Here"s the bonus chapter ~
Thanks to: Mich.e.l.le in Colorado, Shadoerunner, AC, Mrow, Anon(s)
After another day, one of the plant type users was gone. The remaining plant user and told Luo Xun that he had spoken to Captain Guo in private to help him stay with the team. After all, although he has an ability, most of the power users in the army were already level two while he was only level one.
He was powerful but only in comparison to ordinary people. If put together in a large group of other ability users, he would be considered average. He also heard that quite a few other plant users had been found. Not too many, but not too little at the same time.
After he came up with this idea, he heard that Captain Guo was also looking for another ability user, which only made sense after seeing what was left of the team.
The metal team now had two fewer members with 13 remaining. Likely because the higher ups felt that the numbers were fine – counting on the couple"s help. Now they were trying to build new teams of ability users, which also required some rare abilities, but there were not enough people.
Fortunately, work was not tense, not a lot of help was needed. For some small metal parts, purifying metal it was not a problem for two people. The rest of the work had vehicles to help.
Li Tie, the other students and Zhang Yi had to wait until the fourth day to be tested. In fact, the students were not formally in the army, more like temporarily recruited workers, so they had to wait until all army personnel were inspected before their turn.
The five excitedly went but were somewhat disappointed – they were all normal, just as they had expected. Zhang Yi also checked out his wind power – no surprises. However his colleagues and the soldiers were shocked – his wind powers were only level two?
One had to know that a large number of ability users had leveled up (especially in the army). However wind abilities…at level one were useless, they could turn the air into a small cannon at maximum. But Zhang Yi could slice people apart even at level one! Not to mention level two?!
This had caused doubts to spread among people, they wondered if Zhang Yi had been level two from the start or even level three. Thus when the results came out, they wondered if the instrument was capable of reading higher than level two.
Of course, this suspicion was in their mind, after all there were no level three abilities at the moment. It was possible that the instrument could not detect anything higher than level two. But if that was said aloud, it would offend the group of experts who had been working on base. No one was stupid enough to say anything.
After a week of testing in the Army, the research department issued a notice about ability detection equipment. The news was advertised everywhere through the radio and on the streets.
The instrument was now free for testing for all the people on base. The military brought out six devices, but because people were too enthusiastic after the news, the checkpoints were filled morning until night with people waiting in line.
All the ability users wanted to wear the special ident.i.ty card that proved their status and distinction from ordinary people. All the ordinary people wanted to rise above their current position, remake their ident.i.ty. In this lawless base, they could stand tall and step on former bullies and rise up in life.
During this craze to discover abilities and change cards, people such as Xu Mei and Song Lingling did not want to cause trouble, they were calm since they knew their own power levels.
At the same time the equipment was released, the base also quietly circulated that a zombie siege would occur in the near future. It seemed that the zombies had launched a counterattack on the human"s bombing. They targeted the southwest base and eastern base on the edge of city.
The news spread like wildfire through base, many people were whispering. There was speculation that the news came from an ability user capable of foresight. The message became distorted as it was pa.s.sed around, some people said a legendary zombie leader, ruler of all zombies would punish the humans.
Listening to the more and more outrageous rumors on base, Luo Xun and Yan Fei were silent, they had no other way.
Luo Xun had no way of proving that his "prediction" would happen, along with no proof that he had lived through the future. Also had no way to ensure that this would not happen.
After all, although small aspects had changed due to his rebrith were mostly related to himself. The bigger picture had not changed. For example, city only had two bases and M-city and several other bases had been destroyed.
Even a few major research developments on base were completed at the same time. The only difference in Luo Xun"s memory was that the base had more metal bridges, thanks to the metal users leveling up with Yan Fei"s help. This had not happened in his past life, it was the biggest difference between Luo Xun"s past life and present.
It was because of this that Luo Xun did not say that the eastern base would be overrun. He naturally dared not a.s.sert that things would happen. The couple were recently very concerned about the situation outside of base but they did not hear about a sudden increase in the number of zombies.
As for the news currently spreading around base, it had been Yan Fei"s decision to quietly distribute it. He could not directly contact the bosses on base, especially if he could not explain how he knew or display any proof.
They had their mobile phones on hand, the network on base had been successfully set up and they could connect to the network from home and send messages to team members. But if one did not want to be checked, it was best to not leave a trail.
