Chapter 67: A New Type of Bullet
By the time they came out of the registration office, the girl who had appeared out of nowhere and then run off just as inexplicably was already nowhere to be seen.
Everyone’s attention was drawn by the aroma of food drifting through the air. After spending the past few days out on missions, eating nothing but dry rations along the way, they hadn’t had a single proper hot meal. Now that they caught a whiff of the scent, they all felt hungry.
The cafeteria’s offerings for the day were vegetable noodle soup and corn cakes served with radish soup. Each portion cost only one work point. The corn cakes weren’t particularly tasty, but the portions were generous—each weighed a full two liang—and they came with a bowl of radish soup simmered with bone broth.
While waiting in line, they ran into some soldiers who had also come to eat. Throughout the entire base, from officers to ordinary soldiers, everyone ate the same food as the regular survivors—whatever the cafeteria served, that was what they had. Zheng Jiahe, who was naturally sociable, immediately struck up a conversation with them. Coincidentally, one of the soldiers was a noncommissioned officer who had come to collect meals on behalf of Regiment Commander Jiang. Naturally, he recognized them and was happy to take the chance to get closer, and the two sides chatted cheerfully.
According to the NCO, a team that had gone out of the city to gather supplies the day before had run into a rampaging mutated pig. It took five or six people getting injured before they finally captured it. After bringing it back and slaughtering it, the meat they divided up amounted to five or six hundred jin. All the bones were sent to the cafeteria to make soup, so that survivors who hadn’t tasted meat in a long time could at least savor the flavor. The radishes and leafy greens had all been hastily grown over the past few days by two wood-type ability users. The quantities were pitifully small, but just barely enough to meet the cafeteria’s needs.
It was really just good luck for Zhan Yun and the others—they happened to return right in time for such a treat. After swiping their identity cards to deduct the work points, they smoothly received their food. Since they had plenty of work points, they each took a serving of both noodles and corn cakes. No one thought they were buying too much; after all, meals like this were rare, and many people clenched their teeth and spent extra work points to buy an additional portion.
The corn cakes were a bit dry on their own, but much better when eaten with the radish soup. There were only two thin strips of radish in the soup, each no thicker than a finger, but they had been stewed until soft and tender, carrying a rich meaty flavor that was incredibly delicious. Just look at how everyone who got a serving cherished it, drinking the soup down to the last drop without wasting a single bit.
The vegetables in the noodle soup were chopped very finely, with a few scattered bits of minced meat mixed in. Together with two liang of noodles, it was enough to fill most people up. The broth was probably bone broth as well—fresh and flavorful. The bowls sent to the washing area were all spotless. While people nowadays were extremely careful about food and leftovers were rare, seeing bowls eaten so clean they practically shone was truly a first.
All of Zhan Yun’s group were ability users with hearty appetites. Since they had plenty of work points anyway, they went back for several more servings.
From the casual conversations around them, they learned that the base was now vigorously recruiting ability users. In particular, water-type and wood-type users were in high demand. Water-type users only needed to release water each day, while wood-type users just had to grow some vegetables—the benefits were extremely good. It was said that a water-type user could earn five work points a day by providing a hundred liters of purified water, and a wood-type user could earn the same by growing just a few vegetables daily. The city defense force was also recruiting combat-type ability users, and their benefits were said to be even higher.
In his previous life, Su Ruizhe had also grown vegetables at the L City Base, but there had been no cafeteria at all. After finishing work, he was often just tossed a pack or two of biscuits to get by. He also had to save part of his rations to share with his uncle’s family, so he was basically never full. Chen Huizhen had even urged him to secretly hide some vegetables, but the base issued a fixed number of seeds each day, and the required quota of vegetables had to be handed in in full—there was simply no way for him to stash any away.
Hearing about the benefit given to wood-type ability users, Su Ruizhe felt an indescribable flicker of envy.
“What’s wrong?” Zhan Yun noticed that Su Ruizhe seemed distracted and reached out to squeeze his hand.
“Nothing.” Meeting Zhan Yun’s concerned gaze, Su Ruizhe broke into a bright smile. His life now was already completely different from his previous one.
After eating and drinking their fill, everyone returned to the mid-rise building where they lived. After being away for six or seven days, dust had accumulated everywhere, so they all pitched in to clean the place. Zheng Jiahe muttered that next time they had the chance, they absolutely had to bring back a vacuum cleaner or a robot sweeper.
The next day, the soldiers began installing solar power equipment throughout the base. The daytime sun was extremely harsh, so solar energy was abundant and could basically guarantee the base’s daily electricity needs. In places where large numbers of survivors often gathered, such as the mission hall and the cafeteria, air conditioners began to run. Electric fans whirred to life in the dormitory buildings, greatly easing the effects of the intense heat on everyone.
Commander Zhang kept his word and personally brought people to install a dedicated solar power system at Zhan Yun and the others’ residence. This way, they could use electricity as they pleased.
Everyone was delighted. Not only could they openly run the air conditioner indoors now, they could also use electric water heaters to take hot showers.
However, Commander Zhang’s personal visit wasn’t just to deliver the promised reward—he also brought them some news.
The research institute had confirmed the information that “plants contain certain elements that have a suppressive effect on the zombie virus.” Over the past few days, the base’s research center had been conducting studies based on the plant-bullet samples provided by Su Ruizhe, and they had now achieved a breakthrough.
They had developed a new type of plant-based bullet. Researchers extracted an essence from plants and then loaded it into specially made bullets. The principle was roughly the same as the silver-nitrate bullets designed to deal with werewolves and vampires in some Western movies.
Tests showed that once this plant bullet hit a zombie, the plant essence it contained would enter the zombie’s body and cause significant damage. Its lethality was on par with the pea bullets provided by Su Ruizhe. The base was now working on ways to mass-produce this new type of ammunition.
The base decided to open up the exchange of this new ammunition to survivors. At the same time, they would publicly announce that fruit and vegetable juice could help those scratched by zombies resist mutation, in hopes of increasing the survival rate of ability users and encouraging survivors to bravely venture outside the base.
The world’s population numbered seven to eight billion, with China accounting for nearly two-fifths of it. More than half of that population had turned into zombies, and their numbers were still steadily increasing. Zombies never grew tired, did not fear death, and were constantly evolving. If they didn’t take advantage of the present moment to kill as many zombies as possible, the only thing awaiting humanity was extinction.
The base expressed deep gratitude to Su Ruizhe and his team for their contributions. They would grant them a sum of supplies or work points as thanks, and if they had any other needs, they could put forward their requests freely—the base would do its utmost to satisfy them.
This series of decisions by the base greatly improved Su Ruizhe and Zhan Yun’s impression of the Southern Base. The Southern Base conducted itself with integrity and truly worked for the welfare of the people, doing its best to ensure that everyone had a chance to survive, while also striving for the future of humanity.
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