Chapter 147: The Humans of the Ling Cage World

Once a base is mobile, especially capable of flight, it naturally comes with a multitude of benefits.

For instance, it is much friendlier to outgoing convoys.

With a stationary base, vehicles face a certain level of danger traveling to their destination, and they must face the exact same peril—or perhaps an even worse situation—on the way back.

After all, it frequently happens that a convoy completes its mission only to be completely wiped out on the return journey.

A mobile base is entirely different. If conditions permit, a mobile base can deploy a convoy directly above the target location, making the round trip effortless.

Even if conditions do not allow this, it can find a relatively safe location to deploy the convoy.

Should danger arise along the return route, the base can simply relocate to a safer spot and re-route the convoy, sparing them from having to forcefully smash their way through a hazardous zone.

However, the technical difficulties and resource consumption required to make a base mobile, let alone airborne, are monumental problems.

Everything has its pros and cons, and decisions must be made based on specific circumstances.

If a flood hits the ground, or if 99 percent of the dangers reside on the surface and the survivors have no way to resolve those threats, an airborne base is undoubtedly the most suitable choice.

If you cannot afford to fight, you can at least hide.

The existence of the Lighthouse in the world of *Ling Cage* is precisely that—a haven for escaping danger.

Drawing extremely close to the Lighthouse, Zhou Shu noticed that its base indeed did not touch the ground, though it could not just "dock" anywhere at random.

It selected a massive fissure, inserting a portion of its long axis into it to further reduce the height difference between itself and the ground, before finally lowering the elevator platform.

The descent of the dozens-of-meters-wide steel platform carried an imposing momentum, with warning lights flashing incessantly to signal others to stay away.

At this point, the transport vehicles shifted to the rear, led by the armored vehicles instead.

Mocheng, the vanguard scout, reported as the platform continued its descent, "Navigation Control Room, the Dust Trackers are about to reach the designated location."

After receiving a confirmation from above, he took the lead and brought his vehicle to a halt, prompting the rest of the convoy to stop as well.

Everyone began disembarking. Zhou Shu hopped down from the roof of a vehicle, listening to the excited cheers around him.

"We're home, we're finally home."

"We made it back! Everyone off, get off!"

"Hurry up, move it."

"We made it back safe and sound. That was seriously a close call."

"Yeah, I really thought I was going to die out there."

"Did you see? It was that ground survivor who suddenly appeared. I heard from some of the Dust Trackers that he saved us."

"You only heard about it, but I saw it with my own eyes. I feel like he's even more formidable than Captain Mark."

As Zhou Shu stood nearby listening to their excited chatter and watching the descending platform, the petite, loli-like Erika ran over and said, "Zhou Shu, Captain Mark is looking for you. Come with me."

"Alright."

Although both of them were eighteen years old, Zhou Shu always felt the girl was like a little loli because her stature was so tiny—only one meter fifty-eight, whereas Zhou Shu stood at roughly one meter eighty-five.

Mark wanted Zhou Shu to stand by his side. Anyone who had witnessed Zhou Shu in battle would have no objections to this, and those who hadn't would be filled in, or at least would not raise dissenting voices against Mark's decision.

"Zhou Shu, since you are the very first ground survivor encountered by the Lighthouse in over twenty years, there will be some procedures you need to cooperate with once we board. But don't worry, I will have Jeff and Mocheng accompany you the entire time."

"Based on your combat prowess, you will likely be classified as an Upper-tier citizen. Therefore, I'd like to invite you to join the Dust Trackers. I hope you'll accept; your combat abilities are vital to us."

Hearing Mark say this, the others cast curious glances over, but Zhou Shu did not give a direct reply. Instead, he said, "I know nothing about the current situation on the Lighthouse, so I'd like to take a look around first. I will consider your invitation carefully."

Mark was a resolute and decisive man; he nodded and said, "Alright, I hope we can fight shoulder to shoulder in the future."

In truth, he knew there was a high probability Zhou Shu would be assigned to the Dust Trackers regardless, and his personal wishes would hardly be considered. According to the judgment of the Life Formula, Zhou Shu undoubtedly belonged to the high-tier combat personnel.

