Xiao Fan immediately took the call from the communications officer.
"Xiao Fan, there's a major incident," came An Lan's urgent voice from the broadcast.
"What happened? Tell me slowly."
"I sent a helicopter to scout the area, and Yanshan Town is completely deserted. But there were traces of a massive horde of zombies passing through. My people went into the police station and found dozens of skeletons that were gnawed by zombies. Your men are all dead."
This news startled Xiao Fan. He immediately asked, "Are you sure it was a massive horde of zombies? How many were there approximately, and where did they go?"
"Definitely a massive horde of zombies. The number is hard to estimate, but judging from the trampled ground in the wilderness, there must have been at least a hundred thousand. And my people tracked the horde heading north."
"Heading north?"
Xiao Fan pondered for a moment, feeling an ominous premonition.
If this was the same horde that wiped out the Agricultural Supplies Market, why did they rush to Yanshan Town from there?
The distance between the two places wasn't particularly close - it would have been closer for them to go to the Wholesale Market instead.
But the horde didn't do that. They intentionally went to Yanshan and killed off Wang Dajiang's group.
Did Wang Dajiang's people have anything special about them? Obviously not.
And then the horde headed north again. Could they be coming for Xiao Fan himself?
Although Xiao Fan didn't know why he would attract zombies, this deduction seemed quite plausible.
"Okay, thanks for the information, Leader An. Feel free to visit anytime."
"I will. Be careful, Xiao Fan."
After hanging up with An Lan, Xiao Fan immediately summoned the engineer Ai Yin.
"There seems to be an extremely massive horde of zombies heading north from Yanyun City. I have reason to suspect they're coming for us. Is there any way we can quickly scout outside?"
Ai Yin thought for a moment. "Commander, we could build a multi-functional infantry vehicle. An scout soldier could drive it out from the base for reconnaissance. It would essentially become an all-weather scout vehicle, recording any encountered hordes."
Xiao Fan nodded. The multi-functional infantry vehicle was indeed a game-changer.
It was a Black technology from Red Alert. Different troops entering it would produce different effects.
With a scout soldier inside, it would become an all-weather scout vehicle.
The multi-functional infantry vehicle had appeared before, but Xiao Fan hadn't produced one yet.
He opened the vehicle menu and selected to build one.
[Multi-functional Infantry Vehicle, cost 2500 gold.]
After production, he immediately summoned Shen Ruihui and assigned him this glorious yet arduous mission.
After Shen Ruihui departed, Xiao Fan looked at the system menu again.
There was still one unit type he hadn't produced - the Spy.
[Spy: Cost 800 gold. Special operative, skilled in firearms and hand-to-hand combat, mastered disguise and impersonation, fluent in multiple foreign languages. Can be used for reconnaissance, sabotage, kidnapping, infiltration operations, etc.]
After some thought, Xiao Fan selected and produced two Spies.
The Spies were a man and a woman, both in their twenties.
The male Spy was sturdy and formidable, clearly someone who could thrive in the apocalypse.
The female Spy looked pure and lovely, with a typical East Asian beauty that was very attractive.
"Spy Chen Jianglong, reporting to the Commander!"
"Spy Liu Ya, reporting to the Commander!"
Xiao Fan looked at the two Spies with satisfaction. Although they weren't the ordinary-looking type that could blend into a crowd unnoticed, each had their own uses.
In the Red Alert game, Spies could steal funds from the enemy. If they infiltrated an enemy barracks or war factory, any new units produced by the player would automatically gain a star, greatly increasing their combat effectiveness.
Of course, the Spies Xiao Fan produced now had even more uses.
After whispering some instructions to them, Xiao Fan assigned them tasks.
The two Spies saluted Xiao Fan before leaving Dawn City separately, without anyone knowing where they went.
After completing these tasks, Xiao Fan returned to his master bedroom on the third floor and fell into a deep sleep, gazing at the starry night sky.
The next morning, the radar station was completed.
Xiao Fan immediately went to the designated area for the radar station and set it up.
The radar station was located on a high point within Dawn City, but surrounded by dense forest, so the changes were not visible from outside the city.
Of all the Red Alert structures, the radar station had perhaps the smallest footprint.
It was a spherical building, mostly occupied by a constantly rotating radar inside.
There was a control computer, with the remaining space used for accommodations and a canteen.
Xiao Fan inspected the station and communicated with the person in charge for a while.
This radar could monitor an area within a 200-kilometer diameter, and the radar screen would be directly reflected on Xiao Fan's commander system page.
With this, Xiao Fan felt his vision was greatly expanded.
He could now see all zombies, mutant beasts, survivors, and more within the radar range.
He even found the old gold mining area in the Xing'an Mountain Range that Shen Ruihui had mentioned.
Not only did he find the gold mining area, but he also discovered two supply crates nearby!
"Good heavens, it spawned two crates for me at once. It's practically forcing me to go mining. Fair enough, now that the radar station is built, I should construct the ore refinery next."
He directly selected the ore refinery for construction.
The ore refinery was quite expensive at 100,000 gold.
After selecting it, Xiao Fan's remaining funds dropped from 350,000 to 40,000.
Breakdown: Power Plant 50,000, Barracks 60,000, Commander's Residence 20,000.
Radar 80,000, Ore Refinery 100,000.
Looking at the paltry 40,000 gold left, Xiao Fan realized he had to find a way to get more money.
Otherwise, he might not even have enough for the next War Factory, let alone other structures.
After selecting the ore refinery, Xiao Fan personally led a team to set out.
It wasn't because he had an adventure itch, but because the ore refinery had to be placed by him - no one else could do this task.
Besides, the gold mining area was just over 90 kilometers away, well within the radar range, so everything was under his control. Xiao Fan wasn't worried.
The entire security squad was deployed, along with two flamethrower soldiers and over ten military dogs. Xiao Fan's team drove armored vehicles and terrain vehicles, entering the Xing'an Mountains.
They would drive as far as the vehicles could go, but Xiao Fan had to obtain those two supply crates within 24 hours!