Chapter 259 — No, Everything Is Just Beginning
Exactly three full years had passed since that massive base schism.
The City A Base of the past had now completely leveled all the structures within the outer city zone, mirroring how it had cleared out alternative buildings within a certain radius outside the base walls early on.
The open ground was heavily carpeted with steel needles and hidden traps, and functional landmines and electrified fencing networks were systematically deployed across numerous coordinates. Those city walls, which had already been immensely towering and imposing in the past, were currently rendered vastly sturdier and more massive.
The reconstructed base, having successfully risen from the ashes, remains one of the largest structural bases within the domestic map currently. It commanded the sturdiest battlements, the most secure roofing frameworks, and the most expansive agricultural cultivation centers, rounded out by a wealth of raw resources and heavy firearms.
Yet currently, an immense, pressing dilemma confronting the command structure of the City A Base remained a parameter that could not be overlooked—the absolute population mass. Back when the base originally partitioned into the inner and outer sectors, a fair collection of individuals had plying the exclusive privileges commanded by the inner base to either forcefully wed or ruthlessly manipulate the population. In short, the vast majority of the young women inside the complex whose appearances scored above average had been seamlessly enticed into the inner city parameters.
Although those women had managed to successfully survive the subsequent successions of zombie sieges, for some unknown underlying biological catalyst, the human reproductive rate inside the complex had plummeted to an absolute nadir. Throughout these three full years, the number of infants born within the walls could be handily counted on a single hand.
On the alternative flank, the immense mass of survivors who had executed a total evacuation to leave the City A Base early on had sequentially doubled back to nest within the ruins of the past urban cores, structuring a medley of large and small independent camps along the way. Alternatively, they forged deep into the desolate wild to manually assemble compact shelters that belonged entirely to them.
These large and small independent camps had long since been seamlessly blended into the macro calculations of that massive zombie tide—which was currently rambling unrestrictedly across the Eurasian landmass—absorbing a continuous succession of grueling baptisms along the way. Among their ranks, a fraction of the camps proved unable to anchor their defense lines, completely vanishing from the face of this post-apocalyptic reality down the line. Yet identically, a substantial volume of independent bases handily and stubbornly weathered every single wave of these testing baptisms, remaining perfectly preserved to this exact hour.
And currently, that colossal primary zombie tide had weathered endless layers of hostile engagements against wild mutated wildlife, fierce brawls against rampant mutated vegetation, and physical clashes against the remaining human survival columns. Consequently, their absolute numerical mass had long since ceased to be anywhere near as cartoonishly exaggerated as it was early on. Provided zero unpredictable anomalies manifested, the overwhelming majority of the bases engineered by the survivors could comfortably weather the grueling stretch whenever the horde went on a frantic rampage.
The spring morning breeze brushed gently across the face, carrying a trace of a crisp, refreshing chill.
Luo Xun let out a lazy stretch, standing before the window frame to watch the distant horizon—a magnificent blend of pale blue and shimmering gold—gradually and beautifully brighten.
“Father, Father.” A child sat up from his miniature crib, calling out toward Luo Xun’s coordinate.
“Rolled out of sleep already?” Luo Xun turned around to stride back to the crib, scooping the child up into his arms to plant a couple of affectionate kisses across his tender, chubby cheeks.
The baby rubbed his eyes, his tiny head turning left and right to scan the master bedroom layout. “Father, where is Father?” Because neither Yan Fei nor Luo Xun was willing to absorb the designation of “Mother,” and the term “Papa” had been systematically cast aside by the child as he grew older, the ultimate loop line was—he addressed both men as “Father.” Although the setup appeared slightly confusing on the surface, every single time the child vocalized to summon someone, Luo Xun and Yan Fei experienced a structural telepathy of sorts, knowing with absolute certainty precisely which partner the baby was targeting.
“Your Father Yan deployed outside to release the doggies. Come, precious, let’s get you dressed~ We’re stepping past the gates before long!” Saying this, he reached down to retrieve the child’s garments to initiate the change.
While the large and small silhouettes were actively busy changing clothes to prep for going downstairs to wash up, Yan Fei threw open the door and glided back inside. Catching that the pair had successfully rolled out of bed, he stepped up with a warm smile to plant a gentle kiss across each of their cheeks. “I’ve already moved all our gear downstairs and loaded the vehicle beds. The absolute moment we finish consuming breakfast, our column can immediately hit the road.”
“What’s the status of those three?” Luo Xun asked casually, gently guiding his son’s tiny legs into a pair of compact trousers.
“They’re all resting outside currently. They’ll trail along right beside the trucks when we roll out.”
Verifying that the child’s clothing parameters bore zero issues, the pair cradled him along to deploy down to the first-floor bathroom tracks to wash up.
Three full years into the apocalypse, a massive block of the independent survivors who had exited the base proper early on had, for the baseline requirements of long-term survival and security, sequentially unlocked a fresh layer of interaction with those seemingly familiar mutated animals.
Mutated predators didn’t just command exceptional individual combat output; they could seamlessly assist in hunting wild game, systematically slaughter zombie units, and carry their human partners to execute a lightning-fast tactical escape during a critical bottleneck. Consequently, within the current landscape of the post-apocalyptic world, exactly which independent base managed to maintain a sufficiently massive density of domesticated mutated animals had transformed into an absolute showcase of raw structural strength.
Ever since this tactical fashion swept across the medley of compact independent bases, Luo Xun and his team would openly bring their own household mutated animals along whenever they rolled out, letting the predators escort the truck column along the entire highway route. Today’s deployment mapped onto an identical logic.
Consuming breakfast and executing a sweeping verification to confirm that the household crops inside the vaults grew perfectly normal, the crew finally gathered up a specific fraction of their private cargo, driving the vehicles to exit the secret subterranean tunnel tracks.
By this point, the Otaku Team complex had undergone a secondary round of large-scale structural remodeling. The absolute cultivation perimeter of the Devil’s Vines flanking their exterior had aggressively expanded by over double its past footprint throughout these three years; a fraction of the thickets comprised clusters Luo Xun and the team had explicitly nurtured and transplanted, while the alternative mass represented the wild vines multiplying and spreading out on their own.
These Devil’s Vines rose a full double in height compared against their past parameters, their stalks rendering an absolute two times thicker. For the baseline long-term security parameters of their home base, Luo Xun and the team had systematically raised the absolute height of the above-ground glass greenhouse, bringing the apex panels level with the third-floor residential block currently.
It was profoundly fortunate that upon hitting these current dimensions, the Devil’s Vines had thoroughly ceased their vertical growth, visibly reaching an absolute biological ceiling. Otherwise, Luo Xun and the team wouldn’t possibly be able to keep raising the height of their complex year after year until the framework punched straight into heaven, right?
