Chapter 110
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It was just after ten o’clock when the dawn finally arrive and it was nearing November. Gu Ning compared the weather in the other world and felt that here was much colder plus the sunset around three o’clock. By four o’clock, the sky was dark and they had to wait until the next day at ten o’clock for the sun to rise again.
The daylight hours lasts no more than five hours, the morning and afternoon were fine but when nights arrived, they were as cold as winter. Thus, if they didn’t have any thick blanket to keep themselves warm, it was easy to get sick. Not to mention the fact that most people were malnourished and in poor health nowadays and there was no medicine to cure them when they had fallen ill.
Some quilts had been given out for free at the base recently, but the demand was just too high. Every day they heard the news of weak elderly and children passing away.
When Gu Ning and the others left the base previously, they witnessed a mother holding a two to three-year-old child who had turned blue and she was kneeling in front of the tent, patting the dead child in her arms slowly. The sun had just risen in the east and the warmth of the sun shone on the weak body of the frozen child but it was unable to make the cold body warm again.
Even Hong Jie, who is considered the most vicious in her way of speaking and ruthless in her way of handling in the Third Company, had a feeling of inexpressibility when she saw this scene. As if a boulder was placed on her chest, making her breathless and stuffy. Not to mention Cheng Ming and Fang Fa who were always so kind-hearted as well as Brother San and the rest who had vowed to protect the citizen.
There were a lot of mixed feelings and they felt suffocated for unable to voice it out. Right now, they live in the best houses, wore warm cotton clothes and had a thick blanket to warm themselves in the night. Even if they had a headache or cold, they still had a doctor in the team.
That night, Gu Ning quietly visited the director of the management office and explained her intention of donating a batch of supplies in the name of the Third Company. It included three hundred bags of rice, as well as winter clothing and quilts which Gu Ning had specially bought in bulk from another world. She also provided some emergency medicines that the base was in urgent need of.
As for this Director Zhong of the management, Gu Ning still trusted him a lot after witnessing him secretly gave supplies to some elderly and children on the base. Furthermore, they usually had some dealing with him and he had chatted with Gu Ning about him being helpless with a deep sense of pity in his eyes.
Three hundred bags of rice were neatly stacked against the wall, all were fifty pounds each! Currently, the ration distributed by the base every night might not even use a bowl of rice for cooking a large pot of porridge. With a scoop from the ladle, the porridge was almost as clear as water and the soup was not even slightly cloudy. Director Zhong was anxious, with his heart burning in frustration when he saw the survivors getting weaker day by day and there was nothing he could do as the support from the capital was delayed once again. The base had limited supplies and they had to prioritize it for those survivors who were doing the labour of building the base.
However, with these three hundred bags of rice, amounting to fifteen thousand pounds of rice! If they use it sparingly, they should be able to last until the next batch of supplies arrives from the capital!
Moreover, there were quilts and clothing to keep out the winter cold. What’s even rarer were the medicines that were now scarce resources all over the world!
When Director Zhong found out that Gu Ning was going to donate such a large amount of supplies, he was simply flabbergasted. After confirming repeatedly with Gu Ning that they were for donation, he was so moved to tears and couldn’t speak for a long while.
Gu Ning only made two requests.
One was that the news of her who had donated the supplies must not be leaked out.
Secondly, it must be ensured that these supplies were provided to the elderly and children as a priority.
Although Director Zhong could not understand the first clause, he still agreed to it with great solemnity. After thanking Gu Ning once more while she declined his offer of sending her back, Director Zhong stared at the piled-up supplies which filled half of the room with a great deal of emotion.
Gu Ning came out of the management office feeling nothing but relief.
She had consulted the team in making such a decision and everyone was very much in favour of it. Even Hong Jie who expressed concern that giving so many supplies at once would be detrimental to them later still agreed with the decision and kept quiet.
The next day at dawn, before they were about to head out, the management sent someone to inform them that all the special abilities users were requested to attend a meeting at the second level of the management office. There was an emergency, and all of them were required to be present.
The base management belonged to the authoritative governing hierarchy of the base so no matter how powerful Gu Ning and the other special abilities users were, they were still within the jurisdiction of the base after all.
