Chapter 366: The Ski Resort
Li Wenliang was a proper doctor—originally tricked into coming here by Zhuang Mobai. He hadn’t been involved in the main experiments and spent most of his time monitoring Yin Jin’s pregnancy. Now that the baby was born, Zhuang Mingxu wasn’t sure where to place him.
Letting him stay in the lab would be wasteful, but sending him outside wasn’t feasible either. “Do you have any future plans?” he asked.
Hearing this, Li Wenliang understood immediately. He looked around the lab, where most were either experimental staff or nurses. Since Zhuang Mobai’s major project had started, many people had gravitated toward him. Some even became Shen Xiuyin’s assistants, leaving only Li Wenliang and a few less-experienced nurses with little meaningful work to do.
“I’m a surgeon. What do you think I can do?” Li Wenliang threw the question back.
Zhuang Mingxu couldn’t think of a suitable placement for him either. For now, he asked him to keep caring for Yin Jin post-op and monitor the newborn while he figured out a long-term arrangement.
The newborn was named Qin Nian, reportedly taking the surname of his other father. The baby had a strong appetite and, more remarkably, began unconsciously using his abilities to move objects in the room the very next day.
The nurse caring for him was so startled she cried out about ghosts.
Upon hearing this, Zhuang Mobai voluntarily examined the baby and confirmed that he was born with a B-level ability.
“He must’ve absorbed mental power from nearby high-level psychic ability users,” Zhuang Mobai said, eyes gleaming with excitement at the baby’s talent. However, Yin Jin was extremely guarded and wouldn’t let him even touch the child.
As the only newborn in the entire base, Qin Nian naturally became the center of attention. After a few days of caregiving, Li Wenliang redirected all his efforts toward studying the child, with lofty hopes of contributing to the continuation of humanity.
Having been cared for by Li Wenliang for months, Yin Jin was now willing to accept some of his inquiries and exams as long as they didn’t affect his or the child’s safety. Seeing their cooperation, Zhuang Mingxu no longer had to worry about Li Wenliang’s placement.
Meanwhile, Gu Qingji had tallied up the base’s wood-element ability users. Over 500 had reached the peak of C-level. Without hesitation, they signed Zhuang Mingxu’s service contract. Gu Qingji then arranged for them to upgrade in two batches. As a result, the base’s daily food output nearly doubled.
However, the constant food production began exhausting seed supplies, making an already tight inventory even worse.
After several days, Zhuang Mingxu suggested Gu Qingji lead a team into the nearby forest with the hunting squads to stimulate the growth of more trees.
“These trees will be cut down and turned into charcoal. Focus on growing the tall, thick ones. If you see fruit trees that can survive both extreme cold and heat, try to bring them back and replant them on the island,” Zhuang Mingxu instructed, adding, “These people aren’t fighters. Work with Li Yan’s squad to ensure their safety.”
“I understand,” Gu Qingji said, scanning the roster, but hesitated before leaving.
“Something else?” Zhuang Mingxu looked up from a stack of documents.
“I just wanted to ask… did they say when they’d be back?” Gu Qingji asked awkwardly.
Understanding dawned on Zhuang Mingxu. “At the latest, one month. They’ll return before Major General Lu’s people arrive,” he reassured. “Don’t worry. Based on our current estimates, the chance of encountering an S-class zombie is one in ten million. They’re unlikely to be that unlucky again.”
Gu Qingji said nothing more and left the office. The next day, he set off with Li Yan’s team and about a hundred wood-element users.
Meanwhile, the elite squad had already arrived at the ski resort Zhuang Mingxu had mentioned beforehand. It was in a remote, open area, and the earthquake had not caused any casualties—just the collapse of some indoor structures.
After over ten days out, Li Zhuang had been pushing the squad to their limits. With Lu Weiyi’s guidance, everyone had begun consciously using their abilities. So far, three had successfully advanced to B-level, greatly boosting morale.
Seeing that the area had relatively few zombies, Lu Weiyi decided to let the group rest for the night and continue tomorrow.
Zheng Jun’s team took advantage of the break, with Li Zhuang and Liu Rui on watch, Gu Qingyue, Wu Yue, and Li Dongsheng helping with dinner, and Lu Weiyi taking Xu Sa and Xu Yi to scout nearby.
“It should be around here,” Xu Yi said, scanning the area and estimating their position.
“Are you sure?” Xu Yi questioned skeptically. In other places, you could at least make out the remains of buildings before they collapsed, but this area was completely buried underground, like the result of tectonic compression.