So he decided to use this method since teams that went out for missions would pay special attention to relevant news – such as a sudden increase in zombies, strange zombies moving around and so on. Once the news was spread around, the base would have to respond.
Of course, there were drawbacks, if anyone wanted to subvert the current regime, they would use this method to stir up rumors inside the base. But the couple had no other way of effectively achieving their goals.
Searching for powers and the rumors lasted until the end of the month. The tested had exceeded four-fifths. There far more people identified with abilities whether in the army or public. It was an astonis.h.i.+ng phenomenon.
What was the reason? Was there any way to increase the ratio of power users in the army? Or was it those with the qualities of a power user had joined the army in the last few years?
Ordinary people did not understand, there was a speculation in the research community – physical fitness. The better a person was, the less likely it was that they became a zombie after the apocalypse and more likely to have an ability.
In fact, looking at the base population, a guess could be made; the majority of the base were young adults, the elderly and weak children mutated directly into zombies during the first wave. Most of the people who developed abilities usually had decent fitness, or some other advantage.
Of course, there was also the fact that many sickly people would not be able to escape to the base, so this was only a conjecture. It was not clear even with well-informed people in the research department.
However, even if the proportion of ability users was higher in the army, it was not more than the total number of ability users discovered on base. After all, it was mostly those with strength or powerful abilities that survived and reached the base. There was no chance for those with poor physique or the elderly to make the journey.
Xu Mei, Song Lingling and little Ran waited until the end of the month before checking their ability types and level. As a result, the busy crowd sucked a breath – three women! There was a child with them! They were all ability users!!
The s.h.i.+ning color that denoted them level two ability users as well as their murderous atmosphere let people know that they were not silk flowers hiding behind men on base. It would not be the first time someone came to woo, bully or lure them away.
Still, after they had received their ident.i.ty cards, many came to try and woo the three females. It was a pity that the two women hated men? One"s hair was burnt off before getting doused with a water ball. They quickly retreated and dared not provoke these two th.o.r.n.y roses.
By the end of the month, Luo Xun and Yan Fei had decided – time to leave base once again.
Although Luo Xun remembered that in early August, the eastern base was broken and half a month later their own southwest base suffered a siege, there had been no news of any abnormal movement. No news of places where zombies had increased and gotten more dangerous.
The news the pair had scattered was still circulating, but it was more like a story. Even if some people felt that it was very likely, they did not see any signs of what to do.
"This time depends on the situation outside, if the number of zombies is high we will not stray too far from base or take too long." Luo Xun and his team were sitting in Li Tie"s rooms – the regular meeting spot.
"After the rumors we heard on base, they might just be rumors but we need to be careful. Let"s go out and harvest some crystal nuclei."
The team had no disagreements with Luo Xun, after all the team went out of base in order to collect crystal nuclei, earn extra money and develop fighting instincts. Li Tie and the others were working with the army and naturally heard that const.i.tution was related to chance of abilities.
Some of them were now more enthusiastic about hunting zombies – even though they weren"t very strong now, but gaining experience would help their future! Even if they did not develop abilities in the future, saving nuclei and points was also good.
Compared to Yan Fei, Zhang Yi, Xu Mei and the others who had to absorb a portion of their crystal nuclei, the students did not need so all the crystals were pure income!
Usually, if they needed something, they would redeem some points with the team"s nuclei and spend them to buy the things they needed. But how much money could they spend?
The five student"s could be considered petty bourgeoisie, white collar workers compared to those without jobs. They had enough in their possession to marry someone!
Unfortunately these four bachelors either set their sights on the two team beauties, who looked the other way. Or they were unaware that they could find a girlfriend, for example Wu Xin and He Qiankun had an inferiority complex due to their appearances and had never been with a girl.
"No problem! We"ll listen to the captain!" Li Tie shouted loudly.
In fact, the five people were not very courageous. A dozen zombies near the base was okay, but if they encountered a sea of zombies…They would quickly run away, did not want to be sacrificed to stop the torrent of zombies.
Xu Mei and the others had no opinion so the meeting ended. Everyone went back home to prepare for the next day.
