“The lab’s been exposed. Two women with abilities freed the subjects. Their current location is unknown.” Shen Congyu pinched the bridge of his nose as he finished.
The person on the other end was silent for a few seconds. Shen Congyu felt a flicker of unease. Then a voice, difficult to read for emotion, came through: “What abilities?”
“Earth and ice. The ice ability was strong, possibly special operations.”
“Ice ability? You’re certain?”
“I’m certain. High level, strong enough to block ordinary bullets.”
“Start with the patrol center. Special ops answers to Wen Yan, I can’t investigate them directly. Keep this quiet.”
Shen Congyu’s grip tightened on the phone. “Understood.”
A dial tone followed. He let out a breath. Since special ops was off-limits for now, he’d start at the patrol center.
On the other side, Jiang Lin dropped her dirtied clothes into the washer and took a satisfying hot shower, her arms still faintly trembling from exertion, tonight had cost her more than she’d expected.
【Congratulations, host. Mission complete. Reward: mystery gift package. View contents?】 The interface appeared. She selected it immediately.
【Unlocked: Soil purification agent, one bottle purifies a cubic meter of wasteland soil. Price: 10 scrap batteries per bottle.
Unlocked: System warehouse, a spatial storage tool for easy relocation and item storage.】
The system warehouse didn’t excite her much yet, but the soil purification agent did, it felt tailor-made for this world, and the price was cheap besides.
She opened the shop, the purification agent sat pinned at the top. Following her earlier plan, she bought a grow light, an indoor thermal greenhouse, and two bottles of purifier. Remaining balance: 432 batteries, far more than before. Tonight’s raid had been well worth it.
The greenhouse turned out to be a rectangular structure roughly 1.8 × 2 × 2.6 meters, its walls a thick black plastic sheet, its entrance clear hard plastic with adjustable temperature and humidity knobs. Inside, metal shelving lined the sides and back, four tiers deep.
She hung the grow light at the top and set the planting trough on the rear shelf, still bare inside. She stared at the pot of soil for a while, then yawned. Midnight already, and work again tomorrow. She stepped out of the greenhouse and collapsed into bed, exhaustion pulling her under fast.
At 7 a.m. the alarm rang on schedule. Jiang Lin woke sore, arms aching from the night before. She washed up, the mirror showing her the same thin, small face. She pinched her cheek, barely any flesh there. She needed better nutrition, and soon.
A message arrived on her smart device. 110 opened the virtual screen without being asked, a message from the patrol center.
“Be at my office at 8:30 a.m., Lin Dehou.”
She glanced at it and closed the screen. Last night’s exertion had left her ravenous. She changed and headed straight for the cafeteria.
Breakfast was decent today, a bowl of porridge with a faint sweet-potato flavor, and some dry, slightly sour bread slices. Passable.
Area 99 was a mixed bag of residents, and Jiang Lin was a little worried her courtyard might get broken into now that it held things it shouldn’t. She started weighing whether to switch to more private single-person housing.
Finishing breakfast with time to spare, she reached the bus stop right as No. 8 pulled in. With a display screen now, she killed time browsing the system shop during the ride, wanting nearly everything, affording almost none of it. She needed to find a better way to earn batteries.
In her smart device’s memo app, she jotted down two goals:
Switch to more private housing.
Find an easy, steady way to collect scrap batteries.
Nothing urgent yet, so she planned to work toward both slowly.
At 8 a.m. she arrived at the patrol center on time, sat to rest a moment, and spotted a familiar figure.
“Morning, boss.” Su Yichen greeted Sheng Wei enthusiastically as she approached, but she walked past him without so much as a glance, heading straight for a thin young woman instead.
“Jiang Lin?” Sheng Wei asked, a little tentative, the lighting had been too dim the night before for a clear look.
“It’s me. Good morning.”
“It really is you. Which team are you assigned to?” Once she’d confirmed it, a faint, pleased smile broke through Sheng Wei’s usually cool expression.
“I don’t know. Supervisor Lin said he’d transfer me to an outer patrol team, but he hasn’t told me which one. I was about to go find out.” Jiang Lin shook her head.
Surprise flashed across Sheng Wei’s eyes, followed by a brief pause, as if some unpleasant thought had crossed her mind.
“One of our team members died yesterday. I could apply to have you transferred to us. What do you think?” Outer patrol dealt with zombies directly, casualty rates were second only to special ops. Losing a teammate still weighed on her.
“If that’s possible, I’m willing.” This was only Jiang Lin’s third day at the base, everyone still felt like strangers. Joining Sheng Wei’s team sounded fine to her.
Sheng Wei nodded and tapped through her smart device. “Done. Sent the transfer request to Supervisor Lin already.”
Jiang Lin checked her watch, 8:25. She stood and walked toward Lin Dehou’s office.
Taking a breath, she knocked.
“Come in.”
Pushing the door open, she found an unfamiliar man inside. She was sure she’d never seen his face before, yet something about him felt off in a familiar way. Black casual clothes, gold-rimmed glasses, a cold, distant air, he didn’t look like much of a fighter, but Jiang Lin could sense danger radiating off him.
