QT: Grace To Grass Counterattack System

Many bases in the country began to merge with each other -sometimes three to four at a time- just so they would be prepared able to defend themselves against the supposed monsters tearing down bases.

He Yuan sent out teams of new humans to investigate the situation and although more bases were torn down, they weren't able to find out the origin of the monsters. It was as if they just appeared at a base and after tearing it down, they disappeared mysteriously.

A lot of humans were out in the open once more looking for a safe haven to take shelter so He Yuan had the new humans lead the homeless normal humans over to the new human base.

Another wall was erected around the new human base and the space between the two walls was used to build homes and shelters. This way, the 'refugees' would have no idea of the zombies that were evolving behind the inner wall.

Soon enough, smaller bases were a

merged into the new human base, making the wall of the base to be continuously expanded. The base soon grew to be two times its original size with two sections, the inner and outer wall, although the normal humans being prohibited from entering the inner wall, were the zombies were.

The number of wandering zombies in the country reduced so much that the streets were practically empty because just as He Yuan was taking in the zombies in order to help them evolve, the leader of the misshapen monsters was also doing the same -although not for the same reason.

Both sides just focused on increasing their forces.

More and more zombies in the inner wall of the new human base evolved and He Yuan sent them to the outer wall as new humans and soon enough, the old humans began to recognize them. The new humans were once loved ones that had been lost to the infection so of course they'd be recognized.

Some people were very happy and tried to reunite with their loved ones, others were left confused by this development whilst a much larger portion who were able to recognize a new human or two -for being responsible for the loss of their loved ones when they were zombies- directly attacked them.

He Yuan was quite certain that with the increasingly growing size of the new human base, Du Jian would soon attack. Now was not the time for dissent so he called a meeting in the base and every single member gathered in front of the inner wall.

He Yuan stood on top of the wall and looked down on the thousands of people gathered. "You are all very aware of a special group of people in our midst. The original inhabitants of this base. The very people the base was named after the... New humans..." With his ability, it was quite easy to project his voice to the thousands present so he did just that.

Next he proceeded to inform them all about the new humans, how they were zombies with awakened human consciousness, how they were no longer able to spread the toxin and all that. He left the part about their stunted emotions out though.

It was very easy for people to misunderstand and think that just because the new humans couldn't feel emotions like them, the new humans would have little regard for life and would be prone to killing sprees.

Humans were just over reactors like that.

At the end of his educating speech, the old humans all looked at the closest new human to them in silence, curiosity, anger, hate and a few were even awed.

Although He Yuan's speech was enlightening, it did not help in reducing their anger and hatred so a man glared right at He Yuan and shouted for all to hear. "SO YOU EXPECT US TO LET THESE CANNIBALISTIC KILLERS IN OUR MIDST?!"

He Yuan saw a few new humans flinch. Just because they couldn't feel emotions like the old humans didn't mean it wasn't there. He raised his brow at the man. "I'm not asking you to let any killer in your midst. In case you missed my opening speech, this base originally belonged to the new humans so WE'RE the ones letting YOU into OUR midst."

"THAT'S BULLSHIT!" A woman this time and she was glaring daggers at a particular new human. "THEY KILLED PEOPLE IMPORTANT TO US!" She pointed to the zombie she had her sights on and said, "You killed our parents!

-How did it feel hm?! Did they taste good?! How do you sleep knowing you tore your own parents to shreds?!"

The new human only lowered her head and clenched her shaking fists at her sides. This made He Yuan feel like shit. He was doubting if he made the right decision by making the zombies evolve into new humans. Would it have been easier if they all lived in ignorance and kept on killing each other?

[Don't over think this.] 888 projected into He Yuan's mind. It wasn't like the projection they had when they were still connected as host and system but it was close enough. He Yuan had figured a way to link his psychic energy to 889 so the system could reach him at all times.

When He Yuan's eyes trailed over to the spot 888 was standing in the crowd, the system continued. [The ratio of infected humans to eaten humans is approximately 5000000:1. We all know that zombies turn humans faster than they eat them. A lot of the new humans had in fact never eaten humans when they were zombies.]

