Chapter 201: Weapon Research
“Yes, I saw him looking like he’s doing very well. Could it be that his father’s people rescued him? Might he come to take revenge on us?” He Jun asked anxiously.
“Lu Xi?” Liu Mo, who had jade space given by her father and had awakened water abilities herself after the apocalypse, lived a comfortable life and had long forgotten Lu Xi’s existence. She only remembered after thinking for a moment.
“The entire base is my father’s now. Even if they want to do something, they’d have to see if they can. The principle that ‘a strong dragon won’t oppress a local snake’ isn’t unknown to him.”
“His father is a high-ranking military officer; civilians don’t fight officials,” He Jun remained uneasy.
Liu Mo looked down on his cowardly behavior—acting bold when planning evil but scared afterwards—and sneered, “In these times, where are officials? My family is the authority here, and here I am the law.”
Her tone was arrogant, clearly spoiled. “If he doesn’t come near, we’ll act like nothing happened. If he comes looking for trouble, we’ll send him away again. By the way, my good Fourth Brother likes pretty ones. Maybe we can trade a jade space from him. Dad gave him jade said to have opened two spaces, but I haven’t seen him use them.”
He Jun relaxed a little hearing her confident words. After chatting a bit more, he went off to help tidy up. Only Jing Yang and Liu Mo were left at home.
Liu Mo leaned against Jing Yang. Her fingers, painted red, lazily traced across his chest. “What are you thinking about? You’ve been quiet.”
“I’m thinking…” Jing Yang paused, “I remember Zhang Qian said Lu Xi is a genius in weapon manufacturing.”
Zhang Qian was another member of their group, an ordinary person who now worked as a researcher in the base’s lab, specializing in weapons manufacturing. Liu Dali hadn’t advanced to crystal core weapons but had her study cannons and other existing weaponry.
“Mm,” Liu Mo nodded.
“A while back Zhang Qian said crystal cores contain huge amounts of energy. If it can be extracted, maybe crystal core weapons can be developed. I asked her to research this secretly, but results were minimal. If we can get Lu Xi here, maybe we can make significant progress,” Jing Yang said, stroking Liu Mo’s body while his mind worked.
“With the current situation, crystal cores are easier to get than other energy sources. If we have crystal core weapons, we won’t have to fear your big brother.”
“But… about what we did back then, do you think he’d willingly come?” Liu Mo asked.
“That was He Jun’s idea. At worst, we throw He Jun out and say we didn’t know. Then we use benefits to lure his squad to abandon Lu Xi. Two-pronged approach. A trapped Lu Xi wouldn’t have choices,” Jing Yang said casually, implying they’d done plenty of bad deeds.
“If that doesn’t work, we’ll have your Fourth Brother accidentally meet Lu Xi. Lu Xi is young and good-looking; he’ll definitely attract his attention. While he’s being bothered, we’ll step in and help. With a mix of reward and punishment, we’ll make him come willingly.”
“Alright. What should we do now? Should we go find him?” Liu Mo asked.
“No,” Jing Yang wrapped an arm around her and stroked his chin. “I’ll first find someone to gather info on their situation and ask about Lu Xi’s abilities and role in the squad—know our enemy.”
While they were gathering info, Liu Bei’s side was also investigating them. But their focuses differed—one on Lu Xi, the other on Lu Weiyi. Both just arrived and knew few people, so the information they got was basically nothing.
After Ning Yuan and Xu Sa’s group entered the base, they didn’t see Liu Dong. He Kai hosted them. When Liu Dong found out both sides were inquiring about this team, he immediately arranged for someone to subtly interrogate while calling He Kai over.
“Brother Dong,” He Kai looked at the bespectacled, refined man. “It’s late—what’s up?”
“Not a big deal. Both Liu Bei and Liu Mo want to know about the new squad, so I got curious,” Liu Dong said calmly, wearing a bracelet of beads that gave off a commanding aura.
He Kai raised an eyebrow. “Liu Bei took a liking to someone in the squad this afternoon—probably because of that. As for Liu Mo, I’m not sure.”
“I had someone ask around. They mainly want to know about a young kid named Lu Xi. Jing Yang doesn’t act without benefit. Do you know who he is?” Liu Dong asked.
He Kai shook his head. “Only four came, two very slick ones. We had a meal together, but I didn’t learn anything.”
He Kai sighed inwardly. “They want to trade supplies—regular meat, live poultry, oil, salt, sauces, and also jade… jade without space is fine, as long as it’s good quality.”
