NOVEL WEB Chapter 82—Base Leader
Chapter 82—Base Leader
by Bocchan13
Being a base leader was extremely difficult. Song Yu had no experience regulating the people, assigning roles, or even maintenance. And everyone knew he was incapable. When there were big decisions to make, it was always given to Ye Zhou who gave it to Song Yu in a pretty package for him to decide over.
Over time, Song Yu got used to people ignoring his opinions. When they needed him, they were all smiles and cheerful so he was happy. It was quite often to use his abilities in the beginning for small things like fixing a broken knife, or purifying their food source.
Song Yu felt needed. So he did what people wanted regardless if he was tired. Ye Zhou took care of relations inside and outside of the base, bringing in people with talents. Soon, the base grew bigger and bigger, and the relaxed days decreased more and more.
Song Yu and the entourage had gotten closer during the past few years, and were considered friends. Song Yu always gave them the opportunities to do things. Eventually, they had enough materials to erect a large wall, create a manufacturing building, and train a militia.
After 10 years in the apocalypse, something happened to Song Yu. He didn’t know if he was overusing his abilities, but soon after he would go into a coma-like state. This worried everyone in the base, and Ye Zhou specifically made a bunker for Song Yu, so that there wasn’t any danger to him from outside influences.
They kept this hush-hush because of their relationships with other bases. If they found out that the pure ability user that Paradise Base was known for was suffering from comas, people would probably retaliate or take revenge.
Song Yu understood this, and when he overused his abilities, he would have some time before it backlashed. So Song Yu would go into the bunker and sleep. For the next decade, the comas became longer and longer, but Song Yu still insisted on helping people. The water source was a problem because it needed to be purified constantly. Song Yu didn’t know how the base was surviving without him.
It was later found out that in his coma, he was taken out of the bunker and placed into the water. In his coma-like state, his aura that surrounded him constantly shifted, causing his pure ability to make a barrier.
Song Yu was just a living, breathing machine.
His memories got a bit fuzzier, his face gaunt from not enough food. His friends would visit him sometimes, and Ye Zhou who was always busy was right next to him when he woke up from his comas. Song Yu didn’t know what the Paradise Base was like now, but seeing the population grow, people who looked clean and well-fed, that was enough for Song Yu to conclude that Paradise was doing well.
The years passed in a sea of blurriness. Song Yu could only remember bits and pieces of it. But the one piercing memory was when he died. On his 45th birthday, everyone gathered around him with smiles and congratulations. Song Yu also felt happy.
The feeling was indescribable. Like he was soaring in the sky. But in a flash, the happiness was gone. He didn’t know why his friends took him outside of the wall. Didn’t know why they went into the woods. Just that they had a surprise waiting for him.
Song Yu happily obliged his friends. When they reached their destination, Song Yu was looking into the darkness of the woods, his eyes getting used to the dark. Ye Zhou looking up at trees pointed to something, his voice echoing.
“Your present is up there.” Song Yu smiled as he gazed upwards…and the horror set in. Hanging in the trees were –
Song Yu screamed out in pain, his aura bursting surrounding the forest in blue luminescent light. Before he could retaliate, his arms and legs were held down by his friends and suddenly Song Yu was hauled to a pit pre-filled with young fresh zombies.
Song Yu heard their snarls and smelled their wretched stench. His body flying in the air, too weak to fight back. The ripping of his skin, the groaning sound of death. Tasting blood in his mouth as his body was pulled apart, the last thing he saw were his friends looking down at him with bright eyes.
Ye Zhou stood in the forefront, his glowing yellow eyes shaped like crescents as more blood spurted from his mouth.
“And that was the last thing I remembered before arriving 3 months before the apocalypse. I was 45 years old back into a 23 year old body…so I just uh…went to a bar.”
The surroundings were extremely silent. Song Yu looked up from his reverie to find Wang Cheng with tears in his eyes, Xiao Zi and Yu Ci both pale while Lu Jingxiu and Wu Ding were looking angry. Rose was indifferent, and Lan Zhou who had already heard this before was comforting him by holding his hand.
“That’s…that’s so awful!” Wang Cheng slammed his hands on the floor in anger, tears streaking down his face. “What kind of sick fucks! You did so fucking much, and you were murdered? It doesn’t make any sense!”
Song Yu nodded, “I do have some parts of my memories that are blank, like I am blocking them myself. I talked with Lan Zhou about this, and he also has a few missing pieces. I think our rebirth was flawed in some ways. You guys might also have blocks in your memories too.”
Everyone nodded. It was especially prevalent with Lan Zhou, Lu Jingxiu and Xiao Zi. They remembered coming to Paradise Base in late winter, but their deaths weren’t until spring. What did they do for almost 2 months?
Song Yu’s trip down memory lane sparked a controversy with everyone’s memory and line of events. But for now it was set in the back burner of their minds. The day had finished a while ago, and it was time to sleep.
Some had a hard time sleeping, taking in Song Yu’s experiences, while some like Song Yu and Lan Zhou went to sleep like babies. The worry in his heart had almost completely disappeared.
Life at the base went back to how it was before. With the coming of winter, preparations went back into full swing. Lan Zhou and Yu Ci left to go outside and find parts to make the energy generator, while Song Yu taught Rose and Wang Cheng how to pattern and make coats.
Xiao Zi and Lu Jingxiu took over the farming and animals, making sure they would be healthy when winter set in.
Speaking of animals, the chicken that had mysteriously disappeared reappeared once again outside the gates. Song Yu didn’t know how it got out, and sent Wu Ding and Wang Cheng to check the fences for holes.
The chicken was no worse for wear and was put in Song Yu’s space to check if it had gotten the virus. What surprised Song Yu and everyone else, was that the chicken was a hen, and had eaten a mutated plant on the outside.
Normally, it would have died and became a zombie animal, or it would have changed if it ate only a little. That was the case with the chicken. After two days of coming back to the base, it laid a dozen blue colored eggs.
Song Yu and co. had never tried eating a mutated plant or animal. There was a large difference between zombification and mutation. Abilities in humans were considered a mutation, same as Rose whose mutation created sentience. The chicken that ate the mutated plant was not infected but rather mutated as well.
This mutation could either be a good thing or a bad thing. This research was given to both Song Yu and Xiao Zi. In order to test if the eggs were safe to eat, they fed it to another chicken. The chicken that ate it did not zombify, but rather, it mutated and gained a wind ability.
This discovery was monumental. People in the apocalypse assumed that anything zombified and mutated would essentially kill the host. But for ability users (mutated people), this could potentially help in the research of prolonging abilities.
In many novels, there were cores in zombie heads that helped people level up. It came from zombies but it benefited ability users. The same could also be said here. Mutated plants were too concentrated with the virus and could cause death, zombification and harm, but if it was diluted…there were endless possibilities.