Chapter 247

When the two familiar giant figures dashed over with wagging tails, Luo Xun and the others knew – they would stick to them like plaster. It was decided…these two were truly dogs.

Since the discovery of the seafood in the ponds, the food on the table greatly increased. They had boiled fish on the first day, the next they had sweet and sour fish fillets and the third day they had a plate of boiled shrimp. It was fortunate that their home was relatively close to the pond, if they did not feel like eating inside they could spend some of their free time relaxing while fishing.

The greenhouse river had been finished and the fish had been fed some of Luo Xun's vegetables and leaves. The feed was sprinkled into the water each day while waiting for the fish to grow up.

Over the past three days, the team had taken turns drying the newly dug sand which was moved back to the third basement. At this time the ventilation and lighting equipment had been installed. It was a relief to plant some of the crops that would feed the rabbits and worms once the soil was spread. It would be finished once it was properly irrigated.

The rabbits and quails did not have to be transferred for the time being. After all, there were not many so it was not a problem to keep them in the greenhouse cage. The quails could also be kept in their original housing.

As for the injured lambs and fawns from last time…they would have to wait for them to grow so the breeding would be slow going for now. Those five animals were now Yu Xinran's pets. Since they had been brought back, she played around every day with Puppy along with the two hawks. Who would dare to kill them after raising them? Yu Xinran would bring out her teary eyes. Even more surprising was that the two eagles that had not learned to fly, actually learned how to run around!

Fortunately, three were sheep. Even if they were not grown for meat, there would be wool to collect. Otherwise, the entire group would truly be a group of pets.

Once Luo Xun was done digging out the water channels and placing the fish and shrimp into their new homes, it was finally time for them to go out to collect metal in order to replenish their metal stores.

Putting together satellite photos and base messages, Li Tie organized the information and threw them into the computer. The team of people sat around the dining room table for a meeting.

Although everyone preferred to go to the second-floor game room for casual things, how would they have the mind to talk about serious things? From time to time, their eyes would wander over to the game machines.

"Cough, the zombies from the southern countries are in this area…" Li Tie checked and pointed at a large map he got from somewhere. "From the photos, they have been circling this place for four days, it seems like there is a large base nearby."

They already knew about this matter three days ago. They thought if was expected, but did not think the zombie siege would last this long.

"It's not known how long until the zombies retreat, or how clear if the base can continue…" Luo Xun frowned at his tablet. "So we have to plan ahead, we had good luck last time, the zombies all passed by and did not attack. But we must have enough metal on base to defend ourselves." He looked up at Yan Fei.

Yan Fei nodded in response. "I suggest that we can get more metal back, specifically before the zombie tide arrives."

"How to guard against it?" Han Li was not clear about the situation. Luo Xun and Yan Fei had discussed among themselves in their room.

"Traps." Yan Fei spoke while looking at Luo Xun. "I discussed with Luo Xun, although we have mutant plants that can help defend, the number of zombies this time is too high. With swarm tactics, the zombies can overwhelm the plants and attack the base inside. So we want to put a big trap from before and fill it with mushroom juice to deal with them."

Luo Xun added, "If we put it too early then people may notice it and some of the mutant animals may be injured by mistake." He looked out of the window. "Before the zombies come, I don’t know if the animals will notice in advance. Once they have retreated we can set up the trap."

After saying that the team's eyes lit up. After all, it was troublesome extracting cores from the mutant plants. Setting up traps in advance would net them more!

Wu Xin suddenly had an idea. "Luo Xun, why don't we at least dig up the traps in advance! As long as we keep them covered and don't pour mushroom juice, wouldn't it fine for the animals?"

"That's a good idea!" Luo Xun laughed and complemented his eye for detail. They finalized the number and location of traps. The next two days would be spent outside.

This time, the goal was very simple – collecting metal.

At this time the market exchange between several bases was long over and each convoy had returned home. In particular, the various bases had long been informed that a large wave of zombies had entered the country. Its power was far greater than ones from before and bases would naturally shore up their defenses. The exchange was over as early as when Luo Xun's team got rid of their tails.

Now according to what Luo Xun had learned from the secret exchange between base channels, the north base area under siege had been evacuated.

The distance between the bases was too far and weapons production was limited. The zombie siege was too fierce so the base was not able to resist or seek help. In addition, the other bases could not send people to help, they could only stand on their own. After the information exchange, each base put aside some supplies and stepped up construction hoping to survive this round.

So Luo Xun assumed that their metal collecting journey would be relatively calm – the base had already gathered needed metal from the mining area. Naturally, they would let metal ability users to painstakingly wander through the city looking for metal. Coupled with the limited amount of material in the urban area and many things had already been scrapped, less and less people were now willing to explore the remote edges of the city.

Therefore, Luo Xun's team was driving along the roads collecting several days worth of metal and they had barely encountered any people.

After shipping the metal back to their homes and filling up one of the rooms designated for metal storage, they went out for a few more days. When September finally arrived, they were satisfied that their collection was almost over.

At this point, there was a change on base that delighted Luo Xun. The fruit trees that they had transplanted in spring were almost grown.

"It was not easy…but finally we have fruit to eat." Looking at the small half-sized apples on the tree.

"We still need to wait a bit for those, come and pick apricots with me." Luo Xun beckoned the people under the apple, pear and orange trees.

"Can apricots be eaten? Aren't they still green?" The team looked at the little fruits and wondered.

"Who says green apricots can't be eaten? You don't know?" Luo Xun grabbed one and took a bite – sweet and sour.

"It's sweet!"

"Why isn't it that sour?"

"It's delicious, I haven't eaten fresh apricots before."

Luo Xun looked at the group. "You can wait for the fruit to ripen but it will become soft. I like to eat them when crisp." While speaking he grabbed another. "The apricots could have been harvested already but their biological clock had been disrupted with the transplant, so it took until now.

"Can these be re-grown?" He Qiankun asked while eating.

"Yes, but wait until next year, we have too few now." They had only transplanted a few apricot trees and the action affected their flowering rate so naturally there was not a rich harvest. In addition, the fruits required pollination and a lot of hard work for harvest. Luo Xun looked at the group of people happily eating and laughing. He decided to wait until next year to remind them when the trees flowered again.

One should know, there were a lot of crops that needed artificial pollination. Do not underestimate that the work seemed insignificant…but the team always felt exhausted after the mind-numbing work. When the others would be told that the same was to be done for the tree flowers …How would they feel?