Chapter 447: The Meeting
Lu Weiyi glanced in Zhuang Mingxu’s direction.
Zhuang placed one headband in front of each person. “This is a new device developed by our base, called a ‘Power-Dampening Headband.’ It reduces the zombie energy inside an ability user’s body.”
The moment he said that, the three men picked up the unremarkable-looking headbands. Zhao Qiang pointed to the section in the middle where a faint bulge could be seen. “Here?”
“Yes—aligned with the center of the forehead,” Zhuang demonstrated how to wear it. “According to our internal test data, the best case scenario showed up to a 4% reduction in zombie energy within the user.”
“Previously, the zombie energy detectors were only available at Capital and Pingjin Bases. I’ve heard the feedback. It’s not that people don’t believe in them—but when they see the warning that it’s unsafe to level up and yet have no choice but to wait aimlessly—it drives many ability users crazy.”
The people most eager to level up are those unwilling to be weak. They were used to absorbing crystal cores whenever possible, constantly strengthening themselves. But now the detector displayed a cold, hard truth: leveling up could kill you. And there was no clear method to reduce zombie energy or stop power accumulation.
Just watching others continue to grow stronger created intense pressure. Many with poor mental resilience ended up forcing upgrades despite the danger.
Some didn’t die—but paid a painful price.
“After we received that feedback, I pushed our research institute to focus on finding a way to reduce zombie energy in the body,” Zhuang gestured toward the headbands. “With this device, just seeing the numbers go down each day gives people a little bit of hope.”
“You’re planning to launch it into the market?” Lu Xiao didn’t rush to examine the headband like the other two—after all, thanks to his nephew, anything good at the Half Moon Bay Base would always go to him first.
“We can’t mass produce it—our manufacturing capacity is limited,” Zhuang Mingxu explained. “But before coming here, we made a batch, hoping to use this opportunity to promote it to other bases. Ideally, each base would have a few.”
“It’s reusable. As long as the special absorbent core inside has enough energy, it can be used by any number of people indefinitely,” he said, leading the three into a separate room.
When the door opened, it revealed an array of medical instruments—many of which were unrecognizable.
“Qingyue, check each of the captains’ current zombie energy levels,” Zhuang instructed.
“Got it,” Gu Qingyue replied, turning on a machine near the entrance and motioning for them to come over.
Zhao Qiang went first. After the test, he immediately had Zhuang Mingxu help him put on the headband. Once all three had worn it, Zhuang said, “You can remove it yourselves anytime and check for changes in zombie energy levels. After about five days, you’ll see obvious results.”
Among the three men, only Zhao Qiang didn’t care at all about appearances. While Zhuang Mingxu began negotiating with Zheng Yi for an hour-long promotional slot during the conference, Zhao Qiang kept peppering Gu Qingyue with questions about possible side effects.
“If it works, we won’t even need promotion. My whole squad would fight to get one,” Zheng Yi said. Then he caught himself, looked up at Zhuang Mingxu, and asked, “Give it to me straight—how much are you charging for this thing?”
“Well, it’s not entirely up to me. We have to consider the manpower and resources our base spent on R&D…”
“Just give us a number.”
“10,000 crystal cores.”
Cough, cough…
Even though Zheng Yi had mentally prepared himself, he was still choked up by the number. He glanced at Zhao Qiang, who was now wearing the headband without a care for how he looked, and was briefly speechless.
If it really worked, no price was too high.
That’s the logic—but it still stung when it came time to pay.
Lu Xiao, who had remained silent, carefully stored his headband. Looking at the strange instruments in the room, Zheng Yi rolled his eyes and said, “If you’ve got more gadgets to sell, might as well show us everything now.”
“Haha…” Zhuang Mingxu burst out laughing—that meant they’d agreed. He really did give the three of them a tour, sharing some of the latest tech from their base and asking about any new gear from Capital Base in return.
Only after finalizing a time with the three and seeing them off did Lu Weiyi realize just how much Zhuang had brought with him on this trip—including crystal-core-powered guns they’d never sold before.
Even knowing Zhuang intended to sell some things, Lu Weiyi didn’t expect this much.
“Yes,” Zhuang admitted cheerfully. “Didn’t you want the other bases to provide rare parts and metals for weapon manufacturing? Without something attractive to trade, it’s not that easy.” Seeing Lu’s confused expression, he sighed, “Xiao Yi, have you ever calculated our base’s daily expenses?”
Lu Weiyi immediately thought of the tens of thousands of earth-type ability users they had.
