On the wall they killed quite a few zombies and then the patrol team's car came over with a signal. The captain called everyone to save energy and wait for the people below to start. The patrol team did not take the armored vehicle for some reason. The people on the wall resumed shooting with the patrol team.
Recently, the number of zombies near the wall had increased dramatically. When they fired, the sounds also attracted a few zombies in the distance, the number of zombies increased more and more. It was only at lunch that the zombies were barely cleaned up. Even so, there were still a lot of zombies in the distance ambling over.
Captain Guo stood on the wall and shouted. "Find a way to get those zombies away! We have to expand a meter outside! They're blocking the place!"
Before Yan Fei and the others were placed near the zombies, they had to give priority to deepening the six meter foundation, using metal to squeeze through spaces made by earth users. Now it was time to deal with the zombies.
Not far away, an earth user came to a realization – no wonder they were killing zombies! The earth users only to thicken the city walls while the metal team could only expand outward. How would they operate with all the zombies blocking the way?
The head of the motorcade rushed forward and made a gesture. "Soon, I called a person to drive a bulldozer!"
Bulldozer?
Well, looking at the zombie corpses below the hill, it would need a bulldozer to deal with it.
Finally at lunchtime, the wall zombies were all carried away. Yan Fei and the others quickly ate lunch and hurried to the marked site – first set up the meter of metal in advance, lest more zombies appeared in the afternoon. Work would only be continued after the zombies were carted away.
The zombie bodies that were taken away were all piled up in an open field outside the base. Thick black smoke billowed out as the bodies were completely. After that, a trustworthy person was sent to the ashes in order to fish out the crystal nuclei. This was the day-to-day work of the patrol teams responsible for perimeter safety and removal of zombies.
The number of surrounding zombies in the afternoon was obviously not as much as the morning, so the convoy had left for a new round of clean up where zombies had gathered elsewhere.
But after a little while, a soldier hurried up the wall to Captain Guo, who brought over a bag. "This is the spoils of war from the morning, estimated we'll kill quite a few zombies in the afternoon. They will not come this afternoon and continue tomorrow."
"Captain, how many did you get?" One of the soldiers who had nothing to do for a while asked curiously.
"It seems to be more than 200." Captain Guo looked downwards, the zombies were not affecting work.
He took out four crystal nuclei from the bag, then paused were some were obviously different. "Eh? Very generous, they even divided some level two crystal cores!"
Although the highest level of zombie was not known, but since it could evolve, researchers on base have been more cautious in defining first level zombies. Having abilities and a change in the nucleus color was defined as second level zombie. There was still a nucleus in the brain…
Well, if it started with slow moving zombies with no crystals in the head then the latest type of zombie would be regarded as third level. But who let zombies evolve in such short time? The classification was in accordance to the crystal nucleus, besides the zombies would not make for easy observation.
So, zombies who had no stone in their head were called primary zombies.
These level two nuclei were good things, unfortunately they could not be used today. They could only be divided for everyone so that people could find others to exchange with. However they did not know what value a second level nuclei had compared to regular nuclei.
After checking the crystal nuclei, the people were busy until three o'clock in the afternoon. Went down from the wall to the truck and all the way back to the camp.
Luo Xun returned the larger crossbow back to the bag and took out a hand crossbow. He found his phone was flashing – there were missed calls.
"Hey, it's Professor Xu." The phone showed it was from one o'clock in the afternoon, when they had just returned to the wall.
Yan Fei was busy carrying pieces of metal and did not hear the phone ring. He quickly dialed back.
"Is this Luo Xun? The report results have come in from the mushrooms you planted. It's best to not plant and burn the wood, not keep it."
The contents of Professor Xu's message caused to Luo Xun ask, "What's wrong with the mushrooms?"
He had never grown mushrooms before. Although the mutation rate was extremely high, and difficult to keep but he had not been affected when living in the basement with them.
If this thing really was dangerous, he would not risk his life. It was only due to his previous life that he dared to try at home.
Professor Xu explained, "After study we found that the mushroom juice has a serious corrosive effect. People were hurt when it splashed onto them! It's best to not try this kind of thing at home. Too dangerous, wear rubber gloves when picking for protection. Do not let them touch skin!"
Luo Xun froze, looked at Yan Fei and blinked. Seriously corrosive? Greatly damaged skin? Luckily he was already accustomed to wearing gloves while dealing with dangerous plants.
…Wait a minute. "Professor Xu, is this corrosive towards anything else? Like metal? What about…zombies?"
"Metal and zombies?" Professor Xu did not respond, these two things were in completely different categories. It was not a slip of the tongue?