Shen Congyu felt the same recognition, narrowing his eyes slightly as he studied the newcomer.
With an outsider present, Lin Dehou kept it brief. “Sixteenth Team just filed a personnel request. You’re assigned there.”
Jiang Lin nodded, Sheng Wei had mentioned being captain of the Sixteenth when they’d parted the night before. As she left, she was still turning over where she might have seen that stranger’s face.
Once she’d gone, Shen Congyu stared thoughtfully after her. “Supervisor Lin, who is she?”
“Oh, just a newly arrived patrol officer.”
“I want her identity file.” A dark glint flickered behind his lenses.
“I’m afraid that’s against regulations.” Lin Dehou laughed awkwardly. “Patrol officers’ identity records generally can’t be shared.”
“Chen Mo was removed from the supervisor position. He’s not happy about it.” Shen Congyu let his gaze drift toward Lin Dehou, almost casual.
Lin Dehou’s back stiffened, though his smile held. “It’s not a big deal, she’s just a low-level patrol officer.” He clicked through his computer, and all of Jiang Lin’s records appeared before them.
【Name: Jiang Lin
Gender: Female
Age: 21
Ability: ???
Position: Junior Patrol Officer
Residence: District 99
Relatives: None】
Her file really was as bare as it could get. Looking at the question marks under “ability,” Shen Congyu asked, “No ability listed?”
“She only just arrived, hasn’t gone through ability assessment yet.”
“Have you personally seen her use an ability, Supervisor Lin? I heard an ice-type ability’s shown up recently.” Shen Congyu gave a half-smile. “Send her for ability assessment today. I want the results.” He left the office without waiting for a response.
The moment “ice-type ability” left his mouth, Lin Dehou’s mind had gone briefly blank. The only ice-ability user he’d ever seen in the base was Jiang Lin. Since receiving her recommendation letter, he’d been quietly suppressing information about her ability. Now even he, usually so smooth and calculating, couldn’t work out what Shen Congyu’s angle was. What exactly was his connection to her?
Lin Dehou felt a headache building. Neither side was someone he could afford to offend. This supervisor post was proving more exhausting than his old team-leader job ever had. He sighed and sent Jiang Lin a message anyway.
【4:00 PM. Report to the Ability Center for assessment. — Patrol Center】
Jiang Lin was outside fighting zombies when she received it. For some reason, the zombies near the First Base seemed unusually agitated today, as if something inside the base was drawing them in. The thought unsettled her, and she couldn’t help remembering the horde that had once trailed her toward the base days ago.
“Watch out!” Sheng Wei reacted fast, taking down a zombie sneaking up behind Jiang Lin. “What are you thinking about? Focus.”
Jiang Lin snapped back, lips pressed tight beneath her helmet, and picked up her pace to clear the nuisance zombies. Still, that nagging feeling wouldn’t leave her.
“Damn, so many zombies today.” Su Yichen, skilled with a curved blade, fought mostly at close range, complaining even as he cleanly took a head off.
No zombies remained on Jiang Lin’s side. Just as she caught her breath, she saw one raise its claws toward Su Yichen’s neck from behind.
An ice blade shot from her hand, knocking the arm clean off. Su Yichen stared at the severed limb in confusion before finishing the zombie off and falling back in with the group.
“Was that your ability? So cool.” He’d been sulking earlier that Sheng Wei ignored him in favor of Jiang Lin, but admiration had clearly replaced that now.
Sheng Wei couldn’t stand his expression and shoved him aside, her tone turning serious. “Your ability’s too unusual. Try not to use it inside the base. I’m worried.” She didn’t finish the thought, but Jiang Lin understood, the laboratory.
“Don’t worry, boss, we won’t say a word,” Su Yichen said, unaware of what Sheng Wei and Jiang Lin had actually done the night before. He simply thought her ability was rare enough to attract dangerous attention.
The rest of the team nodded in agreement.
Jiang Lin had already learned from 110 about the afternoon’s ability assessment, but she wasn’t especially worried, she wasn’t actually ice-type. Just an ordinary water-type user who happened to control temperature.
“How does the assessment work at the Ability Center?” she asked as the Sixteenth Team headed back to base after the morning patrol, surprising Sheng Wei with the question.
“There’s a special device, you place your hand on it and channel as much power as you can,” she replied. “Why do you ask?”
“Patrol center wants me there this afternoon.” Jiang Lin didn’t hide it, but the timing made Sheng Wei frown. Why now, of all times?
Jiang Lin had her own suspicion, could the man she’d seen in Lin Dehou’s office that morning be connected to this assessment?
“Assessment’s unavoidable, but patrol records stay confidential. Don’t overthink it.” Sheng Wei wasn’t sure if she was reassuring herself or Jiang Lin. Whoever was pulling strings behind these experiments clearly held real power, and the two of them were just ordinary patrol officers. Did they really stand a chance against that?