Ice Age Apocalypse: I Hoard Billions of Supplies

Chapter 1070: Preventing Problems Before They Arise

Zhang Yi brought back many people from Rockflow Island.

Most of those people were wealthy merchants, officials on vacation to Rockflow Island, or fishermen like Lu Dahai.

In normal society, most of them would be considered elite talents.

For example, Ma Wenzheng was once a top-tier, highly successful major entrepreneur.

Having such a person manage a factory with thousands of people was indeed well within his capabilities.

Xing Tian said to Zhang Yi, ”Thanks to the people you brought us back then, they are managing the factory extremely well now. Much better than when I was in charge!”

Xing Tian was also a rough-and-tumble guy, completely clueless about enterprise management.

However, his greatest strength was self-awareness; he knew what he couldn’t do and understood the need to hire professional talent.

Zhang Yi nodded. ”Let’s go, show me how things look here now!”

Xing Tian and Ma Wenzheng led Zhang Yi on a casual walk through the factory.

Just this brief look left Zhang Yi quite surprised.

Now, all the factory buildings were being utilized.

The steelmaking equipment was still operating, producing various tools.

There were also workshops responsible for making cold-weather gear, such as clothes and hats.

Saying ’making’ was a bit of a stretch; it was more about repurposing clothes scavenged from the surroundings.

Some clothes were stripped from corpses, others were found in other warehouses or shopping malls.

Additionally, there were dedicated water supply workshops and crop processing workshops.

Everything here had clearly evolved into a miniature society.

Zhang Yi watched, nodding continuously.

”I heard Li Jian is in charge of managing the food production here?”

He asked.

Xing Tian replied, ”Li Jian is our Agricultural Workshop Director now, haha! He’s truly an impressive figure. With him, our food supply issues are all resolved!”

Zhang Yi nodded. He originally wanted to go see the agricultural production area, but upon further thought, he realized he didn’t have much to ask Li Jian specifically, so he dismissed the idea.

In the end, as long as the people here could live self-sufficiently, that was the best outcome.

After a simple tour, Zhang Yi was very satisfied with the overall operation of Qingpu Base.

However, he still called Xing Tian aside to give him a few words of advice.

”Qingpu Base is doing very well now, but there’s something I have to say.”

”Old Xing, you should be clear about your own capabilities. Be careful of subordinates trying to overshadow the master.”

Xing Tian was momentarily stunned. ”Overshadow what master?”

Zhang Yi: ”...”

He explained helplessly, ”I mean, be careful that the people under you don’t surpass you in ability and eventually take your position.”

”In the past, when times were tough, people were willing to rally around you. But now that life is getting back on track, people will develop greater ambitions.”

”You have quite a few talented people around you. Their abilities in a conventional society exceed yours. You need to be careful about being usurped.”

After listening, Xing Tian nodded thoughtfully, his expression turning serious.

”Yeah, what you say makes a lot of sense. Now that we have Ma Wenzheng and the others, I rarely get involved in the factory’s daily affairs anymore. I thought that made things easier.”

”But if this continues long-term, I might really end up as a figurehead. Ah, Zhang Yi, you’re so smart! Why didn’t I think of that!”

He slapped his forehead, his eyes suddenly gleaming.

Zhang Yi shrugged. ”That’s precisely why I’ve never wanted to manage your three major bases.”

Self-awareness is a precious quality.

Zhang Yi was cautious and meticulous, but he didn’t possess the talent for managing large organizations.

Even if he could manage it, he disliked the mental drain, the daily time spent dealing with trivial matters, and playing power games with subordinates.

So, he just wanted to manage his own little domain well; that was enough.

Xing Tian was even less capable than him. Looking at the situation, him becoming a figurehead was practically a foregone conclusion.

That’s why Zhang Yi gave him this slight hint.

Xing Tian hesitated for a moment, then asked Zhang Yi, ”But, Ma Wenzheng and the others are really capable. They manage the base in perfect order. I can’t just kick them out, can I?”

Zhang Yi said calmly, ”It’s simple. The base shouldn’t be dominated by one person. Train one or two other people, let them compete with each other, gradually weakening Ma Wenzheng’s individual influence.”

