156

Luo Xun guessed that Captain Guo would contact them, but not so soon – after all the barracks matter was only yesterday. It was really fast, of course who knows how involved he was.

Yan Fei put down his work and picked up the phone. Luo Xun followed while the other people continued to admire the new armor. They continued testing the sturdiness in more areas.

Yan Fei held the phone while Captain Guo began to speak, "Yan Fei, how was your rest? By the way, what do you think of we discussed before? Do you want to come back? Or stay with your team?"

Yan Fei raised an eyebrow, his mind kicked into gear while he said. "Captain Guo, I rested fine...the workload this time was big..." A few more polite words. "My relationship with the captain is strong, although I want to help you...I'm sorry but I won't leave him."

Captain Guo knew that he and Luo Xun were together, how could he appeal only to him? If he had a problem, he could jump from the 16th floor.

"Really no? You didn't think about the terms we are offering?" He said again, "If the base has emergency work, we will count on you to come."

Yan Fei immediately understood, "Rest assured that if there is any danger on base we won't run. I will keep you in mind when we get called."

Luo Xun whispered after hearing Yan Fei answer the call. "Is there someone with Captain Guo?" Although he did not hear words – there must be a problem on Captain Guo's side! When did he speak in such a polite tone?!

Yan Fei closed the phone before saying, "I did not hear other voices but I suspect someone was listening or out in public." He then summarized what Captain Guo had said.

Luo Xun nodded his head after listening. "I suspect the new leaders in base are trying to reorganize the ability users, or recruit ones who are not under the control of the military. At least they had the idea to reform the metal squad, perhaps to repair the outer walls and other tasks. Let's be careful..."

He trailed off with a sigh and gently hammered Yan Fei's chest. "The weak will be bullied by strong teams on base. But those too strong will also be pulled down due to fear. These days are so hard to survive..."

Yan Fei smiled and held his lover's hand as they walked back to continue working on protective clothing. They could not explain to the others – after all the matter was not fully clear. They could only remind everyone to be vigilant, watch their back while acting together and avoid trouble.

Yan Fei worked the ideas and comments from the others. He added a layer of metal to the gloves and shoes of his team members. He was glad that he practiced everyday with his metal ability. After becoming level four, he could make metal as fine as a silk thread but tough enough to withstand two of Zhang Yi's wind blades. Otherwise he would do the same thing to the socks as the armor.

The sky darkened as Yan Fei dealt with their metal clothes. The couple returned home to discuss the phone call from Captain Guo during the afternoon.

"...Do you want to contact Sun Shaoyang?" Luo Xun was hesitant, "He looked like he wanted to return."

Sun Shaoyang had left the army and joined a team but it did not seem suitable for him. Although he was dissatisfied with the new captain, if Guo returned, he and his partner would want to go back.

"It does not matter, since Captain Guo was the one who called, maybe Sun Shaoyang has already gone back. In case their phones are monitored, it would be best not to call them now."

Yan Fei frowned, Captain Guo called himself, if he contacted Sun Shaoyang who might rejoin the metal team with some adjustments...it would be troublesome if they were found.

The two discussed for a while before coming to a conclusion – in short with the chaotic situation on base, they decided to lay low and not rock the boat, especially since the military still had cards to play. Otherwise, their relatively peaceful days would come to an end.

Luo Xun sighed again, he had been an ordinary person at the bottom during his past life. He had been completely unaware of what haunted the base and other rumors about leadership. Of course, the knowledge would not be useful since the zombies had mutated or had someone with intelligence leading them.

The people inside the base were unsure when they would get hunted down and eaten by zombies. After a night's rest, the team put on their new armor and increased security before gathering in the hallway.

The Otaku squad killed a few water zombies in the previous battle and there were level four nuclei among the spoils. Now all the ability users were level four other than Yu Xinran, whose nuclei were hard to find in the market.

Although they should act together, since the situation on base is not very stable, they decided to have Yu Xinran and Puppy housekeep along with Qiankun. If there were any problems, they would immediately call.

After wearing all their layers of armor, everyone opened the door and went out.

They walked to the mission hall, the main road had been cleaned up in the first few days of the attack. Sure enough, with enough pressure these kinds of tasks could be done quickly.

When they arrived, Luo Xun was surprised to find, "So few people." Usually there would be some people idling around the hall between missions. There were also usually people wandering around looking to join other groups.

Today when they came out, they felt that the people in neighborhood wanted to preserve their strength. The average person did not take missions and they did not go out...but such am empty mission hall...made people feel a little weird.

The group exchanged surprised looks while debating whether to go in for a mission. Then a few enthusiastic staff welcomed them...

They had never seen a suspected bank manager or public servant before the apocalypse taking the initiative to meet and speak with them. This was really a testing scene...especially after the end. In other words, where had the staff who looked down on ordinary people because they ate public food gone?!

The suspected lobby manager was wearing a plaid shirt, tie, jacket, jeans and old shoes smiled at them. "Are you here to pick up a mission? This way please."

