This time they drove a big truck along with a small one. The big truck was not one they had recently found but the original one that was lost outside the glass factory and then was picked up again.

  Although the car was broken, the metal could still be used after slight modification. This time the vehicles were filled with broken shelves, metal devices and some wood – empty barrels, broken tables and chairs. There was not much but when piled up it would hide the tape, pillows and food hidden behind.

  The truck floors were much thicker than normal and hid things like vegetables and so on.

  After a night, the group of people arrived at the southwest base gate in the morning. They registered, entered the base and swept through baggage check. The people were much more vigilant when inspecting the car compared to before. However since their car was filled with tattered things, only a bucket and a few pieces of wood were taken. He Qiankun and the others almost did not quarrel with the inspectors.

  The latter had faces of contempt, "Give it back to you? Fine then don’t enter base! With such tattered things, what kind of people are you?"

  Everytime the team had to pay five crystal core and the people checking the car would pick something as well. Luo Xun saw that the gate was not willing to let their team enter.

  "Really, who are they?"

  "The base was not like this before, now they are seeming more gang-like?"

  People complained while driving their cars to the exchange market. One reason they were coming to base was to buy salt – the most important seasoning for pickling vegetables and handling dried meat at home.

  When they arrived at the exchange window, they were dealt another blow.

  Originally after the first zombie wave, due to the new political powers, the original spoiled atmosphere on base had been dispersed, resulting in an enthusiastic staff attitude and public minded department.

  But now? The people in charge of these exchanges were once again starting to get greedy. Those responsible for sales would often promote their private business. If one wanted to buy things, they say there is a private exchange window. The price was not much more, if interested they should come with them.

  With Luo Xun, he simply rejected the person in charge of guiding them and headed directly to the relevant exchange window. He would be an idiot to go with those people, God knew what strange place he would be taken to? Potentially getting robbed, it would be better to find a fixed stall to buy things!

  At the exchange window, they bought the maximum amount of gasoline, salt and other necessities. They also spent a large number of cores on some solar panels and batteries before returning to their cars.

  They drove away and met with the teams who needed to buy vegetables. After agreeing on a meeting place, Luo Xun brought the fresh vegetables. Xu Mei and some others brought the rest to if they could sell some things – the shelf life of fresh vegetables was very problematic. So Luo Xun’s team would immediately eat anything picked or make stews. This time they would see how sales went at base.

  Not long after, the people who wanted to buy food arrived. One of the two chatted with Luo Xun before laughing, "I want a lot of vegetables this time but our car does not have enough room, can you send the things to us? It’s not far, just in the neighborhood over there."

  Luo Xun had a smiling expression while kindly spitting out, "No."

  Before the pair responded, Luo Xun continued with a smile, "You can bring back your stuff then collect the vegetables. I can set it aside for half an hour before other people come to buy." He smiled with regret, "If left too long I won’t be able to sell them."

  The two exchanged looks and uneasily looked at the passersby – since this was an intersection, there was a high flow of people.

  Yan Fei pinched a piece of metal. The two people looked at Luo Xun and saw a sharp dagger like object from who knew where.

  The pair exchanged looks again and one rubbed their head in embarrassment. "We’ll go back to unload things, be back in a moment."

  The two men hurried away into the crowd, Luo Xun sadly deleted the man’s contact information and wrote a note in his notepad. "One less team."

  Only a fool would not see through the men’s idea. Perhaps their original team had been disbanded or that person had left. Whatever the reason, they could no longer contact them for a deal.

  The teams afterwards also did not buy all of Luo Xun’s vegetables, fortunately he had expected the situation and only opened a few boxes. People passing by would only buy a bit here and there but after a while everything would be sold.

  After selling the vegetables, Luo Xu called Xu Mei who were selling dried vegetables at a vacant stand. The others either went shopping or to sell things.

  They set a meeting time in the afternoon. Luo Xun also packed a bag and went shopping with Yan Fei to find what they needed. If the price was okay they would buy some.

  When the team met in the afternoon, they had a lot of things.

  Salt, solar panels, batteries, female clothes and shoes – Xu Mei had sold all of the dried vegetables.

  "Captain, our sales today were good, many people inquired when they could buy more. I said at the start of next month we may come to the market." Xu Mei smiled and shook the bag containing crystal cores in her hand while pointing at her backpack. "We also used some vegetables for a set of primary school textbooks, there are also a few high school books for Yu Xinran. In the future, the baby can use them too!"

  Although they had found a lot of books, they did not have many specifically for children’s learning. Composition and reference books were plentiful but useless without a proper foundation.

  He Qiankun took out a large bag of pens, "We saw someone selling these while shopping and spent a level two core for the entire thing."

  "Also, we saw someone on the roadside selling dried meat. I don’t know what mutant animal it’s made from, should we bring some bacon to sell next time?" Wu Xin asked the team.

  Luo Xun frowned at the suggestion, "It would not be easy to sell? Meat can be sold but it would be a lot of trouble. Many people dared not to buy – especially a processed product. Even if it looks normal people would doubt the source of meat. Although the carcasses are different, many people are still worried about buying fake meat. Even then the average person would rather buy fresh mutant animal meat."

  Dried vegetables not selling as well as their fresh counterpart was for the same reason – people were not sure that nothing had been done to the dried product. Today they had brought a small amount, otherwise how would it get sold so quickly?

  After counting their gains, the team loaded their things and were ready to leave base. By the team they reached the gate again, they found a lot of new notices on the walls.

  After a closer look, Luo Xun and Yan Fei exchanged looks while leaving base. It was not until the sky was dark and they had returned home that the matter was brought up.

  "Just now, when we were leaving base we saw the newest notice." Luo Xun continued while washing his hands. "It said that all teams will not be allowed out of base after the eighth of the month and all teams must be back before then."

  "Why?" Wang Duo blurted out without thinking.

  Zhang Yi leaned forward and squinted at him. "Zombie wave."

  "Yeah, the zombie wave will almost reach this area after two weeks. We and the southwest base are likely to be in range of their movements. The base can also receive satellite photos to predict the zombie’s path. Not letting people out after the eighth is to prepare in advance for the attack." Luo Xun sighed at the team, "This time we’ll spend the wave in our base and see if we can hold on. There should be no problems."

  "Okay!"

  "Our stuff is at home, why would we go back?"

  "Yeah, nothing will happen to the other bases since they’ll be ready in advance."

  They only had a dozen individuals and the area was not large, although they were unclear about the power of the mutant plants. They did not know if anything would go wrong during the deadly zombie tide. This was the time to test them and their base’s defenses. Fortunately the number of zombies was relatively small. As long as they were not completely surrounded, it would be over within a day or two.