85 Days of Scavenging

The little robot was honest and didn't lie: "Well, there's nothing there."

Bei Xiangming immediately perked up, becoming even more indignant as he yelled at the patrol team, "Listen to this! I told you I didn't do anything! Release me right now!"

As he said this, he secretly glared at the little robot.

It's unclear whether he felt he was easy to bully because the latter honestly admitted it, or he was dissatisfied that the shop had nothing, making his trip a waste.

In short, the little robot was clearly resented.

Bei Xiangming's gaze did not escape the notice of others. Before the little robot could say anything, the patrolman holding him tightened his grip, pinning him down even more firmly.

He then said to the little robot in a gentle tone, "Boss Ji, you don't need to be so kind as to cover it up for him. Even if you have plenty of resources and don't care about this little bit, it's still quite disgusting to have this kind of guy steal from you."

As Bei Xiangming retorted, "I really didn't take it! There's really nothing inside," the patrol captain gave the little robot a lesson on the guy's past misdeeds.

In short, Bei Xiangming and his men have done this kind of thing more than once or twice, but they haven't been caught before because they have someone protecting them, which has allowed them to get away with it for so long.

After listening, the little robot thought for a moment and changed its words to match the patrol captain's suggestion.

Of course, this was his first time framing humans, so he wasn't very skilled at it and hesitated, too embarrassed to reveal too much.

In any case, Bei Xiangming and his group's burglary was finally confirmed. Now, anything related to supplies is no small matter. So, according to the rules of Hope Base, Bei Xiangming and his group's supplies were confiscated, leaving them with only one day's rations, and they were then kicked out of the base.

The entire arrest and departure process took place under the watchful eyes of everyone, so even if people from the north wanted to interfere, they couldn't find a suitable reason.

If they make a mistake, they might damage their image in the public eye. At this crucial moment in the struggle for ultimate ownership of the base, the people behind the scenes are naturally clear about what is more important.

Even if they were furious, they had no choice but to give up, at most sending someone to secretly throw in more supplies after the people were kicked out of the base.

Bei Xiangming stood in the barren wilderness, his gaze filled with resentment as he looked at the base not far away.

"Boss, where are we going next?"

"Let's find a safe place first. I'm not going to let this go so easily!"

.

The little robot watched the patrol team handle the chase and then quietly touched the location of its mechanical heart when it returned to its own shop.

Hmm... Is this what humans call "feeling good"? It's okay to be happy when bad guys get punished, right?

Besides being happy, the little robot was also a little apprehensive, as this was a very novel experience for him.

This minor fluctuation did not affect his work at the goods trading shop.

With the replenishment of supplies from the processing plant, the little robot had a much wider selection of food after it reopened. In addition to some processed food products, it even had spicy strips, although there weren't many packaged ones. Most of what it took from the factory were raw materials that hadn't yet entered the processing machines' storage room.

Fortunately, the little robot has plenty of materials in its own recycling bins that can be used to make packaging, so setting up a packaging machine on the spot is not a big problem for it.

As for staple foods, the little robot adjusted the spatial layout and expanded the area of ​​the time acceleration zone, planting seeds and harvesting grains in waves, which helped maintain the intensity of human panic buying.

Since the opening of the small robot shop, the lifestyle of the survivors at Hope Base has changed dramatically.

The shop's trading rules had long been known throughout the entire base; everyone knew that they even accepted garbage here. Was picking up garbage difficult? Not at all!

In less than two days, the entire base was significantly cleaner. Trash cans along the streets were even taken over by nearby special ability teams. These established teams always had logistics personnel, and most of them also included ordinary people. Previously, these people could only wait at the base when there were missions, but now they were incredibly busy.

All this trash around here is going to be snatched up! If you hesitate even a moment, someone else might take it! This trash can be exchanged for food!

Some people failed to snatch from others several times, and even went directly to the base's bulletin board to find people, specifically the old ladies who used to snatch cardboard boxes in the neighborhood before the apocalypse, just to learn some experience in snatching garbage.

Quite a few people are doing this, which has made the aunties at the base very popular.

With so many people at the base, the amount of garbage they produced each day wasn't even enough to exchange for supplies, so they threw away even less. Eventually, the base even faced a severe shortage of garbage.

So after the first person who successfully traded after scavenging trash outside the base appeared, many more followed suit.

The entrances and exits of the base are becoming increasingly lively.

Previously, most of the people who left the base were people with superpowers. They went out to find supplies, kill zombies to collect crystal cores to upgrade their abilities, and train their skills. The proportion of ordinary people who went out was relatively small.

Unfortunately, even with rigorous training, ordinary people still need weapons to effectively kill zombies, making it far more difficult than for those with superpowers. Moreover, many ordinary people are physically weaker from the start, making it too dangerous for them to venture out, and the rewards don't justify the effort. Therefore, they are more inclined to find work at the base.

However, ordinary people in the base don't earn many points for their work. They might be able to maintain a basic standard of living, but if there are any fluctuations, or even if they eat a little more, they will become very strapped for cash.

And this kind of job is hard to find.