Thus, this modest conference room was packed with the base’s special abilities users and those who knew each other well were exchanging pleasantries and passing on the information they had acquired. Gu Ning glanced at Zhang Ji, who was sitting opposite her and shook his head which indicated that he didn’t know what was going on either. Even Jia DaoZhang, the diplomatic and part-time intelligence minister of the Third Company team, had already scooted over to the other teams. Yet, within a few minutes later, he was back sitting with them and informed Gu Ning that the others also had no idea what was going on.
Right now they could only wait for the Base Commander to arrive and find out more about it.
The Base Commander was a middle-aged man of about forty-five, wearing a grey woollen jumper, had very messy hair as if he had got up in a hurry and didn’t have the time to comb it. However, those who knew him well knew that his hair had always been like this.
He came through the door looking like one of those middle-aged old men who were sitting on the street everywhere before the apocalypse happened, without the traits of being a high-position official. Compared to him, Director Zhong, who came in behind him with a worried frown, looked more like the base commander. When he saw Gu Ning, Director Zhong’s tightly locked brow was slightly relaxed and he gave her an unnoticeable nod.
Then the Base Commander took his seat and Director Zhong followed to settle down in the first seat on the right.
After yawning, the Base Commander instructed slowly: “Director Zhong, please brief everyone on the mission.”
Director Zhong’s body leaned forward slightly, his face was full of solemnity: “Because of the urgency of the situation, I won’t beat around the bush with you all. The reason for requesting everyone over in such a hurry is that there is a very urgent matter that requires the help of everyone here.”
Seeing Director Zhong’s solemn expression, all the special abilities users realised that something major must have happened this round.
“It’s a message from the capital. Yesterday, two of our three helicopters were attacked by an unknown source and were forced to land in the Baoxi District. Contact has been lost since then.” Director Zhong frowned and continued very cautiously; “There is a very valuable document about the development of the zombie virus vaccine on this helicopter and several abilities users were responsible for escorting it.”
As soon as Director Zhong made this statement, the conference room immediately exploded with chattering.
Zhang Ji was the first to voice out and asked: “Has the vaccine for the zombie virus been developed?!”
Director Zhong replied slightly gloomy: “Not yet. But according to sources from the capital, the helicopter is carrying ground-breaking documents for vaccine development, as well as a medical expert who has made a breakthrough with the zombie virus. If anything were to happen, it would be a great loss to the entire human race! If the vaccine is developed successfully, then our country, or even the whole world, will be saved!”
Someone hesitantly asked: “So now we’re called in here, is to send us out to retrieve that document?”
Director Zhong nodded: “That’s right.”
The meeting room was instantly in an uproar, Director Zhong had stated that it was being attacked by an unknown source which obviously was an evolved zombie that could attack a helicopter. It didn’t require much for them to understand how dangerous this mission was and not to mention that the area where the helicopter was forced to land was the Baoxi District!
The Baoxi District was notoriously densely populated with zombies, and it’s not a place where they would normally go to gather supplies. Yet, the base right now wanted them to risk their lives to go there and all their discontent was overflowed all at once.
As for Gu Ning and her team, they were all in deep thought and kept silent.
Someone spoke up: “Evolved zombies that can attack helicopters…… Director Zhong, although we are abilities users, this is just too dangerous……”
“We are all ordinary people too…… Besides, since it was the capital that received the news, then why didn’t the capital send someone over to look for it? Wouldn’t it be enough to send out a few more helicopters over to settle it?!”
“Exactly! And there were abilities users on that helicopter so maybe they had all escaped? If we were to go over to find them, it might end up to be in vain instead!”
This drew a chorus of agreement and, in the end, no one was willing to go out to risk their lives for some mission to save the world.
Director Zhong’s expression was very grim at this point: “Everyone. Our base is the closest to the Baoxi District. It’s only two hours from here to there. If we send people from the capital, it will take at least half a day. Saving lives is like putting out a fire, every minute we delay, those people and the document on the helicopter are in danger.” He paused and then continued: “All of you must have lived in the base for some time, and without the protection of the base, I’m sure you all wouldn’t be as secure as you are right now. Since you all have enjoyed the protection of the base, you all need to fulfil some obligations as well.” As he said this, he glanced at Gu Ning before going on: “And this time, it’s not like we’re letting everyone work for nothing. This round, no matter what the final result of the mission is, everyone who participates will get a reward of fifty pounds of rice each!”
