106

"Pour the mushroom juice! Avoid the window areas!" Luo Xun immediately relayed orders after Song Lingling's report.

The whole barrel of mushroom juice was poured into the trench using a metal funnel made by Yan Fei.

The squeaking from outside grew louder, the corrosive mushroom juice eliminated more than half of the zombie rats in the trench. A large number of zombie mice were buried in pus.

It was fortunate that they had not met too many zombies today, so there a lot of mushroom juice and petrol in stock. Otherwise they have needed to hide in metal shelters and not be able to deal with all the zombies outside.

Zhang Yi controlled the airflow inside the metal dome, allowing fresh air to enter. Li Tie and the others poured buckets of mushroom juice through the funnels.

Gradually, seventy to eighty percent of the mushroom juice had been used, but the number of zombie mice outside showed no sign of decreasing! Even more frightening was listening to the *pop* sounds of mice hitting the metal walls and grinding that caused one's scalp to tingle.

When the pit was almost full again, Luo Xun immediately ordered more mushroom and petrol to be dumped out of the funnels.

Xu Mei did have time to release a fireball when a fire ability zombie mouse carelessly lit some gasoline!

Fortunately the fireball fell into the ditch, and did not ignite the funnel, otherwise the person responsible for pouring petrol would have gotten burned!

"Really...dangerous" Luo Xun whispered while looking at the raging fire.

The people in charge of the petrol did not know that they had almost been injured, but were also relieved at seeing the fire doing its job.

Yan Fei patted him on the shoulder and whispered, "We have learned our lesson, next time I'll change the form to avoid this problem."

Luo Xun could only nod in agreement. The couple stood side by side and silently waited for the fire to stop burning.

Zombie mice were extremely fast. Their rotten skin was ignited as they crossed through the flames causing fiery bullets to hit the metal walls.

Yan Fei had deliberately made the trench area larger, but the rats could use wind abilities and speed across. Everyone felt lucky about their previous zombie encounters, one-on-one the zombies were not bag, but their movements were slow. Even the faster zombies did not compare to the zombie rats intensive attack, or had the past only been a warmup?

That night, no one dared to sleep. When the fire became small, some immediately added more petrol. Xu Mei shot a flame as far as possible to create a dense firewall, more intense than usual.

Zhang Yi made sure that the air stayed clean, displacing any soot. He also occasionally added oxygen to Xu Mei's flames for combustion.

The fire burned all night. Fortunately before leaving, Luo Xun had told everyone to bring more gasoline back. They had brought all of it with them, otherwise how would they have relaxed somewhat that night?

When the first rays of the sun appeared, the team had no reaction. It was only when the sun was in the sky that the squeaking became quieter, the zombie mice gradually started retreating. The zombie mice disappeared as suddenly as they arrived.

"Gone, gone..."

"Finally all gone!"

Realizing that the zombie mice had completely disappeared, they started to cry along with a few *thump* sounds. The team flopped onto the ground, the more exhausted people went directly to sleep.

Luo Xun subconsciously leaned against Yan Fei and fell asleep. His mind was still thinking about the zombie animals that retained habits. The zombies were not afraid of the sun, but not accustomed to being out during the day. Otherwise, the team would not be able to continue without a break.

When Luo Xun opened his eyes again, the sun had almost risen overhead.

He looked at the time – 11:20 AM and dragged his tired body for a quick patrol. He determined that there were no traces of zombies or other people. Luo Xun was relieved.

Li Tie and several other people were still sleeping, Xu Mei was rubbing her eyes. Yan Fei had woken up with Luo Xun and was drinking some water.

"We'll clean up the battlefield then go back and have an early rest." Luo Xun's voice was a little hoarse, so he took some water from Yan Fei and drank a few gulps.

Everyone woke up and went to collect crystals. It must be said that the zombie mice gave a truly impressive number of nuclei. However the nuclei in an animal's body were much smaller than a human zombie – depended on the size of the animal.

