The Next Day
The windowless observation room also welcomed light. The warm light entered through the crack in the door and spread to the foot of the bed against the wall.
Pei Zhaozhou opened his eyes and looked at the light strips on the ground in the empty observation room. His amber eyes also reflected the golden light.
From time to time, the golden pupils moved slightly, chasing the light strips beside the door that moved and changed with time, and the thoughts in the quiet observation room stagnated.
—Zombies?
—Is it possible that even Si Huaixi could become a zombie?
Pei Zhaozhou’s eyes were filled with paranoia and coldness.
—He won’t die. Even if he turns into a zombie, he won’t die.
The time spent in the observation room passed quickly.
Fortunately, there have been no more incidents of zombie mutation, and the contaminated water brought in by people from outside has been cleaned up. No one dares to touch water that may turn people into zombies.
There was a sound of the door unlocking.
The person who came was Zhang Lu, a staff member of the base observation room. He came in and looked at Pei Zhaozhou curiously for a few times before saying, “The observation time has passed and there was nothing unusual. You can go out. However, Commander Si came this morning and asked me to tell you that he has some business to deal with at the temporary base, so you should go to Commander Si’s home first.”
Pei Zhaozhou’s eyes regained some vitality: “Well, thank you for your hard work .”
Last night, Si Huaixi noticed that Pei Zhaozhou was rejecting him for unknown reasons and seemed not to want to contact him. Plus, it was too late, and he just wanted to come and see how Pei Zhaozhou was doing. He had no intention of occupying the only small bed in the observation room, so he offered to leave.
It was still dark when he left because the clouds in this apocalyptic world are always grey and gloomy, with only a few stars.
Before leaving, Si Huaixi looked at Pei Zhaozhou several times.
As a result, the heartless cat didn’t even say a word to try to keep the owner, and finally the owner was left alone, angry, helpless and depressed.
The sky was pitch black, and the road was dark as well, as there were no street lights due to the base’s low power supply.
Fortunately, Si Huaixi’s body was different from that of ordinary people, so he could walk in the dark without any hindrance. However, he looked particularly desolate and lonely when he walked.
He walked out of the observation room where he was kept for 24 hours.
Pei Zhaozhou went to collect the identity card required for people entering the Lucheng base for the first time.
The staff at the base handed Pei Zhaozhou a form to fill out.
The staff member in charge of registering Pei Zhaozhou was a middle-aged woman. Although her clothes were not new, they looked clean and tidy, and her spirits were much better than the pale and skinny people who had been queuing outside the base before.
The middle-aged woman was immediately alerted when she saw that the newcomer to the base was a tall and handsome young man. She smiled and said, “Young man, where are you from? No matter where you are from, you have made the right choice to come to our Lucheng base. Are you a superpower user? Even if you are not, there are many jobs that ordinary people can do in the base. As long as you are diligent, you can fill your stomach. It is better than going to those bases outside…”
Pei Zhaozhou’s eyes were slightly stunned. Before he could say a word, the middle-aged woman had already answered almost ten sentences in a very familiar manner, without giving him a chance to answer.
Pei Zhaozhou filled out the form silently: “Here, I have filled it out. What should I do next?”
The middle-aged woman took back the form, glanced at it to confirm that it was correct, and then continued enthusiastically: “You need to pay a certain fee to enter the base. Unfortunately, if you are not a mutant, you still have to pay for some supplies even if you don’t have a crystal core. Don’t worry, the Lucheng base is not a black-hearted base. Just pay half a pound of food. It’s okay if you have a crystal core. The extra will be exchanged for base points. You can use the points to exchange for supplies at the base at any time.”
In this world, the original monetary system had collapsed long ago, paper money became waste, and most people bartered goods. The zombie crystal core that could increase the level of the psychics was a new type of currency in this world and could be used as a universal currency no matter which base they went to.
However, ordinary people in the Lucheng base do not need crystal cores for their daily needs. Usually, expensive materials are exchanged for crystal cores, and they are more often used by people with special abilities.
