Qiao Ruoyun, who had been making no move until now, suddenly stepped forward and said, "I am willing to surrender and go to the base."

Upon hearing this, the entire room fell silent. A few seconds later, Wei Sanwa erupted in a furious tirade.

"You bitch, how dare you betray me?!"

Qiao Ruoyun turned her head and said coldly, "You've never been loyal from beginning to end, so where does this betrayal come from? You think too highly of yourself."

"Besides, the base is stable now. Why not live a good life outside, living in fear and uncertainty? Do you really think you can act like a local tyrant?"

"Stop daydreaming. A single cannonball can solve this. Do you really think you're some kind of omnipotent being who can fly and dive into the earth?"

"It's time to wake up from your dream of being a local tyrant."

Qiao Ruoyun's sharp words thoroughly exposed Wei Sanwa's weakness, while also serving as a wake-up call to many others.

Seeing that many people were wavering, Qi Hongshen's eyes flashed with shrewdness, and he pressed his advantage, saying:

“I am quite familiar with your situation. Most of you were forced to take this path.”

"As the base chief of S City, I assure you that as long as you are not a heinous criminal, we will not pursue any of the minor incidents from before."

"Once you enter the base, you will be treated the same as other survivors. Just behave yourself, don't commit any crimes, and don't violate the base's regulations."

As he spoke, Qi Hongshen looked at Qiao Ruoyun and extended an invitation to her.

"Miss Qiao, the base welcomes you and your team."

As the leader here, Qiao Ruoyun was someone Qi Hongshen already had information about, so he knew her quite well.

A dual-elemental ability user with a considerable number of mutated beasts at his disposal, he seems to have a special secret for recruiting mutated beasts. Furthermore, this person has his own principles for doing things, and even when he is with Wei Sanwa, he only targets the rich and heartless or the most heinous villains.

Based on these points alone, he had already made preparations to recruit them.

Qiao Ruoyun walked towards Qi Hongshen and said, "Thank you."

As soon as she moved, her followers moved without hesitation, including the five mutated dogs.

Wei Sanwa panicked, "Qiao Ruoyun! How dare you!"

In his panic, he pulled out the pistol hidden at his waist.

The moment he made a move, the military immediately went on alert. Then, one of Jin Xin's underlings, who was trying to sneak away to surrender to the military, tripped and fell because he was too nervous.

Upon hearing the commotion, Wei Sanwa instinctively pulled the trigger, plunging the scene into chaos once again.

Qiao Ruoyun dodged the gunshot and immediately joined the battle, fighting with Wei Sanwa.

Some resisted, while others wisely complied, taking advantage of the chaos to move aside and squat down, ready to be shot in the head.

Those of Tan Jingrui's side who could still fight went to help the military, while those who couldn't fight also consciously stayed out of the way.

Wei Sanwa and his group didn't use guns in the initial fight.

Don't be fooled by the fact that many of them have guns they picked up from police stations and other places, which they carry with them at all times.

In reality, no one will use it unless absolutely necessary.

With a limited number of bullets, those who were assigned guns didn't get many bullets each.

Secondly, firing a gun is noisy and might attract more zombies after dealing with the one in front of you.

But now, they are in a desperate situation with no other choice. Those with guns are panicking and opening fire without thinking.

This made Qi Hongshen's men feel less restrained; when it came to weapons, these officials weren't afraid at all.

A fierce battle began suddenly and ended just as quickly.

The official casualties were not high, but Wei Sanwa and Jin Xin's men died quite a few times.

Finally, Qi Hongshen detained everyone, interrogated them one by one, made them identify each other's crimes, and divided them into three groups.

One group was executed on the spot, another was taken back to the base for labor reform, and the last group was taken back to the safe zone for resettlement.

Leaders like Wei Sanwa and Jin Xin belong to the first category.

The people on Tan Jingrui's side belong to the third category.

The people Qiao Ruoyun brought were arranged separately and went directly into the base with Qi Hongshen.

Lu Jin'an and his group watched the whole thing from the shadows, and seeing that there was nothing for them to do, they quietly left.

He had just watched Qiao Ruoyun's battle and had roughly determined that she was a level three ability user, just like him.

Although Lu Jin'an didn't get a match, she felt a sense of crisis and decided to go back and work even harder to train her superpower.

Li Xin'er learned about this that evening.

When she woke up in the morning, Carl and the others had already left. She didn't go out today, instead spending her time in her spatial storage organizing supplies and making preparations for the upcoming events.

When Carl and the others returned from their outing at dinner time, they talked about this, and Li Xin'er was quite surprised.

Carl continued, "With both factions eliminated, many people fled to the west of the city, and the base will probably take over soon, expanding the safe zone there."

The pigeon nodded in agreement, "Indeed, we went to the west of the city today and didn't see anyone."

"Either you go to the base to report for duty, or you'll be so scared that you'll run away overnight."

The vulture sighed; even its favorite chicken leg no longer tasted good.

"Sigh, the base took them all. It's not so easy for us to find crystal cores anymore."

Everyone else has already acquired crystal cores, but he's still short by over two hundred. He's getting anxious!

Li Xin'er was puzzled, stopped eating, and looked up.

The golden eagle couldn't wait to explain.

"Sister Xin, you don't know, those people at the base are like mad dogs now, hunting zombies everywhere."

"There are still many of them, so they will all gather in one place and be wiped out together."

Li Xin'er knew that although Carl and his team were strong in individual combat, the remaining zombies in S City were mostly large-scale zombie hordes.

No matter how skilled an individual is, it's useless without the advantages of group operations like those in a base.

Thinking about the 200,000 crystal cores that Lu Chen traded, and Qi Hongshen's complaints about being poor, Li Xin'er also had a plan in mind.

"After you finish your trip in the next few days, you don't need to look for the crystal core for now. I have other things to arrange for you to do."

Upon hearing that she had something to arrange, everyone became serious and took it seriously.

"Okay, Sister Xin."

Several days passed in the blink of an eye, and the daily bombardment in S City became increasingly intense.

Lu Chen and his men returned to deliver the crystal cores that had been agreed upon last time.

The information fee is 20,000, half of the traded goods are 100,000, and I'll also bring 10,000 crystal cores from Qi Hongshen's previous news about the extreme heat.

A total of 130,000 Level 1 crystal cores were brought in.

Lu Jin'an was also with Lu Chen. They hadn't seen each other for several days, and both of them looked much thinner and darker.

Li Xin'er led the two towards the reception room, where they encountered a cassowary and a golden eagle feeding a mutated beast.

"Sister Xin, let's go feed them."

Li Xin'er glanced at the basin they were carrying; it contained various fruits, such as bananas, apples, pears, cantaloupes, peaches, and oranges. Remembering the tender bamboo shoots the panda family had taken that morning, she reminded them.

"Go to the warehouse later and get some bamboo shoots for the bamboo poles."

"Okay, Sister Xin."

The two carried the large basin away, and Lu Chen and Lu Jin'an looked at the various fresh fruits in the basin with undisguised surprise in their eyes.

These mutated beasts are being treated really well...