The subterranean tiers had similarly been expanded by an additional floor level, while the layout panned out horizontally across the perimeter to aggressively scale up the spatial footprint of several rooms. The newly structured subterranean floor had been completely and beautifully converted into an integrated ice house. This ice cellar was partitioned into two independent vaults; one block was explicitly dedicated to storing the toxic mushroom juice reserves, while the alternative vault stashed a heavy volume of various massive game items harvested from their hunts, serving as the squad’s absolute backup food supply. Because these twin ice cellars penetrated exceptionally deep into the subterranean bedrock and sat entirely detached from the alternative residential rooms, they persistently relied on the massive ice blocks harvested during the winter to maintain their freezing temperatures. Luo Xun and the team had casually mounted a medley of industrial cooling mechanisms on top of that, plying the compressors whenever a specific necessity arose to rapidly drop the temperature indexes.
The vehicle column rolled out of the base in a majestic, single-file line. Two massive wolves galloped with a rhythmic stride right alongside the truck cabs, while a pair of eagles soared gracefully across the upper sky. Speaking of these twin household eagles, for some unknown underlying parameter, although their individual elemental superpower tiers ran exceptionally premium, their absolute physical bulk had consistently refrained from expanding to an exaggerated dimension, remaining visibly more compact than their biological parents at the very least…
Reminiscing about their biological parents, it is handily linked to the exact target coordinate Luo Xun and the team were steering their trucks toward on this run—the precise small township where they had early on harvested these twin eaglets, and where they had crossed paths with that inflatable castle in the past.
Following the breaching of the City A Base outer fortifications, a specific fraction of the displaced survivors had migrated to nest within this small county ruins. A single year down the line, this coordinate had remarkably begun to flourish along a steady trajectory, successfully anchoring its defense lines to flatten the onslaught of that massive zombie tide that struck during that specific winter. A heavy density of large and small independent bases had subsequently clustered to settle flanking the immediate perimeter of this residential nexus. As the timeline lengthened, this coordinate had handily stabilized an independent trade fair that spontaneously materialized roughly three times annually across irregular intervals, functioning as an open marketplace where the personnel of the various compact independent bases voluntarily assembled stalls to liquidate or trade for cargo.
And it was right at this coordinate that Luo Xun and the team successfully established an operational acquaintance with the original residents holed inside those concrete towers—the exact survivors they had suspected were nesting inside the ruins early on in the apocalypse. Those survivors noted that they recognized these twin eagles and commanded explicit data regarding their biological parents. It appeared that because these two specific eaglets had been born with a relatively compact physical bulk, the moment the alternative fledglings lining the nest grew to maturity, their parents and siblings unceremoniously abandoned these two late-born, undersized, resource-wasting chicks that they evaluated stood zero probability of being successfully reared, independently guiding the remaining offspring to fly back south ahead of schedule.
SCREECH—SCREECH—
Dual torrents of clear, sweeping avian cries echoed from the upper sky. Not far ahead, the misty silhouettes of a massive cluster of high and low concrete architecture gradually crystallized within the group’s visual field. A sleek, colossal feline silhouette came bounding lightly across the tracks from the direction of the ruins, a human rider balanced elegantly across its back as it raced straight toward Luo Xun’s vehicle column. Arriving level with the vanguard truck, the pristine white Persian cat whipped its expansive, fluffy tail, circuiting the trucks for a couple of laps before leaning its face down to affectionately rub against the cab panels of the lead electric vehicle, letting out a highly fawning “Meow~” along the way.
Luo Xun fished a piece of dehydrated fish leather out from his pack—this asset comprised pure trimmings from those plump grass carps harvested at home, thoroughly air-dried to serve as an absolute premium bribe to manage this specific feline.
The colossal cat unceremoniously clamped its jaws around the fish leather with absolute bliss, narrowing its eyes as it meticulously nibbled the snack section by section. The human balanced across its back flashed a warm smile to Luo Xun and the crew holed inside the cab: “The trading factions have mostly finalized their arrivals. Your squad’s customized marketplace stall has been explicitly held in reserve for you.”
“Much obliged,” Luo Xun raised his eyes to return a crisp smile. Regarding this rider’s external aesthetic parameters, the visual output was absolutely anchored on an identical competitive tier as Zhang Su and Yan Fei. However, his stylistic profile mapped out significantly closer to Zhang Su’s baseline line; parsing it in elementary terminology—the guy was an absolute uke. Compared against Zhang Su’s brand of breathtaking, otherworldly allure that mirrored a literal elemental sprite, this young man appeared significantly more delicate and ethereal. His physical skeletal framework ran visibly slighter than a standard male’s, his facial contours were exceptionally soft and refined, and a head of silk-like, midnight-black hair that stubbornly grew back regardless of how closely it was sheared had been loosely gathered and bound atop his crown. Crucially, a pair of deep, obsidian-green irises framed his face. Even on regular regular hours when his features sat perfectly neutral, the corners of his lips remained naturally curled into a slight, upward tilt.
Finishing its piece of fish leather, the colossal cat stared fixedly as its master gracefully accepted a fully packed sack of loose fish leather from Luo Xun’s hands before finally purring with complete satisfaction to clear the tracks. Proudly hoisting its massive, fluffy tail high into the air, the feline guided its equally beautiful, literally radiating master along the thoroughfare to spearhead the column, systematically pursued by the twin dimwitted wolves who were putting on an intensely fawning display behind its tail.
Steering the truck along the lane, Luo Xun let out a soft sigh: “Sigh, it’s honestly no wonder he chose to stay stubbornly holed deep inside that concrete tower without stepping past the threshold during the absolute initial phase of the apocalypse. Otherwise, given his visual parameters, if his column had blundered straight into a major base framework… haha, the structural chaos he would trigger would aggressively eclipse the most legendary beauties of antiquity.” Personally, he hadn’t stayed inside the base walls long enough to witness the historical timeline where the macro male population pool inside the base completely transitioned toward homosexuality, but the current socio-cultural dynamics of the world had handily settled onto an identical baseline anyway.
Among the survival columns that had successfully broken out of the City A Base ruins, zero elderly citizens, infants, or fragile dependents remained. The sparse few women who anchored the ranks overwhelmingly showcased perfectly plain facial parameters, while their absolute individual combat output sat squarely on a jaw-dropping, terrifying tier.
Consequently, across the current landscape, two men choosing to join their lives together to navigate the daily grind had seamlessly stabilized into the absolute most baseline normalcy imaginable. Paradoxically, the twin ladies anchoring their own independent squad—coupled with a little Xinran who hadn’t fully grown to maturity yet—comprised the ultimate, dazzling highlights wherever they rolled.
What caused the independent survival columns circulating past their perimeter to bitterly beat their chests and let out a flurry of mournful sighs was—Xu Mei had successfully paired off with Li Tie from the Otaku Team the year before last, the two finalizing their marriage under the joyous blessings of every single member of their squad. Following that development, Han Li, who similarly remained single, launched into a frantic, desperate pursuit to court Song Lingling.
