Masuk"I want to ask you to help me process a batch of food," Liam said.He had brought a huge amount of supplies with him from the granary mission. However, he had been worried because of poor storage conditions.Now that he saw Hayley had full-scale food processing up and running, he couldn't help but be tempted."Of course. We're friends," Hayley said. "Now let's talk money."Liam went quiet. Then, he offered, "For every pound you process, I'll pay you two-tenths of a pound as a service fee.""Half a pound. Also, I'll let you trade food directly for our dried meal packs. Three pounds of grain for one pound of dried meals."Liam thought it over for half a minute. "Deal."Hayley made her money by importing raw materials and exporting processed goods, earning a big margin in between.She had no interest in taking over other bases or controlling them directly.Rather than becoming a high-responsibility manager, she preferred being the kind of base overlord who only enjoyed the benefi
Hayley's strength was absolutely insane.At that moment, Liam noticed people constantly going in and out of the last villa. Every time they came out, they were carrying something in their hands."What's that place…?" he asked. "Better not go over there. It'll just mess with your head if you see it," Hayley said.Just then, a soft little girl came running over with about two pounds of meat in her arms. "Ms. Reid, my family bought more meat. Come have dinner at our place later. My mom's making glazed pork belly for you."Hayley pinched Cloudia's cheek. "Tell your mom to make a couple more dishes. I've got guests.""Then I'll go buy even more meat. It's my treat!" Cloudia pitter-pattered back toward the villa.Liam stared in disbelief. "You have a supply store in your base? And it even sells fresh pork?""Yeah, that's why I didn't want you to see it. Saves you from feeling jealous."Liam and Milo fell silent.Inwardly, the two of them hit rock bottom.Hayley's base had tens of
Coming down from the mountains, the endless plains below were divided into ten massive farms. Every inch of land was under cultivation, spanning thousands upon thousands of acres.Thousands of acres.Milo was stunned.Liam was stunned, too.What shocked them even more was how few people were actually inside Hayley's base.All of that land was being farmed by machines alone.No way.Other bases had barely restarted farming at all, yet Hayley had gone fully automated.Near the fields stood row after row of black high-tech greenhouses. Under the dark panels, there were all kinds of fresh vegetables, fruits, and grain.The winter cold hadn't affected anything at all.When they finally stepped out of the vehicle, Milo and Liam heard something they hadn't heard in ages: machines at work.Warm, mouthwatering smells drifted out of a nearby house.A few female residents were outside setting down huge tubs of dried foods, and beside them were entire boxes of instant noodles.Milo an
"I brought you something good!"Hayley took out all the automated farming machines that the system had given her. Looking over the amount of farmland her base had, she officially started planning the land layout.She divided all the usable land into ten farms and assigned two residents to each one, running everything with full mechanization.In a single move, productivity exploded.Her base had about 40 people. Before, they could only manage the output of one small farm. Now, with half the manpower, they were working 10 times the land.Hayley assigned the extra hands to the factories and started processing the excess food.They began producing things everyone needed and never had enough of: instant noodles and dried foods.As soon as Hayley gave the order, the residents got to work right away.After all, they now had full automation.One person could sit in a tractor and plow hundreds of acres alone.Everyone at Haylight Base was mobilized.In less than two days, Haylight Ba
That night, after learning that Hayley had launched the first recapture attack on the city that very day, Alex fell into heavy silence.It was February 27th.The coldest time of the year, yet they were going out to fight zombies in this weather.Was it just because the cold slowed the zombies down and made them easier targets? The freeze might be brutal for zombies, but wasn't it just as hard on real, living people?Alex ran the simulation through their most powerful supercomputer, and the results were terrifying. They couldn't use large-scale weapons in the city. That would only draw every zombie in town to them at once. That meant the only option left was the most basic one: clearing the land and pushing forward slowly.It was almost like monks going on some endless pilgrimage with no shortcuts, slowly chewing through the city, one block at a time.One wrong move in that process meant death.Alex clenched his fists."Those people are insane. I'm not going crazy with them!
Now that crystal cores had gradually become a recognized currency, their value also became standardized. One crystal core could be exchanged for ten pounds of grain.That meant the price of Hayley's evolution serum was only one-fifth of Alex's.She had crushed his pricing without mercy.More importantly, Ember Base had huge amounts of crystal cores that were useless to them anyway. To them, paying with crystal cores was basically getting evolution serum for free.Malcolm immediately contacted Liam and bought one dose to try it out. After using it, they were so shocked that they were practically speechless.Hayley was unreal. Her evolution serum was insane!When Malcolm and Scarlett heard that Hayley was recruiting people to recapture a city, the two siblings discussed it and immediately chose to join Hayley's league.If it weren't for the fact that their base had too many elderly people and Hayley wouldn't take them all in, they would've moved over entirely without hesitation.







