Chapter 596: Dinner Gathering

“That’s a good thing,” Nina Jacobs said.

The extreme cold wouldn’t end anytime soon, but humanity had to survive. Furthermore, keeping everyone locked inside the base for eight months was a massive burden on its resources. It was survival of the fittest; humanity ultimately had to adapt to the changes in this world.

On the second day of the base’s intensive preparations for the relief mission, Chase Gallagher unexpectedly entered a state of advancement.

This greatly excited everyone.

“Gallagher is finally going to advance,” Granny Hart said. They all knew Chase had been looking forward to this day for a long time.

“Everyone, take a break for today,” Nina ordered, knowing Chase could advance at any moment over the next few days. Advancing to the Intermediate level only required ensuring the surrounding area was safe; the rest was just waiting quietly.

Learning that Nina had agreed to Adrian Paige’s request, Myra Lawson felt much more at ease. She specifically asked Ian Chandler to invite Nina over.

“There’s someone who wants to see you,” Myra said with a smile.

Just then, Nina saw a familiar figure walk in. It was Nia Quinn.

“I heard you’re heading out again, so I came specially to bring you some good stuff,” Nia said. Her complexion looked much rosier than before. With her slightly wavy hair tied up in a high ponytail, she looked vibrant and full of life.

“Are you sure they’re just for me?” Nina had already anticipated this, having asked Myra about it earlier. Nia had recently created quite a few excellent items at the Weapons Research Institute.

“A bit of both,” Nia replied, clearly well-prepared. She took several modest-sized boxes out of her space and placed them on the table in front of Nina.

“You two chat; I’m going to step out for a bit,” Myra said as the communication device in her hand beeped twice.

Nina nodded, then opened one of the boxes.

Inside, it was packed full of Red Lotus Boxes. Nina remembered the red mist they released; when used, they could maximally attract surrounding zombies, which was incredibly useful when traveling outside.

“This base has plenty of materials, and the personnel are highly knowledgeable. Whenever I pitch an idea, they look at me like I’m some sort of god. It’s really fun,” Nia shared eagerly, unable to wait to tell Nina about her recent experiences.

“It seems you’re adapting well here.” Nina opened the next box, which contained a batch of Superconductive Hand Grenades.

She had first seen this type of grenade near Mornfell when she encountered Julian Shaw, who was connected to Veridia. To date, this grenade remained the only weapon capable of cracking her Diamond Sand Cover, which was a testament to its immense power.

“Thank you, Nina. I really like it here. I’ve already decided to retire here,” Nia said.

Nina’s lips twitched slightly at that. “You’re not even twenty yet. Isn’t it a bit too early to talk about retirement?”

“It’s not early at all. There’s probably no better place than this. Even the Arisdale Base was nothing special,” Nia replied. “Oh, right! Your friend Chelsea Walsh and I developed a cannon that works perfectly despite the low temperatures. However, it’s too big, so we handed it over to the base’s Space Superpower Users for storage.”

Nia knew City D Base was heading out to support other bases this time. “Even though you’re already incredibly strong, having heavy weapons for backup will definitely be better.”

“Thanks, Dr. Quinn,” Nina said with a smile, looking at the radiant Nia in front of her.

The remaining two boxes contained anesthetic smoke bombs and a batch of Liaoyuan Crystals. Chelsea had been participating in a closed-door project these past few days and couldn’t leave the Weapons Research Institute, so she had entrusted Nia to deliver them. Learning that today was Nia’s day off, Nina invited her to Stella for dinner.

“What kind of dinner party doesn’t invite me? That’s so heartbreaking,” a sarcastic voice said as the door was pushed open. It was Shirley Lucas, following closely behind Myra.

Nina had heard that Shirley would also be joining the mission. His space was large enough to hold all the supplies and military equipment.

“If you want to come, you’re welcome to,” Nina said. Walsh was the chef for the day, so an extra person just meant adding another pair of chopsticks.

“I was just joking. I’d love to go, but my hands are tied right now,” Shirley said regretfully.

“Nina, based on our preliminary discussions, the relief mission has been scheduled for tomorrow,” Myra said. Taking into account the situation described by Ivan Young and the others, Justin Lawson, Adrian Paige, and the rest all agreed that the sooner they provided support, the better. As for Shirley, he would be busy all day today storing the equipment.

Nina thought for a moment before replying, “I shouldn’t have any problem with that.”

That evening, Nia followed Nina to Villa 73. They hadn’t chosen the Stella residence because Chase was still in the middle of his breakthrough, and Nina was afraid of disturbing him.

Walsh, Leo Hale, Yvonne Willow, and Wendy Marshall had already been busy in and out of the kitchen for a while.

Wayne Warner stood guard in front of an electric pressure cooker, which was stewing a full pot of cured meat made from a Mutated Animal. The reason he had to guard it was that the base ran on solar power, and the daily electricity supply wasn’t unlimited. The pressure cooker was connected to a high-power battery, and the electricity inside the battery had been charged by Wayne using his Thunder Element Superpower.

“Wayne has really figured out how to use his Thunder Element Superpower. From now on, he’ll be a giant portable power bank whenever we go out.” Leo had been tinkering with this Skill at home with Wayne lately. Although they had ruined over twenty electric cookers and a few batteries so far, even Nina thought this Skill was incredibly useful.

“If that’s the case, could Wayne also charge electric cars?” Godfrey Thatcher asked, learning for the first time that the Thunder Element Superpower could be used this way. He still had a few electric cars with depleted batteries in his space. Although there were charging stations within City D Base, it took nearly five days to fully charge one car, so there was always a long queue for the charging spots.

“We haven’t tried that yet. The cost of failure is a bit too high,” Leo replied. After all, the Thunder Element Superpower was quite powerful; it wouldn’t be good if they accidentally caused an explosion in the base.

“That’s easy. I need a Gold Element Superpower User—you’ll do.” Nia had been listening to their conversation from the side. She grabbed Leo and borrowed an empty room from Nina.

Just over twenty minutes later, Nia had built a black device with wires connected to both sides.

“I made this. It’s essentially a current-stabilizing device that integrates voltage limitation, rectification, capacitor buffering, and constant current control. As long as you use this in combination with the Thunder Element Superpower to store electricity, you won’t have to worry about safety issues. To be precise, it has at least a 99% safety rate,” Nia explained expertly.

Piqued by the idea, Nina had Godfrey take out a car and place it in the courtyard, then covered it with her Diamond Sand Cover. Wayne held Nia’s device and activated his Thunder Element Superpower. A few minutes later, the car inside the sand shield actually turned its lights on automatically.

“It worked?!” Godfrey exclaimed in extreme excitement.

Just over twenty minutes later, the car was fully charged.

“Nia, you could probably apply for a patent for this thing,” Nina praised. Using Superpowers to supply electricity was no easy feat; it tested the Superpower User’s Control Power over their own abilities. In her past life, some Thunder Element Superpower Users had thought of this method, but they abandoned it due to the high accident rate. She hadn’t expected Wayne and Nia to succeed today.

“This is a pretty good Skill,” Redmayne Spencer, who also possessed the Thunder Element Superpower, said with great interest. He felt it was strikingly similar in concept to using the Thunder Element Superpower to pick locks.