Chereads / Apocalyptic Virus Entity / Chapter 22 - Chapter 22: The Ticket

Chapter 22 - Chapter 22: The Ticket

The two sniper sentries were taken aback when they saw this scene.

Which idiot has such a wide heart that he isn't afraid of attracting the nearby hostile creatures with the roaring of such a large motorcycle?

"Hey, Mole, there's a guy riding a motorcycle toward us. He's carrying several weapons. Stay alert; he might be a member of a marauding group formed by the refugees."

The sniper sentry locked his scope firmly on Xia Leng's head and used the radio to inform the ground guards.

As soon as the other party showed any hostile intent, he would immediately pull the trigger on his powerful modified Barrett, turning half of the intruder's body into shreds with a single shot!

However, given that someone dared to appear so openly in the guards' line of sight, it didn't seem like he had any hostile intentions.

Xia Leng thought the same way. He knew that sneaking in would be akin to seeking death, so he decided to approach the gate openly.

Riding the wild-looking motorcycle, Xia Leng sped straight to the heavily guarded gate before coming to a stop.

The thick smoke and dust from the tailpipe caused the guards to cough.

"Damn it! What the hell are you doing? Looking for trouble?! Get off the bike!"

The two annoyed guards, holding submachine guns, pushed through the smoke and aimed at the "wild boy" with his face hidden by a hood.

Xia Leng wasn't here to cause trouble and naturally complied with their routine.

He dismounted from the motorcycle with a seemingly friendly smile, raising his hands as he approached them slowly.

"Guys, don't be nervous. I'm just an ordinary refugee merchant from the last mining town. I came to your fortress to exchange some goods."

Xia Leng's words did not make the guards relax their vigilance. They sent one of their men over with a special device to check that he wasn't carrying explosives or suffering from any special infectious diseases. They even confirmed that his skin was rare in the wasteland, before slightly lowering their guns.

"From the mining town? Isn't that place full of uncivilized barbarians? With your fair skin, aren't you just their plaything? Hahaha!"

The guard's comment elicited laughter from the others. In this era, many people's sexual orientations had become as twisted as their mental states.

In some places, fair-skinned boys even fetched a higher price than girls.

But Xia Leng didn't mind their mockery. He maintained his harmless smile and asked, "So, may I enter?"

"Hold on. Let me see what goods you have to trade. Just these few guns? You should know that what we lack the least is guns."

At this moment, a burly man, about the same height as the responsible person Xia Leng saw in the bar, approached.

His immense muscles seemed ready to burst through his military uniform. He looked like the leader of the guards and definitely a strength-type warrior of the apocalypse!

Without even needing to see his size, Xia Leng felt a sudden impulse to tear this strong man apart and devour him as soon as he came close!

The Blacklight Virus only triggered such violent impulses when facing a Baptizer!!

But Xia Leng fought hard to suppress this urge, knowing that causing trouble at someone's doorstep would likely result in being shredded to pieces by the high-caliber heavy machine guns surrounding the area.

As the apocalypse warrior leader approached, the surrounding guards quickly stopped laughing, and their expressions turned serious.

When the leader arrived next to Xia Leng, he looked at the young man who had lowered his head and clenched his fists, wondering if his identity as an apocalypse warrior intimidated the young man.

In reality, Xia Leng was afraid that if he looked at the leader any longer, he might not be able to resist devouring him on the spot…

"Don't be nervous. We're a legitimate mercenary company. We won't exploit refugees like you. However, recently, the number of refugees pouring into our fortress has increased too much. We have thieves, scum, and all sorts of lowlifes. So our leaders have issued new regulations. From now on, anyone wanting to enter or stay in the fortress must go through a strict screening process."

The leader spoke with a smile, but his face, covered in layers of muscle, looked even more intimidating when he smiled than when he was angry…

What he said wasn't without reason. The Komodo Mercenary Company sacrificed a large number of personnel and spent a lot of resources to establish this apocalyptic utopia fortress.

With abundant supplies, airtight security, a stable order maintained by patrolling mercenaries, the only super-powerful generator within a hundred kilometers, and other advantageous conditions.

All these factors attracted people from the surrounding wasteland to this "paradise." Only by living in such fortresses could they regain a sense of normalcy, and this was just a medium-sized fortress.

It was said that in the distant and mysterious Eastern regions, there was an aerial super-fortress that used anti-gravity technology to suspend a huge city in the sky and protected it with an energy shield, achieving absolute safety, and the fortress's interior was filled with futuristic technological elements.

Of course, this was just a rumor, perhaps a spiritual fantasy for those yearning to return to the old days of prosperity.

After the Komodo Company established this fortress branch, it quickly attracted large numbers of people from nearby areas to settle here.

At first, the upper echelons welcomed all talents, thinking that having more residents would be beneficial, as the flow of people determined the city's prosperity.

But as time went on, various problems emerged one after another.

The indiscriminate recruitment led to a mix of all kinds of people—thugs, cannibals, disease-ridden refugees, and even spies sent by other mercenary companies and shelters to create chaos.

The fortress was thrown into chaos, almost falling apart on its own, and was on the brink of destruction.

After expending a large amount of manpower and resources to restore order, the upper echelons learned their lesson and began to implement a strict screening process for residents.

Those who had taken advantage of the chaos to settle in—scum, spies, and the like—were all found out and their fate was to be used as fuel for the power plant.

Xia Leng understood the need for conditions to enter the fortress. After all, this wasn't a marketplace but a starting point for the revival of human civilization. Being meticulous was normal.

"What conditions are needed to enter? For example, being a Baptizer?"

The towering leader looked down at the emaciated young man and said, "Here's the deal. Most of our soldiers are currently assigned to other tasks, and there's an urgent research task that needs manpower…"

"What's the mission?" Xia Leng interrupted, cutting straight to the point.

The leader, momentarily stunned by the interruption, looked at the straightforward young man and, instead of getting angry, answered with a smile: "Go to a commercial street in the west of the city and hunt the mutated zombies there. Our research department urgently needs their crystals, and the gray stones in their heads are your ticket to enter the fortress."