novel
| ← Ch.083 | Ch.085 → |
The two ladies were downstairs as the elevator door closed and it continued upward.
Song Lingling suddenly whispered to Xu Mei."Xu Mei, you ever feel... there's something strange... between Yan Fei and Luo Xun?"
"Strange?" Xu Mei continued to open the door after giving a puzzled look."What's strange?"
Yan Fei's personality was just like that, Song Lingling should have declared something last time they cooperated if something was off. She only found something strange just now? The reflex was too slow, speaking of odd, who of the men on 16th floor could be compared to Zhang Yi?
"Just..." Song Lingling tilted her head in thought with a frown."Something strange when they're together..." She clasped her hands with bright eyes."I just saw Yan Fei hug Luo Xun's shoulder!"
"Isn't that normal? Li Tie and the others do the same." The door opened, Xu Mei casually entered.
Compared to Yan Fei, Luo Xun and Zhang Yi, they were more familiar with Li Tie's group and had come to an understanding. They always exchanged greetings at the end of the day.
Song Lingling giggled while shutting the door. She said to Xu Mei, "That's different from Li Tie's group of silly children. The two of them seem like a pair of..."
Xu Mei stopped and looked back with a surprised face."Can't be..."
Song Lingling winked at her."What can't? This is my sixth sense! There were two students in our college class. And a couple of girls too!"
The two women looked at each other. Xu Mei sighed and frowned."It that's true, then the team has such a pair..."
If there was such a pair in the team, then they might be able to motivate other men to consider it! Gay was a boon to the two women. A friend of women! Would be the best example that could bring peace and tranquility to the base!
Luo Xun, unaware he was being treated as a woman's friend, who would never endanger her comfort was wearily dragging himself through the door.
He discussed with Yan Fei."Let's eat dinner today before we get to the other things?"
Yan Fei naturally had no arguments, they were busy for an entire day. In the canteen at dinner time they smelt the fragrance of food. Even if they were originally not hungry, they now were famished.
The two had brought back good food today, stewed chicken legs, braised pork belly, stewed beef... although there were other vegetable dishes, it was mainly meat. It was enough for two men to eat.
Almost all the frozen meat at home were consumed. There was still dried meat, ham and sausage and other things hanging from the roof but they dared not eat more. In fear that eating more now would mean not being able to eat in the future.
In fact, in addition there was some dried beef at home Luo Xun bought before the apocalypse. It was true air dried, thoroughly dried, cooked beef that could be preserved for long periods of time and only needing a little water to eat. It was almost impossible to split, but it one rubbed it, the beef would spread like a dry rope.
But because this thing took more time and Luo Xun did not have much time, he only made a small portion. At this time he was not willing to take it out and eat.
Luo Xun looked seriously at the two lunch boxes filled with meat dishes and suggested to Yan Fei."Too much meat in a meal is not good for the appetite. We should divide this in half and add some vegetables from home?"
Yan Fei smiled and nodded."Okay, I go get rice."
The two of them had not gotten any grains in order to maximize the number of dishes. The two lunch boxes were full of various dishes.
Luo Xun hurried into the kitchen with the lunch box then flew to the balcony to choose today's vegetables. Although they sold a lot of vegetables today, there was enough left at home to eat for a few days until the next wave of crops were grown.
Frying a hand torn ball of lettuce from home, the taste was better than scattered leaves. Luo Xun was not willing the sell the scattered leaves and kept them to eat on their own.
The two sat comfortably on the sofa after picking out various types of meat to eat. Of course, with a dog as a pet in the home, leaving the rest of the bones for the little one was necessary as the owner.
After eating and drinking enough, Luo Xun looked out of the window. The sky had become completely dark, one could clearly see the stars in the deep dark sky. Who knew how clearer the sky was after the apocalypse.
"... Is there any work to be done tonight?" He remembered that there seemed to be a lot of things to be done, but he could not recall the details.
Yan Fei smiled and hugged his shoulder."I remember we should get the solar panels."
In order to finish the room next door, it needed most of the exchanged solar panels. In fact, there were some unused solar panels in Luo Xun's stock because they were not consuming too much electricity each day. They were currently set aside as replacements.
"Right, but how will we do it? Hanging outside the wall will block the sun, preferable to hang on the wall..." Luo Xun hesitated since he did not know how to arrange that.
If he hung the boards out of the window, the panels would block the light shining through the windows. But if hung on the walls, he was afraid that someone would come steal the panels.
Yan Fei could not help but laugh."Isn't it fine to put them on the outer iron fence? I'll use my ability to put all the solar panels on the wall. The iron fence will block a part of the sun but it should not be a problem. Others won't able to steal them away either."
"Yes, you can use your powers to connect the panels with the steel in the wall. Who's going to be able to steal it?" Luo Xun said with muffled laughter.