As the old adage went—a steadfast woman can never weather a relentless suitor. Han Li completely discarded his baseline pride, initiating an intense, high-density courtship campaign that packed a full twenty hours of daily tracking. Consequently, the steadfast woman was finally and thoroughly run down by the relentless suitor…
In truth, this outcome couldn’t be evaluated as a case where He Qiankun and Wu Xin—the remaining single bachelors of the squad—had been negligent, thereby handily giving the prize to Han Li. Rather, the underlying catalyst was… He Qiankun, who had finally and successfully grounded his weight loss campaign down to completion, proved to be an absolute, monumental growth stock, his slimmed-down form rendering him a highly crisp, handsome young man. Identically, Wu Xin, whose face had completely cleared of acne after spending years consuming a medley of pure, natural, toxin-free household crops, had similarly transformed into an exceptionally sharp, vibrant young lad. These two blockheads, having normalization-shared a single bedroom over such a prolonged duration, had unexpectedly and seamlessly paired off with one another instead. Naturally, the mandate to court the remaining single female of the complex dropped squarely onto Han Li’s shoulders alone.
It was merely that because those two frauds had normalization-resided inside a single room since the beginning, their daily interactions refrained from exhibiting a single shred of overt, mushy displays, causing even the alternative members of the base complex to remain completely oblivious to the development over a prolonged duration. It wasn’t until the trade marketplace convened right before winter set in last year—when an expedition from an alternative base attempted to shower the pair with smooth flattery to signal a desire to court them—that the squad was thoroughly stunned to catch the blunt confirmation: those two had remarkably paired off with one another long ago!!
Well, a development of this caliber was in truth perfectly normal, mapping onto an identical baseline of normalcy as Xu Mei’s daughter rolling into the world last year, or Song Lingling hitting a five-month pregnancy milestone currently.
This past urban county ruins had recently restored its bustling vibrancy once more. Several independent sectors of the residential compound had been systematically reclaimed and occupied by a medley of large and small survival squads. However, prior to settling their columns into these quarters, every single faction had obediently finalized a succession of administrative compacts with the absolute landlords of this coordinate—the White Cat Mercenary Corp. The clauses explicitly structured a mutual defense alliance to handle sudden emergencies analogous to a zombie tide, alongside pooling resources to reinforce the multi-faceted reconstruction of this entire urban sector.
Consequently, filling the voids surrounding these structured compact bases, a scattering of loose individual survivors had sequentially moved inside the alternative buildings packing the county tracks. They might lack exceptionally premium individual combat traits, choose to refrain from integrating smoothly into macro social circles, or command highly eccentric temperaments, but they all converged upon a single, shared characteristic—the absolute moment their home sanctuary absorbed a structural threat, they would unreservedly pour their absolute physical effort into the line, partnering with alternative members of this unified interest nexus to fiercely defend the security of their common shelter.
Under these dynamics, this residential nexus—which appeared remarkably decentralized and strictly self-governing on the surface—had handily and stubbornly survived a full three years across the grim post-apocalyptic reality, and currently retained the pristine capacity to smoothly forge ahead into the future.
The main gates of the commercial storefronts flanking both sides of the past shopping avenue swung wide open. Every single trading merchant or independent caravan deploying to this coordinate was completely exempt from surrendering a single shred of cargo or resources to serve as an administrative management fee to set up a marketplace stall here. Naturally, they all deeply appreciated the security protection delivered by the small collection of local squads that normalization-maintained these commercial blocks. Every single merchant column would voluntarily leave behind a specific fraction of items, supplies, or crystal gems upon wrapping up their trade before departure, the volume determined entirely by their personal financial intent; if a party genuinely lacked spare assets to give, absolutely no one within the command line would pursue or badger them for a forced collection.
The commercial storefront Luo Xun and the team plying to set up their marketplace stall delivered an immensely substantial spatial footprint, mapping onto a spacious restaurant layout from before the world ended. The colossal, transparent glass panes lining the facade had been buffed until they were perfectly clean and pristine, and the interior cabinet fixtures and display racks were similarly organized with immaculate precision. Once their cargo and items were beautifully arranged across the shelving, anyone evaluating the shop from the exterior could easily catch a pristine line of sight over the goods stashed inside.
Furthermore, a functional advertising placard mounted outside explicitly broadcasted the operational name of their squad—”Otaku Team Base.” The placard was systematically stamped with several distinct, custom-shaped administrative seals. These seals comprised official evaluations certified by a few highly representative independent squads operating within this regional community, the markers explicitly broadcasting to the public that the merchandise stashed inside this storefront was authentic, pristine, and guaranteed, confirming that whatever raw item a product claimed to be manufactured from was precisely what the consumer was getting.
The absolute primary core lines Luo Xun and the team plying to drive their marketplace sales comprised an endless assortment of dried vegetables, meat jerky, fish jerky, and mushroom jerky, rounded out by a medley of rich fruit jams. These items mapped onto semi-processed survival provisions whose original raw materials couldn’t be deduced at an absolute glance. If it hadn’t been for their status as an established, long-running legacy storefront backed by the firm guarantees certified by high-profile local squads, a standard survivor wouldn’t dare lightly gamble their hard-earned assets to sample the goods.
Systematically arraying the various product lines carted out from their home base across the display racks, on this specific run, aside from their signature assortments of dried greens and meat jerky, they had explicitly packed a substantial volume of cured meats, premium sausages, dehydrated fruit leathers, and canned preserves along with them. These assets comprised alternative product lines the crew had recently experimented with manufacturing back home, hauling them out on this run simply to test the market’s response.
The open marketplace convened across this avenue would officially launch its commercial operations starting tomorrow morning. A heavy abundance of vacant, loose apartments lined the immediate perimeter to accommodate the heavy influx of independent squads or individual survivors journeying to this coordinate to execute macro purchasing runs. The quarters that delivered slightly superior living conditions collected a minor processing fee, these “inns” systematically maintained and operated by the individual local squads.
Regarding the housing options that carried substandard parameters or remained completely un-renovated, the public was perfectly free to move inside unrestrictedly without paying a cent. It was merely that the security grid across those coordinates bore zero guarantees, and if the region absorbed a rainy downpour, the roofing framework was highly liable to leak.
Merchants analogous to Luo Xun’s team could comfortably bunk down straight within the privacy of their commercial storefronts, handily allowing them to keep a protective eye over their inventory while saving their private assets from room fees.
The local independent squads had even established a few operational restaurants along the commercial avenue, plying these service lines to generate substantial revenue. Their business parameters ran exceptionally booming.
Well before the dawn broke the following morning, every single independent squad scheduled to set up a marketplace stall had arrived at their coordinates, beautifully organizing their storefront layouts at the crack of dawn to stand perfectly poised for opening. The patrons journeying to this coordinate to purchase cargo or execute a barter trade similarly launched into motion.
Throughout the initial opening day, the vast majority of the storefronts merely left a skeleton crew behind to manage the counters, leaving the remaining members of their squads to act as active buyers themselves, roaming unrestrictedly across the avenue to evaluate whether alternative merchant shops stashed resource assets their own households required.
