After most people finished breakfast, everyone packed up and set off again.
After traveling for a week, they finally arrived at Minqi Base, but the long queue at the gate was enough to make people hesitate.
It seemed there were quite a lot of smart people who did not just sit at home waiting to die, but most others probably still had not reacted and were still at home eating their stockpiled supplies while waiting for rescue.
Looking at the speed of the queue, it was fairly fast—hand over a portion of supplies and get checked for wounds, then they could enter.
But even so, they still had to queue. The group from Suhai had already been through enough and could not withstand more exhaustion.
The journey had not been smooth either. They had encountered trouble several times—small zombie waves, mutated animals and plants—and many people had died. Out of more than two hundred people, only around one hundred and forty remained.
The casualties had been heavy, mainly because most of them were ordinary people and did not listen to instructions. Wen Qiao and Wang Ze and the others had simply stopped bothering with them.
Wen Qiao took Wen Jiuya to queue first.
Xue Qi said to the people behind, “Minqi Base has been reached. What happens next will depend on yourselves. Goodbye, everyone.” Then she touched the cross-shaped earring she was wearing today and prepared to run over to catch up with them.
But some shameless teaching staff at the back, relying on their age and the crowded environment, started shouting, “You brought us here, so why are you abandoning us?!”
Xue Qi looked at them coldly. “The reason I brought you out of Suhai Direct Experimental High School was because Wen Qiao was soft-hearted. Escorting you here already fulfilled my duty. Unless you want to reason with my superpower.” As she spoke, electric sparks flashed in her hand, accompanied by a crackling sound of electricity.
That move made the surrounding onlookers retreat several steps, let alone those who were shouting.
There were patrol teams maintaining order and guarding against zombies and other monsters. From the moment their group of more than a hundred people entered Minqi Base’s perimeter, those patrolmen had already noticed them.
Only then did it become clear that they were not one unified group. That made things easier.
A man who looked like a captain led three people over. First, he shouted at the teachers, “What are you doing? What are you doing! What’s all this commotion? Do you still want to go in or not? Be quiet! If you keep making noise, get out!”
Then he turned to Xue Qi and said, “How should I address you? I’m Zhai Bin, captain of Minqi Base Patrol Team Three. My superpower is fire-type. Ability users can enter separately in ranking order and are exempt from supplying materials.”
Xue Qi said, “Could you please lead the way?”
Zhai Bin replied, “Of course. Do you have other teammates?”
“Mm, wait a moment.” Xue Qi went to call Wen Qiao and Wen Jiuya over. Wang Ze and Li Tingting and the others heard it and followed along as well.
Seeing so many people, Zhai Bin widened his eyes. Weren’t ability users supposed to be rare?
Xue Qi waved her hand. “Don’t misunderstand. My teammates are only these two ladies. Our captain Wen Qiao is a triple-system, early third-tier ability user—spiritual, wood, and space systems.”
“Another teammate is like me, a dual-system, early second-tier.”
Zhai Bin was shocked by their levels and multi-system abilities.
“The others were people we met on the road. One group is Team 13 with thirteen members, all ability users.”
“Mm…”
“As for the other three, I’m not familiar with them…”
The two walked in front while talking. By the time they reached the ability user entrance, Zhai Bin’s attitude had become extremely respectful.
Before leaving, he said, “Minqi Base really needs strong ability users like you, and we also welcome you here. Please take care of us in the future.”
After seeing Xue Qi nod, he left.
Xue Qi went to register first.
Behind him, Wen Jiuya whispered to Wen Qiao in front of him, “I didn’t expect it—Xue Qi is actually a social maniac.”
Wen Qiao quietly taught her, “This is called establishing authority. It lets others know how strong we are so they won’t dare to cause us trouble, and it also saves us a lot of hassle. Didn’t you see how respectful that captain was just now? Even the registration staff’s attitude is much better now.”
Wen Jiuya replied, “Alright~ I was shallow.”
Xue Qi filled out the registration forms for all three of them. They only needed to take photos, and after entering they would go to the housing office to exchange supplies for a house.
They entered quickly and even received a layout map of Minqi Base.
From the entrance were District B and District C. Further ahead were District A and District D, arranged in pairs side by side.
Next to the housing area was the housing office, and beside it was the Mission Center. Behind that was Trading Street, and on both sides of Trading Street were slum areas.
Those were tents belonging to people who had entered after paying supplies but did not have enough to exchange for housing.
At the housing office, they exchanged fifty jin of rice, three boxes of instant noodles, and ten packs of salt for a three-bedroom, one-living-room, one-kitchen, one-bathroom house for one month.
They also learned that the top floor of District A was where the Leader lived. The rest were ability users who had helped establish the base.
District B housed both ability users and ordinary people, since one ability user could bring one ordinary person into the base. Of course, some also lived alone.
However, most ability users chose District D, either living alone or in groups.
District C was for ordinary people. They worked in construction, medical treatment, or land development—though the land now seemed to be unusable. There were also researchers. Those without jobs would gamble on joining superpower teams for missions, though only a few survived.
Their house was bought in the western side of District B, far from the gate, otherwise it would be too noisy to sleep.
After confirming their rooms, Wen Jiuya wanted to go to Trading Street, but everyone was tired and wanted to rest, so they let her go explore alone and gather information.
Early the next morning, they went to Trading Street. It had been late the previous day, so Wen Jiuya had not explored much before returning. Now that it was daytime, she was curious.
At that moment, a woman walked toward them. She wore a white camisole, black long pants, a black oversized trench coat, with striking red lips and voluminous waves. Her aura was strong.
Her style clashed with Wen Jiuya’s that day—both were mature, domineering styles, but Wen Jiuya’s presence was clearly weaker and looked much less imposing.
People around showed great respect toward that woman. As she passed by, some greeted her, while others simply nodded.
As she approached, Wen Qiao stepped forward and greeted her. “Good morning, Leader Your Excellency.”