Chapter 98
The wall building team ignored the crowd watching outside and continued working. Not long after, the two people who went to help at the factory came back to work on the wall. Everyone only had time to chat when it was time for lunch.
“The big shopping malls next to the bank have been changed into factories, a lot of equipment was transported over! I’ve been told it won’t be long until they start hiring!” Li said while taking bites of food.
“What kind of factory?” Someone asked curiously.
“Seems to be textile right?”
“I heard that there was a machine for instant noodles!”
“I only heard about looms, and they aren’t hiring yet…”
Luo Xun suddenly asked, “Textiles…are there any raw materials on base right now?”
There was sudden silence, each person looked at the other with doubtful eyes. “Maybe it had been collected from the city beforehand?”
The farmland was all grain, even if another crop was planted, the priority would not be given to cotton, a non-edible crop. Many of the soldiers were children of farmers, so they quickly followed Luo Xun’s train of thought.
Luo Xun knew that it was only at least after the third year that the base completely set up the textile mill. Before that he had not heard any news.
“Isn’t this pulling the cart before the horse?!” Followed by extensive cursing.
There was no way to start the factory without raw materials. Factories could only function with a steady supply of input.
Several factories recruited from the public after their official establishment on base. In addition, the planting division also began to recruit from outside.
Last month private cultivation was implemented but the base suffered various water issues. Some teams would use filtered water or water users to irrigate their crops but in the evening enemy forces would sneakily water plants with plain tap water. Deliberately causing plants to mutate! There were also some people competing, once they knew that tap water could lead to plant mutation, would deliberately sabotage each other…
Such things had erupted several times over the last month. Sometimes when two sides met, the conflict would escalate into bloodthirsty fighting. Luo Xun had seen someone hit on the street because of this reason.
Therefore, the base had to suspend the promotion of vegetable cultivation. Of course, some people could plant something on their balcony, as long as the plants did not mutate into something that would hurt people.
Fortunately, the more aggressive plants had distinct characteristics – they were very recognizable with grey mist, or bright red and green colors.
The military simply cleaned out a s.p.a.ce for specialized vegetables. Luo Xun’s management method was adopted, where the water was filtered or made by a water user. Although the cost was higher, it was better than nothing. The vegetables would not be enough for base people to eat, but no problem for military supply.
Luo Xun took a leaflet and turned to Yan Fei – he had worked here for around half a year. He looked at the crowded streets with an aching head. “Knew that today would be like this.”
There a lot of new people on base these days, they had filled the original empty houses inside
and outside the base for a place to live. Luo Xun now understood why he could only live in the bas.e.m.e.nt when he arrived at the city in his past life.
“The road over there is managed by the military.” Yan Fei smiled at Luo Xun in order to dispel the resentment in his eyes.
The other road was related to farmland. With more people on base, the inhabitants became a mixed bag, some unexpectedly ran into the farmland during the night in order to steal food and seeds, so the whole street came under martial law.
“Today we have to deal with a batch of mushrooms, don’t know if the unused ones from last month can be used.”
At the end of last month, the mushroom bullets obviously had great effect on level two zombies, even Li Tie and the other students could kill one in five or six rounds, not to mention Luo Xun?
“We’ll know in a few more days? There weren’t any problems when we looked in the fridge before.” Yan Fei said flippantly, those frozen things should not spoil so easily. “Even if it doesn’t work, how many mushrooms grow on the wood over the course of a month? Enough for us to use.”
The two people chatted while they slowly returned home. The trip that usually took only ten minutes turned more than half an hour. When they reached home…a crowd of people were watching…a real life PK battle.
Luo Xun exited the car with wide eyes while bringing out his crossbow. During the apocalypse, it was best to carry a protective weapon wherever you go. Now it was time for him to use his weapons.
“Xu Mei! What’s going on?!” Luo Xun loudly asked.
The lively crowd froze and turned to the newly arrived car. Luo Xun saw two people were floating in midair around the 16th floor. One of them was apparently a wind power, the other was temporarily invisible. The two men were confronted by Xu Mei ready to throw fireb.a.l.l.s through the window.
