It was a state-owned research institute, much larger than a private lab. This research institute in the provincial capital mainly studied the hybridization and mutation of seed plants. It was well-known and had contributed a lot to China before the doomsday. Unfortunately, many scientists here were either dead or zombified, only a few were rescued by the military. Yun Che didn't care too much about these researchers though.
"You take 3 space superfunction possessors to collect the equipment and documents. We'll see how to open the tunnel to the underground seed bank."
2 pm, after lunch, Mo Wenyang had his deputies lead people to collect the equipment, he himself opened the map of the institute which he downloaded onto his tablet beforehand. The seed vault was supposed to be classified to the public, not even every researcher knew where it was. It seemed a tough job to find the way into it.
"It'll take too long."
Yun Che had become quite impatient. He snatched the tablet from Mo, located the master control room of the institute, led a group of people into it and grabbed another laptop from Space. "What's the password to the military satellite network?"
The Internet on Earth was ruined but the satellite network still worked, but it was encrypted, even the best hackers couldn't hack into it easily. Yun Che knew one thing or two about hacking, but he wasn't an expert.
"It has a power outage here. It's pointless to connect to the master control room."
Having finally figured out what Yun Che was up to, Mo Wenyang shook his head. Yun Che took a diesel generator from Space after darting a scornful look at him. "Shen, Yang, please help generate power."
Yun Che always had his way because he got all the supplies he would need. An outage was one of the easiest problems to solve.
"Damn, your space superfunction possessors gets and does whatever you want, I give you that."
Mo Wenyang didn't see this coming. Shen Rui, Yang Huaien took the generator and bottles of diesel to re-power the institute. Xing Feng, Leng Yehan and the rest were already used to Yun Che's "magic", in fact, it would surprise them if he couldn't get the stuff he wanted from Space.
Yang Huaien indeed was a man of all work. The power came back in no time. Mo Wenyang had no choice but to give Yun Che the password. After quickly tapping on the keyboard, Yun Che soon connected his laptop to the server. Mo Wenyang was excited about the files on the server, he asked Yun Che to copy everything onto his mobile hard drive. Whether the data was useful or not, he decided to take it all back.
It took them another half an hour to reach the tunnel to the vault. The gate-opening part would be easy, gold superfunction possessors could melt all kinds of metal. When they entered the vault, everybody opened up their eyes with mouths agape. Under the lights, the giant vault seemed boundless. Rows and rows of shelves lined up on the ground, plumpy sacks lined up on the shelves. Each sack was labeled with the name of the seed. The seeds of enormous quantity were well categorized. These seeds were able to sustain Southwest Base for a couple of years even if they didn't grow any new plants.
"Wow, state-owned, huh? Quite impressive."
Yun Che expressed his complimentary remark after a long silence. He took the first step into the vault. Even he was impressed by this place, no wonder the military would show interest in it.
"Precaution-taking and preparation-making are what we Chinese do. But to be honest, these are way more than I imagined."
Mo Wenyang followed Yun Che after coming to his senses. He never expected the vault to be this huge.
"Didn't you say every province has a vault like this? Are they all as large as this one?"
Ye Xingchen and the rest walked past the gate as well despite the fact that they were still in shock. These seeds could sustain Peak for generations.
"No, they can't all have this large quantity. Southwest is a special area. Take the military forces for example, every other province only has one army, Southwest Base has 3. From ancient times to this day, the southwest area has always been the best place to store the talent and supplies. And don't forget that this institute did have contributed a lot to the country before the doomsday, so it should have more stock."
Xing Feng explained without looking back while walking next to Yun Che. The Xing Family knew this kind of stuff more than the leaders of the country did.
"Never mind the other provinces, let's focus on this one. Major General Mo, shall the space superfunction possessors start working?"
Other than Yun Che and Xing Feng, there were 10 space superfunction possessors on the team, 6 from the military, 4 from other squads. Mo Wenyang had ordered his deputies to lead three of them to collect equipment and data. Those weren't experts so they most likely would put everything in Space whether the stuff was actually useful or not. With their Space stuffed up, the other 7 couldn't take too much stuff, they had different sizes of Space.
"OK. Get to work."
Things were always difficult for Mo Wenyang. He would wish for supplies when they were in shortage, but when he got all the supplies he wanted, he wasn't sure how to take everything home. If they came back for the rest, there would be unnecessary deaths. Heiyu and Yun Che had made themselves every clear that they wouldn't aid the military again.
The seven space superfunction possessors followed the order by putting sacks and sacks of seeds into their Space. Unlike Yun Che who generally put stuff into Space by a wave of hand, they would have to physically touch the objects.
