What’s eating Heiyu?

Everything should be quiet in the late evening, but not here in the Coastal Base, the battle was heated out there, the colorful superfunction power lit up the sky. The zombies attacked harder during the night, but unlike the previous two nights, the base wasn't vulnerable anymore, the whole night was basically under control. It was mainly because most of the superfunction possessors had gotten enough rest when Yun Cheng went out this afternoon. Also, Tan Weiye told them that the military had come up with a solution to resolve the crisis and that if they made it through tonight, starting tomorrow, things would look good and there would be hope. Once encouraged by faith, all superfunction soldiers or regular possessors became several times stronger than usual.

Peak and Chaoyang people woke up one by one before 6 am in the next morning. Xing Feng and Yun Che took Chenchen and Heiyu downstairs after the morning clean-up. Tan Weiye was in the living waiting together with Major General Miao Xinbai, the guy who stood next to him yesterday. Shen Rui and the other Chaoyang people were having a chat with them. Tan Weiye wanted to say hi to Yun Cheng, but since Yun Che hadn't talked with him yet, Yun Cheng still saw him as a crystal nuclei stealer, so Yun Cheng just followed Leng Yehan closely, refusing to speak or acknowledge this new brother of his.

"Nominal Uncle!"

Well, Chenchen was the cute angel. He saved Tan Weiya from the awkwardness as he wondered why Yun Cheng shut him out…

"Nominal Uncle? Why? Just call me uncle."

Tan Weiye protested when he picked the boy up. Chenchen talked him back, "I have two uncles. A nominal uncle isn't a real uncle."

It sounded like a tongue-twister. Chenchen thought he should separate his real uncles from the non-biological one.

"Call me Big Uncle then, I'm older than both of your real uncles."

Tan Weiya was a slick fellow because he just didn't like the sound of "Nominal Uncle".

Chenchen wasn't sure what to do. He turned to Yun Che. Chenchen called Tan Weiye in a sweet tone of voice after receiving an approving nod from Yun Che, "Big Uncle!"

"Good boy!"

Tan Weiye petted the boy on the head with satisfaction and sat on the sofa next to Yun Che with the boy in his arms. Also, he introduced Miao Xinbai to Chenchen. Heiyu snorted on Yun Che's shoulder and jumped off. Tan Weiya and Miao Xinbai were both confused as they weren't sure why Heiyu was upset with them. First, Yun Cheng ignored them, and now this fearsome mutant dog? What the hell?

"Well, he's on his period."

"Pfffft…"

Xing Feng spat the tea water out of his mouth. The others were equally shocked. What? A dog on its period?

Whiz!

"Goddammit, again? Get off of me!"

A shadow darted at Yun Che and bit his arm. Yun Che cursed and grabbed his leg, but Heiyu was committed, he just wouldn't let go and his fangs would pierce through the skin if he wanted to. Yun Che had to apologize immediately, "Sorry, OK? You aren't on your period, uh, no, no, you don't have a period…"

Yun Che stood corrected when he felt the biting force intensified. Heiyu gave him a glare and broke loose of Yun Che's control. He jumped on to the tea table and cursed, "Shit, you're the worst master ever! I'm a male god beast, what period were you talking about? Bah! Even a female god beast doesn't have a period. If you shit-talk me again, I'll chew your arm up!"

Heiyu sat on the tea table like a human. When he roared, he pointed his shaking front paw at Yun Che. Tan Weiye and Miao Xinbai were both astounded. "He isn't just a mutant, he's a spirit!"

Chu Haoling and the other guys had no feelings toward this master-pet confrontation because they had gotten used to it, but they were still stunned by Yun Che's period nonsense.

"I was just joking, do you really have to be like this? Look at the bite marks."

Yun Che showed the bite marks to Heiyu after Xing Feng rolled up his sleeves. Heiyu's eyes blinked and stuck his chest out. "You deserved it because you were bullshitting! Listen to me, master, if you bully me again, I'll smash your arm."

"Who bullies who? Ask yourself this, how many times have you set me up?"

Yun Che thought it was unfair. It was just a joke, it wouldn't kill him, would it?

Anyway, the bottom line was that both of them were cheeky!

"Hmph!"

Heiyu knew it was a trap when it came to setups. He scorned and took another look at Yun Che's arm before he went away. "Humans are really weak. It was a mild bite, how come it left marks? I'd have to find a way to strengthen his physique. He's too weak, as his pet, I feel ashamed."

"Why did you mess with him anyway?"

Applying the ointment from Heiyu on the marks, Xing Feng gave Yun Che a criticizing look. Yun Che looked out the open window at Heiyu who was lying on the Wolf King. "He was in a mood."

