Dragon Transformation in the Apocalypse

Chapter 283 A Headache

At noon on December 7th, Li Chenglong led a group of special forces members back to Shuguang City. The subsequent resettlement work was handled collaboratively by the Shuguang City Logistics Department and the Civil Affairs Department. He left the special forces compound intending to return directly to Shuguang City, but after hearing from Yunlan the previous night that Zhao Rui, the commander of the 012th Regiment of the 2nd Division of the Dawn Army, had given birth to a baby girl, Li Chenglong immediately prepared some gifts and went to Zhao Rui's home.

Zhao Rui got married last December, and Zheng Aiguo and others also participated in the group wedding. Military personnel in Dawn City usually hold group weddings to save costs and make the occasion more lively. Actually, Li Chenglong and Zhao Rui hadn't chatted face-to-face for a long time; they only saw each other at large meetings. Through his own efforts, Zhao Rui had become a level 10 strength-type ability user and also the leader of a regiment.

Zhao Rui's girlfriend was someone he met before the apocalypse; she was two years older than him. After the apocalypse arrived, he protected her ever since. Although she wasn't particularly beautiful, Zhao Rui remained devoted to her, never neglecting his wife even after becoming a regimental commander. Their story was even broadcast on Dawn City Television, and they were hailed as one of Dawn City's model couples.

Li Chenglong arrived at the 100-square-meter couple's room allocated to Zhao Rui and rang the doorbell. The door opened after two rings. Seeing Li Chenglong, Zhao Rui exclaimed with delight, "Commander, what brings you here? And with so many things! This is no small matter!" Li Chenglong smiled and said, "What? Others can come, but I can't? You, Zhao Rui, are a valiant general in our Dawn City and the Dawn Army. It's only right that I come to see my subordinate who has a child. Let's not be so formal in private. We're about the same age; we can talk like equals. If you don't mind, just call me Captain Li."

Zhao Rui took the things Li Chenglong handed him and quickly ushered him inside. Li Chenglong said, "I just came back from the Qinghe base and only then did I find out that your wife had given birth. I rushed over without going home, so Yunlan didn't come with me. Please don't mind." Zhao Rui smiled and said, "Not at all. Actually, leaders like Zheng Yong and Feng Tian have already come today and brought a lot of nutritional supplements. I already feel unworthy of them."

After chatting for a while, Zhao Rui's wife came out carrying their daughter. She was a level 6 ability user, and having given birth naturally yesterday, her recovery was much faster; she was able to get out of bed today. She smiled and said, "Commander, thank you for visiting us. Zhao Rui, please quickly prepare some food to entertain us."

Zhao Rui slapped his forehead: "That's right, Captain Li just got back, he probably hasn't eaten yet. Wait a minute, I'll go make some right away." Li Chenglong quickly stopped him: "No need to rush, you should help your wife rest. Yunlan made me some food, we'll eat when we get back."

Li Chenglong then gave Zhao Rui a brief tour of his home. While the decor wasn't luxurious, it was very cozy, and the house was spotless and tidy – clearly not Zhao Rui's doing. It was evident that Zhao Rui's wife was a capable homemaker, which made Li Chenglong quite pleased for him. After Zhao Rui came out of the bedroom, Li Chenglong chatted with him for another half hour before taking his leave.

It was already 1 p.m. when Li Chenglong came out, and he was quite hungry, so he decided to go home for lunch. He hadn't walked far from the military dependents' residential area when he heard crying, and a crowd had gathered around. Several members of the joint defense team had already come over to see what was happening.

However, I knew that going there would cause a commotion, so I decided to wait here until the city security department had learned what had happened. A short while later, a squad leader from the joint defense team came over and reported, "Reporting to the city lord, we understand that the person crying is a woman between 32 and 35 years old. She has only been in Dawn City for a short time, and she is crying uncontrollably because her husband married another woman."

Li Chenglong frowned: "Hmm, I understand. Take her to the office of the person in charge of this area first, and I will question her personally." A short while later, in a small office, a section chief and a deputy section chief from the Urban Security Department, as well as the squad leader of the joint defense team in charge of this area, were gathered there, while the woman was eating the bread in her hand with big bites.

Seeing that the woman was eating very quickly, the squad leader of the joint defense team even poured her a cup of hot water and handed it to her. After the woman finished eating, a section chief from the police department under the city security department said, "Young lady, this is Li Chenglong, the city lord of our Shuguang City. If you have any grievances, just tell him."

