Chapter 87 — Collective Level-Up
After Luo Xun hung up the phone, Yan Fei asked, “What is it? Professor Xu?”
Luo Xun nodded and sighed. “He said we shouldn’t keep growing mushrooms at home anymore… When we get back today, we’ll have to remind Li Tie and the others not to go around talking about this.” He himself definitely had to keep growing them at home. If Li Tie and the others were thinking about their household crops, it would be best for them to grow some mushrooms as well—but under no circumstances should they casually talk about it outside.
“In fact, Professor Xu and the others aren’t wrong to worry,” Yan Fei said. “This thing’s killing power is so great. If someone really grew it inside the base and used it against an enemy… it’d practically be the same as dissolving a corpse with acid.” If a large amount of poisonous mushrooms were used to dissolve a body, by the time it was discovered, people probably wouldn’t even be able to tell what the victim originally looked like.
Seeing Luo Xun lamenting over this, Yan Fei smiled. “Weren’t you planning to grow these on the lower level under the vegetables in the neighboring apartment?” Although Luo Xun had already planted a large number of crops in unit 1603, none of them were placed directly on the floor. Instead, they were all set on metal racks constructed with Yan Fei’s ability. There was still plenty of space left between the racks and the floor. Originally, Luo Xun had planned to fill that space with various sizes of wood to grow mushrooms and absorb toxins—after all, crops could also mutate during growth, just with a lower mutation rate than during germination.
But after that call with Professor Xu, Luo Xun worried that if the professor ever decided on a whim to come visit his home, there would be no way to explain it. So that idea would probably have to be put on hold for now.
Luo Xun nodded reluctantly. “What a shame…” Those poisonous mushrooms weren’t just a powerful tool for increasing crop yields—they were also an important trump card for boosting combat power. But now…
“It’s not like there’s no solution,” Yan Fei said after thinking for a moment, lowering his voice. “We can make the very bottom layer into metal drawers with holes in them and put the wood inside.” Now that his ability had leveled up, making things like this was even easier for him. As long as it looked well integrated with the rest of the cabinet, outsiders wouldn’t notice anything unusual.
Moreover, when necessary, he could instantly solidify those “drawers” together with the entire rack. There was no need to install lighting underneath anyway, so others wouldn’t be able to see what was inside.
Luo Xun’s face lit up with delight. “That works too! Anyway, those mushrooms like shade and dampness—ventilation is all they need!” These poisonous mushrooms weren’t particularly picky about their environment. As long as there was sufficient humidity and a certain temperature, they would be fine. This way, not only could he safely grow them at home, but Li Tie and the others could also use the same method—while preventing themselves from accidentally touching the stuff!
When they received Professor Xu’s call, the two of them had just gotten off work and were walking out of the military camp. Now, they discussed it while driving home. That evening, they told Li Tie and the others about it and promised that as long as they had enough metal materials and wood on their next trip out, they’d make racks and grow mushrooms for everyone once they got back.
“Brother Luo, how about giving us those little quails after we get back at the end of the month instead?” Li Tie said, looking somewhat regretful.
“Why?” Luo Xun asked, puzzled. “Haven’t you been getting back early these past few days?” Just two days ago, they’d been excitedly thanking him for giving them quails. Why did they suddenly not want them for now?
He Qiankun explained, “We do have heating, but since the weather’s been getting warmer lately, it hasn’t been running much. Even the vegetables we planted are growing a lot slower.”
“Yeah, yeah, and also…” The group of grown men exchanged looks, each one blushing in embarrassment. “We’re afraid the quails are too small—we might not be able to keep them alive…”
A few days earlier, after confirming that the earliest-hatched quails were healthy enough to be given away, Luo Xun had notified Li Tie and the others. They’d been happy at the time, sure—but after calming down, they realized something: none of them seemed confident they wouldn’t end up killing the poor things… In fact, it could even be said that none of them really had any experience raising animals on their own.
