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Bonus Chapter! Thanks to all those who donated Ko-fis and enjoy!
"Bomb, bomb!"
Near the Hongjong district, several loud explosions went off. The strong wind and a huge fire blew a hole into the 14th floor. People who saw and heard the noise quietly huddled in safer areas. On one hand gossiping and on the other hand, watching the action.
A loud explosion rang out and there were sounds of abilities being used from time to time. People obviously guessed that ability users were fighting, the chaos lasted about half an hour before it stopped. After ten minutes, a few cars left the neighborhood. The crowd was not sure whether the cars had anything to do with what had happened so they watched from afar.
Half an hour after the cars left the area, the crowd confirmed there was no movement before approaching the building.
In addition to the missing wall on the 16th floor, there was a large hole blasted through the 14th floor. The edges of the hole were charred black with a plume of smoke trailing upwards. Apparently the fight had not lasted long.
A man who saw the collapse suddenly pointed and shouted, "The metal in that house is gone!"
Last month, there was a rumor that the two top floors of the building were filled with food, cloth and other goods.
Some people said there were hidden crystal cores, gasoline and other materials in those homes. The more rumors spread, the more people came to watch and try their luck. Some had tried to get in from the roof and window, but they were blocked by the heavy metal. It was not until a room on the 14th floor was changed that a small group of men managed to open a hole and enter the 15th floor.
More than one team knew so they reluctantly came in together but they only saw a layer of empty rooms with nothing inside.
There people were not willing to give up and they climbed further. Unfortunately they did not find anything but then found a corner that they could not enter. Even if they forced open the door, there was a metal plate behind it. They broke down the walls but there were still thick metal plates blocking their way.
There must be treasure hidden behind the unopened room! It was regrettable that no one could get past the metal, who knew how thick the plates were?
There were metal users on base so some people with pull in the army contacted the head of the department. But when they heard about opening a room blocked with thick metal walls, they immediately refused. They were not fools, outsiders may not know but they could guess who had created the walls.
The metal users also had rapport with each other, what kind of mood would it be if one struggled to hide something only for a colleague to open it? What was put in their house was theirs, these people broke into someone's home but also wanted to have the military help them, was this not wishful thinking?
Because it was just a middleman with the message, the military team did not say anything and just refused. The invaders were not willing to give up, since it seemed like no one was coming back they stayed and tried to break down the walls. Some of the other teams came to try their luck and attacked the metal plates but left once they saw that they could not open the inner wall.
Then today, the owners came back...
At the material exchange office, Luo Xun exchanged their cap limit of gasoline and salt according to the limit allotted to each team every month. After they went to the mission hall and registered to disband their team.
Since the release of the new rules, teams had to disband each day, especially at the beginning of the month. As the base released increasingly difficult tasks that few teams could support. So numerous teams were forced to disband each time.
Luo Xun bent over to fill out the application form, the rest of the angry team complained."Really, since when were we soft persimmons? Actually making ahole in someone else's floor to steal things! They have no shame!"
"Yeah, I guess there were others, but unfortunately..."
"Please, didn't you blow them up with the wall? Even if we wanted to we would not be able to extract any information!"
Zhang Yi looked at the complaining Li Tie, who shivered, "I want to ask, casually breaking into a building - I don't think that any of them were innocent."
Song Lingling helplessly shrugged, "Didn't even ask, even if we did, we might not be able to find anything." She was correct, they had not seen it but they could remember the chaos. Every time someone's home was robbed, passersby would flock over until everything was snapped up.
Although their side did not lose anything, since someone came to break in and even bombarded the wall, it would certainly attract people's attention who would join in a heartbeat. More likely those people came by foot so it was unlikely for them to find the troublemakers even if they asked around.
Just as the team reached the peak of teeth grinding resentment, Luo Xun came back."The application form went through, I will call the teams who wanted to buy food, once it is sold we will go." He was completely not in the mood to stay on base. He even felt uncomfortable the longer he had to stay.
Today had been a harsh wake up, when had this prior last home of hope become so disgusting?
In his last life... in his last life...
Luo Xun had not been able to remember a similar case in his past life, perhaps due to their contact with different circles. Although there were no shortage of people attempting robbery, but such violent destruction when no one was at home?
Was it his fault? If he had not let Yan Fei no strictly seal the house, would their home be completely gone? No, even then they would be furious to find an empty house after their walls were broken down.
In the apocalypse, people were at their base in self-insurance mode, but Luo Xun did not expect this much malice; reality had given him a big slap.
The previous phone contact sent their own text messages with desire to buy vegetables. After setting a trading place the team divided in two. Luo Xun and Yan Fei would go to sell vegetables together while the other would go the market and see if there was anything to buy. Then they would go directly back to their small base.
After Luo Xun had finished selling, Li Tie also finished shopping. The group of people drove their car full of supplies into the sunset. The sky was dark when they opened the door.
Now that they had completely abandoned the rooms in the southwest base, the base would take back the housing since Luo Xun's team had been disbanded. Now even if they came to base, they could not'go home'. If they had to spend the night, they would have to sleep in the car. Unfortunately there was not a lot of space since it was filled with metal and supplies.
If they really wanted to live comfortably at night, it would be better to simply leave base, find a place outside with metal and make a temporary house. It was ironic that peace of mind comes from being outside base instead of inside.
In the dark of night, under the twinkling stars, the team camped around four hours away from base.
The busy team arranged a circle of metal sofas around the fire. Han Li looked at his silent team leader and companions before whispering, "Luo Xun, will ever return to the A-city base?"
"Will return." Although Luo Xun's heart was heavy, he explained to the group, "We can grow vegetables and grains but there are many things that are hard to get outside of base, or even unattainable. But we won't live on base, we'll do as we did today, come in early morning, sell what we need. Then buy things from the exchange office or market."
After speaking he looked at everyone with a smile."We can use the truck and set up a place for people to rest. We can temporarily stay there if we need to stay on base for the night. Of course if we have enough time, we would get out early and camp outside like today."
It was a relief to hear Luo Xun say that. It was good that he could still think normally and make decisions, it was a relief.
| ← Ch. 200 | Ch. 202 → |