Chapter 234 — Good and Bad News
Zhang Su’s words acted like a binding curse, causing everyone to freeze once more. Their expressions contorted, and they grew reflexively tenser, like tightly coiled springs that would snap at the slightest touch.
Yan Fei suddenly spoke up to break the silence. He coughed, casting a glance at Zhang Su, who was wearing a wicked smirk and clearly relishing the chaos. “Don’t forget, superpower users are human too. They face danger and die when executing missions outside. Even inside the base, they can die from illnesses or accidents. The corpses they leave behind can also be used for research.”
Conducting experiments on living people and doing so on corpses were two completely different concepts. The former… the less said about it, the better; everyone knew what it implied. But the latter was different. Although experimenting on corpses ran counter to traditional values regarding respect for the deceased and proper burial, in this day and age, as a superpower user—especially a military one—donating one’s body to contribute a final bit of strength to the base after death was actually an honorable thing.
Even before the apocalypse, people had been willing to donate their bodies to save others or for scientific research, let alone now. And even if the authorities didn’t secure prior consent from the deceased, it was still vastly better than testing on live subjects.
Sure enough, the moment Yan Fei said this, the entire group let out a collective sigh of relief, turning to glare at Zhang Su in unison. As for which of the two possibilities was true? Everyone preferred to believe Yan Fei’s deduction. At the same time, however, they grew even more reluctant to consider returning to the City A Base.
The report about superpower users housing crystals in their heads, along with the associated research findings, carried a massive psychological impact. It took Luo Xun and the team a good while to digest it before they resumed reading the other files and reports. Among them, a message sent from another base to the City A Base indicated that a faction would be dispatching a convoy to City A to barter for supplies. Once this update was broadcast within their own base, several independent merchant caravans organized by various survivor squads expressed their intent to trail the main column to City A… to conduct business.
That’s right, to conduct business—using the local products harvested near their own base to trade within City A. While the military barter line remained strictly institutional, the merchants tagging along clearly intended to trade alternative resources with the ordinary populace, or simply barter for crystals.
Catching this update, a spark of minor excitement resonated among the group. Luo Xun made the final call, announcing: “Maintain continuous monitoring of the data related to this transmission. This convoy is estimated to arrive in City A around late August. When the time comes, we’ll evaluate the situation and see if we can exploit the opportunity to trade for a few items.”
The faction spearheading this column seemed to have established their post-apocalyptic base exceptionally close to a major cotton-producing region, meaning they brought a substantial hoard of textiles along—which was precisely what the Otaku Team required. The fabric currently stored at their base had mostly been harvested from a nearby textile city early in the apocalypse, and a significant portion had already been consumed. Even the rolls of fabric and cotton cloth Luo Xun had stockpiled before the world ended had been heavily depleted since moving to the new base, so they desperately needed to replenish their household reserves. Additionally, if the safety parameters permitted, they could exploit the chance to gather inside intelligence regarding City A and the other regional bases.
Of course, all of this was predicated on the condition that the City A Base actually followed through on their reply to the alternative base—claiming they would establish a temporary marketplace outside the base gates, allowing foreign caravans to set up stalls and permitting local squads to bring their supplies out to trade. There was no helping it; even if Luo Xun and the team were willing to liquidate their goods, they harbored zero desire to step inside the gates of the City A Base, especially since the base had been plagued by an overwhelming mess of chaotic affairs lately.
Armed with this information, Luo Xun and the team temporarily relaxed their minds to check the remaining updates. The data was a chaotic medley of everything, mostly consisting of files Li Tie and the guys had intercepted but hadn’t found the time to categorize yet, making the transmissions rather jumbled. Some sections were critical, while others carried far less weight. Everyone skimmed through the documents while eating, shifting their focus to analyze the newly received satellite photos along the way.
“In the short term, our country shouldn’t face a full-scale zombie tide.” Even the massive horde that had rolled past this vicinity previously had already marched across the border, heading straight toward Siberia. Currently, there were no exceptionally large zombie tides active domestically. Luo Xun pointed toward a few specific coordinates. “Only these few foreign zombie columns flanking the borders are bound to cross into our territory in a few months. It’s just unclear exactly when they’ll reach the northern district and draw near our base.”
The domestic zombies had collectively grouped up for an international tour, ranging wildly across the Eurasian continent. However, foreign zombies were also grouping up to sweep across the domestic map. The column Luo Xun was pointing at originated from India, the heavily populated country to the southwest—a territory that, while not as massive as theirs, boasted a population density that aggressively surpassed their own.
What left everyone’s scalps tingling even more was that this massive wave of zombies was highly likely to converge with the smaller zombie columns forming across several Southeast Asian nations! Once this consolidated tide crossed the border, the sheer scale of the threat would easily rival the destructive fury of the domestic zombie tides swarming together.
What Luo Xun and the team worried about most was that due to the population density parameters, the volume of incoming foreign zombies might vastly exceed the original domestic count. He even harbored silent doubts regarding whether survivors in those countries had successfully managed to establish functional bases at all.
After all, the data transmitted by the satellites also contained a fair amount of international intelligence; they had previously caught communications originating from America, Britain, and the vast majority of European nations, yet they hadn’t detected a single shred of data from the native coordinates of this oncoming zombie tide. Heaven only knew what the current state of affairs was over there.
