Chapter 871: Careful Thoughts
The next day, Zhang Qing and Li Guang returned late until they were ready to leave after dinner. Their clothes were full of scratches, and they were covered in mud and dew, looking quite disheveled.
When they set out again, Zhang Qing looked much better, with no more schizophrenic attacks, but he obviously hadn't recovered his agility yet.
While Lu Weiyi and Qin Jin were discussing the next route, Li Zhuang held a cigarette and went to the two of them to inquire about the news. Qin Jin found out and just glanced at him.
"The remaining coal mine is in Mengdi. Qin Xing said it has not been developed. People in the village know about it because someone went there to steal it." Qin Jin pointed to the location on the map. "This is an uninhabited area, and we need to take a long detour."
"What about at their speed?" Lu Weiyi patted the three mutant giant wolves that had been lying under the tree to cool off early in the morning. The hard touch was very prickly.
"It will take at least ten days."
Qin Jin glanced in the direction of Li Guang as he spoke. The zombie who was originally holding a cigarette and talking to Li Zhuang seemed to have sensed something and immediately looked over and said, "I asked the zombies, and they said that there were no humans there at the beginning of the apocalypse. It was an uninhabited area, but..."
"?" Lu Weiyi motioned for him to continue.
"It is said that zombies have established a zombie kingdom there."
"Is there someone trying to usurp your throne?" Lu Weiyi looked at Qin Jin in surprise.
"There is no definite ownership among zombies. They will obey the stronger one. You've guessed it." Qin Jin's expression showed no emotion after being challenged. This also showed that his human consciousness was recovering more and more, and he was beginning to become as expressionless as humans.
He really heard their conversation last night.
Lu Weiyi's embarrassment only lasted for a second. Fortunately, he did not consider himself a gentleman who did not care about right and wrong. He looked as if nothing had happened and even asked Qin Jin, "Do you want to go and see?"
Qin Jin met his clear gaze, "You don't want to go?"
"I don't care. The base will not collapse without me for the time being. If you want to go, I can accompany you."
Qin Jin raised his eyebrows, "Are you so kind?"
"I have always been a righteous person."
After Lu Weiyi finished speaking righteously, he found that the zombies and people around him were looking at him with indescribable eyes. He coughed lightly and asked, "Are you going or not?"
"Go," Qin Jin made the final decision, "Any supplies you come across over there will be yours."
"Where is the zombie crystal core?" Lu Weiyi's eyes sparkled.
"…I'll give you half."
"no".
"?" Qin Jin looked at him.
"We are equally strong. Li Zhuang is stronger than Cheng Qi..."
Upon hearing this, Cheng Qi immediately stood up straight and looked at Li Zhuang, "You can try it."
Li Zhuang had a smile on his face. He took a puff of the cigarette in his hand, looking calm and ready to take action at any time.
Qin Jin did not comment, glanced at Li Guang and said, "And them."
"How many zombies can form a country?"
"Don't think I don't know that you're planning on having me mobilize helpers from the base," Lu Weiyi directly exposed his thoughts. "The number of S-level psychics in Yueban Bay is in the hundreds, and when the time comes, I will definitely prioritize mobilizing SS-level psychics. Don't they need compensation?"
"Everything else is easy to deal with, but if you dare to make me suffer a loss in money, I will confront you in person," Lu Weiyi said, not forgetting to make a childish threat, "Don't forget that your wife and son are still in my hands."
“……”Li Zhuang.
He suspected that he had less contact with Lu Weiyi recently, and he made him sound like a villain when he was clearly fighting for his own interests in an open and aboveboard manner.
Fearing that the unpredictable "Zombie King" might turn against him, Li Zhuang stepped forward with a smile and said, "The fees for the base's psychics to go on missions are divided according to their levels. If the profit is too little, our base commander will need to pay from his private treasury."
"Since everyone wants to go, why don't we distribute it according to the specific circumstances when the time comes?" After all, it's a bit early to think about dividing the spoils before the war even starts.
Qin Jin's identity with their base is a bit awkward. Maybe they can cooperate back to back, but maybe they belong to different species and need to be on guard against each other.
Qin Jin nodded, with a look of regret for not being able to deceive anyone on his face, which made Lu Weiyi even more certain that this was intentional.
After the correction, Li Zhuang used his supernatural power to sense the surroundings and searched some small areas of coal distribution underground.
Qin Jin sat on Xiao Bai's back leisurely, letting them go in circles. He just looked at the pool-like pit on the ground with a more and more complicated expression. Until that night when they had not walked out of the area, he finally couldn't help asking Li Zhuang, "Are you really that poor?"