Yet the Dust Trackers faced the greatest dangers—dangers they were forced to confront because they had to venture to the surface to scavenge survival supplies, making individuals with high combat capability an absolute necessity.

However, he did not spell this out directly because the Lighthouse harbored unstable internal elements.

Logically speaking, the Dust Trackers were the group closest to danger and should have been equipped with the highest-tier equipment, such as Powered Exoskeletons.

In reality, however, the Dust Trackers possessed only a few exoskeletons, and they were far from the best.

Three factions on the Lighthouse possessed Powered Exoskeletons: the Dust Trackers, the City Defense Force, and the Light and Shadow Church.

Among them, the City Defense Force possessed the largest number of exoskeletons, while the Light and Shadow Church held the most advanced models overall.

What use did these organizations have for exoskeletons, you ask?

Heh. Naturally, the best equipment was kept for their own (trusted) people.

Mark was worried that the Life Formula might spit out a different outcome.

As the commander of the Dust Trackers, while his forte was fighting monsters, that did not mean he was a naive fool when dealing with people. He knew very well that the "Life Formula" was not a purely objective algorithmic data model; human interference played a part in it as well.

Therefore, he needed Mocheng and Jeff to accompany Zhou Shu.

First, to help Zhou Shu handle minor troubles.

After all, Zhou Shu currently lacked even an identification tag; he was neither an Upper-tier citizen nor a Dust-tier citizen, making it virtually impossible for him to take a single step on the Lighthouse.

Second, to signal Mark's stance to the members of the Light and Shadow Church and the City Defense Force.

After all, the Dust Trackers had secured the right of first contact. The other two factions were a step behind, and if they sent higher-ranking officials to intervene, Mark would be notified immediately so he could rush over and handle it personally.

If not for the fact that he had to attend a meeting immediately upon return and could not shadow him personally, Mark would not have let Zhou Shu out of his sight until he had successfully recruited him into the Dust Trackers.

In fact, if they didn't have to undergo the "Purification" ritual involving a decontamination spray upon returning, he would have let Erika—the person most familiar with Zhou Shu—stay by his side the entire time.

With a booming crash, the massive steel platform settled onto the ground, and the safety barrier lowered to form a ramp. Zhou Shu saw a robust old man with a head of white hair and a white beard walking down with a smile, looking at Mark as he said, "I thought I'd never see your punk face again."

Mark smiled and walked forward to meet him, replying just as warmly, "If you ever stop cursing me out, old man, I probably really wouldn't make it back."

This old man was none other than the instructor of the Dust Trackers, Elon.

Seeing that the commander and the instructor were still up to their old habits of trading jabs the moment they met, the elite Dust Trackers standing around Zhou Shu all wore smiles.

Zhou Shu couldn't help thinking that this truly was the monster-infested world of *Ling Cage*. Despite his advanced age, with completely white hair and beard, the old man's physical attributes were still above 0.95—surpassing the peak level of world champions in mainstream terrestrial athletic competitions.

And it wasn't just the old man; he had previously scanned everyone in the convoy.

Whether Upper-tier or Dust-tier, their attributes were all above 0.9, even for an elderly man among the Dust-tiers.

By Earth's athletic standards, this already qualified as world-class.

The only gap lay in the physical condition between ordinary laborers and combat personnel, especially when compared to elite fighters.

The attributes of elite combatants generally exceeded 0.95, and the core protagonist group in particular approached nearly 1.0.

Take Ran Bing, for instance. She could sprint, leap, and execute high-difficulty gymnastic maneuvers while wielding that heavy electromagnetic sniper rifle; naturally, her foundational physique far surpassed any gymnastics world champion from Earth.

As for Mark the commander, according to the animation's lore, he was originally an exceptionally powerful genetically optimized product—a clone. His attributes directly met the standards of a demon-slaying master, surpassing 1.5.

Moreover, his physique was absurdly resilient. As long as it wasn't a fatal wound, he would be bouncing around with full vitality the very next day.

Of course, he still couldn't compare to Zhou Shu, but he could certainly be considered an "esper" or superhuman.