"You're really lucky to have survived this long. But looking at your physique, you might have a hard time joining a pioneering team."

—This was an extremely ordinary-looking young man with a slightly flat nose, thin lips, and a sallow complexion that looked like he had been struggling to make a living for many years. He was thin and not particularly tall for a man, with only his eyes being somewhat distinctive.

His eyes were slightly rounded at the corners, somewhat like the core of a star. His dark pupils shimmered with a faint gold hue in the sunlight, giving them the color of amber. But upon closer inspection, that touch of gold disappeared.

Are they mixed race?

Emil scratched his head, pulled a tortilla from his pocket, and handed it to the other man: "Judging by your appearance, you've been hungry for quite a while, haven't you? Here."

Dry cornbread made from cornmeal is the hard currency at the base.

The dried corn cobs, along with the cobs, are ground into powder, mixed with water and shaped slightly before being steamed. Freshly steamed, they are soft and fragrant. Although they are a bit harsh on the throat, they still have a hint of sweetness.

Once it's dried, it tastes completely different. You have to eat it with water, otherwise it can make you choke and your eyes roll back.

Upon hearing that the young man was to be sent to the land reclamation team, the other members of the team immediately cast sympathetic glances at him.

To encourage more people to participate in land reclamation, the base has offered relatively preferential policies. Ordinary people who participate in land reclamation can receive a fixed amount of food every day and contribution points based on their workload. Senior reclamation team members can also choose to purchase houses after land reclamation.

Many survivors who have left their hometowns will choose to sign up for the pioneering teams in their original places of life. Back at the base, people will fight tooth and nail for a spot in a pioneering team!

But the pioneering team had a tough time.

Urban land reclamation is not as simple as just finding a field and turning it over, as many people imagine.

The first step is a comprehensive cleanup of the city, including clearing accumulated garbage, zombie fragments, and hazardous waste from the ground, cleaning up construction debris inside buildings and removing moss and vegetation from building surfaces, and collecting corpses from the city for collective incineration until the entire area becomes a habitable environment.

Putting aside the sheer amount of work involved, the mere thought of the potential viral infection during the process of cleaning up corpses is enough to deter most people from undertaking the task.

The young man seemed unaware that this was a tough job, and just hung his head in silence.

Only when someone asked him his name did he raise his head, his gaze sweeping over the advance team members before quickly looking down again, slowly munching on the cornbread Emil had given him.

"Yu Lu".

"My name is Yu Lu."