Upon hearing that the person before her was the highest-ranking official of Dawn City, the woman immediately burst into tears, crying, "Lord Li, please, you must do justice for me! That man is not human, sob sob sob." Li Chenglong had someone hand her a tissue and let her speak slowly. After half an hour of the woman's intermittent narration, Li Chenglong finally understood the whole story.

This woman's name is Yang Yang, from Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province. Before the apocalypse, she worked in real estate sales. Her husband, Zhao Yang, worked in the same industry before the apocalypse. They had a daughter together, and their marriage was relatively happy. After the apocalypse, they separated for various reasons. Zhao Yang believed the woman was dead and, after legally registering his marriage in Dawn City last month, married a woman from Dawn City.

The woman arrived in Dawn City yesterday afternoon in a vehicle used to transport civilians. This morning, while collecting supplies, she inadvertently saw her husband with another woman, laughing and talking as they entered the residential compound. Because she was new and didn't yet have her Dawn City ID card, she couldn't enter the compound, which is why she burst into tears at the entrance.

Li Chenglong nodded, understanding the whole story, and asked, "What are your demands now? Let's see if I can help you." The woman said, "I demand that Shuguang City dissolve their marriage, since I am Zhao Yang's legal wife. Secondly, that woman should give me some compensation."

After all, a judgment couldn't be made based on just one person's opinion, so Li Chenglong simply had Zhao Yang and his new wife brought in to see what they had to say. A short while later, Zhao Yang and his wife entered. Upon seeing Zhao Yang, Yang Yang immediately rushed over and began to brutally beat him. The auxiliary police officers quickly intervened, and it took considerable effort to pull Yang Yang away. As soon as they were separated, everyone saw that Zhao Yang's face was covered in scratches, some quite gruesome, sending a chill down the spines of even some of the unmarried men present.

Li Chenglong relayed Yang Yang's testimony to Zhao Yang, who immediately retorted angrily, "City Lord, this is a complete fabrication! We got separated on February 18, 2024. My daughter and I searched for her for months, inquiring about her whereabouts every time we came to a human settlement, but to no avail. During this time, I met my current wife, and we struggled to survive together for nearly a year before coming to Dawn City. After rigorous review, our marriage application was finally approved."

Li Chenglong understood Zhao Yang's meaning; he definitely didn't want a divorce, while Yang Yang demanded the restoration of their original marriage and compensation from Zhao Yang's current wife. He sighed, realizing this was a difficult problem to resolve. Neither side seemed to be at fault; mediation seemed the only option at this point.

What followed was a long tug-of-war. Li Chenglong didn't even eat. He mediated between the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of People's Government, and the neighborhood committee responsible for the area for three hours. In the end, both sides compromised. Yang Yang stopped demanding the restoration of their previous marriage, while Zhao Yang offered some crystals as compensation.

Regarding the issue of the daughter's custody, since Zhao Yang currently has a well-paying job, and after the neighborhood committee's visit, it was found that Zhao Yang's new wife treats the girl very well, and considering that Yang Yang has just arrived in Shuguang City and hasn't even settled down yet, it would be inappropriate to award custody to the woman now. Therefore, it was decided that the daughter would belong to Zhao Yang, and Zhao Yang would provide additional crystals or material compensation each month on top of the previous compensation.

After returning to his office, Li Chenglong convened a meeting of the Dawn City People's Congress and a high-level meeting of the Dawn City General Committee to prepare for supplementing and revising the current marriage law in Dawn City, strengthening the review of both parties to the marriage, and uniting with several surrounding bases to find other relatives of the people of Dawn City in order to prevent such incidents from happening again.

At 6 PM, after finishing two meetings, Li Chenglong took out his boxed lunch and started eating—his first meal of the day. However, since Yunlan had said the family would be having dinner together that evening, Li Chenglong didn't eat much, just enough to fill his stomach. He went to the Dawn City Lord's office on the 7th floor; he must have fallen behind on a lot of work while he was away from home these past few days.

Wang Jie was about to leave work when she saw Li Chenglong walk in. She said happily, "Captain Li, you're back. You've worked hard these past few days." Li Chenglong glanced at his watch and said, "Put the work that I needed to oversee while I was away on the desk. It's getting late, so hurry up and leave work."

Wang Jie nodded and quickly began working, finishing in less than 20 minutes. As she left, she said, "It's a pity that Crystal Computers are all desktops. If only we had laptop Crystal Computers, I could work from home." Wang Jie's words reminded Li Chenglong, because he remembered that his space factory seemed to have a similar production line. He would go and take a look when he had time.

