CHAPTER 341: CHAPTER 6: THE MOLE

Nedved opened his eyes once again, twenty-four hours had already passed.

He slept so deeply and for so long, if not for the faint rise and fall of his chest, he would have almost been mistaken for a cold corpse.

He struggled to sit up, gradually regaining his senses, and found himself in a place that seemed very familiar. Upon closer inspection, it was the basement of the "fortress" he had built with his own hands.

However, the mountains of clutter had been mostly cleared, making room for a spacious area.

The basement of the large house in the United States was also quite large, with four or five rooms serving different functions.

The washing machine in the basement roared, steam filled the bathroom, and the home’s water pump was working, drawing groundwater.

A survivor with wet hair pushed open the bathroom door, wearing warm, clean clothes taken from the dryer, and wore a refreshed expression of relief on his face.

"Mr. Nedved, your basement transformation is really impressive; having water supply in times like these is really rare."

Nedved was bewildered; he only remembered the violent blast shockwave and then being captured along with his family. He asked puzzledly, "Where did the electricity come from? My solar panels don’t have such high output."

"It’s from the electric Pika outside, the battery capacity is over a hundred kilowatt-hours, so it can last a long time." The survivor said while using a hairdryer to dry his hair and called the next person to take a shower.

Nedved wobbled back upstairs, the scene before him made him feel like he was amidst a lively gathering.

The originally quiet house and the front and back yards were crowded with twenty to thirty people, coming and going, busy and orderly.

His wife and two daughters were chatting and laughing with a young Asian man; the atmosphere was unexpectedly harmonious.

Seeing her husband awake, Ned’s charming wife exclaimed with joy, "Ned! Come meet Victor, he’s the leader of this exploration team and highly appreciates your skills.

Especially the well you’ve hand-drilled, he thinks it’s professional-grade and plans to establish a small base centered around our home.

He’s willing to take us in and offer a well-paid job that can support our family of four, seemingly related to mechanical work."

Nedved recollected the sudden explosion, extended his hand, forced a slightly stiff smile, and said first:

"Thank you, Victor. I’m sorry for the trouble I caused you before.

At that time, I just wanted to protect my family; I’ve always lacked trust in outsiders. But now... none of it matters."

Zhou Qingfeng smiled gently, spoke a few comforting words, praised the other as a genius in the apocalypse, and then formally extended an invitation, "Mr. Nedved, would you like to join my ’Holy Light’ team?"

"Holy Light?" Nedved seemed to recall something, scrutinized Zhou Qingfeng’s face more closely, and said with surprise, "Are you the president of the ’Holy Light’ group before the virus outbreak?"

Zhou Qingfeng nodded openly, "Yes, that’s me."

Nedved was even more astonished, "I remember you once won the ’Powerball’ jackpot worth ten billion US dollars."

"To be precise, before taxes, it was over 2.2 billion US dollars, and after taxes, about 1.5 billion US dollars was at my disposal," Zhou Qingfeng said calmly.

Nedved’s family of four was instantly stunned, his wife gaped, incredulously asking, "You were a billionaire with a net worth of billions before the apocalypse?"

"Um... before the global outbreak of the ’X Virus’, my personal assets exceeded tens of billions of US dollars. I know this sounds a bit exaggerated, but it’s the truth.

Using some special channels, I foresaw the threat of the ’X Virus’ in advance.

As a wealthy person, I made many preparations. For example, everything you see now, it’s the result of me spending billions of dollars.

I’ve tried my best to acquire supplies, but unfortunately, before the global financial system completely collapsed, I still wasn’t able to spend all the money; there’s still a lot left.

From the looks of things now, my procurement is quite sufficient. So I plan to come out of my shelter to offer some aid to other ordinary people."

These words exploded like several thunderbolts in the minds of Nedved’s family, leaving them unable to recover for a long time.

They had to acknowledge a brutal reality — the apocalypse did not erase the gap between the rich and the poor but instead widened it to an unimaginable extent.

"So, would you like to join my team?" Zhou Qingfeng asked again.

"Of course!" This time, even Nedved completely lowered all his guards and doubts, grinned, and quickly replied, "We are very willing to join the ’Holy Light’ team."

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Zhou Qingfeng’s wealthy identity was like a gold label, especially after demonstrating formidable power, it quickly won over people’s hearts.

Nedved’s family firmly believed that following such a wealthy person, their safety and quality of life would be greatly improved, and in the short term, their loyalty would not be a concern.

In just two or three days, the exploration team had taken in forty to fifty survivors and consciously promoted those with families or ’weaknesses’ to managerial positions.

Single men were mostly categorized as "basic labor force."

As for the harvest of supplies...

Food is almost negligible.

The town had long been in a food shortage crisis, even families like Nedved’s, who had some stockpiles, faced the threat of running out of food; otherwise, his wife and daughters would not have surrendered so readily.