Chapter 206 — Smoothly
“Br-Brother Luo, is… is everything okay?”
The group drove past the spot where the two wolves were loitering. In the distance, those two wolves were baring their teeth and growling at the convoy, as if issuing some kind of warning or threat. Several members uneasily checked in with Luo Xun over the walkie-talkie.
Luo Xun couldn’t understand wolf language either; how could he know if everything was okay? However, under the current circumstances, if they stopped their vehicles to stand off against the two wolves, the problem would likely escalate.
Adopting the same attitude one would use before the apocalypse when dealing with a stray dog wandering by the roadside, Luo Xun put on a calm front. “Just keep driving. At most, they’ll just howl a couple of times behind us.” As for whether they would pursue… if they felt they possessed steel teeth and an iron stomach that could digest a truck body, they were welcome to give chase.
With Luo Xun’s reassurance, the group managed to let their hearts drop back into their chests, and the convoy continued to advance slowly toward their base. Perhaps Luo Xun had accurately guessed the behavior patterns of those two wolves, or perhaps they weren’t hungry right now. In any case, they merely howled a few times at the trailing convoy, before curling up together on the green grass by the fields to resume their frolicking, without pursuing them.
They finally managed to haul this exceptionally long queue back inside their underground tunnel. Once the vehicles were inside, everyone discovered with a collective face-fault—their trucks could only sit temporarily inside the tunnel; they couldn’t drive them all the way in!
Although the basement at home had been expanded, the storage warehouses and parking garages meant to hold these supplies hadn’t been constructed yet. The open plaza on the ground level was completely covered with sandified soil laid out to dry, and the first and second floors were temporarily packed with all the miscellany they had gathered… Currently, there was practically no room left to step foot inside the base.
Right now, more than half the length of the tunnel was jammed tight with a mismatched assortment of vehicles. Luo Xun and the team had no choice but to climb down early and walk back toward the basement. Talk about a logistical nightmare…
“Let’s focus on constructing the parking garage tomorrow, and we need to expand the tunnel too—or at least carve out a space where the vehicles can turn around,” Luo Xun suggested helplessly, looking around the area.
“But there’s temporarily no space on the surface to dry any more soil. The dirt we laid out earlier needs to be turned over in a bit, and it requires at least one more day of sun before we can store it away,” Li Tie reported on the conditions above ground, indicating this plan would be rather difficult to implement right away.
Luo Xun scratched his hair helplessly, casting a glance at the group with a sigh. “Then we’ll pull some overtime today. Let’s start by moving all the glass down from the trucks—the two expanded basement rooms aren’t full yet anyway, so we can store the glass there first. Once the soil is turned, we’ll head back there tomorrow and aim to haul back every single remaining pane of glass!”
Consequently, the group scrambled to unload the cargo and organize the supplies. Early the next morning, they drove the long queue of vehicles back to the glass factory they had visited the day before, recovering another massive hoard of glass. Their luck held out on this run; they didn’t encounter those two wolves on their way out or back. However, having hustled for two consecutive days, the entire group was utterly exhausted. Upon returning home, they tumbled into their beds and fell into deep sleeps.
The next morning, having slept in until noon, everyone finally began their day’s labor—shoveling soil and excavating.
Due to the sudden explosion in their household vehicle count, Luo Xun decided they had to handle the parking garage on the second basement level first. The sandified soil excavated from a single garage managed to take up almost the entire above-ground open plaza once more. After a brief discussion, the group decided—the surplus sandified soil would either be scattered around the surrounding mutated vegetation or hauled out to the wild fields later to be piled into small hills.
There was no helping it; they had a staggering number of basement rooms to dig. Although they required soil to cultivate their crops, the amount of dirt currently stored at home was more than enough to sustain them for quite a while, and they would only dig up more as they went. There was truly no place left to store the extra sandified soil.
Thus, from that day onward, the group entered a grueling, bleak existence as soot-covered laborers.
For a full week, they dug until the parking garage was spacious enough to accommodate their massive fleet of over twenty vehicles. A short distance from the tunnel entrance, they also cleared out an expanded space that allowed them to turn the vehicle chassis around. Conveniently, they also finished excavating two planting rooms on the second basement level, and the metal Yan Fei had continuously brought back was finally depleted.
“Although we manage to haul back quite a bit of metal every time, this stuff really vanishes in the blink of an eye,” Luo Xun remarked with a sigh when he thought about the massive construction project awaiting them on the surface, along with at least four foundational basement rooms that needed digging. What he sighed over was simply the fact that he hadn’t expected such a small base to have such an immense appetite for metal. But upon closer thought, it was completely normal; after all, the metal they used couldn’t simply be stacked as raw scrap—it had to be j?ng? (refined) before being deployed. Naturally, the volume required was staggering.
Yan Fei suddenly spoke up. “The next time I collect metal out in the wild, I’ll refine it on the spot before bringing it back. I’ve been overlooking this aspect previously.” Yes, everyone had forgotten about this point previously. They could easily refine the metal while salvaging it, which would spare them from having to refine the massive metal spheres down by nearly one-third every single time upon their return before use.
“Is that convenient?” Luo Xun asked with a trace of concern. Refining metal consumed mental energy. While doing it on the fly out in the wild could save substantial space, it would increase Yan Fei’s workload.