"Right! Zombies! Aren't they human bodies? Use the poisonous mushrooms as a weapon, if it does not corrode metal, can you use it on zombie bodies?"
Luo Xun had always regretted not having a method to deal with evolved zombies. He had thought before, if there was a poison/substance that could coat the arrows, how good it would be if it had power comparable to the explosive power of gunpowder?
But he also knew that zombies were already dead, poison would not really work on them even if he had the stuff! So it had only been a passing fancy. Now that he heard the special properties of the mushrooms, his brain thought of this idea. His heart churned with strong hope.
"You wait! Wait, I'll have it tested!"
Luo Xun's words definitely opened Professor Xu's eyes. If this was proved feasible through experiments…what a great discovery it would be! He was a botanist that studied what plants could eat. It would an honor/achievement in a completely different field!
Professor Xu hung up in an agitated mood and ran into the laboratory, looking for a zombie corpse to experiment with the mushroom juice. See if he could get the desired results.
Luo Xun looked helplessly at the hung up phone and smiled at Yan Fei. "He was too excited…"
Yan Fei smiled, helped grab the mobile phone and took the backpack. "Simply want to know the results of the experiment? Let's go back and pick a few mushrooms, coat the arrows. Tomorrow we'll test on the wall."
It was fortunate they were now working on the outer wall, otherwise how would they find such a convenient test site?
"Yes, go back and try!" Luo Xun's eyes lit up in excitement. "Those mushrooms are a bit strange but the growth cycle is surprisingly fast. Harvest a batch and a second will be grown soon!"
The two people excitedly drove home, went straight to the 1603 greenhouse. Opened the door to find some empty mushroom wood with a few small red mushrooms.
Luo Xun wrinkled his eyebrows. "Why only so big? And the number is too small…before the mushroom wood was like a catalyst, large pile of mushrooms sprouted each day. Had to burn a batch every two days, but now the growth was so slow?
"Could it have been a long time since the wood was used?" Yan Fei could only guess since he did not understand the crop's growth habits.
"No, not yet. We only moved some of them over…" Luo Xun froze …moved?
"The location?" Yan Fei asked in surprise.
"Go take a look over there!" Luo Xun had a vague premonition. The mushroom wood only had less growth after being moved, the answer would be next door!
The two returned to the nursery room and were startled by the condition of the incubator – a variant of zombie quail! There was also a dead quail with only a skeleton left!
"There are mutant plants in the nursery box!" Yan Fei noticed that almost a fifth of the seedlings in one of the boxes had changed color!
Luo Xun did not speak, only raised his hand to stab the mutant quail. He turned to look at the grim and frightening seedlings, however his expression became more bright and excited. Now he knew why their home had less mutated crops and their quails were all safe!
He turned to Yan Fei, whose face was slightly confused.
Yan Fei's mind also worked and his eyes widened. "You mean…they can absorb potentially poisonous substances? So other things would not be infected by the virus!"
Luo Xun strongly nodded, it was similar to his past life. He had not willing to throw away that piece of broken wood. In the dark basement there was no way to dry the wood and he was afraid it would be taken if left outside.
Luo Xun kept the wood and from time to time poison mushrooms would appear. He had hoped that someday it would grow a normal mushroom to eat.
Unfortunately he was not able to achieve that goal. In this life he deliberately got a few pieces of wood to try and grow mushrooms again.
Because he had more time and space this life, he got a larger amount of wood. However he learned that the wood was the reason behind having low mutation rates for animals and plants!
"I'm going to move them back!"
Regardless whether the mushrooms could be used against zombies, Luo Xun decided he could not lose the wood! Not only not throw away, he wanted to have more at home!
Yan Fei also laughed, "Okay, I'll move with you."
"We'll have to get some more from base next time!"
"Okay, next time I'll go out with you." Yan Fei added a mental sentence – chop down two big trees and ship all the wood back.
The two people put back the removed wood in the room. This time Luo Xun deliberately adjusted their position. Originally the wood was all piled in a corner but now he put the wood below the nursery boxes. Yan Fei got some metal shelves to help adjust the position.
Luo Xun breathed a sigh of relief after burning the useless seedlings and the bones of the sacrificed quail.
Professor Xu did not call Luo Xun back until the evening. Luo Xun understood this, after all he was just an ordinary person. If the mushrooms really had that effect, the military would certainly require the professor.
Confidential, until the results of the test were verified and published. There were other ways that he and Yan Fei could verify the findings, so there was no worry.
At this time, if Luo Xun wanted to let the mushrooms grow faster, he would let grow near virus-prone animals and plants. He could also use virus contaminated water for the plants that lived in humid climates.
