Glancing down, Sheng Wei caught the hesitation in Jiang Lin’s eyes through her visor.
“Actually, I’m a water-type ability user.” As Jiang Lin said it, a thin mist of water gathered across the surface of Sheng Wei’s previously clear helmet.
Looking at the fogged glass, Sheng Wei felt a jolt of genuine shock. She’d already seen Jiang Lin’s ability in the laboratory that night, but she didn’t expect such effortless control, as if every water molecule in the air simply obeyed her.
Before Sheng Wei could react, the mist began to “boil,” evaporating instantly. Her view cleared again.
“You control water temperature,” Sheng Wei said quietly. She’d seen other water-type users before, compared to other elements, water attack power tended to run weak, mostly relegated to support roles. But someone like Jiang Lin, whose control reached this level of precision, was something entirely new to her.
Jiang Lin nodded silently.
Curious as she was about how Jiang Lin had honed her ability to such a frightening degree, with other teammates nearby, Sheng Wei kept the question to herself for now.
Soon Team Sixteen reached the cafeteria. As usual, lunch was the day’s most generous meal. Jiang Lin sat beside Sheng Wei and noticed she actually had two eggs on her tray.
Sheng Wei handed one over without a word. “Eat more eggs. Helps you grow taller.”
Jiang Lin accepted it, a little stunned, she didn’t expect Sheng Wei’s joke from outside the lab to actually come true.
“Eat,” Sheng Wei said. “After your assessment you’ll get two eggs at lunch automatically. Plus the one I give you, three a day. Nourish yourself properly.” She’d already peeled and finished hers in a few bites.
Seeing she wasn’t joking, Jiang Lin didn’t refuse and quietly ate both eggs.
The First Base’s food was only average, but compared to three years of scraping by in the apocalypse, it already felt like paradise. If life could keep going like this, Jiang Lin thought, it really wouldn’t be bad at all.
After lunch came a short rest before the afternoon shift resumed. By then Jiang Lin had grown noticeably more comfortable with Team Sixteen, still not much of a talker, but visibly more relaxed.
Because of her assessment, she was cleared to leave early. At four o’clock, following her wristband’s directions, she reached the Ability Center.
From the outside it resembled the Patrol Center. The moment she stepped in, she felt a gaze she couldn’t ignore, the same sensation from her first day at the First Base.
She followed it without hesitation. A tall man in black combat gear, no helmet indoors, his face fully visible: sharp brows, bright eyes, well-defined features, a tightly fitted suit outlining lean, well-placed muscle. The pressure radiating off him made it hard to focus on anything else. Jiang Lin swallowed and turned toward the front desk instead.
“Ms. Jiang Lin, correct? This way, please.” The staff member had already verified her identity at the entrance scanner and led her toward a back room.
Before leaving, she couldn’t resist glancing back at the “ice-cold handsome man.” Their eyes met directly this time. Flustered, she quickly turned away and quickened her pace, feeling a sharp presence at her back she didn’t dare look at again.
“Place your hand on this device and release your ability as fully as you can.” Inside the testing room, a female researcher in her fifties, white lab coat, patiently guided her through it. Jiang Lin caught the name on her badge: Gu Yuzhi.
The moment her hand touched it, cold spread through her arm. She carefully released her ability, deliberately holding back her real strength.
“A-rank water-type. Not bad.”
“Now, offensive capability. Try to hit those targets.” Gu Yuzhi led her into a second enclosed room, and the stationary targets began to move the moment she finished speaking.
Jiang Lin had no sense yet of what A-rank strength actually meant. Following instructions, she held back several percent of her true power and still cleared every moving target with ease.
Gu Yuzhi looked at her, surprised. Her water ability’s offensive output clearly exceeded that of ordinary users.
“You could transfer to Special Operations outright. Any interest?” Gu Yuzhi felt Jiang Lin’s potential ran far past what a patrol squad could offer.
Jiang Lin shook her head. Staying with Sheng Wei’s team suited her fine, less danger, decent pay.
“Really no interest? The Special Ops commander is right outside, I could introduce you. More danger, sure, but far better benefits, and a safer, nicer district to live in.” Gu Yuzhi thought it a waste for someone like her to stay on patrol.
Tempting as the second half sounded, Jiang Lin shook her head again.
Gu Yuzhi took the refusal in stride and warmly walked her out of the evaluation room.
The moment Jiang Lin stepped out, she saw the oppressive “iceberg handsome man” still standing there, the space around him seemingly radiating cold, everyone nearby keeping a wide berth.
“Xiao Yan, still here? Didn’t you ask me to keep an eye out for strong new talent?”
“Miss Jiang is easily one of the top water-type users I’ve assessed.” Gu Yuzhi seemed entirely unbothered by Wen Yan’s chill. Jiang Lin could tell the two of them knew each other well.
