Chapter 439: Violent Reproduction
Lu Weiyi immediately thought of the ever-energetic Xi Shi. “I thought it was just the effect of mutated fruit.”
“I suspected it too. Now that Mingxu is openly recruiting earth-types, I figured it’s the perfect chance to form a construction team of earth-type users—to build an underground tunnel network connecting all the bases.”
Lu Weiyi looked him over, then lowered his voice and asked, “Uncle… you’re not expecting us to pay for this, are you?”
“Hah! Of course not.” Lu Xiao clapped him on the back. “Any base that wants to join pays in crystal cores—nobody rides for free.”
“Good.” Lu Weiyi let out a breath of relief. He had feared his uncle was about to rope him into some selfless, risky plan. “I’ll talk it over with Zhuang Mingxu.”
With Lu Xiao arranging top-notch care, Lu Weiyi recovered quickly. His presence helped calm his teammates.
Bored, a few of them even went out with Lu Xiao’s squad to clear zombies.
“Captain, guess what we found on our last outing?” Lin Mo returned with a mysterious smile.
“What?”
“Crystal core weapons.” Seeing Lu Weiyi turn disinterestedly, he quickly added, “Developed by Capital Base themselves!”
“How powerful?” Antonio perked up.
“Not bad, but they burn through cores fast. We can shoot multiple times with one core, but theirs need a new core nearly every shot. Also, the barrels overheat and bend easily. Fire too many times, and boom—barrel explodes.”
Antonio glanced at Lu Weiyi—sounded a lot like their early prototypes.
“I heard their factories are still making pre-apocalypse artillery. They used a lot of these weapons during zombie sweeps.”
“How effective?”
“Not as good as ours, but decent support. Not every zombie’s a high-level one. They’re still clearing the Capital of zombies.”
“Yeah, most squads here don’t scavenge anymore—unless it’s rare research instruments or specialized machinery. Otherwise, they’re either killing zombies or going into business.”
“Well, makes sense. It’s been four years—what supplies out there aren’t expired?”
Li Yan’s comment left the group in silence.
Yes. It had already been four years since the apocalypse began.
They had struggled this long—and slowly, a new order was emerging.
After over two weeks at Capital Base, Ning Yuan finally completed his kidney regeneration thanks to the efforts of the two healing ability users. He was out of critical danger.
Careful diet had left him visibly thinner, his whole body looking weak—but his ability had fully recovered.
Meanwhile, Xu Yi and Liu Rui, after enduring rounds of detox treatment, were just barely able to sit up.
After discussing with the team, Lu Weiyi decided it was time to return to their base.
Their plane was once again attacked by mutant birds on the return trip—but this time, with Lu Weiyi in action, it was a bit easier to handle.
Just after the aircraft entered downtown Pingjin, they heard gunfire and cries for help from below. Looking out the cabin, they couldn’t tell which team was down there, only that they were under some kind of animal attack.
While the others were asking whether to assist, a loudspeaker blared from the ground:
“Base leader, help us—!”
That shout echoed across the silent wilderness—ironically alerting the carnivorous beasts first. From above, they could see animals darting through the forest toward the source of the noise.
Li Yan slapped his forehead and looked at Lu Weiyi.
Lu Weiyi waved downward. “Lower a bit—let’s pick them up and help them out.”
“Copy,” Lin Sheng responded and rolled down the window to notify the people below.
Li Yan fired a shot toward the approaching animals, and Lu Weiyi’s psychic energy swept outward—
“…Looks like rats? Or weasels?”
The situation below came clearly into view—densely packed, basin-sized creatures with jagged teeth, two palm-sized buckteeth, and chubby bodies that slammed straight into people. Anyone knocked down was immediately gnawed on.
Those with strong abilities couldn’t get close, as a strange creature would suddenly appear out of nowhere, releasing a gas before fleeing. In no time, those who inhaled it began acting strangely: some simply stood there giggling foolishly, others became violent and started attacking indiscriminately.
Lu Weiyi used his psychic power to clear a path for them, then guided them toward the vehicle. Only then did he see their trucks had been chewed into pitted, mangled shells, the tires completely gone.
He sighed. There was no way he could just leave hundreds of people behind, so he dropped three trucks and used Little Green Vine to toss everyone aboard, escorting them out of Pingjin City.
The Half Moon Bay Base looked much the same as when they left, except now the frozen sea was swarming with people working.
The plane landed directly on West Island. As the hatch opened, personnel who had been waiting stepped forward.
“Base Leader Lu, Base Leader Zhuang has already arranged a hospital. He’s waiting for you there and asked that your whole team go in for a full check-up.”
“Alright.” Lu Weiyi stepped aside to let them carry Xu Sa, Liu Rui, and Ning Yuan into a vehicle, which sped off toward the hospital on North Island.
