Chapter 55 Women of the Apocalypse
After listening Luo Xun nodded. “There are a lot of zombies outside the base. Although we do not know the situation outside the wall clearly, when today the place we were at had a stream of zombies.”
People not wanting to build outside the wall was very understandable, after all they had just fled to this base. It was not easy to get rid of those crazy zombies outside, who would want to leave safety and face those creatures?
Zhang Yi handed back a washed lunch box back to Li Tie. “Thank you. After tomorrow you do not need to bring, the base will cover all my meals.”
His job was the best of the group, Li Tie and the others were given two meals and some points, Yan Fei and Luo Xun on average each got seven points plus lunch. Only Zhang Yi had a whole day of work with three meals, even if they did not know how many points he would be paid, Yan Fei estimated that it would be a lot more.
Li Tie turned to the pair of Yan Fei and Luo Xun. “We asked about metal, but since the base is using it to repair the outer wall, we could not find out what metal. However Wang Duo heard that the base was ready to send out teams to bring back a lot of metal to build the wall! Should be able to get or change some then!”
Yan Fei nodded slightly. “Not urgent, there’s enough metal home to use for now. If you want some furniture and have metal I can process it for you.” He did not mind using his abilities at the moment, the more places to work, the better.
Every night their routine ended with a group meeting before everyone went back home to sleep. Luo Xun went back home to organize what to bring out tomorrow but found – he had not taken out the copper wire!
A large mass of copper wire was winded together, not light but the weight was unknown. They could not use it now, better leave it in the second floor storage room.
Yan Fei took out two crystal nucleus while heading upstairs. Luo Xun put away the things and asked. “You want to use?”
Yan Fei nodded. “I tested it see if there was an effect. I used one on the stairs earlier today to see if there was a difference between then and that other time.”
Luo Xun was very supportive of Yan Fei exploring his ability. After all he had only heard of this in his past life. How to use it most efficiently? How did the crystals help an ability user improve his power levels? He did not know.
When Yan Fei used his power today, he noticed the sensation of energy inside the nucleus. Now he would take advantage of it.
The big lump of metal floating in the bedroom did not change its shape. These days Yan Fei found that the most energy intensive way was for the lump of metal to change into a thin cloth-like wire mesh. The thinner the net, the more dense and fine the threads, the more spiritual power consumed.
When the mesh had shrouded the whole room, Yan Fei’s forehead was dripping with sweat.
With a *swish* and the last of his spiritual energy, Yan Fei re-condensed the net back into a metal ball and placed it on the ground. Gasping with some difficulty, he absorbed the crystal nucleus placed in his palm.
Luo Xun gently wiped his sweat with a towel. Yan Fei opened his eyes after finishing absorption.
“How was it?”
Yan Fei’s eyes flashed with brightness. “Has effect and was not the same.”
Using the crystal nucleus after his spiritual energy was completely depleted increased his maximum mental strength pool. The amount of added spiritual power was more than after sleeping before! Although a single nucleus was not enough
to fully refill his usage but increased his energy cap. When he woke up his spirit would naturally increase again!
He took a deep breath and held another crystal nucleus in his palm. “Let’s try another way.”
This time, Yan Fei absorbed the nucleus without exhausting his mental strength before testing his abilities. This time he felt there was no difference.
With careful comparison of the two uses of nuclei, combined with the feeling today, Yan Fei explained to Luo Xun. “In the corridor at noon, I had not consumed all my energy so the maximum energy slightly expanded but the effect was not very obvious. With just two experiments the upper limit increased more after using up my reserves before supplementing with a crystal nucleus. The other use, the upper limit had increased but the result was not ideal since I continued using power.”
Luo Xun’s eyes shone. “So the effect is best when using a crystal nucleus to refill after using up all spiritual energy then resting for a little while?”
Looking at his excited face, Yan Fei was struck with a want to pounce. But feeling his fingers twitching weakly, Yan Fei regretfully had to wait. He must first work and tinker with his powers tomorrow!
Otherwise, even if he wanted to, his lover would be able to take advantage of his inability to pressure himself instead. He had to make sure he was in the top position at home!
Luo Xun was very considerate of his loved one, carefully helped him wipe off sweat, fed some water then quietly turned off the lights to hold each other in sleep. He completely forgot that he could take advantage of this opportunity to press.
After closing his eyes, Luo Xun remembered the group they had met today. He definitely would not see a beautiful woman through the eyes of a straight boy. It was better that he had Yan Fei was a boyfriend. One who could sleep with every night, could do more saucy activities, a bright future was waiting for him. He was gay, who was going to stare at a another’s woman?
He had been so scared when he looked at the woman – he was frightened! It was all because of that lady.
The Rose Mercenary Corps, one of the most terrifying teams in his past life had been created by women. The horror was not because the women inside were powerful ability users, but because of their attitude towards men!
