Chapter 101: Delightful Moments on the Journey of Migration

“After thinking it over, this time we’re definitely not making a profit!”

“Although we’ve established trade routes with Titch and Nangong…”

“We managed to get the instruments and supplies we needed, but the lifeblood of raw materials is still controlled by the other side.”

“Plus, we ended up with a bunch of useless baggage that consumes an astonishing amount…”

“Especially the Veronica Combat Squad—a bunch of slackers. After being transformed into modified soldiers, a hundred of them eat as much as a thousand ordinary men!”

Watching the Veronica Combat Squad training under Javier’s command in a clearing nearby, alongside the original crew of the Corpse Hunters organization, Joe felt an inexplicable pang in his heart.

Since leaving the Prati Black Market, the group had been heading south with three bio-fortresses for more than three months.

They had traveled with many stops and starts, and now they were over ten thousand kilometers away from the Prati Black Market.

Nearly the distance from the Chinese capital to the American capital.

Logically, with the speed of the three bio-fortresses, they could have covered ten times that distance.

But Ye Hai was not in a hurry, occasionally staying put for a dozen days or so.

Partly to maintain contact with Nangong’s people for resupply.

And partly because Ye Hai’s operation had grown large.

Before entering the next black market, Ye Hai decided to properly reorganize this ragtag group.

From the Prati Black Market, Ye Hai had brought out about three thousand people, and together with the original core of the Corpse Hunters, the group had swollen to nearly four thousand.

If he didn’t integrate them, it would be a waste to keep feeding these guys, which pained Ye Hai deeply.

They had to create some value.

So Ye Hai first had Nangong procure a cotton clothing production line.

Most people, except the five hundred fit adults enlisted into the army, were put on this production line.

In Ye Hai’s words, it was just to give these people something to do to prevent trouble.

As for cotton clothing, it was somewhat useful, but with fewer than four thousand people under Ye Hai’s command, it was definitely overcapacity.

The reason for choosing a cotton clothing line over weapons or other goods was that Zombie Planet’s long, harsh winter was approaching.

Back in the Prati Black Market days, the winter each year nearly wiped out more than half of the survivors.

Unlike Earth, the winter on Zombie Planet lasted six months or even longer.

The global average temperature would drop below minus fifty degrees Celsius.

Except for a few special terrains, the entire planet would become permafrost.

Cold, food scarcity, and even water shortages would become death sentences for survivors.

At the same time, due to the extreme cold, the production capacity of lumber and ores on Zombie Planet would plummet to shocking levels.

Lumber, as the backbone industry of Zombie Planet, was the lifeline for most survivors.

Because the planet’s wood was long soaked in a viral environment.

Although the airborne virus was too thin to turn trees into mutants,

the virus altered the properties of all the wood on the planet,

making it sturdy, wear-resistant, and decay-proof.

After certain treatments, this wood was sold to the distant Sea Wolf Star at the edge of the galaxy.

The people there had an almost obsessive love for wood,

and Zombie Planet’s lumber was considered the finest.

Among alien merchants, there was a saying: If you can fill a flagship with Zombie Planet’s wood and deliver it to Sea Wolf Star, you will return with two flagships.

This showed just how enormous the profits were.

This was one reason alien merchants risked their lives to flock to Zombie Planet.

Ironically, the lumberjacks of Zombie Planet often died in large numbers during one harsh winter.

Each spring, the black market magnates rejoiced.

Because the mass death of lumberjacks forced higher costs, making timber prices rise was inevitable.

Although the so-called “high costs” were just the price of a rotten, foul-smelling piece of bread.

Even with doubled timber prices, supply could never meet demand.

It was a carnival for the black market overlords.

If you asked why, with such huge profits, alien merchants didn’t send their own people to harvest the timber,

you would be naively mistaken.

This place… is Zombie Planet!

Here… there is no law!

Here… no high-energy weapons!

Here… the four major stars don’t care!

Here… human life is nothing, and aliens are no exception!

Yet for Ye Hai, this was a great opportunity.

Now, he could afford to keep people alive…

He could supply them with warm clothing…

As for energy… beneath Ye Hai’s collapsed villa were stored enough bioenergy blocks to power ten thousand people for fifty years.

This was the only thing Ye Hai could show after ten years of survival on Zombie Planet.

Given a winter’s time, with sufficient food guaranteed,

Ye Hai was confident he could expand the Corpse Hunters organization five to tenfold.

And not just keeping people idle…

In the months following Ye Hai, the survivors had fully experienced what a paradise on earth was.

They could eat their fill every meal, had medical care when sick, and even enjoyed rich leisure activities—like playing mahjong!

Once introduced, mahjong became a nationwide obsession.

So far, the Mahjong King Championship had been held three times,

greatly enriching the people’s spiritual and cultural life and uniting them in a shared dream.