The parties who regularly set up marketplace stalls across this coordinate were basically familiar with one another on a first-name basis. Consequently, Luo Xun and Yan Fei encountered individuals stepping up to wave and offer a crisp greeting almost every single time they stepped inside an alternative storefront. What caused Luo Xun to internally cough blood was—the absolute moment these acquaintances finalized their greetings, they would consistently launch into a highly uniform line of questioning, analogous to: “The little lady from your household must be a full ten years old by now, right? She’s rapidly transitioning into a proper young woman. Sigh, you merely require waiting another handful of years before she can be wedded out… Oh, by the way, whatever you do, your couple must absolutely refrain from orchestrating an arranged marriage; you must permit the girl to independently select her own husband! An elite candidate tracking along my parameters will still remain exceptionally youthful a decade down the line!”
Or alternative queries along the lines of: “Oh wow, this boy you’re cradling in your arms must be your biological son, right? Heavens, this child is nourished beautifully, his features mirror his father’s down to a literal tee. Once he grows to full size down the line, he is bound to transform into a breathtakingly gorgeous man… Talk about a total shame, he’s just far too young currently…”
This pack of wolf-like bastards wasn’t merely locking their greedy eyes onto their household’s adorable little Xinran; they were remarkably targeting the four-year-old Yan little Baozi as well! This brat is only four years old! All of you aging uncles who are on the absolute verge of stepping into middle age can comfortably scratch the thought completely out of your minds!!
What made it even more infuriating was that a fair collection of individuals was actively probing to extract updates regarding Xu Mei’s daughter—who had only just touched a one-year milestone—alongside the unborn child developing inside Song Lingling’s stomach! Across this current era, regardless of whether a partnership mapped onto a male or a female pairing, a couple could comfortably join their lives together anyway~ Especially since the absolute volume of newborn infants ran so sparse currently, if a family managed to rear a beautiful young boy, alternative survivors were naturally highly eager to launch a campaign to court him, analogous to this specific child Luo Xun was holding by the hand. But if a household managed to rear a beautiful young lady, the outlook was aggressively superior!! Once they grew to maturity down the line, wedding them back home meant a survivor could comfortably propagate their biological lineage!
Vigorously and systematically delivering sharp rejections to a continuous pack of unrepentant, wolf-hearted bastards along the entire route, the couple returned to stand before the main gate of their commercial storefront completely drained in mind and body, only to catch sight of their three dogs anchoring the threshold alongside a massive white Persian cat standing regally on the pavement.
“Are they out executing a market sweep to browse the storefronts as well?” Luo Xun muttered with deep confusion. Yan Fei shrugged; the master commanding that white Persian cat was remarkably fond of browsing the marketplace blocks to buy items, but his primary partner aggressively disdained executing a single shred of social interaction with the public—apart from managing communication loops targeting the little Baozi cradled inside his partner’s arms… Oh, talk about a total omission, Yan little Baozi had long since been systematically christened with a pristine official name, matching “Yan Xin”. New, explicitly symbolizing a pristine lease of life emerging following the onset of the apocalypse, a fresh epoch, a new world, a clean future, and alternative parameters. They had anchored their absolute hopes upon the biological canvas of their child, wishing for him to successfully usher in a completely new world, while living out a beautiful, blissful existence across these coordinates.
It was merely that the couple had locked down this specific name after an immense, prolonged stretch of agonizing debate. The underlying catalyst was that although Luo Xun was exceptionally fond of this name, Yan Fei’s biological father happened to be christened “Yan Gexin”, which similarly hosted that exact character for New. Yet regardless of how Luo Xun racked his brain to brainstorm alternative names, he evaluated that none of them touched a premium baseline of satisfaction.
Ultimately, Yan Fei stepped up to settle his resolve: “His name belongs entirely to himself, and the name we christen our child represents our own hope. Even if the character maps onto an identical match, so what? With our presence anchoring his life, we will absolutely refrain from permitting him to transform into a carbon copy of a man like him.”
Under these dynamics, the name Yan Xin was cleanly and definitively locked into the books.
“Bai En, you deployed out past your gates?” Stepping past the shop threshold, Luo Xun caught sight of that dazzling human radiator, while every single customer currently circulating inside the storefront was either covertly or blatantly training their eyes to execute a synchronized gaze of absolute awe toward that beautiful luminary. “Your husband refrained from trailing along behind your flank? He feels perfectly at ease letting you navigate a marketplace sweep entirely on your own?” Luo Xun panned his focus left and right, verifying that the guy truly stood entirely alone before asking with deep confusion.
Catching his words, Bai En spun his frame around to flash a warm smile straight toward him, that visual bloom instantaneously short-circuiting the resolve of every single wolf packing the room. Immediately after, the absolute moment the eyes of those wolves tracked Yan Fei stepping past the threshold, their irises violently erupted with a vastly more jaw-dropping, intense glint of pure awe.
“I deployed out explicitly to locate your ranks.” Bai En completely ignored the high-intensity, excited expressions dominating the countenances of the surrounding crowd, striding straight toward the couple.
“What’s the status?” Luo Xun set the Yan Xin he was cradling down onto the floorboards, letting the boy dash toward the rear living rooms to locate little Xinran to play.
“Our scouts have only just intercepted updates confirming that a certain faction has deployed an official vehicle column to roll onto these tracks. I stepped over explicitly to deliver a sharp warning to your ranks—maintain absolute caution to ensure you refrain from accidentally crossing paths or provoking them.” Saying this, Bai En pointed a finger toward the northwestern trajectory.
A flash of absolute realization surged across Luo Xun’s eyes. Finishing his summary, Bai En gracefully glided out to proceed to the adjacent storefront to continue broadcasting the notification.
An expedition originating from the northwestern trajectory—putting aside the City A Base, exactly what alternative organization could that marker map onto?
This piece of intelligence instantaneously blanketed the entire commercial avenue like wildfire. Within less than a brief half-hour window, every single individual circulating through the perimeter of the marketplace blocks—be they merchant operators or purchasing patrons—had thoroughly and completely caught the update.
Starting from the latter half of last year, a scattering of expeditions dispatched by the City A Base would intermittently and quietly slip over to execute a discrete round of buying and selling. Although their clothing choices and physical movements maintained an exceptionally low profile, they completely lacked the capacity to hide from the reality that the overwhelming majority of the survivors nesting across this county ruins had originally broken out from the City A Base walls early on, meaning a fair collection of individuals naturally recognized specific faces anchoring their ranks on the fly. This was to say nothing of the fact that certain independent squads commanded highly premium lines to extract internal data, meaning they had successfully processed intelligence confirming that an official City A column would roll onto these tracks well before the fleet ever breached the perimeter, leaving the populace to finalize their counter-defenses and establish absolute vigilance well in advance.
Although the resources commanded by the opposition truly mapped onto assets the general populace explicitly required to manage their survival loops, unless a scenario run hit an absolute bottleneck where refraining from purchasing meant death, a standard survivor would strictly refrain from proactively executing a single trade loop alongside their ranks, let alone plying them with a single shred of a pleasant countenance.
Analogous to this exact hour.
The absolute moment that newly arrived official convoy rolled into the perimeter boundaries of this residential sector, the personnel tracking inside the cabs could clearly perceive that highly vigilant, tracking eyes were trained laser-locked onto their chassis from every single hidden corner. The captain responsible for leading this procurement deployment let out a bitter, helpless laugh: “Sigh, it truly matches the precise data those past columns reported down to the letter—the absolute moment a survivor from our base rolls onto these tracks, they transform into a literal rat crossing the street.”