There was immediate silence in the meeting room.
The scarcity of supplies had been extraordinarily acute recently.
Although the Third Company hadn’t stopped exchanging supplies, it was still a bit painful to exchange them with crystal cores that could expand one’s pool of psychic energy. What’s more, fifty pounds of rice per person was enough to last for several months if used sparingly. Just as everyone in the conference room was hesitating, a voice sneered: “Even with more supplies, you need to be alive to use them.”
Most of the people in the meeting room immediately waken up from their hesitation and several groups instantly opted out.
Zhang Ji never took a stand yet but only glanced over to the Third Company team from time to time.
Just in these few moments, Zhang Ji saw that Brother San seemed to be slightly anxious and he took a glance at Gu Ning. Gu Ning was silent for a moment before giving a slight nod then the expression on Brother San’s face immediately calmed down.
Zhang Ji was somewhat puzzled by the interaction between Brother San and Gu Ning.
As far as he knew, the leader of the Third Company team was Brother San, and Gu Ning had brought her parents with her to join them. Although she was a Space ability user, she was still carrying two burdens with her, so her position in the team should reasonably be somewhat awkward. However, right now the meeting with the whole team of Third Company, Zhang Ji would get the feeling that Gu Ning’s position in the team did not seem as low as he had thought. At this moment, Brother San’s very subtle interaction with Gu Ning had shown this.
Then he heard Brother San asking: “Director Zhong, can you provide us with a copy of the exact location of the helicopter’s forced landing?”
Zhang Ji froze. The glance that Brother San had just given to Gu Ning was …… to ask her for her opinion?!
Director Zhong was also stunned for a while before immediately replied: “There were positioning devices on the helicopters at the time, and the capital had transmitted the precise range to be within five hundred metres.”
Everyone else in the meeting room was silent. They didn’t expect the Third Company team, which had always been a loner, didn’t come forward easily and didn’t have a very close relationship with the base management would suddenly step forward.
Brother San nodded, then smiled before agreeing: “Good. Count us in then.” His smile was very relaxed and was not being forced at all.
The Third Company team and Zhang Ji’s team were considered to be the two strongest teams in the base. However, after arriving at the base, the Third Company team had no intention of recruiting other special abilities users whereas Zhang Ji’s team had already recruited five more abilities users in just a month since they arrived at the base. Their number of men immediately overtook the Third Company team. However, perhaps, it was because the Third Company team was so mysterious and had revealed the huge amount of supplies made everyone at the base subconsciously thought that Zhang Ji’s team was not necessarily stronger than the Third Company team.
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It was just after ten o’clock when the dawn finally arrive and it was nearing November. Gu Ning compared the weather in the other world and felt that here was much colder plus the sunset around three o’clock. By four o’clock, the sky was dark and they had to wait until the next day at ten o’clock for the sun to rise again.
The daylight hours lasts no more than five hours, the morning and afternoon were fine but when nights arrived, they were as cold as winter. Thus, if they didn’t have any thick blanket to keep themselves warm, it was easy to get sick. Not to mention the fact that most people were malnourished and in poor health nowadays and there was no medicine to cure them when they had fallen ill.
Some quilts had been given out for free at the base recently, but the demand was just too high. Every day they heard the news of weak elderly and children passing away.
When Gu Ning and the others left the base previously, they witnessed a mother holding a two to three-year-old child who had turned blue and she was kneeling in front of the tent, patting the dead child in her arms slowly. The sun had just risen in the east and the warmth of the sun shone on the weak body of the frozen child but it was unable to make the cold body warm again.
Even Hong Jie, who is considered the most vicious in her way of speaking and ruthless in her way of handling in the Third Company, had a feeling of inexpressibility when she saw this scene. As if a boulder was placed on her chest, making her breathless and stuffy. Not to mention Cheng Ming and Fang Fa who were always so kind-hearted as well as Brother San and the rest who had vowed to protect the citizen.
