Chapter 1431: Chapter 594: New Shuize Base_2

“Mr. Wang, shall we talk upstairs in detail?”

“Okay.”

Wang Tao nodded.

“Lin Meng, go brew some good tea! You know where my fine tea is.”

“Boss, I, I…”

Lin Meng was the girl who had been tugging at Xu Quan’s sleeve earlier, her eyes now frantic and seemingly in quite a bind.

“No need to bother, let them rest.”

Wang Tao waved his hand.

He had just exerted his presence in front of these people, some of whom were frightened enough to wet their pants, including Lin Meng. She obviously really wanted to take a bath and change her clothes.

“Alright, then come with me!” Yan Guoyi immediately led the way upstairs, then turned to Xu Quan and the others, “Go and change your clothes.”

Natural attire at home and going out were certainly different, Xu Quan and his group were wrapped up multiple times, mainly for warmth. But because the clothes were so tight, other than the eyes, even the face was covered, which was somewhat impolite to the guests.

“Yes!”

Xu Quan and the others promptly left.

Wang Tao, along with Lightning, followed Yan Guoyi to his upstairs office.

“Please have a seat!”

After inviting Wang Tao to take a seat, Yan Guoyi personally went to his own room to fetch his treasured tea.

Now that Wang Tao was a guest, and Xu Quan had said that Wang Tao had terrifying strength, he definitely couldn’t be negligent. After all, he had to be responsible for the lives of the hundred people in the base.

After taking a sip of the hot tea, the two chatted idly for a moment before Wang Tao inquired about their current situation.

“Now, we…sigh!”

Yan Guoyi sighed, and then did not hide anything, explaining the situation.

They had arrived here three months ago and found that Shuize University had apparently been a Survivor Base before. Although some parts were destroyed, a bit of fixing up would make it a decent Survivor Base again. Plus, there were no powerful enemies around, making it suitable for their survival.

They couldn’t afford to be tossed around anymore, so they decided to settle in Shuize University. The base was also called Shuize Base.

However, even with a new base, they were not very optimistic.

Because along the way, they had lost many people and resources. Even after finding a decent Survivor Base, the subsequent supply issue remained a big problem. If Shuize County had been thoroughly scavenged and there were no resources left, they might starve to death.

But as they scavenged Shuize Base, they were surprised to find that it had stored quite a lot of supplies, including a good amount of food!

And because the temperature was so low, these food items were frozen and had not gone bad; they were still edible!

This greatly alleviated their immediate crisis, at least they didn’t have to worry about starving to death for the time being.

However, they obviously couldn’t survive on these supplies forever. It was necessary to find more resources.

But the outside environment was too harsh, even Ability Users didn’t dare to venture out easily; the difficulty of scavenging resources was significant. Luckily, there were few zombies in Shuize County, occasionally they would see one or two Frozen Zombies. As long as they weren’t careless, they could avoid the zombies.

What they hadn’t expected was that the supplies in Shuize County seemed to not be plentiful. They frequently went out to scavenge resources, but the amount they gathered still couldn’t keep up with their consumption. At this rate, they could hold out at most for another half a month. If they couldn’t find enough resources, they would have to consider leaving. This base might be good, but with insufficient food, there really was no way out.

“Sigh, now there are fewer zombies, but the difficulty of survival has actually increased…”

Yan Guoyi felt extremely helpless.

“The supplies here probably aren’t much.” Wang Tao explained, “Before the apocalypse, a Security Army was stationed in Shuize County. When the Apocalypse came, the Security Army built a Survivor Base here, protecting many people, and they would scavenge for supplies every day. Moreover, other military forces had passed by here before and also scavenged a lot of resources. Plus, there were several powers that survived at that time… So it’s going to be tough for you to find enough resources, unless you look in other towns within Shuize County, but that’s quite a distance away…”

Hearing what Wang Tao said, Yan Guoyi opened his mouth, his expression growing even gloomier.

“So it seems that this place is no longer suitable to live in; we need to find another base…”

The last time they braved the snowstorm to get here, the number of survivors in their group had decreased by ninety percent! Out of a team of over a thousand people, only a hundred survived!

If they were to continue searching for other survivor bases, whether this small number could survive was a question to consider.

“I heard from Xu Quan that you have Awakeners here. How come I haven’t seen any?”

Wang Tao asked with a hint of curiosity.

If there were Awakeners to look after them, then there would be some security in their migration. But without Awakeners, it was highly likely that they would not reach the next suitable survivor base. After all, the journey wasn’t just threatened by the snowstorm but also by zombies, and should they encounter Level 4 or 5 Zombie Lords, that would be enough to annihilate them entirely.

Hearing Wang Tao bring up this issue, Yan Guoyi’s face immediately showed a touch of sadness.

“We originally had two Awakeners in our base, one was my brother, the other was my sister-in-law. When we were migrating, we encountered a Level 5 Monster Lord. To protect our entire group, they lured away the Level 5 Monster Lord and never returned…”

“I believe they will come back!”

At this moment, Xu Quan walked in, followed by a group of frail-looking people.

Yan Guoyi looked at Xu Quan, opened his mouth to speak, but ultimately said nothing.

“Never returned” is a euphemism, but the real reason why his brother and sister-in-law chose to sacrifice their lives was that they had been infected. Since death was inevitable, they decided to make the last of their warmth useful and help others survive.

However, this fact was so cruel that Yan Guoyi had not shared it with the others. Keeping hope alive for the rest was a good thing.

Wang Tao probably guessed some of this from Yan Guoyi’s expression but he didn’t ask further; instead, he turned his attention to Xu Quan and the others.

Wang Tao had felt they were young before, and their ages couldn’t be much. Now, with their thick outer clothes removed, it was clear that even the oldest among them, Xu Quan, was only about fifteen or sixteen, while the others were merely twelve or thirteen, all just kids. They all looked thin and malnourished.

“So young, the future is promising!”

Wang Tao said with an encouraging smile.

However, this encouragement did not lift their spirits; Yan Guoyi murmured in a low voice:

“Among the hundred people of this base, I’m the oldest at 23. There are very few others over 20, and most are underage…”

“…”

Wang Tao sighed inwardly.

No wonder the people he saw along the way were so young; it turns out only the young were left, a sight that was heartbreaking!

But although Xu Quan and the others were minors, having experienced the apocalypse and survived, they had matured early in spirit. They had also grown accustomed to a life where they had to rely solely on themselves, so they weren’t much swayed by emotions.

Xu Quan looked at Wang Tao with admiration and said:

“Mr. Wang, do I have a chance to become as strong as you?”

His thinking was very simple now: to get stronger, scavenge for supplies, and then protect all the survivors in the base!

Wang Tao was the strongest person he had ever seen, and he couldn’t help but ask.

“You? Whether you can be as strong as me is hard to say, but I can tell you for certain that you have a big chance of Awakening.”

Wang Tao glanced at him and said.

Xu Quan’s attribute panel had a Hidden Attribute.

It wasn’t just Xu Quan; the other younger ones, and everyone including Yan Guoyi, also had Hidden Attributes!

“Those who can survive in this environment have potential! Maybe they could be nurtured…”

Wang Tao thought to himself silently.