The Strongest Sentinel (10): He wanted to bite Zhou Qinghao’s mouth until it was swollen, but he was reluctant to do so. What should he do?

Zhou Qinghao didn’t know why he could fall asleep next to Gu Juntian.

But this had greatly improved his condition, allowing him to handle more work.

Originally, he thought that after the beast tide, he would need to seclude himself for a few days to calm down and control the situation in the spiritual sea, but now, he could already go out and meet people.

Zhou Qinghao also came from a commoner background.

When he was young, he liked to read books. After shifting his attention to the books, he would feel a bit better.

At that time, he read in a book that before the great disaster, the poorer the country, the higher the birth rate.

This era was the same.

In Base One, if we set aside the inner city and only consider the outer city, people living in relatively better neighborhoods were not very willing to have children, but those living in the worst neighborhoods were very willing to have children.

The upper echelons of the base needed a continuous supply of labor and cannon fodder to kill the mutated beasts.

Therefore, people living in the outer city could receive a subsidy of ten thousand credit points as long as they had a child.

From the moment a child was born until they turned eighteen, they could use the child’s contact terminal every day to receive enough food for one child to eat. After a certain period, they could also receive clothing suitable for the child.

The base would ensure the most basic food and shelter for the children. When parents could raise their children without contributing anything, they could even earn some credit points. They could even rely on machines to have children…

Some people simply stopped working and lived off having children.

When their bodies were still in good condition and could pass various pre-birth tests, they had a child every year. This way, they could receive a subsidy of ten thousand credit points each year, and the base usually provided more food for the children, which they could also eat to fill their stomachs.

His parents were exactly such a couple.

He was their tenth child.

His parents stayed at home every day, wearing virtual reality glasses and getting lost in the online world, while their children roamed freely in the neighborhood.

When he was still young, every day, his older siblings at home would take the younger children to receive free food.

They brought the food home, leaving a portion for their parents, who didn’t know when they would take off their virtual glasses to eat, and then shared the rest of the food together.

At that time, their biggest dream was to awaken as sentinels at the age of eighteen through genetic drugs and then change their lives.

His eldest brother awakened as a sentinel at the age of eighteen, but his life did not change.

He was unlucky; shortly after awakening, he encountered a beast tide and died in it.

Zhou Qinghao still remembered how his brother, before going to war, happily patted each of their heads and told them he would bring back large pieces of mutated beast meat, so they could skip the nutrient meals for a whole day and eat their fill of meat.

But this eighteen-year-old, who had just come of age, did not return; only his communication terminal was sent back.

As for the corpses, in the beast tide, how could the corpses be preserved?

His brother did not achieve any military merits. It was said that after going to the battlefield, his performance was very poor, so his pension was at the lowest level, only two hundred thousand credit points.

His parents weren’t particularly sad; instead, they blamed his brother for being useless—although two hundred thousand was a lot, if his brother were alive, he could have earned them credit points for a long time.

Only these younger siblings were crying uncontrollably, unable to believe that the brother who took them to get free food every day, the one who saved the good food for them and told them stories, had died just like that.

Every time the beast tide ended, the food distributed to the underage children at the base turned into large chunks of beast meat, which ordinary people usually couldn’t afford, but the price became very cheap.

The meat of the mutated beasts was very delicious, so in the past, they actually looked forward to the beast tide arriving.

That meant they could have a big meal.

But this time, their brother died.

Their brother didn’t bring back any mutated beast meat, but the base sent them some.

That was the most unpalatable beast meat Zhou Qinghao had ever eaten in his life.

Many people around him were numb to death, but he was different; he would always remember his brother.

That young boy, despite not being very old himself, worked hard to take care of this group of younger siblings. Occasionally, when the base distributed beast meat to them, he would let them eat it before going home to prevent their parents from taking it away. He himself wouldn’t eat a single bite because if he didn’t bring back any meat, their parents would get angry and beat them.

After he awakened as a sentinel, he was very happy and even said he would never go hungry for meat again. But in reality? Since birth, he had never had a satisfying meal of beast meat.

After the brother died, the person who took care of them became their older sister.

Their eldest sister also received gene drugs after reaching adulthood.

She didn’t become a sentinel and just found an ordinary job.

At first, she thought she could rely on herself to live a good life, but her income was only enough for her basic needs. As a single person, she couldn’t even find a cheap place to rent…

Later, she got married before turning twenty and lived the same life as the other people in their neighborhood.

Zhou Qinghao originally thought he would become just another member of the masses, but what he didn’t expect was that he naturally awakened at the age of twelve and became a high-level sentinel.

And, he just awakened with an astonishing super S-level.

This made their whole family rise to success in one go.

His parents and his underage siblings all moved into the best neighborhood in the outer city, just a step away from the inner city, while he was taken to live in the inner city.