Outside the hospital, Gu Qingyue was pacing anxiously. Li Zhuang leaned casually against a wall, arms crossed and eyes closed in rest. Zhuang Mingxu stood squarely at the front entrance.
Though it had only been a short time, all three looked noticeably thinner, with tiredness etched into their features.
“Xiao Yi!” As soon as the car door opened, Zhuang Mingxu rushed up, grabbing Lu Weiyi and scanning him quickly before gripping his arm tight. He looked into the car. “They’re going to be alright.”
Ning Yuan pushed away the people trying to lift him, shakily stepping out on his own. Though visibly weak, he raised his arm grandly. “Still alive and kicking!”
Xu Sa and Liu Rui, showing no hint of gloom, were lifted from their wheelchairs and greeted everyone with their usual loud cheer.
Gu Qingzhi had already stepped forward to hug Gu Qingyue, whispering softly.
“Let’s go up and get you all checked out—we’ll come up with our own treatment plan,” Zhuang Mingxu said, patting Xu Sa’s shoulder. “Don’t overthink it. We’ve got all kinds of researchers now—there’ll be a way.”
“No worries, Brother Mingxu. I’ll just treat it like early retirement. Xiao Yi said he’d take care of our pensions.” Xu Sa joked, making the others laugh.
All the doctors and equipment were already in place, and the three were taken into separate rooms for examination.
While they were being tested, Zhuang Mingxu updated Lu Weiyi on the base’s situation.
The day they left, Zhuang had urgently gathered everyone at the base for a meeting. Given what happened that past winter, all squads unanimously agreed to mobilize the base’s water- and earth-type ability users and fully launch the “Sea-Filling Project.”
Coincidentally, Tang Bo, Zhou Xue, and Lin Ya had recently arrived. After some “friendly negotiations,” Zhuang managed to recruit some of their earth- and water-type users as well. The rest were gathered from across the country.
They thought it would take days, but after the announcement went out, bases from Pingjin, Mengbei, Changhong, and Capital all responded, saying they’d send ability users over.
“They’re all being sent under their respective base names, and most of them are A-level earth-types. Now, including our own, we have over 11,000 earth-type ability users and 5,000 water-types,” Zhuang said, clearly excited by the numbers and the increased speed they’d bring.
But all Lu Weiyi could think was: crystal cores.
Given the current rate of mutant creature reproduction, it made sense to secure the surrounding seas as quickly as possible. He didn’t object to the plan. He only asked, “Do we have enough crystal cores for this?”
“We only had enough for a few days originally, but after I lifted the limit on purified core exchanges, the supply started coming in again.”
Lu Weiyi exhaled in relief. “Where are you getting the dirt and stone?”
“We’ve only been working for two days, so for now, we’re relocating soil from the southwestern coastline. I want the fill material to be tough and durable. Li Zhuang has been teaching the teams how to condense sturdy earth layers—part of a process to screen workers,” Zhuang explained, handing over diagrams of their plan.
The waters near the northern shore used to be under 100 meters deep, but they planned to fill them up to just 10 meters. The surrounding sea would be less than five meters deep.
“So ships won’t be able to pass anymore?”
“They will. Our base’s biggest cargo ship handles eight tons—it can sail in waters at least nine meters deep.” Zhuang pointed to a harbor on North Island. “We’ll extend a pier here and leave open a channel for ships. As for smaller fishing boats, five meters is plenty.”
“The real problem,” Zhuang added, “is we can’t keep hauling soil from the southwest forever. We’ll need more.”
Lu Weiyi immediately understood. “You want me to use my space ability to transport it.”
Though Zhuang didn’t want to admit it, this was the most efficient method right now. He nodded. “We’ve found a few nearby mountains. The distance isn’t too far—it should be enough.”
“Alright. Since we’ve started, let’s move quickly and finish as soon as possible.” Lu Weiyi remembered the massive mutant squid they encountered at sea. If a creature like that showed up near the island, it could mean total annihilation.
“I ran into some base members on the way back—they were attacked by a mutated…” Lu Weiyi frowned. He still couldn’t say for sure what it was.
“A mutated weasel,” Zhuang clarified. “It emits a foul gas that causes hallucinations. They arrived a bit earlier than you—just got sent up to the second floor for examination. They’re from Frost Society, with some members of the Miracle Team and White Rose.”
“I haven’t been to the city center since spring started. I didn’t expect it to be that overrun already,” Lu Weiyi said, troubled, recalling how disheveled those people had looked.
“Not just that—recently, various teams have been reporting on the city’s situation. The number of mutated species is beyond imagination. There’ve even been sightings of zebras, wolves, and leopards—animals that shouldn’t exist here at all,” Zhuang Mingxu explained when he noticed surrounding personnel looking over. “We suspect they’re survivors from the old zoo.”
