After these research results were revealed, the survivors no longer dared to pursue healthy lifestyles. No matter how boring their days were, they forced themselves to stay up late. Even if they had enough food, they dared not eat much, fearing they might become too healthy.
Otherwise, they might not be bitten by zombies and turn into one.
Instead, due to their good health, they might be infected by the zombie virus in the air and become primal, first-generation zombies.
However, even after understanding the conditions for zombie virus infection, countries were unable to find a solution. They could only build large and small bases in previously deserted or sparsely populated areas to evade or resist the zombies.
Initially, some bases were under control. But as time went by and countries' control weakened, the bases became largely independent. The order within a base and the living conditions of its residents depended entirely on whether the base's leader was benevolent and capable.
With competence and benevolence, life was naturally better. Without them, it was no exaggeration to call it hell.
The former global village structure was instantly hit by a "dimensional reduction" strike. Although it might be slightly better than the tribal era, the overall situation was not much different.
Each base was equivalent to a tribe.
If it weren't for the satellite communication being relatively undamaged,
the situation might have been even worse.
The only fortunate aspect was that most researchers had poor health, and few became zombies. The initial death toll was low, and the subsequent protection efforts were quite good.
Therefore, the civilization did not regress significantly.
Of course, this was the overall situation of the world. As for Qingcheng Town, where the original body's parents were, the person responsible for selling information was not clear. He only knew that near Ruhe County, which Qingcheng Town was under the jurisdiction of, there was a survival base called Sunflower. It was said to be named after a super-large sunflower planting base near the base.
If her parents hadn't wandered off, hadn't come to find her, and had survived, then they would most likely be there.
After understanding this situation, Ding Yun did not linger at Hope Survival Base. As soon as she obtained the map, she left and headed straight for Sunflower Survival Base.
The journey from here was long.
Because the original body had taken a train for over three hours to get here for university, and even the train ride took three hours, it would take days to get back on foot, even if she were a Martial Saint.
What about driving?
With abandoned cars everywhere, wandering zombies, and roads overgrown with vegetation, the speed of driving would likely be slower than her own speed of leaping hundreds of meters with her Martial Saint physique.
It would also be inconvenient to hide from zombies.
Therefore, Ding Yun naturally chose to rely on herself and travel home on her own two feet.
It was during her journey back.
That humans finally, belatedly, discovered that zombies had developed abilities, which undoubtedly plunged them into greater despair.
Zombies without abilities were already difficult to deal with. Now that they had gained abilities, wasn't this pushing humanity to the brink of death? Most importantly, only zombies had abilities now, while humans, let alone having abilities, had physical qualities not much different from before the zombie apocalypse.
For over a year, they had relied on firearms to deal with zombies,
barely managing to protect the various survival bases.
If the zombies continued to evolve, many of their weapons would eventually be insufficient. Bases without their own production factories might even fall as a result.
Therefore, they could only continuously use satellite communication to widely disseminate this news and call for everyone to work together to find solutions. Data from research institutes within various bases also needed to be fully shared.
Only in this way could research progress be accelerated.
And solutions found as quickly as possible.
As for the results, by the time Ding Yun reached the Sunflower Base, they were still arguing. They were still complaining that sharing was unfair because different research institutes had different progress and were only willing to share parts of their findings.
Full sharing would require a trade of benefits.
However, most bases were struggling to maintain the livelihoods of their residents, let alone having good items to trade.
Thus, they were locked in a tug-of-war.
However, Ding Yun did not pay much attention to the affairs of the base leadership. Understanding the general situation was good enough. After arriving at Sunflower Survival Base, she entered smoothly with the same price of one zombie core. She then spent fifty catties of glutinous rice bricks to obtain a citizen identity.
This was not a citizen identity that was valid in all bases.
It was only valid within Sunflower Base.
There was no other way. Without this identity, she could only enter as a temporary resident, and temporary residents were only allowed to stay within Sunflower Survival Base for three days. Ding Yun was not sure if she could find her parents within three days.
It was even a problem to find out any news.
Moreover, she did not lack food. With just a few dozen bricks, she could easily conjure over a hundred catties of glutinous rice bricks. Therefore, she naturally had to obtain a formal identity.
And with a formal identity,
she was able to enter the trading hall of Sunflower Survival Base. She paid another fifty catties of glutinous rice bricks and successfully posted a bounty for finding her parents, which could be seen by anyone in the base who paid attention.
However, because she was unsure if this bounty would be effective, Ding Yun did not place all her hopes on it. After posting the bounty, she left Sunflower Survival Base again and headed for the original body's hometown.
That is, her parents' home.
On the way back, Ding Yun was actually very uneasy. She wasn't afraid of the house being empty. She was afraid of someone being in the house. What if her parents had already turned into zombies in the house? That would be a real problem.
The reason she posted the bounty first and not gone home immediately was a subconscious hope that they were still alive.
But hope was one thing.
She still had to go to her hometown.
Because her hometown was only a few dozen miles away from Sunflower Base, Ding Yun arrived at Qingcheng Town, Group Five, Dahe Village, Number Thirty, in less than half an hour.
And her sensitive ears heard movement inside the house.
Even before opening the door, Ding Yun's heart sank.
It was over. Someone was in the house. Clearly, it couldn't be a living person at this time. Finally, Ding Yun took several deep breaths to calm her emotions, then forcefully kicked open the locked door and strode in.
Then she saw two emaciated zombies, chained to the living room with chains as thick as fingers.
However, after a careful identification, she didn't know whether to be sad or relieved, because the two zombies chained in the house, although not her parents,
were her grandparents.
At the same time, her grandparents were clearly not infected by the zombie virus directly, but were bitten by other zombies and mutated, because the wounds on them were very clear, with several chunks of flesh missing from their arms and legs.