The process of filtering the water was not as straightforward as collecting and transporting snowwater. Whether it was waiting for the snowwater to slowly melt or waiting for the water to be purified little by little, it took quite a bit of time. Fortunately, Wei Xuan had a group of reliable underlings who could take shifts and work tirelessly on these tasks, saving him a lot of trouble.
With a temperature measuring device in hand, Wei Xuan wandered around the entire community, and in the end, he found that the temperature in the underground parking lot was actually below zero degrees Celsius even during the daytime. Instead of naturally freezing the purified snowwater elsewhere and then transporting it, he realized it would be more efficient to move it directly to the underground parking lot from the start. He could freeze it completely there and then move it into the ice cellar.
Cooling the ice cellar was even easier. He could simply open the door to let the room temperature synchronize with the outside. Once he put the frozen ice blocks inside, they could be stored without much issue until summer.
Moreover, the room’s storage capacity was always limited. After filling this room with ice, the remaining water or ice could be used for Wei Xuan’s daily needs. Even if the water he had processed now couldn’t fill an entire ice cellar, he could easily collect more clean snowwater with the zombie underlings and process it at home, without any worries.
After this heavy snowfall, the entire city seemed to be covered in a layer of silver. Although Wei Xuan was planning to go hunting, the roads were covered in snow, making travel difficult. Additionally, he needed to ensure he had a good supply of clean drinking water stored before he left. He could take care of this task first before heading out.
With the hints from those two crazy guys before, Wei Xuan now roughly knew where there might be mutated animals around the city. He didn’t need to venture deep into the villa area. Just a short distance away from the city, he would be able to find traces of mutated animals.
Of course, this assumed that these animals didn’t have the habit of migrating during the winter. Wei Xuan wasn’t overly worried about this aspect, considering that the two crazy guys had recently mentioned going hunting near the villa area.
Moreover, the last time they had gone to the area next to the villa, they had seen mutated animals. He could simply stay closer to that area and slowly capture one or two mutated animals. These were, after all, creatures that attacked humans and zombies alike. Therefore, Wei Xuan wasn’t concerned about whether they would pay attention to him.
After two heavy snowfalls, the entire northern city had entered the winter season. Based on the experience from the previous year, the majority of settlements had made preparations and stored enough food for the winter. Even for those with relatively meager harvests, they still managed to stockpile some supplies. The difference lay in the fact that some households might have enough to sustain themselves with one potato per day, while others might need to make a single potato last for two or three days.
In the larger settlements, people had relatively better living conditions. Most official bases distributed food to survivors daily, following different rules. The smaller, more independent bases had a tougher time, but they were still managing to get by.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
As most people in the settlements hunkered down with their harvests and food reserves for the winter, the major bases finally decided to launch a new round of operations after sharing information.
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“Yes!” came the resounding response from the formation.
“Let’s move out!” With the announcement over, the entire convoy, filled with soldiers and firearms, set off toward the nearby city covered in the same blanket of white snow.
“Can we achieve the results we want in this mission?” Standing in the snow, the person who had just spoken lowered their voice and asked the person beside them.
The person beside them shook their head slightly. “This is just the first snowfall. We can’t guarantee that the snow has covered all the zombies, or that the mutated animals have entered hibernation…”
This uncertainty led to debates among the high-ranking officials until late last night about whether to proceed with the mission. However, they ultimately decided to continue, as the current situation was extremely grim. If they didn’t act promptly, they feared they would miss their chance.
Setting aside the mysterious issue of decreased body temperature and slowed heart rate for now, the uncontrolled growth and dominance of the mutated animals and zombies in the area could result in humans being confined to smaller and smaller areas. Gradual encirclement and eventual extermination were not entirely impossible.
Fortunately, during winter, both zombies and mutated animals seemed to be less agile and aggressive compared to other seasons. Taking advantage of this, it was necessary to probe the situation in the city during winter.
This plan had been discussed among the different bases well before autumn. What they needed now was to gradually put it into action.
Furthermore, they aimed to use this exploratory mission to find out what had happened to those bases that had lost contact. If they could pinpoint the cause, then their future strategy, whether to retreat or make a final stand against the zombies, depended on the findings of this operation.
The convoy left dark tracks on the snowy ground, its engines roaring loudly as it headed toward the city.
