Industrial Cthulhu doesn't believe in the end times.

Chapter 77 Coincidence? Or a Signal?
Su Xun planned to return to the Taimon base to check the situation first. Since he had already cleared the zombies along the way when he came, and the distance between the two places was not far, the round trip would not take much time.

On the return trip, the base vehicle remained in Xinfu, along with Xiao Zhenru.

During the apocalypse preparation phase, most of the families of people in the Taimon base were placed here. Xiao Zhenru was very lucky; some of her family members survived, and they planned to assist with the construction of the shelter here.

Even if manpower needs to be redeployed, not all the strong can be taken away. The shelter, as the representative of the organization and the embodiment of order, now needs to possess sufficiently powerful violence.

You can, but not without.

In the past few days, Xiao Zhenru has been quite eager to learn, and has learned a lot of skills in using her superpowers from Su Xun. Although Su Xun doesn't think she's very strong yet, she's more than capable of suppressing the newly emerging 'wild' superpower users.

Before leaving, Su Xun repeatedly gave her and Zhai Chao some instructions.

"We should register and record new superhumans from outside the area. They can be treated preferentially, but we cannot condone them."

"clear."

After taking one last look at the shelters that were continuously supplying workers to the chemical industrial park, Su Xun turned and left.

More than fifty people with superpowers were with him on his way back to the base. Xu Huan was also asked to return by Su Xun. Seeing that Xu Huan wanted to do more for the shelter, Su Xun advised him, "It's enough for us to open up this transportation line. The rest can be left to the comrades. It's difficult for a few of us to do too much on our own. With your superpower, Elder Xu, you can play a greater role in the research institute."

While they were heading to Xinfu City, the shelters in other cities should have recovered by now. Some of the surviving professionals should already be heading to the Taimeng hub base under the escort of armed forces from various regions. They are expected to arrive in the next few days and eventually make this large base fully operational.

The return journey seemed much smoother than the way there; it was unclear whether the suspected zombie lord was gathering even greater power.

However, as long as the base has established a firm foothold, there is no need to worry too much about the risks caused by zombies in the short term. After seeing Qin Chang again, Su Xun immediately asked him about the situation of the secret realms in various places.

"Just now, similar fog was also discovered in the Dengzhou and Licheng areas."

"The fog over Licheng only appeared briefly, while the fog over Dengzhou was mostly over the sea with only a small part in the city. The biggest problem for the shelter is the Haiqu Secret Realm."

Su Xun first asked the question that concerned him most: "What about inside the Daizong Mountains? Have our observation posts detected anything unusual?"

"No, everything is normal there."

Su Xun breathed a sigh of relief.

The more powerful they are, the further they are from reality. Only when the spiritual power in the real world gradually increases to a certain level will they 'rise' further.

Although this process may have been accelerated in this lifetime due to the increase in the total population, at least the worst-case scenario did not occur immediately.

However, this does not mean we can relax. On the contrary, time is quite tight. Su Xun temporarily suppressed his worries about this matter and asked more practical questions first.

"What's the specific situation in Haiqu?"

"Besides the soldiers who have ventured deep inside and are temporarily out of contact, there are still quite a few survivors stranded in the fog-covered blocks, these people..."

"Don't worry too much," Su Xun reassured them. "Most areas in the secret realm are still relatively safe. They won't even feel hungry there. As long as we go in and bring them back as soon as possible, it won't have any impact."

For at least a few days, there won't be a major impact. The spiritual energy within the secret realm is abundant, enough for ordinary people to survive, which is both a great opportunity and a crisis—living beings are addicted to spiritual energy. If they stay in the secret realm for too long, they will likely face considerable suffering upon returning to the real world. Moreover, although the secret realm has a physical form, it is ultimately a reflection of reality. If they live there indefinitely, their perception will become distorted, and they will eventually become part of the secret realm. In the distant future, many monsters in the secret realm are such beings.

However, Su Xun is not worried about this at present. The secret realm itself is not a dead end. There are even many opportunities inside. Perhaps the survivors who are caught up in it will benefit from it.

As they were talking, Jiang Yi rushed in. The two noticed that she looked strange and became curious.

Jiang Yi was clearly unaware that Su Xun had returned. She was taken aback when she saw him, and then immediately handed a report to Su Xun.

"What happened?"

Su Xun took the report, and after reading it, he was stunned. After a quick glance, he frowned and handed it to Qin Chang.

"This……"

The area of ​​the secret realm has expanded, and the 11th, 14th, and 15th shelters in Haiqu have lost contact.

The report contained only this one crucial piece of information, but its implications were extraordinary: these shelters were scattered throughout the city, and their simultaneous presence meant that a significant portion of the city had been swallowed up by the secret realm.

There weren't many people in the room, mostly high-ranking officials from the base, and they were all looking at Su Xun.

Su Xun took a deep breath, using it to slowly calm himself down.

The mist at the entrance to the secret realm is not real fog; it is a kind of cognitive illusion. It is just presented in the form of fog here because fog represents the blurring of boundaries.

This situation is not uncommon in the past, and each time it caused a lot of casualties, because it often meant that some big guys deep in the secret realm were no longer satisfied with their current ascent speed and wanted to get closer to reality ahead of time.

The desire of those beings deep within it to return to reality is no less than that of zombies to flesh and blood.

Su Xun had written all of these things in the manual, but he originally thought that such things would not happen for a long time, so he wrote them quite late in the book and in a rather brief manner. He guessed that the people in front of him had not thought of them for the time being.

He explained the matter to everyone present, but they were somewhat bewildered. They lacked information about something beyond their comprehension and were unable to make an accurate judgment. They could only place their hopes on Su Xun.

After pondering for a long time, Su said, "I have to go to Haiqu myself."

"no!"

Before he could finish speaking, Qin Chang objected, "You are our commander-in-chief; you cannot take this risk."

Su Xun shook his head: "There are many things that I need to see with my own eyes to confirm. In the midst of cognitive illusion, today's superhumans can neither find the right path nor see the right information."

Although only the Haiqu Secret Realm has encountered problems for the time being, who knows whether this is just an isolated case or a signal?

The overall speed at which the secret realm is rising is accelerating. Could this be giving those less intelligent alien creatures some unprecedented opportunities?

(End of this chapter)