Chapter 13: Migration

Volume 1 “Year of Calamity”

An Sheng’s retrieval of vehicles brought the residents of the tube-style apartment building hope for survival. Of course, ordinary trucks alone wouldn’t be sufficient – the next step was to modify these trucks to give them defensive capabilities.

This was a massive undertaking requiring equipment, tools, and technical expertise. However, none of this posed much difficulty for the residents of the tube-style apartment building.

Welding equipment? There were two specialized welding shops right in the ground-floor commercial spaces of their building. With the generators they’d brought back from the parking lot, equipment and tools were perfectly solved. As for technical personnel, most residents were migrant workers who made their living with specialized skills – several had welding experience. Among the survivors were two such individuals, though both were just apprentices with limited skills. But that didn’t matter as long as they could complete the modifications.

Over the following days, the neighborhood buzzed with activity. They used security doors as protective armor and reinforced windows with security grilles. Though each modified vehicle ended up looking like patched-up ragged clothing with terrible aesthetics, in this man-eating apocalyptic world, who cared about appearances? Survival was what truly mattered!

Looking at the formed Doomsday Vehicles, Old Zhang conceived a new plan.

“Migration? Isn’t this place perfectly fine?” Butcher looked puzzled at Old Zhang, unable to understand why they needed to move when the tube-style apartment building felt secure.

After a moment of silence, Old Zhang slowly explained his perspective.

“This place isn’t as safe as we imagine. It’s been over ten days since the catastrophe began – no rescue efforts, no restoration of communications, electricity, or networks. This can only mean two possibilities: either our region has been abandoned by the country, or the entire nation, even the whole world, has been overrun by the Virus!”

Old Zhang’s words plunged everyone into silence. While reluctant to admit it, they knew in their hearts he spoke the truth.

“If we stay in the city, the danger will gradually increase. We have no idea how many Mutated Monsters and Living Dead are out there. What if something even Xiao An can’t handle comes for us? And food! We can scavenge from supermarkets and grain stores now, but what about the future? What happens in three or five years when these food supplies spoil? What do we do when they run out? We need to escape the city, go to the countryside, to the mountains. There we can farm and sustain ourselves.”

Old Zhang’s words awakened many. This might indeed be their best path forward – to survive, to keep living.

An Sheng felt an inexplicable trust in Old Zhang. This brother more than ten years his senior possessed courage, exceptional organizational skills, foresight, and most importantly, selflessness – always considering everyone’s welfare.

“Brother Zhang, where should we migrate? Do you already have a destination in mind?” An Sheng looked seriously at Old Zhang’s dark, rough-featured face.

“Yushan!”

Before everyone lay a map of City B, with a black marker circle drawn north of the urban area – marking the location of Yushan.

Yushan sat sixty kilometers northwest of City B, with an elevation of 2,300 meters, belonging to the Taihang Mountain range.A century ago during that tumultuous era, a powerful bandit force had once stationed themselves there. Later, when a gold mine was discovered in the mountains, invaders occupied the Yushan Bandit Fortress to seize the gold resources, establishing both an Alchemy Factory and a military Fortress.

After defeating the invaders, the gold mine returned to state control and was mined for several more decades until the late 1990s, when extraction ceased due to resource depletion.

It’s said that the military Fortress built by the invaders still remains there to this day, which is precisely what Old Zhang valued.

The sturdy military Fortress would serve as a shelter for their group, effectively defending against attacks from Living Corpses and Mutated Monsters. After cultivating the wasteland on the mountain, they could grow crops to solve future food problems. Most importantly, the area was sparsely populated, meaning there would naturally be fewer Living Corpses and Mutated Monsters.

That evening, An Sheng and others informed all residents of the Tube-Style Apartment Building about Old Zhang’s relocation plan to Yushan. After hearing the plan, all neighbors expressed their agreement.

In truth, the main reason for everyone’s approval was Old Zhang and An Sheng’s mobilization. Everyone had witnessed everything that happened over the past dozen days – Old Zhang’s capabilities had been recognized by all, and though he held no official position, everyone already regarded him as their core leader.

As for An Sheng, he was everyone’s protective shield. His formidable strength could protect them from being devoured by those Living Corpses and Mutated Monsters.

With unanimous approval from all survivors in the Tube-Style Apartment Building, the relocation plan entered intensive preparation phase.

The able-bodied men from the building formed a ten-person team, led by Old Zhang and An Sheng, began searching for supplies in the vicinity. They loaded trucks with as much grain, dried vegetables, cured meat, canned goods, and vacuum-sealed foods as possible.

They also prepared various crop seeds and tools needed for land reclamation. Most residents of the Tube-Style Apartment Building came from farming backgrounds and were quite familiar with agricultural work. Fortunately, these supplies were available in suburban areas not far from them.

Protected by An Sheng, the search team encountered no dangers. After undergoing his second transformation, An Sheng’s body had been significantly enhanced.

Even in his normal state, he could easily lift 300 kilograms, sprint 100 meters in an astonishing seven seconds, with reaction speed and perception abilities multiplied several times. These capabilities far surpassed what even world champions could achieve.

Most importantly, he had successfully discovered the secret to transformation: self-harm. Whenever he injured himself, his body would automatically enter the Demon State. This bore some resemblance to a Japanese anime An Sheng had watched before, though the physical changes after transformation gave him headaches – it was too hard on clothes, especially shirts, which would always tear from his bulging upper body muscles. Additionally, he would become extremely hungry after each transformation, requiring massive food intake.While the search team was busy gathering supplies daily, the residents of the Tube-Style Apartment Building weren’t idle either. The provisions needed for over a hundred people after arriving at Yushan were no small amount, and the capacity of several box trucks was becoming inadequate—especially since these trucks also had to handle personnel transport. Thus, the task of continuing to modify the vehicles fell upon the remaining neighbors in the Tube-Style Apartment Building.

A flatbed semi-trailer and a tanker truck were being urgently reinforced. Everyone, adults and children alike, worked diligently. Though exhausted, their faces glowed with hope. In this devouring apocalypse, hope was the finest fuel for survival, and the residents were creating their own hope with their bare hands.