“Boss, exactly what mechanic are they plying to parse precisely what geographic coordinate our fleet originated from?” The procurement column that had previously deployed to execute a trade run here had explicitly detailed the dynamic upon returning home, noting that the absolute moment their wheels cleared the entrance, the local populace had instantaneously unearned that they hailed from the City A Base framework. This parameter was truly bizarre to the absolute extreme; it couldn’t possibly be that an inside asset had systematically leaked their deployment data to them in advance, right?
“Who on earth knows? Perhaps their ranks command an elite sub-class of specialized superpower users who process data points uniquely?” The captain noted with deep resignation. “On this run, our column will strictly restrict its movements to purchasing the exact assets specified on our procurement logs, before immediately hitting the road to exit the gates. We won’t linger across these coordinates for a single extra hour.” They similarly lacked the capacity to forcefully extend their stay anyway; the local community was bound to maintain an intense, absolute counter-vigilance against their presence.
Locating a vacant, un-renovated apartment block to anchor their fleet, this pack of official units hauled the gasoline, coal reserves, structural steel, and raw textiles they had carted along straight into the marketplace arena, systematically scouting for the precise product lines specified on their logs while plying their home cargo to execute a barter trade—they harbored zero requirement for crystal gems (and trying to execute a trade loop to acquire them from the locals was strictly a pipedream anyway), but they desperately required a medley of alternative assets, analogous to massive volumes of mutated animal meats.
The absolute moment this group stepped past the threshold of any individual marketplace shop, the entire array of personnel occupying that storefront—including the patrons actively browsing the shelves—would completely halt their commercial transactions and freeze whatever chores their hands were managing, maintaining a deathly silence until the official column thoroughly cleared the exit frame.
Under these dynamics, before dusk could even fully settle over the complex on this specific day, this procurement team that had rolled past the gates to execute a macro purchasing run unceremoniously packed their gear to depart with absolute, caked misery—originally, their timeline dictated huddling down to pass a night inside the ruins, but the ubiquitous, suffocating hostility radiating from every single coordinate handily left them feeling exactly like they were sitting flat on a bed of nails, completely unable to tolerate the pressure. It was profoundly fortunate that regarding the critical supplies they required to purchase—and the assets accessible for liquidation—their column had successfully executed the absolute majority of the trade loops.
“They departed?”
“Thoroughly gone. Cleared the city parameters.”
Luo Xun shrugged upon catching the confirmation: “Departing is for the best, saves them the misery of staying holed up here to absorb discomfort.”
By this point, that treacherous, degenerate stunt the City A Base high-ranking officials had pulled back then had been systematically processed and caught by virtually every single base across the land. Although highly granular, specific parameters remained restricted to a minor loop, the shifting socio-political dynamics dominating the North China region currently were glaringly obvious—although they stubbornly retained the nominal mantle of leadership among the network of major bases, their baseline throne sat on entirely unstable ground. If it hadn’t been for the reality that they held the exclusive mining rights to control a few critical primary energy deposits—coupled with the fact that their base framework remained the absolute sturdiest, most unbreachable fortification on the macro map—whether alternative bases would continue to obediently comply with their administrative directives currently was an immense, open question.
As for those macro trade marketplaces spontaneously convened by the joint alliance of major bases… that arena had seamlessly transformed into a coordinate an ordinary survivor lacked the capacity to access, let alone possessed the courage to deploy into. Completely distinct from the periodic, compact merchant marketplace convened flanking the perimeter of City A currently, without a single shred of anomaly, virtually every single time a macro trade fair concluded its operations, multiple independent squads would invariably be violently ambushed and robbed across the wild wild tracks down the line.
Consequently, this compact exchange marketplace Luo Xun and his team currently participated in refrained from expanding its absolute commercial radius, strictly restricting its operational loops to convening periodically flanking the immediate perimeter of City A. They resolutely blocked fresh outside factions from penetrating the line, and firmly refused to broadcast the marketplace’s parameters to alternative surrounding urban cores, explicitly because the parties participating currently knew one another down to their absolute roots. Consequently, following the conclusion of the trade fair, zero unpredictable crises or hostile ambushes would manifest across the tracks.
This specific trade marketplace persistently ran for a full week. Following the conclusion of the seven-day stretch, the various independent squads and loose individual survivors handily packed their respective cargo and resource assets to completely exit the ruins once more.
And across alternative regions spanning the domestic map, this exact brand of compact exchange marketplace and independent base was seemingly blooming like a forest of wild flowers, quietly and steadily stabilizing within the ruins of past urban cores and abandoned rural villages.
Although a survivor’s daily existence persistently weathered a heavy layer of grueling complications—various tools and manufacturing machinery running strictly substandard, and an assortment of resources requiring a household to manually cultivate from the raw seeds—the actual daily grind had seamlessly ceased to be anywhere near as agonizingly miserable as it was during the absolute initial phase of the apocalypse.
This was especially true since the absolute mass of the incoming zombie tides was experiencing a progressive, steady decline. Although individual zombie units remained exceptionally lethal, truly terrifying classes that scaled past level five parameters were remarkably rare, like phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. The human survival columns had long since stabilized a highly professional, systematic methodology to handle standard zombie units, at the very least guaranteeing their capacity to handily flatten every single wave of an oncoming zombie tide, before resuming the construction of their home sanctuaries optimized to sustain human existence.
“Father, Father! They reported that they successfully snared another massive creature over there, and harvested a colossal crystal gem!” Driving the vehicles back onto the narrow dirt track that channeled straight toward their secret subterranean tunnel entrance, little Yan Xin suddenly pointed a finger toward an expanse of mutated farmland outside, letting out a thunderous shout.
“At what coordinate? Instruct them to bring the asset out.” Luo Xun snapped the vehicle headlights into focus upon catching the shout, signaling the trailing trucks of their convoy to execute a synchronized halt along the lane.
Little Yan Xin pushed his head straight out past the glass window pane, waving a tiny hand toward the Devil’s Vines that were resting perfectly docily along the roadside thickets. Those mutated plants instantaneously launched into motion, a sharp rustle-clatter-shash cadence resonating through the air. Commencing from a specific coordinate deep within the brush, a colossal, ash-gray crystal gem was systematically passed along and transported outward via the vines, sequentially handed down until it was dropped right beside the door panel of Luo Xun’s truck cab.
Occupying the cab of the trailing vehicle, Wang Duo let out a visible shiver upon catching the display: “Although I lack data to count exactly how many times I’ve witnessed this exact sequence run, why is it that every single time I watch this scene execute, my entire body still feels a chilling sensation radiate across my flesh? What’s the fix for that?”
Zhang Su braced both of his arms flat behind his crown, noting with an intensely annoyed cadence: “Wear more clothes.”
