Chapter 240: The First Batch of Refugees
Before the horn sounded, the soldiers on duty at the boat channel poked their heads out, with snipers appearing in the corners.
“It’s us,” Ning Yuan said.
“Captain Ning,” a guard called, opening the channel for vehicles to enter. The crowd behind watched but no one stepped forward.
The route was smooth back to home. Several squad leaders were present, and Zhuang Mingxu was discussing what to do with these people.
Zhuang Ai Yi wandered around the living room and, seeing Lu Weiyi, suddenly ran over. “Daddy, Ai Yi misses you so much!”
“Really?” Lu Weiyi picked the child up and gently asked, “Where do you miss me?”
“My mouth misses you,” Zhuang Ai Yi said, giving Lu Weiyi a kiss on the cheek. The soft, adorable kid melted Lu Weiyi’s heart. At the start of his new life, he would never have imagined he’d have a child to care about.
Lu Weiyi lifted him high a few times.
“Ai Yi, no more playing now. Daddy just finished working and is very tired,” Zhuang Mingxu, now developing a strict father demeanor, said.
“Okay,” Zhuang Ai Yi obediently replied. “Then Daddy, raise me up high again tomorrow.”
“Alright.” Lu Weiyi put him down and held his hand as they went into the hall.
The squad leaders gathered again, like a small informal meeting.
“You went and came back fast enough. Mission complete?” Li Qing asked, eyes bright.
Lu Weiyi nodded slightly. Everyone in the hall cheered.
“Really ten tons?” Lei Jun leaned in, unbelieving.
“No, lots lost, but the haul’s good,” Lu Weiyi didn’t give details. Saying it was “good” was rare praise.
Lu Weiyi shook hands gently with Zhuang Mingxu, and the two embraced lightly. Xu Sa kicked a stool over and sat beside Zhuang Mingxu’s wheelchair.
Antonio and Dean naturally drifted to the kitchen to ask Xi Shi for something to eat. Others sprawled like pancakes on the sofa.
“The people outside…” Ning Yuan asked proactively.
“They have nowhere to go and want to join us. Luckily, our base was planning to recruit,” Li Qing took on the matter. “I’ll discuss it with everyone.”
“I agree we should let them in. Our base needs ordinary people to operate; it’s too hard for just our squad members to do everything,” Zhuang Mingxu also agreed. He guessed that without Lu Weiyi around, bypassing him as the squad leader to make decisions directly might undermine his authority, so they had been waiting for his return.
“They come in eating, drinking, and using the restroom—managing all that is very troublesome,” Ning Yuan spoke frankly. “Military personnel follow orders without question, but managing civilians is a whole different matter. We don’t have many people with management experience, and we’re short on manpower.”
“So let them manage themselves,” Zhuang Mingxu said mysteriously, then took out a planning sheet and handed it to Lu Weiyi.
From the beginning, Zhuang Mingxu planned to recruit residents and had already made the plan, divided into two parts.
One part covered cases like these small groups seeking refuge. The base would allocate specific areas for residents to live. Each year, they would pay a certain amount of crystal cores as land-use fees and build houses according to the base’s plans. The managers would still be their own groups, and the rest of life would be self-managed.
Lu Weiyi flipped through the document and saw it even detailed plans for individual refugees.
He didn’t know when it was written—such foresight was admirable.
After reading, Lu Weiyi passed it to others.
“These people outside don’t have supplies; they can’t afford the fees,” Ning Yuan bluntly said.
“Then they offset it with labor,” Zhuang Mingxu said. “Whether they have powers or not, everyone has to find work for themselves. From what Li Qing said, most are ordinary people. If ordinary people don’t want to go out, they must find jobs to support themselves. Our base’s farming areas, miscellaneous work—there’s a lot of need for labor everywhere. We also support entrepreneurship and diversified development.”
“Have you counted how many people there are?” Ning Yuan asked.
Li Qing handed over a handwritten paper, densely filled with names, ages, and even power types. “Total 896 people, 92 powered individuals—mostly wood, earth, and water types. Levels are generally C-rank. Chen Xing is metal type, and there are two fire types.”
Just absorbing crystal cores alone, those wood, water, and earth types should almost be A-rank now, but these people were still C-rank.
Lu Weiyi twitched at the corner of his mouth.
The plan thoughtfully covered all aspects. Agreeing had little downside. Everyone’s eyes focused on Lu Weiyi.
“I don’t mind. As long as you agree,” Lu Weiyi said, then added, “All new residents live on the North Island. No private landing on other islands. Also, people in the squad can date, but should be clear about secrecy rules—no bringing people into private territory.”
“So are we still going to the Capital?” Xu Sa’s gaze shifted between Lu Weiyi and Zhuang Mingxu.
Lu Weiyi didn’t respond; he no longer wanted to comment. He felt Zhuang Mingxu was mixing up priorities.