Looking at the person's smiling face at the empty hall, Luo Xun secretly guessed that since there were so few people coming for missions, the manager took the initiative to meet with them...

After coming to the check-in counter, they confirmed that their guess was correct. The tasks released yesterday were barely completed, they could even pick the place they wanted to clean up.

For safety reasons, Luo Xun chose their neighborhood. Their main task was to deal with the snow on the roadside and get rid of the hidden zombie mice and other creatures that would attack humans. Of course, they would get more points from killing and handing in the bodies.

In fact, if would have been cost-effective even if there were no points, after all the zombies had nuclei.

"Boss, you said...now that we have picked a task, will what we did before not count?" Li Tie asked in a low voice.

Luo Xun had a helpless expression. "I am not sure, but cleaning up the snow in our area so the zombies have no hiding places will also help keep ourselves safe, right?"

When they came back yesterday, they took care of all the sewer entrances that might have mice and asked Yan Fei to reinforce them with metal nets. Even the pipes of the toilets were temporarily blocked, opened only when in use.

When the home protective measures were done, they could leisurely come and pick a mission. Otherwise how could they calmly leave the house with children at home? Now...the mission was picked and they were suddenly saying they did not want to do it?

157

Although helping the base was equivalent to helping themselves, Luo Xun was not sure whether they would get the points and reduce the team's rent after the task. The group drove the truck with brooms, shovels and other things to the destination.

The two had rarely seen cleaners after the end, which made sense after they found all the garbage piled under the snow...

That is when they realized that it was a thankless task. In addition to consuming quite a bit of physical strength, there were also 'surprises' at work.

The so called surprises referred to the zombie mice hidden in the snow. Although there were not many, some of them sprang out while they were cleaning up the snow piles. While they were clearing up a garbage mountain, a poorly hidden zombie bird also appeared.

Fortunately, the team had fully prepared themselves – once the zombie jumped out, a blast of attacks smashed it to the ground before the monster could roar.

The team of cleaners busily shoveled snow and rubbish while bitterly comforting themselves that they were helping out...well the goal was noble but their true reasons were not. It was for the sake of their life and health. Reducing the surrounding garbage would lower chance if illness and other issues.

Luo Xun's phone began to ring as he was rapidly shovelling rubbish. He whipped out his phone to identify the caller and walked to the side.

"Captain Li?" Luo Xun asked as the phone connected, sure enough it was the captain from the canteen. "Luo Xun, do you have any vegetables? The meal hall is need of ingredients."

Luo Xun blinked and said with some pain, "Captain Li, the vegetables are not ready...as you know the zombie birds flew into base and broke the windows of higher floors. It was hard for us to survive those two days and before we could clean up the windows, we had to defend the walls...The rest of the vegetables froze to death, there is no way to sell vegetables at the moment."

"Ah, about that..." Captain Li had already guessed, he questioned whether the call would get through. Being able to contact Luo Xun meant that his team was pretty good and luckily able to escape the zombie bird attack.

Vegetables...the zombie birds had broken some of the planting buildings, the vast majority of plants wither froze or rotted. He would not have been in a hurry to contact Luo Xun if he had many other options.

But whether Luo Xun's team survived due to luck or having enough strength to beat the zombies, they had to maintain a good relationship in case they could be used later.

"Well, I don't want to bother. If you have any normal vegetables, the canteen will buy them! So call back later."

Something big happened in the barracks last night, if someone like him who had fewer connections wanted to keep his current position, he would need to make a corresponding contribution to show his strength and not get replaced.

So since Luo Xun could not help, he would have to contact other people he cooperated with. It was not only Luo Xun's group that grew vegetables at home. Their planting area was nowhere near as large so there was no way to plant so many normal crops. But now, even getting some mutant vegetables was okay!

Luo Xun turned to Yan Fei after hanging up the phone while the latter asked, "What's the matter?"

Luo Xun shrugged, "Captain Li wanted to buy food, I'm testing the waters." The vegetables at home were somewhat affected by the zombie attack, but not frozen to death like he said – but they were neglected.

Of course, some were frozen. Li Tie and the others used 1601 as a battleground to fight against the zombies. Because the windows were opened, they moved the vegetables were moved. However after the cold wind, many plants did not grow well because of the low temperatures. In addition, because of the fear that leaks would attract more zombies, the windows were completely covered in metal and blocked the light, so the plants had not been growing as well.

Some of the solar panels near the area were broken as a result of fighting so they had to take some time to replace them. In short, there were a lot of things at home but they urgently needed to take some missions...that was the reason Luo Xun refused Captain Li's request to buy food.

On one hand, they did not have time to harvest the vegetables at home. On the other hand, the entire base had been affected by the attack, even the military's fields had been damaged, how could their crops be unaffected?

Although no one would think much about the military anxiously buying food, but during such a difficult time...they did not want to trouble their families.

Luo Xun kept this matter in mind and Yan Fei understood what he meant. Look at the surrounding buildings, how many were intact after clearing the snow? How many of the roadside homes built by earth users in autumn remained?

