Chapter 171: Water

When developing the territory, Mo Chenxuan and Qin Wu allocated two acres to building a water reservoir.

The reservoir had a capacity of fifty million litres but was only one hundredth full when people moved into the territory.

In the end, water consumption exceeded expectations, and now Uncle Zhang was scrambling to meet the demand.

“How is Uncle Zhang handling it?” Mo Chenxuan asked.

“The old man has issued a notice for all water and ice ability users.” Aunt Zhang started and quickly continued.

“Level one ability users are required to contribute three hundred litres of water every week, level two need seventeen hundred litres, and level three need eight thousand litres.” She said.

“What about compensation?” Qin Wu asked.

“One purified level two crystal core for every twenty litres within the required amount. Beyond the required amount, one purified level two crystal core for every ten litres.” Aunt Zhang said, and Qin Wu nodded.

“It’s not a bad deal, but our territory doesn’t have enough water and ice ability users to make a difference.” She said, and Aunt Zhang sighed.

“The old man is thinking of rationing water.” She said.

Hearing this, Qin Wu and Mo Chenxuan exchanged a glance.

They had plenty of water in the space.

However, they couldn’t rashly offer it to the territory.

On one hand, they didn’t know the effect of the river and lake waters. If they revealed it without uncovering its properties, they may end up shooting themselves in the foot and causing trouble for their territory.

’We need to test the water before deciding whether to use it to fill the reservoir.’ Qin Wu thought and raised an eyebrow while looking at Mo Chenxuan.

Seeing the raised eyebrow, Mo Chenxuan understood and nodded.

“What else is going on?” Qin Wu asked.

“Our territory has struck a deal with the Human Alliance. They will provide weapons, and we will give them purified crystal cores.” Aunt Zhang said, and the two nodded.

They negotiated the weapons deal with the leaders of the Human Alliance, but left the details to the relevant departments.

Hearing that a deal was made, the two were happy and couldn’t wait to get more crystal weapons.

After eating, Mo Chenxuan and Qin Wu decided to inspect the territory.

As expected, the outside was an oven. The air was dry, and the heat was borderline intolerable.

“It makes sense that people need more water to endure this weather.” Qin Wu said and subconsciously frowned.

From what she remembered, the first apocalypse summer wasn’t so hot in her previous life.

Realising this, her eyes narrowed with a thoughtful expression.

[The weather is hotter than in our previous life.] Mo Chenxuan transmitted, and Qin Wu nodded before speaking.

[We can somewhat control how the human race reacts and develops in the apocalypse, but we can’t do anything about the weather.] She said and sighed.

After that, the two fell silent and continued walking.

Compared to the main base, their territory was livelier, and survivors looked happier despite the weather.

Seeing this, Qin Wu subconsciously smiled and squeezed Mo Chenxuan’s hand.

[Chenxuan, our hard work is not for nothing.] She said, and Mo Chenxuan turned to her with a doting expression.

’Your smile is worth the hard work of the past year.’ He thought and also squeezed his wife’s hand.

After that, the two walked the business streets, the residential areas, and the administration area before going to the training grounds.

The territory had two training grounds.

Of the two, one was strictly for military use and the other was for civilian use.

When Mo Chenxuan and Qin Wu created the territory rules, several pertained to training.

According to the rules, all able-bodied survivors aged between twelve and sixty-six were expected to train in preparation for enemy attacks.

As a result, when the two arrived at the civilian training area, they saw hundreds of people running around the grounds while others were handling weapons at a designated place.

“Not bad.” Qin Wu nodded with a satisfied expression.

In their previous life, ordinary survivors were usually forcibly drafted to participate in zombie sieges.

However, this created a confusing and wasteful situation since most of the drafted people couldn’t use weapons or keep up with the changes on the battlefield.

Considering this, Mo Chenxuan and Qin Wu made sure that everyone in their territory could contribute without causing chaos.

[Chenxuan, should we let those who can’t fight stay in their houses, or should we send them to the stadium during the zombie siege?] Qin Wu asked.