“It’s not a major issue,” Yan Fei said, pointing to the pouch used to hold crystals resting in a corner. “We aren’t short on crystals at home right now; we just need to bring a sufficient amount along whenever we head out.” Ever since discovering the hoard buried beneath the mutated plants, the Otaku Team had never faced a shortage of crystals. While digging the tunnels over the past few days, little Xinran and Yan Fei had been using crystals without holding back. As long as they carried a sufficient stockpile when heading out, Yan Fei naturally didn’t have to worry about running out of steam.
Luo Xun couldn’t help but laugh, looking at little Xinran. “It looks like we’ll have to dedicate some time over the next couple of days to hold another grand treasure hunt.” The last time they incinerated the zombie rats, they had indeed secured a thousand crystals, but how large were the crystals from zombie rats? They were far too small to sustain them, vanishing after a casual distribution.
At his words, little Xinran’s eyes lit up, and she flashed a sweet smile. “Treasure hunting, treasure hunting! That’s way more fun than digging holes!” For the little girl, digging holes counted as a game, but that game offered zero perks aside from producing a pile of sand. In contrast, searching for crystals around the mutated plants yielded immense rewards—those bright, multicolored, glittering objects were exceptionally pleasing to the eye, at least. Little girls always loved vibrant, pretty things.
“If we’re going treasure hunting, should we start with the other mutated fields around the perimeter first? Saving the area right around our home for last?” Xu Mei suddenly suggested.
“Sure, let’s start from the distant fields and handle the close ones later,” Luo Xun agreed. The fields right at their doorstep wouldn’t run away anyway, so they could take their time with them at the very end.
The group rested for a night. The next morning, having been cooped up for a full week, everyone piled into their vehicles and drove out of the base in a lively, grand procession. This time, they only drove three small electric cars and one large truck. While the convoy was more streamlined than before, their task was nowhere near streamlined. Luo Xun intended to take everyone back to the glass factory first—there were still three trailing container beds left there, and the factory facility should contain remaining glass. Aside from the glass, they also planned to haul away some equipment, like machines used to cut glass. As for the manufacturing equipment… those machines were monstrously huge and came in too many varieties. Since Luo Xun and the team weren’t specialists in glass manufacturing, they could only forfeit them with a pang of regret.
While retrieving the glass, they also intended to bring back more wood. With the basement rooms excavated, they would need lumber for however many planting rooms they set up. Naturally, they wanted to haul back as much of this material as possible.
Finally, the remaining, highly critical resource was metal, which Yan Fei could casually refine and collect along the way.
The convoy rumbled majestically to their destination. Fortunately, when they arrived, the factory remained exactly as it had been left; the loose trucks outside, the glass inside, and the equipment were all sitting intact.
They loaded the final batch of glass into the trucks, along with a few practical, compact machines that didn’t take up too much space. Selecting one of the remaining trailing container beds outside to hitch behind their large truck, everyone clapped the dust from their hands, thoroughly pleased as they prepared to pivot to their next location to gather metal.
As the vehicles rolled onto the highway leading toward the elevated bridge, Zhang Su’s voice—he was sitting in the truck’s passenger seat to observe the surroundings—suddenly crackled through the walkie-talkie: “Southeast direction, there seems to be a convoy active.”
Luo Xun froze for a split second, hurriedly pulling out his binoculars to peer in that direction. It was indeed a convoy—a squad of off-road vehicles. Judging by the appearance, it seemed to be a survivor team out scavenging resources, totaling ten vehicles.
“It should be a squad from the base, doesn’t look like military vehicles. Everyone equip your weapons and stay alert. The other side is taking a different route; barring any unexpected developments, we shouldn’t cross paths.” That team was traveling along an alternative road, cutting diagonally into the city center from an intersection ahead. As long as they didn’t harbor intentions of hijacking another team they encountered on the road, Luo Xun and his crew wouldn’t experience any conflict with them.
Facts proved that Luo Xun’s assessment was correct. Although Luo Xun’s group didn’t have many members, they had a substantial number of vehicles! Furthermore, their convoy looked exceptionally orderly from a distance—two large red truck cargo beds linked together, accompanied by three identical white electric cars—making them look like a highly capable, large-scale squad out to scavenge resources. Convoys driving identical vehicles usually belonged to a single, established unit. Compared to loose, mismatched teams that threw forces together temporarily for an excursion, their strength was generally superior, and their coordination was far tighter. Therefore, even if someone harbored predatory thoughts, they would absolutely never target them.
Because the active range of zombies had recently become rather… concentrated, the survivors heading out from various bases to explore had gradually grown bolder. As long as they broadly knew where the zombies were concentrated, these people just had to explicitly detour around those areas to remain relatively safe. Consequently, it was completely normal for survivors to travel further out to visit locations more likely to hold resources.
Luo Xun rubbed his chin. It looked like on their next trip out, they should prioritize visiting the warehouses and transit hubs they had mapped out previously.
Before long, the group arrived near the elevated highway once more. Yan Fei gathered the metal from the bridge. For safety reasons, little Xinran would sandify the spots where the metal was stripped away, lest someone traveling on or beneath the bridge run into danger due to a structural collapse from the missing rebar.
The big one and the small one coordinated seamlessly on this task, getting it sorted in no time.
“Let’s go! Home!” With their tasks smoothly concluded, Luo Xun and the team casually stuffed withered wood from the roadside into their vehicles. They had unexpectedly managed to secure every single target item on this excursion. Heading home early meant they could even cook up a magnificent dinner!
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