Chapter 205 — Glass
“Whoosh—”
The moment the zombie rats lunged, a vibrant crimson firewall instantly erupted before the group. However, a firewall lacked solid substance. Although it momentarily hindered the zombie rats’ advance, the creatures quickly used their sheer momentum to tear straight through the flames. Following closely behind, a barrage of thud-thud-thud sounds echoed as they slammed into a metal wall that manifested in the blink of an eye.
Without needing Luo Xun’s orders, every single member of the team reacted instantaneously to the sudden crisis. The metal Yan Fei had casually collected along the road now served a massive purpose. Combined with the metal each vehicle had brought out from the base, a colossal metal wall was rapidly erected in front of the group.
Peering through a small aperture Yan Fei had intentionally left open, Luo Xun’s face darkened when he spotted a continuous stream of zombie rats pouring out from the other trucks, the factory gates, and the surrounding structures. “Form a defensive fortification! There are zombie rats inside the factory as well, and their numbers are massive!”
Although looks of surprise flashed across everyone’s faces, they vanished in an instant. Li Tie and the guys immediately ran back to their vehicles, hauling down the weapons, gasoline, and mushroom juice they had brought along. Yan Fei rapidly extracted metal from the surrounding environment—including several nearby trucks, the factory gates, and neighboring buildings. Meanwhile, through the small hole left by Yan Fei, little Xinran manipulated the earth, sandifying a ring of soil just outside the perimeter of the metal plating.
In a mere twenty minutes, an army of at least a thousand rats had swarmed around the rapidly formed metal dome! The dense, writhing mass was enough to make anyone with a hint of trypophobia break into goosebumps.
Twenty minutes was more than enough time for Yan Fei to construct a completely airtight metal fortification, pre-installing conduits to pour mushroom juice and gasoline into the sand trenches outside. Twenty minutes was enough time for little Xinran to excavate a massive ring of pits around the structure. And twenty minutes was plenty of time for the remaining members to unload every item from the trucks, readying themselves for a counterattack at a moment’s notice.
Luo Xun observed for another five minutes. Once he confirmed that no more zombie rats were pouring out from the distant warehouses, he turned to the group. “We can’t lay metal plates inside the sand pits outside right now, so we’ll first use the water guns to blast a layer of mushroom juice into the bottom. We’ll save the conduits to pour gasoline in a bit.”
Their current gasoline supply was limited. Although they worried about whether the mushroom juice would leave any adverse effects on the soil, this was their only viable option—spraying from above was far safer than directly filling the bottom of the pits with mushroom juice via the pipes.
Armed with a water gun each, everyone selected a peephole and opened fire on the densest concentrations of zombie rats outside! The reddish-bright mushroom juice hadn’t been put to use in a long time. The mutated mushrooms at home had long since proliferated into an absolute plague. Because their underground planting area grew larger by the day, the number of these mushrooms increased continuously. Initially, everyone actively harvested them, extracting the juice to freeze for storage. But as the stockpile grew and they found no places to use it, they had no choice but to incinerate the surplus, keeping only a fraction for emergencies.
Therefore, running into this army of zombie rats left everyone genuinely grateful for their timely arrival, providing an excellent proving ground for the mutated mushroom juice.
Once their supply of mushroom juice was mostly depleted, they poured a layer of gasoline into the pits and ignited it. A raging fire instantly erupted, roasting the exterior metal shell until it glowed a vibrant crimson.
The group gathered tightly in the absolute center of the fortification. Zhang Su continuously cycled the interior air through a “chimney” on the roof, keeping everyone cool.
“They charged out too quickly this time, leaving us no time to build a larger metal shelter. This is turning out to be quite a sweatbox,” He Qiankun complained, constantly yanking at his collar to fan himself.
Song Lingling and Xu Mei snickered. “Qiankun, you really need to lose some weight.”
He Qiankun’s forehead was slick with sweat. In truth, within the entire room, he was the only one who appeared thoroughly miserable from the heat. Under the gentle breeze provided by Zhang Su, the others stated that while the temperature was high, it was completely bearable.
The plump He Qiankun looked helpless and deeply wronged. “The apocalypse has been raging for so long, yet I haven’t lost much weight at all. I don’t perform a fraction less labor than anyone else every day, and I don’t eat much extra food either, but I just can’t trim down…” He found it highly bizarre as well. Why did he remain so round after all this time? Could it be that his physique wouldn’t lean down even if he encountered a literal famine?
Beside him, Wu Xin reached out to pat He Qiankun’s belly, confirming to the group with a solemn face, “Actually, he did lose weight. This stomach is way smaller than it was before the apocalypse—he’s shrunk by at least two sizes, right?”
The others giggled as they took turns patting his belly. “Keep it up, Qiankun! In another two years like this, your stomach will shrink by another two sizes.”
When other people dieted, they lost a few pounds or even a dozen pounds in a month or two. But for He Qiankun, it had to be measured in years. Could this be some kind of bizarre curse?
The feast of roasted zombie rats lasted for over three hours before the group finally stepped out from behind the metal walls, which were still radiating heat. Before doing so, Song Lingling had doused the iron plates with a torrent of water to cool them down.
After harvesting the crystals from the carcasses of the zombie rats and using sand to refill the massive pits they had excavated, the group finally approached the large trucks with extreme caution.