The nuclei in a zombie mouse brain, was only one-third the size of a human one. Yan Fei tried to absorb one and nodded at Luo Xun. "Energy is about one-third of a normal nuclei."

It was same regardless of nuclei level. However they had encountered too many zombie mice, after burning all the zombie animal corpses, they harvested more than 40,000 pieces! Including the level two nuclei they had previously obtained, the rich harvest made them speechless.

Unfortunately, the number of level two zombie rats was lower than regular zombies, about 3:1. Even more regrettable was that the zombie rats nuclei were too small so they had to return to base in order to figure out the value.

Plus, killing so many zombie mice at once, if the crystal cores entered the market, would not the military become suspicious? It seemed like they could only slowly release their resources.

As usual, the crystals were divided into five portions, one was for the team, the remainder was personal income. They put all their things in the back of the car, cleaned up while covering their traces and drove back to base.

Luo Xun had spent the day recovering from his exhaustion due to last night. In retrospect, the most memorable thing would have been – returning to base was so fast!

Since the base had a detector, there was no need for blood tests and the security screening was very fast. Luo Xun and company fought zombies using only ranged attacks and rarely encountered a melee situation. When they returned to base, even their coats were not contaminated with zombie virus.

The cars wheels were contaminated, but that was something anyone leaving base would encounter, there was no way to avoid it.

The military people would clean the dirty car tires after returning from a mission. Luo Xun and team did not have to worry, they just needed to pick up their cars and return home. This speed was much faster than the last time.

They rested for a day. Luo Xun and Yan Fei took advantage of their last vacation day to check the streets. First, Yan Fei wanted to search for some metal nuclei. Second, they wanted to find a way to sell the level two nuclei from the zombie mice.

This was too painful, it might be better to take the nuclei to exchange with the military instead.

After wandering around they arrived at the stall where they had a previous transaction. Yan Fei took out one the small level two crystals, the other party was somewhat surprised. Although this was rare, it was not like they had never seen those before.

After all, as a result of the last incident, everyone knew that there were zombie animals in the city. Some teams had also seen these animals. It was a bit troublesome to kill, but one could still have a decent harvest.

"Have you had a decent harvest lately?" The man casually struck up conversation. "Our team went a few times and only brought back level one nuclei with a few level two, but not any we need."

Luo Xun was a little surprised and inquired, "Our luck is not very good, we found some zombies but not what we wanted. Where did you guys go? Never meeting a level two zombie? What luck!"

The man laughed, since the task was over, he was not afraid of theft. He proudly said, "Two days ago we took a mission to north of the city, a fabric factory. All you could see were first level zombies..."

So north of the city was mainly filled with level one zombies? Had the zombies in the south become level two in order to survive the previous air strikes?

Luo Xun was surprised, he hurried and left while whispering to Yan Fei. "What do you think? Why are there more level two zombies in the south compared to the north?"

He had only been north in his last life and was unaware of the situation in the south. The man had not paid attention to where he had went, the only reason he made it back was because the area was dominated by level one zombies.

Yan Fei also frowned. "Perhaps there's a connection with the air strikes?"

The pair discussed for some time but did not come to a conclusion and could only give up. The next day after work, they went to the military exchange window and exchanged their useless second level nuclei for other second and first grade nuclei and points.

As for the zombie mice nuclei, the market and military had the same rate of 1:3 for normal nuclei, which was about what they had estimated.

It was the start of August, the couple worked hard, while one side was secretly worried about the impending siege. Despite their close attention, they heard no special news from teams coming back from missions.

On the evening of the fourth, the two men returned and helped Xu Mei harvest the crops before heading home for dinner.

Li Tie and the other excitedly climbed upstairs and happily opened the door. "Look at what amazing things we brought home?!"

"Hard drive?" Luo Xun looked up in surprise at the thing in Li Tie's hands.

