Chapter 71

Yan Fei smiled widely at Li Tie's group, not as flirtatious as Zhang Yi but still hard for people to look straight at. "If you want to help I won't stop you. But if want to help, please move down to live with them – there are only three of them on the 15th floor, so there are many empty houses to live in." As for himself? He was not in the mood to keep three butterflies.

He does not know the woman named Xu Mei's character, but he had seen people like the two college students several times. Due to work, Yan Fei and Luo Xun came back everyday at noon and those two women did not seem to have taken part in any base work so they sometimes crossed paths. Everytime they were laughing and talking with other men, going out to buy lunch or bringing food back.

Occasionally also saw them and different men ambiguously hooking up. Plus, this morning the two of them had heard Xu Mei's cries for help and the sound of fire powers, but the other two women…he had heard a few screams at the start which turned into groans. It had not been Xu Mei – he and Luo Xun just came to check out the situation because they heard cries for help.

Yan Fei did not care about or understand the woman's character, but he would never seek trouble for himself. It was not just because he had Luo Xun now, even before the apocalypse if he encountered such a thing he would not move, even more help – he was selfish, what of it?

Hearing Yan Fei's words, Li Tie and the others froze then looked at the two female college students.

The two girls also froze, did not expect Yan Fei to be so unfeeling, unwilling to extend even the slightest aid. But this kind of person was common nowadays. He was a powerful ability user, who naturally would not care about sub-par women. They could only target those who would!

The two women transferred their pleasing over to Li Tie and the others. Stretched out a hand towards Wu Xin. "You can help us! What happens to the three of us if bad guys come?"

"Yes, please help us! We will do anything!"

Xu Mei stood at the rear in a bit of a trance. She had originally planned to come forward and beg with them for help. But her sharp personality would not accept being humiliated after humbly bowing for other's aid.

Upon hearing Yan Fei's words, she grit her teeth and stepped forward. "Can you lend me some points? I'll pay you back."

Wu Xin, standing with Luo Xun, blushed at the two women's hands but dared not touch.

Yan Fei was surprised at Xu Mei and asked with a raised eyebrow, "Why should I believe you?"

Seeing Yan Fei disregarding her words, Xu Mei took a deep breath and held up her bruised, right arm. A mass of flames appeared, red with vitality and hope. "Rely on my ability."

Yan Fei paused for a moment, he could see the determination in her eyes. Suddenly Luo Xun stepped forward and took out around 10 points from his pocket. "Here are ten points, lend to you."

Xu Mei froze, hurriedly put away the flames and stepped forward with a sob. "Thank you…"

Suddenly the female student originally grabbing at Wu Xin mercilessly grasped at Luo Xun's hand.

Luo Xun had encountered and seen this kind of thing many times in his past life. He moved his hand back just as the woman's stretched forward. Her hands were empty.

*Bang* At the same time a girl uttered a scream, her face became even more pale. A metal needle had come from the iron door!

Yan Fei's eyes were murderous as he sneered at the girl and her companion, both were very pale. While one girl let go, Wu Xin managed to get his arm back when the other lost spirit. He backed up a few steps onto He Qiankun's belly. His acne ridden face was pale – women were frightening! When people are grabbed, they are also robbed!

Luo Xun ignored the two scared, limp and crying female college students as he reached out for Xu Mei again. His hands were still holding the 10 points.

Xu Mei was startled by the action and accepted the points while keeping an eye on the two girls. "Thank you. I will pay you back."

Luo Xun smiled. "It's not urgent."

What she had been through today was similar to how it was in the past, but Luo Xun assumed with his and Yan Fei's meddling, her experience would definitely be different. In any case, the woman had been the head of the Rose Corps and he believed in her ability. Luo Xun only hoped that with today's change her future would not be as extreme and she would not quietly disappear without a sound during the apocalypse.

Xu Mei took the 10 points and turned away. The two female college students who had received a scare pressed down on the idea of borrowing points while holding their injured hands. As Li Tie and the others would not look at them, the girls hung their heads and fled.

After they left, Yan Fei glanced at the group. "Again, those who want to help, move down and live with them. If someone wants to bring women up here, I'll just cover that guy's windows and door."

Do not think he was so unfeeling, he was clear on a woman's lethality. Home had a homemaker, he absolutely could not let the originally harmonious days disappear.

If the woman was sane and followed the rules of the game, Yan Fei did not mind Li Tie and the others finding a girlfriend, even marry and have a child. After all, he was not their parents and did not care who they liked, loved, contacted or lived with. But if the person had designs on his way of life, then he would block any meddling.

If someone had really wanted to let the two girls come up, no big deal, everyone would split. Yan Fei had already transformed his own door, He could cancel the staircase door, for their safety.

