Just as she finished speaking, Shu Ran spotted the little girl being held in Dong Zizhuo’s arms.
【Ranran, this little girl has already been infected with the zombie virus. She has, at most, 3 hours before she completely mutates into a zombie.】
【Honestly, it’s such a shame. This little girl is actually very intelligent, and her father was a researcher specializing in viruses before the apocalypse, while her mother was also a university professor. If their whole family could survive, they could make significant contributions.】
Feeling the increasingly strong aura of a fellow zombie coming from the little girl, Shu Ran lowered her eyes and thought for a moment before stopping the family of three from leaving.
“Don’t rush to leave yet.”
Then she turned her head and waved at Yu Yan.
“Yu Yan, come here.”
Yu Yan was actually a little unhappy with the way Shu Ran addressed him, but since they were outside, he planned to have a proper talk with her about changing the way she called him once they returned.
His thin lips pressed into a line, but he still strode over at her beckoning.
“Baby, what’s wrong?”
Shu Ran didn’t bother with any small talk. She simply wrapped her hand around his forearm and gave it a hard tug, pulling him outside.
Yu Yan: ??
Completely bewildered, he let Shu Ran drag him all the way to an empty room. Only then did he glance at her slender, fair arm.
“Baby, when did you get this strong?”
Shu Ran pursed her soft, plump lips and looked up at Yu Yan with an exasperated expression.
“I’ve always been this strong.”
She had simply held back a little whenever she was dealing with Yu Yan before.
Yu Yan quickly figured out what she was implying. He tilted his head slightly, and a low chuckle escaped his throat, but he wisely kept the thought to himself.
He took the girl’s little hand and led her over to a nearby chair, then sat down with her in his arms.
“Alright, tell me. What did you want me for?”
Shu Ran turned her head toward him.
“Who are the people in that room just now?”
Yu Yan didn’t hide anything from her. He quickly told Shu Ran the whole story about poaching people from Jiaoyang Base.
“Originally, I only wanted to recruit some technical specialists. I just contacted a few reliable people and had them make some introductions. I didn’t expect those few people to bring me such a whole group.”
As he spoke, he suddenly remembered that before they came out, Shu Ran seemed to have stopped Dong Zizhuo’s family from leaving.
He seemed to realize something.
“Baby…”
Shu Ran met his gaze.
“The spiritual spring water can save that little girl.”
Shu Ran and Yu Yan talked for more than ten minutes before they had Dong Zizhuo’s family brought over.
No one knew what they had discussed inside that room. But everyone was shocked to discover that after Dong Zizhuo and his wife, Yuan Qing, came out, they weren’t leaving anymore.
Even more surprisingly, they came out smiling!
Their daughter had clearly been taken away, so how could they possibly be smiling?
Could their image as such devoted parents all along have just been an act?
Whenever anyone asked out of curiosity, the two of them gave the same response and refused to reveal anything about what had happened inside that room.
Before long, they had become Yu Yan and Shu Ran’s most loyal subordinates.
Until one day, Yu Yan and Shu Ran brought the little girl—who should have already turned into a zombie—to stand before everyone.
They then announced that as long as people pledged their loyalty to them and worked diligently to earn base points, they would have a chance to receive the zombie virus vaccine.
In an instant, all the newcomers exploded into an uproar!
Old Zhang, Old Four, Lan Shi, and the other veteran members had only learned about this news two days earlier.
Watching the newcomers’ excited, almost frenzied expressions, they were reminded of how they had reacted when they first heard the news themselves.
They probably hadn’t been any calmer.
One after another, they all looked toward Yu Yan and Shu Ran standing in the middle of the crowd.
They really hadn’t followed the wrong people!
Looking at the increasingly vibrant base, Yu Yan wrapped one arm around Shu Ran’s shoulders and pulled her into his embrace.
“Our base has more and more people now, and it’s starting to look more and more like a real base. There’s just one problem—we still don’t have a name…”
He lowered his eyes and secretly squeezed Shu Ran’s little hand.
“What do you think we should call it?”
Shu Ran pointed at herself with one finger, a look of deep confusion in her eyes.
“You’re asking me?”
Yu Yan laughed outright.
“If not you, who else? I’m not talking to anyone else.”
But this really stumped Shu Ran.
She had never named anything before.
She spent a long time frowning and thinking hard.
【System, what do you think of Overlord or Sole Supremacy?】
System: (๑•̌.•̑๑)ˀ̣ˀ̣
It tactfully replied,【I feel like those two names clash a little with the vibe of our base. How about you think of some more?】
Shu Ran thought about it and nodded in agreement.
But coming up with names was just too difficult, so she gave up.
“I can’t think of anything…”
Seeing her little face scrunched up in such a troubled expression, Yu Yan stopped teasing her.
“If you can’t think of one, then don’t. Let’s go see what we’re having for dinner tonight.”
…
At the same time, inside Jiaoyang Base.
More than a dozen fully armed people in various types of clothing rushed into the underground trading district, knocking over several people who had been in the middle of their transactions.
Yet no one dared to complain.
The reason was simple—the people who had rushed in were Ren Hao’s men.
Although Ren Hao had previously lost a large amount of supplies and precious crystal guns in H City, causing the base’s higher-ups to collectively turn against him, that still couldn’t change the fact that he came from a powerful and privileged position.
These ordinary zombie hunters struggling to survive within the base still couldn’t afford to offend him.
The dozen or so burly men quickly chased someone into an alley.
They dragged Qiao Lingling out from where she had been hiding inside a trash can.
Ren Hao leisurely walked over and looked down at her from above.
His voice was vicious, as though it had been steeped in poison.
“Got the fucking nerve to run from me!”
Qiao Lingling’s eyes widened. She wanted to beg for mercy—or perhaps make a run for it.
But the next moment, someone slapped her unconscious.
*
Several hours later, one of Ren Hao’s men arrived beside him carrying a jade pendant.
“Young Master, the interrogation worked. She’s admitted that she isn’t actually a space ability user. The reason she could store things was entirely because of this jade pendant.”
Ren Hao took the jade pendant and examined it.
“A jade pendant?”
“That’s right. According to her, as long as she holds the jade pendant and silently thinks ‘enter,’ her consciousness can enter the space inside the jade pendant and use it freely.”
Ren Hao tried it himself.
Sure enough, after silently reciting the word, he found himself looking at a strange, unfamiliar space.
Only, it was completely empty.
“This is quite a good thing. Did she say where she put those supplies?”
Other than the ten-plus days when she had disappeared inside H City, Qiao Lingling had been by his side the entire time.
And after Qiao Lingling disappeared, he had sent a large number of people to inspect every vehicle and every shipment entering and leaving the base.
They hadn’t found the supplies he had brought back.
That meant those things were definitely still somewhere inside the base and hadn’t been transported out.
Ren Hao’s subordinate, however, wore a strange expression.
“No matter how we interrogated her or pressured her, she refused to tell us where the supplies were. She kept insisting that she had put everything inside the jade pendant, but that they suddenly disappeared!”
Ren Hao let out a cold laugh.
“They suddenly disappeared? Does she think I’m an idiot?! Keep interrogating her. If she still refuses to talk…”
“Then take her to the laboratory. Just in time, almost all the test subjects Old Wang was using before have already died.”