Cannon fodder in the Interstellar

For over a month, although Ruo Manni and her team were outside China, she kept a close eye on developments within the country’s survivor bases. Every day, she made time to stay updated on the situation.

Unlike Ruo Manni, Hebrew Adam had no particular affection for China and spent most of his time focused on training.

As Ruo Manni predicted, after the ice and snow melted, the leadership at the capital base swiftly took action. They had already consolidated control internally during the harsh winter and immediately dispatched teams to reconnect with other bases across the country.

Special forces were sent to “communicate” and establish satellite communications with these bases. Gradually, from nearby to more distant regions, many survivor bases, particularly former military strongholds, reestablished contact with the capital base, signaling their willingness to come under its command.

Even the B City survivor base followed suit. Lin Ruihai and Song Changlong, being upright military men, remained loyal to the state and armed forces as long as they had faith in the nation’s leadership. Betrayal was never an option for them.

Lin Ruihai merely informed Ruo Manni about the situation. Given it aligned with her brother’s wishes and her own hopes for unity among survivors in China to combat the apocalypse, she had no objections.

To prepare for the looming global zombie wave, the capital base urged smaller bases to merge with larger ones. Bases that complied were promised material supplies and access to newly developed bombs capable of wiping out groups of zombies.

This initiative demonstrated the capital base’s impressive strategic foresight.

With the combined pull of national leadership, material incentives, and the pressing survival crisis, most smaller survivor bases agreed to merge into larger ones.

Additionally, all bases began organizing their ability users to go on expeditions and exterminate zombies.

Possibly due to these proactive offensives, scattered zombies near the bases were cleared out, delaying the zombie siege by about two weeks compared to the timeline mentioned in the post-apocalyptic strategy forum.

However, the sheer number of zombies was overwhelming. With a dwindling population of survivors, less than half were capable of joining the extermination campaigns.

Despite their relentless efforts, humanity could only delay, not prevent, the zombie tide.

The only relief was that there were no sixth-tier zombies within China. Although fifth-tier zombies could climb, they weren’t fast, nor were they numerous, and sturdy base walls held firm against their attacks.

Still, with millions of zombies encircling each base, survivors found themselves trapped. Most bases housed only tens of thousands of people, and once surrounded, no one dared to open the gates to fight off the zombies. Without external rescue, starvation or eventual defeat seemed inevitable.

The Northwest Base faced such a dire predicament. Even after merging nearby smaller bases, its survivor population barely exceeded one million. Yet, they were besieged by over six million zombies.

This was not an isolated incident. Bases across China, including the capital, were under siege.

The capital base had it the worst, surrounded by nearly 30 million zombies. However, unlike other bases, they were better prepared. A majority of their forces were deployed outside, bypassing the horde to attack from the perimeter and thinning the zombie ranks from the outer ring.

Inside the base, although survivors couldn’t risk opening the gates, they maintained a steady bombardment of the horde with explosives.

After two weeks of coordinated attacks, the zombie numbers outside the capital had been halved. It was estimated that within 10 more days, the siege would be broken.

This success filled other bases with hope, as they eagerly awaited the capital’s forces to be freed for broader rescue operations.

Bases that agreed to join the national leadership had been supplied with essential resources, often delivered by large aircraft before the zombie tide struck. These supplies allowed them to endure the siege, as long as they maintained their walls and kept zombies from breaching the perimeter.

However, the Northwest Base was in a more precarious position. Its remote location and the fierce mutated birds of the plateau prevented the capital base from delivering supplies in time. The base was already under siege before help could arrive.

According to their distress signal, food supplies would only last another ten days. If the zombie siege wasn’t resolved soon, the survivors faced death by either starvation or zombie attack.

Upon learning about the dire situation at the Northwest Base, with over a million survivors trapped, Ruo Manni pulled Hebrew Adam along to head there immediately.

From five or six kilometers away, they could already see the dense horde of zombies stretching to the horizon.

“So many… how are we supposed to kill them all?” Ruo Manni muttered, feeling a headache coming on.

Due to the capital base’s surveillance, they couldn’t deploy mechas or use advanced thermal weapons from the interstellar era. Otherwise, these relatively weak zombies would have been easily dealt with.

“No using mental energy,” Hebrew Adam warned, glancing at her.

Half a month earlier, while fighting zombies abroad, Ruo Manni’s mental power naturally broke through, making her an eighth-tier psychic.

At her current strength, she could eliminate 400 to 500 zombies in a single thought, collecting their energy cores in an instant. In just over two hours, she could kill more than 100,000 zombies.

Without access to those powers, they were left with only swords and physical weapons.

“This is way too slow,” Ruo Manni complained.

“You can’t reveal all your abilities under others’ watchful eyes. It will only bring harm, not benefit,” Hebrew Adam explained patiently. “You are what matters most.”

Ruo Manni fell silent. She understood the reasoning, but knowing that every day the base remained besieged could cost more lives made her uneasy.

Still, she wasn’t naive or stubborn enough to defy Hebrew Adam.

Even so, once they began fighting, she subtly adjusted her tactics to match his pace. Though they both had exceptional combat skills—Hebrew as an eighth-tier warrior—Earth survivors wouldn’t notice the nuances between their abilities. They would simply assume their power levels were comparable.

Inside the besieged Northwest Base, the zombie siege had lasted two weeks. Their distress signals had only received a response from the capital base.

But the capital base itself was under siege, and given the distance and current circumstances, even if troops were dispatched immediately, it would take more than two weeks to arrive—far too late to make a difference.

The base commander, Wang Shengxi, had grown visibly distressed, his hair turning white from worry. Once stout and overweight, his body had rapidly slimmed down due to the mounting stress.