Chapter 1411: Chapter 585: The Left Behind Envelope

Zhao Yaru was somewhat anxious, afraid that Wang Tao would leave them behind and just walk away.

At present, Zizhu Base was like a dragon without a head, in dire need of a pillar of strength. Other high-ranking members, including herself, could theoretically lead, but their prestige within the base was comparable and none held an absolute overwhelming advantage. If they vied for leadership, it certainly wouldn’t be resolved quickly. It might even lead to unrest.

Of course, that wasn’t the most important issue. What mattered most was that the base’s situation wasn’t good, and they were self-aware enough to realize they weren’t cut out for managing it.

Zizhu Base had over ten thousand people, and resources were almost exhausted. Whoever became the leader would have to address the basic needs of those ten thousand people first.

Zhao Yaru knew she wasn’t up to the task, and she felt no one else was either.

Although they had discovered an underground granary that might contain a substantial amount of food, the problem was that there was a mutant beast nearby capable of taking down a Fifth-Order Giant Zombie. Who knew where that beast was? An encounter with it would certainly spell death.

Wang Tao was different though, not to mention how powerful he was in combat, just the fact that he had a flying mount was a tremendous advantage!

With a flying mount, at the very least, they could search for food from afar, and even if they encountered a mutant beast, they could escape in time! Not to mention Wang Tao’s own strength was terrifying, able to kill Giant Zombies instantly! If he really did encounter that mutant beast, the one needing to flee might be the beast itself.

Therefore, Zhao Yaru hoped Wang Tao would become their leader. On the way back, while riding on the Golden Eagle, she had secretly exchanged opinions with others, and not a single person objected. They all wished for Wang Tao to take charge.

It seemed like handing over Zizhu Base to Wang Tao, but in reality, it was them hitching their fortunes to Wang Tao’s power!

What worried her most was Wang Tao’s reluctance, as Zizhu Base might just be a burden to him…

Even though she now had great trust in Dusk Church, Wang Tao, after all, was a regular human. And humans are generally reluctant to take on burdens, right?

So after requesting Wang Tao to become the leader of Zizhu Base, she was very uneasy inside. Especially when she saw Wang Tao frown – she felt that he seemed about to refuse!

“Please don’t rush to refuse, Priest Lord! We will definitely not burden you, and we will bring you benefits!”

Zhao Yaru quickly spoke up again.

Originally, Wang Tao was contemplating whether to take these people in and whether to keep them here or to find a better place for them to live. But seeing Zhao Yaru’s anxiousness, he understood that the base’s situation was far from as good as he had observed.

“The situation in the base is bad?”

Wang Tao asked directly.

“…Yes, the current situation is really bad. Even without the Giant Zombies, we would have to go out and search for food. At the onset of the Apocalypse, we were fortunate to have stored a lot of food, and even transplanted some crops. But now, the stored food is almost depleted, and the crops aren’t yielding any fruit anymore… We admit that we’re incapable of resolving this problem, so…”

Zhao Yaru explained with her head lowered, somewhat embarrassed.

“Haven’t you found an underground granary?”

“Leaving aside whether there’s any food in the granary, even if there is, there’s a mutant beast outside about as strong as the Giant Zombies…”

“…Alright, that does sound quite troublesome.”

Wang Tao shook his head.

No wonder Zhao Yaru requested him to be the leader of Zizhu Base – the place was in chaos.

However, this wasn’t really a problem for Wang Tao. Still, he didn’t agree immediately, being aware that easily gained things are often not valued.

“You’ve been seriously injured; go rest first. Is it all right if I look around here?”

Wang Tao said with a smile.

Seeing that Wang Tao hadn’t immediately agreed, Zhao Yaru felt a bit disappointed, but since he hadn’t refused either, there was still a chance.

“Of course not! This is the key to our base interiors; Priest Lord, you are free to go wherever you wish–oh yes, this is also the key from our previous leader. If you want to rest, you could use the former leader’s home. The former leader always lived alone, without a wife or offspring… If you have any needs, you can contact me anytime.”

Zhao Yaru quickly handed several sets of keys and a walkie-talkie to Wang Tao, then silently left. She definitely couldn’t rest herself; she needed to find the others and come up with a plan to get Wang Tao elected as the leader of their base.

“Ah, I forgot to ask the Priest Lord’s name…”

…

There was actually not much to see in this base. Wang Tao was mainly interested in observing the survivors here, to put it simply, to see whether any of the survivors had the potential for Awakening – after all, there were over ten thousand of them.

After Wang Tao left the meeting room, the other survivors must have been informed, as they greeted him very respectfully as Priest Lord.

Wang Tao smiled and nodded, not putting on any airs.

After some observation, Wang Tao was surprised to find that there were not a few with Hidden Attributes here; there were actually more than twenty.