[Let’s decide after investigating the zombie horde.] Mo Chenxuan answered.

[You are right. It may not be necessary to hide them if the zombie horde is not too threatening.] Qin Wu said, and Mo Chenxuan nodded.

After all, using the stadium would consume a lot of resources.

Considering that, neither Qin Wu nor Mo Chenxuan wanted to use it unless it was absolutely necessary.

Like the civilian training ground, the military training ground was also filled with people.

However, the difference between the soldiers and ordinary survivors was clear at a glance, and the two nodded in relief.

[It’s worth it to use so many resources to train them.] Qin Wu said.

[Our army will be even more effective when every soldier has one or more crystal weapons.] Mo Chenxuan said with a thoughtful expression.

[Chenxuan, shall we go to the research institute to check on their progress?] Qin Wu asked, but Mo Chenxuan shook his head before speaking.

[Not yet.] He said and quickly continued.

[Let’s check the walls first.]

The territory had four major walls.

Two were the walls separating District Eight from its left and right neighbours, one separated the territory from the main base, and the last was the territory’s portion of the base wall.

The portion was five hundred metres long and was undeniably the most important of the four walls since it was the first barrier between survivors and external threats.

Knowing this, Mo Chenxuan wanted to check the wall preparations to make sure that everything would be in place when the zombie siege began.

The two arrived at the wall soon after.

Seeing a stairwell, Qin Wu pointed and led the way.

Three minutes later, they reached the top of the wall and began looking around.

[Sniper posts every fifty metres and five patrol soldiers for every one hundred metres.] Qin Wu observed.

Each sniper was equipped with a crystal sniper rifle and a crystal gun, while the patrol soldiers carried thermal and crystal guns.

Seeing this, the two nodded in satisfaction and walked to the nearest sniper post.

The post was a small cubicle that could accommodate at most three people.

At this time, a soldier was watching the surroundings using his rifle scope while the others were resting nearby.

“Lord Mo, Lady Qin.” The soldiers greeted them when they saw the two.

“Is everything okay?” Qin Wu asked, her lips curled in a smile.

“Everything is fine.” One of the soldiers answered.

They had compared the living and working conditions of other armies and felt lucky they had signed up for District Eight.

Thinking this, the soldier sat up with a solemn expression.

“Has anything changed?” Mo Chenxuan asked, and the soldiers nodded.

“Task takers have cleared most of the zombies within one hundred metres of the base. However, more and more zombies have been appearing.” A soldier said and quickly continued.

“It won’t be long before task takers are forced to retreat closer to the base.”

“What about the zombie levels?” Qin Wu asked.

“All are level two. We haven’t seen level one or level three zombies.” One of the soldiers said, and Qin Wu subconsciously frowned.

She and Mo Chenxuan expected that most of the zombies would evolve during the winter.

However, it wasn’t a good sign that all the nearby level one zombies seemed to have advanced to level two.

’The zombie siege won’t be easy.’ She thought and turned to Mo Chenxuan.

“What about survivors?” Mo Chenxuan asked.

“There are hundreds of survivors arriving every day, but not everyone can enter the base. Quite many are stranded at the gate due to a lack of resources.”

Qin Wu sighed when she heard this.

It was regrettable that people were stranded at the gate.

However, she and Mo Chenxuan were not saints.

Although they had supplies, they couldn’t use them casually without considering the future.

That said, they weren’t heartless and had already arranged recruiters to find more residents for their territory. As long as the conditions were right, the recruiters would pay the entry fee and let the people work off their debt.

“Have you heard news about the nearby bases?” Qin Wu asked.

Although she expected a full report when she and Mo Chenxuan met the chiefs, she didn’t underestimate the value of information that the snipers could gather while watching the surroundings.

“There are rumours that some of the surrounding small bases have been destroyed. Also,…” One of the soldiers started but stopped with an uncertain expression.

“Is there something else?” Qin Wu asked, and the soldier nodded but still looked uncertain.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep