Although they were really frustrated inside, the situation had already happened and couldn't be changed. All they could do now was assign people to keep an eye on Kei and his group, and try to figure out their secret the next time they moved.
They knew Kei and his people's background well, so they didn't believe Kei had taken such a big risk to enter the city just to gather supplies. Kei didn't bring many people with him, and it didn't look like they were planning a big operation.
Besides, they didn't even experience a serious fight, not even a scratch on their car. That meant the place they went to wasn't dangerous at all.
If they could find out how Kei's group got their supplies, then they wouldn't have to worry about food and daily needs anymore.
But until they figured that out, they still needed to keep a good relationship with Kei and the others. Maybe they could get some benefits from them this way.
Right now, the top leaders of the base were very worried. They had thought things would improve after the virus rain ended, but it turned out this was only the beginning.
The virus rain caused the zombies outside to evolve. Before, evolved zombies were rare, maybe just a few in the city center. But now, there were too many to count in the city. Even normal zombies had become stronger than before. The base was in serious trouble.
"What do you all think we should do now? These zombies have evolved and become powerful. Even with guns, we might not be able to kill them. If this keeps going, our base might not last much longer. And without the base, we'll all end up as zombie food," said General Song.
"The situation might not be that bad yet. Sure, the zombies are stronger now, but they're still hiding inside the city. So far, they haven't shown any signs of moving towards our base," said Officer Ma.
"If you don't plan for the future, problems will come sooner. Even though they haven't come to our base yet, that day will come eventually. If we don't try to remove them or make our base stronger, we'll be in danger. I'm not just being dramatic," General Song said seriously.
"General Song, don't be so worked up. We agree the zombies have evolved and are now a big threat to human survival. But it's not like we don't have any hope. Haven't many of our soldiers awakened supernatural powers? With these abilities, the zombies might not be that scary," said Mayor Zhou.
"I admit these power-users might help a lot in the future, but right now, they've only just awakened their powers. They're not strong yet, and we don't even have a way to train them properly. We don't know how long it'll take before they become useful in battle. Our decisions affect the lives of thousands in the base. We can't afford to make any mistakes," General Song replied.
"Then what do you suggest, General Song? If you have a plan, just tell us, and we'll talk about it together," the other leaders asked.
"I think we should organize people to hunt and kill zombies. We need to keep their numbers under control so they don't grow strong enough to threaten the base. Last time, my soldiers went out and hunted an evolved zombie, and we found a crystal core in its head. Normal zombies didn't have anything in their heads. I've already sent the cores to the lab for study. These crystals might help our power-users get stronger. The researchers said these crystals hold huge amounts of energy, but they haven't figured out a safe way to absorb it yet. So, if we go out to hunt zombies, it's not just about removing threats. It's also to gather more crystals for research," General Song explained.
"You said the zombies outside are dangerous. If we send our army to fight these evolved zombies, we don't know how many people we'll lose. Also, your research on the crystals hasn't even shown any results yet. If we go out and lose soldiers for nothing, that would be foolish," the others objected.
The reason they had control over the base was because they had the military on their side. If they lost too many soldiers, someone else in the base might start making moves to take over.
"It's true the lab hasn't found the crystal's exact use yet. But if we wait until they do, it'll be too late. I already stationed troops around the city, and we saw that zombies have started returning to the areas we already cleared. This means zombies from other areas are slowly moving toward our base. This is not good.
After evolving, zombies have become more sensitive to human presence. They could discover our base at any moment. If they surround us, we'll be in serious danger," said General Song.
At first, the other base leaders didn't take his words seriously. But after hearing the part about zombies moving closer to the base, they started to feel nervous.
If it was really true that zombies from outside were gathering near them, then the base would soon be in trouble.
Still, even knowing this, they didn't want to send the army out. It wouldn't solve the real problem. Even if they killed the zombies now, more would just keep coming. They'd lose too many soldiers and waste too many supplies, without getting anything in return. That was not what they wanted.
Noticing their hesitation, General Song added, "I'm not saying we should send out all our soldiers. We can try getting other people in the base to help clear the zombies. We just need to give them better rewards. If they can also bring back crystal cores, that's even better."