Hearing the fix, Wang Duo forcefully snuggled his face flush against his partner’s cheek: “Darling, ply me with an absolute kiss of true love and I’ll instantaneously turn perfectly warm~”
The young men packing the rear container beds raised their hands to cover their faces in absolute exhaustion—this fraud is truly turning cartoonishly disgusting day by day.
Yan Fei reached down to accept the colossal crystal gem, unceremoniously dropping the asset straight into his son’s lap: “Yours.”
“Yes!” Little Baozi nodded his head with immense force, his face blooming into a sweet smile as he tightly cradled that massive crystal gem, waving a tiny hand toward the vine thickets outside the window frame. Those Devil’s Vines appeared to come alive instantaneously, twisting their branches with an energetic rustle-shash cadence.
A plant-type spiritual communication class. Luo Xun and the team had never intercepted a single shred of data confirming alternative survivors possessed a superpower of this exact dimension; it was merely that the elemental class commanded by the alternative chief leader of the White Cat Squad bore a loose structural similarity to their son’s trait. The core distinction was that their son could intuitively perceive the raw thoughts of mutated plants, execute fluent communication loops alongside them, and systematically control their movements. But that chief leader’s scenario run was slightly tragic; he could perceive the raw thoughts of zombie units, and execute elementary manipulation over their columns. But that was absolutely not a beautiful, delightful sensory input to absorb; rumors certified that during the initial phase of the apocalypse, that leader suffered from headaches so excruciatingly brutal he lacked the capacity to even step past his front door, holed inside his bedroom alongside Bai En daily, on the absolute verge of violently smashing his head against the concrete walls to escape the pain.
Currently, now that his superpower had successfully scaled to level five parameters, even the jumbled emotional signatures radiated by living human beings could be easily perceived by his mind. Consequently, he strictly refrained from deploying his column into densely populated sectors; otherwise, that chaotic, jumbled torrent of raw human emotions was perfectly sufficient to drive his consciousness completely insane.
Returning back home, the base complex—which had sat vacant without their presence for over ten days—remained perfectly pristine and identical to the past, every corner of their home radiating an aura that felt immensely warm, cozy, and peaceful.
The crew executed an elementary organization of the supplies and cargo carted back from their run, before dividing the labor to launch into their respective routines—one faction deploying to manage the planting vaults, an alternative team descending to check the rooms housing the quails and rabbits, and a separate group checking the satellite information streams intercepted over these past few days. As a matter of fact—among the immense mass of survivors who had executed a total evacuation to leave the City A Base early on, a heavy density of elite professionals across various industrial fields was embedded within the ranks. Among them were a few specialized technical experts who didn’t just know how to receive satellite signals on the fly, but commanded absolute data detailing how to ply satellite arrays to transmit data packets across the network.
Following the Otaku Team finalizing an operational partnership alongside their ranks—with Yan Fei fabricating the mandatory physical “dishes” and alternative structural hardware equipment, while the alternative faction supplied the core methodologies—their alliance possessed the capacity to smoothly ply satellite networks to swap a wealth of administrative data streams currently. The exact timelines and coordinates for every single convened exchange marketplace were systematically negotiated and locked down via these satellite communications.
“Huh? An administrative notice broadcasted by the City A Base to every single large and small independent base nationwide—targeting every individual capable of locking onto a satellite data stream!” He Qiankun’s voice suddenly spiked into a high register, and he rapidly broadcasted the alert to summon the crew members who were scattered across the various rooms to assemble.
The group packed in a tight circle before the computer terminal to check the document file.
The text was immensely long, the rear sections supplemented by a secondary technical report statement. The core breakthroughs and results detailed within the document crystallized into the following three points:
- Following an extended, grueling stretch of research, the administrative core has verified that post-apocalyptic humanity hasn’t merely produced one exclusive track of biological mutation mapping onto active superpower users. Through extensive scientific testing, the reality currently is that every single human being—including ordinary citizens who failed to manifest an active elemental class—possesses a physiological framework that is structurally distinct from humans before the world ended, having undergone a definitive mutation. This structural change strictly manifests across their physical constitution indexes. Although this class of survivors lacks the capacity to actively deploy an elemental superpower, provided they maintain prolonged physical contact alongside raw crystal gems, their bodies can slowly and steadily absorb the elemental energy sealed within the stones, a biological trait that bears an extreme similarity to the parameters commanded by mutated animals. The absolute primary manifestations of this structural mutation across these “ordinary citizens” overwhelmingly map onto their physical muscle mass skyrocketing and their baseline health parameters turning exceptionally premium. It was merely that the early markers panned out exceptionally imperceptibly, forcing the base administration to grind through an immense timeline of validation testing to successfully unearth the parameter.
- The base administration has, through a prolonged stretch of laboratory experimentation and validation testing, finally and successfully unlocked a systematic methodology to exploit the energetic output of crystal gems. Currently, they have rolled out the correct, completely safe methodology to ply crystal energy to the public. The derived technical hardware equipment can be handily engineered to manufacture crystal lamps, crystal heating stoves, and a medley of high-tech devices plying crystal energy to drive their systems. The City A Base is officially throwing open order procurement logs to every independent base across the map, permitting factions to ply raw crystal stones to purchase the corresponding technical equipment.
- The City A Base officially spearheads a macro call: It is our supreme hope that every single independent base across the map can execute a unified tactical movement. Prior to the next colossal zombie tide crossing the national border, we must completely unite against our common foe, cast aside past ideological prejudices, and thoroughly obliterate this incoming zombie tide the absolute moment they breach the perimeter tracks. Let us assemble the absolute collective strength of the entire nation to completely and thoroughly destroy this titanic menace that aggressively threatens the long-term survival safety of all humanity! Regarding highly granular, specific parameters, the moment a faction reviews this text file, they can establish an active communication link alongside the City A Base. Please route your transmission packets straight toward the coordinate grid labeled XXXX…
Finishing their review of this broadcasted notice, the members of the crew couldn’t help but stare at one another in blank, silent bewilderment.
“What exactly are they plotting to execute?”
“Thoroughly destroy the zombie population? Exactly what tactic are they planning to deploy to achieve that?”
“And following the conclusion of the destruction sequence, what then?”
“Hold on a minute, what if this entire layout is an absolute, orchestrated trap?”
This exact brand of structural suspicion dominating the Otaku Team was identically a parameter that a heavy density of alternative independent bases across the map was actively agonizing over. There was no alternative; within the post-apocalyptic reality, while a zombie column was a threat that violently lacerated a survivor’s physical life and compromised their safety parameters, it was ultimately only human nature—the dark machinations of the human heart—that stood as the absolute most lethal catalyst capable of thoroughly murdering baseline trust between factions.
Which specific organization was scheduled to pour the absolute majority of the raw muscle into the vanguard line? If the tactical execution unluckily hit a bottleneck and failed, would a faction be ruthlessly discarded by the command core, plying their lives to serve as literal cannon fodder? Following a successful execution, exactly how were the spoils of war and the harvested crystal mountains scheduled to be divided? Would compact independent camps absorb intense administrative exclusion and ruthless suppression from the macro structural bases? Could this layout be an absolute trap designed to entice the independent forces into a centralized coordinate, before handily letting the compact camps and the zombie columns execute a match of mutual annihilation?
