Chapter 380: Welcoming Lu Xiao
Next to the passage was a booth resembling a highway toll station, where someone was entering data into a computer for arrivals and departures. About 400–500 meters further in was a building that looked like an office, filled with people in white coats conducting health checks.
At the inner point where the base met the island, a thick, pitch-black door was tightly shut, with only a narrow side entrance barely wide enough for one person. Driving through without permission would be impossible.
If someone tried to force their way in…
Lu Xiao looked up at the island’s visible gun turrets. He had no doubt they were functional, especially with armed guards watching from the watchtowers.
To militarize a base to this extent in such a short time would be impossible without powerful resource backing.
At this point, Lu Xiao was convinced they were truly living well.
He gave Lu Weiyi a thumbs-up as he walked over. “Impressive.”
“Young Master Lu, Base Leader Zhuang,” greeted Jin Diao, who had come with Lu Xiao.
“It’s been a while.”
Zhao Qiang got out of one of the cars and walked over. With him was Meng Guang, whom they’d met once before. He greeted Lu Weiyi and Zhuang Mingxu, openly expressing his admiration: “Zombies trying to enter your base? Impossible.”
“Mutated sea creatures are still a headache,” Zhuang Mingxu said conversationally, waving someone over. “Ordinary people in your group will need health checks and must wait five hours before entering.”
“Ability users must register and receive a temporary ID before they can move around freely. Uncle, Officer Zhao, shall I have someone help you register?”
“Sure,” Lu Xiao replied cooperatively, taking the tablet and stylus offered by a staff member and quickly filling out the required info. “The trucks at the back are carrying the family members your base asked for, and some professionals you needed. I brought as many as I could. The rest is supplies—have someone receive them.”
“Alright. Uncle, Officer Zhao, please remind your people not to fill in false info. If it doesn’t match the test results, they won’t be allowed in,” Zhuang Mingxu warned.
Lu Xiao agreed easily and had Jin Diao pass on the message.
Zhao Qiang didn’t fully understand how the mismatch detection worked, but since they were here to ask for help, he didn’t argue.
“Wu Yue, take some people to receive the new arrivals and supplies. After registration, have food prepared for them,” Zhuang Mingxu said once arrangements were made and Lu Xiao had finished registering.
“Don’t worry,” Wu Yue replied, introducing himself to Jin Diao and Meng Guang as the three walked toward the main group. “Knowing you were arriving today, our base leader had the fishing team go out early to catch a ton of seafood. There’ll be plenty of mutated sea creatures—don’t hold back.”
“No worries, Brother Wu. We barely ate this morning just to save room for seafood.”
“Haha, you’ll eat to your heart’s content.”
The three chatted happily as they welcomed the main convoy.
Meanwhile, after completing his registration, Lu Xiao followed Lu Weiyi inside. At one of the inner checkpoints, a man in a white coat held something like an electronic thermometer to the spot of Lu Xiao’s crystal core at his forehead. A beep sounded, and the man tapped something on his tablet.
Right after that, someone behind handed over a gel-like information wristband. The yellow band had his personal information printed on it, along with a specific square-shaped QR code.
The one given to Zhao Qiang next to him was brown.
“They’re different?” Lu Xiao adjusted his and put it on his wrist.
“Yes, they are,” Lu Weiyi explained as he led them to the vehicle prepared to receive new arrivals. “Ordinary people all wear black bands. For the rest, the color indicates their ability—yellow is for fire-type ability users, brown for earth-type.”
As he spoke, he waved his hand toward the island’s main entrance overhead.
A heavy gate descended and retracted into the ground, revealing an entrance into the mountainside.
“This defense setup… you can tell it was done by professionals,” Lu Xiao didn’t mind his appearance and even walked back to the ship bridge connection to check it out. “To be able to directly connect this with ships and build a road…”
“It’s very impressive,” Zhao Qiang praised without reservation.
Just acquiring so many ships was a feat, let alone towing and linking them together into a passage—truly admirable.
“No choice, really,” Lu Weiyi replied. He didn’t call for others; instead, he personally drove an electric sightseeing car that was parked nearby, taking the two of them straight into North Island.
Soon after passing through the tightly guarded entrance, they arrived at a residential area of three- to four-story buildings. It was clear at first glance that they were constructed by earth-type ability users—not flashy, mostly gray, but the entire area was laid out in a very organized grid. Even the roads were perfectly straight and evenly spaced.
Centered around the island’s entry point, one side had already been developed. The residential area was at the center, farmland further out. You could faintly see busy silhouettes moving among the fields. On the opposite side, wild grass grew tall, and signs of earthquake-caused ground compression were visible, as if the area had been torn into two different worlds.
“That area over there hasn’t been developed?” Zhao Qiang asked.
