Chapter 76

Chapter 76

Everyone was so engrossed in the wheat harvest, celebrating their bounty, that no one noticed a person was missing. It wasn't until they wondered where Xiang Qizheng had gone that they realized he was nowhere to be found.

"I asked his wife; she said he left the base and took some mutant wheat seeds with him," a man reported, his face etched with frustration. If he hadn't been so preoccupied with vying for the harvester, he might have noticed Xiang Qizheng's departure.

"That guy is nothing but trouble!"

Lin Kang frowned. "How many seeds did he take?"

"Probably not many, just a few dozen," the man replied. "Mutant wheat is too conspicuous. If he'd taken too many, he would have aroused suspicion and wouldn't have been able to leave the base so easily."

Small River Base operated on a "easy out, strict in" policy. Anyone could leave freely, but re-entry required identity checks and quarantine.

This system had never been an issue before. After all, the outside world was so dangerous—who would be foolish enough to venture out?

Yet, it seemed there truly was a fool who left. Despite the base's leniency in not expelling Xiang Qizheng, he had chosen to flee.

"It seems we'll need to instruct the guards to conduct stricter checks on those leaving," Lin Kang said, frowning as he turned to Cheng Zhiyu. "Cheng, is it a problem that he took the seeds? Should we send someone after him?"

Xiang Qizheng couldn't have gone far. If they dispatched a fast superhuman, they might still catch him.

Cheng Zhiyu shook his head. "Forget it. Chasing him would just waste resources."

He truly couldn't fathom Xiang Qizheng's mindset. Xiang Qizheng was an ordinary person with no self-preservation skills—how dared he run away?

"After the apocalypse, most people hid indoors. Later, I led a team to clear out the zombies, established a safe base, built walls, and people gradually started venturing out," Lin Kang explained. "Most people haven't faced zombies directly. They've known hunger but never true danger or life outside the base. How could they comprehend the perils beyond?"

Indeed, many people, like Xiang Qizheng, were oblivious to the dangers of the outside world.

However, most understood the risks and wouldn't leave lightly. Xiang Qizheng, on the other hand, likely felt he had no other option. Rather than enduring hardship at the base, he chose to flee.

He specifically took the mutant seeds because he'd heard of their immense value. With some seeds, he might be able to trade for many things at a larger base, settling there permanently and never returning to Small River Base.

It had to be said, this idea was incredibly naive.

Small River Base was situated in a relatively remote area, and the nearest large base was quite distant. Xiang Qizheng didn't even have a vehicle. To think he could safely travel such a distance on foot was pure fantasy.

Of course, if he were somehow lucky enough to make it safely, Cheng Zhiyu wouldn't have much to say.

But the chances of that were less than one percent.

"Besides, even if he gives the seeds to someone else, so be it," Cheng Zhiyu said, unconcerned. These seeds were beneficial for human development. Even if Xiang Qizheng hadn't secretly taken them, he would have eventually traded them with other bases for supplies.

"This Xiang Qizheng, honestly." Regardless, everyone was furious that Xiang Qizheng had simply abandoned his responsibilities and left with the seeds.

Had he considered that his actions would harm the base's interests? Probably not. He was only focused on his own well-being.

"People like him are good riddance," Cheng Zhiyu remarked. "It's better than having him stay and become a hidden threat."

Fang Guowei nodded. "You're right. It's good he left. If he truly manages to survive out there, then he's just lucky."

"What about Xiang Qizheng's wife?"

Lin Kang pondered for a moment. "She was also burdened by Xiang Qizheng. Go ask her: if Xiang Qizheng returns, will she allow him back into the base? If she still wants to help him, then... she should leave with him. If not, she concealed Xiang Qizheng's escape and should be assigned some labor as punishment."

Lin Kang was softhearted and wanted to give her another chance, given her entanglement with Xiang Qizheng.

The others didn't object. Strictly speaking, she was an accomplice, but the situation wasn't entirely black and white. They decided to give her another opportunity.