“There’s still a fair duration of time before this specific zombie tide draws near our coordinates. Let’s focus comfortably on building our base and reinforcing our defensive framework for now; we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Yan Fei offered comfort, wrapping an arm around Luo Xun’s shoulder while pointing toward the dishes on the dining table. “Let’s finish lunch first. We still need to categorize the crystals and busy ourselves with the planting rooms later.”
“Right, let’s eat first!” Even if that wave of zombies crossed the border, they would first have to plow through several major bases operating in the south. Currently, by cross-referencing the various data transmissions—and even the coordinates leaked by those factions themselves—Luo Xun and the team had successfully mapped out the positions of the vast majority of surviving bases across the country. If that zombie tide entered the territory, the initial clashes would inevitably lock down those southern bases. When the time came, associated intelligence was bound to broadcast, allowing them to draft tailored countermeasures based on the data.
Eating and drinking their fill, the group headed straight down to the basement to finalize the various chores across the planting rooms first. Only after that did everyone deploy to the storage room holding the crystals to resume their unfinished labor.
Although screening the crystals was incredibly tedious and jumbled, everyone’s harvest over these few days was genuinely phenomenal. Previously, the group had been worrying about where to unearth level-five crystals to push the progression of the remaining superpower users who hadn’t reached level five yet. Now, thanks to this screening process, they had located precisely what everyone required without having to travel a single step from home.
Not only did they secure a match for a common class like Xu Mei’s fire attribute, but they even managed to secure a sand-type crystal for little Xinran. However, while Xu Mei’s level-five crystal was standard in size, the sand-type crystals unearned for little Xinran consisted of three remarkably compact level-five crystals harvested from some unknown animals.
Armed with Zhang Su’s prior demonstration as a blueprint, grinding little Xinran’s tier progression was incredibly elementary, taking barely ten minutes or so from start to finish to wrap up the breakthrough.
The lone aspect of these crystals that caused a bit of a headache was the uneven distribution of attributes. Among the sorted piles, wind-type crystals occupied the absolute lowest count, and they failed to unearth a single level-five wind crystal, the absolute highest tier topping out at level four.
There was no helping it; wind-type zombies capable of wielding level-five abilities all preferred to soar through the atmosphere, meaning the mutated vegetation anchored to the earth naturally lacked the capability to ensnare them.
Regarding alternative elemental classes, although level-five crystals remained exceptionally rare, after sorting through the pile for so many days, they were bound to unearth a few pieces. Even if the absolute mass was compact—visibly distinct from the size of a standard zombie crystal—at least they could find a few, right? Except for the wind attribute… leaving everyone to cast a look of deep, sympathetic pity toward Zhang Su.
Fortunately, since Zhang Su had already broken through to level five anyway, even if the absolute count of wind crystals ran short, the reserve was perfectly sufficient for his daily needs. Worst case scenario, they still housed a massive mountain of non-attributed transparent crystals at home! Those would serve just as well to replenish his energy.
Their busy lifestyle continued along its trajectory—sorting through the crystals daily, harvesting vegetables, planting fresh crops, playing video games, and amusing the child and the dog along the way. Their daily routine slipped past smoothly day after day, appearing exceptionally leisurely and comfortable.
While living out their comfortable lifestyle, Luo Xun and the team monitored the various external communications. Currently, now that they housed a functional satellite signal receiver at home, although they couldn’t achieve the pre-apocalyptic luxury of knowing every global event through a computer network without stepping past their front door, they retained a clear grasp of general macro updates.
Not long after the initial column that declared its intent to trade at the City A Base hit the road, movements erupted across several alternative bases as well, similarly announcing they would dispatch columns to City A to engage in resource bartering. The cargo they carried consisted entirely of the specialized materials abundant near their respective base perimeters.
The City A Base explicitly decreed to the public—prior to the arrival of the foreign convoys, they would construct a pristine, dedicated marketplace outside the base gates specifically to coordinate the exchange of goods. When the time came, the civilian population residing inside the City A Base would be permitted to exploit the opportunity to step outside to barter for supplies and goods. Furthermore, during those specific days, local residents would be exempt from the standard fee to exit the base gates, with the administration merely levying a minor entry fee for the marketplace. However, foreign traders would be confined strictly to lodging outside the perimeter walls and were strictly forbidden from entering the base proper; anyone wishing to step inside the gates would be processed according to the regulations governing raw refugees seeking sanctuary, requiring a premium entry tariff.
This highly favorable development left even Luo Xun and his team feeling a touch of inspiration, provided the officials refrained from conducting an absolute, itemized inspection regarding the identity of every single stall operator, and as long as they permitted ordinary civilians to freely set up stalls to liquidate their goods as well.
Armed with this excellent news, the group’s momentum skyrocketed as they focused on drying their vegetables and harvesting crops that possessed long-term shelf lives. Not to mention, the crystal-sorting labor—which they usually tackled at a leisurely pace to pass the hours—was rapidly brought to a conclusion, with the entire mountain successfully categorized into distinct attributes.
After a brief discussion, Luo Xun and the team selected a fraction of high, mid, and low-tier crystals from alternative classes that their household had no use for, preparing them to serve as their “inventory” or currency for this upcoming marketplace excursion.
The moment they finally intercepted confirmation that the vanguard convoy from the first external base had successfully arrived and settled into the marketplace, the group began prepping their travel rations. Three days later, when word arrived that the remaining columns had systematically reached the coordinates and City A had officially permitted ordinary civilians to venture out to browse the marketplace, the group finally loaded their cargo into the vehicles. Driving their large cargo trucks and small electric car out from the main gate of their base, they steered the convoy straight toward the City A Base.
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