Hearing Luo Xun’s voice, Song Lingling immediately yelled. “Thieves! They’re sawing our windows!”
It seemed that the group of people thought that no one on the 16th floor was home during the daytime, so they came to steal. Luo Xun’s solar panels were not very visible but with careful observation – something was different. The base had begun to vigorously promote the use of solar appliances.
Several solar lamp panels had been stolen from various main roads. Not to mention Luo Xun hung the panels outside the window?
That wind user was obviously level two and could use the wind to adjust his position as to not be attacked by Xu Mei while hanging from a rope. He started to panic when her companions had come back and they had weapons.
“Xu Mei, don’t be polite, they deserve to be killed!”
The crossbow in his hand was silently shot upward. The arrow did not seem to slow down as it flew towards the 16th floor. Mercilessly broke the ice power use near 1503.
“Ah-” The wind user was also surprised and lost control of the wind. The two people swung towards Xu Mei’s location.
*Boom* The two were
were hit by a large fireball. Xu Mei had not taken action before because she was worried that it would bring trouble. But now that Luo Xun gave the okay to kill, why would she stop herself?
*Poof*Poof* Two arrows shot out and hit the rope. The two men fell to the ground howling and covered in flames.
Yan Fei indifferently dialed his phone. “Lieutenant Ding? When we came back we found two thieves…yes they wanted to steal out stuff and smashed the window. The two women were frightened…can you arrest them? They hung using a rope but it was not very strong so they both fell down. They are likely still breathing so send someone to deal with it.”
Several people nearby who heard him, unconsciously retreated two steps. Having the ability to kill was not a big deal, but those who could kill and calmly call others to “deal with it…”
Luo Xun was obviously angry, the enemy wind user had used his power at the last minute to not fall to his death. He aimed the crossbow at the man. “What team? Where are your a.s.sociates?”
The fire on the wind user had been extinguished in time to not be killed, but his lower body had no feeling, likely had been smashed! His companion was pa.s.sed out, could be dead or alive. Now an arrow was pointed at his face, he wanted to faint in order perhaps suffer less.
Yan Fei hung up and stepped forward. He manipulated some car metal and turned it into arrows that stabbed into the man’s arms and thighs!
“Ah! No! I don’t have the right to recruit!” The man trembled with bloodshot eyes.
While struggling in pain, he saw the burned appearance of his companion. He revealed his living location, how many team members, who were ability users and other information.
Luo Xun raised an eyebrow, he had not recognized him at first, but they had seen each other a few times in the past. It was only after they moved in that the others moved out into the ranks of growing powers who only recruited ability users.
He did not have a deep impression of the man, only remembered that he appeared to the leader of small group demanding street protection fees. After they defected to a larger team of ability users. And now…
“What’s the situation?” A car drove over while Lieutenant Ding and some soldiers ran over to see the blood and burned bodies. Seeing the fallen, half dead people, their mouths twitched.
Yan Fei pointed at the live one. “The two of them hung from a rope to reach the railing on the window, we saw them fall when we came home.”
“…Who burned them?” Lieutenant Ding suppressed his twitching, helpless against these two people – they already had Zhang Yi, now they had a fire user?!
At this time Xu Mei had come downstairs with Song Lingling, they did not bring little Ran. They were afraid that the child seeing the b.l.o.o.d.y scene would hurt her mind.
“I burned!” Xu Mei stepped forward, her beautiful facial features filled with malice. Her eyes glowed with fire as she stared at Lieutenant Ding. “Song Lingling and I were
I were changing! Then we saw these two hooligans hanging outside the window! Why shouldn’t I set peepers on fire?”
Lieutenant Ding took a step back with a stiff smile. “Can burn, can burn…” He quickly told the soldiers. “Go up and look for the ropes and tools they used.”
He quickly comforted the two “frightened” women.
To be honest, since the apocalypse started and the security zone had been established, patrols did not find any zombies on the inside. Fighting was nothing new, especially when power-seekers were walking around. Whenever they heard that power users were fighting, when they arrived, there would a few dead bodies lying on the ground.
If they were to be arrested, the prisons inside the base would be filled with inmates. So most of the time, if no was concerned about the dead, nothing would be happen. Especially with little evidence – this was a law of the apocalypse.