Although some of their families had kept cats or dogs before, it was basically always their mothers who took care of them. Their role was limited to hugging, petting, and kissing the animals when they got home, then tossing them aside.
The only exception was Han Li, whose family had kept fish for a while. He’d personally taken care of them himself—until, well… an entire tank of tropical fish ended up overfed to death ==.
With such brutal past experience, they felt that being able to raise their vegetables to their current state was already a stroke of incredible luck. As for fragile little lives like baby quails… they figured it would be better to do some mental preparation first and wait until the quails were a bit bigger before taking them in.
After listening to their explanations, Luo Xun’s only feeling was—speechlessness. “Um… maybe I should just keep raising them myself…” Somehow, handing the little quails over to them felt more like a burden than a help.
“No, no, no! We’ll definitely take responsibility for them! We’ll definitely raise them well until they grow up… ah, no! Until they grow into proper quails!”
They were quails to begin with, okay?
After saying goodbye to Li Tie and the others, Luo Xun and Yan Fei dragged their slightly tired feet back home.
“Tomorrow we need to deliver vegetables to Canteen No. 1,” Luo Xun said after getting home, checking the vegetables that would be harvested the next day, as well as several kinds he had deliberately kept growing to save for seeds.
“The amount this time should be about the same as last time, right?” Yan Fei asked. Whether before or after the apocalypse, he had absolutely no sense of the weight of vegetables or fruit, so there was no way he could estimate it by sight.
“About the same. We’ll keep what we need for ourselves, and send all the rest to them.” After Yan Fei’s ability advanced to level two, the time it took to fully expend his ability each time became longer than before. At the same time, the number of crystal cores he needed to replenish also increased accordingly. Of course, the crystal cores issued daily by the team were enough for him to use while repairing the wall, and the leftovers could still be used at home to continue training his ability. Even so, the more crystal cores they had at home, the better—advancing from level two to level three would definitely require far more cores than before! And besides, crystal cores were far more durable than vegetables; they simply wouldn’t go bad.
In the apocalypse, crystal cores were hard currency. Even if they couldn’t be used right away, there was absolutely no reason to miss a chance to collect them for free.
Luo Xun carefully examined the vegetables on the balcony that he had intentionally left to flower and bear fruit for seed-saving, then nodded in satisfaction. Very good—worthy of the care he had devoted to them for so long. Before long, he’d be able to collect seeds!
Because Luo Xun didn’t keep any pollinating insects at home—no butterflies, bees, or the like—he had to do everything by hand. He had more free time than most people—he got off work early every day. He also had a meticulous nature and the patience for repetitive labor—skills honed from staying at home in his previous life. On top of that, he had experience carried over from that life as well, so handling all this came naturally to him.
Yan Fei stood up and pulled him along upstairs. “Let’s go rest. We still have to get up early tomorrow.” With their previous stock of crystal cores gone, Yan Fei could now only rely on the cores distributed each day during wall construction to expend and improve his ability. Things weren’t as hectic before bedtime as they had been some time ago.
Being dragged upstairs, Luo Xun cast a reluctant glance toward the balcony. The seedlings in the adjacent room only needed regular watering at fixed times, so they didn’t require attention for now. The second floor housed fruit trees and other plants with longer growth cycles, which only needed periodic checks to make sure they hadn’t mutated. At the moment, the only thing that really needed close attention was the first-floor balcony, where plants were flowering and bearing fruit.
Entering the bedroom, Luo Xun raised his arms and stretched lazily. “Tomorrow we have to harvest vegetables—” Before he could finish speaking, he was scooped up around the waist and carried toward the bed.
After living together for so long, their tacit understanding had gradually formed in daily life. Just like how, when they were in bed, if Luo Xun deliberately wrapped his arms around Yan Fei’s waist or thighs and rubbed against him restlessly for no reason, Yan Fei would know that this guy was asking for trouble. Being suddenly picked up like this—any idiot could tell what that guy was planning!
