C12 Lin Chen Attacked

At 55 minutes past midnight, Lin Chen arrived at the campus store that sold motorcycles at Y University. The institution encompassed over a dozen different schools, with a total population exceeding 150,000 and spanning nearly 20 square kilometers. Such a large community naturally gave rise to a comprehensive commercial ecosystem, with a store for just about everything.

Lin Chen had altered his appearance; his facial structure was slightly modified, his height reduced by about five centimeters, and his once lean and tall frame had broadened into that of a stocky man. His face was also obscured by a cloth.

One might think that with the world asleep, such precautions were unnecessary. Yet, Lin Chen lived by the adage, "A cautious mariner sails a thousand years." Despite the destruction of most urban surveillance systems, there was no telling where an operational probe might still lurk.

He also hadn't forgotten that among the entire population of Hiekith, there were roughly twenty Awakened individuals. It was possible that one or two were in Janville, the international city, and not all of them might be sleeping soundly.

If his actions were to be revealed, he'd face relentless pursuit by national forces. The apocalypse hadn't rendered government institutions ineffective. Quite the opposite; in the early to mid-apocalypse, particularly in the first three years, the government's grip on the country remained firm.

It was only in the later stages of the apocalypse, when the military power gap narrowed, that a few military bases, emboldened by their strength, began to shift their stance towards the central pivot, albeit without openly defying it. Only after three or four years, when Earth's resources were nearly depleted and a new supply chain established—when the threat of firearms against formidable creatures diminished and individual might became dominant—did the government's control start to wane.

That would be Lin Chen's time to breathe easier. Until then, extreme caution was paramount.

Before he set out, Lin Chen, as was his custom, extended his psychic senses to scan the surroundings within a hundred meters. Detecting no anomalies, he proceeded. In the next moment, he located an oil drum in the shop, filled three motorcycles to the brim with petrol, and, swift as the wind, made contact with each bike.

Over sixty motorcycles were stowed away in the Seeds World Storage Warehouse.

Lin Chen blinked out of the shop, emerging onto the street. He produced a fuel-filled motorcycle, fired it up, and took off.

In an instant, every motorcycle vanished from the bike shop without leaving a single mark of their absence.

The thunderous roar of the high-powered motorcycles shattered the stillness of the sleeping city. Lin Chen gunned the bike, racing out of Y University at speeds exceeding 200 mph, and hit the coastal highway en route to the East China Petrochemical General Plant on the city's outskirts.

For Lin Chen, such velocity was trivial; his neural responses and physical coordination were more than up to the task.

Before the Red Mist descended, a divine light bathed the land for five minutes. Most late-night drivers would halt to gaze at it, while only a few would press on, often leading to accidents amidst the mist. Consequently, the roads were relatively clear of crash sites, posing no hindrance to Lin Chen's rapid progress.

His primary objective was the East China Petrochemical General Plant.

A behemoth in the global industry, the plant specialized in oil refining. Thirty percent of the oil supply for the four eastern provinces of Hiekith and Janville was sourced from this facility.

With the capacity to process thirty million tons of crude oil annually, peaking at fifty million tons, the plant maintained nearly two million tons of oil in reserve.

Situated in Oldlight County, in the southern suburbs of Janville, the plant lay roughly twenty kilometers from the world-class Port of Pula and about ninety kilometers from East Sino Nation University to the north of Janville—a straight-line distance of seventy kilometers.

The facility was safeguarded by the 35th Division of the 12th Corps from the Gold Capital Military Region.

The 35th Division also oversaw the defense of Oldlight County and parts of Janville's southern district.

In his past life, Oldlight County, with its sparse population and defensible terrain, backed by the ample energy resources of the Petrochemical General Plant, was one of the first areas reclaimed by the 35th Division under the central pivot's directive of "defend in place, rescue in place, rebuild in place," leading to the establishment of Oldlight Base.

Regrettably, fate often has its own plans. The central pivot underestimated the evolving situation, and within a month, the circumstances took a dramatic turn. Oldlight Base held out until the fourth month before the decision was made to withdraw from Janville, retreating to the main base of the Gold Capital Military Region.

The retreat was a harrowing journey paved with blood and tears. Of the over two million people who set out, fewer than six hundred thousand made it alive to the military base. The road from Oldlight to the Gold Capital military base was essentially layered threefold with the bones of the fallen.

The reasons for this grim outcome were manifold.

In this lifetime, Lin Chen was determined to use his efforts to initiate the retreat sooner, thereby sparing some of the lives of his fellow countrymen. Previously indifferent to the world's end, he now treasured the familial bonds he had formed in this world and was prepared to take any action within his power to make it a better place. His loved ones still needed to survive here, after all.

In his past life, the leadership at Oldlight Base hesitated to order a retreat despite the increasingly dire circumstances, primarily due to their unwillingness to abandon the lucrative petrochemical factory.