"Since General Song already has a plan, we won't oppose it. We only disagreed before because we wanted to protect our remaining soldiers. Too many of them died while building this base. If our army keeps shrinking, we'll lose control of the base. We just want to keep things stable," the other leaders said.
General Song understood what the other high-level leaders were thinking. But now was not the time to blame anyone. Even his own orders could not send all the troops out to kill zombies. He controlled one-third of the base's army, but he could not bear to lose his own people, even if there were big rewards. His army was his main support.
After he reached an agreement with the base leaders, General Song quickly announced a reward task inside the base.
Recently, the people in the base had been living with very little. Because of the virus rain, they had not gone out to collect supplies for a long time. When they went out yesterday, they lost many people and found almost nothing.
Now that the base offered such rich rewards, people became excited.
Just killing zombies could earn them supplies. This offer was too generous. Even if they could not fight the evolved zombies, they could still deal with the normal ones.
The rewards for killing regular zombies were much less than for evolved zombies, but it was still something.
One of General Song's men said, "General, after your order, many people left the base to hunt zombies. But will this really help?"
General Song replied, "Do you really think I want to clean up the zombies around the base? I told everyone that to hide the real use of the crystal cores. We already tested them. If an ability user gets a crystal core, they can absorb the energy inside and become stronger. If that wasn't the case, do you think I would give away so many supplies just to get those cores?"
The man asked, "Then why did you tell the others that the use of the crystal cores is still unknown? If they knew the truth, they might not have stopped you."
"You don't understand," General Song said. "We need our own people to grow first. There are only so many cores, and ability users need a lot of them to grow. If others find out later, we'll have already collected many. The stronger our team is, the more power we will have."
The man said, "But what if others find out? Won't they be unhappy with you? And they're not stupid. They will also study the cores. We can't hide it for long."
"Even hiding it for one day is enough," General Song said. "And I didn't lie. We do know how to use the cores now, but we're still not sure about side effects. I'm the one taking the risk for them. They should thank me. And they don't dare go against me now. I have one-third of the soldiers in my hands."
Actually, those other leaders had already guessed what General Song was doing. When he asked for more crystal cores, they knew he must have found out their value. Otherwise, he would not waste time doing something with no return.
They didn't say anything. They could still do their own research. They didn't need him for everything.
Of course, the truth about the crystal cores couldn't be hidden. Not just from the base leaders, but also from the normal survivors.
When General Song spread the news that he was buying crystal cores, the survivors quickly guessed that the cores had a special use. Otherwise, why would the leaders be so eager?
Many survivors quickly formed teams to kill zombies. They wanted to collect a few cores and see what they could do.
They guessed the cores might do one of three things. First, protect them from the zombie virus. Second, help them awaken special powers. Third, improve their powers if they already had them. Any of these would be a huge help.
Many survivors killed zombies and got crystal cores. But normal people could not use them. Only ability users could absorb the energy inside. They had to hold the core and focus their minds. This would pull the energy into their bodies and make their powers stronger.
Some normal people had awakened powers too. Because of this, the news about the crystal cores spread fast. Soon, everyone in the base knew the truth. Those who had powers were very happy. They now had a way to grow stronger.
But the normal people were not happy. With zombies evolving, it became harder for them to kill and collect supplies.
They had hoped the cores could help them become stronger. But they were shocked to learn that only ability users could use them.
Some people refused to believe it. They swallowed the cores, hoping to get powers. But instead, they turned into zombies.
After this, no one dared to try again.
Even if the regular people could not use the cores, the researchers in the base could. These scientists used to work in biology before the disaster.
When they got the crystal cores, they figured out how ability users could absorb the energy. They also found a way to make the energy usable for normal people.
The reason normal people could not use the energy was because they had no powers inside them. Without powers, they could not draw out the energy from the core.
Crystal cores were harder than diamonds, so regular people could not break them either.
The cores held energy, but they also contained the virus. So anyone who swallowed a core became a zombie.
Ability users could pull the energy out directly without touching the virus inside. That's why it was safe for them.
The scientists were very smart. After only half a day, they made a special liquid. This liquid could melt the crystal core and mix its energy into the solution.
This way, normal people could also use the energy.