CHAPTER 686: 【680】QUEEN OF THE APOCALYPSE 16 (2 MORE UPDATES)

Although they had seen healthy livestock and poultry along their journey, they had been constantly on the move and unable to raise them, so they slaughtered and ate them, but now that they had settled down, they could consider raising such animals. However, finding livestock in the countryside was easy, but where would you find them in the city?

They had never tried the taste of mutated animals because they looked a bit like zombies, yet they weren’t fully zombified; they could only be considered infected by the apocalypse virus, their bodies had undergone some changes but were not dead. They were unlike zombies, which had deteriorated into stinking, nauseating Walking Dead.

The apocalypse had only lasted for half a year, and mutated plants and animals had not completely overtaken the city yet. But as time passed and zombies decreased in number, the likely adversaries of humanity could be these mutants.

When Reyas and his group finally returned after a week, they weren’t the same eight people who had left, but over thirty people instead. Among these newcomers were four women, two of whom were relatively young, around twenty years old, and the other two were more mature, likely in their thirties or forties.

Among the remaining men, the older ones were in their forties or fifties, while the younger ones were teenagers.

Reyas hadn’t expected that upon his return, everything at home would have changed. The yard was lush and green, a delightful sight that was clearly Zhu Li’s doing.

Little White never spoke to others because he simply couldn’t speak, but around Zhu Li, he could utter single-syllable sounds like ’ah’ and ’ha.’

As Reyas and the others were organizing these people, Little White rushed over to Zhu Li first, took her hand, and looked her up and down.

"I’m fine. Look, I’m perfectly alright. What about you? Are you hurt?"

Zhu Li spun around in front of him, then looked up at Guardian Bai, who wore glasses and had a stern demeanor, and smiled radiantly.

Little White shook his head, indicating he was fine, which reassured Zhu Li. She turned to where Reyas was standing and noticed him waving at her, so she grabbed Little White’s hand and ran over.

"Come, let’s introduce each other. Zhu Li, we met these comrades on the road; they are all Superpower Users,"

This time, twenty-five people joined their group, divided into four groups, with those of the Thunder Element and Fire Element being the most numerous. Among the women, one was from the Space Department, one from the Wind Element, one Ice Element, and one Water Element. That being said, among all present, Zhu Li was the only Wood Element Mage.

She hadn’t expected that Wood Element Mages had become so rare. That shouldn’t be the case!

Advancement in superpowers was divided into levels; after Level 10, a mark would appear on the forehead. Her Water Element mark was a drop of water, and her Wood Element was a seed. The higher the level, the darker the color. Now, both her Water and Wood Elements had reached Level 10, so there were two marks on her forehead. However, due to the low level, the colors were very faint, nearly imperceptible under her bangs, and these marks only appeared during combat; they weren’t visible under normal, peaceful conditions.

The Thunder Element was represented by a Thunder Mark, the Fire Element by a Fire-shaped Mark, the Ice Element by an ice blade, the Wind Element by a Wind Blade, and the Space Department by a hollow round mark. The marks for the Spiritual and Light Elements were currently unknown.

Although so many people arrived suddenly, and it took some time to adjust, there were plenty of empty rooms in the prison. Zhao Yun immediately arranged for everyone to move in. At first, with fewer people and more rooms, they could live as they pleased. Should the population increase later, they could consider consolidations then.

There were five water towers in the prison, and Zhu Li replenished the water daily. So, when they saw that the prison had running water, they were shocked; learning that it was Zhu Li’s doing, they immediately started conserving water, knowing that even for a Water Mage, refining water consumed energy.

At present, Zhu Li relied solely on her own strength to refine water. In the future, once she became more powerful, she would be able to divert groundwater and river water from the surrounding area, and that would be truly impressive.

Currently, it completely drained her strength. Although another Water Mage had recently joined them, Reyas had said that she had just awakened, indicating that her abilities were very low.

Previously, when there were only a few of them, food was freely used and eaten. But now, with the sudden increase in number, managing food distribution became a necessity, and Zhu Li was most qualified for this responsibility, as everyone depended on her.

There were now 37 people in total, counting Wanwan and An Nuo as one, making 36 people. Although their food supplies were sufficient, it was the result of their hard work. The newcomers did not seem to have much in their storage, insufficient to maintain everyone’s rations. Thus, the consumption was still dependent on their team’s food supplies.

Zhu Li then decreed that everyone would have two meals a day, consisting of four taels of staple food, two taels of vegetables, and 500 cc of water per person. Those who wanted more had to go out and hunt for supplies.

These people had been surviving on sporadic meals outside, so now having a place to stay and a steady food supply satisfied them immensely. Others’ food wasn’t simply windfall, so no one dared object to Zhu Li’s arrangements, and they all nodded in agreement.

After staying and recuperating in the prison for two days, they set off again to hunt, but this time, everyone was involved.

Originally, Zhao Yun and the children were to stay at the prison, but Zhao Yun felt she needed to enhance her abilities. Moreover, she didn’t want to be accused of being useless, even if just cooking for the team was better than staying idle at home.

With this understanding, no one objected, and they all left together.

It had been just over half a month since Zhu Li last left the prison, but she felt the zombies were harder to deal with than before, and their numbers did not seem to decrease. What was happening? Why couldn’t they seem to exterminate them all?

"Now, zombies have started wandering from the cities. They’re everywhere. You kill off one batch, but as long as there are living humans moving about, those zombies will follow them. They roam everywhere, and that’s why you feel like their numbers aren’t decreasing."

"Didn’t you encounter any ordinary people last time?" Rong Hua nodded, "We did, but Reyas didn’t bring them along, saying we don’t sustain the useless!"

Though the statement sounded cold and heartless, Zhu Li felt it reflected the harsh reality of the apocalypse. If they took those ordinary people along, it would cost not just energy but also manpower and the precious resources they had managed to gather. However, these ordinary people were not entirely useless.

If they kept them to build and repair walls, reclaim land, and perform tasks within their capacity, even ensuring continuity of their lineages, wouldn’t that be justifiable?

Thinking this, she immediately sought out Reyas and shared her thoughts. After listening, Reyas paused for a moment, then looked up at her.

"I was shortsighted. You make a lot of sense, we will not overlook this in the future."

Although in an apocalypse it was a world where the strong preyed on the weak, one couldn’t deny that ordinary people had their uses. After all, if they were to establish a base in the future, where else to find a massive workforce? And for their daily clothing needs, harvesting grains, and planting vegetables, having ordinary people would save these superpower users more time. As for how the two groups of people could coexist peacefully, that would need to be gradually explored and changed in the future.