Chapter 400: The Zombie Horde
“Yeah, how can we fight zombies?”
“You owe us an explanation.”
“Yes, an explanation!”
“Listen to me, listen!” Wu Yue pressed his hands, trying to calm them, but no one paid attention.
Everyone seemed to have found the only possible solution. The crowd grew noisy and restless; some even started edging closer to Lu Weiyi, their anger nearly boiling over, showing signs of wanting to take action.
Lu Weiyi knew they had no way out but didn’t plan to indulge them. With a surge of overwhelming mental power, he instantly pressed dozens of people down to the ground.
“Not accommodating you naturally has its difficulties for us. The reason I came here to tell you is to try to help solve your problems,” he said aloud. Immediately, no one around dared to make a sound.
“Base Commander Lu, how do you intend to help us?” someone asked.
“There’s an island in Moon Bay where we can designate a portion for you to temporarily live on until next spring.”
“We’ll go.”
“That’s good, thank you.”
“Thank you very much.”
Lu Weiyi waved his hand, signaling everyone to listen. “That island is desolate and uninhabited. There’s nothing there. Once you go up, you can only move within the designated area. If anyone leaves, it will be considered a hostile act against the base and dealt with by immediate execution.”
“Think carefully before making your decision. After that, no one will listen to any excuses.”
This wasn’t much for those barely stocked with supplies to survive winter, but for those lacking provisions, being unable to leave to find food was essentially a death sentence. Some quieted down noticeably.
“Consider this: groups of three to five people must guarantee each other. If one person acts abnormally, the entire group must immediately leave Moon Bay. I hope you will all think of one another and not endanger others because of yourself.”
After speaking, Lu Weiyi noticed a few teenagers in the crowd and estimated the base’s supplies. “Children under fourteen will receive some subsidies from the base. You can register and apply for them.”
“If anyone here cannot accept these terms, then whatever happens afterward is unrelated to our base. If accidents occur, the base will not send rescue. Think about it. You have one day to register the information of everyone who wants to enter.”
Having delivered this, Lu Weiyi and Wu Yue got up and left.
“They’re really miserable,” Wu Yue said, grateful to have powers but helpless about this suddenly changed world.
“If we don’t get through this, we’ll be even worse off than them,” Lu Weiyi looked into the distance, spreading his mental energy into countless fine threads probing various directions.
A year had passed, weeds and plants already covered the city ruins. Extreme cold and heat weathered away the traces of civilization rapidly. Mutant animals roamed, and zombies wandered here and there.
“Let’s go back and have the earth-type power users hurry to build some livable places on East Island,” Lu Weiyi turned to look at those who had returned underground. “Living underground with moderate warmth is much better than above ground.”
“Yeah, Mingxu thinks so too. On North Island, several emergency shelters have also been built in advance to prepare for even colder weather,” Wu Yue shared some plans for winter as they headed toward North Island.
Zombies arrived faster than expected. The next day, those waiting outside spotted zombie signs. No one objected anymore, and quickly signed guarantees. That same day, everyone was relocated to East Island.
Compared to the barren outside, here were several empty houses arranged with a surrounding courtyard wall.
Lu Weiyi stood at the gate feeling like he was entering a prison, especially since a guardhouse stood by the courtyard entrance.
11,284 people, divided into small groups of 50 to 100 per house, were all settled here.
Even if everyone obeyed quietly, Lu Weiyi could not rely on vague warnings. As everyone entered the courtyard, he pulled at some fresh green plants near the gate.
Huge mutant vines eagerly surged forward, their leaves stretching for a hundred meters. Ordinary people were startled and huddled together, while powered individuals stayed alert, ready to act.
The entire plant crouched before Lu Weiyi, extending small branches to tug at his hand.
“Guard this place. If anyone leaves the designated area, consider them fertilizer for you,” Lu Weiyi said, taking out a crystal core.
The mutant ivy quickly grabbed it and buried the crystal inside its many branches.
Lu Weiyi glanced at Gu Qingji, who repeatedly fed the mutant ivy. The mutated vine wrapped around Gu Qingji’s wrist quietly slipped off when he wasn’t paying attention and wound itself around Lu Weiyi, seeking favor.
Lu Weiyi fed it a crystal core as well, and it returned happily to Gu Qingji.
This show of intimidation at least made everyone more cautious. Lu Weiyi led the team away.
Gu Qingji suddenly asked, “Do you often feed the mutant vine crystal cores?”
“No,” Lu Weiyi thought for a moment. “I think Ai Yi fed it two or three times.”