At 7:30 p.m., Li Chenglong, Yunlan, Li Yunhao, Qin Fangyu, Qi Guoan, and Han Xiaoling, a family of six, sat around the table for their reunion dinner. In the past few months, due to their individual commitments, they had spent very little time together, and even fewer opportunities to eat together. Yunlan calculated that in just the last two months, the family had only eaten together three times.

Li Yunhao is developing very quickly. He already has several teeth and can eat some softer foods. It is worth mentioning that he loves to eat high-grade Dawn Rice and psionic vegetables. He eats a lot every time, but he is not fat at all. He just looks very strong.

Qi Guoan recently upgraded to level 10, an earth-type ability user. Li Chenglong had previously discussed ability user aptitude with them, and Qi Guoan estimated that level 10 was his limit. Not only him, but even level 10 strength-type ability users like Zhao Rui and speed-type ability users like Wang Bing probably reached their limit at level 10. Li Chenglong couldn't do anything about it; after all, no one is born equal, and the so-called "same starting line" is just a nice-sounding phrase.

The mother-in-law, Qin Fangyu, is currently an 8th-level wind-type ability user; her younger sister, Li Xue, is a 10th-level A-grade mermaid spirit awakener; her god-sister, Han Xiaoling, is a 9th-level B-grade wind-chasing leopard spirit awakener; and with Yun Lan, a 10th-level S-grade dragon-phoenix body awakener, this whole family consists of powerful ability users or awakeners. The lowest level currently is Li Yunhao, an S-grade Qilin spirit awakener. For his growth, Miss Erica previously used her superpowers to temporarily seal his spiritual energy; as he matures, his talents will gradually be released.

Everyone chatted and laughed at the dinner table, talking about interesting things that had happened recently. Li Yunhao occasionally chimed in with some words under the prompting of Qin Fangyu and Qi Guoan, and his cute appearance made everyone laugh. Qi Guoan said with some pride, "A few days ago I told my grandson a fairy tale, and at the end I asked him some questions about the plot, and he could answer them all. It shows how smart my grandson is."

Dinner didn't finish until 9 PM. Qin Fangyu, Li Xue, and Han Xiaoling washed the dishes in the kitchen, Yun Lan gave Li Yunhao a bath, while Li Chenglong and Qi Guoan studied the area near the Dawn Autonomous Region in the living room, focusing on the coastal defense line. Headquarters had previously assigned the entire coastal city to Dawn City as part of the Dawn Autonomous Region. Furthermore, this morning Li Chenglong received news that some coastal areas were under attack by sea monsters. Dawn City, located in coastal area, borders the Yellow Sea, and with its large population, it would inevitably attract sea monster attacks sooner or later.

The two talked for a while and decided that they didn't need to worry about the sea monsters for the time being, because the attacked areas were all in the warm coastal areas of the southeast and south, while Linhai City was located in the north, which was very cold and unsuitable for the sea monsters to attack. Although there was no need to worry, the necessary defenses still needed to be in place, with soldiers or helicopters patrolling every day and reporting any situation immediately.

After saying goodbye to the little guy, Qi Guoan and Qin Fangyu went to their own home on the same floor to rest. Li Xue and Han Xiaoling also left after a while. Li Chenglong told Yun Lan to put their son to rest first, while he went to his study to study the notebook crystal computer production line.

After studying for half an hour, Li Chenglong used a large number of electronic components and the production line of his space factory, and spent another green crystal to manufacture a laptop computer. The computer was 18 inches in size and used a system unique to crystal computers, which Li Chenglong called the Dawn System.

This Crystal laptop has 1TB of RAM, 56TB of storage, an ST005 graphics card (30 times more powerful than the most powerful graphics card currently available on Earth), and an SG1021 CPU with a processing speed of 1 quadrillion operations per second. The laptop features a super defense system and a miniature super artificial intelligence, which can effectively resist hacker attacks. It uses the Crystal Network, allowing internet access wherever there is a Crystal Network.

Li Chenglong carefully calculated that the cost of one crystal laptop was 3 green crystals. He currently had quite a few green crystals on hand, so he immediately started the production line at full capacity, preparing to produce 200 units first and distribute them to members of various departments for their convenience.

Such a great Crystal Notebook needs a good name. After discussion between Li Chenglong and Yun Lan, they decided to name it Noah Generation 1, or Noah 01 for short.