There were a lot of mixed feelings and they felt suffocated for unable to voice it out. Right now, they live in the best houses, wore warm cotton clothes and had a thick blanket to warm themselves in the night. Even if they had a headache or cold, they still had a doctor in the team.
That night, Gu Ning quietly visited the director of the management office and explained her intention of donating a batch of supplies in the name of the Third Company. It included three hundred bags of rice, as well as winter clothing and quilts which Gu Ning had specially bought in bulk from another world. She also provided some emergency medicines that the base was in urgent need of.
As for this Director Zhong of the management, Gu Ning still trusted him a lot after witnessing him secretly gave supplies to some elderly and children on the base. Furthermore, they usually had some dealing with him and he had chatted with Gu Ning about him being helpless with a deep sense of pity in his eyes.
Three hundred bags of rice were neatly stacked against the wall, all were fifty pounds each! Currently, the ration distributed by the base every night might not even use a bowl of rice for cooking a large pot of porridge. With a scoop from the ladle, the porridge was almost as clear as water and the soup was not even slightly cloudy. Director Zhong was anxious, with his heart burning in frustration when he saw the survivors getting weaker day by day and there was nothing he could do as the support from the capital was delayed once again. The base had limited supplies and they had to prioritize it for those survivors who were doing the labour of building the base.
However, with these three hundred bags of rice, amounting to fifteen thousand pounds of rice! If they use it sparingly, they should be able to last until the next batch of supplies arrives from the capital!
Moreover, there were quilts and clothing to keep out the winter cold. What’s even rarer were the medicines that were now scarce resources all over the world!
When Director Zhong found out that Gu Ning was going to donate such a large amount of supplies, he was simply flabbergasted. After confirming repeatedly with Gu Ning that they were for donation, he was so moved to tears and couldn’t speak for a long while.
Gu Ning only made two requests.
One was that the news of her who had donated the supplies must not be leaked out.
Secondly, it must be ensured that these supplies were provided to the elderly and children as a priority.
Although Director Zhong could not understand the first clause, he still agreed to it with great solemnity. After thanking Gu Ning once more while she declined his offer of sending her back, Director Zhong stared at the piled-up supplies which filled half of the room with a great deal of emotion.
Gu Ning came out of the management office feeling nothing but relief.
She had consulted the team in making such a decision and everyone was very much in favour of it. Even Hong Jie who expressed concern that giving so many supplies at once would be detrimental to them later still agreed with the decision and kept quiet.
The next day at dawn, before they were about to head out, the management sent someone to inform them that all the special abilities users were requested to attend a meeting at the second level of the management office. There was an emergency, and all of them were required to be present.
The base management belonged to the authoritative governing hierarchy of the base so no matter how powerful Gu Ning and the other special abilities users were, they were still within the jurisdiction of the base after all.
Thus, this modest conference room was packed with the base’s special abilities users and those who knew each other well were exchanging pleasantries and passing on the information they had acquired. Gu Ning glanced at Zhang Ji, who was sitting opposite her and shook his head which indicated that he didn’t know what was going on either. Even Jia DaoZhang, the diplomatic and part-time intelligence minister of the Third Company team, had already scooted over to the other teams. Yet, within a few minutes later, he was back sitting with them and informed Gu Ning that the others also had no idea what was going on.
Right now they could only wait for the Base Commander to arrive and find out more about it.
The Base Commander was a middle-aged man of about forty-five, wearing a grey woollen jumper, had very messy hair as if he had got up in a hurry and didn’t have the time to comb it. However, those who knew him well knew that his hair had always been like this.
He came through the door looking like one of those middle-aged old men who were sitting on the street everywhere before the apocalypse happened, without the traits of being a high-position official. Compared to him, Director Zhong, who came in behind him with a worried frown, looked more like the base commander. When he saw Gu Ning, Director Zhong’s tightly locked brow was slightly relaxed and he gave her an unnoticeable nod.
Then the Base Commander took his seat and Director Zhong followed to settle down in the first seat on the right.
