Chapter 215: Kensington Base
Chapter 215: Chapter 215: Kensington Base
After the battle, the entire road was left filthy. Seeing the exhausted soldiers and the numerous Superpower Users who had overdrawn their superpowers, the survivors voluntarily joined the logistics team to clear away the bat corpses. The process was surprisingly orderly.
Freshly showered, the members of the Sunset Squad gathered around the dining table yet again.
Rhonda Dawson and Blake Blue had also returned. Rhonda was still in her room with Rollo helping her blow-dry her hair. Meanwhile, Blake walked toward the dining table wiping his dripping wet hair with a towel, still radiating steam from his shower.
Luna Dawson could hardly wait. Propping her arms on the table, she scanned the group with sparkling eyes, brimming with excitement. "The Crystal Core count this time is twenty-six thousand!"
The moment she spoke, a chorus of "WHOA!" erupted around the table.
"My God! That sounds like a lot, but given the intensity of the slaughter last night, we really traded our lives for them!" Aaron Palmer rubbed his arm, still harboring lingering fear from the vicious battle.
Luna smiled and raised a hand to quiet the room. "We also got three Fourth-stage Crystal Cores: one ice element, one transparent, and one Gold Element. Wait until everyone’s Third-tier Superpowers are solid enough before trying to absorb them to break through. We need to build a firm foundation and absolutely cannot rush it."
With a shift of her mind, the table was instantly covered in a lavish spread of breakfast items. Soy milk and deep-fried dough sticks, cuttlefish porridge, pork bone porridge, meat and vegetable steamed buns, steamed dumplings, fried egg sandwiches, milk, and more—everything one could ask for. A mouthwatering aroma immediately filled the air.
"Got it!" everyone chimed in unison.
Kevin Keane rubbed his right hand, his gaze unwavering. "I’m in no rush. I’m only at the Late Stage Third Rank right now, still a bit short. Training steadily is the right way to go." Despite his calm words, a competitive drive to keep pace with Luna hid in the depths of his eyes.
Miles Dawson slapped the table in excitement. "Luna, I’m not in a rush either! Cooperating with everyone to kill those beasts last night proved that the Third Rank is plenty strong!"
Lynn Shelby leaned back in his chair and spoke slowly, his tone oozing with confidence. "The next Fourth Rank will definitely be me."
Kevin glanced up at him, his voice ruthless and cutting. "Someone who can’t even beat me to the hot shower has the nerve to say he’ll hit the Fourth Rank faster than I will?"
Lynn’s face flushed slightly as he retorted, "Who has the patience to fight you over a few minutes of hot water?"
Having just sat down, Blake finished drying his hair and draped the towel over the back of his chair. "Hah, you two should stop bickering. The next Fourth Rank has to be me."
The moment those words dropped, the atmosphere at the table grew tense. It was as if an invisible electrical current crackled between the three men as they exchanged unyielding glares.
Luna cupped her chin, thoroughly enjoying the spectacle with a smile that crinkled her eyes. "Oh? Are we opening a betting pool? Do you guys want to put money on it?"
"I bet on Brother Finn!" Miles immediately took a side, sneaking a peek at Kevin, terrified that the man might refuse to help him train his superpower.
Evan Olson rubbed his forehead, helplessly interrupting the childish rivalry. "Alright, alright, stop arguing. How many Third-order Crystal Cores did we get? We burn through a lot of Crystal Core Solution on a regular basis."
Luna reined in her playful mood, closed her eyes to sense her inventory for a moment, and said, "Three hundred and sixty-six. It’s all thanks to Little Sweet Potato’s Evolution Fruit luring the High-level bats our way. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to gather so many."
Though the bat ambush had caught them off guard, they had successfully protected over three hundred thousand survivors and slaughtered a massive number of bats. Their Crystal Core reserves would be enough to last the team for a while.
Mrs. Dawson picked up a steamed bun with her chopsticks and sighed with emotion. "It’s a good thing we haven’t been skimping on the Crystal Core Solution and have pushed ourselves to practice our superpowers every day. That’s the only reason we managed to hold our ground during such a crisis last night."
Wayne Dawson nodded, his tone serious. "We’re still five short of gathering enough Fourth-stage Crystal Cores. We need to hurry."
