This journey took them more than half a day. They encountered several monsters along the way, but they easily dealt with them.
It was late afternoon when they arrived at the destination.
However, the situation here was different from what Hilda had described. There was no so-called large gathering area, only some dilapidated houses and trash scattered around. At a glance, there was no sight of humans.
"This is the gathering area? Why is there nothing here?" Zhou Chen asked Hilda.
Hilda was also surprised. She stuck her head out of the window.
"Why is there no one here? Did those people move away?"
She pointed at a mottled wall with a tattered poster in the distance and said, "The place is correct. That wall is the same one I saw when I came before."
"There are large amounts of traces of vehicles moving on the ground. Maybe those people really moved away." Zhou Chen got off the jeep and began to observe his surroundings.
He walked around the area filled with trash and dilapidated houses and quickly found something through Bloodthirst.
He followed the Bloodthirst's perception and went deeper into the desolate area for more than 200 meters before arriving before a shabby shed with a rag hanging by the door.
"Is anyone inside?" Zhou Chen shouted.
"Who is it…"
A few seconds later, an old female voice came from the shed, along with soft footsteps.
"I'm just a passerby." Zhou Chen replied from outside the shed. "I wanted to ask where did the others go?"
"They have all left…"
The rag at the entrance of the shed was lifted, revealing an old woman with many wrinkles and a hunched back.
"The nearby cities have been destroyed by monsters. Everyone has migrated." The old woman muttered, her muddy eyes looking a little lifeless.
"Granny, why didn't you leave with them?" Zhou Chen thanked the old woman for her reply and asked.
"Who would want to take an old woman like me?" The old woman replied calmly.
"Sorry." Zhou Chen was a little embarrassed. He knew that he had spoken too much.
"It's okay, young man. This happens when you are old."
When the old woman saw Zhou Chen apologize to her, a smile immediately appeared on her wrinkled face.
After chatting with the old woman who seemed to have been abandoned, Zhou Chen bid farewell and returned to the jeep.
Lucy, Hilda, and the others were outside the jeep. Lucy was guarding the surroundings, while Hilda was checking the situation with her sister walking beside her. The old man was standing beside the jeep to breathe in the fresh air.
"The people here have left. There's an old woman left. I've asked her about the situation. She said that because the nearby cities were destroyed by monsters, everyone here has left." Zhou Chen walked towards his companions and relayed the information he had found.
"That makes sense." Not far away, Hilda, who was checking the surroundings, turned around and replied.
"The people in this gathering area worked for the nearby cities, such as doing labor work. If the cities are gone, they will definitely move to another place." She explained what she knew.
"What do you suggest for our next destination?" Zhou Chen was getting a headache about where to go next. The monsters in this dungeon world seemed to have rioted. Many large gathering areas had been affected, and he did not know of a suitable place to go.
"I don't know either…" Hilda immediately shook her head. "We can only go to the other gathering areas to take a look, but they are quite far away. How much fuel is left in the jeep?"
"Not much." Zhou Chen immediately replied. "It can run for another 30 kilometers at most."
"Then we will have to walk again after that…" Hilda looked helpless.
Zhou Chen looked at Lucy who was on guard nearby. "Lucy, how's the pollution here?"
When Lucy heard Zhou Chen shout, she immediately ran to his side to report.
"Captain, this is a mild pollution area. The risk of contamination is very low."
"Then what's around here? Are there any city ruins?"
Zhou Chen continued to ask Lucy about the situation. As a robot, Lucy had stored the map of this area. Although the map was a little out of date, it was not without reference value.
"There's a moderately polluted city ruins 42 kilometers to the north, a city 17 kilometers to the west which should now be ruined, and the other directions are all mild and moderately polluted wasteland." Lucy shared the information she had stored with Zhou Chen.
"Alright." Zhou Chen nodded. After some thought, he asked Lucy, "Lucy, what do you think about opening a shelter here?"
His desire to open a shelter was quite strong.
This was because there was a side mission for this Survival mission. It was to establish a shelter, and this was related to the quality of the rewards after the mission ended.
Zhou Chen originally did not care much about this, but now that he had nowhere to go and had arrived at a mildly polluted area, he got this idea.
"Captain, although the level of pollution is low, there are no resources. It's not suitable to establish a shelter." Lucy did not know why Zhou Chen suddenly had this thought, and her expression looked puzzled.
"There are indeed no resources here." Zhou Chen nodded. "But this is not a big problem. Not much is needed to support a few people."
He did not think that this was a big problem. If he was short of resources, he could search the nearby areas. Anyway, he had the Apocalyptic Resistance passive skill, so he could explore many places.
"Li, this place is really not suitable to establish a shelter. No one can survive without enough food. Let's go to the other areas." Hilda walked to Zhou Chen's side. She was also surprised to hear Zhou Chen and Lucy's conversation.
"Let's try first." Zhou Chen was indifferent to her advice.
"In any case, we won't be able to find a suitable place for a while. Let's stay here for now. I'll deal with the problem of food. I don't want to live like a vagabond anymore."
Zhou Chen did not want to continue wasting his time moving left and right.
He did not need to go to the gathering place of the natives to earn a living. He could live very well alone.. What he needed most now was to cultivate or go somewhere to kill monsters to obtain passive skills.