After yawning, the Base Commander instructed slowly: “Director Zhong, please brief everyone on the mission.”
Director Zhong’s body leaned forward slightly, his face was full of solemnity: “Because of the urgency of the situation, I won’t beat around the bush with you all. The reason for requesting everyone over in such a hurry is that there is a very urgent matter that requires the help of everyone here.”
Seeing Director Zhong’s solemn expression, all the special abilities users realised that something major must have happened this round.
“It’s a message from the capital. Yesterday, two of our three helicopters were attacked by an unknown source and were forced to land in the Baoxi District. Contact has been lost since then.” Director Zhong frowned and continued very cautiously; “There is a very valuable document about the development of the zombie virus vaccine on this helicopter and several abilities users were responsible for escorting it.”
As soon as Director Zhong made this statement, the conference room immediately exploded with chattering.
Zhang Ji was the first to voice out and asked: “Has the vaccine for the zombie virus been developed?!”
Director Zhong replied slightly gloomy: “Not yet. But according to sources from the capital, the helicopter is carrying ground-breaking documents for vaccine development, as well as a medical expert who has made a breakthrough with the zombie virus. If anything were to happen, it would be a great loss to the entire human race! If the vaccine is developed successfully, then our country, or even the whole world, will be saved!”
Someone hesitantly asked: “So now we’re called in here, is to send us out to retrieve that document?”
Director Zhong nodded: “That’s right.”
The meeting room was instantly in an uproar, Director Zhong had stated that it was being attacked by an unknown source which obviously was an evolved zombie that could attack a helicopter. It didn’t require much for them to understand how dangerous this mission was and not to mention that the area where the helicopter was forced to land was the Baoxi District!
The Baoxi District was notoriously densely populated with zombies, and it’s not a place where they would normally go to gather supplies. Yet, the base right now wanted them to risk their lives to go there and all their discontent was overflowed all at once.
As for Gu Ning and her team, they were all in deep thought and kept silent.
Someone spoke up: “Evolved zombies that can attack helicopters…… Director Zhong, although we are abilities users, this is just too dangerous……”
“We are all ordinary people too…… Besides, since it was the capital that received the news, then why didn’t the capital send someone over to look for it? Wouldn’t it be enough to send out a few more helicopters over to settle it?!”
“Exactly! And there were abilities users on that helicopter so maybe they had all escaped? If we were to go over to find them, it might end up to be in vain instead!”
This drew a chorus of agreement and, in the end, no one was willing to go out to risk their lives for some mission to save the world.
Director Zhong’s expression was very grim at this point: “Everyone. Our base is the closest to the Baoxi District. It’s only two hours from here to there. If we send people from the capital, it will take at least half a day. Saving lives is like putting out a fire, every minute we delay, those people and the document on the helicopter are in danger.” He paused and then continued: “All of you must have lived in the base for some time, and without the protection of the base, I’m sure you all wouldn’t be as secure as you are right now. Since you all have enjoyed the protection of the base, you all need to fulfil some obligations as well.” As he said this, he glanced at Gu Ning before going on: “And this time, it’s not like we’re letting everyone work for nothing. This round, no matter what the final result of the mission is, everyone who participates will get a reward of fifty pounds of rice each!”
There was immediate silence in the meeting room.
The scarcity of supplies had been extraordinarily acute recently.
Although the Third Company hadn’t stopped exchanging supplies, it was still a bit painful to exchange them with crystal cores that could expand one’s pool of psychic energy. What’s more, fifty pounds of rice per person was enough to last for several months if used sparingly. Just as everyone in the conference room was hesitating, a voice sneered: “Even with more supplies, you need to be alive to use them.”
Most of the people in the meeting room immediately waken up from their hesitation and several groups instantly opted out.
Zhang Ji never took a stand yet but only glanced over to the Third Company team from time to time.
Just in these few moments, Zhang Ji saw that Brother San seemed to be slightly anxious and he took a glance at Gu Ning. Gu Ning was silent for a moment before giving a slight nod then the expression on Brother San’s face immediately calmed down.
Zhang Ji was somewhat puzzled by the interaction between Brother San and Gu Ning.
