The Outside

"Quick, everyone come over and lend a hand. Let's move this alcohol from the truck into the cafeteria." A man hopped down from a modified armored truck and shouted to the people inside the cafeteria.

"Is this the Second Exploration Team? That's a lot of alcohol. Which distillery did you go to?" a colleague nearby asked while preparing to help.

"Huangkang Distillery. We hauled back everything they had."

"Impressive. That place must be nearly twenty kilometers away, and this liquor smells amazing."

"You bet it is. We had to kill quite a few monsters to bring it back."

Amidst the back-and-forth, the alcohol was quickly unloaded from the truck.

Someone in the cafeteria asked curiously, "Where is your captain and the others? Why didn't they come back with you this time? We've already got the food just about ready."

The man replied, "We ran into some people from the county on this trip, so the captain took them to meet Director Gao."

Inside Gao Zheng's office.

Ma Tianxing had already introduced Zhang Xiaoyang and his group to Gao Zheng. However, the leader of this group was the man in glasses mentioned earlier, Cai Fenghua. He was an administrative clerk, and this time he was responsible for overseeing the team's direction and planning their operations, as well as recording all the data gathered during their missions.

Cai Fenghua pushed up his glasses and said, "Director Gao, it is a pleasure. I heard your name often back in the county. The leadership at all levels there is very concerned about the situation at Xingyan Group. The fact that you all managed to survive is a great blessing for our Hehe County."

Gao Zheng felt nothing toward such pleasantries anymore. He simply nodded slightly and said, "Little Cai, could you give me a detailed report on the current situation in the county? Ever since all the signals went dead, we haven't known what things are like out there."

After Cai Fenghua agreed, the events of the past three months outside Xingyan Base slowly unfolded before Gao Zheng.

It turned out that after the Thunder Dragon Emperor appeared that day, Hehe County had also suffered a massive monster horde.

The total number of monsters in the horde reached over three thousand. This was because the safety zone in Hehe County had gathered a population of over seventy thousand, drawing the vast majority of nearby monsters toward the Hehe County safety zone.

Fortunately, the county had a large supply of police, firearms, and ammunition, and a platoon of soldiers had urgently retreated into the county.

After mobilizing nearly thirty thousand young adults to the front lines, the monsters were finally wiped out under the cover of heavy firepower.

However, in this battle, the entire safety zone lost over a thousand people—all of them young adults fighting on the front lines.

After that battle, however, Hehe County's ammunition reserves were bottomed out, making it impossible to rely on firearms to survive the next monster horde.

At that point, the high-level officials of Hehe County activated an emergency communication channel to inquire about the situation in the city and request aid.

This emergency channel used satellites positioned in their original orbits, which happened to avoid the range reachable by the Thunder Dragon Emperor.

But the reply from the city was something the Hehe County leadership found hard to accept: there was no aid, and no way to provide it. Under the current circumstances, one could only save oneself.

There was no safe place left in the world; every population center had suffered from monster hordes to varying degrees, and every city was in the midst of reconstruction, with no time to spare for others.

Furthermore, the roads between cities were no longer safe, making it impossible to transport supplies or manpower to support other regions.

After Hehe County re-screened the personnel within the safety zone, everyone was assigned new jobs and tasks.

Those who previously worked in the secondary sector were reassigned to similar industries to participate in production, researchers were gathered and categorized by their respective disciplines to conduct relevant studies, administrative staff continued their management duties, and the remaining personnel were distributed as needed.

Within a single week, the construction of the safety zone's defensive facilities was basically completed, and housing within the zone was allocated and rebuilt on a one-household-one-unit basis.

Over the following half-month, the leadership began promoting regular physical fitness exercises and started teaching those willing to go to the front lines how to use cold weapons.

Ten more days passed, and the county leadership finally received another communication from the city, which provided some critical information.

Based on communication and coordination between various countries, the classification of all monsters had been basically determined.

All monsters currently appearing were divided into three tiers: Soldier-level Monster, General-level Monster, and Lord-level Monster, with each tier further divided into Low, Medium, and High levels.

Each level of evolution represented a massive leap in strength for a monster, and each tier of evolution could even lead to a change in species.

The reason these were classified was that monsters of all levels had already appeared, mostly in coastal cities. The strongest monsters appearing inland at this stage were only High-level Beast Generals, but even that was beyond what humanity could withstand.

However, at the same time these monster levels were established, a group of individuals emerged among humans who could fight monsters with their bare bodies.

Through consultation, these people were called Martial Artists, as those who emerged were mostly people who had practiced martial arts or boxing. Their physical fitness far exceeded that of others, and they were generally able to contend with Low-level Soldier-level monsters, or even kill them.

Later, in Huaxia, due to the widespread destruction caused by monsters, a ruin was discovered by chance. Inside, people obtained a cultivation method called Five-Heart-to-Heaven, though it was slightly incomplete.

Through the efforts of various Martial Artists, this cultivation method was gradually perfected. By using it, these Martial Artists gained an unparalleled increase in strength, and many reached a level of physical power comparable to General-level monsters.

Combining this with the monster levels, human levels were also classified based on the premise of being able to kill monsters: Warrior, Battle General, and War God, with the same Low, Medium, and High levels.

To be recognized as a Low-level Warrior, one had to possess the strength to slay a Low-level Beast Soldier, and the same logic applied to the higher ranks.

However, to practice this method, one had to meet certain conditions regarding physical fitness. If one's physical condition did not reach a certain standard, it was impossible to practice, as one would be unable to sense the energy of the universe.

Countries had tried to modify and improve this cultivation method, but they never succeeded. Modified versions either had drastically reduced efficiency or were completely unusable, so most factions eventually gave up on that approach.

After receiving the cultivation method from the city, Hehe County began promoting martial arts training on a large scale with high standards. They also made the method public, requiring anyone who met the conditions to practice it.

Through this training, many strong individuals emerged, which allowed Hehe County to survive several subsequent monster horde attacks.

Later, as they gained more breathing room, Hehe County began organizing those with sufficient strength into Martial Artist squads to protect researchers and clerks on missions as they explored in all directions—which was exactly how this team came to be.