Chapter 673: The Situation in the Sea

In this sealing of the Haosheng Hotel, the Silent Gold Coin once again proved its value.

The Silent Council’s emphasis on the Silent Gold Coin was plain to see.

When one Silent Gold Coin after another was used as array cores around the Haosheng Hotel, Chen Ye knew that this thing might one day be truly accepted by the public.

If Xi City could really be taken and held this time.

Then promoting the Silent Gold Coin would certainly go much more smoothly.

Of course, these were not things Chen Ye was worrying about right now.

Sealing the Haosheng Hotel was a good thing for the Fair Convoy members.

By the time they returned to the camp, the sky had already started to dim slightly.

After the New Year, the weather had clearly warmed.

It was getting light earlier each morning, and nightfall was delayed a bit.

When they came back, the camp was already bustling with people.

Before leaving, Song Wei had not put on an angry act over the earlier back-and-forth with Chen Ye, but had spoken to him with a calm demeanor.

This senior Observer of the Silent Council had psychological resilience far stronger than most.

Since the other party did not bring up what had happened at the Haosheng Hotel, Chen Ye naturally didn’t make a fuss either.

Chu Che, who had rushed over, certainly wouldn’t either.

However, compared to Chen Ye, Chu Che was a lot more smooth.

He chatted with Song Wei for only a moment, and they looked like old friends.

When they parted, there was even a touch of reluctant farewell in the air.

“Tsk tsk… If you didn’t know, you’d think you two were brothers!” Chen Ye teased from the side.

“Cut the nonsense, I don’t have a brother that ugly!” Chu Che shot back.

“Tsk tsk… His face is just a bit square, but he’s fairly upright. You were so chummy with him, then turned around and arranged that other thing. Captain Chu, your character isn’t all that great either…” Chen Ye chuckled and teased.

“It’s the apocalypse already and you’ve still got so much chatter. Why don’t you just take the same surname as Dantai Bie!” By then, Dantai Bie had already returned to base and was excitedly telling Little Fish about what he’d seen today.

Those two normally bickered at each other, but sometimes their relationship looked pretty good.

It was honestly hard to comment.

“Captain Chu, what do you think about this?” After a few jokes, Chen Ye’s tone grew somewhat serious.

“What do you mean?” Chu Che didn’t quite understand what Chen Ye was getting at with that half-finished question.

Chen Ye lowered his voice slightly and said, “Don’t you think the appearance of the Haosheng Hotel is somewhat strange?”

“Why did a Rule Zone like the Haosheng Hotel appear in our territory of all places?”

“Why did the Silent Council pick Xi City?”

“Why—”

Chen Ye hadn’t finished before Chu Che cut him off.

“Stop, stop. You’re always paranoid and suspicious, there aren’t that many whys.”

“You throw so many questions at me, I don’t even know how to answer!”

Chu Che knew Chen Ye was prone to suspicion, but he didn’t realize he had so many questions in his head.

“Then go through them one by one.” Chen Ye put on a look of serious listening.

Captain Chu had read the most captain’s notebooks; by that measure, he should be the convoy’s most knowledgeable person about anomalies.

Chen Ye really wanted to hear Chu Che’s opinion.

Who knew, Chu Che spread his hands: “One by one? I don’t know the answer to a single one of your questions!”

“Anyway, if it weren’t Xi City, it would be another city. If not the Haosheng Hotel, then another hotel!”

“By apocalypse rules, Xi City is just a small Uninhabited Forbidden Zone.”

“It should be the most suitable target for us right now!”

“You, don’t think so much. It’s the apocalypse; live one day at a time!”

Hearing the faintly negative tone in the captain’s last sentence, Chen Ye looked at him in surprise.

Who’d have guessed, Captain Chu sighed deeply.

“Yezi, after you left today, the Silent Council met again!”

When he said this, a bit of weariness appeared on Chu Che’s bald face.

It seemed as if one wave hadn’t passed before another rolled in.

“Ah—” Chen Ye was a bit dazed.

“We… might be in big trouble.”

“Ah…” Chen Ye was slightly stunned, not quite understanding what that meant.

Chu Che reached out, motioning for a cigarette from Chen Ye.

Captain Chu rarely asked Chen Ye for a smoke.

Chen Ye pulled one from his pocket, lit it for Chu Che and himself.

The two of them sat by the sea, inhaling and exhaling smoke.

Chen Ye didn’t press Chu Che; he knew this would be said sooner or later.

It just might be more troublesome than he had imagined.

“Yezi, right after you left today, Elder Hou Junji—the mute—came to call me for a meeting…” Chu Che began.

Hou Junji and Chu Che had a grudge because of the Haosheng Hotel matter.

So Hou Junji had privately nicknamed Chu Che “baldy.”

Chu Che hadn’t been idle either; he called Hou Junji “the mute.”

As Chu Che rambled on, Chen Ye learned about the matters related to the “sea anomalies.”

The Silent Council, through its channels, had obtained intelligence.

There were quite a lot of anomalies in the ocean, their numbers even greater than those on land, and they were also more powerful.

Usually, these sea anomalies remained quiet and did not go out of their way to disturb the world.

So although there were things in the sea, because the sea was vast, as long as people avoided those anomalous zones, the surface waters were relatively safe.

That was also why the Silent Council chose Xi City as the first city to attack.

This intelligence had been presented by Elder Hou Junji at the meeting.

Outside of organizations like the Silent Council, ordinary convoys merely guessed there might be things in the sea, but had not expected the situation to be like this.

When everyone heard that the anomalies in the sea outnumbered and outmatched those on land, they felt a weight in their hearts.

That was also why Captain Chu looked somewhat down today.

If humans couldn’t handle land anomalies, let alone the sea ones.

Right now humans didn’t even have a city; even more powerful things were now emerging.

Do humans still have a chance?

“At the time, the Silent Council thought that if Xi City couldn’t be taken, then the migration target could be shifted to the sea!”

“The sea’s resources are far richer than the land’s!”

“As long as we don’t actively provoke the sea anomalies, the surface of the sea should theoretically be safer than the land!”

“Also, the Silent Council had a contingency plan. If the Return to the City Plan failed, they could find an uninhabited island and rebuild a city!”

So that was the idea behind the Silent Council’s plan.

Actually, it wasn’t impossible. An uninhabited island meant few people, so likely few anomalies. Even if there were anomalies, they probably wouldn’t be many.

“That’s all future talk, don’t bring it up for now!”

“Right now, we… no, the entire Xi City base here, might be in big trouble!”