Chapter 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.