Apocalyptic Reincarnation: Start with a 30-million Bonus

The human heart is the most difficult to measure in this world.

Li Yu never thought about expanding the base to make it more powerful; he was content with just holding a corner of safety. If they really encountered an undefeatable enemy, the worst-case scenario would be sacrificing the base to avenge their lives.

However, as time passed and the base developed, he, as the person in charge of the base, felt that there were many more factors to consider.

The burden on his shoulders pushed him forward.

But he always held firm to one belief: the human heart is unpredictable, and only the strength of guns is absolute.

If the control is not strong enough, too much growth might backfire.

Therefore, he was very cautious about this.

The establishment of four levels was Li Yu’s preliminary test, validating his thoughts.

If problems arose, with his personality, he might directly deal with the people causing the problems, as he could not tolerate any dissent.

After handing things over to Uncle Qin, Third Uncle took Li Gang and the two brothers out of the Outer City with him.

If Uncle Qin and the others were directly added to the Outer City, it would certainly cause dissatisfaction among the Extra Staff.

Fairness mattered.

Moreover, Li Yu’s understanding of Uncle Qin and his people, although certain, was still not deep enough and needed further observation.

What they didn’t know was that He Chao and the others had gone through so much to gradually enter the Outer City.

As for how to take care of Uncle Qin and his people in the future, that would be dealt with later; some matters still needed to be handled with due fairness.

After Uncle Qin left, he chose the house opposite He Bing’s, which facilitated mutual support.

Having settled everything and with the evening approaching, the house Uncle Qin and the others chose was three and a half stories tall.

It featured a two-meter-tall small courtyard and a set of double iron gates, with iron bars on all the ground-floor windows, making it seem safer.

The three-and-a-half-story small building, covering about 150 square meters with 10 rooms, was more than enough for their group of 29.

Uncle Qin stood in the courtyard, watching the sunset, while A’hong and the others were cleaning inside the house.

There was a well in the courtyard, and after drawing some water, although it was yellow at first,

After a while, the water cleared up.

But they didn’t dare to drink it directly and instead set up a tin can to boil the water before drinking.

Old Zhou was a drinker even before the apocalypse, and he was very envious after Li Yu handed that bottle of alcohol to Uncle Qin.

On the way over, they had also roughly seen that there weren’t many zombies around.

Perhaps it was because Li Yu and others often ventured out, and He Chao’s sentries were also near the national highway.

And occasionally, some who cooperated with the base would visit regularly.

Thus, many of the zombies in the area were cleared.

It was safer than before.

Originally being a rural area far from the city, even though it was close to the national highway, there were significantly fewer zombies compared to the city.

Only during torrential rains, when the zombies’ sense of smell was enhanced, could they detect areas with more humans, which would trigger a Zombie Tide.

This factor also led to the difficulty of large bases existing in the post-apocalyptic world.

No matter how many people there were, if the defense system was not sturdy enough, the more people there were, the more zombies they would attract, and the pressure to defend would become immense.

Just like in those pre-apocalyptic cities with populations of tens of millions, it was easy to trigger zombie tides numbering in the millions.

Such levels of Zombie Tides, cascading, could easily overwhelm a base.

The hilly terrain of the South, with its abundance of forests and trees, limited the scale of the Zombie Tides to some extent.

But even so, the Zombie Tides that occurred during torrential rains were still terrifyingly vast, drawing zombies from tens of kilometers around.

Not to mention the large cities before the apocalypse.

The more people there were, the stronger they could be, but it also made them bigger targets, attracting even more zombies.

Therefore, in the post-apocalyptic world, some lone wolves or small teams faced less defensive pressure.

Seeing the look in Old Zhou’s eyes, Uncle Qin knew what he was up to.

Although Li Yu had said the gift was for him personally, Old Zhou also knew that it was on account of Third Uncle’s face that Li Yu had given him these things.

So, everyone was embarrassed to ask Uncle Qin to share.

But their eyes expressed their craving, like those of a green-eyed wolf.

Craving.

These damn kids!

Uncle Qin laughed and cursed, ”Call everyone over.”

Old Zhou hustled upstairs shouting, ”Gather up, gather up.”

Tap tap tap tap—

The dense sound of footsteps was incredibly quick—something Uncle Qin internally scorned, as they were never this enthusiastic when called to assemble before.

Then he opened the pack of cigarettes and took out ten packs, pausing before taking another six.

He asked Old Zhou and the others to share them.

Next, he took out three pieces of bacon and instructed A’hong, who was preparing food, to chop it up and add it to the rice.

Ordinarily, Li Yu was supposed to give them rice according to the amount of paddy rice, but since they had joined the Extra Staff and did not have the equipment to process paddy rice into rice,

Li Yu decided it was easier just to give them the processed rice directly.

Paddy rice can store for a longer time, but under normal circumstances, rice can also last for more than a year.

For their group of people, they could finish eating these supplies not just in one year but even in just a few months.

A’hong accepted the bacon, and everyone’s faces were filled with joy.

