Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

”Xiaoyun! Do you remember me??” The middle-aged man suddenly asked.

”Who?” Xiaoyun asked as his brain couldn’t find anyone resembling Wu Min. However, it kept reminding him of someone in the past.

After seeing Xiaoyun still with a confused face, the middle-aged man hinted.

”Remember Pinli? He’s my son.” Wu Min stated.

”Oh! You’re my roommate Pinli’s dad! No wonder why your face looked a little familiar.”

Xiaoyun finally recognized the face he had once seen in the hospital when he was with Pinli.

”I just can’t thank you enough. You saved me twice now, and I haven’t repaid you.” Pinli’s dad bowed down in gratitude.

”No need for this. It’s just helping each other in need.”

As Xiaoyun helped Wu Min back up, he suddenly remembered something.

”Uncle Wu, where’s Pinli and Chengyi?” Xiaoyun curiously asked.

”They are in Changsha. Also, there is no need to call me Uncle Wu. Just call me Wu Min.”

”No, no, I can’t mess up the seniority... Uncle Wu, why are they all the way over in Changsha? I thought your guys were going back to your hometown?”

Xiaoyun asked as he remembered the last time he saw his roommates, which was when they departed at the dorm gate almost two years ago.

”Well, it’s a long story. We’re planning to go to Shanxi and travel up north. But before we could get there, the zombie outbreak happened much sooner than we expected.”

Wu Min looked a little down as he mentioned the next part.

”We only got halfway, and the car broke down at Changsha. And that’s where we started learning about other survivors and eventually settled there instead of going further north.”

”Wait, why are you here in Guangzhou instead of Changsha?” Xiaoyun curiously asked again.

”Well, originally, I was only planning to trade in Chenzhou. But then I heard about a new military settlement at Shaoguan, so I decided to travel there instead to see if they would buy raw materials,” Wu Min explained.

”The Southern theater? I thought they only ’demand’ food from other people.” Xiaoyun thought back to the extortion by the military.

”Yeah, halfway there, I met a few traders. That’s when I learned that if I did go to trade there, they would have taken everything from me, just like the other trades...

And speaking of other traders, they are in the corner right now.” Wu Min pointed toward a corner in the shelter.

”They got robbed clean and only returned out with their cars. It’s almost like bandits.” Wu Min raised his voice as he spoke of the military.

”Not surprising... Then how did you get over here?”

”I didn’t want to return empty-handed, and those traders in the corner told me there’s a trading hub at Qingyuan, so I took another spot by traveling there with them.” Wu Min explained.

”Qingyuan? Why does that sound so familiar?” Xiaoyun murmurs.

”Anyway, we could trade all of our goods there... While trading there, I kept hearing about a city south of Qingyuan that is the safest place in the zombie outbreak and a paradise for people living there.

So, I decided to go check it out. And as you can see, we got hit by the harsh weather and then lost our direction.” Wu Min replied.

”I see... Can I ask what the city name is?” Xiaoyun asked.

”I think it’s called Luoping?” Wu Min replied.

”Luoping? What a coincidence. The city you are in right now is called Luoping.” Xiaoyun stated.

”Wait... This city is called Luoping?” Wu Min’s face was in disbelief as he asked again.

”No other city I know of has the same name as ours.” Xiaoyun’s face looked a little proud after hearing Wu Min’s compliment

”Wait, wait, wait. You said you are the mayor?” Wu Min suddenly realized something.

”Yeah. I’m the mayor of the city. And the commander in chief of all the soldiers in the city here.” Xiaoyun couldn’t help but flex a little.

”You’re not joking?” Wu Min asked again to make sure.

”I’m not joking. Why do you think all the soldiers over there listen to me?” Xiaoyun didn’t take the question to heart and answered calmly.

”I-I just can’t believe you are leading an entire settlement this big, and you are only the same age as my son... It just looked almost impossible to me.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to——”

”Don’t worry about it. I couldn’t believe I was going to a mayor either——”

Suddenly, Xiaoyun’s phone rang again. As he took a peek at the phone, it was from an anonymous person.