”And hold regular meetings with the people in the base to assert your authority. After all, your combat power is a fact they can’t ignore; they can’t cause too much trouble.”

Xing Tian listened, nodding repeatedly. ”Good, good, good! I’ll do exactly as you say! In the next few days, I’ll have Ma Wenzheng take a few days off first, then get others to do his work.”

Zhang Yi nodded.

”Do that for now. However, Ma Wenzung is definitely very popular now. If you remove him, it might cause discontent among the people below.”

”If trouble arises then, or if the replacements you find are incompetent, you step in, deal with those few people, and then properly appease Ma Wenzheng, letting him resume work.”

Xing Tian kept nodding as he listened, carefully memorizing everything Zhang Yi said.

”That’s about all I can tell you. If you can’t manage well yourself, I don’t have any other good solutions. It depends on how much you can grasp on your own.”

Zhang Yi had said before that he generally wouldn’t interfere with the operations of the three major bases.

If Xing Tian couldn’t manage Qingpu Base well himself, then he would eventually be replaced by someone else.

When that time came, Zhang Yi wouldn’t stand up to defend Xing Tian.

He only needed someone to maintain the base’s normal operation. Who that person was didn’t matter to Zhang Yi.

After discussing this, Zhang Yi brought up the matter of Lu Dahai and his two brothers.

They were to stay at Qingpu Base for a while. Xing Tian didn’t need to pay them special attention; they could work alongside ordinary laborers.

Also, he should observe any changes in Lu Dahai.

After handling the basic situation in Tianhai City, Zhang Yi returned home.

He opened his Dimensional Space and took out the corpse of the deceased Soul Reaper.

”Although he was a madman, his power was genuinely at the Epsilon-level. How strong must his origin energy be?”

Zhang Yi placed his right hand on the corpse’s head. Soon, a vast surge of power flowed into his body.

The sensation was incredibly wonderful, like shedding all impurities, allowing oneself to undergo a transformation.

Just as he suspected, the origin energy contained within the living-dead Soul Reaper, though somewhat damaged, was ultimately still origin energy at the Epsilon-level.

Similar to Yuan Kongye’s back then.

This power gave Zhang Yi’s strength another boost.

However, by his estimation, even after fully absorbing this power, it would only increase his superhuman ability index by about 1000 points.

This wasn’t far from Zhang Yi’s initial estimate.

But there was also a frustrating reality.

From now on, absorbing superhumans below the Epsilon-level would hardly provide Zhang Yi with any significant improvement.

...

Deng Shentong and the others returned to Blizzard City.

Zhu Zheng had received the casualty report early and was fairly satisfied with the outcome of this operation.

After all, for the entire Jiangnan Region, only one squad captain-level superhuman, Lilong, had died in battle.

Next, the only thing left to settle was Zhang Yi.

Jingwei arrived at the Commander’s Office in the Operations Center to report the mission details to Zhu Zheng.

After listening, Zhu Zheng slightly furrowed his brows and asked somewhat nervously,

”Zhang Yi... what was his attitude like? I mean, his attitude towards me.”

Jingwei remained silent for a moment before replying, ”He was very displeased about you arranging for me to monitor him.”

Hearing this, Zhu Zheng let out a long sigh, his worries deepening.

”Then he didn’t do anything to you?”

Jingwei answered, ”He knew I was someone you sent. He didn’t do anything to me. He just had me stay by his side and forbade me from reporting any intelligence from the island to you while we were on Star Island.”

Jingwei lowered her head slightly. ”Commander Zhu, this was a failure in my duties.”

Zhu Zheng waved his hand. ”Enough, this matter isn’t your fault. After all, even I was outmaneuvered by him.”

As he said this, a faint smile suddenly appeared at the corner of his mouth.

”But the fact that he didn’t kill you is a good thing! It means there’s still room for discussion.”

Jingwei remained silent.

Zhu Zheng didn’t seem overly concerned about her life or death.

She didn’t tell Zhu Zheng that Zhang Yi had injected her with Truth Serum and that she had already revealed all of Blizzard City’s plans to him.

...

Author’s Note