333: Chapter 333: Time to Stock Up Again!

The speed at which the base was being rebuilt was faster than anyone had anticipated.

The reason was simple—

The sixty-plus women Ling Shuanghan brought were incredibly capable.

Not just ordinarily capable.

It was the kind of capability that came from "having lived for 100 years in the Apocalypse, having seen everything and knowing how to do everything."

When Lin Yuan was assigning roles, he had originally thought they would need an adjustment period.

As it turned out, they didn't.

Not even a single day.

After their positions were assigned on the morning of the first day, they started working in the afternoon.

The three people in charge of construction took one look at the Shelter's defensive fortifications and began reinforcing them without a word.

The method they used was something the Blue Star survivors had never seen before—

A reinforcement technique that utilized the internal stress of the ice layers.

No extra materials were needed; they only had to tap a few specific spots.

After tapping, the hardness of the ice walls increased by nearly double.

The ones in charge of logistics were even more exaggerated.

After taking over the supply warehouse, they spent half a day reorganizing it.

Once finished, the warehouse's storage efficiency had increased by 40%.

In the same amount of space, they had managed to fit nearly half as much again.

The girl from Blue Star who was in charge of the warehouse looked at the rearranged supply racks and was silent for a long time.

Then she asked: "How big was your warehouse over there?"

The other person gestured.

It was about the size of a shoebox.

"Only this big?"

"Yeah. Supplies for 800 people, all in there."

The Blue Star girl was silent again.

She looked at the warehouse she managed—an ice cavern the size of a soccer field.

Then she decided that starting from today, she would learn with an open mind.

The two people in charge of intelligence were the quietest.

They had barely spoken since taking over their posts.

They just silently mapped out the terrain, resource distribution, and potential threats within thirty kilometers of the Shelter.

It took them two days.

Then they handed Lin Yuan a hand-drawn map.

The map marked 47 resource points that the Blue Star survivors had never discovered.

Lin Yuan glanced at the map.

"Not bad."

Two words.

But for Lin Yuan, "Not bad" was already an extremely high evaluation.

Because his usual evaluation system only had three levels—

"Mm" meant qualified.

"Not bad" meant exceeding expectations.

Silence meant unqualified.

There was never a fourth level.

Ling Shuanghan stood to the side, watching Lin Yuan assign her people to various posts.

Everyone was placed in the most suitable position.

Those strong in melee went to the patrol team.

The dexterous ones went to the construction group.

The meticulous ones went to logistics.

The steady ones went to intelligence.

Not a single person was wasted.

"You treat people the same way you treat supplies," Ling Shuanghan said.

Lin Yuan glanced at her.

"Putting them in the places they belong," Ling Shuanghan added.

"People are more valuable than supplies," Lin Yuan said. "Wasting talent is stupider than wasting supplies."

Ling Shuanghan smiled slightly.

This man always spoke so bluntly.

But every sentence was the truth.

She felt more and more that she had made the right decision.

Although the cost of this decision was the seven hundred-plus people who had followed her for 100 years.

But the right decision was often the most painful one.

The evening of the third day.

Lin Yuan was sitting alone in the Shelter's command room.

The door was knocked three times.

"Come in."

Ling Shuanghan pushed the door open and entered.

She had changed into Blue Star-style winter clothing—

Uniformly issued by the Shelter, gray-white, thick, not pretty but very warm.

Wearing this outfit, she looked no different from the female survivors of Blue Star.

Except for those ice-blue eyes.

Those eyes couldn't be hidden no matter what she wore.

Ling Shuanghan sat down opposite Lin Yuan.

She was silent for a few seconds.

Then she asked a question she had been holding back for three days.

"The power within you... is of the same origin as that energy entity."

It wasn't a question.

It was a statement.

She had seen it with her own eyes in the microscopic world—

When Lin Yuan activated the resonance device, the golden energy and the silver sphere of light attracted each other.

