In the apocalypse, every city is built upon a foundation of corpses and blood.
Zombies and wild beasts seem to have an almost instinctive way of detecting human presence. The more people gather in one place, the more zombies are attracted. So, for a gathering place to truly establish itself and grow into a city, it has to survive countless waves of zombie and beast attacks, destroy all nearby large-scale beast dens and zombie hordes, and only then can it begin to grow.
However, very few places can accomplish this feat. The majority of gathering places are destroyed in these waves of attacks, turning them into hellish battlefields for the living.
This leads to a rather ironic problem for humans in the apocalypse—**the population problem**!
Yes, you read that right—**the population problem**!
Don't underestimate human reproductive power. Before the apocalypse, a wise person once said: "Give me one woman, and I can create a nation."
While a bit exaggerated, the truth is that as long as humans are given a relatively safe environment, their population will grow rapidly. Especially in this brutal world without movies, games, or even novels to distract them, people's only remaining form of entertainment is... **the joy of the bed!**
The more time people spend in bed, the more children they have. Consequently, survivor cities—already small in area—become increasingly crowded and eventually begin to strain under the weight of their own population.
So, how to solve this problem of overcrowding?
Expanding the old city? Impossible. To maintain strong defense, the old city's layout must remain intact. Especially in a city like **Chu City**, which occupies the top of a mountain, expansion is simply not an option.
What about founding a new city elsewhere?
That's not feasible either. The old city cannot afford to let its strong individuals leave, and a group of weaklings, lacking powerful forces, would never be able to establish a new city.
After much thought and deliberation by the wise men, a compromise solution emerged.
The answer? **Building new satellite towns within the influence range of the old city!**
Since the old city had already cleared out the nearby large zombie hordes and beast nests, the new satellite towns would face far less resistance in their establishment. With support from the old city's strong individuals, the difficulty of establishing the satellite towns was significantly reduced, unless there was an extreme stroke of bad luck.
Moreover, once established, these satellite towns could serve as the outer defense lines for the old city, protecting trade routes and feeding back resources to the old city—killing two birds with one stone.
However, the safety of satellite towns was far inferior to that of the old city. Positioned on the outskirts, they were far more vulnerable to attacks from surrounding zombies and wild beasts. This made them the most dangerous and deadly places, as well as the favorite battlegrounds for bounty hunters.
The place where **Chu Xun** and **Chu Kuangren** had seen the black smoke earlier was **Satellite Town No. 4**, located about 200 kilometers southwest of **Chu City**.
The smoke and flames rising from the hill indicated that Satellite Town No. 4 had encountered either a zombie wave or a beast wave, and the situation seemed grim.
Chu Kuangren's speed was incredible. It didn't take long for him and Chu Xun to cross mountains and hills, arriving at the foot of a small, steep hill.
At that moment, the entire hill was surrounded by a pack of mutated wolves—similar to mutated dogs but more muscular and with exposed fangs. The sight of these terrifying creatures across the hill was enough to make anyone shudder.
"Dammit, it's mutated gray wolves!" Chu Kuangren's expression hardened as he looked at the ferocious creatures, his eyes narrowing. "How did these wolves wander all the way here? Did something happen to **Wolf Fang City**?"
"Wolf Fang City?" Chu Xun's expression also grew serious when he heard Chu Kuangren's words.
**Wolf Fang City**, located about 1,000 kilometers southwest of **Chu City**, was a city of similar strength and scale to **Chu City** itself. If something happened to **Wolf Fang City**, it would definitely be a major issue.
"Whatever the case, we need to drive back this wolf pack first!" Chu Kuangren took a deep breath and turned to Chu Xun. "A wolf pack this large must have a mutated wolf king leading it. I have to take down the mutated wolf king, or this pack will never retreat. As for you, consider this your trial!"
Although Chu Kuangren valued Chu Xun, the survival of a satellite town with a population of over ten thousand was obviously more important. Besides, this large number of mutated gray wolves would be the perfect practice target for Chu Xun's combat skills. With Chu Xun's abilities, as long as he was cautious, he should be fine.
With that, Chu Kuangren made his decision. He took a deep breath, let out a furious roar, and leapt towards the mountain where Satellite Town No. 4 was located.
Chu Kuangren's roar echoed through the skies, attracting a large number of mutated gray wolves to him. These terrifying creatures, standing over two meters tall and almost three meters in length, leaped toward him, surrounding him.
But their actions were futile. Chu Kuangren, unleashing all his power, was like a human tank. His sheer force created visible shockwaves as he plowed through the wolves.
**Bang, bang, bang, bang!**
With a series of loud collisions, the gray wolves that tried to block Chu Kuangren's path were crushed into pulp as though they had been hit by a speeding dump truck. Blood and debris splattered in all directions, transforming the battlefield into a scene of carnage.
"How powerful!" Watching Chu Kuangren carve a bloody path through the wolf pack, Chu Xun was once again shocked. However, his expression quickly turned grave.
In the blink of an eye, he realized he had been surrounded by enemies!
As fellow canine-type mutated creatures, mutated gray wolves were far more powerful than mutated dogs. They could even command the mutated dogs, using them as subordinates, cannon fodder, or food.
Thus, Chu Xun found himself surrounded not only by mutated gray wolves, but by even more mutated dogs!
**"Time to fight!"**
Chu Xun's heart surged with excitement as the mutated dogs and gray wolves closed in on him. Despite the overwhelming number of enemies, he felt no fear—on the contrary, there was a strange thrill.
He thought it was just his excitement for battle, not realizing that it was the thrill of bloodshed and killing coursing through his veins!
The **Xenomorph** gene, that powerful alien insect DNA, had side effects far beyond what Chu Xun originally imagined!
The **Engineers** created these killing machines to annihilate everything in their path. Once the Xenomorph genes merged with Chu Xun's own DNA, the urge to kill and destroy became part of him, slowly altering his nature.
If it weren't for the **Xenomorph** powers in his body being so strange and powerful, and the **Dragon's Blessing** healing agent repairing the damage done to his DNA, Chu Xun would have long since been assimilated by the alien genes and turned into a bloodthirsty monster!
And now, the battle truly began.
...