Therefore, the Lucheng base set up a point system. Usually 3 points can be exchanged for a multi-grain bread, and 2 points can be exchanged for 300 millilitres of water. Generally, two multigrain cakes plus 300 millilitres of water are enough for the water and food needed by the human body for a day.
There are many job opportunities in the Lucheng base where ordinary people can earn points, and it is not difficult to earn ten points a day.
But it was very difficult for Pei Zhaozhou who had nothing. Even though the amount of money in his account in interstellar space could buy dozens of resource stars, he now did not even have the money to enter the Lucheng base.
Pei Zhaozhou asked in embarrassment: “What if there is no food and no crystal?”
The middle-aged woman glanced at Pei Zhaozhou in confusion. He didn’t look like someone who was in such a difficult situation that he couldn’t even afford to eat. “If you have other supplies, you can exchange them.”
Pei Zhaozhou had all these things he brought from the interstellar space, and it was difficult to take any of them out.
Just when he was feeling a little embarrassed and didn’t know what to do, a voice suddenly said, “Sister Jiang, this is the person brought in by Commander Si. He has a very good relationship with Commander Si.”
The middle-aged woman, Sister Jiang, was surprised and said, “Since you are the one brought by Commander Si, why didn’t you tell me earlier? Sister Jiang will waive the entrance fee for you. I also grew some fresh tomatoes at home. If you know Commander Si, give some to him as well, as a token of gratitude to Commander Si for taking care of my troublesome brother for so long.”
The younger brother of the middle-aged woman Jiang Dajie is also an extraordinary psychic in the Lucheng base, and he also serves as the captain of the psychic team. Otherwise, Jiang Dajie would not be able to do a job as simple as a clerical job in the base. As being responsible for registration generally, only family members of members within the base can do this job.
Pei Zhaozhou was exempted from the entrance fee, and was almost stuffed with a bag of tomatoes by a middle-aged woman he had just met, all because of Si Huaixi’s face.
However, Pei Zhaozhou still tactfully rejected the middle-aged woman’s enthusiasm.
Pei Zhaozhou: “It’s not easy for you to grow vegetables, so you should hand it over to Commander Si in person. I’m not very good at harvesting in private.”
Sister Jiang said with a little dissatisfaction: “It would be great if Commander really accepted it. Commander Si is a very busy man and rarely appears in the base. Even if he does, he won’t accept it… Or you should accept it and treat it as yours. Just give Commander Si some food when you see him.”
Pei Zhaozhou shook his head and refused, then turned to look at the person who spoke for him.
Unexpectedly, it was Zhang Lu, the staff member in the observation room, who had just relayed Si Huaixi’s words to him.
Pei Zhaozhou said politely: “Thank you for speaking for me.”
Zhang Lu just stopped by to take a look out of curiosity. He didn’t expect that the people brought by Commander Si had run into some trouble. He laughed and said, “It’s nothing, just a small matter.”
After finally solving the problem of the entrance fee to the Lucheng base, Pei Zhaozhou began to worry about how to earn points for the Lucheng base. He was now a pauper and could not even afford the money for the first day’s meal.
‘This is my first time experiencing this.’
Pei Zhaozhou’s eyes flashed with helplessness.
He didn’t want to rely on Si Huaixi for everything. On the contrary, he hoped that one day Si Huaixi would rely on him.
As a major general who had worked his way up from the slums to the topmost position in the interstellar empire, Pei Zhaozhou had such a strong sense of self-esteem. When he was young he was unwilling to accept the empire’s subsidies for orphans. He relied on selling repaired discarded mechanical products to earn interstellar coins to support himself, and even raised enough tuition fee for getting admission to the Imperial Military Academy.
In comparison, he is now living a worse life. He has eaten Si Huaixi’s food without doing anything, and it seems that he will have to live in Si Huaixi’s house for free for a while.
As a strong S-class Alpha, Pei Zhaozhou couldn’t help but feel ashamed of himself and his face turned red.
Pei Zhaozhou had some ideas in mind, but he still asked Sister Jiang where there was an opportunity to earn points.
