Chapter 364: Training the Team
After everyone had calmed down, Lu Weiyi finally shared Zhuang Mingxu’s plan with the group.
“So you’re saying, this time we’re going to cover the entire religious district and surrounding areas? The goal is to gather supplies? Do we have any specific targets? We can’t just grab everything we see — we might not even be able to use it,” Xu Sa asked.
“We do grab everything we see. Anything that looks remotely useful should be taken. Even if we don’t need it now, we might need it later. We can store it for the future. Our team has a rare advantage — spatial abilities — and we should make good use of it,” Zhuang Mingxu said, placing a pre-drawn resource distribution map on the table.
“This is what I had people gather — a map of resource locations from before the apocalypse. Some of the positions might have shifted, but the supplies should still be there. Go over it carefully and let me know if you have any questions.”
“This is a factory? Factory machinery? Without electricity, those machines won’t run. Isn’t this kind of a waste of effort?” Wu Yue frowned at the food processing and machinery manufacturing plants marked in red on the map, feeling that Zhuang Mingxu was thinking too far ahead. Given the current state of their base, it would take five or six years before they could use such things. With the current situation, it might be better to just focus on hunting zombies.
“If we can’t use the machines, we can still use the metal parts. After reassembly, they might be useful for weapons,” Zhuang Mingxu explained. “We still need to strengthen the base’s defenses.”
“I asked some survivors who stayed in Pingjin City last year. They confirmed that the coastal waters froze during last winter, which is a huge security risk for our base. So we’re bound to invest more in weapons manufacturing, even if we have to divert a significant amount of our existing resources toward that,” Zhuang Mingxu’s words momentarily froze the once cheerful atmosphere in the living room. After passing around the map he drew, no one raised further objections.
“When are we heading out?” Ning Yuan asked.
“In the next few days,” Zhuang Mingxu glanced around the room. “Antonio, you’re not going this time. The lab still needs your ability to cooperate with their work. Ning Yuan, you’ll lead a team to Pingjin Base. We’ve got some seafood to deliver there. The distribution channels are open, but we need someone to personally escort the goods to avoid any mishaps.”
“You’ll need to bring a healer for emergency rescues. The rest can volunteer.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Antonio pulled Dean closer and suggested, “Take Xu the healer—Li can protect him.”
Lu Weiyi immediately recalled Xu Sa’s complaints about Li Zhuang and gave him a teasing look. “He might not be willing…”
Everyone at the table turned toward Li Zhuang. Xu Sa, ever the gossip, boldly asked, “Brother Li, come clean—do you have a thing for Xu Yi?”
Li Zhuang turned his head toward Xu Sa’s curious eyes, pulled a crooked smile.
Xu Sa instantly felt a chill down his spine. “Heh, I was just asking for everyone’s sake.”
“I don’t want to know,” Wu Yue said quickly.
No kidding—when they upgraded their powers under Lu Weiyi, at least they got decent rest. But under Li Zhuang’s leadership, it was pure physical torture. Given that his level was still lagging behind, he had no desire to fall into that guy’s hands again.
“Neither do we,” Gu Qingzhi said softly as he pulled Gu Qingyue a bit farther away from Xu Sa.
“Hey, you guys are so ungrateful,” Xu Sa protested, seeing Li Zhuang warming up his wrists. He jumped up from the couch and nimbly hid behind Lu Weiyi.
“If you’ve got time to gossip when your level hasn’t increased, it seems your training’s been too relaxed. Next time, I’ll intensify it,” Li Zhuang said calmly, causing Xu Sa’s face to fall instantly.
“Brother Li, have mercy on the child,” Xu Sa quickly clasped his hands in a mock prayer and started elbowing Lu Weiyi.
Lu Weiyi looked up innocently. Seeing Xu Sa winking at him, he played along with a feigned look of realization. “Oh, you want me to ask?”
Everyone else quietly turned their attention to him.
“I don’t want to know either,” Lu Weiyi said.
Just as Li Zhuang was starting to smile, Lu Weiyi added, “I already asked Xu Yi—he wishes he could stay as far away from Li Zhuang as possible.”
The room went silent before someone finally couldn’t hold in their laughter.
“Uh, I’m gonna check if the kitchen needs help.”
“I need to use the restroom.”
“I should go absorb today’s crystal core.”
“Did I forget to wash my clothes? Gotta go check.”
One by one, everyone made up excuses and quickly scattered, leaving only Lu Weiyi, Zhuang Mingxu, and Antonio, who stayed with Dean to enjoy the drama.
“Dean, it seems Li’s lacking in charm. That’s why we need you out there. Darling, you haven’t even left yet, and I already miss you,” Antonio said with a dramatic raise of his eyebrows, spewing cheesy lines.
“No problem. Brother Li is… old bachelor. I’m child, I understand,” Dean replied awkwardly, making Li Zhuang’s face darken instantly.
Seeing this, Zhuang Mingxu quickly pulled Lu Weiyi aside just as Li Zhuang’s chilling voice rang out from behind, “Antonio, let’s spar.”
After a few days of rest, Lu Weiyi led the team out again.
Since some members of Team One were still aiming to level up, Li Zhuang proposed bringing Zheng Jun’s team along. Naturally, Xu Yi came too.
