Chapter 171: No One Understands Better Than I Do

"Did it really ask this itself?"

Liu Mu highly suspected it was a prank by Heitao A; of course, whether Heitao A had already grown enough to understand how to pull a prank remained to be seen.

"It asked itself," Xu Xiaofeng provided the explanation before the system did, though not through the mouth of Xiaoliuzi, but via system dialogue: "This intelligent system, the Sky Viper, is just too intelligent. Xiao Mu, we still need to be careful when dealing with this organization in the future. To be able to create a system to this degree, their strength is definitely far more terrifying than we imagined."

Liu Mu had not told Xu Xiaofeng about the true origins of Heitao A before; it had nothing to do with trust, but mainly because she herself could not explain it clearly.

No, it was that she herself had not yet figured out what was going on with Heitao A.

During the time the new version of Xiaoliuzi was "rehabilitating," the two chatted about recent developments; the construction of the group headquarters was proceeding intensively according to the steps planned by Heitao A, and the salt field at the Barrier had also officially begun operations.

Only the planting base was still having its retractable roof built; this was to protect against the cold, and with insufficient materials, it was somewhat difficult to complete.

As for the first underground level of the Barrier, it was a major project and also the part with the most investment; one could only say that it required absolute patience. As long as the people doing the construction didn't cut corners, that was the best one could hope for.

It was still being rushed; Liu Mu had already calculated that, according to the current underground construction volume of both the disaster shelter and the group headquarters, in just another half a month, there would be enough space for tens of thousands of people to live.

The most annoying thing was still the food; once the Cold Wave arrived, no one knew how many plants and animals would be frozen to death, and more would hide or migrate, making it extremely difficult to find food.

In her past life, after the Black Rain ended, there was also a period of good weather; just as everyone let their guard down, the Cold Wave descended, freezing countless people to death overnight.

At that time, she was scavenging for scrap in a ruined city near a Huoshan, and it was only after discovering the temperature drop and desperately fleeing toward the Huoshan that she escaped the fate of being frozen to death.

Although she survived, the days that followed were even harder to endure.

She couldn't quite remember the people she had struggled to survive with back then; after all, later on, some died, some left, and some arrived—she couldn't even count how many batches of people had cycled through around her.

As dawn broke from the sky, Liu Mu collected her thoughts and let the basically recovered Xiaoliuzi return to the camp by himself, while she continued walking into the mountains.

When starting work, Xiaoliuzi handed the thing Liu Mu had given him to Zheng Tian; it was a familiar-looking leaf with a line of text on it—"Away temporarily for matters, take good care of my potted plants."

Along with the leaf was a knife, one of the ones Liu Mu habitually used.

After Xiaoliuzi left, Li Fei, the Deputy Team Leader of the Sea Soul Team, came over to inquire about the situation.

"Take a look," Zheng Tian slung the knife sheath behind his back and only handed over the leaf.

Li Fei was a meticulous talent with excellent leadership skills and was currently the Deputy Team Leader of Sea Soul Team One, so naturally, he was very concerned about Liu Mu's movements.

"Away temporarily?" He frowned slightly, already surrounded by several teammates, and asked in a low voice, "Did the Boss encounter something?"

Zheng Tian stroked his chin, which was sprouting stubble, with a profound expression, and said quite solemnly: "No one understands the Boss better than I do; every time she leaves suddenly, it must be to secure a major benefit. This time is definitely the same. When she returns, she might be able to solve the biggest problem the Mine currently has."

Several people, including Li Fei, simultaneously wore "black man question mark" faces: "What big problem does the Mine have?"

"That would naturally be..." Zheng Tian wiped the leaf, smearing the ink on it, and stuffed it into the pocket of Li Fei's miner's jacket, "... who gets to be the boss."

Li Fei slapped his own forehead, understanding Zheng Tian's meaning before the other team members could react: "Go, go, go, all of you go to work, don't gather together. Still the same policy: unite all the worker brothers and sisters who can be united, and build the Mine together!"

