"Everyone, please be quiet and listen to me." Chen Xiao led a few people to the front of the crowd.
"As you all probably just heard, there’s a fee of a certain number of Crystal Cores required for entry."
"So, our captain’s idea is to temporarily accept all of you as auxiliary members of our team."
"This way, if you follow a Third-Rank Superpower Captain into the base, you won’t have to pay any other fees."
"Great!"
"We agree!"
A few of the older men and women crowded at the very front immediately raised their hands in agreement.
"Then, after you enter the city, you’re free to go your own ways. You can head to the base’s housing management office to ask about registration, or you can make do in the designated tent area for a week or two.
"The base will provide everyone with free use of the tents for two weeks."
"But after those two weeks, you will have to pay to stay there. You can learn the specific rules tomorrow or the day after, once you’re inside the city. There’s no rush."
"For now, come over here. We’re giving them out by family, so each family can come get a base handbook. It’ll be a great help for your future work and life here."
The crowd surged forward, jostling for position. An older man at the front, covered in hanging plastic buckets, roared irritably, "Get in line! Form a line!"
"No need to push, no need to push! There’s one for every family," Chen Xiao said placatingly.
"Young man, can we become official members of your team?"
Chen Xiao replied with a smile, "Our team holds open recruitment for new members at the Survivor Center every month. If you’re interested, you can check it out then."
A base guard with a megaphone was maintaining order, repeatedly shouting, "Any Earth, Gold, Wood, or Water Element Superpower Users? Please come over here and register first!"
It was a chaotic scene outside. Xie Ning turned to take a look.
’With this many people, this will probably drag on late into the night.’
Thankfully, Zuo Li was leading their group, so they got to enter first. Otherwise, there was no telling how long they would have had to wait.
The base itself was built upon an ancient town.
They didn’t have to walk far before they could see the archway of the Golden City Ancient Town.
"More and more people are coming now. It’s estimated that in another half a month, the ancient town won’t be able to hold anyone else. After that, they’ll probably expand into the residential areas on both sides."
"They’ll need a lot of people to leave the base and clear the residential zones of zombie hordes, mutated creatures, and the like."
"Ningning, let’s do missions together then!"
Xie Ning nodded without the slightest hesitation.
Behind her, the rest of her family and friends were all sneaking strange glances at her.
’She agreed way too damn fast, without even a half-second of hesitation.’
’This was so unlike their cautious, wary Ning, who always kept people at arm’s length!’
"We’re here." Two of Zuo Li’s teammates ran ahead with keys and opened the gate to a courtyard house.
Zuo Li was secretly glad she’d acted so quickly.
’I noticed before that the two courtyard houses on either side were roughly the same size, and I thought about housing teammates there if the team expanded in the future.’
’Now it was the perfect place to house Xiao Ning and her family first.’
’This was the perfect way to keep her here... Otherwise, such a promising talent might have just taken her group and left!’
The more Zuo Li thought about it, the more brilliant she felt.
After escorting them to the courtyard entrance, Zuo Li and her team didn’t bother them any further, bidding farewell with a smile before leaving.
"Whoa, this courtyard is pretty big." The grandmother liked it the moment she walked in.
Inside was a spacious, empty courtyard paved with stone bricks. Red flowers and green grass had once been planted on both sides, but unfortunately, they had all died under the scorching sun.
To the side was a single-room building of red brick and tile, which Song Shijun joked was the guardhouse...
Passing a screen wall flanked by flowerbeds, they faced a long, covered pavilion that connected to the side buildings.
Inside were two rows of long benches, a water vat, a stone table, and a chessboard—it had everything.
The ancient town had been redeveloped and rebuilt in recent years, with most structures having an additional story built upon their original foundations.
The nearby courtyard houses had all been built to the standards of high-end guesthouses, with quaint, antique exteriors and fully equipped modern interiors.
Their new residence even had a detached, two-story dining hall. The kitchen was downstairs, and the upstairs was a dining room with a large, imitation-mahogany round table.
The table could comfortably seat fifteen, and probably a few more if they squeezed in.
The large, two-section courtyard was genuinely impressive. In the back, there was also a cozy little courtyard, though it wasn’t very large and its plants had also withered.
A detached, two-story pavilion was the perfect residence for the young women of the group.
Yu Tianfeng was the first to speak up, claiming he needed the detached, single-occupant guardhouse...
Everyone was left speechless.
The grandmother and He Shuping couldn’t bear to let one of the "kids" suffer like that and staunchly refused.
In the end, Xie Ning had to explain, exasperated, "Dr. Yu is a researcher. All of us making a racket will drive him crazy. He needs peace and quiet for his experiments, so letting him have the front yard to himself is a good thing. Since it’s a separate building, we won’t bother him."
"And if he causes an explosion or something, it won’t affect us!"
Yu Tianfeng’s eyes lit up as he nodded vigorously. "That’s exactly what I was trying to say! Ningning’s right!"
’An explosion, huh...’
The group silently glanced at Yu Tianfeng. "In that case... stay safe."
"I will, I will." Yu Tianfeng nodded again and again.
And so, the rooms were divided up.
Her grandparents took the main room on the first floor, while the large room on the second floor was given to Song Shijun, Ji Taixian, and the other two young men to do with as they pleased.
The rest of them each picked a room they liked and settled in.
Xie Ning, Song Kexin, and Su Xiyue went to the rear pavilion.
The small pavilion had four rooms in total, two upstairs and two down. While their floor space couldn’t compare to the antique-style side rooms up front, they offered good privacy.
Song You’ai and Xie Ning chose the two small rooms upstairs.
Of the two rooms downstairs, the slightly larger one was given to Song Youxuan and her daughter, while Song Kexin took the other.
To Xie Ning’s pleasant surprise, though the pavilion rooms were small, they had everything one could need.
The three-square-meter bathroom was small, but large enough for one person to get washed up.
No one could rest on their first night in the new house; everyone was incredibly busy.
They were busy inspecting everything from the walls to the plumbing, sealing whatever they could seal and blocking up whatever they could block.
Now that they had an Earth Ability User on their team, blocking holes and sealing walls was much more convenient.
This round of inspections continued until around two in the morning.
The children were long asleep, and the two elders had also been urged to go to bed.
At three in the morning, Xie Ning collapsed into bed.
However, at a little past seven the next morning, she was jolted awake by the base’s loudspeakers.
"Good morning, fellow survivors!" a gentle female voice announced over the loudspeakers. "We have an important and wonderful piece of news to share."
"The base has established contact with the Capital via satellite communications. We have learned that the Capital’s Pharmaceutical Research Institute has successfully developed the first batch of Promotion Potions, capable of helping Superpower Users advance their rank and increase their superpower energy."
Xie Ning shot up in bed.
’The Promotion Potion, which took five months to develop in my previous life, has been released just one month into the apocalypse this time.’
’It seems the pace of research and development has accelerated significantly, keeping step with the rate of biological mutation.’
"Future, open the nearby map."