"Master, you can’t go in here!"
At the entrance of the warehouse where Qinshan Base stored Evolution Crystals, a soldier said patiently to Chen Chaoyang. The two soldiers guarding the warehouse’s entrance could not fail to recognize Chen Chaoyang’s identity. He was the only son of Qinshan Base’s deputy leader who had also recently become a new human. They were under no circumstances disrespectful to him.
"Hurry up, open the gate, I want to go in, what are we lingering for?" Chaoyang demanded impatiently.
"Young Master Yang, this puts me in a tough spot. Leader Chen said nobody but him is allowed in!"
"Did he say that this connotation includes me?"
"Uh...he didn’t specify that."
"Then hurry up and open the gate for me!"
The soldier looked helpless. Although Chen Huaijiang is now the second leader of Qinshan Base, there’s still Hong Zhenlin, in charge above him. However, Hong Zhenlin’s authority was slowly being eroded by Huaijiang, who had left the other man with no more than common soldiers to order around. Essentially, Hong Zhenlin was halfway to being a figurehead.
"Cut the crap out! Either open the door or take responsibility for the consequences! I’ll make sure my dad doesn’t trouble you!"
Chen Chaoyang spoke, his tone filled with irritation. When the two soldiers standing at the warehouse door heard him, they looked visibly alarmed. Scratching their heads and hesitating for a moment, the soldiers gritted their teeth and swung open the warehouse gates.
Chaoyang, too impatient to even respond, simply strode on in once the gates opened.
As he entered the warehouse, he could see stacks of cargo containers. Picking one at random, he pulled open its wooden lid with seemingly no effort.
Now that Chen Chaoyang was a new human, tearing apart wooden boxes was absolutely no challenge.
"Fuck! Not this one!"
Upon seeing domestic products inside, Chaoyang cursed and gestured to the two soldiers who were watching him like fortune cats. "You two, come here! I need assistance."
"Young Master Yang, what do you need?"
"Do you know where the boxes storing the Evolution Crystals are? Tell me."
"Wait, Young Master Yang, why’re you looking for Evolution Crystals? This...we can’t deal with this!"
"For fuck’s sake, the two of you. Tell me where the damn things are quickly. I’ve fucking told you that I’ll take responsibility for anything, what’re you so scared of, fuck!"
"Alright! Well then..."
Frightened by Chaoyang’s angry demeanour, the two soldiers were anxious. They knew they wouldn’t survive a punch from a rich kid with newfound human strength.
Let alone, the son of Huaijiang!
One of the guards obliged, leading Chaoyang to a room deep within the warehouse where three containers, distinct from the rest, were placed.
Chaoyang’s eyes lit up at the sight of it. He stormed forward and ripped the boxes open without speaking a word, leaving the two soldiers watching him helplessly.
"Haha, yes, these are it! Huh? Why are there only a few Level 2 Evolution Crystals?"
"Uh... We don’t know, we’re just ordinary people!"
Chaoyang nodded in acknowledgment and proceeded to spill out all the Evolution Crystals from the boxes. They were each contained within a small blue box lined with a freshness preservation layer to prevent oxidation.
The boxes storing the Level 2 Evolution Crystals seemed deeper in color. Chaoyang knew what this meant. However, once he opened all three boxes, he only found six Level 2 Evolution Crystals.
Level 2 Evolution Crystals were suitable for new humans to evolve, but crystals obtained from zombie brains were not edible directly. They required some processing into a potion to be consumed. Otherwise, they could severely damage the new human’s body.
The ones safe for consumption were the Evolution Crystal Cores, which were unlike the Evolution Crystals. They could be extracted from the brains of creatures that had already evolved but had not yet become zombies. They were free from hazardous substances found in Evolution Crystals and were safe to eat directly. Moreover, the energy obtained from them was more than that from zombie’s Evolution Crystals.
The three boxes only had six Level 2 Evolution Crystals, which was quite less for Chen Chaoyang. He had once promised Tang Ye at Honglin High School as many Evolution Crystals as he needed. Was this quantity enough?
Chaoyang had thought that the army should have encountered many Level 2 zombies when clearing Hua City and that these zombies should be everywhere. However, this was not the case. Although there were Level 2 zombies, they were still rare at the beginning of the apocalypse. Moreover, there were few Level 2 evolved zombies available for the army to kill, and even if they met one, there was no guarantee they could kill it!
"Forget it, it doesn’t matter. At least I can turn them over!"
Besides the six Level 2 zombies, there were countless Level 1 zombies that had not started crystallization and Level 1 Evolution Crystals, which he estimated to be over a hundred!
After repacking the Evolution Crystals, Chaoyang carried the three boxes full of Evolution Crystals out of the warehouse.
"Hey! Young Master Yang, you..."
Seeing Chen Chaoyang leaving, the two soldiers grew anxious. If Chaoyang took all the Evolution Crystals, they wouldn’t be able to escape Huaijiang’s wrath!
However, before they could stop Chen Chaoyang, he turned and glared at them. Their words got stuck in their throat out of fear!
Leaving the warehouse, Chaoyang headed toward the training field. A few days ago, Qinshan Base had dispatched several helicopters to Lin City. They had distributed flyers to announce a clearance action across the city. The clearance action was about to start, so he should be able to board a military helicopter soon.
The training field, previously a hub for elderly people to do their square dances in the afternoons, was now exclusively for the soldiers. On it stood numerous military green tents with officers of all ranks passing through. The soldiers, exuding lethal energy, were preparing for their upcoming mission: to clear all the zombies from the streets of Lin City.
A sergeant in front was lecturing a few hundred soldiers using a megaphone, although his speech was mostly bulls**t, aimed solely to manipulate the soldiers into sacrificing their lives.
After enduring the sergeant’s long-winded speech for half an hour, the soldiers breathed a sigh of relief when he finally put the megaphone down. A series of heavily armed helicopters were neatly parked nearby. On the sergeant’s command, the soldiers started boarding the combat helicopters one by one.
"Hey, Yang! What are you doing here? Get outa my way, I need to get on too!"
"For the love of God, please leave."
"I need to go to Lin City for a task. It’ll be quick, I promise. Assign someone to accompany me, will you? I just need to deliver these," Chaoyang suggets, patting the three large boxes in his possession.