Afraid of falling, Luo Xun quickly hooked an arm around Yan Fei’s neck and protested angrily, “Didn’t you say we have to get up early tomorrow?!”
Yan Fei glanced at him, put him down on the bed, and then stood by the window, unhurriedly undoing the buttons on his chest. “Yeah. Don’t worry, it won’t take too long tonight—we still have things to do tomorrow.” As he spoke, he bent down and kissed Luo Xun lightly at the corner of his lips.
Looking at that dazzling smile, Luo Xun took a deep breath, exhaled, then took another deep breath, before rolling over and wrapping himself tightly in the blanket like a zongzi. Don’t think that just because you’re good-looking you’ll definitely succeed! Tonight, you’re not touching me!
Yan Fei’s smile grew meaningful. He reached up to turn off the bedside lamp and slowly climbed onto the bed. You think wrapping yourself in a blanket will let you escape? Hah—weren’t you the one clinging to me and refusing to let go every other time?
After a night of intense and satisfying combat, the next morning Luo Xun sat on the sofa, scowling and bossing around Yan Fei—who was diligently digging up vegetables and packing them—looking every bit like an exploitative landlord.
Yan Fei, meanwhile, looked completely relaxed, the corners of his mouth lifted in a faint smile, practically humming a tune.
Only after the vegetables were packed and weighed, and everything for today’s trade was prepared, did Luo Xun slowly get up and head toward the front door. In the stairwell, they ran into Li Tie and the others, who were also up early. Seeing Luo Xun and Yan Fei carrying vegetables to sell, they felt neither envy nor jealousy—after all, their households didn’t have many vegetable seeds at the moment. Fortunately, they usually ate in the military camp, so they didn’t need to prepare much food at home.
At present, the main uses of these vegetables were, first, to supplement vitamins, and second, to save seeds once they matured. They weren’t short on points, nor did they have many places to spend crystal cores, so there was no need for them to grow vegetables specifically to sell.
Seeing Yan Fei carrying several large bags, Li Tie and the others quickly stepped forward to help. Han Li went to knock on the door of apartment 1602 to call the two people there.
After a while, Zhang Su came out expressionlessly, followed by Wang Duo, whose face was full of satisfaction, his features practically floating with bliss.
Luo Xun looked sympathetically at Zhang Su’s stiff face, then glanced at the expressions the other four directed at Wang Duo—Li Tie wore a look of contempt, Han Li’s face was full of envy, jealousy, and hatred, He Qiankun’s chubby face turned red, and Wu Xin… had no expression at all. This guy hadn’t noticed anything in the first place.
Seeing their expressions, Luo Xun instantly felt that his waist no longer ached and his legs no longer hurt—there was someone even more embarrassing than himself, drawing all the fire! Although Wang Duo was the one doing the pressing, he had long since become the lowest rung among the residents of the 16th floor: despised by the occupants of 1601, ordered around by the queen of his household, and laughed at by Luo Xun and Yan Fei alike.
Living like this—it wasn’t easy for the kid.
They drove straight into the military camp and parked behind Canteen No. 1, where Captain Li was already waiting.
After exchanging greetings, several soldiers from the kitchen squad came over to weigh the vegetables, while Luo Xun and Yan Fei chatted with Captain Li.
“The broadcasts have been promoting home vegetable growing these past few days, even teaching planting methods. Aren’t there other people selling vegetables here?” Although the army had only recently begun promoting specific methods for home planting, in reality, vegetable seeds had already started appearing for sale in the base right after the New Year.
Captain Li sighed and shook his head. “Where would so many people come from to grow vegetables? Even if someone does plant at home, it’s hard to say whether they can supply their own household, let alone sell them. I’ve heard that the market occasionally has people bringing in wild vegetables or homegrown produce to trade, but the quantities are tiny. By the time you hear about it, they’re usually already sold out or have moved elsewhere.”
After all, the survivors in the base still had some savings. Growing vegetables wasn’t something that yielded results overnight, so those who had started planting hadn’t yet seen returns—let alone the majority who hadn’t even begun.