When someone was sent to question her, the country woman immediately burst into tears. "They say 'marry a chicken, follow a chicken; marry a dog, follow a dog.' I've suffered plenty with him in this life."

Xiang Qizheng had always been a troublemaker, often offending people even before the apocalypse. Back then, it was a lawful society, and people weren't so interdependent, so it wasn't a huge deal—just annoying.

But after the apocalypse, the trouble Xiang Qizheng caused became far more serious. She had long had enough but felt helpless. "I kept his secret for him, which settles our marital debt. If he comes back, I won't acknowledge him."

She also understood that the base would never take someone like him back. This time, Xiang Qizheng chose to leave—he couldn't blame anyone else.

She no longer wanted to be involved, nor did she have the means to help him.

She hoped Xiang Qizheng wouldn't return. She just wanted him to be safe out there.

Xiang Qizheng's incident didn't cause much of a stir. Occasionally, people in the base would mention it and curse him out a couple of times, but beyond that, no one paid it much attention.

After gathering their belongings, Cheng Zhiyu and the others drove out of the base.

Since they weren't familiar with the others and would need time to adjust, Cheng Zhiyu, disliking complications, didn't bring anyone else. He asked Tian Qiao and the other two, but in the end, it was just the five of them heading out as usual.

They also asked Sun Yu. She had previously mentioned coming to Small River Base first and leaving for a larger base later. Cheng Zhiyu said, "We might pass by a large base on this trip. Do you want to go?"

Sun Yu declined. She had already moved out of Cheng Zhiyu's home and didn't want to trouble others. With her strong superhuman abilities, she quickly found a place to stay.

Now, she felt that Small River Base was quite pleasant. She had made some friends and no longer planned to leave.

Seeing this, Cheng Zhiyu didn't press the matter.

"Whoo-hoo! It's been a while since we've been out. I've gotta say, I kinda miss the outside," Tian Qiao exclaimed, looking at the scenery with high spirits.

Zhou Min yawned. "Where are we going? Straight to the city?"

The items they were looking for probably wouldn't be found in small towns, especially research equipment. It was better to go directly to the city.

"Yeah," Cheng Zhiyu said, driving. "Let's go straight to the city. First, we'll look for usable solar panels and power generation equipment, then head to the city's research center."

He had consulted the map before they left and knew there was a research institute in the city.

Everyone nodded in agreement with his plan.

"We also need to go to a print shop," Cheng Mo reminded them, still fixated on finding a photo printer to print pictures of Cheng Zhiyu.

Tian Qiao, unaware of their previous conversation, asked curiously, "Why go to a print shop?"

Cheng Zhiyu cleared his throat. "Nothing, just looking for something."

As he spoke, he glanced at Cheng Mo, who received the warning and regretfully didn't get to boast about how cute Zhi Yu was as a child.

However, he glanced at Tian Qiao—this guy had grown up with Zhi Yu, after all.

Tian Qiao: "?"

Why was he looking at him with such a strange expression?

Fortunately, Cheng Mo quickly looked away.

They planned to head straight to the city without wasting time elsewhere. The city wasn't far from here—before the apocalypse, it would have taken about two hours by car. But now, that speed was clearly impossible.

They used to take the highway, which was fast, but now they obviously couldn't use it anymore. The highway was likely jammed with abandoned cars and probably swarming with zombies. If they took the highway, although the distance was shorter, it would likely take even longer.

Cheng Zhiyu and the others decided to take the side roads instead.

Along the way, they inevitably encountered zombies, but the group didn’t need to get out of the car—Little Roll handled them effortlessly.

Lately, staying in the base had been incredibly boring for Little Roll. Cheng Zhiyu wouldn’t let it toss humans around for fun, but now that they were out, it could finally play freely.

Whenever zombies approached, Little Roll would entangle them with its vines. Instead of killing them immediately, it would toss them around like a ball—throwing them into the air, catching them, and throwing them again.

Unfortunately, zombies were mostly sluggish, unlike humans who would yell when thrown, making it much more fun. But zombies were the only option since Cheng Zhiyu forbade it from playing with people.

Zombies: …mmp.

However, their journey wasn’t entirely smooth. Sometimes they encountered mutant beasts, which had grown quite clever. At one point, a plant-type leopard stretched its vines across their path, trying to puncture their tires with thorns to stop them.

They also ran into powerful zombies that required them to get out and deal with them directly.

These delays inevitably slowed their progress. Cheng Zhiyu estimated they wouldn’t reach the city until the next day.

That night, they rested in the wild. None of them minded being outdoors—after all, they had Mighty, which had already reached Level 3. While in the base, they hadn’t needed to stay in Mighty’s treehouse, and they hadn’t experienced its upgraded form yet.

"I’m curious to see what it looks like now," Zhou Min said, rubbing his hands together.

Cheng Zhiyu summoned Mighty. Its exterior looked the same as before, but once inside, they noticed that the interior hadn’t changed much either.

Previously, the first floor had a living room and two rooms, while the second floor also had two rooms and a small storage space. At first glance, it seemed no different.

Zhou Min looked puzzled and turned to Cheng Zhiyu, who smiled and explained, "We don’t need a generator anymore—Mighty generates its own electricity now."

As he spoke, he reached out and flipped a switch, and lights instantly came on.

Zhou Min: "!!!"

Their diesel generator had run out of fuel and was unusable. They had expected to spend the night in darkness, but Mighty could now supply its own power!

Tian Qiao and Tian Manman had been instructed by Cheng Mo to prepare for cooking—building a clay stove and gathering firewood.

Hearing Zhou Min’s exclamations, they couldn’t resist asking their supervisor, Brother Black, "Brother Black, should we go take a look first?"

Cheng Mo tilted his chin up slightly and headed into the treehouse first. Tian Qiao glanced at Tian Manman, who was still dutifully building the clay stove, grabbed him, and said, "Come on, let’s go check it out."

Inside, upon hearing that Mighty could generate its own electricity, Tian Qiao exclaimed, "That’s great! I thought we’d be in the dark tonight. Hey, how does it work? Photosynthesis?"

Cheng Zhiyu sighed, "...Maybe you should try figuring out the principle yourself?"

It was the end times—if they tried to explain everything, they’d exhaust themselves.

Tian Qiao quickly waved his hand. "Never mind, I was just saying."

Tian Manman looked around for a bit, found it boring since nothing had really changed, and said, "I’ll get back to work."

He went back outside to continue building the clay stove.

Tian Qiao asked Cheng Zhiyu, "Orange, what are we having for dinner tonight?"

Cheng Zhiyu glanced at the unfinished clay stove and said, "Don’t bother. Since we’re only staying one night, let’s have hot pot. We have electricity now, so we can use the induction cooker."

Hearing this, Tian Manman stopped working. "What’s hot pot?"

He had never tried it before.

Indeed, Cheng Zhiyu hadn’t thought to make it before. Since they were tired from traveling all day and didn’t feel like cooking, hot pot was perfect.

He had brought hot pot base this time—all they needed to do was boil it and add the ingredients.

Everyone busied themselves washing vegetables. Cheng Mo, with his excellent knife skills, was assigned to slice the meat.

Cheng Zhiyu instructed, "Slice it as thin as possible, the thinner the better."

He was craving meat rolls.

Cheng Mo nodded seriously, while the others washed and chopped vegetables.

"By the way, when we were gathering firewood earlier, we saw some mushrooms over there," Tian Qiao said. "Not sure if they’re poisonous, though, so we didn’t pick them."

Cheng Zhiyu advised, "If you’re not sure, it’s better not to pick them."

Zhou Min immediately volunteered, "I know about mushrooms—let me go check."

Cheng Zhiyu was skeptical. "Are you sure?"

"Don’t worry, if anyone gets poisoned, I’m here," Zhou Min said confidently, relying on his Healing Power ability.

So, Zhou Min dragged Tian Qiao along to show him the way, and they went mushroom picking.

Soon after, the two returned with a bag full of mushrooms. Zhou Min said, "There were quite a lot! These aren’t poisonous—I recognize them as oyster mushrooms, the kind we eat, just a bit smaller."

