“Come in.” Lin Dehou tucked the confiscated cloth bag into a cabinet under his desk.
Jiang Lin stepped in and saw his familiar smile. “What did you need me for?”
“Your ability’s strong. Interested in an outer-city patrol assignment? Pay goes up by 2,000 points, but it’s more dangerous.”
Jiang Lin had no particular preference for where she patrolled. Outside the walls, she could keep fighting zombies and sharpening her ability, strength was the foundation of survival out here.
“Sure. Arrange it however you think is best.”
Satisfied, Lin Dehou waved her off. Once she’d left, he opened his desk’s top drawer, where the envelope she’d first handed him still sat. Just one short line inside, but he recognized the handwriting immediately. He still had no idea what that person’s intentions toward her were.
After leaving the office, Xu An’an hadn’t yet finished her shift, so Jiang Lin headed for the base supermarket she’d mentioned, near the center of the map.
On the way, a message arrived from the patrol center: 【Due to reassignment, outer-city patrol pay is 5,000 points per month. A 1,000-point back-pay bonus has been credited for this month.】
She checked her wristband, sure enough, her balance had jumped by 1,000, to 2,440 total. Still, she had no clear sense of the base’s price levels.
“Welcome to the base supermarket. Identity verified. We wish you a pleasant shopping experience.”
The supermarket dwarfed yesterday’s trade market, with more security and even a verification robot at the entrance.
Inside was a three-story building: equipment floor, electronics floor, living-supplies floor. It was still early, so she planned to walk through all three.
The living-supplies section, though, was really only good for the occasional treat, even a small bundle of leafy greens cost 200 points, never mind fruit. After browsing, she went up to electronics.
Display screens were reasonably priced, a portable monitor ran about 1,000 points. She picked one that suited her.
The equipment floor’s prices were much steeper. She didn’t linger, paid for the monitor, and left.
A bus stop sat outside. She waited there, thinking about how to make use of her seeds and planting trough.
Once she’d connected her system data to the new screen, she was surprised to find the system marketplace appeared on it too, clearly 110’s doing.
Bus No. 8 pulled up eventually, and she rode it away from the bustling central district, the buildings thinning out the closer she got to Area 99, until that laboratory came into view again.
【Detected a large accumulation of discarded batteries. If the host intends to go there, I can guide you along a concealed route.】
110 offered.
She was curious now, just how many batteries were sitting there for the system to bring it up twice in one day?
【Can I really go without being spotted?】 The idea tempted her, she truly did not want to keep digging her own yard up.
【Following my route, the probability of discovery is very low.】
【Remind me at 8 p.m.】 In the end, she decided to go take a look. If it didn’t work out, she’d simply retreat.
The bus stopped cleanly at the Area 99 station. 6:30 p.m. She decided to swing by the cafeteria for takeout first.
At the familiar window, she requested her usual meal.
On the walk home, she unexpectedly ran into the mother and daughter from that morning. Something had clearly happened to them during the day, the mother’s eyes now carried a hollow, despairing look, like a body wandering without purpose.
The little girl recognized her and ran over. “Thank you, big sister. My name’s Xie Xinyue.”
Jiang Lin startled slightly. The girl’s eyes were full of open admiration, leaving her momentarily at a loss.
“Xiaoyue, come here. Thank you for this morning,” the mother said. Xiaoyue glanced back reluctantly but obeyed, running to her mother’s side.
The mother gave Jiang Lin a faint, grateful look, though Jiang Lin felt she hadn’t really done all that much.
As she turned to leave, she heard the little girl’s stomach growl.
A flash of embarrassment crossed Xie Xinyue’s dirt-smudged face. Watching her, Jiang Lin found herself thinking of her own childhood in the orphanage, though at least this girl still had a mother.
Without entirely knowing why, she pulled two compressed biscuits from her own dinner and held them out.
“Here. I can’t finish them anyway.”
She left without waiting for a reply, walking fast enough that it almost looked like fleeing.
Back home, she still felt unsettled. Dinner tonight had no soup, just a sticky paste that tasted vaguely of mashed potato. Yesterday’s leftover biscuits hadn’t spoiled, so she finished those too. The paste was filling enough that she had four biscuits left over.