Li Tie and company hurriedly shook their heads. Wu Xin was especially scared, when he pulled up his sleeve and revealed marks on his arm from the two girl's nails. He pointed and said, "Look, look…how would I dare find such a terrible girlfriend?"

Originally he had felt the two girls were soft, sweet, crying flowers. How he could not try and help them? But then with their 'enthusiastic' hospitality and trying to rob points from Luo Xun's hand, that was unacceptable!

Li Tie spoke with solidarity. "I had been thinking about giving the two of them some points to help, but now…I won't care about them."

He Qiankun also nodded while Han Li's heart wandered. What the two girls had said was true, what would happen if bad people broke in with only a few girls living together? What would they do? It was not safe to have no men around.

But after thinking some more, he would certainly not go and provoke trouble. Forget about Xu Mei, as for those two girls, he felt he would get overwhelmed and thus stuck to thoughts.

Luo Xun and Yan Fei went home after seeing that the students had no opinion. From start to finish, Zhang Yi had not come out of 1602 at all. As for Wang Duo?

Luo Xun thought he heard vague noises when he passed by the door of 1602…*cough* It should not be said but everyone understood.

Luo Xun did a round of the house after the two people came back. Yan Fei also followed. "I think we can paint the wall tomorrow and after set the iron pipes."

"Okay, we'll do that after we come back tomorrow afternoon."

Luo Xun smiled and said to Yan Fei. "I'll paint tomorrow. You'll likely come back more tired. It's best to recover your powers before dealing with the plumbing."

Yan Fei raised an eyebrow, he knew the other was worried that his workload tomorrow would increase. Afraid that in the morning he would be too tired to say so. Yan Fei responded, "We'll see." If he had strength remaining, of course two people would work together.

"I propose that since we have to wait for the metal users to build the outer wall before being covered with soil, it's better to let the earth users in the barracks build a wall according to the original plan. Otherwise, if the same situation occurred on base in the future, the people's safety would not be assured!"

"I think we should prioritize finding out the cause of the zombie virus before making a decision. What if someone had released the zombie virus on base?"

"These two things are both important…"

"Already sent someone to check the zombie virus outbreak. As for the wall problem, better to prioritize wall building to not let the people feel that the military is only keeping their own safe!"

"The barracks safety was prioritized but it was unexpected that the zombie virus would erupt in the first place." If such an incident occurred inside the barracks, who would be responsible for such a significant loss?!

"You can use some earth users to repair the barracks. After all, the final drawing plans have not been finished." They just had to speed up when the architects finished drawing plans.

"If the army is to be rebuilt, it's best to only recall the military's earth users to avoid information getting out of the barracks."

"Yes, the architects have not finalized some of the key buildings and we'll need a lot of people to work. In addition, some metal users have been lost, so we have to take this step by step…"

Quarrels and discussion rang through the conference room. The higher ups were sitting together in a meeting to discuss various future base problems.

"I propose giving more free authority to ability user teams, can reduce the cost of materials but increase the amount of nuclei."

"Seconded. The number of ability users in the army is not small. It can be seen that the crystal nuclei play an important role for powers. It can be promoted to all the teams and give inner powers a chance to exchange."

"Yes, although no one has upgraded through using nuclei. This item definitely raises the duration of an ability user's power."

The crowd was in full swing when a soldier suddenly ran in holding a document. "Report! The preliminary data for the investigation has arrived!"

The room quieted, the nearest person beckoned the soldier over. "Quickly bring it over!"

The report was passed around. The people reading the information could not help but sigh while frowning at each other.

They had considered various possibilities: poisoning, attack by other forces, but today's preliminary investigation showed…

"Hygiene reasons? In order to speed up food production, omitted the water treatment step? In order to increase the number of sales, increased the proportion of water?!"

The taste of steamed rice and buns would be affected with more water. Cooking time was the same, more soup meant less vegetables put in and people would end up eating rice in soup. There was even more soup water at the various windows.

One man threw the papers onto the table. "For these reasons? The base was wrecked with havoc!"

Another person added, "This is not right. The canteen problems were not recent but why did the problem only break out yesterday? It's too much of a coincidence."

One could not blame their conspiracy theories since it had been a large problem. The southwest base could have been destroyed like three previous bases, the thought had crossed their minds.

"The situation needs forensic investigation. Researchers are extracting samples to carry out experiments…" The man who delivered the report bravely answered.

"Perhaps the virus would explode after accumulating to a certain extent…before the virus was small but continued to accumulate until something similar to yesterday would occur…"

The research agency also found that there were extremely small traces of the virus in the air. Just because the quantity was small and would not usually cause an qualitative change and so on. Anyway, according to them, the world is not safe at all. At anytime, anywhere, people could suddenly become zombies!

If this statement was true…Why were people struggling to survive? There would be collective suicide!