He Yuan understood this. What made zombies to stay clear of each other was the toxin. They were somehow able to sense it in each other and so zombies had to tear the humans apart before the toxin could spread through their bloodstream.

This was sometimes very difficult because if the human was still alive after the first bite or claw attack, the toxin would begin spreading so the zombies usually had no choice but to stop as they couldn't eat other zombies.

This was also why there was a lot of dead bodies at the beginning of the apocalypse. Those ones had died just after the toxin had spread through their blood stream so they also couldn't be eaten by the zombies. It was a different case if the human died after the first attack because then, the toxin wouldn't spread and they would be eaten.

Although 888's words were correct, it still wasn't enough because even though a lot of the new humans did not actually eat people, they had indeed killed people -a lot of people. But was it really their fault? It wasn't as if they knew what they were doing, they were also victims.

He Yuan sighed. "We are very much aware that the toxin actually pushes the human consciousness into dormancy at the early stages of infection. Are you really going to blame the new humans for this? It wasn't as if we were part of the research facility that started this mess.

-At this point, they are more new humans than normal humans so you are all literally asking victims, which include a lot of children by the way, to just die because they were victims."

"DON'T CALL THOSE THINGS CHILDREN!" A different man said this time. "THEY'RE MONSTERS. THEY LOST THE RIGHT TO BE CHILDREN WHEN THEY GOT THEMSELVES INFECTED AND STARTED MAULING PEOPLE LEFT AND RIGHT!"

Now even some normal humans felt uncomfortable with the man's words. They could be angry at the grown up new humans but they also could not forget that children were actually the first to get infected as they couldn't protect themselves at the time. Were they really ready to face children with the same hate as they did the grown ups?

For what? Because they were too small to have saved themselves? There were also some people who had been cowards and had heartlessly abandoned their children at the beginning of the infection wave. They couldn't protect their own kids and now that said kids had been given a second chance by nature, could they even find it in themselves to condemn them?

A woman, who was holding the hand of a new human child, glared at the man who had spoken. One of her children had been infected when they were trying to escape and she had no choice but to leave him behind. Who knew she would be given a second chance?

"SHUT UP YOU WASTE OF OXYGEN!" Another man with tears streaming down his face called out as he directly attacked the man who had spoken earlier. His child had wondered off when he'd hidden her and gone to look for food.

He'd searched for ages but couldn't find her and he'd known deep down that she'd been caught by zombies. Who knew he would find her in this base? She'd been behind that wall all along, working hard to evolve! How was it her fault that she got infected?

If anyone should be blamed it should be him! He hadn't looked after his own daughter properly.

A lot of people were beginning to see reason and consider the possibility of coexisting with the new humans. A lot of them would not be able to get over the fact that a lot of their loved ones had lost their lives but that was okay.

He Yuan knew it was okay because it wasn't easy to forgive. Even if it wasn't the fault of the new humans, the normal humans were not obligated to forgive them. Every human being had the right to grieve and he wouldn't invalidate the hurt of the normal humans by telling them to forgive and completely accept the new humans.

"I know everyone is hurting and I'm not trying to deprive you of your right to hurt because you deserve that but all I'm asking for is that we at least try to cooperate.

-We are all aware of the current happenings and know that there is danger on the loose. We need to work together now to ensure our collective survival."

People began to let out grunts of agreement -a lot of them, reluctantly- but He Yuan was already quite satisfied. If some of them wanted to accept the new humans, good. If others did not, that was also good. All he asked for was peaceful coexistence.

After that day, more and more bases merged with theirs and they were also eased into the existence of the new humans. Training began with the new humans heading various teams as He Yuan had already trained them whilst they were in the inner wall. When the new human base grew to four times its original size, Du Jian finally arrived.

BRRRRNNNNGGGGG!

BRRRRNNNNGGGGG!

BRRRRNNNNGGGGG!

He Yuan was in his office discussing with a bunch of former base leaders when the alarm was rung throughout the base.

An army of human-zombie monsters were right outside the base walls with Du Jian and Lu Ming right at the forefront.