After the Disaster: The Plan

When Boyo put on the Old Street No.1 armor and arrived downstairs with a group of people, they saw debris strewn all over the yard, even more than what the last typhoon had brought.

They quickly reached the location below the main clinic building and found the sofa and the corpse of the large dog not far away.

"Where's Tom? Oh no, Tom has been blown away by the wind!" Tears immediately welled up in Wang San's eyes. Besides Boyo, Wang San was the person who understood Tom's bravery the most, especially during the battle with the mutated rats, where Tom firmly protected him, not giving the rats a chance to harm him, and he couldn't forget that protection for a moment.

"Don't cry!" Boyo slapped Wang San's head impatiently and shouted to the other people who were feeling down, "Tom is not like you idiots. He will definitely find a way to save himself. Everyone, go and search, see if there are any clues."

In fact, after the typhoon had raged for a day and a night, not to mention the children, even the traces left by adults had long been destroyed. But now they had no other choice but to scatter and search.

Boyo's first thought was the inside of the tattered sofa, so he immediately crawled in to search. On the other hand, Wang San, suppressing his disgust, crawled into the belly of the large dog. It was pitch black inside, so he took out a piece of yellow gemstone to try to illuminate it with some dog blood.

However, he found everything around him to be extremely dry, with some parts even warm, and there was no trace of blood, so he couldn't illuminate the surroundings.

Feeling something amiss, he crawled out and shouted, "Uncle Zhang Gui, come over here!"

Zhang Gui's ability was to illuminate himself with the yellow gemstone, becoming a human light bulb. Since they were going out to search for people, they naturally had to call him too.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Gui hurried over and looked at Wang San, who had stuck his head out of the dog's belly. His face changed immediately, and he vigorously shook his head, "Uh... uh... no!"

The scene of going into the sofa with Tom and Boyo last time was still vivid in his mind. Tom was flipping through human bones and the bodies of maggots as if nothing had happened, which made him feel weak in the knees. He really didn't want to crawl into a dog's belly this time.

"There's no blood inside, and it doesn't stink. Hurry up and come in!" Wang San urged.

After hesitating for a moment and thinking about the missing Tom, Zhang Gui gritted his teeth and followed him in.

After illuminating himself, he explored inside the dog's carcass with Wang San.

What they saw startled them. Shouldn't the inside of the dog be full of organs and blood? Even after a day and a night, there should still be crimson bloodstains.

But what they saw before them was the absence of any trace of blood inside. The organs and flesh walls were all golden-yellow, and Zhang Gui swallowed his saliva. He distinctly smelled a fragrance. "Is this... the smell of roasted meat?" He reached out and plucked a piece of flesh from the golden-yellow flesh wall.

Wang San quickly slapped the meat out of his hand. "Are you trying to die? Eating this? You'll turn into a zombie!"

Zhang Gui trembled with fright, realizing he had almost forgotten that the meat of an animal that had just eaten human flesh couldn't be eaten.

The further they went inside, the more bizarre it became. They saw that the ground they walked on and the flesh around them were as smooth and dry as if they had been ironed by a flat iron. They could even see several ribs of the dog broken on the ground, seemingly smashed by tremendous force.

Near the large intestine, Zhang Gui saw a red figure and trembled again, causing his ability to stop, and everything went dark again.

"Uncle Zhang Gui, turn on the light!" Wang San was excited. He ran over and felt around for a few moments. "It's Old Street Zero, ah, it's An Ge! Haha! An Ge is still alive! You wait here, I'll go call for help!" He immediately ran out excitedly.

Wang San called Boyo and the others inside, and Boyo activated 3.5 times his strength to carry Old Street Zero out.

The Old Street Zero armor was covered in scars, its original dark color turned into a uniform red, and Tom was unconscious inside.

"Go call Mu and prepare the bed, we'll take Tom back home!" Boyo commanded.

Tom slowly woke up, and this time, it was Xiaotian who was watching over him. Seeing Tom awake, he hurriedly ran out to call Mu and the others.

"Tom, you're awake," Uncle Mu smiled with relief.

Boyo was more casual. "Hey, Tom, you're awake again."

Tom shook his head, feeling nothing unusual. "Yeah, I'm awake again. How long have I been asleep this time?"

"It's past eight o'clock in the evening now," Uncle Mu said. "What happened? How did you end up inside the dog's belly, and why did you pass out?"

Tom recounted what happened during the typhoon and described the blue liquid found inside the dog's large intestine. As for why he passed out and why the meat inside was roasted, Tom didn't give a direct answer.

The situation at that time was too bizarre, and until he figured it out, he decided not to talk about it, as it could have been an illusion.

Speaking of the blue liquid, Boyo confirmed that the super large gem they dug out from the dog's heart area was indeed blue, which further confirmed Tom's speculation: the blue liquid in the dog's large intestine was indeed related to the blue crystal condensed inside it.