With Lu Weiyi’s massive space ability and the ready-made meals Xi Shi prepared for the group, it helped comfort Xu Sa’s traumatized soul.
Li Dongsheng was also nearing a breakthrough in his ability, so this time Gu Qingzhi was replaced in the lineup. Before leaving, Gu Qingzhi tried to stop Gu Qingyue from going.
Gu Qingyue, usually even-tempered, frowned and pushed him away, then neatly boarded the vehicle. As it slowly drove into North Island, they could still see Gu Qingzhi’s worried figure trailing behind.
“Did they have a fight?” Lu Weiyi was enjoying his relaxed little life. Behind the two SUVs were over ten members of Zheng Jun’s team. Before heading out, he’d already handed over command to Li Zhuang and was now sitting comfortably in the back seat, munching on sunflower seeds.
“Who?” Wu Yue, at the wheel, glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “Can you three stop throwing seed shells all over the car?”
Liu Rui, in the front passenger seat, turned around and saw the floor littered with discarded seed shells.
Xu Yi and Xu Sa continued munching seeds and looked at Lu Weiyi, expecting him to talk back. But he sat up straight immediately and responded spinelessly, “We can.”
Xu Yi silently dumped her seed shells into Xu Sa’s hand. Xu Sa glanced around, exchanged a look with Liu Rui, and a few small flames flickered up, reducing the shells to ashes, which were gone in seconds.
Xu Yi looked on with envy. Xu Sa smugly crossed one leg over the other. “See that? You’ll still have to rely on me.”
“Xu Sa, you’re not even trying to hide your arrogance anymore, huh?” Xu Yi, now more familiar with everyone, no longer held back and fired back.
“Pfft,” Lu Weiyi laughed behind his hand.
Xu Sa shrugged and turned to eye Xu Yi. “I’m just waiting for you to lose it in front of Li Zhuang.”
Xu Yi’s face darkened instantly, while Xu Sa burst into laughter.
After the playful banter, Wu Yue finally returned to Lu Weiyi’s original question. “Qingyue hasn’t been in the best shape lately. Keep an eye on him while you’re out. Last time, he messed up several times during missions—once, he got seriously injured and was even publicly criticized by Li Zhuang.”
“What’s going on?”
A few people shook their heads. “It’s an adult matter. If he doesn’t talk, it’s hard for us to ask.”
“I asked Gu Qingzhi. He doesn’t know either. I asked Qingyue, and he wouldn’t say,” Xu Sa shrugged. “Qingyue has a steady temperament, so it’s hard to press him.”
Lu Weiyi glanced again at Gu Qingzhi, who was already far behind them through the rearview mirror, and nodded. “I’ll keep an eye on him.”
Around the base, people were coming and going. The zombies had already been cleared by those who came to join them. It wasn’t until they entered the city center that traces of zombies started to appear.
“Vehicles at the rear, don’t stop. Proceed directly toward the southwest,” came Li Zhuang’s voice over the walkie-talkie.
After several acknowledgments, Wu Yue steered the vehicle southwest. At first, the surroundings were dominated by terrain reshaped by geographical compression. When buildings began to appear, the off-road vehicles were swapped out for trucks.
The speed of the convoy significantly slowed down. Li Zhuang led all the ability users, except the drivers, to engage the incoming zombies. Lu Weiyi stood atop the truck, extending both his mental power and small green vines—one to search above ground and one below.
It didn’t take long before hidden and uncollected materials buried in the ground appeared in his mental field. As he stored the materials in his space, the sounds of collapsing structures rang out around them.
At first, the noise attracted attention, but as the number of zombies increased, no one could afford to be distracted.
Xu Yi had been beside Lu Weiyi at first, but as team members began to get injured, Li Zhuang reached out to him, and Xu Yi leaped off the truck in sync. Under Li Zhuang’s cover, he ran to treat the injured teammates.
The man who had once been full of hostility and pride, who once huddled fearfully in a corner during zombie attacks, with his cowardice and fear of death written all over his face—had now finally begun to take a step forward.
He was still scared, hiding behind others, but now, even trembling, he gritted his teeth and stepped forward to help his comrades. Amid zombie roars and the blood of his teammates, he was finally breaking free from his shell.
Material searching and collection were slow. The zombies gave the team a good training opportunity. Once they were more proficient, Lu Weiyi could multitask: collecting supplies while observing the team.
Some of the original ability users from the lab had stayed behind for logistics, while the stronger ones joined Zheng Jun’s field team, now known as Squad Five. Zheng Jun was the main captain, with Cui Wen as vice-captain.
Once the two squads were combined, the gap in skill levels became obvious. Even Li Dongsheng, who hadn’t gone on missions for months, had his own rhythm for killing zombies, but Zheng Jun’s team seemed overwhelmed.
They weren’t used to using their abilities. Even in close combat, they didn’t imbue their weapons with powers. This meant that zombies who could’ve been taken out in one blow instead took several hits. During that time, ranged attacks from powered zombies could strike, leaving exhausted people barely able to dodge.
Such training was essentially useless for improving their powers.
Lu Weiyi retracted part of his mental power and concentrated it on surrounding zombies. A series of bang-bang-bang headshots rang out, and in a flash, zombies around them dropped like dominoes.
