Chapter 192: Go Big or Go Home

In the surrounding cities, certain things had vanished without a sound.

For instance, some of the buildings that had previously been washed away.

But everyone was too busy fending for themselves to notice such a minor change, let alone know what caused it.

Meanwhile, the mountain itself had undergone significant changes. New structures and items now dotted the once-barren cliffs, and it no longer looked deserted.

It was now barely habitable.

Stella Sterling was very pleased with this. No matter how she looked at it, this was the foundation of her own base.

Not only that, but while she had been out scavenging for supplies, she had discovered an abandoned gas station and a coal plant.

She had collected even things that others would consider useless into her dimensional space, so of course she wouldn’t pass up resources as critical as these. She gathered them all and stored them separately; they were vital survival materials.

「One month later.」

Stephen Lawrence, who she hadn’t seen for some time, now stood before her.

He had lost a lot of weight and gained a few new scars on his face, but his eyes had grown much more resolute. His body was laden with all sorts of things.

Strings of items, tied together with rope, hung around his neck. More were fastened to his waist, and he carried two large buckets in his hands.

Looking at him, anyone who didn’t know better would have thought he was returning from a day of rummaging through junk.

But Stephen Lawrence’s face was alight with excitement. All of this was the fruit of his labor over the past month.

It was all thanks to the two years of his master’s inhuman training, which had forged his body into one that could take a beating. This gave him a considerable advantage when fighting others for resources.

And the items he carried were the spoils of his victory after discovering a small supermarket.

But when he stood before the mountain and saw its current state, his jaw dropped.

’How did the master find a place like this? It’s the perfect shelter! The high ground means we don’t have to worry about being flooded by the rain.’

’It’s just a little scary when it thunders at night!’

"Ms. Sterling, look! I collected all of this. There’s a lot of stuff!"

Stephen Lawrence took off everything he was carrying and laid it all out in front of Stella Sterling, beaming as he showed off his haul.

Most of what he brought was food, but besides that, there were also miscellaneous items like lighters, cigarettes, and mosquito coils.

However, everything had been soaked through with water and didn’t look to be in great shape. It was uncertain if some of the items would even still be usable after being submerged.

"Not bad. Since you found all this, keep it for your own use. I haven’t built a house for you yet, so you can handle that yourself for now. As for materials, there’s a pile of them in that cave."

"Alright, alright! Ms. Sterling, let me rest for today, and I’ll get started tomorrow. Also, this house you built is a bit shoddy. I’ll help you rebuild and expand it later."

"You know about that sort of thing?"

Stella Sterling looked at him, a little surprised. She had been so busy scavenging for supplies lately that she had only been able to spare enough time to build herself a den. It wasn’t much to look at, but it was habitable and sturdy.

But to have her labor of over a month receive such a review from Stephen Lawrence left Stella feeling a bit annoyed.

"Haha, of course! You didn’t know? Before the apocalypse, this was my line of work. Not only that, I was a designer. I had a bright future ahead of me, but what a pity—"

As he spoke, the proud expression on Stephen Lawrence’s face suddenly faded.

’I used to be quite talented. With just a few more years of experience, I would have made it big.’

’But it’s all useless now. In this apocalypse, just having a bite to eat and being able to survive is a blessing.’

’In this apocalypse, what you need is strength. That’s the only way to seize more opportunities to live.’

’As for the skills I learned before, they’re not much use. They can’t help me at all.’

"That’s great. In that case, I’ll leave the foundation of our faction to you. I’ll recruit some people to help you out later."

Hearing this, Stephen Lawrence just chuckled.

’Even if I have the skills, I need materials to work with.’

But his concern was quickly dispelled when he saw a pile of steel and other materials stacked up like a mountain of trash. His jaw dropped wide open.

’Th-th-this... This is just too much! Where on earth did the master get all this stuff?’

He stared back at Stella Sterling in astonishment, but in the end, he just swallowed hard and said nothing.

’My master was never an ordinary person to begin with. I shouldn’t be surprised that she has some extraordinary methods.’

’Besides, we’re completely in the same boat now. I could never be disloyal to her in this lifetime. We’re completely tied together, so the more powerful she is, the more I stand to benefit.’

So, he tactfully chose not to ask any questions.

When he came to his senses, he immediately assured Stella Sterling, "Ms. Sterling, don’t you worry! Since you’ve entrusted this to me, I’ll do my absolute best to get it done. We don’t have much else going on right now anyway. I’ll properly survey the terrain here and draw up a plan."

"Oh, right, we’re also recruiting people. Are we planning to expand our faction? In that case, I’ll need to consider other factors in the design!"

"Mhm."

Stella Sterling nodded at him. "I’ll be recruiting a lot of people later on, so when you design the base, try to make it as large as possible. You need to consider not just housing, but also defenses and other things."

At these words, Stephen Lawrence’s eyes lit up. He understood what his master—what Stella—intended to do, and his heart pounded with excitement.

’If that’s really the case, since I’m the first one to follow her, I’ll be a founding member!’

’And I get to go back to my old profession and put my skills to use!’ The thought thrilled him.

"There’s no rush for now. Get some rest, then take a good look at the mountain’s terrain. After that, you can draw up the plans. We’ll improve it step by step. If you’re missing any materials, just tell me, and I’ll figure out a way to get them."

’If we’re going to do this, we’re going all out. This isn’t going to be some small-time operation.’ Stella Sterling was in no hurry.

Stephen Lawrence nodded. He didn’t doubt Stella Sterling’s words in the slightest. He said excitedly, "I’ll survey the area first, then I’ll draw up the blueprints. After that, we can focus our energy on recruiting. Once we have people, we can move on to the next phase."

A project this massive was impossible for him to handle alone. That’s why he felt the most urgent task right now was to recruit people.