VHBF -Chapter 137 The Bigshot Researcher Daddy (Extra 5)

“I got selected! I got selected!!!”

One of the guys who had already finished registering jumped up, waving his arms around in excitement, his face glowing with joy. He howled so loudly that the person in charge of registration shot him a glare and waved him off to get lost. He didn’t mind at all.

Before the apocalypse, he had been the owner of a dessert shop. He had a bit of money, looked decent, and lived a pretty comfortable life.

After the apocalypse, he had no abilities. His girlfriend ran off with someone else. He sank to the very bottom, surviving by running errands and doing odd jobs for others just to earn a pitiful amount of rations. Sometimes he only ate a single pack of biscuits with cold water in a whole day; sometimes he couldn’t get anything to eat at all and just sat there hungry.

He had a rather gentle, bookish look, the weak type, and was occasionally targeted by some perverts. Life was unimaginably hard—he had practically tasted every bit of suffering this lifetime had to offer.

When he came to the gates of the Destruction Base overnight, queuing up with a tentative mindset and waiting until dawn to sign up, he honestly didn’t have much hope. He was just thinking—what if?

What if that commander really was willing to take in useless people like them who had no abilities?

When he cautiously said that he could make cakes and desserts, the official in charge of registration simply replied calmly, “That’ll do.”

It was the most heavenly sound he had ever heard in his life! He swore it!

The Destruction Base had its commander—both humanity’s public enemy and humanity’s strongest—stationed there. It was extremely safe, with ample supplies. It was said that the commander even had a space-type ability, so food was never lacking!

Shelter, a place to live, food to eat, and a job he could rely on his own hands to earn a living—he finally felt like he wasn’t useless anymore. Overwhelmed with joy, the guy burst into tears. After that one howl, he couldn’t help covering his face and squatting by the city gates, crying.

At last… he could live on. And he could bring his only remaining family—his mother—over to support her.

The god of fate had finally shown mercy to ordinary people.

The others still in line, waiting for fate’s judgment, all looked at him with envy. Crying wasn’t shameful—it was happiness.

If it were them, they probably wouldn’t be able to hold it in either.

If they hadn’t gone through these past three years—if this were before the apocalypse—they would never have imagined today, nor would they understand how precious it was to have an orderly place that offered protection and a plain, ordinary job. It felt like living in paradise.

The Destruction Base was enormous. Everything north of North City belonged to it. Resources were abundant, with vast mountains and forests. Even though mutated beasts were numerous and powerful, those who went out on missions from the Destruction Base had never failed.

Because they had the commander’s potions.

With just one spray of that potion, even beasts that had mutated to enormous sizes would instantly go limp like docile kittens, collapsing to the ground and letting themselves be slaughtered.

Anyone who had never lived in North City would never imagine what kind of paradise this place was.

Every day, adventurer teams organized by the commander’s personal guard went out of the city to hunt and search for supplies.

They often left empty-handed and returned fully loaded. Even more astonishing—no one was ever left behind. If a few went out, the same number returned. At most, someone might come back with minor injuries.

In a post-apocalyptic world filled with danger, this was simply unimaginable.

Batch after batch of ordinary people were accepted into the city. As long as they had skills, even without abilities, they could earn pay through their own labor just like ability users, living openly and uprightly!

In Destruction City, private fights and brawls were forbidden. Ability users were absolutely not allowed to bully ordinary people.

If you wanted to fight, that was fine—there was a specially built arena in the plaza that welcomed you.

Ability users were not allowed to issue duel challenges to ordinary people, but ordinary people could challenge the strong. If they lost, they bore the consequences themselves. If they won, not only could they vent their anger, the commander would also grant a reward—a divine medicine that could turn them into ability users.

This rule existed because one day, the commander’s three-year-old daughter personally witnessed an ability user bullying an ordinary person. She then posed a soul-searching question to her commander Daddy:

“We’re all people—why do those uncles bully others?”

Yinyin widened her round eyes, curiously looking at everyone. To outsiders, she seemed innocent and adorable. How could a three-year-old little princess understand that in the apocalypse, it was survival of the fittest—that if you were weak, you deserved to be bullied?

But the commander furrowed his brow and, under his daughter’s clear gaze, admitted defeat. He ordered the bully ability user thrown out of the city and swiftly issued this decree: ability users were forbidden from harming ordinary people. If ordinary people were in the wrong, they could report it to the city’s enforcement hall.

And with a casual stroke, he gave ordinary people another path to becoming ability users besides promotions and raises—they could challenge the strong for rewards.

Even if it was hard… was anything harder than staying alive?

Mo Linqing patted his child’s head. “The bad people who bully others have already been punished.”

When Mo Linqing returned to his study, he pulled a small pocket-sized book from his coat. On the cover were the words Complete Parenting Series.

He frowned and flipped through it, finally landing on a page:

“From the age of three, young children rapidly absorb what they see and hear around them. Their environment and the behavior of those around them can greatly influence their personality and cognition. Parents should set a good example and create a positive living environment…”

“…”

After finishing, Mo Linqing tugged at the corner of his lips. Why did he need to set a good example for his kid? Being a little devil wasn’t bad either.

Thinking of how his child lectured him every day, telling him to behave and be a good person…

Did she really need teaching? She was already practically enlightened.

Mo Linqing closed the pocket book and slipped it into his coat, feeling that his kid must have brainwashed him day and night until something went wrong.