If the walls were covered with iron fences, who could find out what was inside with a quick look?
"Build the iron fence a bit wider and I'm going to use it to dry stuff in the fall."
"Okay, I'll go get it."
There was still some metal material at home. Although the amount was not enough to wrap the two room's walls, there was enough for the space next to the windows. Enough to hang up the solar panels.
Although it was now dark and not convenient to work, but who was Yan Fei? After this period of operation and research, he could manipulate metal with his eyes shut and still achieve the desired shape and appearance. The dark was not a problem for him.
The remaining metal was in their windows. There was a pile of metal fences on the side, the neighbors and people walking home downstairs did not find the metal fence any larger than before. His skill was that the extra layer of metal in the fence was not noticed.
Luo Xun lined the room with solar panels, all the way to the storage battery in a corner the sun could not reach. All their solar panels could be fully utilized tomorrow and ready for storage!
They went and exchanged some more batteries, they did not have enough points to spend. In other words, going out for missions also earned points, but they went mainly to collect crystal nuclei and were not willing to redeem for points. Overall, they were still short on money.
However they were much richer than most of the people who lived in misery on base. Some people felt unconsciously melancholic.
The two tossed all night, then they drove to the barracks gate early the next morning, before the sky had even brightened. Captain Guo and the other people were with the truck parked in the small square.
Today, the batch of vegetables at home had not been picked, the next harvest would be at least a week later. Although the current cycle of the vegetables was long with low production but Luo Xun did not worry because this was only one method to get crystal nuclei.
Instead, if they were to work for a few more days, they would get an increased number of nuclei and they would be able to scrape together the required quantity. If Yan Fei could raise his ability level this time, Luo Xun was still curious about how many crystals would be needed to ascend to the next level.
Not long after the two arrived, the captain also showed up. Everyone went in the car together and it drove towards the outside wall.
"There's a crane dispatched here today. Will use the crane to place all the metal materials up, but after the wall is raised, the distance would too far from the zombies. Even if we killed the zombies, it is not easy to collect the crystals." Captain Guo frowned while scratching his head."So I proposed to patrol with the uptown troops. We will get a third of the crystal nuclei."
Can get a little amount of nuclei was good. After all, they were a team for building the wall, that was all, should not be hunting zombies at all. But who made Captain Guo very unreasonable in some aspects?
The people he worked with knew some of his quirks and flaws. Those he contacted outside the city were his old acquaintances so these things were negotiable.
Plus, the team had previously cooperated with Captain Guo's team, knew their marksmanship was very accurate. They were willing to cooperate because they were lethal and strong, otherwise who would agree to the proposal?
Luo Xun raised his hand with a question."The patrol team has no other mission?" They would come over and kill zombies, would the other's care about the work?
Captain Guo smiled and explained."Outer city teams patrol every day and also have tasks. They need to collect a certain number of crystal nuclei as a quota. After getting a dozen they get to keep the rest. I told them that when we were building the wall, we were constantly surrounded by zombies. Sure enough, they came along and agreed to cooperate."
"How much do they want per day?"
"150 a day." Captain Guo twitched with a helpless expression."This quantity is pretty good. More zombies have recently come to base. It is very hard to get away once surrounded by the monsters, so they dared not leave too far from the gate. I said we have a crane inside the wall, so if there is danger, their car could be lifted. Thus, they agreed to cooperate."
Even though the troops out on missions were not children, bombs, weapons and being surrounded by zombies was still scary. Weren't there sightings of level two zombies outside? Those guys were so strong, who would survive if the car got targeted? Since someone put forward cooperative work, they were happy to have foreign aid.
One of the soldiers asked, "Why didn't you cooperate with the team of earth ability users?"
Captain Guo smirked."They will not cooperate, those teams from wall construction never entertained the idea of killing zombies under the wall. Don't even have the courage to look out, they just use the amount of crystal nuclei given, so they have no need. But there are patrol teams out there who regularly go and check it out."
Most of the outer walls were made by earth users, many people were very scared. Earth users seemed to have no good way of dealing with zombies, naturally they wanted to quickly build walls and did not want to find zombies on the inside.
As for the soldiers responsible for the earth ability user's safety? After the walls had been built up to a certain degree, along with rationing, they were less willing to waste bullets to shoot zombies that posed no threat to themselves or their charges. Those zombies could not reach them, they were on the outside.
This was in stark contrast to the metal team and other units, they had a zombie slaying addiction. Even a few metal users sometimes hated not getting a gun to join in the fun. Especially now that their comrades now had improved marksmanship.
A small section of the outer east side was obviously much bigger than the other. That was the newly built 10 meter high wall. A line of people walked off the bus and gasped in surprise at the majestic walls. Hearing about it was not that same as seeing with one's own eyes.