"TV shows! All shows from before the apocalypse! We don't know when they were found and uploaded into the network, we just copied them!" Li Tie's face was bright and blossoming.

They all had mobile phones but there was no TV or computers. Watching tv dramas and movies were not super interesting, but there weren't any more fun activities?

"Come on, I'll add them to our mainframe..."

Since discovering that Luo Xun had a computer with many novels. Li Tie and the others saved up from their time working with the military to buy a computer! It not only had copies of Luo Xun's novel, but also a bunch of other forms of entertainment.

"Well, just in time for bed." Always reading novels would get boring, having different types of entertainment was also good.

A group of people excitedly ran upstairs to tinker with electronics. All the computer equipment, routers and other were all in Li Tie's home. There were some things in the corridor – which had been also set up by Li Tie and friends.

"There are movies!" Xu Mei and Song Lingling were more interested in the latest Hollywood blockbusters.

"What else? This is what we brought back today, we can get some more tomorrow!" Han Li patted his chest, finally found an opportunity to market himself.

Song Lingling turned with excited eyes. "Korean dramas? The longer the better to pass the time. Alas, Korean dramas have become shorter and shorter, best to have an older one with hundreds of episodes!"

Han Li immediately choked, hundreds of episodes? How many hard drives worth of stuff had to be loaded? No, he'll find a few large capacity hard drives! He needs to fulfill the wishes of the ladies on the team!

Xu Mei lowered her head and laughed while pretending to not see the silly behaviour of their companion.

Since there were films copied on the hard drive, they decided to spend the evening watching a movie. Wang Duo realized his highness had returned home and quickly went to welcome him.

Zhang Yi came in with Wang Duo, the former handed his bag over his valet. "East base had an accident."

The room became quiet. All turned to him in surprise, seemingly not understanding his words.

"I just received a message before I came back." Zhang Yi said while taking sips from a water bottle. "The eastern base sent a distress signal, said the base was surrounded, a large number of high level zombies so the survivors can only hide in a relatively safe place. One side sent for help while others were defending."

Zhang Yi shrugged. "The army dispatched doctors to accompany troops, nothing to do with me so I came back."

In fact, with his medical skills, the hospital could actually send him over, especially since he had wind powers to protect himself. But he had already made his opinions about the hospital clear, even the army had heard about it.

The rescue operation could not have the slightest uncertainty. There was no need for Zhang Yi, the higher ups would not consider sending out a troublemaker.

The army doctors selected all had medical backgrounds, strong psches and would reliably follow their superior's orders. As for the non-reliable...stay on base and save lives.

Luo Xun was silent for a while before asking. "Did you hear any specific news?"

Zhang Yi shook his head with a shrug. "No, I only know the higher ups sent out a task force, who knows the details or how many people were sent?"

People silently exchanged glances, Li Tie suddenly thought of a past rumor on base. "Weren't there news that there would be a zombie siege in early August? First the eastern base and then us? If the news..."

The other's faces all changed, Li Tie suddenly shouted before any discussion started. "WasteWoodHouse!!"

"Ah?" Han LI stared blankly at Li Tie.

Li Tie's face was flush with excitement, "Were the news put out by WasteWoodHouse? He was able to predict the coming of the apocalypse as well as posting information on how to survive. This looks like his handiwork! If he could predict the future, he will not die! He must have come to the southwest base too! This proves that WasteWoodHouse thinks that our base must be the safest! Ah ah ah, should we find him? He must know more...must have an ability to see the future, maybe a powerful ability user..."

Everyone looked silently at Li Tie, who had apparently gone delusional and then turned to captain Luo Xun.

Luo Xun started to sweat. "Since the east base had an incident, there might be a similar situation here. People might suddenly die on base from mysterious circumstances, but may really encounter a zombie siege. I suggest we postpone the outing this month and see what happens. The other thing is – from tomorrow on when we go out, try not to act alone, take caution outside." He looked at Zhang Yi.