Upon hearing Tom's speculation, Boyo's original sense of relief was burst like a bubble. "I was still thinking of us laying low for a while and starving those mutated big guys to death. At least if they didn't go extinct, half of them would starve to death. I didn't expect them to milk each other."

Rong brought dinner to replenish Tom's strength, and Tom took the opportunity to summarize the situation of the past two days for everyone.

First, there was the matter of why his Old Street Zero armor couldn't be bitten through by the dog. He asked Boyo to personally find Lele, who seemed to have discovered the direction of her ability. Under the watchful eyes of everyone, she conducted an experiment with a piece of iron plate.

Lele, empowered by the blue sapphire, could enhance the hardness of the iron plate, but this reinforced defense was only temporary. This was evident from the friction marks on Old Street Zero's body after the large dog was blown up. However, it was unclear whether this was due to the temporary nature or the accumulation level of the enhancement. Further experiments were needed to determine the conditions for this effect to wear off.

However, such an ability to strengthen the hardness of iron plates consumed a lot of Lele's stamina. After she strengthened the entire body of Tom's Old Street Zero, she hid in the laboratory and slept for half a day, and her large blue sapphire also ran out of energy, becoming a blank gem.

Then there was the explosion.

The energy of the yellow sapphire would conflict with the energy of the ruby. If the energy of the ruby acted on a conductor, the energy of the yellow sapphire would form a repulsive force, pushing the conductor away. Based on this principle, Tom made repulsion guns, repulsion cannons, and repulsion artillery.

What would happen if both activated ruby and yellow sapphires were placed together? It would result in a more intense reaction, causing an explosion.

The Larvae Prototype Cannon used yellow crystals, while the crystal backpack of Old Street Zero used large red crystals. The explosive power generated by the combination of large red crystals and yellow crystals was enough to blow up a dog's belly. If it were replaced with large red crystals and large yellow crystals, the power would probably be even greater.

Moreover, with the recently discovered double-sized mega-crystal, the explosive power produced would be even more terrifying.

This might be the ultimate weapon against super-large monsters. Of course, they weren't currently in a position to build something so large.

But Tom suggested making at least two heavy bombs using large red crystals and yellow crystals for emergencies.

Bigger mega-crystal bombs would be too powerful, with a wider range of destruction. It wasn't necessary unless they wanted to go down together.

After the large dog attack incident, everyone in the camp had a better understanding of the post-apocalyptic world. Tom believed they wouldn't be as naive as before, thinking the world was relatively safe. They would likely be more cautious in their actions outside.

Boyo also stated that he would establish a series of strict rules and regulations for camp defense and outings, which would be posted for everyone to memorize and strictly adhere to. Violators would face punishment ranging from confinement, reduced food rations, expulsion, or even execution, depending on the severity of the offense.

Of the five people who had gone out to lure the large dog back before, three were bitten to death by the dog, and the remaining two were currently in confinement. Regarding the consequences caused before the regulations were enacted, Boyo decided to hold a vote among all members to decide on the punishment for these two individuals.

Tom wasn't particularly concerned about this matter, as it fell within Boyo's jurisdiction. Right now, he was busy repairing Old Street Zero as quickly as possible and rebuilding a Larvae Prototype Cannon. He needed to explore as soon as possible for more advanced technology to enhance their overall combat capabilities.

As for the others, they had plenty to do. With the typhoon wreaking havoc last night, the old clinic was a mess. Although the door was successfully locked in the end, the previous damage was enough to cause everyone a headache. They spent the whole day from morning to night cleaning up, and they only managed to clear up half of it.

It wasn't until noon the next day that the clinic was finally refreshed. However, the chairs knocked over by the strong wind and the two tables hitting the corners couldn't be dealt with and had to be left in place. The positions of the platforms for the three Larvae Type II cannons also needed to be rearranged.

Tom spent the whole day with Iron Scraps repairing both sets of Old Street armor and the Larvae Prototype Cannon. In the afternoon, Boyo found him and asked about his plans.

Naturally, Tom wanted to return the same way, climbing over the high wall where the Jingwei crashed and heading to the Redemption Sanctuary in the center of the square. However, Boyo had a new idea. Recently, when Wang San was out scouting at night, he saw streetlights in the northwest direction on Old Street. That meant there was another Redemption Sanctuary in that direction, and judging by the intensity of the streetlights, it might be even brighter than the one in the southeast corner.

This also meant that the Redemption Sanctuary in the northwest direction was closer to them.

However, the two were not familiar with the situation in the northwest direction, so Tom asked the survivors in the camp about it during dinner.

As soon as he asked, the information became more detailed, but it also disappointed Tom.

According to everyone's memories and the deduction of the map drawn on-site, the Redemption Sanctuary in the northwest direction might be in the Longyao Homestead Community, and that Longyao Community was indeed very close to Old Street, separated only by a river.

As soon as they heard this, Boyo and the others sighed. Crossing a river was unrealistic for their current situation because the bridge to cross the river was not on this side, and they would need to take a long detour. Therefore, there was no other way to get to the sanctuary except by building a ship.

But Tom had a different opinion.