Li Hao walked out of Leng Tian's shop with a dark expression. He glanced at Huang Mao and the others outside the market. People had set up a bonfire around the ice buckets, planning to slowly roast them, but the effect seemed minimal.
Li Hao called out to a few of his subordinates, "Do any of you know where that new fifth-tier ability user lives?"
Several of his underlings, itching for a fight, thought their boss was going to lead them to regain face. "Brother Li, we all know. We followed him the day he arrived."
"Good, a few of you lead the way. We'll go to his place to find him."
With that, Li Hao left the market with his subordinates and headed towards the inner city.
...
The second floor of Leng Tian's shop.
Leng Tian was still drinking alone, slowly sipping his tea, not at all like he had told Li Hao that military personnel were urgently looking for him.
After about ten minutes, a subordinate came to report, "Brother Tian, that Li Hao left. He was heading towards the inner city."
"Mm, what's the situation outside the market?"
"Someone set up a fire to roast them, but it doesn't seem to be working."
"Heh, are they all idiots? They were transformed by high-tier abilities. How can ordinary fire melt them?"
"Yes, but Brother Tian, aren't you going to intervene?"
Leng Tian glared at the man, who immediately fell silent. "In the apocalypse, the kind-hearted all died first. Haven't you learned your lesson?"
"Yes."
It wasn't that Leng Tian was cold-blooded. After all, he had seen too much of human wickedness in the apocalypse. The story of the farmer and the snake played out every day. Those who survived to become strong were not people who meddled in others' affairs.
The people outside the market did not belong to his faction, and if his intervention failed, his status in the base could be affected.
Leng Tian had a feeling that someone who could live alone in the apocalypse and arrive at the base cleanly and with dignity must be powerful. Lu Heng must have also hidden his true strength.
...
Base military camp.
Lu Heng came out of the trading market and was stopped by someone in military uniform halfway. The person said that high-ranking military officials wanted to meet him, but didn't say why.
Lu Heng raised an eyebrow. The incident in the market shouldn't have alerted the military yet. After all, the team that sent such a subordinate to cause trouble for him couldn't be strong enough for the military to mediate.
Lu Heng didn't hesitate and followed the soldier's motorcycle to the military camp.
Lu Heng was invited into a seemingly inconspicuous small building. This building was located in a remote area of the military camp. Lu Heng had seen it when he was given a tour last time, but he hadn't paid much attention to it, and the person leading the tour hadn't mentioned anything special about it. 138 Reading Network
Seeing it again now, he couldn't help but curl his lips. It seemed that Li Lei had deliberately walked him past this place last time, wanting the military high command to see him.
It made sense. With the arrival of a fifth-tier ability user, it was unlikely that the military would have remained silent for so many days.
Following the soldier, he arrived at the second floor of the small building, where a large reception hall was already filled with many soldiers.
Judging by their attire, they should all be high-ranking generals.
Seeing Lu Heng enter, an officer immediately stood up and walked towards Lu Heng with a smile. "Hahaha, we finally meet our base's second fifth-tier ability user. It's truly an honor."
"You're too kind. May I ask why you've called me here?" Lu Heng was led to a sofa and sat down.
"Mr. Lu, I am the Defense Commander of our base, Zhao Kai. We should have met you the day you arrived at the base, but many people were out on missions at the time, so we couldn't gather everyone. Fortunately, everyone is here today, so we wanted to meet you."
"Ha, Commander Zhao, our base is truly very welcoming." Lu Heng smiled and replied politely.
"I heard you've already settled down in the base. It seems you are quite satisfied with our base. We warmly welcome high-tier ability users like you to join us."
"Yes, the environment here is quite good. I see that the base's facilities are all complete."
"Oh, so you plan to stay here permanently? Our base has different treatment for high-tier ability users. At the very least, we can guarantee that you will not be harassed by others within the base."
Lu Heng raised an eyebrow. He had just been harassed in the trading market. Did the military not get the news? Or were they playing dumb? "Oh? There's such treatment? I was just stopped in the trading market and told they wanted to charge me parking fees. When I asked them for a receipt, they wanted to fight me."
"Something like that happened? I'll send someone to investigate which outfit is so blind. Did Mr. Lu suffer any losses? If there were losses, our base will compensate you, as internal fighting is not allowed within the base."
"No, there weren't any losses, but I estimate the other party didn't fare too well. After all, they wanted to attack me. Since the apocalypse began, besides zombies, no one has ever dared to lay a hand on me."
Zhao Kai felt a bit annoyed when he heard that someone had already started causing trouble for Lu Heng, as having another high-tier ability user in the base was a good thing for the base.
Lu Heng also sensed Zhao Kai's thoughts and finally felt relieved. It seemed that the high-ranking officials in the base had some foresight and wouldn't offend true powerhouses because of certain factions.
...
Outside the villa Lu Heng purchased.
Li Hao, with a group of people, was staking out the villa. They had been waiting for over an hour but Lu Heng had not returned.
Initially, they thought Lu Heng was inside the villa and didn't want to see them, but the villa was surrounded by an iron fence with high-voltage electricity. They had no choice but to wait outside the yard.
"Some of you go into the base and find out where that person went. It's been so long, Huang Mao and the others might freeze to death."
Soon, a subordinate ran back, panting, "Brother Li, that person was taken away by the base military."
"Damn it, which military camp did he go to? We'll go there and wait." Since military camps all had one exit, they just needed to know which camp Lu Heng went to in order to wait there.
...
Lu Heng and Zhao Kai and other high-ranking military officials talked for nearly two hours. The military mainly wanted to win him over to stay long-term. Lu Heng wouldn't need to do anything normally, but they hoped he would handle difficult matters with the military.
Lu Heng was reluctant to agree to the military's request for such matters, but the military offered very generous rewards. Even when there were no difficult issues, the military would provide Lu Heng with five hundred Level 3 ordinary crystals every month. If Lu Heng helped the military complete a difficult mission, the military would provide additional rewards based on the mission's difficulty, and guarantee that Lu Heng's life in the base would not be disturbed by other factions.