Cheng Zhiyu took a cautious look and saw that the mushrooms were plain white without any strange colors. Since Zhou Min seemed certain, he didn’t press further.

For hot pot, dipping sauces were essential—otherwise, the flavor would be lacking. Fortunately, Cheng Zhiyu often cooked, so they had everything they needed.

He prepared a dipping sauce for everyone and, seeing that the ingredients were almost ready, said, "Bring everything over, let’s eat."

The coffee table in the living room was soon covered with food. While preparing, it hadn’t seemed like much, but once laid out, it looked plentiful.

Cheng Mo didn’t know how to eat hot pot, so he just stared at Cheng Zhiyu without admitting he was clueless.

"It’s simple," Cheng Zhiyu explained. "Just put whatever ingredients you want into the pot, wait for them to cook, then dip them in the sauce and eat. It’s okay if they’re cooked too long—just not as tasty. Let it boil a bit longer today."

Everyone eagerly started adding ingredients. Tian Qiao picked up a piece of meat, dipped it in the sauce, and ate it in one bite. He sighed contentedly, "So good, just like the old days. I’ve missed this."

It was Cheng Mo’s first time eating something so simply made at Cheng Zhiyu’s place. He tentatively took a bite, and his eyes lit up—it was delicious.

Cheng Zhiyu also had cola, which made the meal even more enjoyable.

They ate enthusiastically, and unsurprisingly, all the food was devoured.

After resting for a while, they showered and went to bed.

While eating hot pot was delightful, the lingering smell afterward was less pleasant.

After washing up, Cheng Zhiyu finally felt comfortable. He roughly towel-dried his hair and lay down on the bed.

Even though they had been riding in a car all day, the mental exhaustion was real. He fell asleep quickly.

When Cheng Mo returned to the room, he found Cheng Zhiyu peacefully asleep with his eyes closed, not even bothering to turn off the light.

Smiling, Cheng Mo walked over, touched Cheng Zhiyu’s slightly damp hair, and clumsily tried to dry it with a towel.

In his sleep, Cheng Zhiyu seemed annoyed and swatted at him. Cheng Mo, irritated, bit playfully on his finger.

Forget it, who told Cheng Zhiyu to be so adorable? No point arguing with him.

After towel-drying his hair, he turned off the light, hugged Cheng Zhiyu tightly, and blissfully closed his eyes.

The next day, they continued their journey and finally reached the city by noon.

They had a quick lunch and immediately began scavenging for supplies.

It had been over half a year since the apocalypse began, and people were gradually adapting to their new lives—either joining bases for protection or scavenging resources to boost their capabilities.

So, unlike before when they could go half a day without encountering anyone, in the city, they ran into a group that appeared to be superhumans from a base out gathering supplies.

They kept a certain distance from Cheng Zhiyu’s group but occasionally shot glances their way, seemingly curious about them.

Cheng Zhiyu figured they were probably superhumans from a nearby base, but he couldn’t be bothered to engage with them and simply pretended not to notice.

The other group watched them for a while, perhaps deciding they were outgunned or for some other reason, and didn’t initiate conversation either. Originally planning to rest, they grew worried that Cheng Zhiyu’s group might beat them to the supplies, so they didn’t dare pause and immediately resumed their search.

Seeing this, Cheng Zhiyu wasn’t worried. After all, the things they wanted probably held no interest for these people.

Now, the top priority when gathering supplies was naturally finding food, but to say something that might sound cocky—they weren’t short on food.

After resting a bit, they got up and searched nearby for a print shop. Ahem, Cheng Mo had been going on about it for a while, wanting to find a photo printer.

Such things were usually available at photo studios or print shops.

Unexpectedly, they ran into the same group of superhumans again.

These superhumans had found a supermarket and were quite pleased, thinking it would have supplies. However, upon entering, they saw about ten people huddled together.

Seeing them come in, these dozen or so people immediately went on alert.

The leader of the superhuman team frowned but pretended not to notice them, first checking inside the supermarket. Finding it completely empty, he couldn’t help but feel frustrated—they had worked hard to find this supermarket, only to end up with nothing.