At “water-type ability,” something shifted faintly in Wen Yan’s cold expression, a flicker of doubt passing through his eyes.
“Unfortunately, she’s not interested in Special Ops for now. But if she keeps developing, I think she could surpass you completely.” Gu Yuzhi believed a girl who’d already refined a gentle element like water to this degree would, given time, go far beyond anything this apocalypse had seen yet.
Wen Yan didn’t argue. He’d already seen Jiang Lin fighting without holding back, she’d already surpassed him.
Once she’d left, Gu Yuzhi gave Wen Yan a faint smile.
“You know her.”
“Mm. We’ve met once.” Wen Yan could tell Jiang Lin didn’t remember him at all, and for some reason that stung, just a little.
“I’ll stop talking your ear off, back to work.” Gu Yuzhi waved and returned to her lab.
“Has the data come through?” The moment she stepped back inside, she found her assistant fiddling nervously with the computer.
The assistant startled at her voice. “It’s already sent.”
Gu Yuzhi didn’t think much of it, assuming her sudden entrance had simply caught him off guard.
At that same moment, deep in the underground lab, Shen Congyu received two reports, one from Lin Dehou at the Patrol Center, one from his informant at the Ability Evaluation Center. Both confirmed Jiang Lin as an A-rank water-type user.
He dialed a number.
“The investigation results are in. It’s not her. Lin Dehou’s information matches ours.”
“Keep investigating. We absolutely cannot let the lab project be exposed.”
He hung up and began paging through the files of every earth-type user in the Patrol Center, flipping through record after record until he landed on Sheng Wei’s.
【Name: Sheng Wei
Gender: Female
Age: 23
Ability: B-rank earth-type
Position: Leader, Sixteenth Patrol Team
Residence: Area 46
Relatives: None】
He remembered now, one of the missing children had come from Area 46. The children used for experiments were mostly children of ordinary people with no power to complain, or orphans wandering the base with no one to notice.
Ordinary people wouldn’t have the ability to break into a lab and rescue someone. Orphans had no parents. Could there be adopted children among the orphan files whose records simply hadn’t been updated?
Shen Congyu closed his eyes, trying to link the scattered threads. Then he remembered something the guard interrogated that day had said.
“I remember, when I came back from outside, I saw those two. They shot my leg. The taller one seemed to know one of the boys. What was his name… Xiao He?”
Something clicked. He dug through the captured children’s files and found a boy named Zhou He.
Name: Zhou He
Gender: Male
Age: 10
Ability: None
Residence: Area 46
Relatives: Zhou Guanghai (deceased)
Shen Congyu felt he’d finally caught hold of something real. Two days of exhaustion eased in an instant. He fired off a message to his subordinates: Investigate the relationship between Zhou Guanghai, Sheng Wei, and Zhou He.
Message sent, he leaned back and closed his eyes.
…District 99. Jiang Lin had already collected dinner and was walking home. Maybe because her assessment results had come back, tonight’s meal was noticeably more generous, the usual paste now held some unfamiliar vegetable leaves and shredded meat that looked like chicken breast.
【Mission Triggered: You successfully prevented the underground laboratory from continuing its unethical experiments, but their reach far exceeds what you imagined. They’ve begun investigating you. Will you rise to the challenge and uncover the true purpose behind their research?
Mission Reward: Mystery Gift Pack ×1】
110’s voice interrupted her small burst of happiness over dinner.
Last time’s mission reward had included the soil purification agent. What might this gift package hold?
Jiang Lin accepted the mission, her steps growing heavier on the walk home. She had no idea when the lab’s investigation might trace back to her.
Opening her courtyard gate, a sense of calm returned. She checked the surroundings, no signs of intrusion. Years of living alone had made her extremely careful.
She set her dinner down on the table, and something green in the corner of her eye caught her attention. She turned in surprise.
Through the greenhouse’s clear panel, several tiny sprouts had already pushed through the soil, standing upright and full of life under the grow light.
Something struck her chest at the sight. She stepped carefully inside to look closer, wanting to touch the fragile little sprouts but afraid she might damage them.
【Host, the crops inside the greenhouse grow faster, and they’re actually quite resilient, you can touch them.】
110 watched her hesitate and, for some reason, felt like laughing.
Jiang Lin shook her head. Seeing plants grow again on this land gave her a sense of fulfillment she’d never expected to feel.
Stepping out of the greenhouse, she still felt faintly unreal, as if floating, she had actually grown something.
The feeling was interrupted almost immediately by an incoming message.
【Someone’s following me. How are you holding up?】
From Sheng Wei. Jiang Lin didn’t expect the lab to move this fast, they were already targeting Sheng Wei too.
No, she couldn’t just sit back and wait. She replied that she was safe, told Sheng Wei to stay alert, and began thinking through her next move.