Xu Yi crossed his arms and looked to the side. “Not sure. I always came here with VIP treatment. The snowmobiles were delivered straight to me by the manager—I never knew where the storage warehouse was. But you guys…”
Xu Sa cracked his knuckles with a crack crack sound and gave Xu Yi a smiling look, successfully stopping him from saying more.
Xu Yi lowered his arms, coughed lightly, and pointed in a direction. “I remember there used to be a rental area over there. It should be there.”
“It’s here,” Lu Weiyi suddenly said. At the same time, the ground beneath the three of them collapsed again, sinking downward. Xu Sa quickly grabbed the other two, leaping forward and avoiding the drop.
“Lu Xiaoyi, are you so ruthless that you’d even trap yourself?” Xu Sa looked down at the pit, about three to four meters deep and over ten meters wide, and joked.
“I forgot,” Lu Weiyi replied, though his expression clearly showed excitement.
“Found something good?” Xu Sa, who knew him well, asked immediately.
Lu Weiyi didn’t answer. He directly took out the three trucks he had just stored in his space and placed them on the side for Xu Sa to see.
Each of the three trucks had two-tiered iron racks on the bed. There were traces of soil that had seeped in, but it was clear the trucks were loaded with snowmobiles. Aside from the dirt covering them, they looked unused.
“Looks like they were just delivered,” Xu Sa climbed up nimbly, grabbed the railing, and shook one of the snowmobiles, knocking off the dirt and revealing the buried machine.
“Haha… thirty in total. What a haul!”
“Definitely a haul.”
Just as Xu Sa finished speaking, a stranger’s voice rang out. Lu Weiyi turned his head and saw a figure dart by. The next moment, Xu Yi had been caught in a chokehold.
“Who are you?” It was obvious the attacker was a speed-type ability user—and not a weak one.
Xu Sa quickly moved closer to Lu Weiyi, yelling his question. But since they were far from the main group, no one heard the commotion.
Lu Weiyi had been too focused on using his psychic powers to search for supplies. Only now did he release his power to scan the area—and discovered a large group of people approaching from about a hundred meters away.
“Boss, caught a little rat. Hurry up.” The man ignored Xu Sa and called his teammates via walkie-talkie.
“Got it,” came a gravelly male voice over the line, sounding like it was full of sand.
“Who I am doesn’t matter. What matters is—these supplies now belong to us,” the man said after alerting his group, sticking his head out to look at the three.
His face bore a large black birthmark, creating a stark contrast like yin and yang. He grinned with yellowed teeth, his eyes wandering freely over the three.
“You all look pretty nice. Why not join our boss? He’s got a soft spot for pretty ones.”
“Sure, why not? As long as we’re fed and sheltered,” Xu Sa responded cheerfully. “But tell us—what team are you with? If you’re strong enough, we’ll treat these supplies as our offering to join.”
“Smart kid. Listen up—we’re the Fierce Tiger Squad from Pingjin Base. Our boss is Meng Hu.” The man seemed very pleased by Xu Sa’s compliance but still didn’t loosen his grip on Xu Yi.
“Fierce Tiger Squad? Never heard of you. We just came from Capital Base—it’s tough over there. Heard there’s a place called Half-Moon Bay by the coast recruiting, so we thought we’d check it out.” Xu Sa signaled Xu Yi with his eyes to stay calm, continuing the conversation.
“You call that a base? Just 20,000 people—half of them are inferiors. Sooner or later, they’ll be swallowed by superior ones like us.”
“Inferiors? What do you mean by that?”
While Xu Sa chatted, no one noticed Lu Weiyi had quietly taken out a palm-sized device behind his back and attached a metallic patch to his body.
“What are you doing?” the man asked. But before he could react, an invisible psychic blade had already severed the arm he was using to hold Xu Yi.
Xu Yi was splashed with blood, still gripping the severed arm. As his fingers relaxed, he began coughing violently.
“Duck!” Xu Sa shouted, catching the jamming device Lu Weiyi tossed, slapping it on himself, and running forward. Just as the man tried to kick Xu Yi, Xu Sa intercepted him and knocked him aside.
Panicking, Xu Yi tossed aside the dangling severed arm and ran toward Lu Weiyi, who pulled him behind and handed him a walkie-talkie. “Call Li Zhuang. There are seventy to eighty of them.”
Xu Yi, hands trembling, nodded. Meanwhile, Xu Sa had already subdued and pinned the attacker to the ground. But before they could interrogate him, dozens more figures appeared beyond a wall.
“Stop!” someone shouted.
Seeing the situation, there was no need for questioning. Xu Sa swiftly slashed down, ending the man’s life on the spot.
“You son of a—!” one of the men swore, charging forward, only to be held back by a leader.
