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| ← Ch.078 | Ch.080 → |
"Oh my God, I am so tired." He Qiankun immediately laid down in the drawn circle of the waiting area and was unwilling to move.
Li Tie and the others had no other way. They could only sit around and poke his jiggly belly.
"True, who knew that more and more zombies would come after the ones chasing after the car. We had to fight for a full two days without rest! If we could not take turns to sleep or we would not have come back alive." Li Tie also heaved a sigh.
Luo Xun smiled on the side."What? Are you not coming out next month?"
The students looked at each other and nodded vigorously."Go! It's only going out once a month anyway!"
Hearing the voices, everyone else in the circle looked at them with disdain - they would only go out of base once a month? Were they a team of scrap wood? Wouldn't they lose their nerve in a month's time?
They also saw their team unexpectedly had two young women in addition to the group of what looked like students. Beside, there was also a man who was more pleasing to the eye than a woman (it was Zhang Yi, Yan Fei wore his helmet with his white face mask). This simply... was a waste!
A person the circle next to them whistled at Xu Mei. With dirty eyes, he scanned her chest."Beauty, why follow this group of wastes? Why don't you come with me..."
The guy had not finished speaking when a big fireball flew forwards. Luckily he was able to avoid the attack but even then half the hair on his head was burned off.
The person jumped and patted his hair. A lively group of spectators laughed."Every rose has thorns when provoked. He's lucky to not have been killed by the fireball."
"Right? Last time I remember a man was completely burned in front of the base. His clothes, even his hair was all gone!"
The man had a hard time putting out the fire. After hearing those words his face turned green and white. He dared not speak to Xu Mei again.
Luo Xun asked Xu Mei curiously, "Thorn Rose?"
Xu Mei was somewhat bashful, her face turned slightly red."They coined the name."
Song Lingling grinned before explaining to Luo Xun."Xu Mei's nickname. Every time we go out to team up there will be bastards. Each time, Xu Mei would aim at people with her lethal fireballs." She looked sadly at her hands."Why do I have water powers? Even wind users like Zhang Yi are good. Water abilities have too little offensive power."
The attack ability of water powers was very bad, Even if one was hit in the face with a water ball, there was no harm. No matter how much time after the apocalypse, water users were mostly in the ranks of logistics.
Has an ability, but cannot fight... Song Lingling was very dissatisfied with this. If her abilities had lethal capabilities, what had happened before...
Luo Xun started, no wonder her future team would be called the Rose Mercenary Corps, there was a reason.
Seeing Song Lingling's face of regret, Luo Xun sent her a smile."At least it's better than us ordinary people? And who says water users cannot kill people? It's a bit of a hassle, but couldn't you create a water ball and then just put a man's head in it?"
"Eh?! Really! Luo Xun you genius!" Song Lingling excitedly hugged Luo Xun with bright eyes.
She had always felt that her ability was too weak, felt regret in heart. Now with this method, though not as lethal as Xu Mei, it at least scared the living. More deterrent to other people!
Li Tie and the other people looked at Luo Xun in horror. What was going on in this person's mind?! He could think of such a murderous way of killing! Xu Mei was already scary enough, if there was a second female on the team with interest in killing people, how would they live?!
Luo Xun did not realize he had shifted the group's world view again. He had told Song Lingling about water users he had seen in his past life. Without offensive abilities, how could she have been a member of the vicious Rose Mercenary Corps?
Similar to how one could be a member of an otaku team if they did not have a house?
Yan Fei beside him, did not feel any discomfort. He smiled and touched Luo Xun's hair as a gesture of intimacy.
For two hours, the group of people had to sit on the icy floor and felt the sun setting, the air getting colder.
Before in the car, or when they fighting zombies non-stop they were not outside. At the moment outside with the cold wind blowing, everyone just remembered - the weather had not officially warmed up. The evening wind was still very cold.
Once the two hours had passed, everyone hurried and headed towards the place they had parked the cars.
The outer walls of the four cars were covered in heavy iron plates. The hideous steel carriages - this was Yan Fei's masterpieces. The metal gathered near the bank during the two days was all affixed to the car. Strengthened the body, but also brought back a lot of supplies.
Drove the cars all the way back. After parking the car Yan Fei took off a part and placed it inside a separate elevator. It was lucky that the elevator was still running.
In one shot, they climbed up the 16th floor. The metal was spread on the corridor floor. The group all went to Li Tie's room to meet and divide the crystal nuclei.
Not counting the nuclei consumed in battle, they began to divide the remainder. According to the agreed proportions, Luo Xun and Yan Fei got nearly 400, including five level two nuclei. Yes, level two crystal nuclei.
The light cyan was wind power crystal nucleus. All the wind power crystal nuclei were given to Zhang Yi, the fire and water ones went to Xu Mei and Song Lingling respectively. They were not able to get any metal nuclei so Yan Fei got soil, speed and so on along with the level two nuclei.