It was said that they were abandoned by men so they gathered and formed a mercenary corps. They were extremely disgusted with men, if one dared provoke them, hehe…
After the apocalypse, some powerful men would steal away any beautiful woman they saw, as part of their property. However the Rose Mercenary Corps broke this pattern. Men who were caught after provoking them, if his appearance was high would be filled with drugs/medicine until he wished for death.
With a poor appearance, the wretched person would have their small ding cut off and bleed to death.
They did not need a long term male partner because men were not good things, absolutely untrustworthy! When there was demand, they would catch the men who caught their eye and leave. There were some people who survived but a ‘blessing’ that caused a man to be skinny, sway while walking and eventually collapse was not something anyone dared to try.
And all the men they grabbed and played with, those who were released, not one was a handsome man. Oh you dream? It was possible that they were quartered alive! The more handsome the man, the worse the consequences of falling into their hands.
Luo Xun vaguely remembered from his last life that the Rose Mercenary Corps had appeared before he came to this base, but definitely did not live in this building. He did not know what had happened at that time but afterwards the Rose Mercenary Corps was
was a legend, a fierce name on base.
Fortunately, honest and low key Luo Xun was smart to have never provoked this group. After four of five years of the apocalypse, there were gradually no news about the team.
However during his last life he had seen the woman at a distance on base with the same makeup. He remembered very vividly those fiery red lips, so he had immediately recognized her today. Luo Xun had only seen a handful of women after the end of the world.
However, in today’s confrontation, he did not meddle by telling the woman that the man with her might have harmful intentions. After all he did not know the specific reasons behind the establishment of the Rose Mercenary Corps. It was not clear what happened to the female leader – what if something had happened after her boyfriend died?
It had to be known that after the apocalypse people gossiped on base constantly, who knew if there was truth in their words? Although they said that the women of the Rose Corps were ones who had been abandoned by men, others said that the group was formed by debauched prostitutes in order to catch men. Well, Luo Xun thought that statement was unreliable.
Base work was very simple to adapt to, in fact compared to his previous life in the apocalypse, the relationship was more simple and direct. The work was more convenient and did not consume a lot of brain cells.
Yan Fei and Luo Xun adapted quickly enough to earn a large number of points every day, free meals and some crystal nuclei. These two people had no other ambition then wanting to live peacefully in this apocalyptic world.
The morning of the 23rd, all the tenants of the 16th floor went out. For the safety of the home, in order to avoid everyone coming back home after a hard’s day work to find everything gone, Yan Fei went to work.
Every morning after leaving three big iron gates completely sealed the floor since Luo Xun and Yan Fei only worked outside for half a day and came back at noon. So long as they returned home then they could unlock the blocks for the others.
In the meantime, Yan Fei was one of the few metal users, the remaining five were in the army. Unless they were unlucky enough to encounter another metal ability user who had hidden their powers at the gates.
Normally, when people were out they would lock the staircase door with an iron chain, but that door could be forced open. If the door was completely sealed with metal, even if someone broke the iron chain it would have been a waste of effort.
Although it was troublesome and very likely to encounter potential issues, but they could not think of alternative means of insurance. After all, everyone focused on their own small nests.
Luo Xun confirmed the 1603 wall situation that afternoon and estimated that the wall should be thoroughly dry before the spring festival. Should be able to brush the second coat. He just did not know if they could have a vacation.
Each day was only half work, there was a lot of time in the afternoon to do housework but surely for Chinese New Year, especially in China people would be given a few days of rest?
It was a pity that other than Luo Xun and Yan Fei, even Li Tie and the others who had been busy since the beginning also did not hear news about a holiday, not even a usual day of rest. No way around it, everyone was racing against time. Get everything done a day earlier meant all could settle down a day earlier.
In the early morning of the 25th, they all came to the pick up point. Luo Xun saw that the other workers had already arrived and everyone’s faces were excited.
“Everyone here? We’ll talk after getting
after getting into the car.” Seeing the pair, the captain waved everyone onto the bus.
The two with some doubt in their hearts climbed in, sat down and waited for the captain to speak.
When everyone was seated, the captain coughed while looking at the three metal users. “After several meetings, the base higher ups have finally approved the use of crystal nucleus during wall construction.”
Some soldiers had heard the news before, nevertheless they excitedly showed big smiles.
The nucleus thing was not a secret, soldiers who went out for tasks were more clear than those at the gates. Even if they only went out everyday to build walls, they had also seen quite a few of those things.
The crystal nuclei were plentiful, there were all sorts of rumors about their nature: could absorb and could supplement abilities. It was just that the base had been researching these objects for security reasons that people were not allowed to use them privately.
As a result of current research…perhaps the real result had not come but there did not seem to be any side effects at present. The construction of the wall was a priority and thus the base compromised in order to complete the perimeter.
After all, the endless raid of zombies outside was not a joke.
