You were supposed to hoard supplies, why the heck did you hoard zombies!

Chapter 88 Deceived?

[Task completed, employee capacity increased by +10.]

The crisp system prompt sounded again while the number in Zhang Ye's eyes rapidly changed to two hundred.

At the same time, the number of human employees became twenty.

I guessed right.

Zhang Ye felt a surge of joy, realizing that the number of human employees he could have was indeed synchronized with the zombies.

For every ten additional slots for zombie employees, one slot for human employees was added to the tally—the ratio was exactly ten to one.

By his side, Ai Bing, seeing this, immediately asked curiously:

"What's happened?"

"Did the number of slots increased significantly this time?"

As the woman spoke, her body leaned slightly against Zhang Ye's, her soft touch and the fresh scent of shower gel suddenly bringing him back to his senses.

He looked up at Ai Bing and quickly shook his head, saying:

"The same as before, still ten."

"I reckon it depends on the number of survivors in the settlement."

"The situation we had before, with a one-time increase of fifty slots at the mall, that will probably be hard to come by now."

Zhang Ye spoke with a hint of regret showing in his eyes, but it caused the woman beside him to suddenly burst into laughter, her voluptuous, tall figure trembling like willow branches.

"Hahaha."

"You really are never satisfied."

As she spoke, she also gently shook her head, her face showing a hint of helplessness.

"While others are living in fear and trepidation, we can wander around the city as if on a vacation."

"What's there to regret?"

Zhang Ye silently nodded.

He hadn't yet told anyone about owning the human employee roster, including the woman by his side.

The only things known to the people below were two facts.

First, he could control zombies.

Second, he could grant others the ability to control and even capture zombies.

As for which people could be given this power, and how many—

No one knew.

Not even the woman he spent day and night with.

Ai Bing, Liu Qingqing, and Luo Xin only knew the maximum number of zombie employees he could have.

In their eyes, two hundred zombies were already a lot.

Enough for current use.

But for Zhang Ye, it clearly wasn't the case.

The new system task explicitly required him to have more than five hundred zombie employees.

And the following sub-tasks included extremely demanding conditions such as restoring factory operations, establishing shops, and creating a currency system.

Most of these required the consumption of human resources.

Do factories need people?

Take any small-scale food processing plant; it would still require dozens or hundreds of people to operate normally.

And that's not even accounting for the additional personnel needed to find and process raw materials.

Which in turn needed more hands.

Do shops need people?

Even if there is only one clerk in the shop.

You wouldn't want to be subject to a no-cost acquisition, or for outside zombies to just come in and eat the clerk, right?

Wouldn't it be necessary to have ten to twenty security guards standing guard outside?

Factoring all these scattered needs, the number of zombie employees required definitely wasn't as simple as the five hundred stated in the tasks—it needed to be at least doubled.

That was a whole thousand zombie employees!

And that might still not be enough!

On the contrary, those human employees couldn't all be arranged to work in the factories.

Firstly, he couldn't add that many people to his roster, which wouldn't ensure their loyalty.

Without enough loyalty, if he pushed them too hard, they might simply stir up trouble or even smash up his factory and shops and run away, which would be a heavy loss. Find more chapters on empire

Secondly, compared to zombies, humans eat more and do less.

It doesn't pay off.

"Forget it, let's just hurry to the next place," he said.

"Notify Xu Lin."

Ai Bing nodded and immediately took out a walkie-talkie to call Xu Lin.

This was also brought out from the security bureau.

The signal range was very wide.

The intercom connected quickly, but no one spoke, just occasional screams and the sounds of bodies colliding could be heard.

It took about a minute before sounds of Xu Lin's somewhat labored breathing emerged.

"Hehe, sorry about that."

"There were a few people here who weren't very cooperative."

"I just had to explain our company philosophy to them a bit."

Upon hearing this, Ai Bing immediately became curious and looked up at Zhang Ye, saying:

"Philosophy?"

"What philosophy?"

Zhang Ye chuckled and took the intercom from her, speaking:

"Xu Lin, go easy on them; don't cause any serious harm."

"If they get damaged, they can't be used."

After the person on the other end made a sound of agreement, Zhang Ye immediately looked around at the surrounding buildings, and then he informed Xu Lin of their location.

After hanging up the intercom, he explained:

"Our company's philosophy is simple; it's all about voluntarism."

"Right, let's head to the next place."

"We've got plenty of daylight left."

Half an hour later.

Zhang Ye was somewhat dazedly looking at the alleyway before him.

Where was the promised printing factory?

The factory buildings?

He stood at the entrance of the alley and looked around for quite a while, but aside from a few shops on either side of the exit, he saw no buildings that resembled a factory.

Or rather, it seemed unlikely that there would be any factory in this obviously old street.

At best, there could be a small workshop.

"Is this the place Tian Gou mentioned?"

Zhang Ye turned his head to look at Ai Bing who was also puzzled and asked for confirmation again.

"Could he have just picked a random place to make up the numbers?"

"There are clearly no factories nearby."

Ai Bing didn't speak; instead, she looked along the buildings on both sides of the alley.

A row of two-story self-constructed buildings, each with shops below.

Small restaurants, convenience stores—you name it.

"It shouldn't be."

"There are plenty of resources around here, and not that many zombies."

"Logically speaking, even if there is no factory, there should definitely be quite a few people hiding out here."

Zhang Ye, upon hearing this, felt significantly less anxious.

It seemed to make sense.

As long as there were people, it was fine.

Whether it was a factory or not, he didn't care.

There were factories aplenty in the development zone on the outskirts of the city; they could simply take some people and pick any one once inside.

"Let's take a look inside then," Zhang Ye said, walking into the alley while the dozen or so bodyguards that came with him split into two groups.

One group led the way.

The other blocked the alley's exit in case of any accidents.

The few zombies rummaging through the trash inside were quickly killed by the bodyguards with smashed heads, and a yard deep in the alley came into view.

A door wide enough for two people was not locked.

Zhang Ye went up to push it, but he only heard a clattering sound from inside, and the door didn't budge.

"There must be people inside!" he exclaimed, suddenly excited, and quickly stepped back.

A large, potbellied bodyguard stepped forward and then slammed into the door.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The rapid thuds quickly resonated throughout the alley.

In less than five minutes, the door swung open inward with a loud noise, a broken door latch falling to the ground.

Zhang Ye went inside and saw a figure dart across the room.

Could it be an old man?