As expected, due to the heavy snowfall, some zombies were affected in their movements, though not completely buried in the snow. Additionally, the thick snow could muffle sounds, which meant that although the convoy encountered a significant number of zombies during the cleanup operation in the city, the range of the operation wasn’t expanded too broadly.
About a week after the heavy snowfall, Wei Xuan had finally managed to deal with all the aftermath. His and Du Hang’s residence was situated to the north of T city. As a result, the small-scale battles happening in other directions hadn’t affected their living area.
In fact, Wei Xuan had no idea that nearby bases had launched military operations against the city again, and these were exactly the kinds of operations he didn’t want to see.
However, even if he had known, his individual strength wasn’t enough to influence such matters.
After preparing the things they needed for their excursion, Wei Xuan and Du Hang went downstairs together. They walked around the settlement and selected forty seemingly robust zombie underlings, including male-male zombies. Then, they gathered the underlings in an open area within the settlement and began their pre-battle briefing.
“This time, we’re going out for hunting, and there’s a good chance we’ll encounter danger.” Wei Xuan paused for a moment. He knew that what he was saying would be mostly incomprehensible to the underlings, so he thought for a moment and pointed in the direction of a wall.
“Last time, that huge rat that came, after fighting with you all, many of you were left with just your heads…” As he spoke, he even made a gesture of slashing his throat and leaving only the head.
“This time, when we go out, we might still encounter those things. So, those who are going with me on this outing… might face danger.”
Ideally, Wei Xuan would have wanted those who didn’t want to venture out into danger to stay behind. However… that would require them to understand his words! Not to mention the underlings, Wei Xuan didn’t even know how to describe the situation of the battle with the mutated rat to Du Hang.
As expected, after Wei Xuan finished speaking, the underlings looked confused. The only response he received from them was a unanimous chorus of “going out, going out, want to go out, want to go out…”
Yes, because Wei Xuan sometimes took them out for various tasks, they understood the concept of “going out” to go anywhere other than “home” was considered “going out.”
Wei Xuan sighed helplessly, pulled Du Hang a step forward, and added more snowflakes to the pouches around the underlings’ necks. If they truly encountered danger, he wanted to ensure there was enough snow around them to aid their recovery.
“Let’s go.” Each underling had a pouch filled with snowflakes around their neck and a relatively empty backpack on their back. The backpacks also contained a few larger and sturdy plastic bags.
Wei Xuan and Du Hang also carried some rations, purified clean drinking water, and weapons.
Meanwhile, all the zombie underlings (including those left behind to guard the home) also had pockets full of shining gold leaves, and they had utility tools like explosive-proof axes and wrenches hanging from their waists, which could also serve as weapons.
“We’re going out, you guys stay and guard the home.” While Wei Xuan was addressing the selected zombie underlings in the open area, the other underlings who had been wandering around the settlement gradually gathered nearby. They stood there in a disorganized manner, seemingly eager to watch the show.
At this moment, when the underlings saw Wei Xuan pointing to the ones he was taking out and then pointing to those staying behind at home, two different voices resonated in the area after a brief moment of silence.
One voice, just like before, was the delighted chorus of the underlings who were going out with Wei Xuan, chanting “going out, going out.” The other voice was filled with resentment, murmuring “not taking me, not taking me…”
Wei Xuan couldn’t help but chuckle as he heard the complaints. The slight heaviness that had been pressing on his heart lightened a bit. He then instructed the remaining underlings who were staying behind a few more times, “Next time, I’ll take you out. Also, if someone comes, don’t go after them! If dangerous creatures approach, hide if you can’t defeat them! Absolutely no accidents, no deaths!”
He didn’t want to lead the group on a hunting trip only to return home to a scene of corpses. Furthermore, he definitely didn’t want his zombie underlings to be led astray by the smell of human flesh and end up getting killed while he was away.
Thanks for the update
Army of little zombies…those who get to go so happy, he likes me…those who are left behind not loved, no kisses, in doghouse…mc, must eat meat…Du Hang, kisses, all mine, kisses… Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🤣❤️🤣
Thank you for the updates!! The zombie underlings are cute. lol
I hope that if the convoy passes by the complex, they obey and stay put. I also hope the convoy doesn’t discover his home!!
Hopefully all the missing snow in this zombie infested area isn’t found since it is sus as hell.
I thought the same.