In many bases, ordinary people have to do everything they can to get a bite to eat.

But things are different now.

They can now scavenge for supplies, anything goes, unlike before when they had to search for untouched places to find anything usable. Even after finally defeating zombies and mutated plants and animals, they might find only rotten, inedible things.

Now, even rotten things can be taken back!

Most importantly, they don't have to go that far or go to places that no one has ever plundered!

In a short time, the number of squads composed entirely of ordinary people in the base increased significantly.

These ordinary people didn't go far either. They stayed near the base, and they didn't care about dilapidated houses, damaged vehicles, or even stinking ditches and groves. They just started scraping the ground.

The word "scratching" truly describes the scene; it's no exaggeration. These ordinary people picked up anything they saw and stuffed it all into their large bags.

These places are close to the base, and the dangers such as zombies have long been dealt with. They focused on picking up trash without worrying about safety.

Once this wave of teams leaves, another wave will come and loot everything.

After a few days, the area around the base was cleaner than if locusts had passed through.

Fortunately, the little robot explained that it wouldn't collect plants and animals that were still growing normally, which prevented these ordinary people from having to pull up even a single weed on the ground.

Only now did the entire Hope Base seem to truly come alive, enveloped in "hope".

As the robot shop continued to open day by day, the queues outside remained long and the buying frenzy showed no signs of abating. With no indication that the shop would close down, the base's leadership finally couldn't sit still any longer.

Two days ago, the team that went out to do the grain station mission returned. Although the plan was disrupted by the earthworm swarm at the beginning, causing the team to suffer some losses, they were replenished with supplies from the mobile sales vehicle. When they broke through the grain station again, everyone's condition had fully recovered to its peak.

It's even much more expensive now.

In short, the mission was completed very well. The empty truck that was specially brought out was fully loaded with grain when it came back: rice, corn, wheat, and sweet potatoes, all of which were staple foods that could fill one's stomach. Most of them were even stored according to the grain type.

The zombie horde and mutated animals at the grain depot have been mostly cleared out. After two more cleanups, this area could even be incorporated into the base's satellite zone.

Along with this great news, Zong Zhengchu reported to his superiors about Jitong's mobile sales vehicle.

The commercial vehicle wasn't the main point; the main point was the large quantity of weapons that this Najitong brought out!

It's still a firearm!

As base managers, no one could remain unmoved by such news.

However, it was the mysterious Najitong who brought out the weapon, so they had to suppress their urge to go find the person on the spot.

However, even after a few more days, the people they sent out to investigate still couldn't find anything related to that Najitong!

This person is like someone who popped out of a rock. Despite his white hair and celebrity-like looks, he shouldn't be out of the ordinary at all. Logically, information about him should be easy to find. Even though the apocalypse has caused many information gaps, it's not like everything has been completely cut off.

But there's really no news about this person at all.

They were completely baffled as to where he got so many supplies, except for the spatial abilities he had demonstrated to others.

Furthermore, they learned from Lin Jian and the other superhumans that Ji Tong possessed a protective shield and was even researching a single-person version, leading them to suspect that he might be a scientist whose information had been hidden.

This point was highlighted on the documents in the manager's possession.

But there's no evidence.

No one from any of the bases has reported that such a talented scientist has gone missing.

In short, I searched for all sorts of random information, but not much of it was actually useful.

Therefore, it is hoped that the base leadership will exercise caution and refrain from contacting anyone immediately.

But now they can't hold back anymore.

This person has way too many supplies!

It's like there's an invincible cave connected to it, but judging from the trading volume these days, the amount of food alone is enormous, even more than all the inventory in their base!

Look at that posture, it doesn't show any signs of giving up!

With these layers of tightening measures, who can sit still?

Whether by coincidence or not, on this day, the little robot received a collaboration invitation in the morning, a banquet invitation in the afternoon, and a tour invitation in the evening.

The invitation was signed by the three factions currently vying for the position of leader of the Hope Base.

Although the little robot has been busy opening shops at the base these days, and spending his spare time dealing with piles of garbage collected in the space, he still knows some basic information about the base.

The little robot looked at the three invitations in front of it, pondered for a moment, and then buried its head in replying.

A moment later, three identical reply slips appeared before him, except for the opening salutation.

See you at Naji store tomorrow at 3 PM.

Well, he's just a robot and doesn't really understand human social etiquette, so his replies are inevitably a bit awkward, but the meaning is clearly conveyed.

He wasn't fooled by the three invitations with different contents, knowing that whether they were under the guise of cooperation, a banquet, or a visit, none of them were their real purpose.

It has to be said that the little robot has made progress in being able to see this, and it hasn't wasted so much time in the human world.

However, this progress has gone a little astray.

At least the little robot didn't know that what he thought was a convenient, efficient, and time-saving move—bringing all three parties together at the same time and place—was, for the invited parties, well…

Anyway, when he arrived at the appointment on time the next afternoon, he saw the core members of the other two factions dressed formally at the door. He felt a complicated and indescribable feeling.

The atmosphere in the air has become quite thick.