Luna waved him off nonchalantly and took a bite of a deep-fried dough stick. "What’s there to worry about? Once this mission is over, the officials will reward us with three more. After that, we just need to take on two more High-level missions and kill a few zombies to make up the difference."
She then looked at Kevin and the other two, adding with a teasing smile, "Whichever of you three wants to hit the Fourth Rank first should carry more of the weight when we fight zombies and Aberrant Beasts. That way, you can earn a few extra Crystal Cores."
"That’s definitely going to be me!" the three men shouted in perfect unison. They immediately glared at each other, and the table grew lively once again.
Rhonda, who had just come out after blow-drying her hair, rolled her eyes at the sight. "The three of you are almost a hundred years old combined, yet you’re still squabbling like little kids. Hurry up and eat; the porridge is getting cold."
"Eat up," Grandpa said, tactically shifting their attention. "We have to head out again after a short rest."
"Okay!"
"Got it."
With him speaking up, everyone immediately shut their mouths and obediently dug into their meals, fueling up for the journey ahead.
The convoy set off again two hours later. There were virtually no massive zombie hordes in the vicinity. They stopped for a few minutes every hour, pairing up to find secluded spots to relieve themselves.
Having overdrawn their superpowers during the fierce early-morning battle, most of the Superpower Users and personnel from the Military Command rested with their eyes closed in the vehicles. Every person who had fought wore deep exhaustion on their faces, their spirits visibly flagging. The driving duties were largely taken over by members of the logistics team.
Fortunately, they encountered no major crises over the next two days. Whenever a small zombie horde occasionally appeared, the members of the Sunset Squad would rush out before the undead could even get close to the convoy, wiping them out entirely with a single wave of long-range attacks.
This allowed the exhausted soldiers to breathe a huge sigh of relief, while simultaneously leaving them marveling at the terrifying endurance and combat power of the Sunset Squad.
The weather had been excellent these past two days. Warm sunlight bathed the earth, and the lingering snow by the roadside slowly melted away. The gentle breeze carried a hint of warmth, making the world seem just a little more vibrant and full of life.
The moment the convoy drove into the Kensington Base buffer zone, long-repressed cries of excitement erupted from the vehicles all around, mingled with uncontrollable sobs and weeping.
Everyone knew that once they crossed these brief dozen or so kilometers, the heavily fortified walls of the Kensington Base they had yearned for would finally come into view. It was their sole ray of hope in a world of despair.
The main road in the buffer zone outside the wall had been meticulously repaired by the base. It was smooth and expansive. Less than half an hour later, before the vanguard convoy even reached the end of the road, a suffocatingly towering wall emerged on the distant skyline. It was a base rampart standing a full hundred meters tall!
Cast from dark gray special alloys and reinforced concrete, the structure’s surface was densely dotted with shooting holes and surveillance cameras. It stood like a colossal barrier spanning heaven and earth, completely separating safety from danger.
Even more jaw-dropping was the secondary perimeter wall, twenty to thirty meters high, encircling the main rampart. This outer wall was just as sturdy, wrapped in thick high-voltage cables. Blue electricity sizzled and sparked along the wires, forming a dual layer of protection with the main wall.
The most astonishing part was that not a single bird dared to approach the airspace above the base. Even migrating flocks of mutated geese or swarms of sparrows would sharply change direction kilometers away from the walls, frantically bypassing the area.
Luna tilted her head back to stare at the layered defenses, her eyes filled with awe. "We’ve only been gone for a little over half a month. When did the base build another perimeter wall?"
Along the way, many convoys entering and leaving the base for missions pulled over when they spotted this massive procession. A caravan stretching for kilometers and carrying three hundred thousand survivors was quite the sight. Windows rolled down, and people poked their heads out to look in curiosity.
"This is a buffer wall, emergency-built specifically to receive large influxes of survivors. It was just completed two days ago," Lynn explained calmly as he scrolled through the latest updates on the mutation zone on his smart bracelet. "The air defense system of the main wall has also been upgraded. It’s a new type of energy interference net that can block the perception of mutated birds, while also possessing precision strike capabilities."
"Badass!" Miles’s eyes were glazed over, utterly overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the distant stronghold.