The crowd still wanted to ask, but they had already been shooed away by Li Fei.

Who gets to be the boss... Zheng Tian's meaning was truly too simple; it was the very purpose of their operation this time!

It was just unexpected that the Boss would take action so quickly; could it be that Haide Kanpu had discovered something?

The reason remained unknown, but did that affect the result? It didn't!

Over here, Liu Mu had just gone up the mountain when she "encountered" the three Black Taotie who had been waiting for a long time.

"How is it?" Seeing them, she didn't stand on ceremony and asked directly about the situation; since they claimed to have value, they should bring out some value.

"The lake is very large and deep; without professional tools, we have no way to measure it, and the lizard cannot reach the bottom of the lake. There are a large number of freshwater eels in the lake, as well as other schools of fish; overall, the ecosystem is still considered balanced. The lake water comes from a tributary of a river upstream, and after flowing through the Shahe township below, it enters the sea."

Black Taotie was a woman who rarely showed her emotions; her emotional stability was like that of a preschool teacher facing parents—quite gentle.

Anyone who saw such a woman alone would never associate her with being the number three figure of the Sky Viper.

"Can an inland waterway be opened?"

"With the water rising now, it is possible to sail, but I cannot be certain about later; I apologize, I do not possess professional knowledge in this area." A look of apology appeared on Black Taotie's charming face; the next matter was also something they had failed to handle well.

"We were also unable to fully map out the upstream waters; several parts are deep mountain canyons that we simply cannot enter."

"The terrain is inherently treacherous; it's not entirely our responsibility!" Black Mamba's temper was much larger, and she still held some resentment toward Liu Mu for killing her several times, but since she couldn't beat her, and was even less willing to return to the hands of that man Xing Tianyang, she had no choice but to follow Liu Mu.

While they were talking, Black Lizard was lying nearby dozing off; he could no longer turn back into a human, and only a little bit of humanity remained, which could be controlled by Black Taotie.

"You stay here and guard the Mine, and listen to Li Fei's mobilization," Liu Mu passed the two and headed straight toward the lake area, though she did say one thing, "You've worked hard, go get some rest."

Black Mamba, whose complaints hadn't yet been voiced, was quite unconvinced: "You want to go explore that area alone? The three of us are all injured; if you die in there alone, no one will even know."

"Thank you for your New Year's well-wishes; there should be a New Year's Eve dinner at the mining area tonight, and Li Fei will send some to you." Liu Mu originally didn't care about such holidays; one had to know that as an orphan, especially after leaving the orphanage, she was alone during every holiday and didn't feel much.

It was the mine workers who had applied to her in advance just to have a day off, but of course, it was impossible to take a holiday.

What time was it now? If one was to be a beast of burden, one had to have the self-awareness of a beast of burden, let alone a beast of burden in the apocalypse!

However, a good meal could still be managed; after all, it was the New Year, and there had to be some sense of ritual.

The black-hearted boss Liu Mu didn't feel there was anything wrong with doing this.

After she walked far away, Black Mamba suddenly changed her expression, suppressing her anger: "What exactly do you want to do? Do you really still want to go back? I, for one, think it's pretty good now; at least we don't have to be used for drug testing!"

"We don't have to go back," Black Taotie's tone remained the same, not even moved in the slightest by her sister's disrespect, "but do you really want to stay under her for the rest of your life, sister? Now even Xing Tianyang listens to her; controlling the Haicheng Barrier and even the Southeast Three Provinces is only a matter of time."

"So what? I don't believe that with our strength, we can't be put to good use!" Black Mamba had quite a few opinions on Black Taotie's excessive caution, always believing that the attack at that time was because her sister was too cautious and delayed taking action, which was why they waited for the Special Action Team to arrive and ultimately fell short of success.

"Do you really want to serve others forever, living under someone else? Mamba, have you forgotten the taste of freedom?"

Black Taotie spoke of the past unhurriedly, her slender fingers gently stroking the hard, undulating skin of Black Lizard.

The man under her fingers could no longer be called human, but, the punishment was not over yet!