“Yes, the base population isn’t very large, so the developed area is enough for now. That side is just left alone until we need it,” Zhuang Mingxu explained. “It’s not yet the end of the workday, so most people are still out in the fields.”
The sightseeing car wasn’t fast. Along the way, they could see new residents looking around cautiously, while pedestrians on the streets looked completely different—spirited and unafraid.
Their confidence came from what the base had given them.
“All that farmland was developed? Is the land here suitable for farming?” Zhao Qiang looked out at the sprawling workers across the fields with disbelief.
“Yes. The base has developed 100,000 mu of farmland. Earth-type ability users helped with land clearing and soil optimization for planting.”
“100,000 mu?” Zhao Qiang mentally calculated how many seeds that would take, realizing the scale of their material reserves. At the same time, he thought they were being a bit wasteful.
One hundred thousand mu of farmland would require an enormous amount of seeds alone.
“Yes, but we didn’t just plant standard crops. We planted whatever seeds we could get—sweet potatoes, potatoes, soybeans, sorghum, corn, even a little cotton. If we can get the seeds, we grow them,” Zhuang Mingxu explained with a helpless tone.
“We have several times more ordinary people than ability users. If we relied only on wood-type ability users to produce food, we couldn’t even meet basic daily needs. Even though we’re by the sea, the mutated marine creatures are too dangerous to eat. Most of what we catch gets traded with other bases for supplies.”
“No wonder you asked me to bring grain.” Lu Xiao wasn’t sure whether to feel the people here were lucky or unfortunate. It did seem a waste not to eat all that fresh seafood.
He looked at the fishing boats out on the sea, thinking about how they came back full but couldn’t eat any of it—while his own team members drooled for a bite of meat. The contrast was stark.
“We have no choice. With too few ability users, we have to be self-sufficient. Don’t be fooled by the amount of land we cleared. We can’t even guarantee it’ll be enough to last through next year,” Zhuang Mingxu added, trying not to make it seem like they were stockpiling on purpose, playing it off as necessity.
“Yields are that low?” Nowadays, wood-type ability users were fairly common and food wasn’t considered the most urgent shortage. Zhao Qiang was surprised.
“Very low. We just harvested the corn, and it was only three to four hundred jin per mu. Can you believe that?” Zhuang Mingxu gave a self-deprecating sigh. “We’re still using pre-apocalypse seeds. Some of them aren’t suitable for planting, and others can’t adapt to the new climate.”
“Just being able to survive and not starve is already a big deal for ordinary people,” Zhao Qiang said. Even when combining all the forces he commanded, they still didn’t match the number of people in Yuebanwan Base. And his people were mostly ability users—any ordinary people were highly skilled support staff or family.
If he had to lead that many ordinary people on his own, he didn’t think he could do it. But he couldn’t deny that along the way, the gratitude shown by the people toward the two base leaders was completely genuine.
While they chatted, they were led into the “Peace Hotel.”
As soon as they stepped inside, the aroma of barbecue filled the air. In the spacious hall, a row of grills had been set up. Two chefs were adjusting the charcoal flames. The smell of cumin and chili permeated the room.
“You folks are living the good life,” Zhao Qiang said. The scent made him feel hungry at once. “At least you don’t have to worry about meat.”
“It’s fine for ability users. For ordinary people, it’s still tough.”
“Base Leader Lu, shall we start grilling now?” one of the chefs asked Lu Weiyi.
“Start, start,” Lu Xiao jumped in eagerly, his tone clearly impatient.
With barbecue and wine, a few skewers in and the formalities melted away. As they drank, laughter echoed far into the distance.
All of them came from military or police backgrounds, with a sense of righteousness in their bones. Though the apocalypse had worn away much of their idealism, their upbringing had ingrained a deep moral bottom line that remained.
After the meal, Lu Weiyi escorted Zhao Qiang to the accommodations prepared for him and took Lu Xiao back to the central island.
Sitting on a spacious villa sofa, with a child perched on his leg, Lu Xiao looked around at the exquisite pre-apocalypse interior design. Fresh fruit was laid out on the table. Hearing that this used to be Lu Weiyi’s private island and had survived the apocalypse intact to become a haven for them, he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy at his nephew’s good luck.
“Have someone prepare more seafood. I’ll take some with me when I leave,” Lu Xiao said bluntly. “Do you have salt here? The Capital base’s salt reserves are running low. Recently, some small factions have been trying to contact coastal bases to do business in this area. If you’ve got some, I’ll have my people handle it.”
“Yes, Zhuang Mingxu had a full set of machines collected. If we put them into use, the output should be high. But our base doesn’t have many power resources, so we couldn’t afford to use them. Right now, we’re relying on manual labor, and the output isn’t great.”