This time, for the sake of safety Luo Xun no longer drove his two-in-one car. Everyone tidied up and three cars drove out. Each vehicle had at least one ability user inside, convenient to deal with emergencies.
They left the base after picking a mission. The car went all the way down the previous route back to where they had been fighting before. On the way, there were a few scattered zombies in the ruined streets. It seemed similar to the situation the last time they came out.
As they pa.s.sed through the ruins of the bank and arrived where they last stayed. The number of scattered zombies seemed similar to the last time – as if the zombies had accidentally been wandering around the neighborhood.
"Does seem like there are any problems?" Han Li looked around with his binoculars.
Luo Xun also careful examined the area. "Let"s go back to the place where everyone escaped last time."
Yan Fei was responsible for inspecting the road to determine all the hidden underground traps, the bowl shaped structures were intact. The others also looked around before driving back to where they had stayed last.
Yan Fei used the metal hidden in the pits to make metal fences, reinforcing the defenses with metal gathered along the way.
They cleaned out the nearby zombies – the number of level two zombies had increased. After the ability users had recovered, Luo Xun once again brought out a blood pack to lure zombies.
Perhaps because there quite a few people coming from the south, so the number of zombies might have been reduced. The zombie bodies had not been burned to charcoal.
They walked outside the metal walls, cleaned up the zombies and picked up the nuclei. Roughly estimated that the harvest was around 5000.
Xu Mei frowned at Luo Xun, "Captain, should we continue?"
Although among the 5000 nuclei, 80% were level two nuclei. Compared to past harvests, this was a bit more.
Luo Xun was hesitant, delving into the urban area would net more crystal nuclei, but there were safety concerns…
Thinking carefully and seeing the sky had completely darkened. Luo Xun started to speak, "Let"s…"
"Captain, something"s there! There"s something coming! A lot!" Han Li shouted, his face pale as he pointed to the northeast.
The people heard and quickly looked in that direction. Bright red eyes shone in the shadows of the dark ruins.
Yan Fei"s expression changed as he heard the squeaking sounds. "Zombie mouse!"
"Close the windows!" Luo Xun"s face was solemn and immediately commanded the team.
That was Yan Fei"s job, he immediately mobilized the nearby metal to form a metal dome that covered everything.
Luo Xun was not idle, together with Li Tie they prepared buckets of gasoline and mushroom juice on the side.
The squeaking noises came closer and closer, gradually becoming a wall of sound. Luo Xun said before the zombie mice reached the front. "Listen to my orders, Yan Fei will pour mushroom juice and gasoline into the ditch outside using pipes, Xu Mei will ignite and Zhang Yi pay attention when adding air, don"t let soot in! If the oil gets lit, you are responsible for extinguis.h.i.+ng it!"
Seeing Xu Mei and Zhang Yi nod, he turned to Song Lingling. "You are responsible to add water into several big barrels to cool everyone down."
In this situation, no need for elaborate tactics! Pour mushroom juice! Pour the gasoline! Set the enemies on fire!!
The movement speed of the zombie mice was amazing, Luo Xun had not even finished speaking when the sound of squeaking reached the wall.
*Plop* a bunch of zombie mice dropped directly into the ditch, but G.o.d knew how many zombie rats were out there?! Once the trench was filled, they would run towards the metal wall!
Luo Xun had not even finished that though when the popping sounds erupted from the other side!
"Where did they come from?" He Qiankun said with a faint s.h.i.+ver.
A pair of peach blossom eyes narrowed. "I can sense wind power…"
Right after, one of the small windows was. .h.i.t with a small fireball!
"Is there no justice in the world?! Even a zombie mouse can develop powers!" w.a.n.g Duo spit out, his heart was in turmoil.
Luo Xun had already calmed down. "Stay away from the windows for now. Song Lingling use a water curtain to look outisde, if the ditch is almost filled with rats, get ready to pour mushroom juice!"
It was kill or be killed! Luo Xun would not give up before his final breath, they must absolutely strive to live!
Everyone"s face was serious, Song Lingling did not directly see the mouse army. There were many mice rus.h.i.+ng into the hole, but a few clung to the metal walls. The sound of scrabbling claws, shrill voices and pings filled the air.
She checked the other side, using a curtain of water as a protective measure. She loudly called to Luo Xun. "Captain! The back trench is half full!"
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