Revealing a mostly undamaged home, being able to grow vegetables...it was too much of a target. Smaller quantities were to be expected, more would result in being painted with a target.

The members of the Otaku squad struggled to clean up the snow and other debris in the area, finding and killing zombie mice from time to time. By the time noon arrived and they had a break, the base was buzzing with activity.

Many people carefully walked out their homes and always paid attention to the street for any traces of zombie mice. Fortunately the creatures were reluctant to come out during the day, unless their lairs were revealed when they would attack. Otherwise they would rather hide and not come out.

Luo Xun looked east at a group of people running westwards holding things and sighed. His current home had a bit if everything, so for the time being they were fine, but if it was the past him, he probably would live like these people....just not as arrogant.

It took two days for Luo Xun to complete the task from the mission hall. The next afternoon they were informed that the report had been finished, allowing them to receive points for the subquest and a decrease for this month's rent.

With points in hand, everyone's heart was soothed – at least they got some points so the task was not in vain. As for the turbulence at the higher base...the average survivor noticed nothing about what happened that night. Actually even before that, many survivors did not even know the names or number of the base leaders. They felt little even if there was a change in leadership.

After the emergency mission, Luo Xun and company gathered their damaged things, counted the number of solar panels and listened to the radio. It was now late January and the lunar new year was coming soon!

The arrival of the human and animal zombies had pushed the matter aside. It was not until they heard on the radio that they realized this time of year had arrived?!

"It's almost time for spring, let's have some preparation for a good year." Xu Mei suggested to the team.

"All right, dumplings, dumplings!" He Qiankun immediately raised his hands while drooling. "Mutton stuffed dumplings!" The sheep they had last time was so fragrant, if they used that meat to make dumplings...just the thought made people start to drool.

"Dumplings must be wrapped and cannot be rushed for the best flavor. Plus we won't have to worry about the smell flowing out like with the sliced mutton." Luo Xun smiled, "Let's prepare something else uncommon to eat...like some hot pot. Potatoes, tofu and mutton can be eaten with rice..." It was closer to stew but the soup could be drunk and eaten with side dishes.

"All right, all right, eat hot pot and dumplings!"

Everyone had been busy so for quite a while, now they could settle down. With the cold weather they could temporarily avoid some base things. Their thoughts naturally turned towards food – who let their fridge have so much meat?

Most of the survivors on base could have a good year, although people were loss and homes damaged...the food left behind helped the remaining survivors live through this difficult winter and reach spring.

158

On that day, the base finally regained its former calm after the zombie bird raids and siege. Early in the morning, the base had been broadcasting a variety of recordings about mutant crop research and other pre-recorded variety shows before the apocalypse. This made the base with many collapsed houses seem more lively than before.

Survivors still living on base were very ready for the holidays, after all there were small losses after the previous zombie bird attack that left behind resources...The ability users responded more quickly and soon dealt with the incoming birds, although at night one had to be careful to avoid encountering zombie mice. Those who had received the leftover resources, coupled with their own preparations, it was no problem having a nice spring festival.

As a result of the re-integration of supplies, many people had radios available. That way, even though the speakers on the road were long gone, many people could still listen to shows an news at home.

Because most of the shows were used before the spring festival, the new people who took over ordered the stations to play these things out slowly.

The tall black fortress was bustling with meetings as the whole base prepared for the new year.

Of course, the senior management opened their meeting alone. The lower level officers sat in an auditorium listening to some prepared programs with the rest of the barracks. It was for celebration and to strengthen work morale. In a secret underground room, the real leaders of the base were having a meeting.

The data was circulated around the table. The average age was 10-20 years lower than before as some military personnel had gradually increased their strength as the apocalypse continued.

After quickly looking at the lists, they set aside the teams that had completed their tasks and focused on the rest.

"Consistent with previous discussions, they completed their missions on time last year and showed support for our past operation and has some strength. But did not participate in the faction fighting, a team that does not stir up the wind on base."

Another person's expression was relieved. "Although we cannot say anything since the tasks have been completed, at least it proves that today's leadership is more trusted.As for the unsuspecting regular teams...those who honestly work are an important cornerstone of the base."

"Well we can rest assured about that point. As for those who are still on the sidelines or slacking off..."

The atmosphere in the room became bitter as they exchanged glances. One of the said, *Cough* "This matter, after the new year, the teams will need to do missions in accordance with the new rules."

Several others nodded. "Yes, those with power have an obligation to the base."

Someone else added, "Still have to find a way, some teams have the captain making all the decisions, the others would not be clear about some things."

The discussion continued with topics including how to integrate future ability squads, hot to treat past enemies, although no details were spoken.

The previous one about limiting teams and mandatory missions had nothing to do with the people sitting here today. The head determined their direction. When they reached this seat, they found that rules were beneficial to the higher ups. Of course, they needed to set up different missions for teams, those who finished in advance would be less difficult, as for the rest...