Life on base has gotten easier but harder at the same time.
Fewer complications, but more work for me. Yay.
It's been several months and I'm glad to escape out into the hot and stuffy outside to lead groups to throttle the undead instead of staying in my office.
To be honest, my secretary is busier than me. I really felt bad for him, so I gave him a raise. He seemed pretty happy about it and assured me that the work now was nothing compared to what he did as an agent and editor.
Right now, I'm just looking at the status board for the hunting groups that was recently made not too many weeks ago.
The status board could be easily shown on the core device. It showed the teams with the highest output and nucleus earnings. For me, it also showed the schedule of teams that haven't gone yet or were going to go sometime. Schedules could only be passed through my approval.
I was looking at the groups scheduled for Fridays to see if I could escape then.
"Chief, a guest came."
I frowned, "No appointment?"
"Do I need to make an appointment to see my friend? I'm hurt!" a familiar voice cried out.
I relaxed seeing two figures at the doorway.
"Shane, Andrei, haven't seen both of you in a while. How're you guys?" I asked in a pleasant tone.
"All's good. I'm treated like a king here, what's there not to like? The only thing bothering me is those butterfly girls..." Shane made a remorseful face.
I lightly chuckled and even Andrei smiled a bit at Shane's grumble.
"So what can I help you guys with?"
Shane spoke for the both of them, "We haven't gone outside yet, so we're going to schedule for an outing. We've watched all your tutorials no matter how gruesome they were. We just need to test out our strengths in real life. Are there any tips you can give us?"
"Yeah, schedule on a Friday. If you have anyone in your team going to work on the weekdays, then doing a 3-day trip should be fine if you schedule on Friday. And if you do, I'll even add myself as a bonus to go along with, so how about it?"
Andrei and Shane nodded at each other and left their way after settling details.
Their team members gave me a little surprise.
For one, my little brother was in it. And the person he was chasing, Zhang Xing, seemed to be on it too.
Besides those two, it seems Yun was also invited. He did tell me about going on an outing one day, but I didn't realize it would be with these guys. Hua was also included in this group.
There were about 4 regular people: three researchers and a hacker.
The group was pretty strong, so it was reasonable that a higher number of researchers and hackers than usual were in this group. The people in these two occupations could be strong but most of the time they just did their jobs. The hacker though was one I remembered for video gaming a lot. She was Korean and loved gaming virtually. I wonder if she would fight for real on the outing...
Anyway, the outing was scheduled for this week, so I had to get prepared.
When I announced my new schedule for this Friday, Mr. Jing merely wished me good luck. He's the lucky one. To not have to work during the weekends...
As it was a Tuesday, I had about 2 more days to get prepared as we would leave right away on Friday's morn.
After work was done, Mr. Jing bade me goodbye while whistling a happy tune.
I sighed while looking at the stack of documents before me.
This wasn't what I expected to do after getting out of the apocalypse...
...
It was now Friday Morning.
Before it struck 6 AM, Xiao Lai woke me up.
"Yu Ge, get dressed! We have to go pick up Xingxing!"
I sat on the edge of my bed while trying to wake up properly while Xiao Lai zipped around my dressing room to pick out a decent outfit for me to throw on.
It was a casual pair of dark jeans, short white socks, white sneakers, and a white t-shirt without any logo on it. I stumbled while getting dressed and pulled my hair up into a sloppy ponytail.
"You don't look proper, tuck your shirt in," Xiao Lai fussed.
I wasn't still fully awake. Yesterday, even more papers came in as representatives came up with "several", meaning thousands, of questions for education, childcare, etc... I only got to sleep at 2 AM.
"Yu Ge, don't fall asleep!"
I barely snapped awake and splashed myself with cold water. I absorbed it all back after I finally woke up and grabbed a black cap and sunglasses while my impatient little brother grumbled at how we were going to be late to pick up his Xingxing.
I stored our luggage in my space and we finally exited our home.
It took us no time at all to get to Zhang Xing's home.
I glared at Xiao Lai when it was found out that his Xingxing wasn't even awake yet. His mother groggily opened the door and welcomed us with an astounded look on her face.
We were invited inside, but I politely declined.
