章 55: Small treasure

The small convoy made a large detour before going back to the camp. They arrived there at dusk, and were greeted by people in a stressed state.

"What happened?" Zhuying demanded as soon as she got out of the car.

"We got unexpected losses during today's expedition" responded the guard that received them. "The zombies were harder to deal with than usual."

"I see. We noticed the same thing on the way" she replied with a grim face. "Gather everyone for a meeting. Things are going to change a lot for all of us."

While Zhuying and the other paranormals were dealing with the survivor group, Liushi got into the Doomsday Ride. He needed to have a chat with his newest subordinate. They sat on the couch, leaving some space between them so they could turn slightly toward each other. Liushi was relaxed, but Ran Xiyu was sitting straight, in a very formal manner. She was dealing with her saviour and boss, and didn't want to leave a bad impression.

"How are you doing?"

"I am well. Once more, I thank you for saving my life and taking me in your care" she bowed before straightening up. "I will do my best to serve you well and not be a burden. I believe you wish to talk about the informations I promised?"

"Yes. As you've noticed, we don't have much time to spare."

"I understand. I know of 3 places where the kind of materials you're looking for can be stored" she said in a tone reserved for briefings, back when she worked in her father's business. "One of them is nearby. More precisely, it's near Jingling Port. The port itself isn't the most secure area, but the nearby sector had enough quality business to require better security and law enforcement patrols. Also, I don't think you will have much trouble bypassing the security of that place."

"I was hoping it would be closer to the outskirts of the city... Oh, well. Thanks. We will leave early in the morning. I want to be back before midnight to finish the preparations for our final departure."

With that said, their talk ended. While everyone was doing their own things, Liushi thought about upgrades. Not just the ones about the vehicles, but the ones about his body as well.

The bodies of animals were much more complex than they seemed. People usually only think about bones, muscles, organs and nervous system. But they are made of different cells, each containing differents parts with different functions. And all these were determined by the minuscule yet massive coded structure known as DNA, through complex and precise chemical reactions.

Any kind of genetic enhancement required not only cracking the DNA code, but also be able to accuratly alter every relevant cells, without the body collapsing from the temporary chemical instability. The Starseed may be a magnificent engineering tool, but biological engineering wasn't part of its main abilities. He needed data from a genetic research laboratory, and hoped he would find one on the way to Shenhai Island.

He placed several orders for the micro factory. The items created would be given to the survivor group when they leave. He went to bed early, and Lu joined him soon after. Zhuying had been too busy with the rest of the survivor group to join them, and went to sleep in her room. It would be the last time she slept there. The same was done by the other paranormals.

The next day, they all got up early, and after a quick breakfast, they left. They didn't take the double trailer with them, but took one of the available spare truck. The double trailer was already full, and whatever they would take on this trip, most of it would be materials immediatly used to improve the Doomsday Ride.

Liushi opened the way in the Doomtrooper, with Zhuying and Ran Xiyu. Sun Kun and Qingping followed in the guy's armored camper. Zhang Hai drove the spare truck, with Lu at his side, and Xiaotian was at the rear in the truck. They didn't take the direct route to the targeted building to avoid leaving hints of their origin point for any zombie with a budding tracking sense.

Once they got near the place, they made a little detour and slowed down. The plan was for the Doomtrooper and the spare truck to stop, while the rest of the convoy slowed down to have most of the zombies in the area chase them. With the convoy clearing the area, Liushi and co could loot the place in relative safety. Then he would rejoin the convoy at Jingling Port, in a big enough wharehouse. There, he could make his alterations while the group could keep looking for anything usefull in the other wharehouses.

They performed the split a street away from the facility. Liushi dropped smoke bombs on the sides of the road before parking on an empty place. The truck parked next to him, and they turned their engines off while the armored camper passed. The Doomsday Ride was last to pass, followed by a small herd of zombies. They didn't notice the newly parked vehicles because they didn't see them stop and couldn't hear them.

Once it was clear enough, they slowly resumed their trip, easily getting rid of the zombies that were left. The building that housed the materials Liushi needed had good security. There was a security checkpoint for vehicles going in, and the gate was metallic and thick. The entrance was wide and tall enough for trucks to get inside.