This time, they had Yan Fei use his ability to pry open the vehicle doors in advance, meticulously scanning the interior for any threats. They also had Zhang Su use his wind ability to sweep through the cabs once more, confirming the trucks were completely clear before they dared draw close. There was no helping it; the sight of a swarm of zombie rats bursting out from the cargo beds just now had been far too shocking, and they had to stay on their guard.
“Do you guys think… we can still drive these trucks?” Wang Duo asked somewhat uneasily, peering into a cab. The interior components were perfectly intact, but with so many zombie rats crammed inside just a moment ago, heaven only knew if the space was contaminated with the zombie virus.
Luo Xun knit his brows, conducting a sweep of the vehicles without offering an immediate opinion. Walking to the rear of a truck, he pointed at the cargo container. “Let’s see what’s inside here.”
Weapon in hand, the entire group stood a safe distance away from the container doors, terrified that a fresh swarm of zombie rats might burst out the moment the lock was thrown.
Yan Fei handled prying the doors open as usual. The moment the latch clicked, everyone raised their weapons, ready to unleash their superpowers at a moment’s notice. To their relief, absolutely nothing rushed out…
“Glass?”
“Huh?! These trucks were actually used to haul glass!!”
“Captain, trucks parked before a glass factory—if they aren’t loading glass, what the hell else would they be doing?”
The moment the doors swung open, everyone spotted massive panes of glass stacked vertically inside the cargo beds, each supported securely by a wooden frame, filling the container beds to the absolute brim.
At this sight, the eyes of everyone present lit up completely, and they burst into ecstatic cheers—there was no helping it; they had coveted these items for far too long!
Everyone turned their shining eyes toward Luo Xun, their intent crystal clear—Haul them back! Leave not a single pane behind!
Luo Xun naturally had no intention of letting these pristine goods slip through his fingers either. With these assets, their above-ground greenhouses finally had a guarantee, provided they could transport them all back safely.
Taking a turn around the large trucks, Luo Xun pointed at the coupling joint between the cab and the trailing chassis. “This type is hitched directly behind the cab. If the weight isn’t too extreme, we can link two cargo containers together to haul them away in a single run.”
“But… are the trucks functional?” Li Tie pointed toward a cab with lingering trepidation. Heaven knew how many zombie rats had been nesting inside just a moment ago…
Luo Xun smiled. “A thorough cleaning will sort out any issues. Besides… we have to find the keys first.”
Yes, without the car keys, they couldn’t move these trucks even if they wanted to. Furthermore, there was the issue of fuel; they had already burned a portion of the gasoline they brought along. Even if their remaining stash was enough for the return journey, they couldn’t guarantee it would hold out until their next trip back to the Southwest Base to trade for more.
After a meticulous search that lasted for a good while, they confirmed that one of the trucks still had its key inserted in the ignition, completely ready for use. In addition, they unearthed the key to another truck from the corpse of a zombie they had dispatched earlier.
Securing these two keys sent a surge of excitement through the group. They decided to completely strip away the seats, mats, and leather covers from inside the two cabs, letting Song Lingling use her water ability to blast the interiors for a long while. Only after confirming the sanitation standards were met did they decide to operate these two trucks.
Seven large red trucks were parked outside the glass factory. Three of them were packed full of glass, while one of the remaining four only held a few loose panes.
After a brief discussion, the group decided to enter the factory first to inspect the situation, checking how much glass remained inside and if there were any smaller panes that could fit into the cars they had driven. After all, it was a rare opportunity to visit this facility, and they needed to maximize their haul of key materials. Otherwise, if they encountered a similar situation on their next visit, they might not have enough gasoline to incinerate an army of zombie rats—relying solely on Xu Mei’s fire ability to burn them would take until the end of time.
Entering the glass factory with extreme caution, they conducted a thorough sweep for half an hour, confirming that no other zombie rats were nesting inside. To their delight, the warehouse still held a substantial inventory of manufactured glass that hadn’t been loaded onto trucks yet. Remarkably, in a smaller storage room, they discovered several large barrels of gasoline—more than enough to replenish the fuel they had consumed earlier!
Brimming with their immense spoils, the group loaded several massive panes of glass onto the partially empty trucks. They used pre-existing racks from the factory to pack the gasoline and smaller glass panes securely into the cargo beds of their own cars before driving home in absolute satisfaction.
On this run, they abandoned the truck they had driven out, swapping it for the two new, larger cargo trucks. Each truck pulled an extra trailing container bed hitched behind it, allowing them to haul away four container beds packed with glass in a single clean sweep.
Two double-length cargo trucks, four electric cars the length of small minivans, combined with the two massive metal spheres Yan Fei casually commanded alongside them—the sheer scale of this convoy was completely imposing as it rumbled along.
As the convoy rolled back near their base, they encountered two certain wolves frolicking on the grass. Catching sight of two massive, red, caterpillar-like shapes rumbling toward them from a distance, the wolves scrambled up in sheer shock, darting onto the grass by the roadside and baring their teeth from a distance… You couldn’t blame them; the truck Luo Xun and the team had driven previously was blue, relatively compact, and its paint job was mostly stripped and completely unassuming. Crucially, that vehicle didn’t look anywhere near as monstrously long as these two trucks with four interconnected container beds.
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