stonecrandall Chapter 67: Gratitude Points Soar
Chapter 67: Gratitude Points Soar
After everyone quieted down a bit, Gao Yuan cleared his throat and spoke again.
"Alright, it's all in the past now, regardless of who did a lot of work or who didn't do any work this afternoon. Let's all keep up the good work tomorrow."
He paused, his gaze sweeping over the crowd. "What I'm going to say now is that we are able to sit here alive and eat today because someone is protecting us."
"So, first of all, we have to thank our Captain Lu Chen... no, sir."
"It was Commander Lu who led the zombies to clear the building floor by floor; it was also Commander Lu who pulled us out one by one from behind those locked doors. Without Commander Lu, we would still be huddled in dark rooms, starving."
Gao Yuan picked up his enamel mug and held it to his chest.
"Thank you, Commander Lu Chen."
The old survivors of Building 3 were all too familiar with this process. Almost as soon as Gao Yuan spoke, they instinctively stood up, and the cups and chopsticks clinked softly on the table.
"Thank you, Commander Lu Chen!" The voices of the long-time residents were in unison, as if they had rehearsed.
Next are the survivors from buildings 2 and 4 who were rescued this morning.
This is the second time they have experienced the pre-meal gratitude. The first time at noon, they were a little confused and just followed the old people's example.
But after a whole afternoon of settling in, resting, and assigning tasks, they had gone from being "rescued people" to "a part of this base."
They stood up much faster than at noon, and their voices were also much more unified.
The last to stand up were the newcomers who had been rescued that afternoon. It was their first time experiencing such a scene. Some almost tipped over when they stood up, some opened their mouths but couldn't make a sound, and some choked up after saying only half a sentence.
The men at the two tables who only had minced meat soup also stood up. Regardless of what they thought, in this wave of hundreds of people expressing their gratitude in unison, no one dared to sit still alone.
Lu Chen smiled and raised his glass, looking around and nodding slightly to everyone.
His expression was relaxed, as if he were accepting a toast from a group of old friends. But his attention was completely focused on something else: a surge of warmth was coming from the meteorite mark on his left wrist.
The simultaneous expression of gratitude from 130 people created a powerful surge of energy, a force on a completely different scale than the 66 people who expressed their thanks at noon.
At noon it was a river, now it's a stream.
While in a very pleasant mood, he also took the opportunity to gauge the level of gratitude in each person.
When the meteorite imprint absorbs gratitude, the thickness and temperature of each warm current are different, and these differences precisely correspond to the intensity of each person's gratitude.
As he held his cup and smiled, he subtly categorized the people present in his mind... whose warmth was scalding and robust, whose was moderately warm, and whose was so faint as to be almost imperceptible.
In particular, the 30 people who signed up to join the field team were his key targets for observation, and the remaining 5 field personnel positions would be selected from them.
Knowing how to be grateful is the most important indicator.
Of course, Lu Chen wasn't just observing these 30 people; all the survivors were under his observation, and in the process, he made some surprising discoveries.
Some people's gratitude towards him did not diminish over time; on the contrary, it tended to grow stronger.
As he envisioned, the survivors' gratitude towards him should be strongest when they were first rescued, then gradually diminish over time, eventually stabilizing at a relatively mild level.
However, the gratitude of Ning Tieshan, Zhao Yongqiang, and the other people who were among the first to go on field missions with him not only did not diminish, but was even higher than yesterday.
Lu Chen was somewhat puzzled by this change, but he didn't think too much about it... A higher gratitude value was certainly a good thing. Regardless of the psychological mechanism behind it, these people were now the most loyal to him in the entire stronghold.
After the ceremony was completed, everyone sat down again to eat.
The clatter of bowls and chopsticks and the hushed conversations blended into a noisy yet peaceful background sound in the lobby.
Lu Chen pulled open his left sleeve and looked down at the meteorite mark on the inside of his wrist.
His eyes widened slightly involuntarily!
Although he had anticipated that the amount of gratitude points he could accumulate would be considerable as the number of participants increased, he never expected it to be this substantial.
The fluorescent light on the surface of the imprint covers nearly 70% of the entire pattern area, making it full and rounded, slightly rising from the skin surface, emitting a warm glow.
The collective gratitude from 130 people immediately jumped to 70%. If we do another round of gratitude at breakfast tomorrow, won't the gratitude points overflow?
This bothered him a little, but it was a happy kind of trouble.
He pulled his sleeve down to cover the mark, picked up his chopsticks again, and happily began his meal.
After dinner, the survivors gradually dispersed.
Lu Chen called Shen Qingci and Gao Yuan to room 501.
As soon as the three of them sat down on the sofa, Gao Yuan opened his notebook on the coffee table and flipped to the last few pages with the hastily drawn floor plans.
But before the meeting officially began, Gao Yuan took the initiative to make a suggestion, "Commander Lu, before we discuss the specific plans, I have an idea."
"We could actually invite more people to tonight's meeting. Pooling our wisdom is one aspect, but more importantly... it's a great opportunity to win people over and build a core team."
Seeing that Lu Chen did not interrupt, he continued speaking.
"Currently, there are 130 people in the base, and most of them still only remember you as their 'savior' and 'superpowered commander.' That's fine, of course, but this relationship is passive... They are grateful to you because you saved them."
"But if you want these people to truly become part of your team, gratitude alone is not enough. You also need to make them feel... that they are core members of the team, not just protected survivors."
"Letting them participate in decision-making, even if it's just as an observer, can make them feel a sense of belonging. That in itself is a statement... that you treat them as one of your own."
Lu Chen immediately understood Gao Yuan's meaning. He believed that the earlier the team was established, the more important it was to make the people in key positions feel that "I am the core".
It's not because their opinions are so important, but because the act of being called into this room itself is the greatest sign of trust.
Lu Chen thought for a moment and then asked Gao Yuan to call Ning Tieshan and Zhao Yongqiang over as well.
These two were among the first field crew members to follow him. They were at the forefront when they encountered the elite zombies yesterday. Last night, when they were dragging the "cannon fodder zombies," their hands were blistered. Today, they put in a lot of effort to move the corpses and clean the building.
And there's no need to worry about their loyalty... He had specifically sensed the warmth between these two people during the dinner gratitude session earlier; they were among the most loyal to him in the entire base.
Besides them, he thought about it and added Sun Xiulan, the head chef, to the team as well.
Sun Xiulan is in charge of the entire kitchen operation. She manages everything from the allocation of ingredients to the preparation of dishes, feeding 130 people three meals a day.
The proportion of logistics personnel in this base is far higher than that of field personnel, and their stability directly determines the morale of the entire base.
Not long after, Gao Yuan led the three of them in.