“Now that fewer members are going out, our income from entry/exit fees is down. Our military squads can’t collect enough zombie cores to cover the daily overhead. We used to rely on core exchanges with other bases, but with mutated flora and fauna rampaging, many of those routes have been cut off.” Zhuang raised his hands. “We’re out of money.”
“That’s why we had Capital Base cover half the cost of the underground tunnel—otherwise we’d have to foot the entire bill. Charging a toll later on will bring long-term income.”
“And from what I’ve heard, our squads are thinking about transitioning to staying inside the base instead of venturing out. That’ll put even more pressure on us. This time, we brought our full team of S-class ability users not for prestige—but to secure long-term deals and help the base generate income.”
Ever since the lab developed the crystal-core purification device, Lu Weiyi hadn’t handled any core-related matters. Whenever he went out, Lin Yimu or Zhuang Mingxu would prepare the necessary cores for him, so he’d simply assumed the base had plenty. Turns out, no one had told him how tight things had gotten.
After thinking for a moment, Lu said, “How about after the summit, I lead a team to clean out some zombies? My uncle said the Capital’s city center is still unoccupied—completely overrun by zombies. We can team up with Capital Base and clear it out. Call it… a way to refill our treasury.”
Zhuang wasn’t sure whether to assign the mission here or wait until they returned to Pingjin. Zombies were now a strange mix of fear and necessity: terrifying when high-level ones appeared, but also a critical source of crystal cores for ability users.
“We haven’t worked with these bases before. Let me think about it,” Zhuang didn’t agree right away. “Starting tomorrow, we’ll probably see a lot of people showing up to exchange for purified cores. I’ve turned one of Uncle’s trading halls into a temporary market—Lin Mo, Xu Sa, and Liu Rui will be running it.”
“We’ll also encourage bases to build underground tunnels. That’ll provide steady and safer core income. Let’s prioritize that first.”
Lu Weiyi nodded in agreement.
*
Three days later, the base summit officially began.
The meeting was hosted by Capital Base’s three major factions. The three leaders sat side-by-side at the main table, all wearing those unmistakable black headbands. To the uninformed, it looked like some new fashion trend—Capital Base had already inspired a few trend-chasers to start making knockoffs.
The rest of the room filled up quickly, circles forming everywhere.
Right at the start, it was announced that one of the bases had gone missing en route to the summit. The entire group had disappeared, and so far, no confirmed details had emerged.
This immediately refocused everyone’s attention, cutting through the casual air of people sizing each other up as they entered.
As the current top priority, the first item discussed was the abnormal reproduction of mutated animals.
“The National Research Institute has established a dedicated research team. After six months of countless tests and experiments, we’ve concluded that the biological changes are caused by a form of radiation-like energy. All the phenomena we’re currently seeing are results of this radiation.”
“This radiation has altered the genes of both humans and animals—humans are trending toward infertility, while animals are experiencing increased fertility.”
As soon as those words fell, a wave of hushed discussion broke out below.
“Isn’t this basically saying humanity is heading for extinction?”
“Exactly. Our base hasn’t had a single child born. Now they’re saying it’s a genetic issue? What are we supposed to do?”
The speaker ignored the reactions and continued.
“There’s another effect—human lifespans have been extended, while animal lifespans have clearly shortened.”
A researcher in a white lab coat went on rambling in highly technical terms, successfully putting many attendees to sleep. Only when he finally reached the point everyone was waiting for did the room perk up.
“We’ve developed a medication that can prevent this situation from deteriorating further. After repeated clinical trials, it shows a 90% effectiveness rate.”
As he finished, someone led the room in applause.
Then someone asked,
“So, are we going to start using this drug?”
Zheng Yi took the microphone and nodded.
“Yes, we’re planning to use it. However, there’s a problem—we can’t feed the drug to mutated animals directly. So we’ve decided to use aerial spraying. But the Capital’s resources are limited and can’t cover every area. Each base will need to supply its own materials for use in nearby regions.”
“What kind of materials?”
“Fuel, crystal cores, and medicine—the quantities are listed in the handouts you’ve received.”
Lu Weiyi passed the sheet directly to Zhuang Mingxu. Zheng Yi’s attitude made it very clear: This is the cost. Take it or leave it.
Whether it was cheap or expensive didn’t really matter.
Next came the second topic—zombie sieges.
A video was projected on the screen, showing scenes from when a base was under attack. A laser pointer highlighted one particular zombie—its hair long and covering half its face.