It promoted spiritual civilization in a popular and welcome way,

strengthening combat effectiveness and cohesion.

It gave the people more sense of gain and happiness.

As a native Chinese, Ye Hai valued spiritual civilization greatly.

On the cotton clothing production line inside the bio-serpent, many slogans with a strong vintage flavor could be seen:

“Laborers are the most glorious!”

“Do it yourself, have plenty to wear and eat!”

“Three years of chaos, five years to catch the giant trees!”

“The bolder the man, the higher the cotton yield!”

“…”

Ah… don’t underestimate these things…

The Corpse Officers initially sneered,

but now looked at them with new respect.

It must be said, Ye Hai’s combination of policies was indeed brilliant.

He managed to govern the survivors who had joined just three months ago thoroughly.

From basic material needs to now pursuing higher spiritual civilization.

Every survivor genuinely supported Comrade Ye Hai’s leadership.

Just missing a “Long live the revolution!” slogan.

The only flaw Joe saw was…

In the three Mahjong King Championships, Zero had won twice, but Joe himself was repeatedly knocked out in the first round.

Even Javier, whom Joe had regarded as a comrade in hardship for months, had successfully advanced to the second round in the recently concluded third championship five days ago.

This made Joe so angry he couldn’t sleep for days.

He bitterly accused Javier of betraying the revolution!

Spiritual civilization was important, of course.

But what pleased Ye Hai even more was not the giant egg that shortened the incubation time by thirty years,

nor was it the twelve “Immortal-Cutting Flying Knives” that Lister crafted for Joe at his request,

nor even the successful transformation of Kobayashi’s mech into Ye Hai’s exclusive bio-g battle armor…

It was that Ye Hai had made a major breakthrough in genetic serums.

Currently, the gene serums circulating in Leviathan information were created based on the zombie virus.

At best, they could evolve humans into fifth-stage mutants.

After Nangong delivered numerous viral experimental devices according to the last trade list,

Ye Hai had been studying gene serums intensively.

Finally, with Ye Hai’s efforts, using the Solar Ladder virus as a template, he successfully developed the T-virus series of gene-enhancement serums.

This new gene-enhancement serum could create sixth-stage super gene warriors without altering human intelligence or causing severe gene mutations.

Although the serum’s ferocity was neutralized using the Veronica virus,

meaning after the first stage injection, at least two years were required before the sixth stage could be administered,

allowing the creation of a batch of sixth-stage super gene warriors.

Its safety was ten thousand times greater than gene serums made using the zombie virus.

The first set of T-virus gene-enhancement serums were launched to widespread acclaim and hot demand.

Though Ye Hai currently had only two major clients—the Giant Tree Star and the Talan Army—

just a single set of gene serum earned Ye Hai half a flagship.

Why only half a flagship?

Because neither the Giant Tree Star nor the Talan Army was willing to sell spaceships.

They absolutely refused.

Eventually, the Talan Army, being closer, got the upper hand and left the Dark Tide Queen in orbit around Zombie Planet, promising Ye Hai that he could call on orbital strikes anytime…

Or receive necessary supplies for the Corpse Hunters at maximum speed.

Although Ye Hai was dissatisfied with their determination to keep him confined to the surface,

compared to discovering that the system had virus analysis capabilities,

this grievance seemed trivial.

Indeed!

The system finally came through.

The T-virus gene-enhancement serum was cultivated under the system’s analysis.

Now the system was calculating a second-generation neα parasite’s harmless parasitic method in humans.

According to the system’s prediction, if the T-virus gene-enhanced warriors reached the fourth stage,

then with a series of suppression techniques, the neα parasite could harmlessly parasitize the human body.

As long as the host survived, the neα parasite would be immortal, and the host would be unkillable.

At that time, Ye Hai’s warriors would become the supreme individual soldiers in the entire star system.

When Ye Hai first learned that the system could calculate viruses,

he couldn’t help but ask, “Why didn’t I know you had this function for a whole ten years?”

The system’s electronic voice remained cold, but Ye Hai could detect a heavy tone of mockery.

“First, you never asked me!”

“Second, in these ten years… apart from producing one Tyrant and five Lickers…”

“What was there worth calculating?”

Ye Hai found himself unable to retort!

Thus, they happily lived for nearly four months…

Finally, Ye Hai’s group arrived at the Ironwood Forest Black Market, nearly twenty thousand kilometers from the Prati Black Market.

“I went to the black market…”

“Ironwood Forest is three times larger than Prati, with a population nearing eighty thousand…”

“Only… this black market is strange.”

“They’ve actually developed some kind of peculiar religious belief!”

“You must understand, religion in the Leviathan star system has vanished for almost ten thousand years!”

“People no longer even regard religion as history…”

“Because in the age of technology… faith is like myth… utterly absurd.”

“But in Ironwood Forest, such a thing has emerged… truly a rare sight!”