He was the only person who likely act on his own, after all, although he worked until five o'clock, it was likely he would have overtime. Sooner or later, he would work later, it would be normal to back late at night.

Zhang Yi waved a hand. "I have powers..."

"No." Wang Duo immediately stood up. "You'll be tired after working all day, what would happen in a crisis? I'll wait for at the hospital gate and pick you up after work." He banged a fist against his chest.

He glanced at Wang Duo and sneered. "You? Do I save you or do you save me?"

Leave him alone at the hospital gate? Who was he kidding, so many people came and went. If something actually happened, how would he find him? If anything happened...

He Qiankun quickly pulled Wang Duo, "We'll go to the hospital with Wang Duo. Anyway we need to buy food after work. It would be better to eat in the canteen and then go to the hospital. If there are no issues, it would be around when Zhang Yi gets off work."

Yes, we go together! We'll carry weapons with us!"

"Why don't we drive? It's safer and there's a place to rest."

"And a cell phone! After we arrive, we'll send Zhang Yi a message and we'll greet him outside the hospital doors."

The group discussed and Zhang Yi reluctantly nodded. Since Li Tie and the others pass by the hospital on the way home from the barracks, the risk factor would be decreased. Along with moving as a group, security would be higher. This would guarantee safety for both sides, as for work...

Zhang Yi made a decision, tomorrow he would work as slowly as possible, unlike before. He had a strange state of mind, resulting in abnormal skills with a much higher efficiency than his counterparts.

Now in order to ensure the safety of the people going home with him, he was ready to relax and slow down. This could be considered a miracle.

107

Since the location of the accident was a long distance from the southwest base, most people on base did not see any problems since the roads needed military access. They did not get the details until the next day when Luo Xun and company went to the barracks.

Captain Guo's face was solemn as he spoke to the group. "Today, we'll be temporarily transferred to the outer wall, boss's orders. We're deepening the metal foundation as far as possible. They received the news last night about the eastern base, it had been breached."

So they temporarily assigned the metal users to add to the foundation. After all, the outer walls would be in danger once other zombie animals emerged.

Everyone looked solemn, no one said anything and hurried into the truck headed towards the outer wall.

In the car, one person asked for more details from the captain. "Captain, how is the eastern base?"

Captain Guo shook his head. "Situation is not good, said the base door was broken...a few helicopters were mobilized, but we'll need to wait to see how many people can be rescued."

He was not clear about the specifics but knew that the eastern base wall had been destroyed. Plus people suddenly turned into zombies inside, which lead to the survivors using their last strength to block the last fortifications.

However, it was very necessary to have backup barracks built in base.

Not long after the car drove to the outer walls, the team began today's work.

They needed to directly deepen the metal walls. Yan Fei first experimented to find methods and tricks before the other metal ability users started working.

The crane followed the four, holding a lot of metal. On the side, Luo Xun and several others were responsible for protecting the ability users, block possible attacks. But the current possibility was lower since there was a newly dug moat creating a river about five meters wide.

Outside the moat, there was a newly created earthen walls along with other walls made of wooden poles. This sort of fence became the first set of defensive fortifications.

The outer fence, while not practical, could stop the zombies long enough for the defensive soldiers to respond.

The huge iron gate faced the drawbridge, if there was an emergency, the suspension bridge could be raised at any time, allowing the base to be completely isolated from the outside world. Now, two surveillance watchtowers were connected to the bridge on the other side of the moat, carefully observing the surrounding area.

Ordinary soldiers and base survivors were clueless, but the higher ups on base were clear about one thing – the last attack had used a lot of the ar craft. If this case was not too urgent, they would definitely not send out the last few helicopters left!

And if any of these helicopters were lost...without an escape, they would have to go to war.

After eating lunch, the sun was high in the sky as they climbed up the walls to continue work. The outer wall foundation was originally only three meters, for safety reasons they needed to increase it to five meters.