Chapter 444: A Chance Encounter
“Ye Jia, I gave you the signal to stop! Why’d you feed your cards to the opponent again?”
“You blinked—I thought you meant go!”
“Blinking means stop! It obviously means don’t play!”
“Wait… it does?”
“Of course it does! Everyone knows that! You seriously—” By now, Bai Mei had a mountain of crystal cores in front of her. Lu Weiyi’s face was flushed with frustration. Pointing at Ye Jia, his hand even trembled, “Trash at cards, but addicted!”
Ye Jia looked genuinely baffled and self-doubting. Everyone watching burst into laughter.
Pfft…
Hahaha…
Yu Mengchu gave the final verdict: “So in the end, only magic can defeat magic.”
In the middle of all the laughter and excitement, the truck drew closer to a zombie-infested area.
Playtime was over—everyone shifted into combat mode.
They had brought weapons in advance for this mission. With zombies everywhere and crystal cores in good supply, the squad opened fire without hesitation.
While most teams these days were stingy with their crystal core usage—reluctant to use their abilities—the Only Squad had no such reservations. Almost everyone fought using abilities and replenished themselves with fresh cores.
Even Lu Weiyi, who hadn’t participated directly in a while, joined in. He had successfully leveled up two years ago and was now at the edge of another breakthrough.
Their fierce determination inspired everyone, and the clear gap in strength became evident. In the days that followed, almost no one used weapons anymore—everyone relied solely on their abilities, giving it their all.
Each day after battle, they were drenched in sweat, blood, and decay, looking like they’d crawled straight out of hell. Many collapsed, too exhausted to even bathe—falling asleep right on the ground.
Fortunately, with water-type ability users helping rinse everyone off, it at least kept them from falling asleep surrounded by an unbearable stench.
After stopping and starting along the way, just as they were running on schedule, they encountered a team from the Pingjin Base also heading to Capital. Compared to their streamlined team, the Pingjin group was practically dragging their entire household along.
Each squad remained wary of the others, afraid of missing useful information, yet also curious to observe how other bases were developing. Unable to unify their goals, they simply proceeded on a voluntary basis.
Their team was chaotic in personnel and supplies alone, driving more than a dozen vehicles. When they met them, the Pingjin team was under attack by a swarm of mutated locusts—dense and overwhelming like a scene from a disaster movie, blocking out the sky.
Anyone who wasn’t careful and got caught in the swarm quickly became nothing more than a bloodstained skeleton. In such chaos, no one cared about preserving supplies, let alone working together—they were just trying to scatter and survive.
“How tragic. Thank goodness our base is united,” Xu Sa said as he relayed the scene through binoculars, then asked, “Should we help?”
“Yes,” Zhuang Mingxu replied before Lu Weiyi could. “We can’t predict the direction the locusts will move. This season is crucial for our base’s crop growth. If they fly toward us, the damage to our harvest would be disastrous.”
“Didn’t we bring flamethrowers? That should work.” Zhuang Mingxu looked through the binoculars again. “Fire-types will attack. Earth- and water-types block escape routes. Don’t give the mutated locusts a chance to leave. Water-types, watch for spreading fires and prevent the blaze from getting out of control.”
Lu Weiyi retrieved flamethrowers from his space storage and distributed them to the team, quickly instructing on their use. “Wood-types and metal-types stay back. Everyone else, follow me.”
He led more than ten people running toward the chaos ahead.
The base’s flamethrowers were one of the latest crystal core weapons developed by Zhao Changming. Ever since Zhao Qianqian had been placed in the lab, there’d been no further discord within the weapon development center. Zhao Changming had mellowed significantly over the past year, aging visibly.
He had even offered this weapon as a bargaining chip, hoping to get Qianqian a second chance to live freely in the base. As a result, the flamethrower’s capabilities had been pushed beyond expectations.
As their squad appeared, some people from Pingjin Base ran toward them, seeking refuge. Those lagging behind regained some hope upon seeing reinforcements.
“Everyone down!” Lu Weiyi shouted through a loudspeaker. “Gunners ready—three, two, one—”
“Fire!”
Flames roared in the direction of the locust swarm. The crackling sound of burning accompanied the stench of scorched bugs, and nearby trees instantly ignited in the high heat.
Almost as soon as the flamethrowers were fired, the surrounding forest was ablaze. The breeze carried sparks everywhere, igniting wherever they landed, and the fire spread rapidly.
Even though they had prepared for it, the speed of the blaze was still startling.
“Captain?” Gu Qingyue hesitated, unsure whether to stop the locusts or contain the fire first.
“Keep going,” Lu Weiyi said calmly. He patted the shoulders of the three fire-types—Liu Rui, Yu Mengchu, and Chen Xing—assigning each to control a section of the blaze. As for the last direction—
“Water-types in our team, go put out that side,” Tang Bai directed his water-type users to assist.
Seeing that, Lu Weiyi quietly stowed the rocket launcher he had pulled out earlier.
