"I can't contact the Command right now. Every road north has been cut."

Shen Cong didn't believe a word Zhao Zilong or Lu Hang had said. In the post-apocalyptic world, trusting people too easily had one outcome, and it was never good.

"True — the Black Blood Group and Lost Paradise worked together to excavate a hundred-meter break across every northbound route." Lu Hang shook his head, then added with genuine curiosity: "But how did you get here in the first place?"

Shen Cong's eyebrow went up slightly.

Why are they asking where I came from?

The answer assembled itself immediately. They don't actually believe I'm Eastern Theater Command. This is a probe. Follow my route back, find where I originated. Great Vajra is too conspicuous — anyone can see one person didn't build this alone. So they want to trace the source. Follow the thread back to New Hefei. Find the settlement. Absorb it. All those disease-changed individuals become their raw material supply.

One moment. All of that.

He answered smoothly: "Chuzhou — through Laihe County — Mingguang City — Xuyi County."

A plausible northerly route, routed through areas he could describe convincingly.

Lu Hang clearly knew the geography. He nodded. "You came from the Chuzhou direction. That makes sense — with a vehicle that size, the ratmen aren't as dangerous. We can't go that way ourselves. Get surrounded by ratmen and things go very badly very quickly."

Zhao Zilong said: "We haven't asked your name."

"Chen Kun. Rank — colonel."

Half true. He did hold a colonel's rank, awarded by New Hefei. Not by the Eastern Theater Command, but she didn't need to know that.

"Colonel Chen Kun." Zhao Zilong looked at him for a moment — as if running through her memory of Command personnel and not finding a match — then continued. "We've explained our situation. Now I want to know: does the Command intend to eliminate the death-eaters outright, or is there another plan?"

"I want to know how much combat capability the death-eaters actually have. How many of those weapons that damaged my vehicle…