Chapter 227: Building Our Own Base
After the general meeting, Zhuang Mingxu reminded Lu Weiyi to keep the team’s “leaders” for a smaller meeting.
“Let’s talk about building the surroundings,” Lu ‘toolman’ Weiyi said, then looked at Zhuang Mingxu.
It made him seem like a puppet, while Zhuang Mingxu looked like the mastermind behind the scenes—not even trying to hide it.
Zhuang Mingxu had grown resigned to Lu Weiyi’s passive attitude. He somewhat regretted ever suggesting they define roles within the team.
“I just want to prepare for a possibility, so we should discuss it ahead of time,” Fortunately, the team was close, so there were no surprises. Zhuang Mingxu got straight to the point. “If… I mean if, the military integrates with our team, how do we manage and divide responsibilities?”
Ning Yuan had already anticipated this when the other party signed the supply IOU. So he wasn’t surprised. Li Zhuang, as usual, didn’t comment in moments of decision. Instead, it was Lu Weiyi who reacted the strongest: “No.”
Zhuang Mingxu didn’t expect such a firm rejection and asked, “Wait… why?”
“We don’t have the supplies,” Lu Weiyi replied.
With over 700 people, they needed at least 500 kilos of flour and rice daily—and that didn’t even include other essentials. Lu Weiyi was already feeling the pinch every day. He could only look at the IOUs for comfort.
Now knowing they’d have to keep supplying them… he felt utterly defeated.
Zhuang Mingxu laughed, and Ning Yuan couldn’t help but chuckle too. Li Zhuang smiled and said, “Kid, you’re just too cute.”
Lu Weiyi swatted Li Zhuang’s teasing hand away and looked seriously at Zhuang Mingxu. “We need those supplies for our trip to the Capital and to hire a healing-type ability user.” He knew exactly which resources were critical and wouldn’t take that lightly—they were vital to the team’s future.
“I know,” Zhuang Mingxu pulled him over to sit beside him and explained, “The military only needs our help for a short time. With wood-type ability users, they can fast-grow crops. Once they get through a few months and reach harvest season, they’ll be self-sufficient.”
“This island is close to the mainland and easy to defend but hard to attack. If something unpredictable happens inland, this place might become a target. Our team can guard it, but it would require constant vigilance. With the military helping, we can delegate.”
At this point, Zhuang Mingxu emphasized, “Then you can go back to being the hands-off boss.”
The phrase “hands-off boss” immediately caught Lu Weiyi’s interest. He thought back to the nights he had to stay up on watch, and how things got easier once Li Qing’s group joined. He could already taste the laid-back days returning…
Lu Weiyi felt a shameful temptation.
“It’ll just be a short period of pressure in exchange for years of ease,” Zhuang Mingxu lowered his voice and painted a tempting picture, “Besides, I’ve calculated our supplies — we’re actually not that tight.” After all, they’d collected countless supplies from various teams over the past six months. With only a dozen people, the consumption wasn’t much. Supporting a few hundred for a few months wouldn’t be a problem.
“Alright,” Lu Weiyi agreed without hesitation, then reminded him, “Keep enough supplies for your surgery.”
“Got it.” Having convinced the key person, Zhuang Mingxu turned back to the earlier topic. “What do you all think?”
“Li Qing’s team can be merged directly into Team Two. They’re already a complete team, and they’re familiar with each other’s cooperation patterns. No need to split them up,” Ning Yuan suggested after some thought. “The other powered individuals can be grouped by ability type into different squads, and we’ll assign people to manage them. Ordinary people will be a separate category.”
In the five-person meeting, Lu Weiyi habitually left everything to others. Li Zhuang was just there to listen and wouldn’t speak unless it was critical. Xu Sa kept looking around, but it was really just Zhuang Mingxu and Ning Yuan planning enthusiastically. They were even drawing up base security plans and had already divided the five islands into zones.
“Hey, let me interrupt for a second,” Xu Sa felt like they were getting a bit carried away. “Have you thought about why they even want to merge with us?”
“They can’t fight,” Ning Yuan said bluntly. “Relying on them alone to defend the island is unrealistic. They lack combat strength and have no outside support. It’s easy to imagine the outcome. That’s also why our team values Lu Xi’s research so much — we’re few in number but strong. Even so, we’re planning for physical reinforcements. Li Qing’s group has nothing and can’t pull that off.”
“Also, their first priority is survival. Even if they have wood-type abilities to rapidly grow food nonstop, they can’t support over 700 people daily.”
“They just want to borrow from us to get through this,” Xu Sa said.
“They already have — for several days.”
“Would you lend them supplies for months?” Ning Yuan chuckled. “Saying it’s ‘borrowing’ is just saving face. If Li Qing really had boundaries, he wouldn’t even ask for a few months’ worth. If he does, then there’s no need to work with them.”
Xu Sa thought about it, nodded, and motioned for them to continue.
The discussion went on until Lu Weiyi started dozing off. Finally, they wrapped up their planning. Zhuang Mingxu even assigned “homework” — to consider how to connect to the mainland with something drivable.
