Chapter 114 - 114: The Pod of Whales
Someone far away had seen the phenomenon of District Three, and was left speechless by the magnificent spectacle.
The fifteen-thousand-square-kilometer city of District Three rose from the ground, floating five hundred meters above. It reminded people of an ancient giant that had just awoken from a long slumber. When it woke up, it shook the heavens, eclipsed the sun, and cast a vast shadow over the land.
This person recalled a cartoon called “Castle in the Sky” that he had watched before the apocalypse. An ancient and colossal city that relied on steam power was shown floating through the sky. Buried inside the city was a treasure that many people sought.
“I haven’t watched anime in a long time. I wish I could watch it again…” the person fell deep into memories but then noticed something alarming.
“Wait… if District Three flew away, where can I go?” he began to panic.
This man was a second-stage enhancer, who hunted zombies in deserted cities because he had no trustworthy teammates.
He had left District Three a few days ago, intending to gather up some brain cores before returning. But why did District Three fly away just when he was about to return?
Fear started to creep into him. No matter how undesirable District Three might have been, it was still a place for replenishing supplies. Now with it gone, his only fate as a wanderer would be death—either from starvation and thirst, or being eaten by zombies.
Just as he was panicking, he realized that he too was being lifted like District Three, drifting towards it.
“Eh? Eh, eh?”
Confused, he returned to District Three, only to find a significant change in the people compared to when he had left. Not to say that they were beaming with happiness, but at least everyone’s eyes were filled with hope.
After asking around about what had happened in District Three, he learned that the financial oligarchy and Longtu, who had been exploiting them, were already dead.
As for why District Three was able to fly, someone pointed at a shadow overhead.
It was presumed it was none but this mysterious strongman who had performed the feat.
The news of the city’s sudden flight spread rapidly throughout District Three.
The people could hardly believe it. They felt nothing but the initial shaking. They heard that on a plane, you would experience a ringing in your ears during take-off, but they experienced nothing.
Was it possible that even a city could fly so smoothly?
However, every now and then, some enhanced warriors returned to the city, confirming the news of the city’s flight over and over again. Not until they came to the city gate and saw the scenery on both sides retreating, did they fully believe the news.
Upon hearing that the entire city had floated in the air, Ye Du was so surprised that his mouth could not close for a long time.
It was he who heard the leader say that it was a “bit troublesome.” So, lifting
District Three into the air was only considered a “bit troublesome?”
Being in the sky was not entirely safe. Apart from the transformed zombie birds, during the course of transporting District Three to District One, Jiang Li encountered these whale zombies mentioned by Ye Wu. Countless fish zombies crawled in and out of the gigantic creature as if the whale was a bread mold full of maggots.
The whale zombie was oblivious to the fish zombies on its body. It flapped its giant, fleshy wings, stirring up gusts of fishy wind that could make one retch.
This whale zombie was a high-ranking zombie that had some semblance of intelligence. However, when it saw the floating city in the sky, it could not figure out how the city flew.
No matter how it happened, it knew there must be plenty of food inside the city. Faced with such substantial temptation, it could not let it pass.
It let out a long whine, emitting an awful hoarse sound, like a thousand ghosts wailing in unison from hell.
Even though they were uncertain about their duties, the guards continued to protect the city door vigilantly.
It seemed their efforts paid off. When they saw the ominous whale zombie approaching, they shouted out in fear.
“A… a whale zombie is attacking!”
As soon as these words were spoken, they set off a series of reactions.
The power of whale zombies far exceeded that of the zombie wave. This was a fear etched deep into their memories. One of the main reasons why humanity was quickly defeated by zombies in the early days was due to these whale zombies.
Despite their enormous sizes, whale zombies were astonishingly fast flyers. Besides, their rough skin and thick flesh could even withstand a missile attack without getting a scratch.
Whale zombies always attack in herds. This time was no exception. Several tens of whale zombies flew around in the air. Even the color of the sky changed, turning dark, as if to herald the arrival of misfortune.
The leading whale zombie led the others, spreading its wings as they flew toward District Three.
People began to despair.
Though there were plans to counter the whale zombies in District Three, it would require the combined efforts of all third and fourth-stage enhancers as well as Longtu. Now that all fourth-stage enhancers and Longtu were dead, would the energy shields of District Three and the directed-energy missiles be enough to fight off the herd of whale zombies?
People started to surrender to despair. The powerful figure who killed Longtu and made District Three take flight might be safe, but it did not mean he had the ability to protect everyone. If even one whale zombie broke into the city, the enormous quantity of parasitic fish it carried would put District Three in grave danger.
“Quick, contact that powerful figure!” someone screamed.
“Yes, yes, contact him. As long as we kill them before the whales get too close, we’ll be fine!” Thinking of Jiang Li’s power, people’s hope reignited.
The leading whale zombie was a fifth-stage being. Even Longtu didn’t dare to confront it face to face. Though fifth-stage enhancers had a strong resistance to the zombie virus, there was still a possibility of being infected. Longtu was afraid of being infected, so he always relied on the tactic of a human wave to kill the whale zombies. Each battle with a whale swarm resulted in significant casualties.
But this powerful figure was different. If he could easily kill Longtu, killing the whale zombie should not be a difficult task.
“Where is he?”
This question left everyone dumbfounded.
Yes, where was this powerful figure?
Everyone suddenly realized that they knew nothing about Jiang Li—no real name, no age, no rank, no background, no purpose. Even his current whereabouts were unknown.
People once again fell into despair.
While others didn’t know where Jiang Li was, Ye Du did.
He wanted to experience the feeling of being in the air, so he went to the city gate, looking down from above, when this incident happened.
The moment Ye Du saw the whale zombies, his mind went blank. The dread from the past occupied his mind, so it was not until he heard people discussing finding Jiang Li that he remembered that he could find Jiang Li.
He took out his walkie-talkie.
Jiang Li was sitting on a sofa with his legs up on a wooden table.
Lifting District Three required nothing more than locking down the space around the district using his mind and lifting the tiny city of just over ten thousand square meters.
Jiang Li also released his Divine Sense, retrieving those who had left the city.
As expected, his Divine Sense spotted the disgusting and sickening sight of whale zombies with their parasitic fish.
Jiang Li clicked his tongue, feeling that his eyes had been polluted.
Immediately, thick dark clouds gathered in the sky. Massive purple-green bolts of lightning descended, completely obliterating the whale zombies and their parasitic fish, leaving not a trace of residue.
Jiang Li facepalmed in regret: “I forgot to save the brain cores.”
Although the brain cores were irrelevant to him, they were precious resources for the people of District Three.
“Sis! Quickly tell the leader, there’s a swarm of whales…” Ye Du was talking to Ye Wu via walkie-talkie, but before he could finish, he saw the dark clouds accompanying the whale swarm change. A terrifying bolt of lightning fell, killing all the whale zombies.
“What happened? What’s happened with the whale swarm?” Ye Wu anxiously asked as she harbored a deep-seated fear towards whale swarms.
“Nothing…”
Perplexed, Ye Du put down the walkie-talkie and started to ponder.
He supposed he had to adjust to the leader’s methods. It wasn’t good to be always taken by surprise..