In the following days, he underwent various examinations.

He was a super-S-level sentinel, yet he was also a sentinel destined to die young because he couldn’t find a suitable guide.

They treated him like a sharp, well-used knife.

At that time, according to predictions, he wouldn’t live past twenty-five, so to not waste his talent, he was sent to the battlefield at the tender age of twelve.

He was the youngest sentry on the battlefield, yet he had to bear very heavy responsibilities. After finally returning to the underground city to rest, those nobles would still arrange for people to instill in him the idea of dedicating himself to the base.

He was willing to dedicate himself to the base, but he soon realized that he wasn’t contributing to the base; he was just a useful weapon in the hands of certain people.

Many powerful sentinels could not think calmly without a guide.

Too powerful, with the mental power in his spiritual sea always in a state of frenzy, in the eyes of some people, he was no longer someone who could think normally.

At that time, the aristocrats in control of the army did not guard against him, this humanoid weapon.

They even turned him into a hero, widely publicizing his achievements among the sentinels.

This made him an idol for many sentinels.

He achieved military success time and again, and his level kept rising higher and higher.

By this time, they still didn’t take him seriously.

He had no guide, and he couldn’t even think calmly, so what could he do?

Moreover, he was about to die.

The elites of Base One didn’t take him seriously, but then, during a beast tide, he made his superior, who enjoyed selecting low-level sentinels from the army to abuse, “heroically sacrifice” himself.

Before that, he had already gained the support of all the low-level sentinels in the army through various means.

He thus took control of tBase One’s army, confronting those in power, and a delicate balance was formed between the two sides.

He was too powerful; those nobles didn’t dare to confront him directly, and he also couldn’t do anything to those nobles.

After coming to power, he did a lot of things.

In the past, when civilians awakened as sentinels, they had to join the military and would be sent directly to the battlefield without any training.

But after he became the commander, he changed the rules.

He provided better treatment for his soldiers. He invested resources in training them before they went to battle, and he also allowed sentinels who had been accepted into university or had other special circumstances to opt out of military service.

This did not reduce the combat effectiveness of his army; instead, it made their combat effectiveness even stronger.

And what he did, of course, was much more than just this.

While he was fighting for the interests of his own soldiers, he was also fighting for the interests of the civilians in the underground city.

He became the commander-in-chief when he was twenty-three, and now, almost ten years had passed.

At first, those powerful figures thought he was close to death and tolerated him, but as he increasingly encroached on their interests, he became a thorn in their side, and their hatred for him grew deeper and deeper.

Zhou Qinghao knew that after his death, his subordinates would definitely be held accountable.

And he had already prepared countermeasures.

Not far from Base One, there used to be another base, but a hundred years ago, it was attacked by a beast tide and was breached.

Half of the civilians died, and the aristocrats took the remaining civilians and fled to Base One.

Zhou Qinghao had long since led his men to clear out that base. He planned to have his subordinates take people there to live before he died.

He also contacted people from other bases who share the same ideas and welcomed their arrival.

They would establish a new base!

Over the years, Zhou Qinghao had often recruited people from Base One and sent them there.

Nowadays, that abandoned base had already housed tens of thousands of people, and all the facilities had been repaired.

Base One housed many people, thus it was filled with human presence, eventually becoming the target of hostility and attacks by the mutated beasts.

That emerging base, however, was different.

It hadn’t had any residents for many years, and now there were very few people living there, so the human presence wasn’t very strong.

In the previous beast tide, that base wasn’t attacked at all.

In the future, his subordinates should be able to live a stable life in that base.

As for Base One… after they leave, Base One would definitely face some trouble, but Base One still had many powerful sentinels, so it wouldn’t be overrun by the mutated beasts.

Zhou Qinghao did not want to confront those powerful figures head-on. If they really started a fight at Base One, both sides would suffer, and at the same time, the civilians at Base One would also be affected.

In the rise and fall of a nation, the common people suffered the most.

So, their leaving was the best choice.

However, his subordinates could leave, but it was very difficult for him to leave.

The people at Base One who had a grudge against him would definitely not just sit back and watch him enjoy himself outside.

If he also left, even if he had less than a year left to live, those people would find ways to attack him.

He was about to die anyway; there was no need to sacrifice the new base to buy a few more months of life.

He was prepared to use his own death to buy time for this new base.

Those privileged elites had been living in luxury for too long. At first, they didn’t realize what they would face without the military.

And by the time they faced all that, it would already be too late for them to remedy the situation!

Zhou Qinghao had already planned for the future, and now, he had a lot to do.

Today, he left early in the morning and got busy.

Inner city, a certain café.

Before the great disaster, coffee was a common beverage, but after the great disaster, at Base One, coffee became incredibly precious.

There were no coffee trees near Base One at all. If you wanted to drink coffee, you would have to buy it from other bases.

