Seeing Su Li agree, Qi Mengyu's eyes showed a hint of gratitude. She felt Su Li was a decent person—at least staying with him was far better than going downstairs to live with those men.
"I remember last night, it seemed like Brother Ding blasted two holes in the rooftop," Su Li suddenly recalled.
Xu Haishui hummed in acknowledgment and said, "Don't worry, Brother Su. I just had someone go up with me to patch those two holes. Luckily, they were small, or it would've been tough to fix with the lack of materials right now."
Su Li asked curiously, "You went up and fixed them? How?"
Xu Haishui chuckled. "You forgot about my ability?"
Su Li immediately understood. Xu Haishui's strength was fire control. Using that ability, he could manipulate flames to melt certain materials and fill in the two holes.
"By the way, here's the list of everyone." Xu Haishui handed over a piece of paper with names written on it.
"Right now, the total number of people in Zifeng Building is thirty-two."
Su Li hummed and said, "Oh, and do you know the name of one person?" He thought for a moment and described the man he'd seen last night—square-faced, with a crew cut, sitting with his back straight as a rod.
Su Li remembered him vividly because he was the only Level 5 Source among that group.
Xu Haishui immediately laughed. "I know who you mean. His name is Luo Jun. He's very quiet and doesn't talk much. I heard he's a retired Sanda fighter, now working as some kind of instructor or something. He's really skilled. Tao Bingjun and the others tried to win him over before, but Luo Jun didn't want to hang out with them. Of course, he didn't go against them either, so they eventually left him alone. Why did you suddenly bring him up, Brother Su?"
Su Li said, "He's a Level 5 Source. In that group in the cafeteria, he was the only one. He must have some ability. Don't neglect him. You can try to get closer to him and have him move up to the 36th floor."
"I see." Xu Haishui now knew that Su Li possessed the "Peeping Rune," which allowed him to see people's levels. Hearing this, he understood and nodded eagerly.
They themselves were only Level 5 now, so naturally, they wanted to recruit talent like that.
"By the way, how did all of you hunt monsters before?" Su Li thought about how Xu Haishui had also reached Level 4 before meeting him. Counting Tao Bingjun's group from last night, the overall evolution level of everyone in Zifeng Building was quite high—three at Level 6, several at Level 5, most at Level 4, and a few at Level 3.
Xu Haishui said, "For the first two days, everyone stayed in Zifeng Building. A lot of monsters would climb in and attack us. After we got stronger, Tao Bingjun and the others destroyed the monster nests below, so now there aren't many monsters around Zifeng Building."
Su Li nodded slightly, understanding why he hadn't seen any monsters near Zifeng Building last night.
"After that, we split into several teams. Some people who were too weak or didn't want to hunt monsters stayed behind to stand guard, clean up, or manage the kitchen and odd jobs. But most people went out during the day to gather supplies and hunt monsters to get stronger."
"Mm, with so many people, we consume a lot of food and supplies every day. That's definitely a problem." Su Li understood that after evolution, Sources naturally had bigger appetites than ordinary people, and the stronger they got, the more they ate. This was still early days, with relatively abundant supplies, but as sources dwindled, the shortage would only get worse.
"Xu Haishui, I have an idea." Su Li suddenly looked at Xu Haishui with a serious expression.
Xu Haishui quickly said, "What are your orders, Brother Su?"
Su Li tapped the table in front of him with his finger, pondering for a moment before saying, "I want to combine all the extra rafts together—the bigger, the better."
Xu Haishui blinked, looking at Su Li.
Su Li spoke slowly, "I want to build a mobile fortress on the water. We need to collect enough wood, plastic—anything that floats, like doors, wooden furniture, plastic barrels, tires, and so on. Staying in Zifeng Building isn't a long-term solution. We'll have to leave eventually. Plus, the water level is still rising. No one knows what the future holds. If the whole world gets flooded, this mobile fortress will come in handy."
Xu Haishui said admiringly, "You're thinking ahead, Brother Su. This is easy to handle. I'll hand it over to Bai Wenwei to take full charge. I'll have him bring some people to start right away."
Su Li nodded in satisfaction and stood up. "Alright, no need to rush. Just set aside a little time each day."
After that, Su Li and Xu Haishui went up to the 37th floor. Qi Mengyu, feeling she was now Su Li's woman, followed behind.
As soon as they reached the 37th floor, they heard Ding Longyun shouting.
