Vikram fiddled with the corpses for a while but couldn’t find any distinguishing features.

"Could it really be the survivors who just happened to follow them on the road and wanted to rob them?"

Vikram mused inwardly and turned to look at Ron.

"Are you sure that Abhi didn’t cause any trouble for you during the transaction?"

The injured people nodded in unison, and Ron even patted his chest to guarantee it.

"Absolutely not. This time, he even gave us the livestock first."

"He must have been afraid of Brother Vikram’s retaliation, so he didn’t drag anything out."

Hearing this, an unpleasant thought arose in Vikram’s mind.

"Where are those livestock? Quickly take me to them!"

Realizing that something was wrong, Vikram immediately stood up. At this moment, Divya’s voice already came from behind him.

"No need to go. We’ve been tricked by Abhi."

Divya, at this moment, carried several livestock with their heads pierced through, coming over to the group.

Everyone looked on, only to see the livestock on the ground with terrifying expressions and tragic deaths.

This was not Divya abusing them, but rather the appearance of zombie transformation.

Just now, Divya was about to bring these livestock into the shelter.

Fortunately, the disinfection channel Vikram had built earlier immediately detected the zombie virus and issued a strong warning, otherwise, all the livestock in Vikram’s animal husbandry area would have definitely been wiped out today.

"Damn it, he was waiting for me here."

Vikram cursed. It was obvious that this was Abhi’s doing.

"Boss, I’m sorry, we were careless."

Ron and Draco, seeing this, quickly apologized. Even the Green Wind members lowered their heads in shame.

Vikram stood up and shook his head, "It’s not your fault. These livestock took so long to zombify, they must have been injected with a little zombie blood using a needle."

"Let alone you, even if I went, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference with the naked eye."

The speed of mutation after being infected with the zombie virus is, of course, related to the dosage of the invading virus.

If only a few drops of zombie blood were injected into these livestock, it would naturally be much slower to mutate than being directly bitten by a zombie.

"Abhi, huh? You’ve picked the right person to mess with."

He gritted his teeth as he said this.

Vikram suddenly remembered that he seemed to have tricked the other party today as well.

If White Fox Shelter knew what happened at Crimson Desire Shelter today, it would definitely disgust Abhi immensely.

Just then, Vikram’s Survival Platform suddenly received a friend request.

"Abhi, requests to add you as a friend."

"This bastard, I didn’t look for him, but he found me."

Vikram only pondered for a moment before accepting the friend request.

The next second, Abhi had already sent a message.

[Abhi: Brother Vikram, are you satisfied with today’s trade?]

[Abhi: Brother Vikram, you should be careful recently. I heard that the zombie virus is becoming more rampant and can almost be transmitted through the air.]

[Abhi: I heard that people are fine, but livestock are very likely to inhale the virus and turn into zombies. It wouldn’t be good if you were bitten by these mutated livestock, don’t you think?]

[Abhi: Finally, I also want to thank Brother Vikram for the large batch of medicine; otherwise, we would be quite troubled right now.]

Looking at the sarcastic words in the chat box, Vikram scoffed.

This batch of medicine was just one bag he took from the Hospital’s medicine storage room; there were still over a dozen bags like it in the Shelter, so giving it away for free didn’t bother him at all.

As for being infected by these livestock, that was even more nonsensical. The only thing he regretted was the difficulty in finding these livestock.

[Vikram: Abhi, you little brat, you specifically came to mock me. Please type faster, alright?]

[Vikram: Are you missing an arm or a leg, or what? Do you know I’ve been waiting for your message for a long time?]

[Vikram: Hiss, oh right, you really seem to be missing a hand, whose doing was that again?]

[Vikram: Oh, it was me, then never mind.]

[Vikram: I’m sorry, Brother Abhi, next time I see you, I’ll try to aim for your lower body, I promise to leave you a hand for typing, okay?]

Vikram finished speaking with a smile, not giving him a chance to retaliate, he screenshotted their previous conversation, then blocked and unfriended him in one smooth motion.

"Phew ~ I feel much better. Luckily, this kid came to ask for a scolding; otherwise, I wouldn’t have had anywhere to vent my anger today."

On the other side, the Official Shelter.

"Bang bang bang!"

Abhi, sitting in the office belonging to the Deputy Director, slammed the table several times, the thick wooden table dented with a hole.

The officer standing by saw this newly appointed Deputy Director suddenly having a fit, and a fleeting look of disdain flashed in his eyes.

Today’s plan was not entirely successful, and his younger brother Sunny Dalal’s attempt to track them was discovered.

If he hadn’t escaped quickly, he would have died at Vikram’s hands.

Abhi looked at his empty wrist, becoming even more furious.

"Ming Tao!"

"Here, Director Abhi!"

The officer saluted.

"Gather a group of people from the Shelter; I want to personally lead a team to that Legendary-level Shelter."

His younger brother’s message from yesterday was still fresh in Abhi’s mind.

Now, to completely cure his disability, he could only start with Legendary-level items.

"But, Director... Team Leader Evan already..."

"Hmm? Who is Team Leader Evan?"

Before the officer could finish his rebuttal, Abhi had already cast an unfriendly gaze at him.

Seeing this, the officer’s forehead immediately broke out in cold sweat, and he quickly changed his words.