That was not all; the mutated coffee trees bore toxic fruit, and this poison was something humans couldn’t withstand at all. Only a creature that fed on coffee beans could resist and digest this toxin.

So if humans wanted to drink coffee, they needed to capture this mutated creature and extract the undigested but no longer toxic coffee beans from its stomach.

This kind of mutated beast was very difficult to capture, and during the capture process, sentinels might even lose their lives.

Going through all this trouble just to let the elites have a cup of coffee, highlighting their uniqueness.

Zhou Qinghao was not interested in coffee; he didn’t order coffee, just a glass of lemonade.

There weren’t many lemons in the water; he didn’t like sour drinks.

Zhou Qinghao slowly sipped his lemonade, gazing deeply at the person in front of him.

Sitting across from him was a civilian official he had supported.

This person ordered coffee but hardly drank it, continuously lecturing him at length about their visions for the future, hoping to gain more of his support.

Zhou Qinghao said nothing, only sneering coldly in his heart.

They were very close, and he could sense the emotions of the person in front of him. The other person did not show any fear or terror towards him, and when facing him, there was no sign of guilt or unease, as if they were very loyal to him.

But he smelled a faint yet familiar scent on the other person.

This smell was really familiar to him; many people who had betrayed him or deliberately approached him have this kind of scent on them.

The person in front of him was no longer trustworthy.

Of course, Zhou Qinghao didn’t show it. He pretended to be oblivious, just like every other time.

His perceptive abilities were truly remarkable, yet he was unwilling to let anyone know.

This person originally had no access to the secrets of his army. He pretended not to know about this person’s betrayal and decided to ignore him in the future.

Thinking about how Gu Juntian made him a sumptuous breakfast this morning, Zhou Qinghao was in a pretty good mood. His attitude towards the traitor in front of him was also quite decent; he just made a “small” request, hoping the other person could help him get a batch of mental stability medication.

The other party agreed.

This was within Zhou Qinghao’s expectations.

Even if this person couldn’t get it, the powerful figures behind him would definitely help him obtain the mental stability medication. To gain his trust, they wuldn’t tamper with the medication.

“Sir, I heard that you were injured in the previous beast tide. Is your health okay now?” the person asked with concern.

Zhou Qinghao, expressionless, said, “It’s okay.”

Knowing that the other party was a traitor, Zhou Qinghao showed them exactly what he wanted them to see.

He was powerful and dangerous, and he wouldn’t die anytime soon.

These traitors, who carried the scent of betrayal, could be turned around and used by him, making his plan proceed more smoothly.

Therefore, he only dealt with a few of them, and the vast majority remained by his side, with his attitude towards them unchanged as always.

Of course, his trusted confidants knew those people were untrustworthy.

After a busy day, before Gu Juntian got out of school, Zhou Qinghao returned home.

He started looking forward to the arrival of the night.

In the past, facing the turbulent sea of madness alone, the nights when he couldn’t sleep at all were painful and long for him.

He often sat for an entire evening, not understanding why he should continue living, until the artificial sun in the underground city lit up, and then he went out to start a new day.

But now, everything had changed.

With Gu Juntian by his side, the night wasn’t so annoying, and it even made him feel at ease.

He was about to die; he probably wouldn’t live for more than a few months.

Before he died, having Gu Juntian by his side made him feel that his life wasn’t lived in vain.

He was infatuated with Gu Juntian’s young and warm body.

Maybe his deep affection for Gu Juntian was the repressed emotion of many years, and before his death, he finally couldn’t hold back, wanting to go wild and indulge himself.

Thinking of this, Zhou Qinghao licked his lips.

Last night he kissed Gu Juntian, and Gu Juntian didn’t show much aversion; his attitude towards him remained the same as always.

Today, could he kiss him again?

After sitting alone for a short while, Zhou Qinghao sensed Gu Juntian’s presence.

Gu Juntian, carrying a faint scent of a stranger, entered his home with ease, just like before. Upon seeing him, he smiled, a smile that was particularly captivating.

Zhou Qinghao also wanted to smile, but he had been wearing a cold face for so many years that he didn’t even know how to smile anymore.

He didn’t even know how he could get close to Juntian.

Forget it, let’s wait until Gu Juntian was full and then take him back to the bedroom.

Just as he thought of this, Zhou Qinghao saw Gu Jun rushing towards him.

If it were someone else suddenly charging at him like this, he would definitely have knocked them flying, but this was Gu Juntian. Zhou Qinghao never even entertained the thought of hitting him.

Then he was embraced, Gu Juntian held him particularly tightly and even bit his lip.

Zhou Qinghao’s body stiffened, and for a moment, he didn’t know how to react.

Gu Juntian, however, felt a bit helpless.

He wanted to bite Zhou Qinghao’s lips until they were swollen, but he felt a bit reluctant. What should he do?