Chapter 302: Wasteland Edition: Lurking and Searching
There were originally three people under Pei Shao. When they went out to collect information for the first time, Su Mo added another three.
So there were seven of them in total.
For a village of only 150 people, it was more than enough to put seven people to work on intelligence.
If Zhong Qingshu, the outcast, joined them, it would be eight in total.
Even if they had no prior experience, how could there be no trace of a huge army of possibly twenty thousand foreign race creatures at all after careful scouting?
However, the fact of the matter was that, after Su Mo spoke, it was not only Pei Shao who was silent but, Zhong Qingshu, who was an expert at information collection, also had a look of contemplation on her face.
"Not hundreds, not thousands, but twenty thousand of them!"
"It"s a whopping twenty thousand. Their daily consumption of resources would be in the hundreds of units, but you can"t find this huge team?"
Seeing how Su Mo was a little furious, Pei Shao could not stand the pressure anymore and spoke with an awful look on his face:
"Leader Su, it"s not that our people didn"t search well and nor were we infiltrated by the foreign races. We"ve driven Earth Tiger and traveled all over the area within a 200-kilometer radius for the past few days."
"…I even secretly withdrew some supplies and bought a voice recorder and put it in the car, but I didn"t find any issue with our people."
"…there"s really no sign of the foreign races within these 200 kilometers. Not to mention any creatures, even the food sc.r.a.ps left behind after their march were nowhere to be found."
After he spoke, Pei Shao immediately took out a huge map from his storage s.p.a.ce and spread it out on the table in the conference room.
The map ill.u.s.tration placed the Underground Shelter at the center and had mapped out all the terrain within a range of 200 kilometers.
From the ups and downs of the terrain to the iconic landmarks; all the places in the north, south, east, and west were marked clearly.
Even if a layman stood here and looked at this map, he would be able to see how much effort had been put into it.
Besides, there were dozens of route lines marked with arrows on this map.
Those lines were the routes the intelligence team had traveled over those days, and they basically covered all locations within 200 kilometers.
"Leader Su, I"ve personally driven over to see all the locations marked on this map. I can a.s.sure you that there"s not even a single feather spotted there!"
As if afraid that Su Mo would not believe him, Pei Shao continued elaborating. He provided detailed accounts of the surrounding terrain, beginning from the nearest 30 kilometers, and stated what he had seen and heard.
Since receiving Su Mo"s request for a survey mission eight days ago, all other work in the intelligence organization had been put on hold.
There were foreign races near the village!
Their numbers might be around twenty thousand!
Those were Su Mo"s original words. After hearing that, Pei Shao would have been scared to the point of peeing his pants on the spot were he not an old soldier.
Hey man, a large number of foreign race creatures have gathered around us. What was the point of collecting other intelligence now?
If they could not figure out where the enemy was within that day, it was possible that their enemies would already be standing in front of their houses the next day.
For this reason, after Su Mo granted them the right to use Earth Tiger, the intelligence team drove the car around and began surveying the surrounding 100 kilometers around Hope Village.
They took turns driving for three days.
Apart from the necessary mealtimes where everyone would stop to eat some dry rations, the rest of the time they were either back on the road or carefully looking for any traces on the ground.
Pei Shao was an old intelligence soldier who had been professionally trained, hence he knew the importance of time in this situation.
Therefore, the seven of them in the intelligence group did not sleep or rest more than what was necessary. They hung around the wasteland for four days and four nights, and surprisingly surveyed the entire 100 kilometers on wheels and their feet.
But the result was…
Nothing!
Not to mention traces of the twenty thousand foreign race creatures, not even one of their scouts could be seen.
However, what allowed the intelligence team to go beyond the 100-kilometer radius and continue their investigation was not Su Mo"s determined tone, but the "unusual" factors that were outside the norm.
Although no trace of the foreign race creatures was seen within those 100 kilometers, similarly the ordinary animals and mutant creatures seemed to have disappeared too.
Ever since Su Mo notified them of the presence of the foreign races" army, apart from the fact that there was still life in the basin, the rest of the place looked dead and eerily quiet.
On the fifth day, after spending half a day reporting all their findings, the intelligence team slept for a long time during the day and set out in Earth Tiger again, taking advantage of the night.
This time, it was not only the seven of them. Zhong Qingshu joined the team and the eight of them expanded their exploration range from 100 kilometers to 200 kilometers.
With the experience they gained, the exploration speed was much faster this time.
In just three days and three nights, not only did they explore all the places within a 200-kilometer radius, but they also explored several dozen, or even up to a hundred kilometers, in certain directions where there might be possible ambushes.
The exploration team rushed back yesterday before dawn, but the result was disappointing as always.
"Have you scouted these directions?"
Su Mo frowned while sitting at the table after he pointed to a location on the map and received a nod of affirmation from Pei Shao.
The foreign races" collective attack was already discovered when Connie the Lioness" panel was bound for the first time.
Su Mo did not think much of the news at first.
After all, the current level of firepower of the Underground Shelter had reached a high level and the preliminary defense lines had also been constructed.
With these defense lines, Su Mo was not fearful of even three to five thousand teams of the foreign races, let alone one or two of them.