As far as he knew, the leader of the Third Company team was Brother San, and Gu Ning had brought her parents with her to join them. Although she was a Space ability user, she was still carrying two burdens with her, so her position in the team should reasonably be somewhat awkward. However, right now the meeting with the whole team of Third Company, Zhang Ji would get the feeling that Gu Ning’s position in the team did not seem as low as he had thought. At this moment, Brother San’s very subtle interaction with Gu Ning had shown this.
Then he heard Brother San asking: “Director Zhong, can you provide us with a copy of the exact location of the helicopter’s forced landing?”
Zhang Ji froze. The glance that Brother San had just given to Gu Ning was …… to ask her for her opinion?!
Director Zhong was also stunned for a while before immediately replied: “There were positioning devices on the helicopters at the time, and the capital had transmitted the precise range to be within five hundred metres.”
Everyone else in the meeting room was silent. They didn’t expect the Third Company team, which had always been a loner, didn’t come forward easily and didn’t have a very close relationship with the base management would suddenly step forward.
Brother San nodded, then smiled before agreeing: “Good. Count us in then.” His smile was very relaxed and was not being forced at all.
The Third Company team and Zhang Ji’s team were considered to be the two strongest teams in the base. However, after arriving at the base, the Third Company team had no intention of recruiting other special abilities users whereas Zhang Ji’s team had already recruited five more abilities users in just a month since they arrived at the base. Their number of men immediately overtook the Third Company team. However, perhaps, it was because the Third Company team was so mysterious and had revealed the huge amount of supplies made everyone at the base subconsciously thought that Zhang Ji’s team was not necessarily stronger than the Third Company team.
It was just after ten o'clock when the dawn finally arrive and it was nearing November. Gu Ning compared the weather in the other world and felt that here was much colder plus the sunset around three o'clock. By four o'clock, the sky was dark and they had to wait until the next day at ten o'clock for the sun to rise again.The daylight hours lasts no more than five hours, the morning and afternoon were fine but when nights arrived, they were as cold as winter. Thus, if they didn't have any thick blanket to keep themselves warm, it was easy to get sick. Not to mention the fact that most people were malnourished and in poor health nowadays and there was no medicine to cure them when they had fallen ill.Some quilts had been given out for free at the base recently, but the demand was just too high. Every day they heard the news of weak elderly and children passing away.When Gu Ning and the others left the base previously, they witnessed a mother holding a two to three-year-old child who had turned blue and she was kneeling in front of the tent, patting the dead child in her arms slowly. The sun had just risen in the east and the warmth of the sun shone on the weak body of the frozen child but it was unable to make the cold body warm again.Even Hong Jie, who is considered the most vicious in her way of speaking and ruthless in her way of handling in the Third Company, had a feeling of inexpressibility when she saw this scene. As if a boulder was placed on her chest, making her breathless and stuffy. Not to mention Cheng Ming and Fang Fa who were always so kind-hearted as well as Brother San and the rest who had vowed to protect the citizen.There were a lot of mixed feelings and they felt suffocated for unable to voice it out. Right now, they live in the best houses, wore warm cotton clothes and had a thick blanket to warm themselves in the night. Even if they had a headache or cold, they still had a doctor in the team.That night, Gu Ning quietly visited the director of the management office and explained her intention of donating a batch of supplies in the name of the Third Company. It included three hundred bags of rice, as well as winter clothing and quilts which Gu Ning had specially bought in bulk from another world. She also provided some emergency medicines that the base was in urgent need of.As for this Director Zhong of the management, Gu Ning still trusted him a lot after witnessing him secretly gave supplies to some elderly and children on the base. Furthermore, they usually had some dealing with him and he had chatted with Gu Ning about him being helpless with a deep sense of pity in his eyes.Three hundred bags of rice were neatly stacked against the wall, all were fifty pounds each! Currently, the ration distributed by the base every night might not even use a bowl of rice for cooking a large pot of porridge. With a scoop from the ladle, the porridge was almost as clear as water and the soup was not even slightly cloudy. Director Zhong was anxious, with his heart burning in frustration when he saw the survivors getting weaker day by day and there was nothing he could do as the support from the capital was delayed once again. The base had limited supplies and they had to prioritize it for