They cheered in unison, ”Uncle Qin is so generous.”

”I love you, Uncle Qin.”

...

It’s been a year and a half since the apocalypse broke out, and it’s been nearly a year since they last knew what meat tasted like.

The alcohol Li Yu gave Uncle Qin was Zhanggong Old Wine, still of the kind with somewhat old packaging, but a faint yellowish hue betrayed its quality.

It was good wine.

Those who had served in the army, few didn’t drink, especially old soldiers like them who, after transitioning from military to civilian life, would drink a little every now and then.

Most were heavy drinkers.

But now they couldn’t afford to drink much, they could only take a taste.

Each person got one liang (approximately 50 grams) of alcohol, with Uncle Qin sharing three bottles among everyone.

For those who didn’t drink, they could trade with the drinkers for cigarettes, and if there were people who neither drank nor smoked, they could trade for cured meat instead.

Thinking like this, Uncle Qin suddenly felt that Li Yu was truly thoughtful.

Old Zhou was a northerner; two liang was just mouthwash for him, one jin (approximately 500 grams) started to affect him, and two jins was just right.

So he traded for a five-liang serving and sipped it gently.

Uncle Qin also took into account that people might drink too much, so he didn’t give too much to anyone.

Among them, most of those who could drink had a capacity of more than two liang.

One liang of alcohol was just for a taste, barely enough to feel tipsy.

Six people didn’t drink, which turned out to be convenient as they were just on night guard duty.

After such distribution, everyone scattered like birds and beasts, each going to clean their rooms.

Discipline was something they had maintained until now.

It was also an important reason why, although they were few in number, they were still able to survive up to this point.

The moon was bright and the stars sparse; tonight’s moonlight was very bright.

Uncle Qin stood in the center of the courtyard, able to see his own reflection.

The moonlight was bright enough that there was no need for lights in the courtyard to see clearly.

The pot of rice was ready.

The aroma of the cured meat mixed with the fragrance of the rice, making everyone’s stomach growl even more.

The cured meat was simply prepared, not cut too finely.

Three pieces of cured meat were cut into thirty pieces; Uncle Qin took two pieces for himself, as it was his property, while everyone else got one piece each.

Old Zhou sat directly on the steps in the courtyard, holding an iron cup with five liang of wine in it, all exchanged with his cigarettes.

Although a bit painful to part with, he really wanted to drink a little.

Inside was also Uncle Qin’s share. Although he drank, he didn’t want to right now; his brothers were all around, and he needed to stay sober.

People like him, somewhat older, without children, often drank.

Some might think he was drowning his sorrows in alcohol.

But only he knew, cigarettes he could go without, but alcohol, no need to drink much, to sip slowly and maintain a buzz, was just wonderful.

He had thought, if he retired and had a couple of good friends to sit around the stove, chatting about everything under the sun, sipping a little old wine now and then, and when tired, lying down on a warm kang, sinking into deep sleep.

The taste of that, just thinking about it was beautiful.

Wine is the essence of grain.

To drink not for others is to cherish.

To drink not to get drunk is clever.

Slightly tipsy is just enough; getting half-drunk is too much.

Drinking alone or with a few good friends casually chatting,

Stealing half a day’s leisure from life, that’s the true essence of wine.

The night grew deep.

The howls of zombies sounded distant, yet if one listened carefully, they seemed near.

Some people had a little to drink and were a bit excited, but didn’t dare to make too much noise, all envisioning their future lives.

Uncle Qin sat quietly by the well in the courtyard, smoking his cigarette.

No one dared to get drunk, and no one did.

In this quiet night, the zombie cries naturally shackled them with restraints.

Ah Hong didn’t like to drink, so he was on duty tonight, too.

After coming down from the roof, he walked over to Uncle Qin and said, ”Uncle Qin, I’ve just observed from the rooftop, the zombies are quite far from us, a few hundred meters, and there are only three of them, should not be a problem.”

Uncle Qin exhaled a puff of smoke and said, ”Good, later go check the big iron gate in the courtyard, and also lock the house’s big iron gate after everyone enters.

Keep the walkie-talkie on you so that if anything happens, we can contact Director Li and the others. Be extra careful tonight.”

Ah Hong nodded, indicating he would be careful and vigilant.

”Hmm,” Uncle Qin replied and then stood up to walk into the house.

He had woken up early today, and had to be on duty again in the latter half of the night, so he decided to rest early.

The night was so enticing, but in an apocalyptic world, few had the chance to sit quietly and appreciate the scenery under the moonlight.

In the dusk, the moonlight spread across the land, casting a mysterious hue over the buildings.

The buildings, abandoned for over a year, mostly appeared dilapidated, with scant human presence, vitality sparse, spring vegetation growing, and green moss beginning to sprout on many walls.

This night wasn’t just joyous for Uncle Qin and his group; in another house less than twenty meters away,

He Bing and his companions, after having their fill of food and drink, and with hopes for a beautiful future, slowly drifted into dreams.