The sky was still drizzling.
At the entrance archway of Xining Town, the atmosphere was oppressively frightening.
The continuous gloomy rain made everyone's mood even heavier.
Originally, Chu Che had planned, as before, to wait at the town gate for everyone to finish gathering supplies before leaving.
But the news brought back by the pink-haired girl made the atmosphere at the scene unbearably heavy.
Chu Che was filled with deep regret.
He had been searching for a suitable target to raid during this period.
But this task was not easy.
It must be understood that whether in cities or towns, the presence of anomalies was not insignificant.
Moreover, these anomalous auras were gradually growing stronger.
Their rate of growth even far surpassed that of human superhumans.
Especially in those large cities.
For example, back in Fog City last ti, both the Fog Slaves and the Great Serpent under the Mist River Bridge were entities that still made Chu Che's scalp tingle just thinking about them.
The convoy currently only had one Sequence 3.
Given the convoy's current strength, a head-on clash with these anomalies was truly not a wise move.
Choosing Xining Town as the target was a decision he had weighed repeatedly.
Xining Town also had an anomalous aura.
But compared to other cities or towns, Xining Town's anomalous aura was noticeably weaker.
Furthermore, Captain Chu had also utilized the Eavesdropping Radio's ability, confirming repeatedly before setting the target here.
In the past, under Captain Chu's leadership, the convoy had always returned with a bountiful harvest every ti.
It must be understood that not all convoys were like the Fair Convoy, able to bring back a huge haul just by going out to gather supplies.
In the early stages, human deaths were too many and too fast, leading to a large amount of supplies remaining in the cities.
But it wasn't a guaranteed harvest every ti.
There were always a few tis they ca up empty.
Once they ca up empty twice in a row, the entire convoy was in danger.
But Chu Che had managed it.
Every single ti before, when Captain Chu led his teammates to gather supplies, they had never co up empty.
That was because the Eavesdropping Radio had a secret ability.
He had never told anyone about this ability.
He even planned to take this secret to his grave.
Well, Secret-Keeper Captain Chu didn't have just this one secret.
Back then, Old Bao also knew about the existence of the Eavesdropping Radio.
But even Old Bao didn't know the Eavesdropping Radio had this ability.
This ability was also the reason why the Eavesdropping Radio could firmly hold the designation number 1257.
It was also the reason why he was always able to lead the convoy without ever coming up empty.
The na of this ability was "Echo."
The main function of Echo was: designate a range or a target.
The radio would replay any sentence spoken, or any sound made, within that range, or by that target, within the past six months.
For example, five months ago, Chen Ye secretly cursed Chu Che as "Barefoot Baldy."
Five months later, if Captain Chu designated Chen Ye as the "Echo" target, he would "very likely" hear Chen Ye cursing him as "Barefoot Baldy."
This ability was far too overpowered.
Chu Che had put himself in others' shoes and thought, if soone could hear what he had said several months ago.
Even if they only heard sothing like "Are you hungry?" or "What should we eat tonight?"
Just thinking about it gave people a creepy, hair-raising feeling.
Of course, this ability of the Eavesdropping Radio wasn't one hundred percent perfect either.
The ability had a certain degree of randomness.
Simply put, what you heard was entirely dependent on fate and luck.
During a person's day, most of the ti they were speaking nonsense.
The crucial information was only one or two sentences.
Therefore, Captain Chu only "might possibly" hear sothing.
For instance, back in Rong City, Chu Che had used this Eavesdropping Radio to designate and eavesdrop on Wu Jianshan.
Of course, he didn't eavesdrop on any substantial information.
Mainly because Wu Jianshan was too taciturn;
he almost never voiced his inner plans out loud.
At that ti, Chu Che designated Rong City Second Elentary School as a regional "Echo" eavesdropping target.
As a result, most of what he overheard was the aningless chatter of the Death God followers.
He heard quite a bit of gossip, but not a single piece of crucial information.
Primarily because no matter which batch of Death God Church mbers it was, they didn't know much.
Thus, most of the ti it wasn't very effective.
Later, in Divine Elephant Village, Chu Che had already overheard the "big secret" of Divine Elephant Village using just ordinary eavesdropping.
Using Echo again wouldn't have made much difference.
Even so, this ability of the Eavesdropping Radio was creepy enough.
Being able to eavesdrop in real-ti was one thing.
But being able to eavesdrop on any sentence you had spoken in the past six months was enough to send chills from the deepest recesses of your heart.
Even though it had a certain degree of randomness!!!
It was still terrifying enough!
Of course, the way Captain Chu used this ability the most was to designate an area for eavesdropping.
