Chapter 39

Departure

“… For those who want to leave, I will inform you of the directions and approximate locations of the nearby large bases that I have collected over the years. For those who wish to stay, I will use the base’s tax revenues to summon high-level abilities to come and protect everyone,” the elderly base chief said into the microphone from the center of the large lawn, now a vegetable patch.

He shared his concerns and worries with everyone, and then conveyed the thoughts of the other high-ranking officials in the base.

“There isn’t much time left. I hope those who wish to leave will set out tonight so that the base can prepare for the possible events that may come.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the people standing on the balcony of the building above began to discuss among themselves.

“Good thing I didn’t sell the house this afternoon. If I had known the base was going to summon high-level abilities, I wouldn’t have even thought about selling,” a man said as he closed the balcony window, addressing his wife and daughter behind him.

He was An An’s uncle. After hearing the news that afternoon, his first reaction was to flee, but it wasn’t until this moment that he realized his family had no points left, only a house.

He cursed An An for being so crafty and hurried to put his house on the market, but unfortunately, the price he set was too high, and no one showed interest.

“Exactly! And we have to leave tonight; what can we prepare? Leaving is like walking to our doom! Who knows where the large bases are? The base chief also said he could only provide the approximate locations of those bases. Large bases are far away! If they were nearby, the people from the base would have probably fled already,” his wife chimed in from behind.

Many others shared the same thoughts.

They were only briefly panicked, quickly calming down.

After all, they were survivors of the apocalypse. They had experienced this level of panic countless times, and such experiences had given them confidence. They felt that if they had made it through before, they could do so again. After all, they had some experience and fighting power now, right? And there were high-level abilities coming from outside soon.

As for the option to leave…

What could be prepared in such a short time? Going out would mean death!

However—

For those who did not want to leave, this little time was indeed not enough for complete preparation. But for those who had long considered leaving, this incident was merely an opportunity.

Silently, those who wanted to leave completed their preparations.

Every household in the base had a vehicle, and while some cars had broken down in the apocalypse, people had also acquired new ones from outside. Vehicles weren’t hard to find, but fuel was precious. Under the chief’s control, the price of fuel in the base was not allowed to increase. Moreover, he had also priced the public food stock in the base to provide a portion for those wanting to leave.

Thus, before dawn, a long queue of vehicles formed at the community entrance, and as the base gates opened, the vehicles began to leave one after another.

The base chief stood at the entrance, distributing printed maps to each vehicle.

Juan received a copy as well.

“Chief, aren’t you leaving? The team I’m with may look young, but they are all good people. Want to join our vehicle?” Juan asked as he looked at the map, leaning towards the base chief below.

Without answering the question, the base chief simply smiled and eventually waved at them, saying, “I wish you a safe journey.”

A very formal blessing, he said the same thing to everyone in each vehicle.

After sending off the last vehicle, the old man watched the procession winding away into the darkness and silently repeated the same blessing in his heart.

Perhaps they were right; he really was getting old.

Rather than leading others into an unfamiliar path, he preferred to stay back and defend the city he had protected for half his life, as well as the people within it.

Even if it was a road to certain death.

Thinking this, the old man’s face showed a determined expression, and he ordered the base gates to be closed.

As he saw the base chief walk back into the base, the residents who had been watching from the balcony relaxed their worries.

To them, the old chief’s reluctance to leave surely meant that it was safer to stay in the base, unaware that he had remained with the resolve to face death.

Watching the gates of the base slowly lower, the doctor returned to his previous position and sighed deeply.

Next to him, however, Chen Shan and the others felt none of that sadness. Almost as soon as the vehicle started, they got busy, taking out materials that had been placed in the vehicle beforehand. They began to modify and reinforce the newly purchased truck.

They had long set their sights on this vehicle used for missions and had prepared the materials in advance. They had only intended to start modifying it according to their habits as soon as they bought it. Although leaving was a bit rushed, they had envisioned how to modify it many times in their minds. With clear division of labor, they worked in an orderly manner.

Currently, the vehicle had a total of 14 people: four from Chen Shan’s team, five boys living in the orphanage, including Feng Ruixuan’s grandfather and Wang He’s sister, plus Juan, Peid, and Doctor He.

Before leaving, the doctor had asked those in his clinic if they wanted to come along, but after much thought, they all declined.

“This is better; the space will be a bit roomier. Is there any work I can do? Share a bit with me,” the doctor said as he sat in his seat, trying to distract himself. However, after a while of not finding anything, he looked around and immediately noticed the scar on Peid’s face.

“Come here, kid; let me take a look at that scar on your face. It’s a new wound, right? Who treated it? Although it has healed, it’s healed too roughly,” he beckoned to Peid.

What he said was true; it was very rough. From a distance, it looked fine, but up close, the uneven scars were visible. However, he didn’t mind, and Juan didn’t care either. Besides, in this post-apocalyptic world, not only were there people with injuries on their faces, but there were also plenty who were missing arms or legs. His scars were hardly noticeable.

Upon hearing his words, Peid remained still, while Chen Shan’s teammate, a thin man named Wang Xing, smiled sheepishly.