【Host, the system carries extended-freshness refrigerators and sealed food storage boxes. A bundle costs only 20 batteries.】
Jiang Lin looked unbothered on the surface, but she was already tempted. Her resolve to explore near the laboratory tonight firmed up, she just hoped the haul wouldn’t disappoint.
She packed the biscuits into a disposable box, then carried her seeds toward the planting trough. The soil inside was unlike anything she’d seen before, pitch black, faintly strange-smelling, nothing like the soil of this world. Worried about leaving it exposed in the courtyard, she placed it in the best-lit corner of the living room.
Comparing her sorted seeds against the journal’s illustrations, she found two close matches: lettuce, described as easy to grow, and tomato. Following the instructions, she buried them in the soil and sprinkled a little water over them using her ability.
【Host, plant growth requires sunlight and stable temperature. Based on current conditions, you’ll need a grow light and an indoor greenhouse.】
Jiang Lin’s expression went hard to read. If she remembered right, the grow light cost 500 batteries and the greenhouse 1,500. She had two. She fell speechless.
【Host, it’s 8 o’clock. Proceed with tonight’s action?】
Thinking of the grow light and greenhouse, her eyes hardened with resolve. “Proceed!” Still, basic caution came first, she pulled off her patrol badge and left it on the table.
【Route planning in progress. Stay concealed.】
The system’s routing proved reliable. Guided step by step, she wound her way toward the laboratory’s back entrance, where the area looked more desolate and the guards less alert.
The route led to an abandoned building not far from the back gate. Years of survival instinct got her inside without incident.
Inside were tall piles of soil, the metal shells of discarded batteries glinting faintly under the moonlight. Jiang Lin took a breath, she was about to get rich.
【Detected absorbable batteries. Successfully absorbed 2,000 units.】
Those were just the ones on the surface. She pushed the soil piles aside, found more buried beneath, and pulled out the iron shovel she’d stored in the system to keep digging.
The system’s item storage really was a blessing, it would make future moves far easier. Driven by dreams of the greenhouse and grow light, she worked through the piles and dug up another 500 batteries.
Deciding not to push her luck, she put the shovel away and prepared to leave. She suspected there was some underground facility beneath the laboratory, and these soil piles were just waste, casually buried under a scrap-metal shed as cover.
Regardless, lingering near the laboratory was risky. As she prepared to slip out, she glanced through a glassless window and saw the lab’s back door open, two people carrying an unconscious child inside.
With her sharp eyes, she thought the child looked oddly familiar in the moonlight. Suspecting something wasn’t right, but not understanding the First Base well enough to interfere, she sighed and moved to leave quietly.
The system’s concealed route turned out to be a gap in the laboratory’s perimeter wall, tucked into an easily-missed spot, without the system’s guidance, she never would have found it. She slipped past the patrolling guards and reached the opening cleanly.
Just as she thought the night’s business was over, a beam of light swept across her position. At that moment, only one of her feet was still inside the wall, but it was enough, a sharp-eyed guard spotted her.
“Who’s there! Someone’s trespassed on lab grounds!” a patrol member shouted.
“Swish, swish, swish.” Bullets followed immediately, kicking up dust around her. Chaotic footsteps closed in. Jiang Lin was already outside the wall, she quickly spent 50 batteries on a universal wall panel and patched the hole shut.
Just as she tried to slip away, a searchlight swept toward the outer wall. At the last second, a dry, calloused hand grabbed her and pulled her into a patch of shadow. A thin mound of earth rose up to cover them both, from the outside, nothing but an ordinary dirt heap.
The patrol had already been told the searchlight found nothing, but they checked the wall anyway.
“No one here. Did you see wrong?”
“Wall’s intact too. If someone was here, where would they even hide?”
“I swear I saw a black boot, looked like our patrol uniform style.”
“I think you’re just tired from the night shift and seeing things.”
After ribbing the guard who’d spotted her, the patrol moved on, the searchlight swinging elsewhere.
Jiang Lin let out a breath, only then realizing she was held tight in someone’s arms, bodies pressed close. The earthen cover slowly dissolved, and when she turned, she saw someone in the same patrol uniform, helmet recently removed, hair mussed. The sharp-looking, short-haired woman she’d seen that morning.
Sheng Wei rubbed her temple irritably. In the scramble, she’d pulled her helmet off to shrink their combined profile, now, looking at the person beside her still fully helmeted, she felt a headache coming on.