An endless torrent of jumbled suspicions, endless layers of structural doubts, and a massive medley of calculations.
It was profoundly fortunate that the previous zombie tide had executed its eventual retreat past the national border barely half a year ago. Because virtually every single zombie circulating across the Eurasian landmass had been systematically concentrated into that unified column, if they intended to double back to cross the border once more, the absolute timeline would require delaying until next year, or even the spring of the year after next at the earliest.
Prior to that timeline hitting, the network of domestic bases launched into a prolonged, jumbled stretch of administrative negotiations and debates. Tactical conferences were convened over and over again. Yet high-ranking official leaders within those major command grids remained completely oblivious to the reality that those scattered, loose independent squads circulating across the wild wild had handily forged a brand-new, unbreachable covenant alliance that locked their factions together with absolute solidity, truly stabilizing into a macro structural force those major bases had no alternative but to face with absolute seriousness.
Presently, the supreme leaders dominating those major base grids were deeply aware that these survivors—whom their past regimes had systematically excluded, ruthlessly driven out, and maliciously sabotaged—had long since ceased to be those fragile, helpless weaklings a tyrant could handily crush between their fingers early on.
No, within the grim crucible of the post-apocalyptic reality, zero weaklings existed.
What sent an even more jaw-dropping wave of terror radiating through the administrative cores of the major bases was—these scattered independent squads and loose individual survivors hailing from all corners of the land and all manner of geographic sectors had seamlessly stepped together under these dynamics, truly and thoroughly fusing into a single unified populace. The past City A outer ruins—which had been completely discarded by the official administration back then—had been systematically and gradually reclaimed, organized, and repopulated by the citizens once more. Utilizing the structural frameworks of the surviving buildings—and emulating the exact defensive blueprints pioneered by that small county ruins positioned at a baseline clearance from City A—they had successfully engineered a layout of defensive fortifications that, while appearing remarkably decentralized, could comfortably and instantaneously double back to reinforce one another the absolute moment a critical crisis struck.
They commenced launching macro agricultural installations to cultivate crops across the high-rise rooftops, mounted manufacturing assembly lines deep within the concrete tower blocks, and systematically fabricated an array of handcrafted tools, materials, and fine textiles. The framework smoothly crystallized into an authentic, literal manifestation of a post-apocalyptic miniature society operating along a steady trajectory.
What struck an even sharper chord of absolute panic deep into the hearts of the major base administrations was—the citizenry had remarkably launched a macro cultivation campaign to cultivate Devil’s Vines across a monumental perimeter encircling the entire City A residential nexus! A flora of that tier was aggressively hazardous and intensely hostile; whether a party evaluated a zombie force, a mutated animal column, or a heavily armed human squad, virtually no faction commanded a tactical fix to easily compromise their thickets. Yet this populace had successfully cultivated these monsters from the seeds, smoothly plying them to serve as their absolute household “watchdogs”!
And tucked safely within the residential communities encircled by these mutated plant barriers, they actively maintained an assortment of domesticated mutated animals that, while successfully yielding crystal stones inside their skulls, possessed zero elemental superpowers…
Staggeringly, the execution of this entire macro layout had consumed less than a brief half-year window. Right while the high-ranking official leaders of the major bases were busy bickering back and forth, wasting hours debating exactly how the crystal gems should be split following the eventual slaughter of the zombie tide, this populace had already successfully constructed a brand-new independent municipality—a pristine metropolis emerging from the ashes of the apocalypse.
The eighth year following the onset of the apocalypse, spring.
A continuous succession of defensive lines and multi-faceted trap networks deployed by the joint forces of every single independent survivor across the land had finally and thoroughly been finalized. Those zombie columns journeying “back home” to cross the border from foreign territories were met with an absolute, profoundly enthusiastic brand of hospitality…
Row after row of pitfalls—a minor fraction of the mushroom juice packing the traps had been officially supplied by the City A Base command line, yet a jaw-dropping seventy percent of the remaining mushroom juice volume packing the vast grid had been systematically and unreservedly delivered by those ordinary citizens who had been ruthlessly driven out and excluded by the base administration back then.
Enveloping that network was an immense expanse of pre-cultivated mutated vegetation. One layer of pitfalls, balanced by an alternative layer of Devil’s Vines, the entire layout systematically arrayed to choke a critical mountain pass. The zombie columns had absolutely zero alternative but to obediently navigate right through this throat.
Long-range superpower users along with personnel wielding heavy firearms anchored the rearguard line directly behind the traps, their operational mandate explicitly focusing on slaughtering airborne zombie units and snipping down the rogue zombie elements that managed to scramble past the multi-layered pitfalls.
Water-type superpower users were stationed right beside a succession of colossal storage vats, anchoring their positions across the high ground. The absolute moment those mutated plants hit a point of being “stuffed” past completion, they would immediately deploy their abilities to siphon the mushroom juice from the vats to aggressively stimulate the appetites of the foliage.
The battle finally commenced right at the absolute dawn of this specific day, the physical engagement raging unremittingly for five full days. Following the conclusion of the five-day stretch of attrition, a sparse, minor fraction of the zombie force that had strictly refrained from advancing into the pass turned around to execute a total retreat along their original heading. Although the human superpower users launched an aggressive pursuit to cut down a fair section of the trailing column, the absolute combat output of those remaining advanced zombie units ran exceptionally formidable, permitting a specific fraction to ultimately slip away into the wild wild.
Yet even under that dynamic, that colossal menace that had systematically threatened the long-term survival safety of all humanity had finally and thoroughly vanished from the map!!
The global populace erupted into a thunderous torrent of cheers, embracing one another fiercely to celebrate the historic victory.
However, by the time the collective consciousness of the major bases cleared enough to review the battlefield layout, they suddenly detected that those unified columns comprising the various compact independent squads and ordinary citizens had already smoothly packed their gear to depart the tracks.
An outsider couldn’t possibly blame them for executing an unannounced departure, nor could anyone fault them for harvesting every single crystal gem generated by the zombies dispatched within the Devil’s Vines. The underlying catalyst was simply that the baseline trust parameters separating their ranks from these high-profile superpower elites and major base administrations persistently remained trapped within a highly delicate, fragile matrix. Only a survivor who had been ruthlessly sold out by their own biological kin or trusted past friends could truly parse exactly how excruciatingly deep an emotional wound of that caliber cut. Perhaps within a distant stretch of the future timeline, the two primary blocks of humanity would once again seamlessly fuse back into a single unified whole, but that parameter was absolutely out of the question currently.
Luo Xun lounge comfortably inside the cabin of his new-energy truck, reaching out to pat the dashboard with a trace of pensive melancholy: “Talk about a total shame, the absolute volume of this vehicle line runs far too sparse. If our household intends to secure alternative units down the line, we’ll have no choice but to purchase them straight from their manufacturing teams.”
