Chapter 76 Dawn Base

Apart from the group right before them, only Shen Lie and Xia Ke were on this street, making them look somewhat out of place. However, Shen Lie had no intention of leaving. Instead, he stretched his neck to look toward the radio, his hearing sharp enough to have already caught what the man addressed as Elder Long had said.

"This is the Dawn Base, located at East Bridge Mountain, twenty kilometers east of the city." A moment later, a voice finally emerged from the radio once again, but it uttered only a single sentence before dissolving into a bout of static.

"Dawn Base? Is there really such a base?" Everyone present, including Shen Lie, was utterly baffled. They had no idea where this Dawn Base had sprung from. The seven major survival sanctuaries established when the catastrophe struck apparently did not include this place!

Moreover, the signal was far too brief—just a single sentence. If not for the solemn expression on Professor Long's face, Shen Lie would have truly thought this group was just playing some nonsensical recording.

"Has anyone here ever heard of any information regarding this Dawn Base?" Professor Long glanced around at the surrounding survivors and asked with a look of anticipation. Yet, he was destined to be disappointed; not a single person on the scene knew anything about it. With no further signals able to be picked up by the radio, he had to lower the signal receiver.

The reason they had set up this signal receiver was because a survivor in their team had accidentally discovered a few days ago that their radio was picking up a vague, ambiguous audio clip. Although it was unclear, they could confirm that a signal had been received!

Consequently, the survivor reported this discovery to the team's leadership, who in turn escalated it to Professor Long. Attaching great importance to the matter, Professor Long conducted a personal test and found that the radio could indeed receive a signal on a certain frequency. He immediately mobilized the team's sole military-grade signal receiver amplifier, tirelessly making attempts every day, never expecting to finally receive a clear voice today.

Yet, this very message had only plunged them deeper into confusion!

In the northwest of Beihe Province, there was a city named Shi. Approximately twenty kilometers to the east of this city lay a scenic area quite famous prior to the catastrophe, known as East Bridge Mountain.

However, this place no longer retained its pre-catastrophe beauty. Various landscapes and buildings had been thoroughly devastated, while the flora and fauna had all lost their original appearances. Some grew in withered patches, while others thrived with an eerie lushness—in short, nothing felt normal.

In a place like this, nearly twenty thousand people were currently gathered, a small fraction of them being soldiers in military uniform, while the vast majority were ordinary survivors.

"Damn it, why did this ghostly thing have to activate at a time like this? This place is hardly a good spot!" A dignified man in a formal suit frowned, muttering an irritated curse as he looked at a metallic sphere about a meter in diameter on the ground.

"Indeed, and this place is far too close to the capital. The capital's current situation isn't looking too good either," a robust man beside the dignified man also wore a grim expression, seemingly worried about something.

"There's no help for it. This damned thing simply cannot be retracted. It seems we have no choice but to establish a base right here!" A trace of helplessness tinged the dignified man's tone.

"But Chief, what about the conditions here?" The robust man glanced at the surrounding environment, stopping short as if hesitant to speak further.

"It doesn't matter. Since I, Qiao Lianshan, was able to gather such a team in the apocalypse, I fear no hardship!"

"Old Wu, everyone has run until they're exhausted. In this world, monsters are everywhere, and it's the same no matter where we go. At least with this spatial stabilizer, we don't have to worry about spatial rifts appearing within the base. You must remember, whether in Yang City or the capital, spatial rifts suddenly erupted right in the middle of the cities. Yang City has fallen, and who knows how the battle is going in the capital right now. Going any further ahead doesn't guarantee a safe haven either. Since heaven has caused this bizarre object to activate here, we shall stay right here and measure ourselves against those monsters!"

"Since the Chief has said so, I, Old Wu, am no coward either. From the research institute all the way here, haven't we fought through enough monsters? We've lived through plenty of perilous trials, and it's high time we settled down. I just wonder if this thing is truly as miraculous as the analysis suggests—that it can prevent spatial rifts from appearing within a certain range."

"It shouldn't be wrong. The researchers who brought this back originally could not possibly lie. If this item was truly obtained from a world on the other side of the rift, then no matter how miraculous it is, it's entirely possible. Don't forget Luo Kai, one of the four great gods of war in our team; both his Annihilation Divine Bow and Gilded Armor are products of that world." A hint of envious admiration flashed in the dignified man's eyes as he mentioned these two items.

"Heh, Luo Kai's two weapons have made everyone in the team green with envy. But Luo Kai is also a deeply awakened bloodline warrior, not relying entirely on these two items. Still, I genuinely doubt whether this Luo Kai has really been to the world on the other side of the rift?" Hearing the Chief bring up Luo Kai, a satisfied smile spread across the robust man's face, for this God of War of Machinery currently fell under his command.

"Old Wu, there are plenty of deeply awakened bloodline warriors, but why did Luo Kai and the others become the Four Divine Generals? Although our propaganda played a part, we must admit that all four of them possess extraordinary qualities of their own. Still, we shouldn't concern ourselves too much with their personal matters; we only need to utilize their martial might. The critical task right now is to absorb a large number of bloodline warriors to join our new base. With so many of us lingering here, I reckon a large horde of monsters will soon come looking for us!"

"By the way, Old Wu, didn't you say you found a frequency that can be used for transmission?" The dignified man asked with concern.

"It was found, but the interference is far too severe. Even with that amplifier, we can only transmit the signal in a special way for a very short time, and only one sentence can be sent at a time. How far the broadcast can actually reach remains unknown." The man called Old Wu shook his head with an embarrassed expression.

"This is already quite good. Have the technical team accelerate their breakthroughs in this regard. For now, repeatedly broadcast our location during this period to gather the nearby survivors first."

Standing on the outer edge of the crowd, Shen Lie listened to the radio's activity while privately pondering what on earth the Dawn Base was.

The seven major bases announced by the government at the onset of the catastrophe had all been established around the locations of military regions at that time. Back then, only seven or eight rifts had appeared nationwide, so no one had considered the possibility of spatial rifts forming inside gathering points; they had only taken military might into account.

Perhaps many small bases had existed initially, but the name "Dawn" did not seem to be a geographical location, nor was it the title of any organization. Could it be something established by survivors after the catastrophe?

A thought flashed through Shen Lie's mind, and the more he pondered it, the more plausible it seemed. If that was the case, the scale of this so-called Dawn Base certainly wouldn't be small, and it must possess a certain number of awakened individuals, otherwise, they wouldn't be making such a grand show of beating drums and calling for troops.

Judging by this inference, the technological power of this base wouldn't be weak either. At the very least, judging by its capability to emit this kind of calling signal, it had to have a cutting-edge research team. After all, this was the only organization discovered so far capable of broadcasting long-distance signals; even mega-cities like Yang City and the capital hadn't managed to achieve that!

"Boom! Rumble!"

While Shen Lie was still deep in thought over the news of the Dawn Base, he suddenly heard a rolling sound of artillery fire coming from the distance, and its source was precisely the direction of Yang City!

"Everyone on alert! Team One, come with me to take a look!"

Almost the instant the artillery fire sounded, the people clustered around the circular table underwent a sudden transformation, every single one of them becoming tense yet orderly. A portion of them swiftly formed a protective circle around Professor Long, while the rest, led by a yellow-clothed man with a particularly large head, rapidly scaled the high-rise building beside them.