Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

Days quickly flew by as it soon reached Friday. Just one day away from Xiaoyun needing to fulfill his promise to Kate.

Xiaoyun was sitting in the meeting room alone, with the door open and the projector still turned on, pointing right at the wall with the health department slides.

He just finished the monthly meeting with various heads of department, which took almost an hour and a half as the clock hit noon.

"Don't look so grim. Even I look more positive than you."

As Yuqi entered the room, she quickly walked over to the seat next to Xiaoyun before closing a folder on the table.

"Yuqi, don't you think we're expanding too slowly?" Xiaoyun suddenly asked.

"Too slow? What makes you think that?"

"The army is nowhere near Maoming city, and we're about to run out of gas within a week again."

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Don't you think this is a massive problem? If we run out of gas, almost everything we do would be hindered everywhere."

Seeing his face looking more and more worried, Yuqi remained calm. Her eyes looked down at the folder in her hand.

"Just make gas like you always do. If we run out, then we ration it even harder... You can do that, no?"

"I could... But the demand had been only getting bigger and bigger. This can't be a permanent solution."

"Then the settlement is reliant on you for now. You'd better stay in the settlements and not go too far away."

As she gently put her arm on his shoulder, he suddenly felt a chill down his spine.

"You aren't concerned at all?" Xiaoyun questioned.

"Why would I? Am I going to tell the army to hurry up or something? All I could do was make the best of what I'm given."

Hearing her nonchalant answer, Xiaoyun didn't feel reassured. Instead, it only made him more worried.

He had a responsibility as the commander-in-chief, who is supposed to be the head of all military operations.

The slowdown had no one else to blame but himself. It's the heavy weight that pressed down onto his back for failures.

"Come on, Xiaoyun, are you thinking of directing the army yourself again? Don't be a layman leading the professional."

The idiom made Xiaoyun's mind quickly cool back down as he realized the more he wanted to hurry it, the more risk the army was going to go through.

He hasn't directed a city battle for a long time now. The lower commands had done all of the unit-to-unit combat.

"You're right... All I can do is just wait."

---

As Xiaoyun began heading over to Houqin's office for the daily routine, his mind was thinking back to the last progress report.

The one that Houqin had reported on Thursday, or yesterday afternoon.

Both Yiming's army and Yezi's army were stuck in their respective city. Making no progress due to the extreme heat within the city.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. It wasn't because of the general's mistake somewhere.

Rather, his set objective might have been wrong in the first place.

"Why am I trying to clear useless urban areas? Why don't I have the army clear the outskirts and the rural areas only?"

The idea caught on like wildfire in Xiaoyun's mind. But a flashback quickly sent him back to reality.

One that almost cost him heavily. An accident that almost ruined his previous settlement due to leaving the city area unattended.

"Maybe I should readjust the goal a little... Perhaps I should give them the option to decide it for themselves."

As Xiaoyun exited the car and entered the logistics office, he was met with workers heading out for lunch.

After walking through the hallways, he finally arrived at Houqin's office. With a knock, he waited.

"Come in."

Inside, Houqin was eating at her desk. Her papers were resting on the other side of the desk as she looked a little surprised to see him here.

"Commander, what brought you here so early today?" Houqin curiously asked as she quickly closed her plastic food container.

"Houqin, I'm just thinking, how long has the army been stuck at Zhaoqing and Dongguan?"

"Um... About two months."

"Is that fast or is that slow?"

This time, Xiaoyun's question made Houqin fall into silence. She didn't know how to answer it at all.

"You can just give your personal opinion. I know you aren't a field commander."

"I think it has been pretty fast, considering the original timeline was supposed to be near the end of the year for two cities to be cleared.

But with the reports that Yezi and Yiming had sent back, they are most likely finished by the end of August or September."

Hearing Houqin's answer, Xiaoyun quickly realized her point was all true. His original plan was the one that pushed for a long, drawn-out battle.

"Commander, is there something wrong? Is it the gas issue again?" Houqin guessed, noticing the worried look on his face.

"No, it's not... I'm just thinking of something else... Ahem, Houqin, what do you think of giving more flexibility to Yezi and Yiming?"

"More flexibility? What do you mean by that?"

"Like they can set their main objectives. I just feel like having a set goal in clearing an entire city's administrative area is too restricting."

Houqin thought of it for a second before shaking her head.

"I think it's fine to clear the city. If it weren't for the city clearance, Yiming wouldn't even find the drones in Dongguan that helped them so much."

"That is a valid point..."

The more Xiaoyun thought of it, the more he began to realize how bad an idea it was to set a 'different' objective.

"Ahem. Commander, I also want to raise a little concern. If we let the generals decide the objective, wouldn't they just do whatever they want?"

Houqin's point finally became the final nail in the coffin, ending his thought of changing the plan completely.

"You're right. Ignore everything that I just said earlier. Ahem, ahem, are there any reports or things I need to catch up on for today?"

Seeing Houqin shaking her head, Xiaoyun turned around, getting ready to leave. But he once again turned back around to face her.

"Here's a gift for answering my concern during your lunch break... Treat yourself better."

A bag was dropped onto her desk, leaving her confused as he left without elaborating any further.

"What did he mean by that?"

Houqin didn't think too much about it as she opened the bag and took out what was inside. To her surprise, it was a small box of chocolate chips.

Right below it was a plastic container filled with what seemed to be freshly made sushi, almost as if he had just made it out of a kitchen.

"What a crazy ability..." Houqin murmured as her mind still couldn't wrap around how Xiaoyun could just create things out of thin air.

---

Just as Xiaoyun stepped out of the logistics office, he was a little surprised to run into a man he hadn't met since April.

"Commander!"

"Han Bang! How is it going?"

"Going good... Commander, do you have a little time for lunch together? I want to talk to you about something."

"Sure."

Han Bang quickly led Xiaoyun down the block before stopping at one of the restaurants. A Shandong restaurant that looked a little shabby.

"Boss, serve me the usual twice." Han Bang yelled as the two of them took a seat at one of the tables.

"Coming right up."

As the workers walked off into the kitchen without even looking at their customer, Xiaoyun didn't bother too much with it.

"Han Bang, what do you want to talk about? Do you not like this break or something?" Xiaoyun guessed.

"Of course not. I love this break more than anything. The last thing I want is to go back into that Jiangmen's shithole."

"Your Lamian, Boss Han. The other one is still being made... Who did you bring as your guest today?"

One of the workers loudly asked as he put the bowl onto their table, his straightforwardness made it clear Han Bang was a frequent visitor.

"The governor." Han Bang replied.

"Come on, don't joke with me... Wait a moment. You are——"

"Ahem, I just want to eat lunch. No need to draw so much attention." Xiaoyun interrupted.

"I understand, sir."

The worker quickly walked off, heading back into the kitchen while the two of them turned their attention back to their conversation.

"What do you want to talk about?"

"Commander Xiaoyun... Do you remember the whole faction and divisions between the different army units?"

"Don't tell me they are having crazy ideas again." Xiaoyun instantly questioned, his voice filled with a hint of anger.

"It's nothing serious... It's just that I started to notice the male and the female soldier units had been having a stronger and stronger divide."