In the post-apocalyptic world, food was the most precious commodity, followed by energy.

Blinded by the allure of two million tons of existing oil and six million tons of stockpiled crude, the leaders gambled on luck, delaying the retreat. Unfortunately, the subsequent defense of the petrochemical factory resulted in the total loss of its resources, forcing Oldlight Base into disarray and finally prompting the decision to retreat. The cost was over a million lives—a catastrophe unparalleled since the apocalypse.

This time, Lin Chen planned to leverage his extraordinary abilities to engineer a staggering heist. His goal was to seize the majority of the petrochemical factory's resources, ensuring that the future leaders of Oldlight Base would not hesitate to leave when the time came to make the critical decision to retreat.

At 1:20 AM, Lin Chen arrived at the petrochemical factory.

Spanning four to five kilometers, the factory loomed over the land like a colossal beast.

Most of the facility was dark, shrouded in the chill of moonlight, save for three places where generators hummed to life, casting pools of light.

Lin Chen couldn't be bothered with a detailed investigation. He used his psychic energy to pinpoint the generators and surveillance cameras from eight hundred meters away in the illuminated areas. With a series of teleports, he evaded the cameras, shut down the generators, and collected them along with the surveillance computers and cameras, stowing them all away in Seeds World.

Lin Chen had thoroughly researched and committed to memory the layout of the factory's facilities through prior searches on Google. Consequently, he spent the next stretch of time racing his motorcycle wildly throughout the petrochemical plant, claiming over three hundred tanker trucks and a myriad of oil storage tanks, both large and small.

He spared no kind of fuel, seizing everything from fuel oil to various lubricants without exception.

For the oil in the underground reservoirs, Lin Chen had crafted several small virtual storage spaces within Seeds World specifically to collect these loose oils.

Throughout this endeavor, he exhausted his mental energy over a hundred times, each time swiftly rejuvenating himself with an inexhaustible supply of energy liquid.

Eventually, he nonchalantly acquired a refinery production line from one of the workshops.

Upon his departure, he left behind ten gasoline tanks and eight diesel tanks, totaling two thousand tons. In essence, he had reserved just under forty thousand tons of fuel for the future needs of Oldlight Base.

This reserve would prompt the base's leadership to consider evacuation plans at the first sign of trouble, ensuring the survivors had sufficient fuel to reach safety.

Although the items Lin Chen collected were of some use to him, their significance was limited. Even if he were to establish his own power base in the future, it was unlikely he'd exhaust the supply.

As the apocalypse progressed into its third or fourth year, Earth's primary energy sources would shift to crystal nuclei, crystals, and elemental energy.

His actions also carried the risk of drawing unknown dangers. Future government agencies or those in power might relentlessly pursue the matter in secret.

Nevertheless, Lin Chen trusted in his ability to remain concealed and was driven by a desire to live without regrets.

In this lifetime, his heart remained warm, his blood hot, and his compassion intact. He couldn't bear the thought of witnessing a repeat of the bone-strewn path leading to the Gold Capital Military Region.

The repeated depletion and replenishment of his mental energy had elevated his Extrasensory Perception from First Level Middle Rank to First Level High Rank, edging him closer to a breakthrough to the Second Level—a welcome boon.

Leaving the petrochemical factory at 4:20 a.m., Lin Chen felt a twinge of urgency; time was pressing.

His next destination was the National Defense Military Reserve in the City of Janville.

As a leading economic powerhouse in Hiekith, the City of Janville boasts formidable defense capabilities. The day-to-day security operations are managed by an extensive police force, along with armed and special forces units. The Golden Capital military district's three divisions are strategically positioned on the outskirts, complemented by the Eastern Sea Squadron.

Hidden within Janville, the central pivot safeguards a vast cache of military supplies in five covert locations. The strategy is clear: should Hiekith face an invasion and the regular and police forces succumb to enemy powers, a swift mobilization of at least two million militia members is planned to counterattack the aggressors. And make no mistake, within the city's population of over twenty million, the ranks of veterans from all age groups far exceed the two million mark.

Janville is home to five key military supply depots: one each in the southern, northern, and western sectors, with two more centrally located. In my previous life, during the apocalypse, divisions from the North, West, and South had accessed these depots to arm willing civilians. Yet, the central city depots remained besieged by an overwhelming horde of zombies.

Rumors from seven or eight years into the apocalypse spoke of elite experts who ventured to inspect these central sites, only to find that the stored necessities had decayed. While the firearms and ammunition were still operational, they had become virtually obsolete. Any recovered materials served merely as raw inputs, inferior to the naturally occurring ores enriched by the world's essence energy.

Thus, Lin Chen's objective is clear: to secure the resources held within the central city's two military supply depots.