”Sorry, one second.”

Xiaoyun returned to the back of the storage room and picked up the phone.

”Hello? Who’s this?” Xiaoyun asked.

A robotic sound appeared from the phone as it started talking.

”This is that secret society you had been searching for. I just want to give you a last warning. Do not go any further inside the city center. Or else you are going to regret it.”

”Why do you guys want zombies to live? You guys are the ones that tried to assassinate me, didn’t you?” Xiaoyun rushed out as many questions as possible.

”It’s none of your business. And if you don’t stop, you won’t be so lucky like last time.”

The phone call ended before Xiaoyun could ask any more questions.

”Fuck. How the hell did they get my phone number?” Xiaoyun thought for a moment but couldn’t come up with an answer.

But Xiaoyun let out a sigh of relief as he was already putting the military on pause for city missions so that it would not impact him for now.

After thinking briefly, Xiaoyun returned to Wu Min to ask if they needed anything. After bringing a few basic goods for free, almost all one hundred of them were extremely thankful.

---

The next day...

It was still raining outside, as the raindrops at the window indicated.

Fortunately, the rain had become a light shower as it started raining less and less.

When Yuqi and Xiaoyun went back to the office to organize the repair effort and calculate the damage, it put the already deficit budget into an even bigger one.

And just as Xiaoyun was about to go to Wu Min in the afternoon to give him a tour of the town, someone was already talking to Wu Min.

”Oh hey Xiaoyun, thank you so much for letting us stay... We’ll be leaving in a few hours.

”Already? Not even for lunch? I was just about to show you around the town.” Xiaoyun was surprised by the sudden new announcement

”Yeah. We are about to run out of time to fulfill the contract. So we need to head back to Changsha before it expires.” Wu Min explained.

”Contract?” Xiaoyun looked a little confused.

”Yeah, contract. That’s how I got all the goods and equipment to sell here. I’m just a full-time trader fulfilling contracts to make ends meet.”

”If you want, you can live here too,” Xiaoyun suggested.

”I can’t leave my wife behind. Sorry, I need to go pack now.” Wu Min rejected Xiaoyun’s suggestion.

A few hours later, Han Bang called Xiaoyun to say that Wu Min had left with his trading caravan.

Xiaoyun didn’t think much of it as he faced a bigger challenge after the storm finally disappeared.

”You telling me this many things were damaged?” Xiaoyun asked as he couldn’t believe the number he saw that needed repairs in the town.

”This is just an estimate. There’s more out there that isn’t recorded.” Yuqi brought up even worse news.

”I’ll go directly to Yezi to fix those... Speaking of fixing, Yuqi, have you implemented the bank?” Xiaoyun asked curiously.

”Not yet. I had been too busy to look for that. I’ll do the at tomorrow after I finish all my work.” Yuqi replied as she continued reading the assessed damage to the town.

”Don’t worry about it. Let me handle this.” Xiaoyun gave no room for Yuqi to debate, so she had to accept it.

”Fine, but you better make the best one possible.” Yuqi pointed out.

”Of course, I’ll pick the best person for this.”

Xiaoyun grabbed his bag and headed out of the administrative building as Tianci and Kate followed him.

After traveling to Yueyue’s office, Xiaoyun borrowed the computer inside to search for Economic majors and bank workers from the last census.

After finding over fifty people who fit the job description, Xiaoyun pulled out his phone and called them individually.

When Xiaoyun offered them the choice to join a new bank department, all of them instantly accepted the offer to meet with Xiaoyun tomorrow for the interview.

With the phone call being done, Xiaoyun now had to write all the questions for the interview. But he didn’t know any question that could test how to run a bank.

Suddenly, an idea appeared in Xiaoyun’s head.

He wrote all the economic issues the town was facing and turned it into an interview question.