Liushi, Zhuying and Ran Xiyu got out of the Doomtrooper and approached the entrance. The security checkpoint was empty, but the equipment inside was still turned on, meaning there was still electricity running in the building. The same couldn't be said ofr many other parts of the city. The glass may have been reinforced, but it was useless in front of the Starseed capabilities. Liushi placed his hand on the glass, and a second later it crumbled appart.

"You girls go back into the car while I open the gate" he told his sister and new subordinate.

They complied and left. Liushi got into the security station, and accessed the system with the help of the Starseed. He first checked the camera footage from the groundfloor to see how many zombies were present, especially around the loading area. Seeing that there were less than 30 zombies, he warned the others before opening gate and letting the vehicles in.

He closed the gate afterward, he resumed his exploration of the system. He needed to know what materials were stored, and where. During that time, the others had cleared the area while Lu had decided to stay near him, watching his back.

They went to the storage area, where they got some titanium, tungsten, silicons, heterocyclics compounds, ethanediol, some organo-inorganic compounds, and many others. The cherry on top of the cake was a big crate of natural uranium compounds which should have been shared to a few engineering labs. It was an excellent haul. They filled the truck to the brim, 3/5 of the materials gathered being organic compounds.

Liushi was grinning from ear to ear as they left the place. Zhuying was amused by his enthusiasm, and even Ran Xiyu couldn't keep a small smile from her face. They all left the place in a bright mood.

When they reached Jingling Port, their good mood had lowered quite a bit. They had to deal with a large amount of zombies, and the truck hadn't be reinforced to deal with them. The windshield was damaged and the windows were broken. There had been several tense moments with zombies trying to get in, but Lu and Zhang Hai were well armed and well protected. Liushi had to use the grenade launcher of the turret more than a few times, and Zhuying had a lot of practice with area electric attacks.

Using the radio, Xiaotian guided them to the wharehouse her group had secured. It was more than large enough for all the vehicles. The next part was going to be annoying for Liushi, but he couldn't keep his apparent ability hidden any longer. He couldn't upgrade the Doomsday Ride without the others noticing it, because its whole size was going to change, alongside the interior.

He was going to increase the width of the truck to 4m, and its height to 5.5m, while keeping the size of the wheels. The materials they were made of were good enough to whistand the additional burden. He would be able to slightly increase the size of the bathroom, toilets, and get some additional beds while increasing the size of the current ones. The engineering section and biomedical station would also receive an increase in size and capabilities.

The natural uranium compound held enough uranium to make low enriched, or 'reactor grade' uranium. With it, he would be able to make a small power generator capable of handling all the energy demands of the Doomsday Ride. Not only that, Liushi could use the energy to work with the Starseed. That meant he would no longer need gasoline for the truck, and the tanks could be used to store water instead.

Nuclear reactor used in powerplants used the heat of the nuclear reaction to heat water, and power a steam turbine which generate electricity. But that wasn't the most direct way to use the power of nuclear reaction. For nearly 50 years, there has been research on thermoelectric materials, materials that would directly convert heat into electricity. Materials that could convert radiation, no heat, into electricity were also researched.

Liushi, with the Starseed, could easily produce such materials. And once more, the mutant beast cores would prove to be a quite valuable material, with its affinity to various forms of energy. At the end of the day, the Doomsday Ride would have been upgraded to version 2.0 (1.5 being after leaving the Wen sisters hometown).

Then came the time for explanations. Ran Xiyu, Zhang Hai, Sun Kun and Qingping were very impressed by his ability, yet mystified that he didn't register as a paranormal.Qingping cursed in her mind for having looked down on him at the beginning. And she cursed herself some more for not having chosen to follow him permanently like the others.

Once he was done, Liushi sent the 4 paranormals away to look for anything else interesting in the Port. They were equiped well enough to deal with the improved zombies if they were careful, and even a mutant beast if they got unlucky. Lu stayed near him to guard him, while Xiaotian and Ran Xiyu stayed in the Doomtrooper, keeping an eye on the surroundings with the drones.