those survivors who were doing the labour of building the base.However, with these three hundred bags of rice, amounting to fifteen thousand pounds of rice! If they use it sparingly, they should be able to last until the next batch of supplies arrives from the capital!Moreover, there were quilts and clothing to keep out the winter cold. What's even rarer were the medicines that were now scarce resources all over the world!When Director Zhong found out that Gu Ning was going to donate such a large amount of supplies, he was simply flabbergasted. After confirming repeatedly with Gu Ning that they were for donation, he was so moved to tears and couldn't speak for a long while.Gu Ning only made two requests.One was that the news of her who had donated the supplies must not be leaked out.Secondly, it must be ensured that these supplies were provided to the elderly and children as a priority.Although Director Zhong could not understand the first clause, he still agreed to it with great solemnity. After thanking Gu Ning once more while she declined his offer of sending her back, Director Zhong stared at the piled-up supplies which filled half of the room with a great deal of emotion.Gu Ning came out of the management office feeling nothing but relief.She had consulted the team in making such a decision and everyone was very much in favour of it. Even Hong Jie who expressed concern that giving so many supplies at once would be detrimental to them later still agreed with the decision and kept quiet.The next day at dawn, before they were about to head out, the management sent someone to inform them that all the special abilities users were requested to attend a meeting at the second level of the management office. There was an emergency, and all of them were required to be present.The base management belonged to the authoritative governing hierarchy of the base so no matter how powerful Gu Ning and the other special abilities users were, they were still within the jurisdiction of the base after all.Thus, this modest conference room was packed with the base's special abilities users and those who knew each other well were exchanging pleasantries and passing on the information they had acquired. Gu Ning glanced at Zhang Ji, who was sitting opposite her and shook his head which indicated that he didn't know what was going on either. Even Jia DaoZhang, the diplomatic and part-time intelligence minister of the Third Company team, had already scooted over to the other teams. Yet, within a few minutes later, he was back sitting with them and informed Gu Ning that the others also had no idea what was going on.Right now they could only wait for the Base Commander to arrive and find out more about it.The Base Commander was a middle-aged man of about forty-five, wearing a grey woollen jumper, had very messy hair as if he had got up in a hurry and didn't have the time to comb it. However, those who knew him well knew that his hair had always been like this.He came through the door looking like one of those middle-aged old men who were sitting on the street everywhere before the apocalypse happened, without the traits of being a high-position official. Compared to him, Director Zhong, who came in behind him with a worried frown, looked more like the base commander. When he saw Gu Ning, Director Zhong's tightly locked brow was slightly relaxed and he gave her an unnoticeable nod.Then the Base Commander took his seat and Director Zhong followed to settle down in the first seat on the right.After yawning, the Base Commander instructed slowly: Director Zhong, please brief everyone on the mission.Director Zhong's body leaned forward slightly, his face was full of solemnity: Because of the urgency of the situation, I won't beat around the bush with you all. The reason for requesting everyone over in such a hurry is that there is a very urgent matter that requires the help of everyone here.Seeing Director Zhong's solemn expression, all the special abilities users realised that something major must have happened this round.It's a message from the capital. Yesterday, two of our three helicopters were attacked by an unknown source and were forced to land in the Baoxi District. Contact has been lost since then. Director Zhong frowned and continued very cautiously; There is a very valuable document about the development of the zombie virus vaccine on this helicopter and several abilities users were responsible for escorting it.As soon as Director Zhong made this statement, the conference room immediately exploded with chattering.Zhang Ji was the first to voice out and asked: Has the vaccine for the zombie virus been developed?!Director Zhong replied slightly gloomy: Not yet. But according to sources from the capital, the helicopter is carrying ground-breaking documents for vaccine development, as well as a medical expert who has made a breakthrough with the zombie virus. If anything were to happen, it would be a great loss to the entire human race! If the vaccine is developed successfully, then our country, or even the whole world, will be saved!Someone hesitantly asked: So now we're called in here, is to send us out to retrieve that document?Director Zhong nodded: That's right.The meeting room was instantly in an uproar, Director