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"What! You want to go to the Lindong Sanctuary, that's too dangerous!"
Ever since Tang Yu decided to visit the Lindong Sanctuary, Chen Haiping had been visibly agitated.
It was understandable; having just provoked the bigwigs at the Lindong Sanctuary, it seemed like courting death to walk right into their lair.
Tang Yu waved his hand, "Don't be so agitated, don't be so agitated, Lin Wei doesn't know me. Even if they find the clues of Han Jing's disappearance here in the future, at most they'll narrow down the target to our sanctuary. At the Lindong Sanctuary, I'll just be one of the many indistinguishable survivors."
"Besides, Lindong Sanctuary is the only large sanctuary around Lin City, with more information and resources. Only by going there do we have a chance to know how much power Lin Wei has amassed. We can't just allow them to investigate while we sit and wait, right?"
"I'll go."
Luo Zhe wasn't a man of many words.
Tang Yu shook his head.
Although Luo Zhe was indeed reliable, both he and Eileen were not from this world. Even though the contract had imparted much common knowledge, it couldn't compare to twenty-odd years of a normal person's life experience. Going to Lindong to gather information would be less effective.
If it were only about gathering information at Lindong, sending Luo Zhe would have been fine.
But Tang Yu's visit to Lindong was not just to learn about Lin Wei's power. That was secondary; he also wanted to understand the changing world through Lindong.
In the early days of the apocalypse, when communication was still possible, Tang Yu had been able to get some information from across the country. But as communication broke down, information became scarce, let alone when the threat of the demonized beasts grew, and survival itself became a challenge. As an ordinary person, he paid even less attention to other news.
Now it was different.
He had the power to protect himself and wanted to develop. Even with the system, he couldn't just shut himself off from the world.
The system was his advantage, something Tang Yu naturally intended to use well. He had no foolish ideas of self-reliance; why shouldn't he use his cheat?
But one couldn't rely entirely on the system for everything.
From Han Jing and others, Tang Yu had already learned that Lindong's scientists, through studying new things after the apocalypse, had made significant discoveries and inventions.
This was the difference between large and small sanctuaries.
It was also a testament to human wisdom.
Using the system as the foundation and combining it with human scientific thinking and logic was the direction for future territory development.
Moreover...
Tang Yu's thoughts drifted afar.
Lindong, being a large sanctuary, might have collected information from all over the country. At Lindong, he might be able to find news of the sanctuary where his parents were.
These tasks could not be entrusted to others. Only by sifting through the chaotic information himself could he find the key he sought.
As for safety...
Chen Haiping's concerns were not unfounded; he was, after all, an outsider who knew only the tip of the iceberg of the territory's true strength and resources.
That's why he worried.
Going to Lindong, Tang Yu naturally wouldn't be going alone. Bodyguards were definitely needed, and more time was required to prepare all kinds of equipment and tools.
Even in the worst situation, he could still guarantee a full retreat.
...
Time flew by.
In the blink of an eye, several days had passed.
During these days, the territory developed steadily and orderly according to the plan.
The team led by Luo Zhe and Eileen had searched through the surrounding towns, not only finding some quite useful items but also discovering a few survivors who were bitterly hiding and struggling to survive.
These survivors, without a doubt, had been brought to the territory.
Combined with some survivor teams barely capable of acting in the wild, or who came by after learning about the sanctuary through various channels, one way or another, the entire sanctuary now had close to a hundred survivors.
In these days, Tang Yu had also strengthened the monitoring of the territory.
After capturing that four-member team, it took another two days to capture another team attempting to infiltrate stealthily.
The efficiency of these teams was evidently lacking, which made Tang Yu feel quite reassured.
After these two teams, no more teams were discovered.
He estimated that the area around the sanctuary had probably been marked as a danger zone by those recon teams. Perhaps there were some traces left, as Eileen and Luo Zhe occasionally found tracks of survivors' activities while they were out.
It was quite likely a trail left by a recon team.
"It's a pity, I still lack the most critical item for going to Lindong."
Tang Yu could ensure a safe retreat from any perilous situation because of a certain item.
The Return City Scroll.
In the early stages of the game, it was very common and could even appear in first-level markets, and it wasn't expensive… In the game, this thing might only save some travel time, but in reality, it was an absolute lifesaving divine artifact.
He had been waiting eagerly for the market's daily refresh opportunities.
Yet annoyingly, when he needed it most, it never appeared.
Tang Yu refreshed today's market.
His eyes widened, and he beamed with joy.
It wasn't the Return City Scroll he saw, but this item was also a divine artifact in reality.
Backpack (10 Slots).
In the game, a backpack merely expanded the backpack slots, and not by much.
Reality was different; this backpack looked like a normal small-sized backpack, yet inside it was a different world.
The ten-slot backpack had ten spaces, each one cubic meter, totaling ten cubic meters of space, making it a must-have divine artifact for both home and travel, and more nefarious ventures.
Without hesitation, Tang Yu bought all three space backpacks from the market stock, nearly depleting his Source Crystals.
In these days, he had built the market, upgraded the Lord's castle, constructed city walls, and bought blueprints and the backpack from the market.
Yet the daily income was only a mere hundred or so units of Source Crystals, not a small amount but far from covering expenses. Tang Yu looked at his Source Crystal reserves and saw they were nearly exhausted.
More importantly, there weren't many system buildings, only a few.
Landlord Tang felt quite distressed.
He glanced at the space backpack in his hand, suddenly brightening up with a new idea for a source of income.
...
The sky was clear, like a furnace, with the scorching sun baking the ruined earth. The air seemed to be suffused with… a stench of sweat?
Avoiding the sweat-drenched laborers at work, Tang Yu, accompanied by two Puppet Guards, slipped out of the sanctuary quietly.
His target lay several kilometers away at the Source Crystal Mine.
He had long coveted this Source Crystal Mine but had no means of mining it… The hills were teeming with demonized beasts. Although he had ventured in, he had only been harassed endlessly before even locating the Source Crystal Mine. Mining it in such a situation was far-fetched indeed.
Well, having survivors mine was naturally out of the question.
But if it was just a matter of violently crushing rocks and storing the extracted Source Crystal ores in space backpacks, Tang Yu found it feasible.
Taking a side path from the resort, there was a mountain road that wound behind the resort's hill.
Tang Yu traversed along the mountain road.
On one side was a steep cliff wall, while the other side bordered a cliff above a small stream. The sanctuary's water supply mostly came from this stream after the apocalypse. Fortunately, the stream hadn't been particularly polluted before the apocalypse — at least the stream water hadn't turned red or yellow in some bizarre color.
Number One and Number Two walked alongside him like Gate Gods, and Tang Yu leisurely observed the surroundings.
The mountain road was narrow, merely two lanes wide.
At a glance, nearly half of the road surface was covered by grass,
These grasses sprouted from the soil beside the concrete road, growing with wild abandon. Some had already shot up to one or two meters tall, while others grew from the gaps in the concrete road, their tenacious vitality forcefully cracking the entire road. Anyone who had stayed hidden after the apocalypse without stepping outside might notice.
This world had changed beyond recognition.
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