He wasn't sure why but he had always felt that Heiyu was in a mood since they arrived in the Coastal Base. He wasn't supposed to be like this because soon, he could get his energy bar manufacturing machine even though he'd have to wait for a couple of days until the zombies were all killed. Or maybe Yun Che just overthought it, however, he would have a private conversation with him after everything was sorted.

"Che, w-why is he, um, like a human?"

Tan Weiye tried very hard to speak as calmly as possible, as he pointed his finger at Heiyu, but apparently, he wasn't calm at all. Miao Xinbai wasn't in a better state, either. As new-age military officers, they weren't superstitious, but the existence of Heiyu made them doubt themselves. "Is he a spirit or a mutant beast? If he's a mutant beast, how come he can talk or even swear? It's just crazy."

"His name is Heiyu, my mutant beast, whose level is very high. You'll see why he can speak in the future."

Yun Che made something up because he didn't want Heiyu's identity exposed. It wasn't entirely bullcrap because level-5 and above mutant beasts actually would learn to speak like a human, they wouldn't be as fluent as Heiyu though.

"OK. We've brought breakfast. How about we eat and talk?"

Tan Weiye knew Yun Che was bullshitting him but he wasn't interested to dig further. They were just nominal brothers, they needed to keep some privacies from each other.

"Have you?"

It was always good to have free breakfast. Yun Che stood up with Xing Feng. In the canteen, Meng Xun had already taken out the long table. On the table were the boxed fast-food porridge and two steamers of shumai. Tan Weiya said with a smile, "We've made seafood porridge and shrimp shumai using the rice and flour you gave us last night. They should be tasty."

"Yeah, I bet they are. It's so nice to live by the sea, you can use shrimp for stuffing. You know what? This should be called shrimp dumplings, right?"

Yun Che ate a shrimp shumai and the taste of the shrimp suffused his mouth immediately. Although the shumai that Yun Yao made was better, this stuffing was surely satisfying.

"Seafood is all we have."

If someone said it before the doomsday, it would have been considered as a show-off, but Tan Weiye was seriously in misery. After defeating the sea monsters, they had gained nothing else but endless seafood, but the losses were way more than the gain.

"It's better than nothing. Let's sit and eat. After breakfast, we have work to do."

Even Yun Che didn't know how to comfort the guys. He just called everybody to sit down. Yun Cheng followed Leng Yehan in and went to grab his brother's hand and kept reminding him of the crystal nuclei with winks. Yun Che found it hilarious as he put another shumai in his mouth.

"All right, all right, I got it, I'm about to mention that. Can you sit down with Yehan now?"

"OK."

After being assured, Yun Cheng turned back and sat in an empty seat with Leng Yehan. Tan Weiye wasn't blind or stupid, he asked before Yun Che even spoke, "What?"

"Would it be why Yun Cheng ignored me?" He wondered.

"So, Weiye, due to some inexplainable reason, we'll help you kill the zombies under one condition, which is we having all the level-4 crystal nuclei during the operation. What do you say?"

Yun Che was straightforward because he didn't want his brother to think that he was fooling him around again.

"Really, just that? Crystal nuclei, right? Fine, you can have all. Yes, crystal nuclei are important, but for us, the safety of the base comes first."

Tan Weiye agreed right away. Yun Cheng's face beamed as he was so glad to hear that no one would be fighting with him over the crystal nuclei.

"We don't need all, we'll only take level-4 ones. You should store as many crystal nuclei as possible because major research on the crystal nuclei is ongoing on our end, they might be very useful."

Yun Che knew Tan Weiye wouldn't say no. He took a sip of the seafood porridge that Xing Feng got him and had more because he found it quite tasty.

"OK, noted. We have counted our superfunction fighters, there are about 100,000 level-3 ones and 10,000 level-4 ones."

The crystal nuclei might indeed be useful because it was Yun Che asking him to collect as many as possible. Tan Weiye wished to know why and how but he didn't ask because the top priority, above all, was killing the zombies. They could learn more about the crystal nuclei when the job was done.

"You got many fighters."

Yun Che was surprised, but no one in Peak and Chaoyang was expecting the staggering numbers. The Coastal Base was richer than they had thought. 10,000 level-4 superfunction possessors? The snow just stopped a couple of days ago, and Chaoyang and Peak guys were fast to level up. They didn't expect there would be so many people that had reached level 4 like they had.

"Let's stick to the plan then. The more people we have, the sooner the battle ends."

Yun Che regained his cool soon. In his previous life, the Coastal Base did well without his help, so he shouldn't have been surprised at their comprehensive power, although he did have heard that the Coastal Base had been secured because they relocated the whole base after the old commander died and only one in ten people survived, but still, they had developed into one of the 7 strongest bases in the doomsday.