Lu Feng paid no mind to the surprised Guo Zhen, grabbing some more bullets and putting them into his backpack space.

Next, he walked toward the core area at the center of the base, where a prominent building stood.

Guo Zhen immediately reported, "Boss, this was Gray Wolf’s old place. Only he had a residence this big. Aside from a few of his chosen confidants, no one else was allowed up."

Lu Feng nodded and went right up the stairs into the building.

Guo Zhen wisely stayed put, not following him up. The new boss hadn’t given him permission.

Clearly, Gray Wolf’s rules still had a hold on him.

Lu Feng, however, didn’t think the rule was a bad thing. ’After all, it’s nice to have a private space that others don’t dare to enter.’

The central building was massive. The top floor was the bedroom, but the decor inside made Lu Feng frown.

The room was filled with suggestive furniture. For instance, there were handcuffs attached to a chair and more on an overhead bar. A rope hung vertically from the center of the ceiling, positioned just right for tying someone up and suspending them in mid-air.

The sight immediately made Lu Feng think of certain adult films.

’It seems this Gray Wolf really knew how to get his kicks, and had a lot of tricks up his sleeve.’

Lu Feng ignored the furniture, but his eyes were suddenly drawn to a familiar device on the headboard.

He had seen one like it when he was at the City East Alliance.

Back when he’d purchased the sisters Cheng Yaoyao and Cheng Sisi, the other party had used a similar device to absorb the energy from a crystal core to process the payment.

After the device absorbed the energy from the crystal core he’d provided, its value had dropped to 1.

The device before him now was identical.

Lu Feng quickly used his game’s exploration function on the device and a notification immediately popped up:

[This is a special device capable of absorbing and storing energy, similar to a rechargeable battery. Energy loss is minimal!]

The information from the scan immediately told Lu Feng what the device was for. He then pressed a button labeled "Store Energy."

The number 534 immediately appeared on the device’s screen.

This was the amount of energy points stored in the device.

An average Slaying Dog crystal core was worth around 13 energy points, which meant this was the equivalent of about 41 cores.

’This Gray Wolf was pretty loaded.’

Lu Feng immediately pressed the "Absorb" button, took a crystal core from his backpack space, and placed it on the device to be absorbed, just as he’d seen done at the City East Alliance.

A moment later, the number on the screen flickered. Soon, the Slaying Dog crystal core’s 13.5 energy points were completely absorbed.

And the device’s total energy points increased by 13.5.

Next, Lu Feng called over Lin Jiao, Chen Tao, and Chen Hao.

Their laser rifles should have been depleted during the fight with the Gray Wolf Mercenary Corps. This was a perfect opportunity to run another experiment with the device.

"Boss, what are your orders?" Lin Jiao asked immediately.

Lu Feng said simply, "Give me your laser rifles."

The three of them nodded and placed their laser rifles on the table in front of him.

Lu Feng picked up a laser rifle, aimed the device at the rifle’s charging port, and pressed the device’s "Release" button.

In the next moment, the energy cells on the laser rifle rapidly lit up, showing it was fully charged.

This meant all the energy was usable.

Lu Feng proceeded to fully recharge all three of their laser rifles.

The three of them naturally saw the 500-plus energy points on the device, and their faces lit up with joy.

’With so many energy points, the boss definitely won’t be stingy. After all, it only takes 2 energy points to fully recharge a laser rifle.’

Once he was done experimenting, Lu Feng took out all the crystal cores from his backpack space and had the device absorb their energy points. ’This thing makes everything so much more convenient.’

Then, with a thought, he stored the device in his backpack space.

After surveying the entire base, Lu Feng had a general understanding of its condition.

Not long after, the base’s kitchen prepared breakfast. In truth, it was already late for breakfast. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

For the people at the base, however, getting food at any time of day was a cause for excitement. Once the food was distributed, everyone—from the enslaved survivors to the former members of the Gray Wolf Mercenary Corps—ate with expressions of pure joy.

At the same time, many people stole glances at Lu Feng. Whatever else happened, they had definitely eaten their fill this time.

Lu Feng also had Guo Zhen bring him a portion of food, but when he saw it, he frowned.

While the food wasn’t something like cockroach paste, it didn’t smell good either.

The food of the post-apocalyptic world simply couldn’t compare to the food from his time.

In any case, Lu Feng had no interest in this stuff. Seeing that the base had stabilized, he logged out of the game with a thought, then left his apartment to grab a bite at a small eatery outside his residential complex.

He was a bit tired after a busy night. After finishing his food, he went back home to rest.

「Time passed.」

Lu Feng was woken up by his ringing phone. He picked it up and saw it was a call from Da Fei.

He had a good idea what it was about and immediately answered. Da Fei’s voice came over the line, "Young Master Feng, I checked out a potential spot here in Tianzhou City, a Wine City. It’s got three floors. We just need to renovate it a bit and change the sign, and it’ll be ready to go. But, taking over the three-story building and covering renovations will cost 5.1 million in total."

"Send me the files," Lu Feng said. ’As the saying goes, wine and tea go hand in hand. Most teahouses sell alcohol in addition to tea leaves, so turning a Wine City into a Tea City would be no problem at all.’

After that, Da Fei sent over the files, contract details, and business registration information.

Lu Feng looked over everything, and after confirming there were no issues, he transferred the 5.1 million.

Next, he turned his attention to the game world, panning his view to check on the base.

To his surprise, he saw Chen Tao and Chen Hao in one area, drilling the former members of the Gray Wolf Mercenary Corps. And they were doing a surprisingly good job of it.

’The two of them had run an adventuring team before, so they had experience in this area. The plan all along was to have them take over management.’

With a thought, Lu Feng entered the game and was once again inside the core building.

Even though no one else could come up, he still felt stifled down in this air-raid shelter. So, he left the building and walked out into the residential complex above.

Seeing this, Guo Zhen hurriedly followed, waiting for orders.

’My status in the base is higher than anyone else’s now,’ he thought. ’And it’s all thanks to being the first to run errands for the new boss.’

Lu Feng quickly entered the residential complex. ’I should really develop this area,’ he thought. ’I don’t want to just hide down there like the Gray Wolf Mercenary Corps did. This complex above ground can be fully developed.’

He looked at the surrounding walls. ’They’re enough to stop zombies. If we reinforce them a bit and post some lookouts, we’ll be able to spot any Mutant Beasts in time. As long as there aren’t too many, the laser rifles can handle them.’

’Besides, I can stock up on more gas canisters in the game to deal with Mutant Beasts!’

Lu Feng looked around the complex and suddenly asked, "Guo Zhen, what if we take some of those seeds you found and plant food in parts of this complex? We could do the same with the nearby complexes."

Guo Zhen shook his head. "Boss, I’m afraid that’s not possible. After the apocalypse, some kind of acidic substance appeared in the soil. The soil in most places is no longer suitable for growing crops."

"That’s a pity," Lu Feng said with a sigh.

But then his eyes lit up. ’The more severe this world’s food shortage becomes, the better it is for me.’

’Because I never have to worry about food.’

With that in mind, Lu Feng exited the game with a thought and headed directly to the grain depot in Youcheng.

Upon meeting the depot owner, he immediately placed an order for 100 fifty-jin bags of rice, gave the owner the warehouse address, and arranged for delivery.

Just as he finished placing the order, Lu Feng’s attention was suddenly drawn to the game interface in his mind. He saw Cheng Yaoyao suddenly leap into the air with excitement!