After all, the few guys in the convoy, once they knew he had the Wonder called the Eavesdropping Radio, had largely stopped talking to themselves.
Using Echo on them would be a waste.
In the past, Captain Chu used this thod to judge whether other people had been to the places they planned to go.
The most useful ti for "Echo" was precisely in situations like this.
Whether they were superhumans or ordinary people, when entering towns to gather supplies, they mostly didn't engage in idle chatter;
most of what they said was related to supplies.
As long as you used "Echo" to casually overhear one or two sentences, you could roughly infer the situation.
Therefore, using "Echo" in such an environnt was exceptionally effective.
Of course, Chu Che knew this thod wasn't one hundred percent reliable.
He knew there would inevitably be a day it failed.
He just didn't expect it to be today.
This ti, Captain Chu designated Xining Town as the "Echo" range.
He tried it over and over again.
Captain Chu did not hear any living person's voice within the past six months.
Only the mad, twisted ravings of those anomalies.
Therefore, Captain Chu concluded that no one had been to Xining Town in the past six months.
The result was that the convoy ca up empty.
Due to the previous "three days and another three days" delay.
The convoy's supplies were already critically low.
This empty run was enough to deliver a fatal blow to the convoy.
Perhaps this ti, apart from the superhumans, all the other survivors would likely starve to death.
He had long thought there would be a day he missed.
He just didn't expect it to be today.
Xining Town must have been visited by other convoys.
Maybe not just once!
Or maybe not just one convoy.
He could sense danger in other places.
Other convoy pathfinders could sense it too.
As long as they were in this area, if they wanted to gather supplies, most pathfinders would choose Xining Town, which was relatively less dangerous.
It had been almost a year since the apocalypse began now.
It wasn't impossible for a convoy to have passed through half a year ago.
The coincidence was that no convoy had been there in the past six months.
Otherwise, if Captain Chu had used "Echo" to overhear even a word or half a sentence, they wouldn't have taken such a big fall today.
...
"Maybe there's another thod we can try!"
Chen Ye's Blood Eye flickered.
Chen Ye wasn't foolish enough to keep everyone in suspense at this point;
he directly voiced his idea.
Half an hour, several minutes had already passed.
"We could maybe go check the residential buildings. Ordinary households probably have so reserves too."
"Even if it's not as much as supermarkets or hotel warehouses, it's better than nothing!"
Chen Ye quickly explained his thoughts.
The society before the apocalypse was an era of extre material abundance.
There was a supermarket right downstairs at ho;
as long as you had money on your phone, food was available anyti, anywhere.
Therefore, most people didn't have the habit of stockpiling supplies at ho.
But it wasn't absolute.
For example, so people liked to cook at ho;
every ti they bought rice, they might just buy a whole bag and carry it ho.
So people were too lazy to cook and would just buy a box of instant noodles, marinated eggs, and sausages to throw at ho.
Others, on a whim, decided to learn to bake cakes at ho, bought a bunch of ingredients, only used them once, and rembered they had those things at ho only when they went bad.
There were way too many similar situations.
Everyone had thought of this issue before, but going door-to-door to gather supplies simply wasn't cost-effective.
Every supply run was a very dangerous activity.
Firstly, doing it this way easily created too much commotion and attracted anomalies.
Secondly, every supply run was a race against ti;
being able to gather supplies centrally was of course best.
This was also why everyone preferred places like supermarkets or grain and oil shops.
Supplies were concentrated! It saved ti!
And now, Chen Ye's thod was a last resort when there were no other options.
As soon as Chen Ye finished speaking.
They saw Iron Lion charge like a gorilla towards the residential building closest to the town gate.
Iron Lion leaped up lightly like an ape, tore the security grating apart as if it were paper, and then charged into a room on the second floor.
This was imdiately followed by the sound of rummaging through drawers and cabinets.
Soon, Iron Lion appeared holding half a bag of rice, a simple, honest smile covering his face.
Everyone's faces also lit up with wild joy, but when they saw this half bag of rice, their expressions stiffened slightly.
Forget about whether this bag of rice was expired or spoiled.
This was probably the kind of bagged rice bought from a supermarket;
one bag was roughly around ten pounds.
Half a bag was only about five pounds.
Considering the ti Iron Lion spent, it simply wasn't worth it.
Gathering supplies this way was too inefficient.
"We can't afford to worry about that now. We few superhumans can move faster. Having sothing is better than nothing!"
"Everyone, move quickly!"
The pink-haired girl ford a sword seal with her fingers, her entire being transforming into a Sword Immortal as she shot straight towards the residential building.
Everyone moved quickly.
But even counting Captain Chu, at most only five people could act like this.
The problem still wasn't completely solved.
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