Chapter 63 Changing the Approach

In the room, Chen Jian listened to Zeng Yi's narration while recording the existing intelligence on his PDA.

The vast majority of the intelligence concerned the monster in the Huangzhou Ruins, interspersed with a small amount of information regarding Yellowstone City.

[Class 4 monster, though classified as such based on "low aggression"; its actual power may approach or reach that of a Class 3 monster.]

[Its entire body is covered in heavy armor. The Mechanicus once bombarded it with a 40-kilogram large-caliber smoothbore cannon, failing to penetrate its defense.]

[Highly mobile, but has limited active periods.]

[Intelligence appears low; unresponsive to humans.]

[Territory covers the Huangzhou Ruins, possessing a fixed lair.]

[Recorded instances of attacking human settlements exist, but the most recent record was ten years ago.]

[A small number of civilians in Yellowstone City worship the "Mongolia" monster, though their numbers are few.]

......

Gathering all the information together, Chen Jian frowned, his inner doubts growing deeper.

After a brief moment of contemplation, he spoke:

"Judging from the current information, this monster is indeed suitable for use as a barrier."

"The problem is, I have a lingering feeling that something is amiss."

"If it serves as an excellent barrier for us, it should naturally do the same for the residents of Yellowstone City."

"Then why, under the protection of this barrier, does the population here continue to decline?"

"Haven't you noticed? This Yellowstone City doesn't even come close to the population of two thousand that you mentioned."

"In fact, I doubt it's even a thousand—where did you get your information from?"

Upon hearing this, Zeng Yi shook his head in equal confusion and explained:

"As I said before, the Holy Blood Hall does not maintain a council chamber here, so the intelligence we obtain basically comes from the Mechanicus."

"Just like when we entered earlier, we approached them under the guise of cooperative reconnaissance to ask for some information. Most of the time they cooperate, but the accuracy of the information isn't necessarily very high."

"Two years ago, I did see relatively detailed information about Yellowstone City, back when the Holy Blood Hall attempted to dispatch a Source-Blood to this place."

"I can be certain that at that time, the population of Yellowstone City was definitely still two thousand."

"Yet for some reason, after two years, it has decayed to this extent."

"In fact, it's not just you who noticed. Xie Liu and I asked the priest here the exact same question just now, but he refused to answer, claiming it was merely natural deaths."

"Natural deaths cutting the population in half within two years??"

Chen Jian gave a mocking, skeptical shake of his head and said:

"Yellowstone City still harbors secrets, and the Mechanicus people have no intention of telling you."

"Very well, let's set this aside for the moment."

"I need to ascertain one thing: have the Mechanicus personnel here received notification of the sudden incident in Hanshui City?"

"No," Zeng Yi replied with certainty.

"They only have a single radio here, and it broke two weeks ago."

"Furthermore, with two monsters blocking the road between them and Hanshui City, communication wasn't very close to begin with, so I believe what they said is likely true."

"Then there is no problem," Chen Jian nodded slowly, then issued an order:

"He Shuo, launch the drone and monitor the entire city."

"Pay special attention to the movements of the Mechanicus Skitarii. If there are any anomalies, sound the alarm in time."

"Everyone else, follow me."

"Let's take a walk around the city and find out why on earth this place has been reduced to such a handful of people!"

"Understood!"

"Alright, no problem."

At the command, everyone immediately sprang into action.

He Shuo found a secluded corner to quickly launch the drone. Once it entered autonomous patrol mode, he followed closely behind Chen Jian as they walked out of the inn.

The four of them strolled casually through the streets of Yellowstone City, their eyes darting around in all directions, searching for any scrap of discoverable information.

Barely halfway through the residential district, Chen Jian's expression had already turned solemn.

He lowered his voice and told the other three companions:

"Widespread starvation."

"The vast majority of the residents here show signs of malnutrition. This is highly unusual."

"Judging from the several human settlements we've visited before, although life isn't easy for them, they have no issues with their food supply."