After news spread that the Destruction Base was recruiting skilled ordinary people, ordinary folks from all over the world began flocking there by any means possible.

Over several months, more than half of the ordinary population had gathered at the Destruction Base. Those without skills, who failed to get in, set up camps outside the city, trying every possible way to learn a trade.

Then one day, the city gates suddenly opened wide, and a banner announcement was posted: the Destruction Base would allow people with no skills to enter the city.

What for?

Manual labor.

With more skilled workers, of course there was also a need for general laborers.

That’s where these unskilled ordinary people came in.

As for ability users… most of them had their pride. They looked down on doing manual or menial labor like ordinary people.

They were still watching from the sidelines.

Among them were still many who hated Mo Linqing, who wished they could tear him to pieces.

Large numbers of ordinary people stayed at the Destruction Base, naturally leaving other bases with fewer ordinary people. Leaders of other bases suddenly realized how serious this problem was.

In the past, ordinary people were as numerous as weeds, with stubborn vitality—one batch died, another grew back. High-ranking ability users never took them seriously.

Now that bases had lost huge numbers of ordinary people, who would do the sweeping, cooking, laundry, farming, vegetable planting, and heavy labor?

Ability users were meant to kill zombies and deal with mutated beasts—who had time for that? Besides, accustomed to being served by ordinary people from their lofty positions, none of them could lower themselves to do such “lowly chores.”

Apart from daily life being affected, many ability users had recently started complaining that they couldn’t find partners.

Pairings between ability users were still rare. Ability users were few to begin with, and anyone with abilities could at least kill zombies—maybe not impressively, but self-defense was more than enough. As a result, both men and women were quite proud.

Two capable, proud people rarely came together. Strong individuals usually wanted the other to submit. Leaving aside powerful women, most male ability users preferred to find ordinary women as wives.

Because ordinary wives could be chosen freely—must be pretty, must be gentle. Even if the man went fooling around, even openly keeping multiple wives, it was considered acceptable.

Three years into the apocalypse, human nature had largely collapsed. Everyone lived like this, and no one expected that overnight, ordinary people would almost all disappear.

Where were they supposed to find wives now?

It was like something that had always been as common and worthless as grass—taken for granted and never cherished—suddenly vanished, and only then did people realize its importance.

Nature never creates useless species for no reason. Ordinary people had their own value—they were the main driving force behind reproduction and production in this world.

Unfortunately, the base leaders and ability users only realized this now. And sadly, those “grass-like, cheap lives” had already gone to the Destruction Base.

The leaders of the other bases finally couldn’t sit still. They gathered together to discuss things—no matter what, they couldn’t just wait for death. What was Mo Linqing trying to do?

Was he trying to rule the Earth?

That butcher needed to be punished!

Outside the Destruction Base, the radio had been broadcasting an extremely inflammatory piece of news for several consecutive days.

“Compatriots, it’s time for us to rise up in resistance! The Great Demon King Mo Linqing has deceived countless compatriots into going to his base—there may be a huge conspiracy! Those people have been brainwashed by that devil and forgotten who their real enemy is. I think it’s time for revenge!”

Someone suggested sending stealth-type and mental-type ability users to assassinate Mo Linqing.

“As long as we kill him first, what use will those damn potions be?”

“Mo Linqing is the biggest tumor!”

The ability users sent to scout returned, trembling. “N-no… s-sir, h-he, he, he…”

“He what? What about the information you were told to gather? Say it!”

The man looked conflicted, with hidden excitement and longing in his eyes. “I’ll say it then.”

“The Destruction Base is developing extremely well. It’s expanded to twice its original size. The ordinary people they’ve recruited work just like before the apocalypse—earning wages, being assigned housing, going to work and getting off work every day…”

“And—and also…” His face crumpled. “You probably can’t imagine it. Mo Linqing is fucking insane. He really has medicine that can give people abilities. The activation success rate is nearly 99%. As long as you’re healthy, there’s no problem!”

He took a deep breath. “The proportion of ability users in the Destruction Base is now over 60%, and it’s still rising. Those ordinary people who went there from our bases have gone crazy—working like they’re on stimulants just to please Mo Linqing and get the ability potion.”

“How do they please him?” someone interjected at the wrong moment.

“By—by making all kinds of snacks, clothes, toys related to kids… t-to please his daughter. That devil gets happy when she’s happy…”

The alliance members: “……”

The commander of Jinya Base twitched his lips. “Sixty percent—how many people is that?”

“Commander, more than half of the world’s ordinary people are there. If they all become ability users, how many do you think that is?”

What’s the most screwed-up thing in the world?

It’s when you’re confident that you have the numbers and can defeat the enemy through unity—only to find that, quietly, he already has more people than you.

In terms of ability user numbers, they were no match for the Destruction Base. In fact, if Mo Linqing wanted, he could produce a new batch of ability users at any time.

So brute force was definitely not an option.

“What did you say earlier?”

“Mo Linqing dotes on that three-year-old daughter he picked up from who-knows-where?”

“Then let’s outsmart him—go after her.”

“Heh. A devil has a weakness? Do you really believe Mo Linqing would care about a three-year-old toddler? What if that’s just some bored little game of his? Wouldn’t we be alerting the enemy for nothing?”

“We’re already at this point—do you have any other ideas? Don’t want revenge anymore? Just sit here and wait to be swallowed up by the Destruction Base sooner or later?”