He’d been seen feeding the mutant ivy crystal cores a few times by Zhuang Ai Yi. Occasionally, when the mutant vine played with him, Ai Yi would ask for a few crystal cores. Not given to others, so probably to the vine.
“What’s wrong? Are you affected?”
“No, I think I know why I’ve been upgrading so slowly,” Gu Qingji said.
“Hm?”
“I think some of the powers I gain are absorbed by the mutant vine.”
Lu Weiyi didn’t understand, then Gu Qingji explained, “Haven’t you noticed that I need way more crystal cores than others every time I upgrade?”
“Yes,” Lu Weiyi had thought it was just Gu Qingji’s own issue. With plenty of wood-type cores, he should be upgrading fine. But Gu Qingji wasn’t outstanding. Even white-seed power users who’d never left the base could match him.
Lu Weiyi always blamed talent, never considered other reasons. But apparently, there was something else going on.
“At crucial moments during my upgrades, I’ve felt some of the absorbed cores were transferred elsewhere, but it wasn’t obvious until recently. Now it’s very clear—most of the cores I absorb disappear daily.”
“But the past few days, it’s been especially obvious. I just saw you feeding the mutant vine crystal cores, and it suddenly occurred to me that the vine probably needs crystal cores to upgrade too, right?”
“Uh… this,” Lu Weiyi really didn’t know.
He had never raised mutant plants, so naturally had no idea how they upgraded.
“What about your little green vine when it upgrades?” Gu Qingji looked at Lu Weiyi’s wrist.
“…Not very noticeable,” Lu Weiyi said. “Maybe it’s because it absorbs a lot of crystal cores itself. So you mean it’s absorbing part of your crystal core energy?”
“Possible. It almost upgrades alongside me. It’s now already in the late A-rank stage,” Gu Qingji touched the bright green leaves on his wrist. “Can I apply for some crystal cores to specially feed it?”
“That’s fine, but you have to be careful. No one knows if a mutant plant reaching too high a level will affect its owner,” Lu Weiyi didn’t hesitate and advanced him 500 crystal cores. “Deduct it from your income, ask me if it’s not enough.”
**
Not even two days after the base residents were settled, a large number of zombies began continuously pouring toward the Moon Bay base. All combat squads in the base were divided into groups to hunt zombies daily.
Zombie ranks ranged from C to A, and at peak times even an S-rank appeared. At first, only some squads went out, but when all powered squads were needed, news came from the Pingjin base:
Their powered users had been deployed.
“This time they’re determined to win. The leaders of several major factions have all mobilized. According to departures, the powered users number over ten thousand. Seventy percent of A-rank users have been sent, moving toward us from three directions,” Zhuang Mingxu reported the new information to the meeting members.
“Isn’t he afraid the base rear will be attacked?” Ning Yuan asked.
“I guess Tang Bai encouraged him to stay at the base and stabilize the rear. If we manage to wipe these people out here, he can seize power at Pingjin base. If not, their return won’t affect him at all,” Zhuang Mingxu said.
“Reaping the benefits of others’ struggles, a clever plan?”
“Whether it’s clever or not, ten thousand powered users is a lot of pressure, especially since an S-rank zombie appeared yesterday. Liu Rui, Li Zhuang, and I teamed up to kill it,” Ning Yuan recalled the zombie’s combat power. “If we didn’t have medics on standby, many powered users would have died.”
“They’re completely hiding behind the zombies now, waiting until we’re exhausted fighting zombies before striking. It’s a one-shot take-down.”
“Can we just wipe out their base directly?”
“You think he hasn’t considered that? He left seventy percent of B-rank users there. Not high quality, but enough in quantity to cause us trouble.”
“Then can we somehow make the zombies turn back and attack them? After all, a force of ten thousand powered users should attract more zombies.”
“That’s possible,” Lu Weiyi replied, “but two outcomes could happen: either they successfully fight off the zombies, or they get infected. Their highest powered users are A-rank. If S-rank zombies attack, they could turn into zombies themselves. Then there’d be another same-level zombie.”
That wasn’t good news for them either.
“But it would cause some attrition for them,” Li Zhuang said, clearly supporting the plan.
“…Alright!” Lu Weiyi let out a deep breath.
Though it could draw zombies away, implementing it wasn’t easy. The sea surface had frozen, zombies could walk on it. Outside the ice wall, a circle of zombies surrounded them, howling incessantly through the silent night.
Powered zombies constantly attacked the ice wall with various powers. The once-smooth ice was now stained with dirt, dust, blood, and rotting flesh, then thickened again by water-type powered users, gradually blending into the ice layer.
The squad held a meeting for several hours and finally decided to use the most attractive bait to zombies—their own flesh and blood.