“It should increase after a while,” Luo Xun said casually. “I heard that the exchange window has already started offering vegetable seeds, hasn’t it?”
Captain Li nodded. “The vacant land near our canteen has been planted now, and other areas in the camp have each set aside plots for vegetables too. But aren’t we repairing the wall right now? We’ll have to wait until all that’s finished before we can really start planting.”
“Won’t that delay the season?” Luo Xun asked, a little puzzled.
“Eh,” Captain Li said. “These empty plots inside the camp are for vegetables. The vast tracts of land outside are reserved for grain—that won’t be delayed. Vegetables are one thing, but grain crops can’t afford to be postponed.” As he spoke, he lowered his voice. “I’ve heard the research institute has already found a way to reduce seed mutation rates. Next year’s grain supply should be secured…”
That must be using the method of keeping mushrooms together with seeds, right? Luo Xun smiled and nodded. Although mushrooms could reduce mutation rates, crops planted in open fields would still be affected by many factors. After all, those mushrooms couldn’t exactly be moved into farmland. Not to mention the risk of someone accidentally touching or crushing them and causing an accident—just look at those mushrooms… they weren’t meant to grow in fields in the first place, okay?
Luo Xun knew that, in his previous life, for at least the first two years the base’s grain cultivation had ended in dismal failure. There were many reasons for this outcome, which was why, when he discovered the effect of the mushroom wood, he chose to inform Professor Xu of this possibility. After all, no matter how capable he was, and no matter how fully he made use of his home, there was absolutely no way he could grow much grain himself—he might not even be able to produce enough staples for himself and Yan Fei.
In this regard, his interests aligned with those of the base. In any case, it seemed the base intended to grow mushrooms to make special weapons, so why not combine the two approaches?
With the twelve crystal cores they had earned this time, the two drove to the assembly point, boarded a truck, and headed together to the towering city wall to continue the day’s work. The earth-type ability users were getting farther and farther away from Luo Xun’s team, but fortunately Yan Fei and the others had become increasingly proficient with their abilities as well. Although the expanded area that needed to be built meant their progress wasn’t especially fast, it was still far better than before.
When Captain Guo led the team to the wall, he mysteriously disappeared for a while. About an hour later, he hurried back in a small jeep.
Up on the wall, soldiers who had nothing else to do were holding their guns and practicing shooting at targets below. Although the number of level-two zombies had clearly increased recently, for everyone who had the overwhelming advantage of attacking from long range, wiping them out was still quite easy.
“You four, stop for a moment and come over for a meeting!” Captain Guo called out to Yan Fei and the other ability users. They quickly set aside their work and left the edge of the wall. Luo Xun took the opportunity to pull out water from his backpack and drink, while also curiously looking toward Yan Fei’s direction, wondering what Captain Guo wanted to say.
Captain Guo took a bag out of his pocket and asked Yan Fei, “Take a look—are these the level-two metal crystal cores you mentioned before?”
Luo Xun nearly choked on his water and quickly looked over at Captain Guo’s hand in surprise. A few days after Yan Fei advanced to level two, he had described the appearance of level-two metal-type crystal cores to Captain Guo and explained that he himself had already reached level two. After a metal-type ability reached level two, its activation speed increased and its effects improved, and if all the ability users in the team could reach level two, overall work efficiency would definitely increase.
At the time, he had said that the level-two crystal core had been something Luo Xun had found by chance while shopping, and that it had already been absorbed, so he needed Captain Guo to help look for more.
He only brought this up after hearing Captain Guo mention that there were other ability users in the military who had advanced to level two using level-two crystal cores. After some thought, and after comparing the approximate number of level-one crystal cores those level-two users had needed to advance, Yan Fei decided to say it—based on how many crystal cores their squad was currently absorbing, they should have already reached the threshold where using a level-two crystal core to break through was possible.