The room was once again silent, after a while one person waved. "I know, let them intensify the research…"

If this speculation was confirmed then…the future of humanity was indeed very bleak.

The next morning, the group set again for work. The radio confirmed that the vast majority of work had returned to normal operations. They could go and report.

While driving the car all the way to the camp, seeing the outside streets and neighborhoods, a heavy feeling entered their hearts. The chaos in the area yesterday was not a singular case, over the course of two days, a panicked and depressed mood broke out.

The military vehicles dispatched yesterday afternoon were once again sent out, not to destroy zombies but to maintain order in the base. There had been too many killings and the victims were often perpetrators of theft, those protective people did not stay. It was said that the number of dead bodies pulled away by military vehicles was more than the number of people who died due to the virus outbreak.

The two parked the car and felt the barracks inspection and vigilance was more stringent than before. When they approached the truck, the captain was not seen but the driver gave a simple greeting. Upon seeing the captain, the pair hurried over.

"Today;s work has been changed, let's get on the bus first." Captain Guo held his hat as he glanced at Luo Xun and Yan Fei. Very good, no sign of injury, in good spirits, should not have been affected by the incident.

The two people saw some extra people on the team, one of which had been transferred to the afternoon team and roughly guessed what the captain would say.

Captain Guo stood in front and started introductions after everyone was seated in the truck. "This is the second team's Shen Ping, also a metal ability user. Yesterday our superiors adjusted the teams work after negotiations. The two teams are now merged. Working hours have changed from the original eight o'clock to noon to eight o'clock in the morning to three o'clock in the afternoon, an increase of three hours. The barracks will send over lunch. Of course bonus points will be paid and there will be more nuclei."

He turned to Yan Fei and Luo Xun. "You two have any problems?"

The increase in time would affect them, but there was no room for any comments. Although the working hours were extended to three o'clock in the afternoon, they still had more free time than those who were busy working from morning to night.

After a quick glance, the two responded, "No problem."

Captain Guo breathed a sigh then turned to the group. "Superiors have ordered us to get as much of the outer wall done as possible within a week! We'll all improve work efficiency and strive to complete the work as soon as possible! Higher ups also said that if we finish before the end of the month, the extra time will be holiday for everyone. Next month, there will be a new project."

In fact there was not too much of the outer wall left. The task would certainly be completed in a week, especially since everyone had increased working hours. It was definitely possible to finish early.

Hearing that finishing early meant an earlier vacation, several people's eyes lit up. In the past even people who spent everyday in the barracks could have a holiday, but since the apocalypse had arrived, they were working around the clock. Who would expect a rare vacation?

After this, the captain asked Luo Xun and Yan Fei about the situation downtown. The pair left at noon everyday, when the most people were outside. He wanted to know if they were on the scene of the first incident.

Yan Fei gave a brief description of the event because the number of people who changed into zombies on the road was not many, the situation was chaotic but not overly dangerous – especially for the both of them.

"Weren't a lot of military vehicles dispatched yesterday afternoon to maintain order? It seemed it was very loud outside?" One soldier curiously inquired.

He usually participated in wall construction so he was not involved in maintaining order on base or going out to collect supplies. Only vaguely heard some things about yesterday and did not know the specific circumstances.

Luo Xun helplessly smiled. "Some people broke in and robbed other's homes while they were blocked outside for a while due to zombies. If caught, they were beaten by the owner on the spot."

The captain smiled but also laughed helplessly, "I heard that there were two to three hundred dead pulled from the streets and even more injured."

Who could blame them? Didn't these people come out on their own? Thus, no one went and sympathize with them.

Not long after, the trucks laden with people reached the outer base wall. The team climbed upwards to continue their previous work.

"A lot more zombies…" Luo Xun sighed with dismay past the wall.

The zombie bodies occasionally collectively rose, waved and howled…gave the illusion of a swelling sea?

"There had not been enough manpower to send people out to kill the zombies yesterday so a lot accumulated outside the wall." A familiar soldier sighed at Luo Xun.

Yan Fei and a few others were already in position, hands at the ready on the metal plates. Luo Xun sighed as well before getting to work – protecting Yan Fei and easily dealing with a dozen zombies.

The newly joined metal user's work efficiency speed did not compare to Yan Fei and company. So the captain temporarily assigned him to a relatively small area to let him work at his pace.

A shiny metallic liquid flowed out of the wall and the four men sitting on the walls seemed to have woven a thick, sturdy steel wall. If this was thrown at the zombies looking up at the wall, what a pleasing picture that would be.

Unfortunately the zombies below were too ugly and disgusting. Of course the contrast would act as a foil and make the seemingly ordinary soldiers on the wall more pleasing, even unexpectedly stunning.

Support by donating a Ko-fi! Every ten donations equals an extra chapter.