The mutated locusts were far more numerous than expected, but the wildfire helped burn through a chunk of them. Eventually, the swarm scattered into smaller groups. Once the danger passed, they put away the flamethrowers and focused on putting out the fires.
With the locust threat gone, Tang Bai quickly gathered the remaining ability users from the Pingjin Base to help, finally making himself useful.
“All done,” Lu Weiyi reported to Zhuang Mingxu. Just then, Xu Sa returned with the others, gleefully diving into the charred forest. Not long after, they came back with all sorts of indistinguishable, soot-blackened small animals.
“Lunch is sorted,” Lin Mo said, leaning in for a sniff, only to get black ash on his nose.
“Base Leader Lu, you saved me again,” Tang Bai said, walking over with his hair slightly curled from the flames.
“Mm,” Lu Weiyi nodded seriously. “Just hand over the crystal cores.”
Ye Jia, just arriving, nearly tripped into the ash at the bluntness of the demand.
He clearly remembered that Base Leader Zhuang said they acted to prevent the locusts from attacking their own base… yet this guy—
Watching the other side efficiently gather cores from the teams, Ye Jia suddenly had a realization.
“Lately we’ve been busy with mutated beasts—haven’t cleared many zombies. This is all we have for now,” Tang Bai said, handing over 5,000 crystal cores, a bit embarrassed.
“No worries. You can make up the rest later.” Lu Weiyi didn’t bother with small talk, cutting Tang Bai off mid-sentence. He wanted to curse him for being obsessed with crystal cores.
Then Lu Weiyi casually added, “Since you were so generous last time, I brought people this time just to save you.”
Tang Bai immediately felt like he could probably dig out some more crystal cores. “We’ve worked together so many times—I’d never leave you out.”
Those who hadn’t interacted with Lu Weiyi before were stunned. How could someone with such an innocent face lie so fluently? Everyone stood there dumbfounded.
Even as they escorted Pingjin’s remaining people back to their RVs, hushed murmurs continued.
“Captain Tang.” Zhuang Mingxu got out of the car holding his child and greeted the arrivals.
“Base Leader Zhuang.” Tang Bai saw they had brought two kids with them and didn’t know whether to admire their boldness or feel ashamed that he’d been forced to separate from his own daughter.
“Say hello to Daddy,” Zhuang Aiyi greeted him politely.
“Say hello to Daddy,” Taotao mimicked.
“Hey there, Aiyi, Taotao,” Tang Bai smiled and retrieved two packs of neatly wrapped cookies from his space. “These were made by Tingting’s mom—have a taste, and if you like them, come play with Tingting sometime.”
Zhuang Aiyi looked toward Zhuang Mingxu. Only after getting his nod did he reach out and say, “Thank you, Tingting’s dad.”
This wasn’t a place to rest, so after a few familiar squad leaders from the Pingjin Base came over to greet them, the Only Squad immediately got ready to move out.
Tang Bai quickly asked if they could come along.
“Sure, but we travel day and night—I don’t know if you guys can keep up,” Lu Weiyi replied casually. There wasn’t much distance left, and they were all headed the same direction, so he didn’t mind letting them benefit a little.
“We can,” Tang Bai answered without hesitation. Even if they couldn’t keep up, he’d find a way. Compared to traveling with other squads, he’d rather go with them. At least their ability users were strong and not interested in scheming over scraps.
With Tang Bai joining in, the rest of the teams followed suit, lining up quickly. Even under constant harassment from mutated beasts, they were determined not to fall behind.
After nearly a month on the road, the convoy finally arrived at Capital Base.
Thanks to frequent cooperation over the past two years, Lu Weiyi and the others already had temporary residence permits issued by Capital Base. After a quick inspection, they were allowed through directly. Only Zhuang Mingxu and Zhuang Aiyi, as ordinary civilians, had to go through a longer screening process, which took several more hours.
By the time all that was done and they got inside, it was nearly evening.
Cong Qing, who had come to receive them, saw that there were people from Pingjin Base and detoured to escort them to the shared guest housing.
“There are currently 48 bases in the country that can still be contacted—those with populations over 100,000. Twenty-six have registered to attend this gathering, and eighteen have already arrived. More are arriving each day,” Cong Qing explained as they walked.
“Any familiar teams?” Xu Sa asked.
Cong Qing handed them the list of teams that had arrived. Xu Sa was the first to glance at it, then laughed and passed it to Lu Weiyi. “Hope Base, Ping’an Base, Anjiang Base—looks like old friends reuniting.”
“You think they still see you as a friend?” Zhuang Mingxu teased.
After all, pretty much every base they’d encountered in the past had been scammed or taken advantage of in one way or another. By now, those people surely saw through the tricks.
“Of course they do,” Xu Sa replied, glancing at Lu Weiyi. He was the only SS-level ability user in the country, and their base was the only one to have developed purified crystal cores. People were more likely to cozy up than pick a fight.