As for himself, because his ability was mutated, the number of level-one crystal cores he needed to absorb was far greater than that of other ability users at the same level. And if everyone else also advanced to level two, it would benefit him as well—he clearly could have increased efficiency, sped up wall construction, and raised his consumption to train his ability, but in order to stay in step with the others, he had been forced to hold back and proceed slowly. It felt like having strength but nowhere to use it.
After hearing this, Captain Guo immediately arranged for people to search for level-two crystal cores. In fact, level-two cores weren’t that hard to find, since the military sent people out every day specifically to hunt for crystal cores. And because level-two cores of different types couldn’t be used by everyone, this led to some types being consumed in huge quantities, while others were left ignored and unusable.
Following Yan Fei’s description of the cores’ appearance, Captain Guo had people search—and today they had indeed turned up several.
Yan Fei quickly examined the cores carefully and then nodded. “These are them.”
One by one, the level-two crystal cores rolled in Captain Guo’s palm, emitting a distinctive metallic sheen. Seeing Yan Fei confirm them, Captain Guo smiled and evenly distributed the dozen or so cores among the four of them—three each. “They might have more of this type over there, but the quantity isn’t large and they’re not common, which is why they’d been tossed aside until I went to ask about them.”
The number of metal-type zombies, like metal-type ability users, was actually quite small. But with enough zombies killed, you’d eventually run into some.
This was also partly because level-two zombies still had very low intelligence—even in combat, they generally couldn’t use their abilities properly. Fortunately so; otherwise, if someone really ran into a metal-type zombie that tore open all the metal panels of a car in an instant… how would anyone survive?
So although metal-type crystal cores were hard to find, in a way this was also a good thing—after all, there weren’t many people who could use them anyway.
Since just one core was enough to raise an ability level, everyone was extremely excited when they received their three cores. And then—
Three pairs of eyes all turned in unison to look at Yan Fei.
Accustomed since childhood to being the center of attention, Yan Fei calmly looked back at them.
“Um… Brother Yan, how do we use these?” Coincidentally, the metal-type ability users in their team were all soldiers who hadn’t enlisted long and had no professional NCOs among them. They were basically all around twenty years old, so Yan Fei—twenty-six, successful in society, yet still considered by many to be a green kid with milk still on his breath—had somehow become the “big brother” of quite a few soldiers in the team. It was rather awkward.
“Just absorb them directly, the same way you usually use crystal cores,” Yan Fei said. After thinking for a moment, he added with some uncertainty, “When I used mine, I waited until my ability was almost completely exhausted. You can wait a bit before trying.”
The three ability users nodded repeatedly.
Yan Fei checked again and discovered that, aside from himself, no one else in the team could determine the attribute of these cores without touching them. Could this also be a special condition brought about by his mutated ability?
Not knowing the exact reason, he temporarily set the thought aside. The soldiers on the wall who were cooperating with the cleanup units below to eliminate zombies were also no longer focused on what was happening beneath the wall. One by one, they kept glancing toward the three ability users who were frantically expending their powers—word had spread that they might witness ability users leveling up with their own eyes! This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. After seeing it, they could go back and brag to their comrades and buddies!
Luo Xun was just as curious. When Yan Fei had leveled up, he’d been kicked downstairs—he understood that Yan Fei had done it out of concern in case something went wrong, but still, this kind of thing was rare. In both his lives, he’d never seen it before!
Before long, with the three of them deliberately racing to burn through their energy, they quickly exhausted the abilities in their bodies.
After being helped by nearby teammates to the other side of the wall, the three soldiers—who had all drained their abilities almost simultaneously—somewhat nervously took out a crystal core each and closed their eyes to absorb it.
Down below, someone in the vehicle convoy responsible for clearing zombies looked up in surprise. “What’s going on up there? Why did they suddenly stop shooting?”
“Who knows—maybe they ran out of ammo,” his teammate said indifferently.
“Quick! The zombies are rushing over here! Fire! Fire!”
Thank you for reading 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉
