched like giant beasts, their loudspeakers constantly repeating the instructions.

The survivors kept their heads low, moving their feet in silence, advancing in an orderly manner under the gaze of heavy machine guns.

However, when boarding the isolation cage, the survivors had one chance to choose their inspector.

From 1 to 8, eight rusty conveyor belts extended side by side, corresponding to eight inspectors of different ages and genders.

The man's eyes flickered, pretending to be indifferent as he scanned each window, soon locking his gaze onto Inspector No. 8, a subtle arc forming at the corner of his mouth.

Although all the inspectors wore masks, it was easy to judge from the skin on their necks that Inspector No. 8 was the youngest, and naturally, passing his inspection should be the easiest.

"Name?"

"Edmund Lake."

"Where are you from?"

"Sack Federation City."

Right in front of the man, Inspector No. 8 spread out a map, searched for a long time, and asked in surprise, "Oh? That's nearly three thousand kilometers away from Xingfu City. How did you get here?"

"I took cargo trains, cars, traveled by boat for a short stretch, and then hiked three hundred kilometers to reach Xingfu City."

"Alright, that was a long journey indeed. Do you see the first thermometer on the table in front of you? Please pick it up, point it at your forehead, press it, and tell me the reading."

"Understood."

Inside every isolation cage was a small, fixed square table with three types of testing instruments on it.

Following the inspector's instructions, Edmund picked up the thermometer and soon saw two numbers displayed on the LCD screen.

47.02.

"Sir, this thermometer seems to be broken. How could my body temperature be 47 degrees?"

"Is that so?"

Inspector No. 8 leaned out in confusion, and after confirming the number, signaled:

"It seems the equipment is indeed malfunctioning, but that's fine. We'll go straight to the Q&A session. Once you pass the test, you can go to the back to process your resident registration."

"That's great, please speak, sir."

"Between Sack Federation City and Xingfu City, which section did you take the waterway through?"

"It should have been the Linjiang Tributary?" Edmund struggled to recall. "A massive Infected Tide broke out in Yun City, so I had to bypass that section via the water."

"The specific date?"

"June 15th."

"You remember it that clearly?"

"Of course. That day was the founding anniversary of Xingfu City; I sat by the radio and listened to the three-hour celebration broadcast." Recalling the solemn bells and the cheers of the crowd amidst the static, a look of immense satisfaction appeared on Edmund's face.

Clearly, during this long journey, the broadcasts from Xingfu City had provided him with a great deal of "happiness."

"Hmm, I see. Do you remember the Natural Disaster report that followed the anniversary broadcast?"

"There was such a segment?"

Edmund's smile froze, and his pupils contracted violently in the shadows. "I have no memory of that. Perhaps it was broadcast too late?"

"Of course you wouldn't remember."

The metal tabletop emitted a harsh screeching sound as Inspector No. 8 pulled open a drawer and withdrew several photographs.

In the photos, the river resembled a turbid giant python, bursting from its banks and submerging vast stretches of wilderness.

"On June 14th, a sudden Mountain Flood hit the Linjiang Tributary in the early morning. The water level rose by seven meters, and the corpses of all the drifters were wedged under a broken bridge thirty kilometers outside of Yun City."

"And your water journey arrived exactly twenty-four hours after the Grim Reaper."

"What?"

As if a special button had been pressed, Edmund stood up abruptly. The color drained from his face, and his features twisted in the blink of an eye into a mass of gray, withered folds, resembling wood ear mushrooms that had been soaked for days.

"Mountain flood. Broken bridge... I..."

Edmund's pupils suddenly dilated, and his jaw hung toward his chest as if dislocated. Immediately after, three gray-purple tentacles burst from his throat, their gray-purple skin covered in suction cups.

But before the foremost tentacle could even squeeze through the gaps of the iron cage, a small red dot suddenly lit up on his forehead.

BOOM!

The 7.62mm full-power round had an excellent "Exorcist" effect; the moment it tore through the tentacles, it simultaneously blew away half of his head.

Edmund's upper body flew backward, revealing writhing tumorous tissue at the nape of his neck. Yet, eerily, the remaining half of his face still maintained a ferocious grin, and his shattered throat hissed incessantly: "Fake... Xingfu is fake..."

Codename: Death Whisper Tentacle, Infection Progress: Stage II, neutralized by Trainee Inspector 'Cheng Ye' in coordination with the Sentry Tower.

Looking up to see the "OK" gesture from the Sentry Tower window, Cheng Ye sighed and pressed his communicator to report.

Soon, a reply came through the communicator: "Received. The Cleanup Squad will arrive in three minutes. Please continue to maintain stability at the scene, Inspector!"

Maintain stability?

Hanging up the communicator, Cheng Ye suppressed the urge to vomit and looked around.

The survivors on the other seven conveyor belts seemed long accustomed to such scenes; they only glanced over instinctively when they heard the gunshot, and no one was surprised by Edmund's gruesome death or the tentacles.

As for the other seven inspectors, they were terrifyingly calm; none of them even turned their heads at the sound of the shot.

If there was anyone at the scene who needed "stability," it was perhaps only him—an inspector who had transmigrated here just two months ago.

The new book sets sail. I beg for follow-up readings, collections, and votes. I kowtow to all you Reader Lords!