binnovel Chapter 199 Investigation Team
Chapter 199 Investigation Team
On the morning of June 16, Chen Guoqiang contacted Li Chenglong through the Central Military Region. He first highly praised and commended Li Chenglong's actions. He also expressed the gratitude of the Provisional Military Commission of China to Li Chenglong. In order to encourage Li Chenglong, Chen Guoqiang also brought the decision of the Provisional Military Commission, which appointed Li Chenglong as the deputy commander of the Eastern Military Region and concurrently as the commander of the Dawn Army, with his military rank remaining unchanged for the time being. The rank of Yun Lan and Zheng Yong was promoted from senior colonel to major general. Li Chenglong's request to promote Wu Gang, Zheng Aiguo and other division-level cadres to senior colonels was approved. At the same time, the Dawn Army was granted the establishment of a division.
Li Chenglong first thanked General Chen Guoqiang, then finalized the roster and departure time for the southward investigation team. It was decided that the Northwest Military Region would send two Level 8 ability users and one Level 7 ability user, the Central Military Region would send one Level 8 ability user and one Level 7 ability user, and the Eastern Military Region would send Li Chenglong and two advanced ability users to form the investigation team. Li Chenglong would serve as the team leader, commanding all operations. Originally, Chen Guoqiang wanted to bring more people, but Li Chenglong argued that a smaller, more elite team was better than a large one. After consideration, Chen Guoqiang and the others agreed.
Because of the long distance and inconvenient travel, the members of the Northwest Military Region would first meet up with the members of the Central Region, and then travel through Black Gold City to Dawn City. After confirming the number of personnel, Li Chenglong contacted the leaders of Black Gold City, Qianyun Base, Feiyun Base, and Qingshui Base. After discussion, it was decided that of the two people from the Eastern Military Region besides Li Chenglong, one would be from Dawn City, and the other would be Xu Qingming, who is now an 8th-level Awakened and has considerable strength.
As for the one spot for Dawn City, Li Chenglong first ruled out the two combat divisions of the Dawn Army, as they all had combat missions, and losing a high-level ability user would be a huge loss. The Information Support Department only had one level 8 ability user, Li Xue, so he was also ruled out. The Joint Logistics Support Department didn't have any level 1 ability users yet, and Liu Cheng was only a level 6 ability user. Wang Bing had originally come to Li Chenglong's attention, but he had been busy with the Young Pioneers' affairs recently, so Li Chenglong hadn't mentioned it to him.
After careful consideration, Li Chenglong decided on Wang Shuang as his accomplice. As a rare dark-attribute ability user, Wang Shuang was perfectly suited to join the investigation team. Although she was only level 7, her combat abilities surpassed those of some weaker level 8 users. However, his decision required her consent. Li Chenglong immediately went to the special forces team's courtyard. After explaining his purpose, Wang Shuang excitedly said, "I'm willing! Of course I'm happy to follow Captain Li on such an important mission." Li Chenglong smiled and said, "This mission is very dangerous. We need to delve deep into the heart of the zombie horde to conduct a thorough investigation." Wang Shuang shook her head: "With Captain Li here, I'm not afraid of any danger."
Li Chenglong nodded in satisfaction: "Okay, then it's decided. The specific date will be announced later. Also, this matter will be kept confidential for now." After handling this matter, Li Chenglong went to the heavy industrial zone and the air force base still under construction in Shuguang City to check on their production and construction progress.
That evening, Chen Guoqiang sent Li Chenglong the list of names from the Northwest and Central Military Regions. It consisted of five people: four men and one woman. The four men were all ability users, but the woman was an 8th-level Awakened user named Wang Ruyan. Li Chenglong carefully reviewed the information: Wang Ruyan, 8th-level Awakened user, belonged to the Special Operations Brigade of the 1st Army of the Northwest Military Region, serving as deputy brigade commander with the rank of lieutenant colonel. That was all the information.
According to the original plan, they would arrive at the Central Military Zone on June 22nd to join forces with the two members of the Central Military Zone, reach Black Gold City on June 26th, and then finally arrive at Dawn City one day later. Meanwhile, Xu Qingming had already arrived in Dawn City, eager to see what was happening. Upon learning that Li Chenglong had launched a new high-grade Dawn Rice, he was amazed and expressed his determination to provide some to their Flying Cloud Base, promising to purchase it at a high price.