"Evan previously trespassed into the Legendary-level resource point, which is why our Shelter lost so many people."

"Now the Shelter’s military strength is not as good as before. If we go to that resource point without sufficient preparation, we might lose another batch of personnel. Besides, the Director won’t agree. I hope Director Abhi will reconsider."

"Hmph."

Abhi snorted.

"You don’t need to worry about that. We just need to put on a show; where do we really need to exert ourselves?"

"You just need to spread the news about this resource point, saying there are at least three or four Legendary-level items inside, as well as countless food supplies and metal."

"Then, we just need to post an announcement in the regional chat channel, saying that the Official Shelter is leading a team and inviting Survivors from all walks of life to freely explore the large resource point."

"By then, not only will we have free cannon fodder, but all the Survivors will also be grateful to our Shelter for giving them such a good opportunity to explore a large resource point."

"I don’t believe that so many Survivors can’t defeat just two Legendary-level creatures."

"As for the Legendary-level supplies, since it’s the Official Shelter leading the team, of course we’ll take them."

"We’ll gain treasures and a good reputation. Isn’t that killing two birds with one stone?"

When the officer heard this, the disgust in his heart grew even stronger. He even began to wonder whether this man was really an official from Earth.

Although their Official Shelter wasn’t particularly righteous, no matter what, they would never do something like using ordinary Survivors in the Wasteland as cannon fodder.

At most, they would only scheme against the Shelters of the major powers.

"Ming Tao!" (Thinking of putting few chinese name on upcoming characters, since they are missing from action.)

"What are you standing there for? Hurry up!"

His words carried little weight and didn’t count for much. Suppressing his anger, Ming Tao pushed the door open and left.

However, before carrying out Abhi’s orders, he specifically went to the old Director of the Shelter to explain the matter.

Yet, to his great surprise, the old Director, who usually handled matters fairly, merely sighed and said nothing more after hearing that it was Abhi’s order...

—

The moon was bright, and the stars were sparse.

The Wasteland looked peaceful.

Vikram and the four women, nestled on the sofa, knew that today would not be peaceful.

Vikram had just finished dinner, while Fiery had already burned away some of the insect eggs near the Shelter with his flames.

However, how could the ubiquitous insect eggs possibly be cleared completely?

Rather than wasting time on that, it was better to conserve their energy and wait for the insect plague to begin.

11:59.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Vikram silently counted down while leading the four women to the ground.

Inside the wall, Ron’s five men and the forty old members and nearly forty new members were already standing by in full battle readiness.

Seeing Vikram arrive, they all saluted him.

"Boss!"

Vikram nodded.

Just then, the familiar voice sounded in his mind.

[It seems that most Survivors have been doing quite well during the period when the insect babies hadn’t hatched, and the number of Survivors has barely changed.]

[Congratulations to all Survivors for successfully passing the first stage of the insect plague.]

[The second stage of the insect plague has officially begun.]

[In one week’s time, the lovely poisonous insects will also awaken. I wonder if all Survivors can still hold on?]

[Keep up the good work, all Survivors.]

This prompt was unusually short, with no other changes occurring except for the imminent hatching of the insect eggs.

"Crack!"

"Crack!"

Just as Vikram was still pondering whether he had missed any information in that message, a series of dense, crisp cracking sounds rose in his ears.

Before Vikram could climb the wall to check the situation outside, the familiar "shasha" sound, like countless sheets of sandpaper scraping against the ground at the same time, entered his ears once again.

Vikram’s heart tightened, and he quickly climbed onto the Sentry Tower.

With just a single glance at the ground outside the wall, Vikram’s eyes twitched uncontrollably.

He let out a helpless sigh.

"How can these things possibly be killed completely?"

Below the perimeter wall, the ground was now covered with countless crawling insects and venomous creatures, filling every available space.

Fist-sized bugs, densely packed together, looked like a pot of rotting flesh stirred up, suddenly expanding and churning in the pitch-black night.

Fist-sized beetles crawled over one another, their hard carapaces scraping together, producing a series of delicate clicking sounds, like countless broken bones knocking against each other.

Yellowish-brown pus oozed from the gaps between their bodies, only to be trampled into long, sticky strands by the insects behind them, leaving behind half-foot-long trails of foul slime.

Maggot-like soft-bodied worms wriggled among the swarm, their grayish-white bodies constantly swelling and contracting. With every movement, they released a putrid stench that made one’s stomach churn.

Spiders, centipedes, cockroaches, jumping plant lice, bullet ants, and countless other insects and worms were mixed together, forming a horrifying tide that made Vikram feel as though his dinner was about to come back up.

"Did they all really hatch at once?"

"With so many bugs, how are we supposed to eliminate them all?"

Before Vikram could even finish complaining, something even more terrifying happened.

These insects possessed an even sharper sense of smell than zombies.

They had deliberately cleared a safe zone outside the perimeter wall beforehand, precisely to prevent the newly hatched insects from swarming directly into the Shelter.

Yet, in the brief time Vikram had spent climbing the Sentry Tower to observe the situation, the insect horde had already begun assaulting the perimeter wall.

The insects at the bottom could only advance by gnawing at the wall itself, but those above them didn’t need to go to such lengths.

With their astonishing speed and natural climbing abilities, they scaled the perimeter wall in just a matter of seconds.