"What? Tempted yet?" Ian Song asked with a smug grin.
Looking at Ian Song's cocky expression, Helen Guo felt he was asking for a beating. She gritted her teeth and said, "Spit it out—what's your condition?"
"Condition? Of course it's...!" Ian started, then suddenly stopped, his eyes brazenly roaming over Helen.
Helen instantly exploded, snapping, "Ian Song, I'm warning you—don't push it!"
"How am I pushing it?" Ian rolled his eyes. "All I mean is, if you want my help to get stronger, you have to call me 'older cousin' from now on!"
Helen froze. So that was his condition? She'd worried for nothing, thinking he wanted something much worse...
"Whatever, think it over first."
Suddenly, Ian's expression turned serious. He waved his hand, leading the team into the dorm building, starting to clear zombies floor by floor.
Two hours later.
One women's dormitory building was fully cleared, with twenty-five female survivors rescued.
Since the zombie outbreak had only lasted a little over three days, and girls tended to stockpile snacks, the surviving women were frightened but not starving.
During those two hours, Helen stuck close behind Ian, watching him. She saw how effortlessly he killed zombies—making her both jealous and quietly impressed.
She also noticed that after killing each zombie, the group would dig out some strange white crystal from their bodies.
Although Ian hadn't given explicit instructions about Evolution Crystals, Leo Liao and the others instinctively kept it secret. After all, everyone has selfish motives—the fewer people know about the crystals, the better.
Soon, evening arrived.
Ian led the group to clear three women's dorm buildings, rescuing a total of eighty-two female survivors.
On the way back to the cafeteria, Helen couldn't help sidling up to Ian and asking, "What are those things you dig out of the zombies' heads?"
"Not telling you!"
"...You—!" Helen fumed, at a loss for words.
Back at the cafeteria, Ian handed the rescued women over to Kevin Zhou to get them settled.
Kevin Zhou was a competent administrator.
While Ian led hunting squads outside, Kevin had already cleaned up and reorganized the cafeteria, assigning living spaces for the survivors.
To keep things orderly between men and women, he gave the third floor to the girls, while the first and second floors were set aside for the guys.
Behind the cafeteria, there were eight apartments.
Kevin and his team cleaned those up too, reserving the largest unit for Ian.
As for the other seven, the five core roommates plus Jason Long shared one, while the remaining four were locked for later use.
Special privileges—no matter the world, they're unavoidable.
So Ian didn't stand on ceremony and moved into the biggest apartment with a clear conscience.
Meanwhile, Kevin also refined the Merit Point system.
Currently, Merit Points serve two main functions. First, buying food: in the apocalypse, food is extremely precious and limited, so every male gets half a jin of grain per day, and every female gets three liang.
It's just enough to keep you from starving, but not enough to feel full.
If you want more food, you can buy it with Merit Points—one point gets you two jin of grain.
Second, Merit Points give you a chance to get stronger. If you reach fifteen points, you can apply to the higher-ups, and if approved, you'll get stronger.
So, how do you earn Merit Points?
First, kill zombies—one point for every zombie taken down.
Second, work.
Cooking, stir-frying, laundry, cleaning—all these earn you some Merit Points.
After a hot dinner, Kevin and the other four core roommates came to Ian's apartment again.
This time, there was one more person—Helen Guo.
"Ian, here's something I wrote up. Take a look!" Kevin Zhou said, handing over a document with both hands.
Ian skimmed through the document and immediately understood what Kevin meant.
"Everyone, take a look!"
Ian passed the document around to the others.
As the others read it, their expressions varied. Except for Jason Long and Helen, the other four looked visibly excited.
"Any thoughts?" Ian asked the group.
"No rules, no order. I think Kevin's proposal to form a Management Council is definitely necessary!" Ray Wang was the first to speak up.
"I agree. As more survivors gather, things will get more complicated. Without good management, chaos is bound to happen," Mark Mao said thoughtfully.
"Yeah, they're both right!" Leo Liao grinned.
"I agree too!"
Jimmy Zhu nodded.
"What do you think, Jason?" Ian asked Jason Long.
"No opinion. I'll just follow the boss," Jason Long shrugged, clearly uninterested in management.
Ian didn't bother asking Kevin's opinion—since he was the one who proposed the council, he obviously supported it. Nor did he ask Helen, since she'd only just joined; if she weren't Ian's 'relative,' she wouldn't even be at this meeting.
According to Kevin's plan, the Management Council would have three main branches: Combat Corps, Logistics Corps, and Discipline Corps.
The Combat Corps would focus on killing zombies and gathering supplies.
The Logistics Corps would handle food, clothing, shelter, and daily needs for everyone in the base.
The Discipline Corps would keep order in the base. Anyone who broke the rules would be punished by them, and they'd also track everyone's Merit Points.
Above these three branches, the council would have a single supreme leader—the President.
Seeing no objections, Kevin smiled at Ian and said, "Ian, I nominate you as our President!"
"That's right. We survived and got stronger thanks to Ian, so I nominate him too!" Leo Liao said loudly.
"Is there even anything to discuss? Ian has to be the President!" Mark Mao laughed.
Then Jimmy Zhu and Ray Wang also voiced their support for Ian as President.
Watching all this, Helen couldn't help but think, 'Wow, this guy really commands respect.' She remembered how Ian used to be the bullied pushover she picked on, but now the roles had flipped—he'd become someone she looked up to. She quietly decided that calling him 'older cousin' was nothing compared to gaining real power.
"Then it's settled."
Ian said calmly, showing no pride. After all, he'd been Grand General of Qi in the Great Qin World, commanding hundreds of thousands—leading a few hundred survivors was nothing to him.
Ian continued, "Logistics Corps: Kevin Zhou as Corps Leader, Jimmy Zhu as Deputy. Combat Corps: Leo Liao as Corps Leader, Mark Mao as Deputy. Discipline Corps: Ray Wang as Corps Leader, Jason Long as Deputy."
He glanced around. "Anyone have objections to my arrangements?"
No one objected—the decision was unanimous.