Cave Refuge

Through the telescope, Zachary finally spotted the traces of a fleet and immediately flew toward the direction of that fleet.

As the distance between them closed, the overall situation of the fleet gradually came into view for Zachary.

The fleet had all the vessels that were standard for an aircraft carrier formation before the natural disaster, which included an aircraft carrier, battleships, escort ships, supply ships, and various auxiliary vessels.

In addition to the vessels that should be in an aircraft carrier formation, there were also a variety of civilian ships large and small trailing behind the fleet. Additionally, at the very back of the fleet, there were a few simple floating islands being towed by cruise ships.

Those so-called floating islands were actually just large wooden boards pieced together that could float on water. There was nothing on the wooden boards to provide shelter, leaving the chimpanzees on them to be constantly exposed to the harsh sunlight.

The crew on the ships towing the floating islands didn't care at all whether the chimpanzees on the floating islands would jump into the water and escape without anyone watching over them.

After all, at this point in time, even if they ran away from the floating islands, unless they were extremely lucky to find a ship that would take them in before being attacked by aquatic creatures, their escape from the floating islands meant almost certain death.

After conducting a thorough Divine Sense scan on the fleet, Zachary found no presence of any special individuals. Even the passengers on the aircraft carrier were just ordinary people.

However, what caught Zachary's attention was that several ships had a considerably large stockpile of weapons and Ammunition.

Moreover, the Captain of the fleet was quite smart, storing the weapons and Ammunition in two separate supply ships, and these two ships were positioned on either side of the aircraft carrier.

In addition to ordinary firearms and Ammunition, there were two ships that surprisingly stored various types of Missiles. Aside from the Missiles used for aircraft bombing missions, Zachary noticed several different kinds of Intercontinental Missiles on the aircraft carrier.

Although using Intercontinental Missiles required specialized launch equipment, who was Zachary? Although he often used various Missiles, they were not used as beyond-visual-range weapons in his hands, but rather as close-range precision demolition tools. Therefore, whether or not there were launchers for those Missiles didn't really matter much to him.

Having confirmed that the ship had items he needed, Zachary unapologetically initiated what was commonly known as the "zero-cost acquisition" activity on the other party.

Still, that saying comes to mind, even if Zachary did occasionally carry out "zero-cost acquisitions" at the Zoo in Rabbit's Home, he primarily targeted either those who offended him or those assets that were ownerless (temporarily undiscovered).

Under normal circumstances, Zachary's behavior within his own local Zoo was relatively restrained.

But now that he was out and about, Zachary became uninhibited, for after all, if he adhered to moral constraints at home, and then continued to do so away from home, wouldn't that render this trip pointless?

Having made his decision, Zachary did not delay. He directly cast the Invisibility Spell and silently entered the warehouses storing various strategic resources. Then, without caring whether he could utilize those materials himself, he brazenly packed everything into his Storage space.

Zachary's brazen, locust-like behavior was quickly discovered, but by the time people noticed, Zachary had already left the massive fleet.

As Zachary departed, the members of the fleet gradually erupted into a commotion, a situation to which Zachary paid no attention.

He also didn't consider how stripping most of the large ships within that fleet of their stored supplies would affect the survivors living on those vessels and how they would continue to live on.

Although Zachary wasn't the kind of person with a selfish nature who says "After me, the flood," he was indeed a staunch believer in the importance of lineage, taking great pride in his identity as a Descendant of Grand Land.

Although Zachary had never revealed his true thoughts to outsiders before the natural disaster—due to societal pressures causing him to hide his real feelings—now, with recurrent natural disasters toppling the established norms, those old societal rules lost their binding force. As one of the era's outstanding individuals, Zachary was finally beginning to unleash his true nature.

Although Zachary didn't find any target clues during his encounter with that fleet, he still considered it a worthwhile experience since he gained something from it.

Next, Zachary pulled out his telescope again and began the search for another target.

However, luck was not on his side this time. Although some fleets were spotted, the largest ship in those fleets was merely a medium-sized vessel, not meeting the scale expected for his mission target.

So, with some reluctance, Zachary chose a new direction and continued to Control his Sword forward, using the telescope to surveil his surroundings in the air, hoping to find his next target more quickly.

After three consecutive days, whether it was because he chose the wrong direction or not, Zachary didn't suffer the misfortune of not encountering a single fleet.

But, much to his frustration, those fleets he did come across consisted mostly of civilian ships, not only small in scale but also almost devoid of large vessels.