Inside the base's military camp.
Lu Heng had been personally led by Zhao Kai to a reception room. This time, Zhao Kai hadn't called anyone else over, as given Lu Heng's current status, he probably wouldn't want to get to know those people.
After arranging for a few soldiers to bring a pot of tea, Zhao Kai dismissed everyone.
Zhao Kai personally poured Lu Heng a cup of tea, then poured himself one before speaking, "Mr. Lu, ah, no, I should address you as City Lord Lu now. I haven't seen you in a while and momentarily forgot."
"They are just empty titles, it's nothing. But has your base personnel changed so much? The soldiers at the entrance just now seemed to have all been replaced?"
"Alas, those soldiers were attacked by a group of zombies that suddenly surrounded the city. Only two survived. I've transferred those two to patrol duties within the city." Zhao Kai sighed when mentioning this.
When the zombies first evolved to Level Four, the soldiers within the base were still full of vigor. This was thanks to Lu Heng's earlier prediction, which had informed them of the speed at which zombies would evolve.
The crystals that Lu Heng had gifted to the base had indeed significantly increased the combat capabilities of the base soldiers in the early stages. For a period after that, the base also focused its efforts on killing zombies.
However, good times didn't last. Just when they thought the zombie levels had mostly stabilized at Level Four, with a large number of zombies below Level Four, and that zombies were easy to eliminate, they relaxed their vigilance. The soldiers who checked personnel entering the city daily at the barbican were suddenly attacked by a group of zombies.
"That group of zombies came too suddenly, as if they just popped out of nowhere. We had cleared the obstacles outside the base earlier. If zombies appeared, the soldiers on the city walls would have seen them. But there were too many people queuing to enter the city that day.
The most crucial thing is that the zombies appeared too suddenly, and they ran incredibly fast, which is not at all like their behavior during the day."
Zhao Kai was recalling the situation at the time. Although he hadn't witnessed the initial scene, after the barbican was attacked, the city quickly reacted and dispatched more soldiers to support.
However, that batch of soldiers still couldn't hold on. Along with the survivors entering the city that day, they were caught in the zombie attack, resulting in heavy casualties.
Lu Heng turned the teacup in front of him and looked up at Zhao Kai, "Those zombies that day were commanded by a high-level zombie, which is why you saw their abnormal behavior during the day."
"Aren't zombies only up to Level Four? Our soldiers on expeditions and the survivor organizations within the city haven't encountered any high-level zombies either." Zhao Kai was genuinely surprised by Lu Heng's words. They indeed hadn't received any news of encountering high-level zombies.
Logically speaking, their Dragon City base was the largest base in the province, and if they hadn't heard of high-level zombies here, let alone other survivor bases.
"That zombie attack that day is the best explanation. Otherwise, how do you explain why the zombies suddenly attacked the base, and specifically chose the time when survivors were entering the city?" Lu Heng said seriously to Zhao Kai.
"This, then how should we deal with it? If the previous zombie attack was commanded by a high-level zombie, does that mean zombies have developed intelligence?" Zhao Kai pointed to his head and asked.
"Yes, I came here precisely to inform you of this. High-level zombies have appeared, and zombie evolution, like humans, can also speed up their evolution by absorbing energy from crystals."
Afterward, Lu Heng roughly explained the zombie evolution he had discovered to Zhao Kai.
Zhao Kai was very shocked after hearing this. He got up and paced back and forth in the room.
After a while, Zhao Kai stopped, sat back down, and said to Lu Heng, "We will take this matter seriously. We will pay more attention when going out to kill zombies in the future, and we will also strengthen our city defenses.
Alas, is there any hope for humanity to survive in this apocalypse? If it's like this here, it's probably even worse elsewhere."
"Not necessarily. It's precisely because your scale is so large that it attracts more attention from zombies. Think about it, such a large city with so many people inside every day, it's like a big steamed bun, emitting human scent outwards daily. How enticing is that to zombies?"
After speaking, Lu Heng took out a warm steamed bun from his embrace and started eating it. The aroma of the meat bun filled the entire room.
Zhao Kai looked at the bun in Lu Heng's hand and murmured, "Then what should we do about our bun?"
"Heh, no need to rush. Although the bun's aroma is strong, if you clear out the areas nearby that can smell it, you should be able to reduce some losses if other zombies come from elsewhere."
"But could the nearby zombies have high levels? You also said that the previous zombie attack had high-level zombies commanding them. So, have the zombies not left?"
"Don't you have high-level ability users in your city? I remember that Leng Tian at least is a Level Seven. You should increase the mission rewards and have them clear the area first. Of course, you can also send some high-level soldiers to participate."
Zhao Kai pondered for a moment and nodded, "Alright, I'll have a meeting with the higher-ups later to discuss this."
Then Zhao Kai looked at the strange bird that was lying on the ground dozing beside Lu Heng and asked, "City Lord Lu, this bird looks quite peculiar. Where did you catch it?"
"Uh, this bird is probably the only one of its kind in this world. I tamed it because I thought it would be suitable as a mount."
Lu Heng leaned back in his chair, resting one hand on the rising and falling body of the bird.
At this time, the bird had grown to the size of a golden eagle and was following Lu Heng.
"By the way, do you have any defense maps from before the apocalypse for various regions here?" Lu Heng asked, looking at the national map hanging in the reception room, as if he had just remembered something.
Zhao Kai followed Lu Heng's gaze, hesitated for a moment, and then replied, "Yes, we do. But our location information isn't complete. You know, even within the same military region, many military locations are classified, especially important military sites. I don't have them here."
"Would it be convenient to get me a copy?"
"Yes, many places are already abandoned anyway. And now the bases that remain in various places are all operating independently. Even though we are not like those individual organizations' bases or shelters, the situation between the major bases is also different from before."
This was indeed the case. The situations in different regions varied. Even though these people were managed by the military region before the apocalypse, during the lawless period of the apocalypse, their interactions with each other were also different from before.