Things of the same origin attracted each other.

This meant that the power within Lin Yuan and the energy entity at the core of the rift came from the same source.

And that source—

Was what the cleanser was tracking.

"What exactly are you?" Ling Shuanghan asked.

Lin Yuan looked at her.

His expression didn't change at all.

"You don't need to know that."

Ling Shuanghan's brows furrowed slightly.

"You only need to know one thing," Lin Yuan said.

"What?"

"Follow me, and your people won't die again."

Ling Shuanghan was silent.

She looked into Lin Yuan's eyes.

Those eyes were very calm.

No threat.

No warning.

Just stating a fact.

Follow me, and your people won't die again.

Not a promise.

It was a fact.

Because so far, he had indeed done it.

Ling Shuanghan nodded.

"Okay."

She didn't press further.

She was a smart person.

100 years of the Apocalypse had taught her what should be asked and what should not.

Some things, knowing them was a burden instead.

Not knowing, on the contrary, meant living longer.

She stood up and walked toward the door.

When she reached the door, she paused.

"Thank you."

"What are you thanking me for?"

"Thank you for taking in my people."

Lin Yuan didn't answer.

Ling Shuanghan didn't wait for him to answer either.

She pushed the door open and left.

After the door closed, Lin Yuan leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling.

The word "thank you" was rarely used in the Apocalypse.

Because interpersonal relationships in the Apocalypse were mostly built on interests.

Cooperate if useful, separate if not.

"Thank you" was a word that belonged to the old world.

But Ling Shuanghan had said it.

This showed that she was not just a rational leader.

She was also a—

Forget it, no point thinking about it.

Lin Yuan was not good at analyzing human emotions.

He was good at analyzing supplies, combat power, and threat levels.

Emotions were too complex.

Not as simple as supplies.

About half an hour later.

The door was knocked again.

This time it wasn't three knocks.

Just one knock.

Very light.

Lin Yuan knew who it was.

"Come in."

Ye Qingxue pushed the door open and entered.

She didn't sit down.

She stood at the door, looking at Lin Yuan.

She was silent for a while.

"This time... you worked hard."

Lin Yuan glanced at her.

"It wasn't hard work."

"You always say it wasn't hard work."

"Because it's never hard work."

Ye Qingxue looked at him.

She knew he was lying.

It was impossible that it wasn't hard work.

That week in the microscopic world, how much had he done?

Planning routes, manufacturing devices, assigning tasks, absorbing energy entities, expelling the Vanguard in one blow—

Every single thing required consuming immense energy and effort.

But he said "it wasn't hard work."

Because he didn't want anyone to worry.

That was just the kind of man he was.

Carrying all the pressure on himself, then telling others "it wasn't hard work."

Ye Qingxue walked up to him.

She reached out her hand.

She held Lin Yuan's hand for a moment.

Very lightly.

Only held it for about two seconds.

Then let go.

Turned and left.

Didn't say goodbye.

Didn't say goodnight.

Didn't say any unnecessary words.

Just held it for a moment.

Then left.

Lin Yuan watched her back disappear at the door.

The corners of his mouth turned up slightly.

A very small arc.

Small enough that if Ye Qingxue had looked back, she probably wouldn't have seen it.

But she didn't look back.

So this smile, only Lin Yuan himself knew about it.

The night grew deeper.

Most people in the Shelter were already asleep.

Lin Yuan was still in the command room.

He was waiting for someone.

Sure enough, the door was knocked again.

This time it was two knocks.

The rhythm was fast.

Luo Qinghan.

When she pushed the door open and entered, her expression was different from usual.

Usually, Luo Qinghan was cold, distant, and expressionless.

But now her brows were slightly furrowed, and her lips were pressed into a thin line.

This was a sign of her nervousness.

Although she might not admit it herself.

"Something up?" Lin Yuan asked.

Luo Qinghan sat down opposite him.

She was silent for five seconds.