"Nearly 400 pieces, 10 a day should last until the end of the month." Yan Fei looked at Zhang Yi."You want to think of ways or use points for some crystal nuclei, that's all you can do right now."
Zhang Yi responded, "All I can do." In fact, 10 a day should satisfy him, if a bit small.
If he did not work until late everyday, he would have wanted to sneak to the wall and kill zombies after work - he wanted to evolve his powers as far as possible.
As for Yan Fei, there was no fear that there would not be enough nuclei because he could also use the nuclei from the unit.
And Xu Mei's pair... they usually went out with a team. Even if they could get some things like crystal nuclei, the quantity would not compare to the amount this time! Both of them had more than 100 cores per person!
Usually when they followed a team out, one day would get a few pieces from the team. If not for the two having abilities, taking part in combat, many people would not want to give them anything.
Only having women, many of the teams willing to accept them had malicious intentions. But gave up their ideas after realizing the consequences of provoking them.
As a result, the two of them had been wandering alone for a few days and had not found a team suitable for long-term cooperation. These more than 100 nuclei, if not used frivolously, would be enough for them to live for a long time. The value of nuclei on base was currently high, even base officials were buying. The proportion was much lower than the exchange in the market.
A crystal core could only be changed for two points, so few people were willing to officially exchange. In a private exchange, a nucleus could be converted to at least five points!
After dividing the crystal nuclei and planning everyone's preparations for the next expedition, the people adjourned home.
Luo Xun dragged his tired body through the door. Puppy fluttered forward hearing noise at the door. Luo Xun bent to rub the dog's head."Okay, we came back."
Puppy warmly showed her love after a night of not seeing her owners. Although Luo Xun and Yan Fei had not left for long, but there was no harm in expressing intimacy.
Putting their things away, went to the bathroom to wash hands and face as well as disinfect, Luo Xun went to the fridge for today's dinner. Yan Fei checked around the room and confirmed that it was exactly the same as before.
"You go check the nursery, I think I heard another quail has hatched." Luo Xun went into the kitchen to warm up some fried rice while directing Yan Fei.
"Okay." Yan Fei patted the puppy's head who was running around him - the dog had grown so much that he did not have to stoop to far to reach the dog's head.
In the nursery room, a few tender little hatchlings snuggled together with quiet chirps next to the incubator. They were uneasy upon finding someone standing beside the box.
Yan Fei's involuntarily smiled, revealing a gentle look. No matter how many times he saw this it would soften his human heart.
It was a pity that quail and human aesthetic standards were different. Yan Fei's smile would usually make children feel at ease. But the quails nestled together stared at this huge and strange creature.
Yan Fei circled the room, checking there was food on the side of the box and there was sufficient clean water. With a dark face, he put on rubber gloves - to pick mushrooms. Of course the ones he picked were bright red and surrounded by unknown mist.
Someone who did not want to live anymore could try to eat one and let the onlookers see the consequences.
"How was it?" Luo Xun casually asked Yan Fei as he left the nursery room.
"A total of five quail, their feathers have just dried, likely hatched today. I'm going upstairs to burn mushrooms."
Luo Xun's mouth twitched upon hearing the second half of the response. His mushroom wood had not grown a single normal mushroom since the apocalypse had started. He wondered if he could grow even half an edible mushroom in this life? Should he just take those pieces of rotten wood, dry them out and turn it into kindling?
The second floor terrace also had a lot of crops that Luo Xun had planted a few days ago. The crops that needed to be cultivated this year were mostly on the first floor balcony or still in the nursery to be moved. The second floor was planted with some fruit and mutant crops that needed to be treated.
From what Li Tie and the others had shared, the lemons and watermelons had sprouted. The fruit plants Luo Xun had bought, strawberries, oranges, cherries, blueberries, plus some grapes had all continued growing.
These fruit seedlings were from the site Luo Xun used to buy vegetable seeds before the apocalypse. He did not intend to get too much fruit, but there were ads on the site and he conveniently bought some he was interested in. There were other things he liked to eat. He did not think of buying extravagant fruit seeds.
He placed these strange mushrooms in a basin on the ground. Yan Fei opened the window near the exhaust fan to discharge the smoke. While standing he looked down through the window. The community was still very lively at night, people were coming and going.
Although many people had moved away due to various reasons, there was still more than half that number left.
After burning the mushrooms, Yan Fei poured the ashes into the toilet and used some disinfectant before returning to the first floor.
Luo Xun had already cooked the fried rice and was sitting at the table waiting for him to come and eat dinner. The radio on the table was airing the news.
Seeing him come downstairs, Luo Xun pointed at the radio."It's talking about the zombie virus outbreak a few days ago."
Yan Fei quickly walked to the table.
In fact, the base had repeatedly aired the news from yesterday afternoon. Since there was no need for a program schedule, the more important news were naturally repeated in order for people who left base for missions to not miss out.