Three kilometers wasn’t far for a speedboat, but a bridge seemed outrageous.
Xu Sa felt like he was back in school being tormented by homework.
*
The next day, everyone started surveying the islands one by one.
Upon arriving at the largest island, they realized it wasn’t a single landmass but a jumbled cluster of squeezed-together sections. Asphalt roads were warped and tangled, houses were unevenly stacked, and the ground was rough — even walking was difficult.
Some people had died in their sleep, some left only half a body, and others had turned into zombies and now wandered the area.
This looked like the aftermath of an earthquake.
After surveying all the islands, Lu Weiyi informed Li Qing’s group of their decision to stay. “Talk it over. If you don’t agree, we can take you with us to the Capital later.”
That morning, Li Qing’s team held a meeting. Xi Shi and a few others began cooking preparations again. While Zhuang Mingxu was planning the island layout with others, Lu Weiyi was digging an underground chamber with three earth-type ability users.
After hearing what he was doing, Li Zhuang immediately recalled the mysterious sinkhole at the weapons R&D center. Realizing the implication, he couldn’t help but laugh, “Kid, you’re something else…” Even “pluck the feathers off a flying goose” wasn’t enough to describe it.
Lu Weiyi was confused.
Li Zhuang just waved it off and told him to carry on.
“Psycho,” Lu Weiyi muttered, then started gesturing size dimensions to the others.
“If you dig out such a large area at once, it’s easy to cause a collapse,” Wu Yue said directly after hearing his plan.
“My power can support it for half a minute,” Li Zhuang said. At that, Lu Weiyi knew he’d figured out the plan.
After explaining to the other two, the four of them discussed and finalized the location for the underground room.
Before they started, Lu Weiyi handed each of them a good number of crystal cores as temporary energy reserves.
Wu Yue and Xiong Jie compressed the soil for the underground area and expanded the space, while Li Zhuang used his power to support the ceiling without any physical pillars.
“Not enough, speed up!” Li Zhuang’s face was turning red with bulging veins. Lu Weiyi urged them.
The other two weren’t doing much better either.
If the operation didn’t involve private supplies, it would’ve been easier to bring in more earth-types. But since it was vital to their survival, they couldn’t afford carelessness.
“Ah—!” With a roar, Xiong Jie suddenly increased the compression speed. Wu Yue followed up by pushing his power to the limit. The underground area expanded rapidly, and Li Zhuang’s burden grew heavier, his face pale.
Lu Weiyi quickly transferred the underground chamber into the space. As Li Zhuang’s power gave out, gravity naturally filled the unsupported gaps.
After confirming everything was fine, Lu Weiyi let out a breath and handed crystal cores to the three exhausted ability users.
Then he called out to the two lounging under the pavilion, “Antonio, come help.”
“I’m a patient,” Antonio replied, full of energy.
“Dean—”
Before Lu Weiyi could finish, Antonio got up and brought Dean over. “I’ll do it.”
The three nearby immediately burst out laughing.
“There’s a metal underground chamber down there,” Lu Weiyi said, pointing to the elevator entrance corresponding to an inconspicuous room. “You either separate the circuits in the metal or connect them all. It has iris and keycard dual authentication. Find someone suitable to help.”
“…” Antonio was silent for a while. “Lu, have I ever told you I’m just an uneducated bodyguard?”
“Even a beggar’s gotta make quota,” Lu Weiyi tried to pat his shoulder, realized he had to stand on tiptoe to reach, gave up, and added as he walked away, “This concerns Dean’s snack freedom.”
The three people absorbing the crystal cores looked over and saw Antonio curled up with his legs drawn in, shamelessly snuggling against Dean’s shoulder. They all burst out laughing. Lu Weiyi glanced back and couldn’t help but smile lightly.
*
Later that afternoon, Li Qing came to find Lu Weiyi with several representatives.
The villa had already been occupied. Everyone had been busy all morning, tidying up the villa and its courtyard so thoroughly that it no longer looked desolate at all.
Li Qing sat at the edge of the sofa, pulling Lin Yimu close and whispering to him, his upturned eyes sparkling like a puppy begging for attention.
Lin Yimu seemed to be in a good mood. He listened patiently and then playfully smacked Li Qing on the back of the head. Li Qing clutched the spot while both of them laughed together.
Lu Weiyi had never been treated like that. Lin Yimu always cared for him like an elder to a junior. Watching them now only emphasized their close bond.
Lu Weiyi felt a twinge of jealousy and wanted to go over and interrupt them but was stopped by Zhuang Mingxu, who tugged him toward the front of the sofa.
Lei Jun, Li Yan, and several other representatives were already seated there.
There was nothing to drink in the villa except a few bottles of wine. Xi Shi poured hot water and gave everyone a cup. “All we have is hot water. Please make do.”
Besides his initial curiosity, Xi Shi had quickly taken over management of the villa. In just one morning, he had familiarized himself with every nook and cranny and had even reorganized the kitchen to be more suitable for cooking.