There were many busy people on the other side of tall wall, the teams of earth users building walls. Their car had just arrived, the other captain quickly greeted Captain Guo. Although there were two teams responsible for this kind of work, but because the metal squad was too small, people knew each other. But once the work started, the two teams became more distant, it was too far to see the others...
A large crane was parked not far from the 10 meter wall. It had a load-bearing capacity of about 12 tons and a height of at least 25 meters. However, if zombies were evolving to become stranger and faster, maybe the walls of the base would eventually grow to 20 meters.
"Ok, everybody go and check the situation. We'll start if there are no problems. The wall already had some metal materials, if there was not enough they would transport more." Captain Guo waved to everyone and they walked on the broad staircase built by the earth ability users.
The three meter thick wall was not covered and 10 meters was not a short distance. Everyone climbed up and looked down - one with fear of heights was afraid to look down as his legs started to shiver.
"This height is good, even if there was a long distance zombie, it would not be able to hit us." Sun Shaoyang looked out and patted his chest in relief.
"Don't be careless, you're responsible for protecting the safety of the builders. Don't get attacked by strange zombies and become a snack! Those in charge of attacking zombies don't wait for them to arrive before fighting." Captain Guo noted while the other person agreed to split nuclei had not arrived yet.
Yan Fei looked down before taking a piece of metal from the side to form his metal'pen'. The slender metal continuously extended downwards until it end of the metal plate, then along the outer side until it reached the ground.
"It can be manipulated, but it's more cumbersome and you may have to adapt. How deep does this need to be?"
Building a wall was not like using building blocks. Could not only build the wall high, in order to root the wall firmly in the ground, needed to dig deep into the ground. But there was not much material to be spared in wall construction, so they may not need to dig too deep.
Captain Guo quickly pulled out a piece of paper and looked at the data."Temporarily go three meters deep."
"Three meters is enough?" The deputy could not help but ask.
Although he did not understand these things, but they knew the engineering team. A ten meter high wall only had three meters of foundation... it sounded ridiculous?
"This is the advice given by the experts, I don't know. But with the metal, the wall is a meter thick, perhaps can withstand? I guess they are afraid of wasting metal materials before seeing the results of the repairs."
Yan Fei stuck more metal to his hands, some earth at the bottom was moved."Enough for three meters. Let's try, if it's hard to measure three meters for the depth, use the wall to calculate. Make a mark at the halfway point on a metal stick, sink it into the soil and find the location." Yan Fei breathed and told his results to the other people.
With prior experience, the metal users quickly found a way. Especially Yan Fei since he had been accustomed to reinforcing his own cement walls so he was suitable for this operation. The current problem was the distance involved to form the wall, the metal users needed to work on the wall 13 meters away! This was something that not everyone could do, plus there were annoying zombies.
Captain Guo confirmed that the new team member could not operate at such a distance, so let them concentrate heightening the previous six meters. To improve his ability to and work accuracy, the remaining three people would directly deepen the bottom, laying the foundation.
Except for the four people who were responsible for the protection of ability users, the rest of them took out guns and killed zombies.
Yan Fei and the others rebuilt the fence on the ground and expanded outward. The zombies huddled around more and more, blocked the metal strips going down several times. If Yan Fei had access to Zhang Yi, he would certainly push him to blow away this group of troublemakers!
Some of the zombies used their long range abilities to spew fire, water, thunder etc. Fire and water balls were fine, after the walls were high enough that the zombies would raise too high and the attacks would fly up then fall down.
But lightning was not the same! Metal was conductive! Once those shiny little balls hit the metal strip they were working on, it was bad. The plate would give them a horrible shock!
Should they be glad that the zombies had only recently gotten abilities? Their abilities were similar to those of first level powers, so the power was not enough to shock someone to death. However their behaviour influenced everyone's work!
"Kill! Get rid of them all!" Captain Guo took out a desert eagle and shot at the nearest zombie.
The gunshot was louder than the usual weapons. A soldier who was responsible for protection almost shook his shield off. The deputy also shivered and pointed at Guo's hand."From where did you get that?"
Captain Guo shook off the recoil and hummed."I earned it from a bet. Easy to use but with strong recoil, even my arm is sore."
He knew that recoil of this weapon was strong, but because the bullets were expensive he was not willing to experiment in the barracks. Fortunately for his technical skills, he did not make a fool of himself while firing.
Following Captain Guo's lead, the others shot down a dozen zombies. Next door, the earth users building the wall whispered to each other in surprise."What are they doing?"
"The zombies are far away, why are they shooting?"
"Who knows, bullets are expensive."
"Ah, look at them and then look at us, who has so many bullets to waste?"
"What a show..."
| ← Ch. 083 | Ch. 085 → |