The findings on the radio were similar to Luo Xun's earlier guesses, but there were some differences, The radio said that those who became zombies were infected with the virus because the food and water they ate and drank was not clean.
The base's tap water did contain zombie virus, but as long as the steps were followed for thorough purification, it could be safely used. And reminded that there was a small stand on base that did not follow standard food preparation in order to save costs, which had triggered the last incident. The base would end up investigating these private stands and so on.
Luo Xun listened for a while and the two men exchanged glances."I recall that people with no background could go to a window and exchange for food."
Luo Xun nodded."At least on the day we came back, the first person to see the zombie was in the vicinity of an official exchange window."
Therefore, the current radio was still very vague. Many of the things mentioned might have to be taken with a grain of salt. They could not say that this matter and officials were not related.
A small workshop? From before the end? Who had food on base and did not keep it at home? Who was willing to exchange these life saving things for points? Could they not tell that the rice had changed, the noodles tasted worse?
Floor 15, room 1502 Xu Mei and Song Lingling sat on a thick blanket while eating biscuits, chips and water.
"Shall we go out tomorrow?"
Xu Mei's heart hesitated before answering Song Lingling's question."Still want to go out, but not tomorrow." She looked at Song Lingling."We have enough nuclei but if you want to use the nuclei to enhance strength we cannot expect to only go out once a month with. They have a stable job on base but we don't."
Song Lingling sighed but nodded."I also feel that way. It's hard to find a team, but with these crystal nuclei even if we cannot find a team once or twice there will not be any big problem."
They did not think of simply looking for a long-term job on base. The two of them needed to improve their own strength to eliminate any potential male problems. In today's world, they could rely on no one but themselves, their own strength.
The two girls shared a smile. Even on the days every month they could not be out of base, they were not wasting time. Even if when they usually go out only to meet annoyances, they might encounter teammates. They would not give up.
Early in the morning on the first day of March, Luo Xun and Yan Fei once again drove to the barracks. When they arrived, the two were startled at the gate, they had known that there was construction going on. But at the time the place they entered was in the opposite direction so they did not see it. Did not expect that after not coming to work for two days, came to back to see... a gate.
Yes, a large and tall gate. At present it looked higher than 10 meters, no wonder they were shocked.
After seeing them coming, Captain Guo waved at the pair and guided them in a certain direction."We don't have to go outside the walls today. Higher ups ordered the earth users to repair the outer wall to 10 meters wide before building the layer of metal protection. Today we have to cooperate with the building architects and earth users to repair the barrack walls."
Luo Xun was surprised to see a very tall gate building in the distance. He pointed at himself."I can also follow?"
He was just trying to take care of Yan Fei, if it was not for his superb crossbow skills, he would not have been able to get a single point.
Captain Guo smiled and patted him on the shoulder."There is no reason why you can't. Don't they need help carrying things even with powers? Not just you, even the car driver must work together with us."
The base did not have death pay, though there were also professional-level research talent, the remainder were all busy at work to get a day's wages.
Captain Guo was a very protective bastard towards the people under his command. As long as you seriously obeyed orders, he would help you fight for any welfare available. Crystal nuclei had never been deducted even once, unlike other captains who were wary of clandestine core possession checked each ability user each time. If there were extra, the bounty would go to themselves.
For that, the metal user from the second team noticed the most - when he was in the second team, their captain never sent them enough crystals to use for a day. All of them were given when needed. When they absorbed the crystal nucleus, it had to be in front of the captain in fear that the users would hide some away. After all, crystal nuclei were very expensive and valuable.
When he came to the first team, he learned that the superiors sent nuclei according to the number of people and the amount fluctuated each time. Who knew how many nuclei the second team captain had gotten?!
For Captain Guo, Luo Xun was a good worker, diligent and vigilant. He was also aware of the metal user's statuses and could make correct judgements in a timely manner. Not to mention that as long as he was there, no zombie could hurt Yan Fei. Luo Xun's crossbow never missed his targets.
So given Luo Xun's quality was comparable to the professionally trained soldiers, how could the captain let him be driven away? They also needed people to help carry things and take care of their abilities.
They went to the barrack's south gate (Luo Xun and Yan Fei usually entered from the east gate). The two people saw the team members in the distance, sure enough, even the driver was also there.
"From today onwards, our work is temporarily on this side of the barracks. For however long it took to finish the work and return to working on the outer wall." Captain Guo commanded people to their work stations.
The barracks needed not only a strong wall but also a variety of tools, shelves and other things. These things were not easy to find now, they could only have metal users make them with materials, though it was not as simple as the fence.
The superior's orders were - first make the necessary things according to the recommendations of experts, such as window frames, shelves, ladders and so on. When the outer wall base could be started, they would go back. After the work was done on the outside walls, they would rejoin barracks construction.
On the whole, there were so many places that needed work to be done that they would not have to worry about employment for a while.
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| ← Ch. 078 | Ch. 080 → |