It was not long before the soldiers came down and took the two men hanging from the rope. As for a.s.sociates…they had long run away.
Luo Xun winked at Xu Mei while Lieutenant Ding placed the two thieves in a car. He and Yan Fei went back into the car.
Song Lingling followed Xu Mei back upstairs and whispered, “Why did Luo Xun leave?”
“The window of 1503 was broken by the thieves.” Xu Mei guessed the couple’s intention and explained to Song Lingling.
“They’re looking for gla.s.s?”
Xu Mei looked helplessly at her and poked the other woman’s forehead. “Want to hunt down the team!”
They would cause trouble at the gang’s lair. Though she was not sure how many people or ability users were there but if there home was targeted then others might try and steal too. Anyway it would not be a big deal as long as they were not caught, especially if the perpetrators did not have severe consequences.
Yan Fei sat in the pa.s.senger seat and looked at the crowd. “Those people likely entered the base not long ago.”
Luo Xun nodded. “Don’t worry, although those two were power users, but if they were big shots, they would not have been left hanging in the air.”
This was the reason why Luo Xun dared to investigate with Yan Fei. He had seen the wind user before, the ability user was part of a gang – Luo Xun had paid protection fees before.
Second, the two people who dared to steal was partially because of their house location – deep inside the district, south of the building. On the other hand, since there were many people outside it would be easy to move around. There was a lot of noise outside during the day, when they confirmed there was no one home, they did not get noticed.
People always had such a reaction, in the middle of the night, any little bit of movement would attract everyone’s attention. But if the same thing happened during the day and n.o.body was patrolling, even people in the room would not notice.
This group of people had come into base for a short time, but had stolen several times already, it was easy to see how skilled they were.
A figure hidden in the crowd saw thecrowd saw the fallen wind user. Once the car with the pair left, they panicked in a corner while calling. “Boss…yes Six is not dead, but I’m afraid the new ice guy was killed…ah no could have been killed from fire! Their captain seems to be taking someone to our place now!”
The two men drove to the target area, parked and then went up.
They climbed to third floor, the target door was actually wood. Luo Xun looked proudly at Yan Fei and brought out the lock-pick that had seen little action. The lock was easily opened and the door unlocked.
Yan Fei smiled at home and floated a pile of metal through the door. He could actually have opened the door, but since his lover was willing to show off, he did not want to argue.
The building was in an old neighborhood with six storeys. A number of people paled at the sight of two men floating a ma.s.s of metal in the corridor. Originally they wanted to go down but inside hid away – they had never seen these two people.
And they went into that house…the tenants naturally knew what kind of people were living there, so no one dared to come over and meddle.
The two men entered the room and saw a mess. Yes, it was a real mess! A few seats fallen on the ground, piles of messy bags littered everywhere along with some more heavy furniture. Outside all things were in disorder.
Luo Xun tilted his chin and looked at Yan Fei. “Seemed, like they were expecting us, right?”
Yan Fei looked behind him…well there was some metal blocking the door so that they could not see outside. No way to judge if those people temporarily moved to another room, or actually ran away?
“Look for something useful.” Yan Fei patted Luo Xun’s head.
On the way, the pair had made all sorts of psychological preparation only to find an empty house. There was nothing they could do.
Although they guessed that the two were part of a gang. But only he and Yan Fei had some, the other side should have left more people? The wind user had said there a few people here, why would they run?
Luo Xun and Yan Fei did not know, although there were other ability users on the team, the thief had the higher ability level. The message they received was not clear, only saying “the captain will kill everyone!” Since one person was already close to dead, who would wait and not run?
Luo Xun took a deep breath but did not put down his crossbow. He quietly entered the open bedroom – indeed there was no one.
About 10 minutes later, Yan Fei brought the pile of metal. Luo Xun was holding a few windows he had town down – the gla.s.s in 1503 had been broken with no way to repair. Of course the couple would come to take from the thieves!
Luo Xun complained at the windows. “The gla.s.s here and in our building are different!”
Yan Fei comforted his lover. “No problem, bring it back first, we can sell it if it’s unusable. I remember that there is gla.s.s glue at home.”