"We go out of the base at 7:30. Did we really need to come this early to pick him up?" I questioned him.
"...I just wanted to see him early," mumbled Xiao Lai.
I merely sighed and rubbed his head. I'd tolerate it. I was sad to think that Xiao Lai already found someone he liked and soon, he'd move away from home as well.
But I remembered something all of a sudden.
"Are you guys dating now?"
Xiao Lai choked and sputtered.
"I guess not," I answered myself.
"T-that's too soon! Yu Ge, he's not even gay, so I have to try hard to bend him!"
"Although I do not understand the term of 'bend' in this situation, try to find out if he has any of this kind of intention. I know you do, but I don't know if he does. Maybe he's too good for you, you rascal," I dismissed with a smirk.
"Yu Ge! You're my brother, how can you say that!" Xiao Lai feigned shock.
"Alright, he's coming, so quiet down," I paid no attention to his fuming face.
When Xingxing came out, I still saw his green hair that I saw several months ago, but it seemed more vibrant colored this time. Did he dye it again?
"Hello Chief," he greeted me first.
I nodded and took his luggage and put it in my space. He nodded, thanking me and then slapped Xiao Lai on the back and they both began to talk about virtual games and codes and whatnot.
I walked several meters behind them as I called Yun and Hua through the core device.
Their reactions:
"S***, why do you do this to me?! I'm getting up, I'm getting up! ...F**ing bastard! It's barely 6 AM! I'm going to kill you when I see your a**!" - Li Hua
"Ugh, good morning. Do you have anything to eat in your space? My fridge and pantry are empty. Shane emptied them after coming over yesterday with Andrei. Do Americans and Russians always eat so much? ...I just hope you have coffee..." - Mo Yun
"Rain, it's 6... Are we going back to the training schedule when we were in the States? Can't you give me just 30 more minutes? Fine, I'm waking up..." - Shane Deus
"I was already awake. I'll get there soon with Shane. He always claims he's waking up, but he takes an extra hour to do so." - Andrei Kovalev
For the 3 researchers and the hacker, they were quite amicable as they had been awake and ready to go outside for the first time in several months. They had seen what the outside looked like after the apocalypse, but they were curious to experience it for themselves.
Our team met up with Hua threatening to punch me and Yun holding her back while accepting the brewed coffee I made with the coffee machine in my space. I thought I'd never use it after Mr.Jing gifted it to me, but I now used it almost too frequently...
Shane was still half asleep and was riding on Andrei's back as he made a rare helpless look.
I took up everyone's luggage and pacified the feisty Hua with a baby Orange-bellied Parrot. She had wanted one of the many I had in my space or the zoo since ages ago, but I wouldn't let her. This parrot's parents laid 7 eggs a month ago, and I took one out of my space today.
"Hm, you do know what to do!" she complimented(kind of, not really), and cooed over the baby bird. Of course, with her affinity to birds, the two instantly bonded.
I handed each team member some fresh fruits for a morning meal and began talking about our plan outside.
"This isn't a picnic we're going on. It'll be hot out there, so be sure to have your water ability constantly reflecting the sun rays and hydrate yourself often. If you really can't use your water ability that long, as some couldn't before, we will not be just coming back to visit the hospital. If you really can't take it, dig a hole underground and cool yourself. This technique has worked very well with the other groups, so it'll work for you."
The researchers and the hacker despaired. They really didn't have enough time to properly train their powers.
"The good news would be, that the city is not too far, so there will be shade everywhere. But zombies and mutants will roam the streets, and you'll have to fight them instead of the heat. Everyone needs to gather points, so going to the cities would be easier for this to happen."
The team all agreed to quickly get to the city.
The heat immediately turned many degrees higher the moment we stepped out.
Complaining, everyone wanted to go back in.
After hydrating ourselves and surrounding ourselves in water barriers that reflected most of the sunlight and kept us relatively cool, we headed towards the city.
Even before we completely got there, there were plenty of growls and snarls, but in the city, it couldn't even be compared, as the amount was too big of a difference.
The solemn atmosphere as the massive crowd of zombies that populated the city was seen disappeared as Shane commented, "Wouldn't want to be bitten by any of them. So ugly."
Everyone: "..."