"I must tell you something."

Lin Yuan waited.

"In the memories of my previous life—"

Luo Qinghan's voice was very low, as if afraid of being heard by something.

"The cleanser is not the greatest threat."

Lin Yuan's expression didn't change.

"There is something more terrifying than the cleanser."

"What is it?"

Luo Qinghan shook her head.

"I don't know what it's called. In the memories of my previous life, it had no name. Everyone who knew its name—"

She paused.

"All died."

The command room was quiet for a few seconds.

"I only know one thing."

Luo Qinghan continued. "Your act of absorbing the authority fragment might have already caught its attention."

"Might have?"

"Not might have," Luo Qinghan corrected herself. "It definitely has."

She looked into Lin Yuan's eyes.

"In the memories of my previous life, the reason for Blue Star's final destruction was not the cleanser. Not the White Frost Era. Not any disaster we know of."

"It was that thing?"

Luo Qinghan nodded.

"It noticed Blue Star. And then Blue Star was gone."

Her voice was very light.

So light that it was like telling a bedtime story.

But the content was nothing like a bedtime story.

Lin Yuan was silent for a moment.

"Got it."

Two words.

Luo Qinghan waited for three seconds, finding that he had no intention of continuing.

"That's... it? 'Got it'?"

"Mm."

"What I just told you is that an entity capable of destroying Blue Star has already noticed you."

"I heard you."

"Your reaction is just 'Got it'?"

Lin Yuan glanced at her.

"What reaction do you want from me?"

Luo Qinghan opened her mouth.

She wanted to say "at least show a little nervousness."

But she didn't say it.

Because she suddenly realized.

Making Lin Yuan show nervousness was probably harder than making that unknown entity stop paying attention to Blue Star.

"...Forget it."

Luo Qinghan stood up.

"I've finished speaking. Be careful yourself."

She walked to the door and looked back.

"Really, be careful."

"Mm."

Luo Qinghan left.

After the door closed, Lin Yuan sat alone in the command room.

He didn't do anything immediately.

He was feeling.

The thing Luo Qinghan spoke of—

An existence from a deeper universe—he had indeed felt it in the instant he absorbed the authority fragment.

A trace of peeking.

An extremely weak, fleeting gaze.

As if something had opened an eye in the endless darkness and taken a look toward Blue Star.

Just one look.

Then closed it again.

But that one look was enough.

It knew where Blue Star was.

It knew someone was collecting authority fragments.

Lin Yuan leaned back in his chair, looking at the snow filling the sky outside the window.

The wind and snow were heavy.

But the Shelter was very quiet.

Over five thousand people were sleeping peacefully.

They didn't know that something more terrifying than the cleanser had already noticed this planet.

They didn't need to know.

Knowing wouldn't help.

Because the only one who could do something was Lin Yuan.

He pulled his focus back.

"Let them come."

His tone was flat.

Exactly the same tone as saying "assign roles tomorrow."

Then he added.

"I've been worried that restocking is too slow."

The wind and snow outside the window suddenly grew heavier.

As if something was responding to his words.

But it might just be the wind.

The wind in the Apocalypse never had any pattern anyway.

Lin Yuan closed his eyes.

There were still many things to do tomorrow.

The new members' roles needed fine-tuning.

Defensive fortifications needed checking.

The sealed Vanguard cores needed further research.

And that 95-point woman—

Forget it, that doesn't count as real business.

Lin Yuan pushed this thought down.

He needed rest.

Outside the Shelter, the wind and snow of the White Frost Era covered everything.

Ice fields, ruins, the blurry outline of the city in the distance.

Everything looked no different from before the cataclysm.

But some things had changed.

They had become stronger.

They had become more dangerous.

And they had become more interesting.

At least that was the case for Lin Yuan.

Because in his world, "more dangerous" and "more interesting" were synonyms.

And another meaning of "more interesting" was—

Time to restock again!