Li Chenglong's psionic space currently produces 1500 tons of high-grade Dawn Rice per month. After saving the seeds, the remaining rice, refined into Dawn Granules, yields another 1150 tons. Combined with Yun Lan's psionic space and Yun Qian's experimental fields, which also produce a significant amount of ordinary Dawn Rice, this monthly production is enough to feed all the ability users in Dawn City for eight or nine months, based on the consumption of 1 kilogram of high-grade Dawn Rice per day for the less than 1 ability users in Dawn City. Later, to reduce the consumption of ordinary grains, Li Chenglong had some high-grade Dawn Rice mixed into the rice provided to non-ability users. Even so, the monthly production is enough for Dawn City's consumption for three months.
On the afternoon of June 28th, although a day later than scheduled, the five members of the reconnaissance team arrived in Dawn City under the escort of a military unit from Black Gold City. The commander of the escorting unit knew Li Chenglong, and after a friendly exchange, he politely declined Li Chenglong's offer to stay for dinner and led his troops to set off without stopping.
Li Chenglong first had a brief exchange with the five investigators and introduced Xu Qingming and Wang Shuang to them, thus completing the formation of an eight-member investigation team. That evening, Li Chenglong hosted a dinner for them in a private room in the fifth-floor canteen.
Of these five people, three are from the Northwest Military Region: Wang Ruyan, an 8th-level B-grade ferret spirit awakener; Lu Mingyuan, an 8th-level speed-type ability user; and Lu Zhenhua, a 7th-level wind-type ability user. The other two are from the Central Military Region: Ye Kai, an 8th-level strength-type ability user; and Ye Xuan, a 7th-level water-type ability user. These two are brothers.
Upon learning that there was another female member in the reconnaissance team, Wang Ruyan was overjoyed and said, "I thought I was the only woman participating in this operation. I didn't expect to have a sister here. That way, I'll have company." At the dinner table, everyone praised the food at Li Chenglong's place. Lu Mingyuan said, "Back in the Northwest Military Region, I ate Dawn Rice that Miss Erica had sent over. To be honest, I never forgot it after just one bite. Today, we not only ate even higher-grade Dawn Rice, but also all kinds of fresh vegetables and fruits, and even alien beast meat. To put it bluntly, we've never eaten this well before the apocalypse."
When Erica's sister, Cecily, took Erica away, she gave Li Chenglong a lot of seeds for psionic vegetables and fruits from Planet Merar. Li Chenglong later cultivated them in the natural area of the psionic space, and the taste was indeed much better than other ordinary vegetables and fruits in the natural area. Not only did they taste good, but they could also restore a certain amount of energy, making them very popular among many ability users.
Li Chenglong smiled and said, "I'm glad everyone has a good time. I've prepared rooms for everyone on the 15th floor of the Shuguang Building. Each person has their own room, and all the necessary facilities are provided. Have a good night's sleep, and we'll discuss the route tomorrow morning. We'll set off the day after tomorrow. What do you think?" Everyone nodded in agreement, agreeing that it was a great suggestion.
After dinner, a designated person took them on a tour and led them to the 15th floor of the Shuguang Building, where they were assigned rooms. Each room was 50 square meters and fully equipped. To facilitate their movement, a temporary duty station was set up with two staff members to take care of their needs.
At 9 PM, Li Chenglong returned home and saw that Yun Lan was still awake, chatting with someone on her crystal phone. Li Chenglong glanced around and asked, "Where's Hao Hao?" Yun Lan looked up and said, "My mom took Hao Hao to the second bedroom to rest. It's just the two of us tonight." Li Chenglong nodded, went into the kitchen, and took out some freshly picked spiritual fruit from his spiritual energy space. Li Chenglong didn't know what this fruit was called; it looked somewhat like blueberries, but was red, and tasted a bit like strawberries—thin-skinned, thick-fleshed, and juicy. The flavor was sweet and sour, with a sugar content of around 12.
Li Chenglong washed the fruit and put some in the refrigerator for his mother-in-law and Li Xue to eat. He put the rest in a small woven basket on the sofa in the living room so Yun Lan could eat it while using her crystal phone. Li Chenglong turned on the TV and watched a drama on Dawn TV Channel 3 for a while. At this moment, Yun Lan quietly came closer and put her arm around Li Chenglong: "Turn off the TV, let's go rest."
As she spoke, she gazed at Li Chenglong with affectionate eyes, occasionally swaying her slender waist. Li Chenglong's breathing became heavy. He immediately turned off the TV, picked up Yunlan, and quickly walked into the bedroom, closing the door behind him. A minute later, the sensors in the living room detected that no one was there and automatically turned off the lights.