However for their own safety, Luo Xun decided that their current setup was good for now.
Before going to bed, the pair used a small glass to scoop up some mushroom juice in order to coat some crossbow arrows. Yan Fei also used some metal to thoroughly seal the disgusting liquid, ready to use as a makeshift bomb against zombies. They would see how it worked tomorrow on the wall.
The two went to sleep in an excited mood, they looked forward to the next day.
The next morning, Luo Xun got up early. Yan Fei sat on the bed while rubbing his hair and taking deep breaths. Luo Xun had tossed and turned last night, did not expect him to wake up so early…Didn't he work hard enough last night? He'll see what happens later.
A few metal arrows were dipped in a glass bottle with red juice. Luo Xun carefully observed the bottle, but did not dare personally touch since this liquid had a strong damaging effect on the human body.
After thinking, he put on rubber gloves and checked the hardness of the arrows to see if they were damaged by the strange liquids.
Luo Xun was relieved when he could pinch with force without issue. If this thing could dissolve metal, it would be trouble. Their family could only produce metal ammo, it was not possible to use other materials.
"How is it?" Yan Fei's voice came from behind.
Luo Xun carefully wrapped the bullets in rubber bags prepared last night. "No problem, while on the wall we'll find a chance to test it out."
Yan Fei glanced at the bag, his brow slightly wrinkled. "Today we'll test the effect, if this thing is usable, I can make some hollow bombs at home. Try whether a crossbow shot can explode the target, otherwise it is too inconvenient."
The mushroom juice could not be in contact with skin, who knew when someone would get careless? What would happen then? It was best to solve the fundamental problem.
"Okay, but that still depends on today's tests." Luo Xun's face lit up.
He did not mind the inconvenience, just carefully wrap the rubber bags with some layers and carefully place it inside the backpack.
Ate breakfast and the two drove towards the camp with Li Tie and company with the ammunition to be tested. They did not mention this to Li Tie, mainly because they had not tested the mushrooms yet. They would wait for the results before mentioning to the group.
The benefits of the mushrooms: could reduce the mutation rate of vegetables, but could also be harvested themselves. This good thing that could kill two birds with one stone would be promoted if a success.
Yesterday, Zhang Yi got his own mobile phone card and changed phones with Luo Xun. Before going to bed, everyone exchanged phone numbers. The group also chatted about the earth user problem in the car.
"…I asked out boss if he knew any earth users willing to go on missions. The chief said that currently, earth users are not willing to go out, it's too dangerous outside. Plus the team would not have the security of the army, so few would go out in private. But at least we asked." Li Tie said with a slightly uncomfortable expression. "He also said that even if someone was willing to come out, I am afraid that the price would not be cheap, we should prepare ourselves."
Yan Fei looked at the road. "Not necessary, we are hoping to have an earth user to cooperate, but they are not necessary. These two days when we built the wall, we had make a foundation similar to earth users. We should be able to make a trap."
He did not mention that he and Luo Xun had four days of vacation this month. If needed, they could go out early and dig traps in the previous location.
But that was too risky, and the two would need to team up with others to leave. With just the two of them, the risk was not high, however there's no need to do so if not required.
However Li Tie and the others did not ask further, they were elated when they heard about Yan Fei's recent digging work. "That's great, that's great!"
It was not easy to find a earth user, because these talents were all monopolized by the military. If the number of earth users was not more than the other types, would they be big shots?
Zhang Yi sat in his seat with closed eyes and not participating in the conversation. He had recently absorbed crystal nuclei to improve his strength. Each night he would cut into the big iron sandbags. He would need Yan Fei to restore them in a few days.
With the use of nuclei, he felt that his control, stamina and strength had increased, but not enough…He also needed more nuclei to level up, so he was looking forward to the next trip outside.
The car stopped at the barracks door. Li tie parted with Luo Xun. "We'll bring some petrol back today!"
Luo Xun drove everyone to the barracks every day, Li Tie and company were responsible for the petrol points because it was relatively cheap to use the internal price to exchange for petrol compared to outside.
The couple locked the car and rushed to the small square. The could see that the southern wall had been built and was expanding in several directions.
Rode back to the perimeter wall. Since yesterday's work was in trial phase, everyone's progress was not fast but the location of the foundation had been selected and tested. The next job would be carried out smoothly.
Climbing along the tall staircase and looking down at the lively zombies, Luo Xun randomly thought that these zombie faces looked cute. He touched his backpack and curbed his excitement. Now was not the time…wait a bit before experimenting…
Just two more coffees until the next bonus chapter.