“Jade,” Liu Mo murmured, twisting the beads on her wrist, then asked after a moment, “How many spaces does their team have?”
“One,” He Kai replied. He had been curious after hearing they wanted to trade but didn’t bring any supplies. “It’s the one Liu Bei liked. According to them, he’s their captain.”
He Kai looked like he didn’t know how to describe it, pursed his lips, and said, “He really doesn’t seem like it at all, more like a spoiled young master, weak in spirit. I suspect they’re lying.”
“If that’s the case, have fourth brother’s people probe a bit first. You send someone to keep an eye on them,” Liu Dong said. “As for the stuff they want to trade… oil, salt, sauces, and vinegar are non-renewable in the short term, so ignore those. What about the meat?”
“Yes. Their captain has a three-year-old son, an ordinary human, who needs nutrition—meat and eggs and such. I promised to trade with them,” He Kai said, thinking the kid was lucky to be reincarnated. Many children in the refugee zones starve to death, yet this one could even ask specifically for nutritious food. “They’re trading mutant meat, one pound for one pound.” Though mutant animals had become more common recently, with the recent cold snap their squad’s stock had run out, and He Kai was tempted.
Liu Dong nodded.
“Then the jade… Brother Dong, do we trade? Their offer is good, and I see a lot of useless stuff under our command.” Jade might have space properties, and since they were collecting a lot, He Kai was worried there might be uses unknown to them. So he didn’t agree outright.
Liu Dong considered this and shook his head. “We’re not short on it. No need to move it for now. You can help them advertise—maybe someone else wants to trade.”
His father was a philanderer; the mothers of his several children were not the same, but he wasn’t biased toward any of his kids. Since discovering jade might have space properties, he gathered all the jade in the family, divided it into portions, and let everyone choose. Whether it had space or not was luck.
So every team had plenty of jade. If it was useful and they traded it away, they’d lose some, but if they found out later it had uses, they’d be the winners. If it wasn’t useful, they wouldn’t lose resources either.
“That’s what I thought. I’ve already contacted Liu Xi, Liu Nan, Liu Bei, and Liu Mo’s people. I imagine they’re debating whether to trade tonight,” He Kai said with a wicked smile.
*
When Liu Bei’s people arrived, it was exactly midnight. Many in the base knew what was happening and quietly watched, curious.
The night guard Lu Weiyi immediately detained the newcomers, tied up the three ability users, and secretly took them to a tent, handing them over to Wu Yue for interrogation.
Two hours later, Wu Yue wiped blood from his hands and emerged into the dark, sitting beside Lu Weiyi. “Liu Bei’s men—or more accurately, people Liu Dali sent to protect Liu Bei—one earth ability, one water, one metal.”
“Metal?” Lu Weiyi was surprised. People with metal abilities weren’t weak; sending one as a runner seemed like overkill.
“Maybe they really want to get you, no matter what,” Wu Yue shrugged. “They’re not even B-level; I had to put in some effort just now.”
“Just as we suspected. Liu Dali has a lot of jade, distributed evenly among his children. He himself holds some supplies and a squad of ability users—not for gathering supplies, but to protect himself. That metal ability user was one of his. This time he took Liu Bei’s bribe and ran the errand for him.” But the metal user died.
Wu Yue sighed. “They officially have twenty-two jade spaces, mostly in the hands of Liu family members. Ordinary people without abilities definitely have one space. That number surprised me.”
But Lu Weiyi thought that if he got those twenty-plus spaces, he might be able to repair his own space, and he was tempted…
“Lu Xi asked me to find out about them during the day, so I asked. Liu Mo is Liu Dali’s youngest daughter, a water-type ability user with space. She manages the Fourth Squad, Jing Yang is her boyfriend and the actual leader, a B-level fire ability user. There’s also He Jun, an earth-type about to upgrade. Another ordinary person named Zhang Qian works in the base’s weapons research center under Liu Dali, specializing in weapons. Also, Jing Yang’s group apparently saw Lu Xi. They’re asking about him tonight, but their purpose is unclear.”
“What direction is their weapon research? Any results?” Lu Weiyi asked.
“They claim to be working on heavy weapons like cannons and rocket launchers, but it’s really white phosphorus grenades, shotguns, and hollow-point bullets.” Wu Yue frowned, seeming very serious.
Lu Weiyi wasn’t well-versed in weapons and looked puzzled.
Wu Yue explained, “These are all internationally banned weapons because of their extreme lethality, and… they’re meant for living targets.”
If it was aimed at zombies, that might be understandable, but aimed at living humans—that’s extreme.
