Chapter 181 New Base

Sorry for the delay, I was super busy with work and moving apartments. Finished the chapter while on the train.

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In the quiet wilderness, ruins of buildings lined both sides of the road. Luo Xun’s team did not follow the path they had used several times to visit the experimental fields but went through a relatively large number of roads.

Changing the roads meant that their new base would not be found and Yan Fei was allowed to collect metal along the way. Metal was very much needed in order to build a brand new, fully featured home.

Thinking about how much effort they spent renovating the two floors and the amount of metal they brought back to base showed how many resources they needed this time.

They had a whole three-storey building to remodel, along with several other rooms in the vicinity and the basement…

If it was not necessary to leave some stuff as a precaution, and their limited metal supply, Luo Xun’s group would not need to scrape the ground for scraps. Two huge metal balls rolled along behind the team, it made a scary site.

After leaving for nearly seven or eight days, it looked a lot different from when they left. Of course, since the weather had warmed up recently, the snow and ice covering the fields had all begun to melt, revealing the terrifying plants hidden underneath.

The team parked further away from the farmland and shuddered in their hearts – this was the terror zone they had strayed into, where they had nearly lost their lives. If not for the baby for had some sort of ability they would have all crossed the yellow river.

Luo Xun’s train of thought was obviously somewhat different, he tilted his head and suddenly said. “We’ll enter to sort everything out and rest, then we will increase the area of these devil vines.”

“Ah?”

“What?!”

“Expand the range of the devil vines?!”

The group of people looked at him gobsmacked. However only the five former students were surprised while the others clicked with their leader.

Song Lingling clapped. “Yes! If these things can be cultivated, having them in the surroundings would be good!”

Zhang Yi also added. “These things are quite tall, before the snow pressed them down but they are growing well.”

“…Why do you want to cultivate them? Aren’t they dangerous?” Wang Duo looked at his lover in a dazed manner, asking for an explanation.

Zhang Yi looked at him disdainfully. “Are you stupid? There are so many of these things around us, except for us who know the secret way, who would come? The plants could help us stop trouble.”

Li Tie’s jaw dropped before he exclaimed, “Ah, good idea!”

Yan Fei also explained, “We have to expand the area under the basement, if someone found out, an earth or metal user could find us. Expanding the plants could also help cover up this problem.”

He pointed at the secret tunnel, “Once a metal power level is increased, they can sense metal. A secret path might not be found easily but what about a large metal basement room?”

“Ah! I see!”

“Yes, yes, but is it possible?”

Luo Xun smiled and nodded. “It should not be difficult, as long as we find a room to grow some rice/wheat and keep the mushroom wood inside, it should be easy to cultivate the contaminated soil.”

The excavation would be left to Yu Xinran since she did not need to be near the plants in order to change the soil into sand. Plus they only needed a bit of dirt for their needs.

Opening the secret path they had made before, the line of men carried their luggage while the metal went to the building to begin a new round of tasks.

They came back around February 8 and could stay until the end of the month. Twenty days would be enough for them to sort out and pack things.

Everyone was allocated a nice place. Yan Fei and Luo Xun naturally shared a room but also with their little ones. Xu Mei, Song Lingling and Yu Xinran shared a room. Zhang Yi obviously roomed together with his Wang Duo. The remaining four people split into pairs, two to a room.

Li Tie and Han Li, He Qiankun with Wu Xin. It was not because of any drama but the idea that it would be more comfortable to spread out with more rooms.

Altogether there were five groups so they simply divided the rooms on the top floor, which actually had seven rooms. Each group selected a room, the largest meeting room and smaller tea room were to be changed into planting areas or storage.

The space was divided but still needed modifications. However they temporarily had their own place with their own things and had a rest.

After a night’s sleep, there were no zombies knocking at the door and no harassing flyers.

Luo Xun got up bright and early to feed the baby some milk – this time they brought a pile of milk fruit, enough for a month.

Fortunately, the fruit was very small and even after a month there was no sign of rotting, so there was a lot of fruit at home.

The child was fed and his diaper changed, the other people and the dog had eaten a nice breakfast before work started.

“Today we will revamp the exterior walls of the building and hang up all the solar panels that we brought back last time.” Many things could only be started after the panels were hung and power was restored.

The group nodded and Luo Xun pointed to his feet. “Those two bodies in the basement…let’s remove and bury them.” That was something that needed to be addressed, they should not leave bodies in areas they would frequent.

“Okay, no problem.”

Burying corpses was not comfortable but there was no psychological damage. In particular, Yan Fei directly placed the bodies into metal boxes. After burying the boxes in a relatively distant place, everyone returned and began to vigorously renovate.

They had not found appropriate paint so Yan Fei covered as much of the building with gray metal as possible. In fact it was easy to churn out since Yan Fei’s purified metal (tougher and stronger) was basically this color.

The metal went around the wall covered with solar panels absorbing sunlight. Luo Xun and others handed Yan Fei panels while the two ladies dealt with the house. Zhang Yi  was responsible for helping – using his wind ability to clean up dust and leave the room clean.

He Qiankun sat in front of the computer, responsible for locating paint and a lot of metal. They got a lot of data before they left base and downloaded it to the computer they brought along.

Yu Xinran with Puppy looked at the baby…anyways these three were not helping with the current job.

The first day everyone managed to take care of the solar panels. The box of panels almost covered the entire roof and the walls after the sunrise. The next morning, the team deliberated and decided to overhaul the basement before planting the first crops.

Built a nursery room, Luo Xun checked the two basements again. He decided that the two rooms needed some repairs and alterations before planting anything. As the team was busy, He Qiankun found the information that needed – a place with paint and metal materials.

“This warehouse is near the solar panel factory we were going to last time. There are some small workshops, there is definitely metal around.” The place was marked with a few dots representing what they needed right now.

Luo Xun thought for a moment and then looked at Yan Fei. “We can first expand the underground channel and then visit these places. We could then directly pull things from the ground.” Otherwise the things were too heavy, it would take a long time for them to bring the stuff back.

Yu Xinran happily ran over hearing that she would be useful. “Dig tunnels! Dig a tunnel!”

“No problem.” Yan Fei also nodded. “I can also do some work on the floor, adding grit otherwise the car might slip.” The basement floor was a little too smooth, people sometimes skidded across the floor.

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