After a busy day, Li Zhuang, who had exhausted his supernatural powers, was just about to climb onto the little monkey's back to enjoy Lu Weiyi's plant nest. After a moment's reaction, he understood what he meant and laughed, "The main thing is that the magnetic field corrector at the base is still under testing. It will take at least three days before it can be taken out for us to use."
Anyway, I can't go too far, so it's just a matter of convenience.
At this point, Li Zhuang suddenly became interested, "Will you zombies be affected by magnetic fields?"
Qin Jin glanced at him and said, "Zombies are also a kind of creatures."
Even though he was born too different.
“……”Li Zhuang.
Li Zhuang had nothing to say.
During the few days they wandered around, they were harassed by mutant animals almost all the time. Fortunately, the three mutant giant wolves were quick and agile, which greatly reduced the possibility of them taking action.
Even so, seeing various animals passing by Qin Jin and the others as if they didn't see them, one couldn't help but envy them.
On the night when the base's magnetic field corrector was put into use again, Li Zhuang asked Lu Weiyi about his true thoughts.
They had just come across a nest of rabbits during the day. Although they looked a bit mutated, their fur looked pretty. Lu Weiyi collected all the corpses, thinking of skinning them and making clothes. Qin Jin was rarely interested, so he asked for a bunch and took Cheng Qi outside to deal with them.
Li Guang and Zhang Qing went out again and disappeared. Yu Li and Xu Xiao had a very low presence. There were only two of them around. Li Zhuang spoke without hesitation, "Don't talk to me about the so-called incarnation of justice."
He knows better than anyone that what he calls justice is that no one touches his bottom line.
Lu Weiyi carefully put out the cooking fire with a layer of soil, then sat back next to Li Zhuang, not forgetting to put up a mental barrier.
"If we only talk about personal ability, Qin Jin and I should be evenly matched, so we won't have a conflict unless we have no choice. There is no need."
"Then there is no need for us to intervene in the fight between zombies." Li Zhuang glanced at the zombies that were traveling with them. They were few in number and weak in strength, yet they dared to fight against a zombie group that was capable of calling itself a country. He had a feeling that Qin Jin was using them, and Lu Weiyi seemed to be acting on impulse because of his relationship with Qin Jin.
If they hadn't been together for so long, he might have brought it up a long time ago.
"Do you feel that Qin Jin is more popular now than when we first met?" Lu Weiyi asked a question he didn't want to ask.
"so what?".
"Human Qin Jin is a man with a strong sense of justice. His parents are both senior intellectuals and his family is harmonious. He is the only son in the family. Since he was a child, he has been the kind of person who grew up in the sunshine, without any haze."
"He has a very good relationship with his parents, and he and Yin Jin... are said to be childhood sweethearts. They have been looking for each other for several years after they separated. He has a clean private life, and now has a son, whom he was able to take care of even though he was not fully conscious, let alone now."
Li Zhuang didn't understand what he wanted to say for a moment. He turned his head to look at him and heard Lu Weiyi say, "If we can use the triple identities of son, lover and father to get a zombie king to side with us, I think our base may have an easier time in the future."
"Also, although we are not facing a battle for the zombie king yet, if such a day really comes, we will definitely intervene. Isn't this the same as interfering in the election of leaders of other countries? It is better to support someone who is close to us than an unknown one who may bring danger, right?"
"Leaders of other countries..." Li Zhuang laughed softly, "Your metaphor... is really apt."
"Nowadays, the mutated animals alone are enough to cause us trouble. These zombies who have regained consciousness have no intention of targeting us. Let's shift our attention away from them for the time being." Lu Weiyi sighed and once again worried about the future of mankind.
"That being said, we still need to be on guard," Li Zhuang suggested.
"Well, I know, and we need crystal cores to upgrade. With Qin Jin present, our safety will be greatly increased when we break into the lost pile."
"I want to have high-level crystal cores, but I don't want to encounter high-level zombies," Li Zhuang sighed.
The two talked for a while, and Qin Jin returned with Cheng Qi, who was holding a thick stack of skinned rabbit skins in his hands.
Qin Jin hesitated, but still asked, "Can you tan?"
He mainly asked Li Zhuang, after all, Lu Weiyi didn't look like he could do it.
"No," Li Zhuang suggested, "It will be very troublesome to do it yourself. There are specialized craftsmen at the base. You can send it over and let them handle it. You can get it within half a month."
"Give it to me, I'll have someone do it for you." Qin Jin nodded, and Lu Weiyi stretched out a small green branch to store the pile of things in the space, "Next time, just give it to me directly. The base has a special one-stop cleaning and production service."
"Then I'll be welcome."
After Qin Jin finished speaking, he glanced at the strange object in Li Zhuang's hand.
"The base has just delivered the magnetic field corrector. Shall we set off tomorrow?" Li Zhuang handed the device to him.
"Won't be affected by radiation?" Qin Jin was surprised. You know, they don't even have electric lights outside now, and all electronic equipment will be scrapped soon. It would be a waste of resources to expose them to the air at this time.
"It is said that there has been a technological breakthrough." Li Zhuang did not elaborate, and talked to Qin Jin about the specific usage. "We have a wayfinding device. Do you know the specific location over there?"
The earthquake at the beginning of the last days and the natural disasters in recent years have changed the terrain a lot. There is no exact location, not even anything to guide the direction.
"Yes," Qin Jin said simply, "We will set off early tomorrow morning."
No one had any objection, and the group got up early the next day. As they were about to set off, Zhuang Mingxu sent a message saying that something happened at the base and asked Li Zhuang to go back.
Because the road was not safe, Zhuang Mingxu basically no longer asked Lu Weiyi about the base's affairs, which made him have no idea what exactly happened.
All he could think of was the Suicide Squad, and he warned them, "If they still come here to cause trouble, just deal with them all."
Li Zhuang turned his head to look at him, and saw that Lu Weiyi had a calm expression and a light tone, as if he had just said "The weather is very good today."
"At this stage, the base will not tolerate any unrest in the base, and will suppress it forcefully if we cannot take it down."
"You don't think Zhuang Mingxu is a little sheep, do you?" When Yuebanwan took full power, it went through several reshuffles, and they were all Zhuang Mingxu's work.
Lu Weiyi also thought of the past, but his expression looked a little ugly. That person dared to take him into account at the critical moment. "Find someone to follow Zhuang Mingxu, preferably someone with a fast speed, to avoid any accidents."
"Okay," Li Zhuang responded and then reminded, "You are no match for Qin Jin, don't negotiate with him."
"Know".
After a brief communication, Li Zhuang followed Tao Tao towards the space channel, and Lu Weiyi also set off at the same time to move in the direction planned by Qin Jin.
In the first few days, you could more or less see signs of human survival. After a week, all you could see was the animal world, giving you the feeling of entering the Amazon jungle, especially the mutant animals that came one after another. During this period, the little monkey and the mutant giant wolf were injured several times.
They also encountered several waves of zombie attacks of varying sizes, which were resolved extremely easily by Qin Jin and Lu Weiyi, causing Lu Weiyi to doubt the reliability of Qin Jin's intelligence.
After all, since a country has been formed in this area where no one has set foot for several years, there should be many high-level zombies, but they didn't encounter anything.
During the trip, they passed through several cities. Lu Weiyi originally thought that he might be able to harvest some supplies, but after a few rounds, he discovered that this place had completely become a paradise for animals - there was nothing they couldn't do. Even the cabinets and bedding in some residential buildings that had not been taken away had become nests for cockroaches and rats.
Going there once would cause people with trypophobia to have an attack on the spot. After a few times, even a few zombies began to resist, not to mention Lu Weiyi.
They can only look for metal equipment in various factories. These things show signs of corrosion from time, and can be reused after being extracted and repaired by metal-related mutants.
While Qin Jin was controlling the few zombies to gather information, he followed Lu Weiyi around several cities. Zhang Qing, the only person with earth-related abilities, replaced Li Zhuang as the new laborer. His shortcoming was that he was not as durable as Li Zhuang, but his advantage was that he was much more obedient and no longer showed any disrespect to Lu Weiyi.
After Lu Weiyi gave him zombie crystal cores as rewards several times, he found that his dazed appearance seemed to be recovering little by little. After more contact, he gradually became familiar with him. Lu Weiyi knew this from Zhang Qing.
Unless a zombie's consciousness is fully restored at the beginning, it will recover slowly as its ability level increases.
When humans become zombies, their consciousness is shattered into pieces. The process of fully restoring consciousness is like fusing the pieces together bit by bit.
"High-level zombies can attack consciousness fragments, which is more dangerous to high-level zombies than lowering their levels." When Zhang Qing woke up, he no longer had the nonchalant attitude he had before. He touched his head and tried to describe it, "It's like... I lost something very important."
“There is a chain of contempt among zombies. Only those with consciousness can be considered alive. Otherwise, what’s the difference between them and those unconscious beasts?” Li Guang held a piece of grass in his mouth. If you ignore the missing half of his face, he looks no different from a human.
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