“At most three days,” Zhuang Mingxu waved the plan. “It’s all set. Just arrange it. Xiao Yi, arrange for water-powered people to go fishing in batches and put the catch into storage space. When we get to the Capital, we can sell it.”
When Lu Weiyi heard “sell for money,” he gave a thumbs-up and smiled.
*
The COFCO people were settled very quickly.
Based on the living area Zhuang Mingxu offered, they chose the smallest and cheapest yearly rent.
Since they had no crystal cores to pay rent, they signed IOUs to repay with labor.
“All islands and surrounding waters belong to the base. No private approach, no private fishing, no fishing within one kilometer offshore. You all should read these rules,” Zhuang Mingxu handed a cooperation code to Chen Xiang. “Including limits on squad outings and crystal core payments—everything clearly regulated. All conditions in the code must be obeyed, or you’ll be expelled. Don’t test us.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ll keep everyone in line,” Chen Xiang looked around with the base people. The surrounding area was undeveloped and desolate but visibly free of zombie threats.
For people only wanting a peaceful life, it was harsh, but surviving was simple.
While Zhuang Mingxu was busy settling residents, Lu Weiyi went to the basement he hadn’t visited in a long time.
He gave some newly collected grain to the base people for planting, and the rest, together with the grain warehouses, he placed on the South Island supplies area. Nearby, wood-powered individuals had grown huge trees around to block outside views. Inside were containers and warehouses, and now more than a dozen grain warehouses had been added.
There were no guards, so it wasn’t very safe. Lu Weiyi thought about protection measures. Even a few hundred meters away, if something got stolen, they might not know.
In the basement, Lu Xi was working tirelessly. According to Lu Xi, after they left, the others only came out once in a few days.
“Knock knock knock”—the sound echoed through the empty basement. Lu Weiyi saw only a few indicator lights on nearby and thought he must get some fuel soon; this pitch-black basement felt creepy.
“Come in,” Lu Xi’s muffled voice came through the heavy door.
“Xiao Xi,” Lu Weiyi pushed open the door and saw Lu Xi wearing anti-shock goggles and a white lab coat too long, dragging to his feet, looking quite serious.
“Brother?” Lu Xi turned, a flash of joy on his face. “Wait a moment, I’ll be done soon.”
He turned back to the equipment they had been working on for several minutes, took out something about half a palm long from the test chamber, and sighed deeply. “Look, my latest invention—the fire-type converter. Let’s go test it.”
“…” Lu Weiyi wanted to say he just came to see him, but seeing Lu Xi so excited, pushing him toward the elevator, he swallowed his words silently.
“The previous ones Li Zhuang and Antonio tested had problems. I’ve been improving it recently. This is the third generation. I’m confident it’ll work,” Lu Xi said confidently.
The crescent-shaped middle island had a villa in the center. In front was the main gate beach; the backyard jungle led straight to the coast.
Lu Xi pulled Lu Weiyi to the shore, attached the converter to a special gun, and handed it to Lu Weiyi. “The moment to witness history has come.”
“Any crystal core will do, shoot it into the water,” he said.
Lu Weiyi casually took out a common, non-elemental crystal core, loaded it into the gun, and fired a straightforward shot into the water with a “bang.” It was an ordinary shot, but moments later, a burst of fire exploded on the water’s surface, scattering pieces of various aquatic animals everywhere.
Lu Weiyi quickly used his mental power to shield the two of them, but he still caught the faint scent of cooked meat in the air.
Lu Xi took the pistol, looked at it, then hopped around excitedly, “It worked, right? It worked, right?”
“I really am a pretty ordinary little genius,” Lu Xi joked.
The gun didn’t melt like before; it just felt a bit hot to the touch.
“Not bad,” Lu Weiyi praised.
“I already have an idea. I believe I’ll be able to make converters for other elemental types soon,” Lu Xi said happily.
“Why focus on fire specifically?” Lu Weiyi took out the crystal core; it seemed like the energy wasn’t fully depleted.
“Brother Mingxu said the fire type has great power, and you need it more now,” Lu Xi replied.
Lu Weiyi patted the boy’s head. “You can speed up the development. If you need anything, I’ll have people prepare it. When we leave, bring some with us and leave some for the base.” At least with weapons, Lu Weiyi wouldn’t have to worry too much about the base’s defense.
“Are we going back?” Lu Xi asked.
“Yes, get your things ready over the next few days,” Lu Weiyi said, then took out 5,000 crystal cores from space. “This is your reward for the development.”
Lu Xi’s face lit up, he took the cores and looked at them, grinning from ear to ear. “So many!”
“Yes, there will be more in the future.” Lu Weiyi tidied the boy’s hair that had been tousled by the sea breeze. “Go rest a bit—you’re young but already have dark circles under your eyes.”
Lu Xi nodded and hugged the pile of crystal cores as he walked home. Along the way, he gave some to Zhuang Ai Yi who was playing, then to his friend Dean. Soon, the pack of a hundred cores was all gone.