"Yellowstone City sits in the middle of Dazhi Lake, rich in fishery resources, and the surrounding land shows clear signs of cultivation. By all logic, sustaining two thousand people shouldn't be much of a problem."

"Yet now, fewer than a thousand people remain here, and they are still starving."

"Where has their food gone?"

"I don't know..."

Xie Liu frowned in thought for a moment before suddenly speaking:

"Yet the Mechanicus personnel don't seem to have this problem. When we entered the church, their Skitarii were having breakfast, and the food was quite abundant."

"That's normal," Chen Jian shook his head.

"They are the rulers here, after all. If even they were starving, this city would have perished long ago."

As his voice trailed off, Chen Jian turned his gaze toward a narrow alley between the buildings.

In the alley, a few tattered civilians huddled together in a corner, embracing each other for warmth.

It was already late autumn, and the temperature had dropped below twenty degrees. While it wasn't cold enough to freeze people to death yet, a lack of adequate warm clothing would undoubtedly cause severe trouble.

Not only was food scarce, but supplies were also remarkably meager.

Did the residents of Yellowstone City truly live such miserable lives?

"The level of technological application here is far too inferior to Hanshui. Forget electric lights; I haven't even seen a stove."

"There are no heavy weapons on the streets, and the guards aren't carrying the single-shot rifles of the Hanshui City guards either; instead, they have crudely manufactured smoothbore flintlocks."

"Is something stunting the development of this town?"

"Perhaps the Mechanicus has intentionally suppressed the technology here..."

Zeng Yi let out a slow breath, intending to continue, but right at that moment, a gunshot suddenly echoed from the end of the street.

"Bang!"

The anti-sniper radar reacted instantly, and the group's gazes locked simultaneously onto the direction of the gunshot.

Over there, a handful of civilians wielding clubs, harpoons, and crude makeshift blades were charging at the guards stationed on the roadside.

A single guard's strength was clearly insufficient to fend off so many cold weapons, and in the blink of an eye, he was hacked down and collapsed onto the ground.

However, the other guards reacted swiftly, forming a human wall and opening fire on the rioting civilians.

"Bang!"

"Bang bang!"

"Bang!"

Gunshots rang out continuously, white smoke rising from the street.

Illuminated by the sunlight, amidst what should have been a breathtaking Tyndall effect, fresh blood was already pooling across the ground.

"The Skitarii are on the move," He Shuo muttered quietly. Chen Jian checked the image on his tactical eyepiece and found that the fully equipped Skitarii had already surged out from the center of the city, running swiftly toward the street where the conflict was taking place.

A few minutes later, under the "overwhelming" firepower suppression of the Skitarii, the riot was swiftly quelled.

The guards hauled away the corpses, while other residents numbly cleaned up the blood-stained street.

Chen Jian blinked, issuing a low command for the others to retreat and fall back.

Re-entering the inn, he stated:

"Yellowstone City is on the verge of collapse."

"A sharp population decline would be one thing, but now riots have broken out, which proves that the Mechanicus's rule here has been shaken."

"This is our opportunity."

"Originally, one major reason we were reluctant to target large settlements was that the rule of the Mechanicus and the Holy Blood Hall was simply too entrenched. Even if we managed to eliminate the enemies, erasing their deeply rooted ideological imprint would be extremely difficult."

"Yellowstone City is different now."

"The imprint has loosened, and we can lend them a hand!"

When Chen Jian finished speaking, Zeng Yi subconsciously shook his head and said:

"But we still don't know what happened here. If we act rashly..."

"What happened doesn't matter; we can uncover the truth gradually."

Chen Jian interrupted Zeng Yi, then spoke decisively:

"We need a barrier, but relocating the monster to the Hanshui Ruins is far too difficult."

"Let's change our perspective: wiping out the Yellowstone City garrison and clearing out the Mechanicus members here is easy!"

"We don't necessarily have to stubbornly hold Fort 7025. Defending territory at the cost of losing personnel means losing both territory and personnel."

"He Shuo, notify Lei Jie to bring adequate equipment and reinforce Yellowstone City."

"Take this place down, and it will be our first base of operations!"