“Where are the supplies here?” Superhuman A asked the group.

“Th-there aren’t any. When we arrived, this place was already empty,” someone replied cautiously.

Superhuman B glanced at the group, figuring they wouldn’t dare lie. “Seems like this place was already looted once before. Ugh, supplies are getting harder to find nowadays.”

Unlike the early days of the apocalypse when you could easily find supplies just by being brave enough.

Gradually, more people became aware of scavenging, but with limited supplies, it was inevitable that things would get tougher.

“Just our luck. Let’s try somewhere else,” Superhuman B said.

“Are… are you from Dongyang Base?” someone mustered the courage to ask.

“Yeah,” Superhuman B said arrogantly. “What, are you here to seek shelter at the base?”

“Yes, we… we finally made it here. We heard Dongyang Base is still accepting people. Could you take us there?” someone said excitedly.

As they spoke, a girl sitting in the corner looked at these superhumans with a glimmer of hope.

Although these dozen or so people were all staying in this supermarket and had come together hoping to reach Dongyang Base, their relationships weren’t great.

At best, they were fellow travelers. And with supplies becoming scarcer, everyone was hungry and thirsty, naturally growing wary of those around them.

The girl felt both hopeful and fearful as she touched the man beside her—her brother. He was a superhuman, though not very powerful, only Level 2. Their journey had been extremely difficult. Her brother was soft-hearted and, seeing these ordinary people in such pitiful states, had allowed them to tag along.

But yesterday, their luck ran out when they encountered a Level 3 mutant beast. Her brother fought desperately and managed to kill it, but he was gravely injured.

Normally, superhumans healed faster than ordinary people, but his injuries were too grave. Since last night, he’d been drifting in and out of consciousness, and just now when she touched him, she realized he had a fever.

They needed to get to Dongyang Base as soon as possible. She’d heard that large bases usually had healers. Only by entering the base could they have a chance at survival.

Thinking this, she watched closely the group of superhumans.

Superhuman C looked at these ordinary people, frowned, and said dismissively, “You want to go to the base? We can take you there, but to enter, you’ll have to pay an admission fee—either food or crystal cores.”

His eyes swept over the group. “Do you have any?”

“And besides, you can’t expect us to take you for free, right?” Superhuman A chimed in.

They were testing whether these ordinary people had hidden the supermarket’s supplies.

Hearing that there was an admission fee, the group exchanged nervous glances. “Sir, we’ve had a tough journey here. How could we afford an admission fee?”

“Yeah, please take us there! Have pity on us, help us out. I don’t want to die out here…” Some tried playing the sympathy card.

But it clearly didn’t work. The superhumans, seeing that these people genuinely had nothing, lost interest.

Just as they were about to leave, a girl anxiously said, “I… I have crystal cores.”

As the superhumans turned to look, she quickly swallowed nervously and said, “I have crystal cores. Can you take me there? I… I can pay.”

The superhumans exchanged glances. Hearing there was payment, they grew interested. “Fine, we’ll take you. One Level 2 crystal core per person.”

Level 2 crystal cores weren’t particularly rare anymore. Worried she might not afford more, they didn’t ask for much. Since they were heading back to the base anyway, bringing them along would net them two free crystal cores.

The girl stammered, “Then… how much is the admission fee?”

Superhuman A: “Two Level 2 crystal cores for superhumans, three for ordinary people. If you have a Level 3, one can cover both a superhuman and an ordinary person.”

She had one Level 3 crystal core—obtained from killing that mutant beast yesterday—and exactly two Level 2 crystal cores, which could serve as payment.

She decided, and immediately said, “Okay, please take us there.”

As she spoke, she hurriedly helped her brother up. Superhuman B frowned. “He has a fever?”

Several superhumans immediately grew alert. “We won’t take anyone with a fever. What if it’s a zombie virus infection?”

The girl quickly explained, “No, it’s not the zombie virus. He was injured by a mutant beast yesterday. Everyone here can vouch for that.”