“That was me. I only did a simple treatment. My healing ability can’t perform more detailed repairs.”

“Oh? You also have healing powers? His injury must have been quite serious at the time. The fact that you were able to treat him like this is already impressive,” the doctor praised him. Seeing that Peid still wasn’t moving, he waved his hand again, “Hurry up! I don’t just heal scars for anyone; it’s quite expensive for me to do this!”

After glancing at him and then at Juan, Peid lazily walked over to the doctor and sat down.

He let the doctor work on his facial wounds while he absentmindedly gazed through the small window behind him.

The brightly lit base was gradually fading away, and he could see the fields outside the base. Then, at the very edge, he spotted his little vegetable garden.

The first little vegetable garden that belonged to him after leaving that place…

He really didn’t want it to be ruined by those hideous zombies.

Thinking this, he waved his free hand in the air, and in the next second, a swarm of Ke Milla began to swirl around his vegetable patch.

After some thought, he felt that this amount of Ke Milla was still insufficient, so he moved his fingers and summoned another ring of them. He repeated this process until his little garden was completely surrounded and became invisible.

The doctor, who witnessed all of this, was left speechless.

“Wait… Are you an ability user?” he asked, dumbfounded.

“No, this is magic,” Peid replied honestly.

“Okay, actually, I initially referred to my ability as magic too,” the doctor nodded in understanding and then quietly asked him, “Can your ability… I mean, magic still be used?”

“I should still be able to plant a few more circles,” Peid estimated his power.

“Then let’s plant a few more circles here, there, and over there, okay?” The doctor pointed to several directions in a low voice.

Watching as flowers of bizarre shapes indeed sprouted at the spots he indicated, the doctor sighed and said, “Hopefully, these flowers can provide some protection for them.”

Seeing the doctor like this, Peid looked at him for a while and finally used Chen Shan’s favorite compliment to praise him, “You’re really a good person.”

The doctor didn’t respond to Peid’s praise and continued to focus on treating his face. After a while, he moved his hands away, happily stating, “Treatment complete! Look, my skills are pretty good, right?”

Chen Shan and the others hurried over to see, and when they saw the repaired face, everyone was in awe.

“Wow, you look so handsome! Speaking of scars that aren’t fully healed, doctor, I have quite a few on me too. Your skills are so great; how about helping me fix mine? Just make them look as handsome as Peid’s,” Chen Shan said, beginning to take off his clothes.

“Pfft—handsomeness is innate, not something I can create! I’m not a plastic surgeon!” The doctor spat at him and immediately pushed him back.

The group laughed and joked, effectively easing the tension of their hasty departure from the city.

And so, the night passed. All the vehicles kept moving forward, taking turns driving. Even Juan and Peid learned to drive. At this pace, they were getting further away from the Sunshine Base.

Meanwhile, at the Sunshine Base—

Ignoring the deputy base chief’s advice, the base chief didn’t send anyone to the Garden Base to confirm the situation. Instead, he focused on reinforcing the Sunshine Base layer by layer, strengthening the outer walls. He also set up a net within the base, using up all the materials accumulated over the years, turning the Sunshine Base into an impenetrable fortress.

Then, the base chief instructed every household to repair their doors and windows, fixing any damage as quickly as possible. Broken glass could be replaced with other materials, but in short, there should be no damage.

After issuing this order, the base chief returned home. After inspecting his doors and windows, he went back to his office and opened the light brain.

This was the only light brain in the entire base, purchased from a wandering ability user for his entire fortune at the time, but he felt it was worth it.

With this light brain that could connect to the internet, he had reestablished contact with the outside world. He could use it to issue missions to external ability users and exchange points from the Sunshine Base for external ones.

Seeing that some of the missions he had previously posted had already been taken by ability users, he sighed in relief. However, thinking of the nearby Garden Base, his brow furrowed, and he dialed the number of the Garden Base’s chief again.

This was the only communication line between the two bases, but the line was old and often unreliable.

He had been unable to get through earlier, which was why the deputy base chief had wanted to send someone to check it out, but—

Holding the old phone, the base chief heard the familiar beeping sound from the other end. Could it be… it connected?

Feeling a surge of joy, the base chief heard someone pick up on the other end, but before he could hear a word, there was a loud “crack” sound, and the line went dead again.

What… With the phone in hand, an ominous premonition began to grow in the base chief’s heart.

On the other end of the line, the chief of the Garden Base bit through the phone.

Yes, bit through.

A moth flew out of his mouth, and after blankly surveying his surroundings, he suddenly heard a shout from downstairs. This sound seemed to trigger a button inside him; he locked onto the direction of the sound and quickly walked toward it, jumping directly out of his office window.

Even with a broken neck, his movements were unaffected. With his neck hanging limply, he lunged forward to bite a woman who was surrounded by a horde of zombies.

Yes… the zombies. He had already turned into a zombie.

Everywhere there were zombies, along with people screaming and running.

The once peaceful Garden Base was no longer the same; it had completely transformed into an ocean of apocalyptic zombies.