Zhong had stated that it was being attacked by an unknown source which obviously was an evolved zombie that could attack a helicopter. It didn't require much for them to understand how dangerous this mission was and not to mention that the area where the helicopter was forced to land was the Baoxi District!The Baoxi District was notoriously densely populated with zombies, and it's not a place where they would normally go to gather supplies. Yet, the base right now wanted them to risk their lives to go there and all their discontent was overflowed all at once.As for Gu Ning and her team, they were all in deep thought and kept silent.Someone spoke up: Evolved zombies that can attack helicopters Director Zhong, although we are abilities users, this is just too dangerousWe are all ordinary people too Besides, since it was the capital that received the news, then why didn't the capital send someone over to look for it? Wouldn't it be enough to send out a few more helicopters over to settle it?!Exactly! And there were abilities users on that helicopter so maybe they had all escaped? If we were to go over to find them, it might end up to be in vain instead!This drew a chorus of agreement and, in the end, no one was willing to go out to risk their lives for some mission to save the world.Director Zhong's expression was very grim at this point: Everyone. Our base is the closest to the Baoxi District. It's only two hours from here to there. If we send people from the capital, it will take at least half a day. Saving lives is like putting out a fire, every minute we delay, those people and the document on the helicopter are in danger. He paused and then continued: All of you must have lived in the base for some time, and without the protection of the base, I'm sure you all wouldn't be as secure as you are right now. Since you all have enjoyed the protection of the base, you all need to fulfil some obligations as well. As he said this, he glanced at Gu Ning before going on: And this time, it's not like we're letting everyone work for nothing. This round, no matter what the final result of the mission is, everyone who participates will get a reward of fifty pounds of rice each!There was immediate silence in the meeting room.The scarcity of supplies had been extraordinarily acute recently.Although the Third Company hadn't stopped exchanging supplies, it was still a bit painful to exchange them with crystal cores that could expand one's pool of psychic energy. What's more, fifty pounds of rice per person was enough to last for several months if used sparingly. Just as everyone in the conference room was hesitating, a voice sneered: Even with more supplies, you need to be alive to use them.Most of the people in the meeting room immediately waken up from their hesitation and several groups instantly opted out.Zhang Ji never took a stand yet but only glanced over to the Third Company team from time to time.Just in these few moments, Zhang Ji saw that Brother San seemed to be slightly anxious and he took a glance at Gu Ning. Gu Ning was silent for a moment before giving a slight nod then the expression on Brother San's face immediately calmed down.Zhang Ji was somewhat puzzled by the interaction between Brother San and Gu Ning.As far as he knew, the leader of the Third Company team was Brother San, and Gu Ning had brought her parents with her to join them. Although she was a Space ability user, she was still carrying two burdens with her, so her position in the team should reasonably be somewhat awkward. However, right now the meeting with the whole team of Third Company, Zhang Ji would get the feeling that Gu Ning's position in the team did not seem as low as he had thought. At this moment, Brother San's very subtle interaction with Gu Ning had shown this.Then he heard Brother San asking: Director Zhong, can you provide us with a copy of the exact location of the helicopter's forced landing?Zhang Ji froze. The glance that Brother San had just given to Gu Ning was to ask her for her opinion?!Director Zhong was also stunned for a while before immediately replied: There were positioning devices on the helicopters at the time, and the capital had transmitted the precise range to be within five hundred metres.Everyone else in the meeting room was silent. They didn't expect the Third Company team, which had always been a loner, didn't come forward easily and didn't have a very close relationship with the base management would suddenly step forward.Brother San nodded, then smiled before agreeing: Good. Count us in then. His smile was very relaxed and was not being forced at all.The Third Company team and Zhang Ji's team were considered to be the two strongest teams in the base. However, after arriving at the base, the Third Company team had no intention of recruiting other special abilities users whereas Zhang Ji's team had already recruited five more abilities users in just a month since they arrived at the base. Their number of men immediately overtook the Third Company team. However, perhaps, it was because the Third Company team was so mysterious and had revealed the huge amount of supplies made everyone at the base subconsciously thought that Zhang Ji's team was not necessarily stronger than the Third Company team.