Steering the vehicle along the highway, Yan Fei let out a soft, gentle chuckle upon catching the comment: “Aren’t Li Tie and the guys actively huddled alongside Professor Chu to run a comprehensive research sweep? Personally, I evaluate that they will comfortably reverse-engineer and replicate these exact equipment lines before long. Plus, Li Tie and the young men explicitly declared that they will absolutely forge an operational firearm that plies raw crystal gems to serve as the primary energy drive.”
“That is true. Knowing their drive, even if their advance velocity tracks along a slightly slower baseline, they will bound to grind out the research down to completion. After all, before Professor Chu completely exited the City A Base walls early on, wasn’t his absolute core specialty locked onto spearheading crystal energy research? If he hadn’t been maliciously frozen out and excluded by those officials back then, where on earth would our squad locate a window to comfortably absorb an asset of this tier?” Saying this, Luo Xun handily let out a massive yawn. “Personally, I must catch a bit of sleep. I’ve been forcefully anchoring my focus throughout this entire stretch…” As the words cleared his lips, his cadence turned progressively lower and slighter, his consciousness smoothly drifting.
Suddenly, a tiny head pushed its way straight through the clearance separating the twin front seats, flashing a highly conspiratorial, sweet smile as he lowered his voice to murmur to Yan Fei: “Father, Father, exactly what timeline are we scheduled to roll back home?”
“It should consume roughly seven or eight days. What’s the story? Missing home already?” Yan Fei smiled, reaching a hand out to casually stroke his son’s hair.
“Personally, I’m desperately missing the doggies. And Sister Xinxin is missing the doggies intensely too.”
Gently patting his tiny head once more: “Our column will execute a tactical sprint to return as fast as possible. The absolute moment your feet clear the home threshold, you must behave yourself beautifully and comply with regulations. The jumbled school assignments I explicitly left for you prior to rolling out must be written out continuously once we return, clear on that parameter?”
Yan Xin unceremoniously poked his tongue out, drawing out his cadence with an immensely long groan: “Unnn-derr-stoood—”
Resting in a semi-conscious state, Luo Xun knit his brows to let out a muffled “Mmh“, causing Yan Fei to instantly spin his head around to throw a sharp, disciplinary glare straight toward the brat.
Little Yan Xin recognized instantly that his brain had just triggered a minor crisis. Poking his tongue out in a rapid flash, he forcefully retracted his head back into the rear seats, bundling close to little Xinran to whisper in a low murmur: “Father strictly knows how to bully my line. Luo Father is aggressively superior!”
Little Xinran had already stabilized a baseline trace of an elegant, proper young lady’s demeanor. Catching him venting complaints targeting Yan Fei, she burst into a soft smile, reaching a finger out to playfully tap his nose: “If Uncle Yan catches you broadcasting those words, maintain absolute caution to ensure he doesn’t violently spank your bottom.”
Yan Xin hoisted his chin high into the air to let out a sharp “Hmph“: “I’ll simply locate Luo Father to serve as my absolute human shield to block the strike.” Saying this, his tiny brows knit into a hard frown once more. “But Luo Father is bound to be completely unable to flatten Father in a brawl anyway. Once during the dead of night, I rolled out of bed to manage a bathroom run, and I caught sight of Father forcefully pinning Luo Father flat to bully him until he was completely crying!” It mapped out onto an identical track of crying as when he absorbed a round of bottom-spanking from Father Yan!
Little Xinran froze in blank bewilderment for a prolonged moment. Immediately after, an unpredictable, deep crimson flush aggressively blanketed her face, and she raised a hand to forcefully rap his head: “Focus your absolute attention onto learning how to write your characters beautifully!” She had previously witnessed Li Tie covertly kissing Mother Xu; although her consciousness lacked the technical data to parse the precise biological meaning of the interaction, her instincts vaguely registered that the parameter mapped onto a reality that left a person feeling intensely, profoundly bashful.
Yan Fei handily caught a loose thread of the whisper filtering from the rear, a prominent vein instantly throbbing across his forehead. He knew it! Their household should have long since mandated shifting this stinky brat into that separate independent bedroom they had pre-carved out to sleep! The absolute moment their tires cleared the home threshold on this run, he would execute the room transition on the spot. Even if Luo Xun put on an intensely reluctant display of attachment, he would relentlessly enforce the move past the line!!
Beyond the glass truck windows, the absolute black of night gracefully dissolved into the past. Along the distant horizon, a radiant column of light comprising a blend of gold and crimson crystallized into brilliant focus—aquamarine, slate-gray, deep crimson, and shimmering yellow, a medley of various hues swirling together, rendering a visual output so breathtakingly gorgeous it mirrored a dreamlike masterpiece captured across an ethereal canvas, completely defying structural description. A brilliant crimson sun violently broke past the horizon line, ushering in the absolute commencement of a pristine day.
This mapped onto the definitive conclusion of a historical era, yet identically marked the pristine dawn of a completely new epoch.
Author’s Note:
The curtain has officially fallen… it winds down on a somewhat open-ended finale, I suppose. Originally, this conclusion possessed the structural framework to be broken down and delivered across two independent chapters, but after a round of reflection, I evaluated that compiling it into a single, unified block to release it in one single breath would deliver a vastly superior, more exhilarating read. Thus, I unreservedly dumped the entire volume out~~
The future persistently forges ahead, and their daily lives will similarly continue to unfold along a steady trajectory. The children will systematically grow to full maturity, subsequently living out their existences across this new world, unearthing a pristine coordinate that belongs entirely to their ranks. Daily life will likely persistently weather a heavy layer of grueling complications, and the zombie population hasn’t been completely and thoroughly driven to absolute extinction; those advanced variants that executed tactical retreats early on comprise the exceptionally clever, highly intelligent sub-classes that command a baseline layer of cognitive wisdom. Perhaps across a distant stretch of the future, when human civilization scales back up to hit a booming prosperity once more, they will suddenly leap out from the shadows to mount a flash strike. Or alternative dynamics might run line, where they end up thoroughly and completely slaughtered under the hands of a humanity that has grown truly, monumentally powerful.
The main text officially concludes at this exact coordinate, and this manuscript should harbor zero subsequent side-story chapters down the line.
This project represents the most long-running, substantial book I have authored since I commenced broadcasting works on JJ, its absolute length scaling past one million words. When my fingers completed grinding out the final keystrokes of this absolute closing chapter last night, I felt exactly like my entire consciousness was floating unrestrictedly through mid-air (this is an absolute, mandatory biological response that triggers every single time I wrap up a manuscript conclusion =,=||). And then, true to form, my word count violently exploded past the planned metrics OTz. Why on earth can’t my daily writing momentum explode like this during regular hours? Why does it stubbornly wait until the absolute conclusion hits before putting on a display like this?
In any case, the legacy book has thoroughly finalized its run. To the precious readers who are fond of this piece—and alternative friends who evaluate that they find themselves moderately fond of Nan He’s webnovels—you are warmly welcomed to click into the author’s profile ID to hit the follow button, that way every single book I compose and fresh manuscripts I roll out can be beautifully unearned inside your dashboard.
Thank you for reading 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉
