Chapter 184 — Stealing a Moment of Leisure
While the team members got out of the vehicles to check on the puppy and tend to its wounds, the others took the opportunity to dig out the crystals from the heads of the zombie dogs. Just then, movement finally stirred within the village once more. A flock of zombies, clad in tattered rags that left them practically naked, came sprinting out with flailing arms.
“Ah! Zombies!” Having not seen a zombie in a long time, the group didn’t know whether to feel thrilled or terrified. They simultaneously raised their weapons and unleashed a barrage of gunfire at the zombies the moment they stepped into firing range.
Hearing the commotion, the puppy whipped its head around. The moment it saw the oncoming horde, it vanished in a flash, scrambling back into the car… Talk about once bitten, twice shy.
It was hard to say whether the zombies here lived a relatively isolated life or if the passing zombie migration had simply left them behind, but the zombies in this area were strictly level one and level two—absolute pushovers in terms of combat strength. Before they could even get within ten meters of the group, they were systematically dropped and stripped of their crystals, silenced forever.
The number of zombies in the small village was quite small. Counting the ones that ran out and the previous zombie dogs, there were only about twenty or thirty in total, and the group took them down with ease.
Climbing back into the vehicles, they slowly approached their next objective: the paint factory. Two zombies were still trapped inside the factory, unable to squeeze their way out. After putting them down, the group rummaged through the facility, loading their truck beds with a massive haul of the paint colors they needed most, while also picking out a smattering of other colors. Unfortunately, the supply of these items was ultimately limited. The raw materials here were scarce, and even if they had been abundant, the team wouldn’t know how to manufacture paint anyway. They could only take these pre-made cans back to make do for now.
After collecting metal and searching the remaining courtyards in the village, they only found a handful of agricultural implements. Most of the items made of metal or stone were still perfectly intact, but everything else had suffered varying degrees of damage. Luo Xun and the others only took a selection of hardware tools, farming implements, and pristine refrigerators and freezers. After that, Yan Fei swept through the area to pillage one final massive hoard of metal before they retraced their steps.
Near the village grew an abundance of trees, many of which had completely withered and died after enduring the trials of the apocalypse. Luo Xun and his team happened to need a vast amount of wood to cultivate their mushrooms, so they unceremoniously began chopping and digging, stuffing entire tree trunks into their vehicles.
To their great fortune, the group also discovered a few trucks parked near the edge of the village. Though their bodies were heavily rusted and damaged from rainwater, as long as the chassis and wheels were sound, Yan Fei could easily repair and modify them into working condition.
Two members were assigned specifically to drive the newly acquired trucks. The truck beds were piled high with a massive haul of excavated tree roots and branches, with the remaining space packed to the brim with metal components. Fully loaded with their spoils, the convoy rumbled back toward their new base.
Luo Xun and the team had basically achieved their goals for this trip. The paint alone filled the entire bed of a small truck, with plenty left over to distribute among the other vehicles. Combined with the massive hoard of lumber, they would only need to go out one or two more times to haul back the rest of the metal they had cached, along with more wood, and their primary raw materials for the renovations would be fully sorted out.
Hauling several heavily loaded vehicles back, their speed was naturally nowhere near as fast as when they had come. By the time evening arrived, the group found an open clearing. Yan Fei constructed a temporary metal shelter as usual, enclosing all the vehicles inside with them.
As everyone gathered around the campfire, Luo Xun was still busy cradling the baby to feed him and change his diapers, while the others hustled around preparing dinner. Zhang Su suddenly sat down next to him and asked, “How are we going to handle crystals from now on?”
“Crystals?” Hearing this, Luo Xun blinked, his brow furrowing as his eyes remained fixed on the baby bottle in his arms. “…There are no good options for now. If it really comes down to it, we’ll just have to find a way to trade with people back at the base… But the amount we can get that way is bound to be limited.”
Though scattered zombies still roamed the wilds, the vast majority had merged into massive zombie tides, migrating and wandering across the land in colossal hordes. The terrifying scale of a zombie tide was not something an ordinary group could handle. Back then, they had used the entire strength of the base just to barely hold the line, only going out to harvest crystals after the tide had receded. Now, with a team of only about ten people… they could provoke small groups of zombies, but if they truly ran into a zombie tide, how could they possibly survive?
Everyone in the room grew a bit dejected at the thought. Back then, how exhilarating had it been when they went out to hunt for crystals? Their efficiency had been vastly superior to several ordinary teams combined. But now? As expected, once zombies formed a massive scale, they had no choice but to retreat.
“We can think of some ways, like setting up traps. When a zombie tide passes through, we can head over after they leave to see if there’s any harvest…” As Luo Xun spoke, he lifted the full little bun upright against his shoulder, gently patting his back to help him burp and relieve his gas. “But I’m afraid that if there’s a zombie in the tide that actually knows how to command, they’ll just destroy the traps directly, and our plan won’t work. Plus, a zombie tide is mobile, but traps are stationary… We can only rely on luck for this kind of thing, and we have to be careful not to let passing humans fall in.” In short, it was ridden with trouble, the return didn’t match the investment, and they had to plan meticulously.
“If you ask me, let’s just sort out our base before worrying about anything else. If we can truly expand our planting area and increase our yield of grain and vegetables, wouldn’t it be much easier to just take them to the base and trade for crystals?” Wang Duo threw an arm around Zhang Su’s shoulder, trying to comfort him, only to receive a sharp roll of the eyes from his beloved.
There was no helping it. At least half the members of their team were superpower users. If they had to rely solely on farming and growing vegetables to trade for the crystals they needed, how much land would they have to cultivate to make ends meet? But since there was truly no other choice for the time being, they could only wait and see—after all, Luo Xun and his team weren’t the only ones short on crystals right now; the base was facing a severe shortage as well.
“Come to think of it, after the base successfully defended against the zombie tide last time, they barely distributed any crystals, right?” Li Tie suddenly recalled.
Silence fell over the group once more as they exchanged helpless glances. Wasn’t that the truth? After the zombie tide receded last time, everyone who participated in the battle received only a token reward of a small fraction of crystals. As for the rest… they had likely been kept by certain higher-ups for internal consumption. Before that zombie tide, the military’s exchange counter still offered plenty of crystals at fair prices, but later on, there was nowhere left to trade. Eventually, their connection with the military broke off entirely, and since Luo Xun and the others had been constantly swamped with other matters, they hadn’t found a suitable place to make exchanges yet.
Night descended, cloaking the entire earth, and then the sun slowly rose from the horizon once more.
Having rested in the wilderness for an entire night, the group packed up their gear at the break of dawn and began their journey home. The vehicles sped past fields and open wilderness. Some distant fields lining both sides of the road looked as though they held mutated plants, but the distance was too great and they had no interest in investigating. They simply passed by in a hurry, leaving quickly.
Returning to their base, Luo Xun and the team opened the entrance to the underground tunnel and drove all their cars and trucks straight inside. Before sealing the main gate this time, Luo Xun and the others measured the area of the metal plate. They planned to head back and construct something that could masquerade as real earth to lay over the top. After all, having little Xinran use sand to cover the entrance every single time before the gate closed wasn’t a sustainable solution.
Only when the vehicles reached the very end of the tunnel did everyone finally breathe a sigh of relief and scramble down. Moving lumber and paint all day yesterday had been utterly exhausting. Now that they were back, everyone planned to take a nice bath to unwind before continuing with their subsequent work.
Returning to their respective rooms, a freshly showered Luo Xun lay face down on the bedding laid out on the floor, which served as their temporary mattress. Twirling a pen in his hand, he was busy sketching and writing in a notebook. Yan Fei pushed the door open and walked in, wiping the remaining moisture from his hair as he walked. Seeing him occupied with something, Yan Fei sat down beside him. “What are you busy with?”
Luo Xun pointed to his notebook, resting his chin in one hand while his other hand continued to spin his pen. “I was thinking… since the open plaza outside is so massive, wouldn’t it be better to just utilize the whole thing? We still have plenty of unused solar panels anyway, and nobody is short on metal right now… Why don’t we just enclose the entire plaza with metal and turn it into a whole single-story space for growing things? The mutated plants outside grow so high that they can practically hide more than half of our building. If we build a single-story structure, as long as we camouflage it well, let alone passing survivors, even satellite photos won’t detect anything. The roof can even be used to dry things later.”
“That works.” Yan Fei leaned in close beside him, practically pressing his weight against Luo Xun’s back as he looked at the unfinished blueprint in his hands. The positions of several nearby structures were already marked inside, and the layout was quite accurate. What Luo Xun was currently doing was “linking” all these buildings together into a single expanse. “This saves a lot of space. We’ll just need to haul back some more metal.”
As he spoke, his hand slipped onto Luo Xun’s lower back.
The hand Luo Xun was using to spin his pen paused for a fraction of a second before resuming its motion. “That won’t be an issue. Every time we go out and take a spin around areas with buildings, we can gather a ton. We even buried some outside this time…”
“Mm, that way we can treat the entire area as a single unit to reinforce it and cover it up with paint.”
Luo Xun suddenly stopped spinning his pen and looked up at Yan Fei. The hand on his back had already slipped past the hem where his top and bottom clothes met, sliding gently along his spine. Blinking, Luo Xun asked with mock innocence, “Indulging in broad daylight?”
Yan Fei arched an eyebrow. “Got a problem with that?”
“…The baby is still here.” Though the words left Luo Xun’s mouth, his body had already turned over, rolling to lie flat on the thick bedding.
“He’s asleep, I just checked.” Yan Fei leaned down. A pair of arms wound around his neck, pulling him down so that he pressed directly against the person beneath him.
They had been so busy lately that the two hadn’t shared a proper intimate moment in a long time. Today, the opportunity was rare and the atmosphere was just right—who would want to pass up this chance to unwind?
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