Not only that, the base was also ready to start outside missions, such as collection, rescue and zombie extermination. These three tasks would be important in the future and paid with crystal nuclei.
The captain looked at the crowd. “From today onward, everyone will receive a certain number of crystal nucleus per day. We strive to use them up in specified intervals to speed up wall construction work. Today is the first day, need to familiarize ourselves.”
While speaking he took out three bags and handed them to the three metal workers. Yan Fei opened the bag to reveal 10 nuclei. With his current mental strength, these crystals would be sufficient to refill his energy twice.
With the addition of crystal nucleus, they would naturally not have any reservations about working. Of course, rest was still needed.
This time they did not work according to the previous method of each person taking turns. Instead each person could roughly build a part of the wall then meld together. With crystal nuclei, the wall creation speed increased and used up far more metal than usual.
Because some were not very familiar with the use of nuclei, the two other metal users went to absorb a nucleus each time they went to rest to the side.
Yan Fei had slightly different methods, he chose to completely use up his energy each time then retreat to the side and absorb a crystal nucleus to replenish. Since Luo Xun had harvested several cores each day, in addition to the initial experiment they always had a stockpile of 10 pieces. Yan Fei would actively absorb the extras every night to speed up his improvement.
With so many days, he had already figured out the most suitable method for himself. Now with crystal nuclei he would frankly use the method to maximize the benefit of this item.
While the three were using the nuclei, Luo Xun and the others were not idle. The captain pulled aside those on defense and quietly said. “After the study the superiors assigned 30 crystal cores for the three of them to use each day. Apart from these, if there’s an unexpected harvest, we can also be given some crystal nuclei.”
He glanced at Luo Xun – this guy’s crossbow had caused widespread uproar. Even if a zombie suddenly jumped out, somehow he with his two crossbows was able to put the other side. This even beat the marksman on their team.
“Time is tight, task is heavy. The base requires we try to finish a quarter of the wall before the Spring Festival, so I suggest that all the crystals we get are evenly distributed among the three metal users three metal users in the team. Everyone agree?”
Luo Xun was familiar with the obedience of soldiers for their mission and his private coffers were not gone. It was enough that Yan Fei could still get nuclei to replenish energy.
The captain was relieved that Luo Xun had no objections. “Except for the three who are responsible for the protection of the ability users, stick close. The rest have to play by ear but do not seek death. Obtaining more crystals is good but have to prioritize one’s own safety first.”
The base nucleus store was not rich and the earth ability users were also using them. If the morning and afternoon metal users could work for another round, it was to be seen the new efficiency level. After this test, the superiors would certainly give rewards and recognition, they could not lose face!
Learning this they were happy to hunt down zombies and dig out crystal nuclei in order to increase work speed. The team responsible for defending security were particularly excited, they could take the opportunity to level up with the crystals and to be appreciated by their superiors. The people building the wall were injected with chicken blood and sped up building.
Yan Fei observed the other two people from the side who slowly absorbed from the palm. He silently guessed that his ability was higher in comparison, did not know if the ability mutated? Or did abilities have grades?
Anyway the rate of exhaustion was much slower than the two metal users and the walls built were far larger and faster. Yan Fei was careful not to control too much metal at once, otherwise his repair speed alone was equal to the two people together.
It was not long before the two men and their 10 crystal cores were completely used but Yan Fei had only used half, had five remaining in his hand. A higher level? No, not right, he could manipulate metal in the air but these two simply could not do it from what he had seen.
The men who saw the ability users seemed to have run out of nucleus, the captain glanced at the time – it was just 10:30 in the morning! That was to say, in order to achieve maximum efficiency, the team would need to use at least 20 cores each day!
“Send these 12 crystals first.” The captain responsible for the defense personnel brought the nuclei out and stated. “Tell the three of them to rest a while, we cannot keep up the pace.”
A dozen pieces was divided into four per person, would be enough to fully refill Yan Fei’s reserves.
Taking the four crystals, Yan Fei did not say he still had five left. Just took advantage of others not paying attention to the five. He used the four to supplement the usage of mental strength.
After all, there was an increased number of zombie guards, although more zombies approached the base, the actual number that came through was still limited.
That morning, the team managed to collect 22 crystal nuclei which was an additional seven pieces per person. The remaining one was temporarily in the hands of the captain ready to use tomorrow.
When the last cores were divided, the captain did not forget to remind them. “Everyone take it easy, don’t use these up too fast. Once work is done head straight home then rest replenish energy. Keep the crystal nuclei to use for tomorrow, in case we kill less zombies tomorrow.”
At lunch break the three people broke out, two of them had consumed five crystals each, the rest was ready to be used tomorrow.
Yan Fei, saved five pieces, used up four nuclei and later collected three others.
Work a day, save up a full eight crystal nuclei, the efficiency was really good. Of course he had to take out two pieces to match the two men tomorrow, otherwise there could be some trouble.