"Stack all this rice together. Keep this area dry, or it'll get moldy. Same with the flour."
On the 37th floor, several people were moving things in and out of rooms.
Ding Longyun came out of one room while directing a few people to move stuff. A woman was with him, chatting and laughing, looking very close.
Su Li saw the woman—about thirty years old, the oldest of the four women he'd seen last night. Her name was Zhong Rongrong.
"Hey? Su Li, you're finally up." Ding Longyun grinned when he saw Su Li.
Zhong Rongrong quickly stepped forward to greet him, obediently saying, "Hello, Brother Su."
Su Li nodded at her, then looked Ding Longyun up and down. He noticed Ding Longyun looked cheerful and completely different from a few days ago, though he couldn't pinpoint why. Remembering the slightly intimate way Ding Longyun and Zhong Rongrong had been acting, he wondered if they'd already...
"Hey, you're staring at me without saying anything. What are you thinking? You're looking at me like I'm a thief. Am I a thief?" Ding Longyun waved a hand in front of Su Li's face.
Su Li snapped out of it and smiled. "Nothing. I just haven't seen you this lively in a while. Are you sorting through the supplies?"
Ding Longyun said, "Yeah. These guys are useless. They just piled everything together. I'm categorizing it all, putting similar items together so it's easier to find later."
Su Li smiled. "Good, keep at it. I'll go check out other places."
After that, Su Li went to the 35th floor and met the engineer Yan Fang, whom Xu Haishui had mentioned many times.
Yan Fang was over fifty, with graying hair and glasses, looking like a thin, dark old man. Since he couldn't speak or hear, and Su Li didn't know sign language, they communicated by writing on paper.
Su Li first comforted him, saying to speak up if he needed anything or was short of supplies.
Qi Mengyu stayed by his side, writing down what Su Li said on paper and showing it to Yan Fang.
Yan Fang read it, nodded at Su Li, and wrote two words: Thank you.
Xu Haishui also wrote a line and showed it to Yan Fang.
"Brother Su is different from Tao Bingjun and the others. He's a good person. You can trust him."
Yan Fang read it and nodded slightly.
Su Li said, "From now on, this entire 35th floor is yours for research. If you need more hands or materials, just say so. We'll help you figure it out."
Qi Mengyu wrote this down and showed it to Yan Fang. When he saw it, his face finally showed some emotion.
"Yan Fang is amazing. Besides the water purifier, he also modified the solar water heater. Everyone has clean water and hot water thanks to him."
Su Li hummed in agreement. "That's why we have to treat him well and protect him. He's a real talent."
He could see Yan Fang wasn't strong—just a Level 1 Source. He'd probably only killed a few monsters in the past few days, spending most of his time in Zifeng Building doing research.
Afterward, Xu Haishui called Bai Wenwei and tasked him with combining the extra rafts and floating materials, starting the groundwork for the future mobile fortress.
Bai Wenwei, knowing this was a task from Su Li, nodded excitedly, feeling he was finally being put to good use.
Su Li surveyed the floors of Zifeng Building, getting a clear picture in his mind. Then he found Gong Xiao and Ding Longyun, deciding to return to the 32-story building they'd lived in before after lunch to move all the supplies left there.
There was still a lot of useful stuff there, and he didn't want to waste it.
Ding Longyun said, "There's plenty of useful supplies there. We'll need a super-large raft."
Su Li replied, "Then we'll take a super-large raft. I've already got Bai Wenwei and the others working on it. Combining a few rafts will be enough."
Xu Haishui wanted to come along, but Su Li figured Zifeng Building had just changed hands and was still unstable, so he had him stay. Su Li went with Ding Longyun, Gong Xiao, and Xu Xuehui.
Gong Xiao said, "I want to bring Qi Mengyu, Zhong Rongrong, Zhou Li, and Tao Yuezhi along too."
Su Li asked in surprise, "What for? To move stuff? They're just ordinary people. They probably can't even lift heavy things. They'd just be dead weight."
Gong Xiao shot him a look. "So you know they're ordinary people? I was thinking, since we're going out anyway, we might as well bring them and teach them how to hunt monsters so they can evolve and defend themselves. We women aren't any worse than you men. They just never had the chance before. Right, Qi Mengyu?"
Qi Mengyu, standing nearby, forced a smile, not knowing how to respond. She clearly wasn't very interested in going out to hunt monsters.