Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 680 - 322 Old Acquaintance?

Chapter 680: Chapter 322 Old Acquaintance?

When they reached the North City ramp around eleven at noon, the road sign showed that the ramp was 35 kilometers from the main urban area of North City. From the highway, they could already see the big city built in the basin. It was also the first time the two of them had seen an advanced city. When the server opened, they had fled straight from Future City to the remote North Town. After six months of hard work, they moved to the county city. However, the distance to the advanced city was still far in the future.

"Shall we take a look?" Lin Wu suggested, "See the big city."

Maya figured they could spare the day, so she agreed. An hour later, the two reached the suburbs of North City. North City was filled with towering skyscrapers and swarms of zombies, and it seemed the entire city reeked of decay. Climbing up the signal tower and looking down, the entire city was dotted with red circles of Blood Mist, with a zombie density far surpassing that of Left County.

Here, Lin Ma saw the evolved mutant zombies for the first time.

Most of the Titans in North City were still Titans, but a small portion had evolved into Titans capable of using simple weapons. Eight hundred meters away from them, a Titan was carrying a two-meter-long log weighing around 100 kilograms, wandering the streets with a tide of the undead. At the side, another Titan was holding a bicycle in its right hand, having twisted it beyond recognition, yet Lin Ma knew it had become its weapon.

A Blood Ferocious Ma had grown white spines on its back, which made it look as if it was wearing a spiked bulletproof vest. Its hands had grown sharp claws, perhaps due to not trimming its nails for too long—after all, nails still grow after death. Blood Scream had not changed much in appearance after evolution, but its movement speed had increased significantly; an evolved Blood Scream could walk fast within the Blood Mist, roughly equivalent to a normal human’s race walking speed. There were also evolved forms of Exploding Carnage, which would spew poison mist every ten seconds or so, with the mist lingering for up to 60 seconds.

Lin Wu complained, "Why don’t we see evolved zombies in small county towns and super-advanced cities? This is discrimination, unfair treatment, and I protest against this."

Dawn replied, "Zombies in super-advanced cities have begun to evolve slowly as we entered the hardcore era. Zombie numbers increase due to respawn, and when the density of zombies in an area reaches a certain limit, evolved mutant zombies appear. The higher the zombie density, the greater the number of evolved zombies."

Why are there so many zombies in North City? Aside from respawning, it’s also primarily due to population concentration in cities. Take the real-life Egret Island for example, the population density is 13,000 people per square kilometer, while the island also maintains a large proportion of green space. It might not seem like much with 1.3 people per 100 square meters, but the area taken up by buildings, lakes, and rivers is significant. In addition, the island has areas like Forest Park and wetlands, so the population density in major living and working areas is extremely high.

North City also has areas with low zombie density, such as the public cemetery in the middle of the city. Moreover, the number of zombies inside buildings, especially above the second floor, is relatively low.

Maya observed carefully with a telescope and declared, "Without Dawn’s power, we wouldn’t be able to gain a foothold in North City unless the base’s rule of infinite ammunition was restored." Even in Left County, they could only choose to build a base at the edge of the industrial zone, in the Sawmill recommended by the system.

Lin Wu posed a question, "If Dawn can barely survive, then what’s the point of setting up big cities? And even super-advanced cities."

Maya answered, "Dawn has near-infinite computing power. It simply constructs a world for players and doesn’t care whether it means anything to them. The refresh system in the game causes the number of zombies in big cities to reach a terrifying number."

Lin Wu said, "I’ve complained about the refresh issue. You know, sometimes it gets boring, and I just want to find someone to argue with."

"I know," Maya asked, "What did Dawn reply?"

Lin Wu said, "Its reply was: How can you be sure zombies cannot multiply? I damn its nuts, it’s the first time I’ve heard that zombies can multiply."

"Not necessarily," Maya disagreed with Lin Wu’s view, "Like Blood Heart, based on the information we got from secret missions, Blood Heart seems to be a mother body. According to the information from the Waste City event, the zombies in Waste City only resemble humans in appearance, but their DNA is vastly different. The similarity between human and apple DNA is higher than that between zombie and human DNA. Perhaps zombies do not reproduce in the same way as humans."

Lin Wu: "I can’t understand that."

Maya said, "Do you know how many eggs a queen ant can lay? If you enlarge an ant a hundredfold, ants become more terrifying than zombies. Since zombies and humans are no longer related, we can’t think of zombies in normal terms."

"No, no," Lin Wu disagreed, "Ants are alive, zombies are dead, they’re corpses, moving corpses."

"Not precise. To be accurate, zombies are creatures that have lost autonomous consciousness but have a fairly complete motor nervous system," Maya said, "For instance, rabies patients slowly lose consciousness, but they don’t necessarily die. As they lose consciousness, their inherent aggression increases. Assuming rabies doesn’t kill the patient, would the patient instinctively attack other organisms? If they have the instinct to eat, is it possible they also have the instinct to reproduce?"

Seeing Lin Wu deep in thought, Maya said, "Any living creature needs to consume energy to maintain its ability to act, and for carbon-based lifeforms, food is the only way to replenish energy. Zombies in the game definitely don’t adhere to scientific logic, so isn’t it silly for us to argue about it?"

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