Bai Shu said, "We're lucky to have steamed buns at all. Just make do."
As he spoke, he reluctantly took a jar of chili sauce out of his item storage card.
Chen Xiaofei immediately snatched it away. "I knew you were the best, Brother Bai."
His words were sweet, but his hands were ruthless. He scooped out a huge spoonful, nearly driving Bai Shu mad. "You bastard! That's my last jar! Take a little less!!"
Despite his steady, dependable appearance, Wang Weihu managed to scoop out a huge spoonful while Bai Shu was guarding his food, too.
These three were as unreliable in private as they were reliable during rescue operations.
They nearly came to blows over a jar of chili sauce. In the end, Xu Duoduo silently took out four large boxes of food from the provisions she had stockpiled for herself.
All three froze, their eyes fixed on the four large boxes of food.
Xu Duoduo had packed them in clear disposable containers, each holding rice and three dishes.
All four had the same dishes: fish-fragrant shredded pork, garlic greens, and braised chicken.
Then she took out four containers of tomato and egg soup. Seeing that they still weren't moving, she opened the food containers. The aroma drifted out, making all three gulp in perfect unison.
"Heavens, I must be dreaming. Little Class Monitor, are you Little Dora?"
"Help, how long has it been since I last saw a proper meal? Is this really not a dream?"
"Thank you, Little Class Monitor. You're the best person in the world! Oh, no, the best zombie!!"
What had brought tears to their eyes? A proper meal with three dishes and a soup!
That was no exaggeration.
Chen Xiaofei cried as he ate, mumbling through his sobs, "I thought getting some hot porridge would be happiness enough. I never imagined we'd get actual dishes and rice, too. Boo-hoo!"
Wang Weihu and Bai Shu had already stuffed their mouths full and were still fighting over the food.
The fish-fragrant shredded pork and braised chicken were incredible with rice! The garlic choy sum was refreshing, too, followed by a sip of tomato and egg soup. These had been the most ordinary home-cooked dishes before the apocalypse, but now they were priceless treasures.
Xu Duoduo was quite happy holding her three Mutant Cores, too. She even secretly gave Qin Luo an extra roast duck leg. Never mind anything else; the effort he had put into finding Mutant Cores for her was enough to earn her gratitude. With her food supply secured, she was delighted.
When Qin Luo returned, he found that his three teammates had disappeared, replaced by three pigs furiously digging into the fragrant food, their cheeks bulging.
Chen Xiaofei pushed Qin Luo's box toward him as he ate, mumbling, "Sho good, sho good. Eat up, Brother Qin!"
Qin Luo: ...
Still, he had to admit it.
Xu Duoduo really was a good cook. The fish-fragrant shredded pork was savory and delicious, and the braised chicken was incredibly tender. He felt he could eat an entire pot of rice just by mixing it with the sauce.
For a while, no one in the living room spoke. Xu Duoduo sat off to one side while the four of them sat opposite her around the coffee table, heads down as they ate. Everyone sat directly on the carpet.
Worried they wouldn't have enough, she took out four more boxes of plain rice.
In the end, they still ate every last grain.
Finally, Chen Xiaofei slumped against the sofa with his belly sticking out. "Help, I'm so full!"
Bai Shu sat in a satisfied daze, too.
Wang Weihu was still cleaning up the battlefield, polishing off all the remaining food.
Qin Luo looked down to reply to messages. Finally, he waved his tablet. "Done. Xu Duoduo's number is 13613. Much better than 13444."
Chen Xiaofei and the other two were too stuffed to speak, so they all gave him a thumbs-up.
Qin Luo accepted their praise and turned to Xu Duoduo. The little zombie hesitated for a second, then gave him a thumbs-up, too? Qin Luo burst out laughing.
Chen Xiaofei and the others suddenly joined in. Having their fill of food and drink was simply blissful.
"Don't take it to heart, Little Class Monitor. Things change every day after the apocalypse, and the rules keep changing, too. At first, we really didn't know this was how the base treated Mutated People now. It wasn't like this when we left."
Who could have known that all the Mutated People had been brought into the fold? They hadn't expected so many people to remain lucid even after their bodies mutated, either.
Their wristbands didn't always have a stable signal, and sometimes the forum's database wasn't updated promptly.
For all sorts of reasons.
The four of them really had been somewhat guarded and wary of Xu Duoduo at first.
Xu Duoduo touched the collar around her neck, then shook her head. Finally, she typed on her tablet, [It's fine. It's perfectly normal for you to be cautious.]
After all, they represented headquarters and were working for the future of all humanity.
They weren't children.
They were all adults. It was good to talk things out, and now they could put this behind them.
The rest of their time was relaxed and pleasant.
They cleaned the coffee table together. No one wanted the bottles of nutritional solution in various flavors or the remaining steamed buns, so Xu Duoduo put them all into her storage space.
After dinner, they chatted, discussed the current situation, memorized the base's new rules, and talked about taking on a new mission.
Qin Luo explained things to Xu Duoduo. "There are currently two kinds of missions. One is assigned directly by headquarters, and you usually can't refuse those. The other kind you pick up yourself on the forum."
Missions assigned by headquarters offered more reliable returns, occasionally with special rewards, while missions they accepted themselves came with much greater risks.
The employers were generally wealthy people or fellow ability users.
Chen Xiaofei was browsing the forum, too. Hearing this, he joked with a grin, "You know food delivery guys, right, Little Class Monitor? We're pretty much like them."
Bai Shu thought that was a rather fitting comparison.
Since Xu Duoduo was a zombie newcomer, the four of them explained quite a lot to her. Things had changed greatly after the apocalypse, but they still knew more than she did.
Later, they added one another as friends, and Wang Weihu gave Xu Duoduo a headset for communication. "Its range is limited. We can only talk within ten kilometers. I'm afraid we won't be able to make calls freely like we used to anytime soon."
He sighed as he spoke.
Qin Luo was looking through the mission section, discussing it with Bai Shu.
"With Little Class Monitor's storage space, we can make a few extra trips to places with plentiful supplies. But any places that still haven't been searched are bound to be more dangerous."
Bai Shu laid out his analysis clearly, circling several locations on his own tablet. "For places with plenty of supplies, we have two options. First, City C. The country's largest granary is there, but a nonbiological Mutant Core just appeared there, so it's extremely dangerous. Second, City I. It's on the coast, and the danger level is unknown, but there's an armory there."
He said that aside from those two locations, which had the most abundant supplies, plenty of squads had already visited the other places. They would easily run into people, and the supplies were scattered.
The key was that they could only accept rescue missions. Stockpiling supplies had to be done on the side, because Xu Duoduo's spatial ability couldn't be exposed.
Otherwise, she would be in danger, and their entire squad would be in trouble if anyone found out.
It wasn't that they couldn't protect her, or that headquarters would harm Xu Duoduo, but she would certainly be monitored and would completely lose her freedom.
It would be a real hassle.
Before you continue