But the problem arose here…
Eight days ago in the morning, when Su Mo connected to Connie"s game panel again like usual, he suddenly saw something strange on the World Channel.
In the past, the foreign races would mention Su Mo several times from time to time as they chatted, even when the conversation was dry. They would express a sense of fear toward him.
However, it was surprising that today, several of them who were once afraid of Su Mo "jumped out" and talked freely about him on the World Channel.
This tiny change might have been disregarded by other people, but with Su Mo"s keen senses, he suddenly sensed something fishy.
After continuing to observe for nearly an hour and summing up all the sentences that mentioned Su Mo…
A huge problem was found!
The foreign races were clearly not afraid at all. During the time when Su Mo was not checking, they had received some news.
It was this very news that had given them courage.
In the face of desperation, Su Mo, who felt a huge threat looming, immediately took the risk and did something.
He contacted Clark!
It was naturally more difficult for an ordinary foreign race member to add someone from the Royal Clan as a friend, but seeing as Connie possessed the ident.i.ty of a foreign race residing around the basin, it was an extremely easy and simple affair.
Su Mo, who was disguised as Connie the Lioness, finally established a preliminary connection with Clark after adding him as a friend and sending him some irrelevant information about the basin to prove his ident.i.ty.
Through the brief conversation, not only did Su Mo understand why the other foreign races had no reason to fear him now, but he also received important news that not even the other foreign races knew of!
Twenty thousand!
There were a total of twenty thousand foreign race creatures near the basin who were planning to attack him. On top of that, three of the partic.i.p.ating foreign races had a strength score of more than one.
Compared to the lion people"s score of 0.003, this number was astonis.h.i.+ng.
This time, even if Su Mo remained calm, he did not dare to sit still and wait for the foreign races" army to attack.
One moment Su Mo was agreeing with Clark to quickly retreat 200 kilometers away from the basin, and the next moment he was already disseminating the information.
With that, the intelligence team set out!
Two exploration expeditions and 200 kilometers covered. According to the routes led by Pei Shao, they had covered almost the entire 200-kilometer radius. If even this could not lead them to find even a single trace of a foreign race…
Did it mean that Clark was deceiving them?
In the conference room that was large enough to fit more than twenty people, with Su Mo deep in his thoughts and Pei Shao explaining, all the locations within the 200-kilometer radius were gradually forming into a three-dimensional picture in their minds.
Su Mo already had a complete understanding of the basin"s topography as early as when the ruins of time appeared.
From the basin, the terrain in the north-south direction was high on the south and low on the north. A terrain such as this would mean that there were only two places that could possibly hide an army of twenty thousand.
The first place was a large valley formed by geological events that stretched out 120 kilometers north of the basin.
At one end of the valley near the basin, the water would be 26 meters deep, and once it entered the valley, the depth of the water would reach 52 meters.
Besides, there were many rocky protrusions about 10 to 20 meters high around the valley. In the future, Su Mo would probably take this route when heading toward the Tundra Shelter to ensure that the bottom of the s.h.i.+p would not collide with any of those protrusions.
If the foreign races could predict the direction Su Mo would take, then this place would be the easiest to set an ambush and was also the easiest to hide in.
The second place was 135 kilometers down south. It was a large natural underground cave with jagged rocks and many winding paths.
If the foreign races thought that Su Mo was going to the new world instead of heading to find his sister, this cave could also accommodate twenty thousand of them, making it an excellent location for a sneak attack.
However, given Su Mo"s emphasis on those locations, when Pei Shao and the others crossed the entire valley and explored the large cave on foot, they could not even find a trace of the foreign races.
At this time, seeing that the two potential locations showed no signs of the foreign races, it was difficult to find them in the remaining locations.
Pei Shao finally finished talking about the last location after a 40-minute-long explanation, and the large conference room that could fit twenty to thirty people fell silent.
Su Mo was deep in thought, and so was Zhong Qingshu. Pei Shao was the only one who had a bitter look on his face and looked out the window from time to time, it was uncertain what was on his mind.
For an old scout like him, there were only three possibilities on why they could not locate their enemies…
Firstly, there was no enemy at all. The information they had received was false.
Secondly, the enemy"s ability to hide was excellent, and their current methods alone were insufficient to detect the enemy"s specific location.
Thirdly, the enemies were not yet in position and were still making their way there. The scouting radius was not large enough and was naturally impossible to locate the enemy.
"We should no longer be confused on whether the foreign races are really there or if someone else made them up to deceive us…"
"…there"s indeed something strange going on near the basin!"
After a long silence, Zhong Qingshu, who had been in constant thought finally spoke up and denied the first possibility with her opening words.
Finding no trace of biological activity within 200 kilometers of the basin was something unusual in its own right.
Even if there were no enemies there, this point was enough to raise suspicion and highlight the need to scout the area.
"As for whether this large number of foreign races are on their way or are lurking around…"
"I"m more inclined to…the latter!"
"However, in terms of their numbers, we might have gone down the wrong path in our previous judgment!"
"Huh?"
Seeing how Zhong Qingshu was about to begin reasoning with evidence, Su Mo immediately sat up straight and paid greater attention.