"My Space is full."
About some 15 minutes later, the seven space superfunction possessors came back walking like pregnant women. The overuse of space was like the overuse of superfunction. They did feel like pregnant women, light-headed, weak, sick.
"Uh, there are two-thirds left…"
Said Mo Wenyang with eyebrows knitted. He wished he was a space superfunction possessor. The soldiers wore an unhappy face too. They were aware that if they couldn't take everything back, they would have to come back again and they really didn't want to experience what happened in the past few days again. They also were aware that the zombies might get stronger the next time.
"What about your Space?"
Yun Che asked Xing Feng in a calm tone of voice. They had collected a lot last night from the streets. Yun Che would assume Xing Feng's Space was full.
"Put them in yours."
Said Xing Feng as he gesticulated. Even if his Space still had room, there was only a little left.
"I'll help myself then."
Replied Yun Che with a smile. He stepped forward, waved his hand and everything people could see vanished, including the shelves. Yun Che then rode the electric scooter that he took from Space to collect the remnants in the distance. The crowd was stunned the moment he waved his hand. His jaw-dropping act made them all wonder how big his Space was.
"OK, done."
It only took Yun Che five minutes to empty the entire vault. Unlike the other space superfunction possessors, Yun Che suffered from no uncomfortableness whatsoever as if nothing ever happened.
"How large is your Space? I mean why didn't you tell us earlier?"
Mo Wenyang was agitated, he even roared the second question out. If he had known this, he wouldn't have taken all these space superfunction possessors here. Every space superfunction possessor needed protection for heaven's sake!
"You didn't ask."
"I…"
Yun Che shut Mo Wenyang up with three simple words. Hand in hand, Yun Che and Xing Feng left the vault, followed by Chaoyang and Peak guys.
"Goddammit!"
After a long long time, a ghastful bellow burst out back in the massive, empty vault. Soldiers shied away from the mad major general. But they would agree with him because what Yun Che did and said were really maddening.
Around 4 pm, the collecting job was almost done. The team glided back to the KTV from the top floor of the main building. It only took them several minutes to return to where they started. The casualties and level-2 superfunction possessors were relieved and shocked by how few deaths there were. This was most unexpected.
"We get going now or tomorrow?"
The building was located between the second and the third ring. No one could foresee what would possibly happen overnight. But it was already 4 pm, they only got 2 hours before it got dark. With so many casualties slowing them down, they wouldn't travel too far.
"Now!"
Xing Feng and Yun Che answered at the same time. Yes, the streets still teemed with zombies, but they'd killed almost all the level-3 ones. All they needed to do was take the same way back as fast as possible and reached the beltway before dark.
"I got a double-decker bus yesterday, the casualties and space superfunction possessors will take that bus, which will be wrapped in air membrane. Heiyu and the Wolf King will be clearing the path, the rest of us just follow the bus on foot."
As long as there weren't any level-3 zombies making trouble, they should travel at a fairly fast speed. It wouldn't be that safe on the way back but staying here was the worst option and would benefit no one. Who would know how many zombies would upgrade to level-3 overnight?
"OK. Let's go."
Mo Wenyang understood their concerns too. There was nothing to worry about now that the casualties got a bus to sit in.
"You won't be killing zombies on our way back?"
Chen Hua from Joy Squad asked. The team would be much weaker without Yun Che.
"No, I can't. Maintaining air membrane that's large enough to wrap the bus will cost most of my superfunction energy. I'm not even sure if I can make it to the beltway. I can't spend more energy on fighting zombies."
He had no choice. He wasn't all-powerful. Certain half-measures had to be taken.
"It's OK. He's already doing as much as he can to protect a bus of people. We should take the main responsibility sometimes. Our goal is to reach the service station on the beltway before 7 pm. It's an order!"
Mo Wenyang terminated the subject by giving a peremptory order. Tomorrow would be day 5. If they could get to the service station tonight, they would have enough time to go back to the base.
"Yes, commander!"
The soldiers answered with full spirit and started packing their stuff. The expedition was ready to go in less than 10 minutes. Same as usual, two gold superfunction possessors unlocked the roller shutter, ranged superfunction possessors exterminated the zombies first to swarm in, Heiyu and the Wolf King then dashed out of the building, followed by all the entire team to clear an area. Yun Che took the bus out. With the help of mild injured, the heavily injured got on the bus, then the space superfunction possessors. When everybody was on the bus, Xing Feng sat in the driver's seat, Yun Che in the shotgun, casting air membrane to cover the entire bus.