Sister Jiang kindly replied that there was a market at the Lucheng base where many people would exchange supplies, and the base leaders would often recruit temporary workers.
The planting fields, construction teams, transportation, textiles, etc. of the Lucheng base all require a large number of ordinary people to do the work. Basically, there are all kinds of jobs. The Lucheng base can be self-sufficient, and with a population of more than 300,000, it is like a small country.
Water-type psychics provide water for the base, wood-type psychics promote the growth of crops, shortening the time it takes for crops to mature. Crops that originally took a quarter to mature can now be reduced by half the time, earth-type and metal-type psychics pile up materials to build houses and tall walls, and strength-type, fire-type, lightning-type and other highly offensive psychics usually go out on missions.
Whether ordinary people or those with special powers, everyone has their own duties, and the Lucheng base is also prospering and developing, constantly expanding and reclaiming land.
Zhang Lu was a little surprised to hear Pei Zhaozhou say that he was going to that kind of place to find a job, but he still said kindly: “How about I take you there? You just came to the base and you probably don’t know the way there. Commander Si has something to do today, so he probably can’t take care of you that much. It just so happens that my work in the observation room has been finished, so I’ll take you there.”
Pei Zhaozhou thought about it and accepted Zhang Lu’s kindness: “Thank you, I’ll trouble you then.”
Zhang Lu waved his hand and said you’re welcome.
But when they are halfway there Zhang Lu finally couldn’t hold back his curiosity and said, “Um… Actually, it’s nothing. I’m curious about something. I just wanted to ask you how you got to know Commander Si. This is the first time I’ve seen Commander Si, who usually doesn’t talk to people, approach someone so actively.”
Zhang Lu worked all night and killed a zombie that was a mutated ordinary person. He immediately became alert and stayed up all night, fearing that more zombies would appear. He waited until dawn when another psychic came to replace him. Zhang Lu was finally able to get off work, but then he suddenly saw Commander Si coming.
Zhang Lu was startled at the time, thinking that the commander had come to inspect his work again. He immediately straightened his posture and kept thinking about whether there had been any mistakes in his recent work.
Fortunately, Commander Si just wanted him to pass on a message. To be honest, it was nothing, just a message. It just so happened that Commander Si also came to the observation room last night to see the new man, who might be Commander Si’s friend outside.
But unexpectedly, the words conveyed by Commander Si seemed to directly invite this friend to his home. This might not be just an ordinary friend!
A burning curiosity immediately rose under Zhang Lu’s dark and honest face. When he passed the message to Pei Zhaozhou, he paid close attention. Seeing that Pei Zhaozhou’s cold and mature appearance was not inferior to that of Commander Si, he seemed to be a good match for Commander Si.
He didn’t expect that Commander Si, whom he thought was cold-hearted and destined to be alone, actually had someone he cared about!
If this news gets out, it will probably cause a sensation in the entire Lucheng base!
Seriously, Commander Si is known as the most difficult person to approach at the Lucheng base.
No matter they came to express their gratitude or to pursue the boss, they were all driven away by the boss’s cold and ruthless character.
In addition, Commander Si is a powerful and independent person with special abilities. Except for the large-scale team missions of transporting supplies outside the Lucheng base, which require Commander Si to lead the team through many dangerous wilderness areas every year, the rest of the time, Commander Si often takes on dangerous missions outside the Lucheng base alone, and he is rarely seen at the base.
Over time, everyone at the Lucheng base knew Commander Si’s temper and would not disturb or anger him.
Normally, people would look for Commander Si only when there was an urgent matter that required his help, but although Commander Si looked cold, he was actually very easy to talk to.
‘How did you get to know Si Huaixi?’
‘The enemy’s hideous and smug face, the deafening explosion, the flames rising to his eyes, the flames burning his skin, and his disappearing consciousness… Then I opened my eyes and saw the grey sky, and then my vision was occupied by a clearer sea blue sky.’
‘Asking me how I know him? It was as if I died and was saved by him… the gloomy heart bursts into life, the luck of coming back to life.’
Pei Zhaozhou’s eyes lit up, and he smiled and said, “I was saved by him.”
