The girls gathered, leaving Lin Yuan with nothing to do. The joyful chatter of a flock of lively birds filled the air.
"You guys chat amongst yourselves, I'm going out to buy some things. The Intelligence Department also has some matters waiting for me to hand over."
"You just got back and you're leaving again? Tsk tsk, Brother Lin Yuan, where do you put our Sister Wu Tian?"
"Xueqin, those words are unfair. Of course, Sister Wu Tian is in my heart! I came back right after saving people, and I even brought flowers. I haven't managed anything else. Don't smear my reputation."
"Saving people?!! What happened? Tell us!"
"Sister Wu Tian knows. Ask her. I'm leaving now, or the Intelligence Department will come looking for me." He gave Wu Tian a meaningful look.
She knew what to say and what not to say.
His parents weren't off work yet, so he should go to the Intelligence Department first. He went out, greeted Hong Jie, the community director, and then got on the shuttle bus to the Intelligence Department.
Along the way, Lin Yuan carefully observed the situation in the safe zone. He didn't notice any changes; everything was just as it was when he first arrived.
Soon, the shuttle bus arrived. The cute graffiti on the roadside buildings hadn't faded or peeled off yet. The paint that Ying Tianlong gave to Wang Xiaoxin, oh no, now it should be called Andrea, was of very good quality.
He wondered if she had already gone beyond the 150-kilometer range of the safe zone. It would be hilarious if she were captured and researched halfway through.
"Comrade, please show your safe zone one-card."
"Comrade, my safe zone one-card is with Minister Ying Tianlong. The reason I can move freely within the safe zone now is because I have a temporary pass issued by the China Anti-Biochemical Command Center."
Lin Yuan took out a small booklet and handed it to the on-duty sentry.
The sentry carefully took it, examined it thoroughly, and reported the situation to his superior. After verification, he let Lin Yuan in.
Ying Tianlong knew Lin Yuan had returned when he landed at the airport in the Shuzhou Tianfu Safe Zone. He didn't ask many questions, just told Lin Yuan to take care of his own matters and then report back.
He deeply understood that this child had suffered greatly, and Lin Yuan had made significant contributions to this mission's successful return.
Just collecting most of the data from the underground laboratory of the HSAC headquarters was a great achievement, and the higher-ups were already considering how to reward him.
So, it was better to let the child finish his own business first.
However, Ying Tianlong didn't expect Lin Yuan to report back so soon.
He quickly went downstairs, pulled Lin Yuan into the car, and headed back to the training base they had used before.
The BUI investigation team of the Shuzhou Tianfu Safe Zone had now replenished its personnel, becoming a 12-person team again.
On the way, Ying Tianlong informed Lin Yuan about the current situation of the investigation team.
"After you left, the command center intensified its search for the Eternal Life Cult and other cult organizations. We in Shuzhou lost two high-end individual combat forces at once, so we had to re-organize the team to maintain a certain level of combat effectiveness to deal with unexpected events."
"What were the results?"
"They were decent. Although the combat power wasn't as strong as when you led the team, their coordination and默契 were not inferior to yours."
"Then there's no problem. By the way, you mentioned that besides the Eternal Life Cult, there are other cult organizations showing up in China?"
"Very few, but not non-existent. That's why the higher-ups ordered a thorough investigation!"
"Hmm, almost a year has passed. Survivor groups still in the biochemical infection zones might indeed give rise to these things or be misled. What's the status of the rescue efforts now?"
"We've been rescuing. After the airdrop operation, we began rescuing in dangerous areas and some rural areas. Thanks to you and Comrade Jiang Ziqi, our helicopter refueling stations were established earlier than in other safe zones. So, in the past two months, we've built 27 intermediate refueling stations, making a total of 28 with the previous one.
We've rescued over 6,000 people so far. Of course, most of them are survivor groups hiding in the mountains and remote rural areas. Most of them are well-preserved and in good mental condition."
"Can't we enter the urban areas yet?"
"Helicopters can't enter. Even our latest model of helicopters would be detected by the warning individuals within the zombie hordes. Then, the zombie hordes would rush to any point in the city within 10 minutes, which could bring unnecessary danger to those still surviving in the city. That's why we usually broadcast notices to send helicopters to harass them, or when fighter jets carry out extermination missions on nest mutants, they will bomb, thereby attracting the attention of the zombie hordes and creating opportunities for survivors still in the city to escape or gather supplies."
Speaking of this, Ying Tianlong asked Lin Yuan to light a cigarette for him before continuing, "There are still too few people. The areas around major safe zones are super metropolises. Take us for example, 400 kilometers to the right is the Tianfu metropolitan area. Once the large-scale troop movements are detected by the zombie hordes in the Tianfu metropolitan area, the troops guarding the safe zone will be stretched thin, and we dare not take that risk."
"Has the higher-ups not mentioned how to solve such problems? If we don't conduct large-scale rescues, the population will only continue to decrease."
This was a vicious cycle. If they deployed troops, the safe zone might be directly attacked. If they didn't, people in the city would have a harder time surviving. If they divided their forces, they wouldn't have enough troops. If a high-level mutant of tier 5 or above appeared, it was possible that both sides would suffer.
Although the Modu Safe Zone reported a pseudo-tier 4 mutant a month ago, it's worth noting that the White Elephant Republic and the Green Pheasant Country already had tier 9 mutants, as well as countless Alpha mutants of various types.
Indeed, the "Ganges Holy Water" and "drinkable nuclear wastewater" were a paradise for mutation.
No comparison, no comparison.
The Cangzhou Kunlun Military Base and the Xinzhou Tianshan Military Base were extremely busy, checking daily for any invading curry zombies.
Although the mutation level of zombies within China was very low, one couldn't speak absolutely.
The Shuzhou Tianfu Safe Zone was fine, but some other safe zones had few troops and couldn't afford to be tossed around.
There had to be a fallback plan to take risks.
"The command center is also discussing with the major safe zones. The current strategy is to first open up the railways to enable quick mutual support between the major safe zones, and then cooperate with various missiles to carry out lightning warfare against the zombie hordes!"
"How is the railway repair going?"
"The railway from Jinling to Modu has been opened, and the railway from Xinzhou to Cangzhou has also been opened. The railway from Cangzhou to Tianfu is still about 12% complete because it is being repaired and reinforced simultaneously. It is expected to be completed within half a month, and then we will begin large-scale rescue of townships covered by the biochemical infection zone!"
Lin Yuan's nose felt a little sore as he listened. Not everyone was as lucky as him, possessing superhuman physique and strength. Most people's physical enhancement values were at most the same as ordinary mutated monsters, meaning only slightly better than Wu Tian.
In such an environment, with about 10,000 people, under zombie attacks, without large automated tools, working stealthily at night with poor nutrition, they managed to open, repair, and reinforce a railway over a thousand kilometers long within 5 months.
All of this was for the sake of saving more people.
In fact, they had long been superhumans even stronger than Lin Yuan.
There was a saying that no matter when you heard it, it always seemed so true.
China was always well protected by its bravest people.
China is awesome!