Lin Buyu was looking up at him as well.
Standing tall against the wind, Jiang Ran felt the words she had just spoken echoing in his mind.
“I was worried Jiang Ran might get hurt…”
Heh. In this broken world, nothing was real. Parental love was a lie, friendship was a lie, and the elders who had once cared for him were all lies.
Even though she was a liar.
Yet, since the end of the world began, no one had ever said such a fake line to him before.
When he wasn’t strong enough, people only feared that he wouldn’t die fast enough—who could possibly care if he got hurt?
And when he grew strong enough, everyone assumed he was an omnipotent god who couldn’t be hurt in the first place.
Jiang Ran’s dark eyes churned like a stormy undercurrent hidden deep beneath the sea.
Slowly descending from the sky, he landed right in front of her.
Seeing the murderous intent in his eyes recede considerably, Lin Buyu let out a quiet sigh of relief. Thank goodness she had arrived in time to drive the zombies away.
She was genuinely terrified that the big boss might get too carried away with his killing spree, suddenly decide to destroy the world, and accidentally trigger the terrifying power slumbering within his body.
The System hadn’t specified what that hidden power was, only warning her that if Jiang Ran unconsciously unleashed it, this entire story world would collapse.
If the world collapsed, her mission would fail.
And if the mission failed, she wouldn’t be able to save her younger brother.
Her expression of relief fell upon Jiang Ran’s eyes, making him mistakenly assume she was relieved to see him uninjured.
“You were really worried about me?” he asked, his face expressionless.
Recognizing a golden opportunity to score points, Lin Buyu instantly flashed a radiant smile, offering him a playful grin: “Of course! You are my very life. If anything were to happen to you, I wouldn’t want to live another day either.”
“Over the top.” Jiang Ran reached out and shoved her face away, though an almost imperceptible hint of amusement crept into his dark eyes.
When she spouted these cheesy lines, she sounded fake and utterly disingenuous, yet it was surprisingly pleasant to hear.
“It’s true, Group Leader! These are words straight from the bottom of my heart!”
Jiang Ran: “Shut up.”
Lin Buyu: “Alrighty~”
Yulan Base was situated in a remote mountainous region, and this sudden zombie surge had left the entire settlement in a state of unrest.
Everyone felt as though their peaceful days were about to be shattered.
Consequently, the leader of Yulan Base—Jiang Congwen—immediately summoned the leaders of every esper squad for an emergency meeting.
Inside the conference room, the atmosphere was thick with tension.
Jiang Congwen’s face had never looked so grim. After the apocalypse broke out, he had awakened his abilities very early on, which allowed him to build a base of this scale.
As the leader, he had access to a higher share of high-level zombie cores, making his abilities the strongest in the entire base, second only to Jiang Ran.
Yet he cherished his own life above all else.
After enjoying comfort for so long, a sudden zombie wave posed an unpredictable threat to his safety.
He wasn’t the only one; the other squad leaders in the room all looked equally solemn.
Only Jiang Ran sat as if none of this concerned him, lounging lazily in his chair while twirling the exquisite little handgun in his hand.
He hadn’t handed the gun over to her just yet.
Ever since Team B’s leader, Xu Feiyan, was threatened by Jiang Ran last time, he had come to the stark realization that he was no match for him.
He didn’t dare stir up trouble with Jiang Ran anymore.
Still, he couldn’t stand Jiang Ran’s detached, indifferent attitude—though he managed to suppress his irritation.
“This sudden zombie wave was truly strange,” someone remarked. “Even though they were all ordinary zombies, the sheer numbers were staggering. Our base is located in a remote mountain area with hardly any zombies nearby; these creatures clearly traveled from very far away. What’s even stranger is how they suddenly got up and left.”
“…I suspect a mutated zombie with fully awakened cognitive abilities has emerged among them. This conscious entity is likely controlling these ordinary zombies to launch attacks on our base. This is devastating news for us. Chief, we must eliminate this lingering threat immediately, or the safety of our people will never be guaranteed!”
“State the obvious, why don’t you?” Jiang Ran sneered. “Is there anyone sitting in this room who doesn’t grasp such a simple truth?”
“You…!” Xu Feiyan’s face flushed deep red. “Then I wonder what brilliant insights Group Leader Jiang might have to share?”
Tsk, always putting on a pretentious act.
Jiang Ran picked at his ear, giving a mocking chuckle: “No brilliant insights—I just wanted to ridicule you a bit.”
Don’t think for a second he didn’t know about the sordid, underhanded dealings Xu Feiyan carried out in secret.
If this base ended up destroyed by zombies, it might actually be a mercy.
After all, for those struggling to survive inside, becoming a zombie or dying once and for all was far better than waiting to be abused and humiliated by Xu Feiyan and his thugs.
On the surface, this base welcomed all displaced victims with open arms. In reality, under Jiang Congwen’s leadership, its core had long rotted to the bone.
Those who entered had merely found a place to cling to life while awaiting their slow burn in hell.
Jiang Congwen had only ever cared about the esper users.
As for the ordinary humans—ha, as long as they didn’t all die at once, he couldn’t care less.
Xu Feiyan and Jiang Ran had never seen eye to eye, and everyone present was well-accustomed to their fierce clashes.
Aside from Xu Feiyan’s dark, sullen expression, the rest of the room remained unfazed.
Only then did Jiang Congwen begin putting on his authoritative demeanor as Chief.
He pressed his hands down in a calming gesture and said with solemn gravity: “Enough, now is not the time for bickering. Jiang Ran, Group Leader Xu is merely concerned for the safety of our people. Mind your tone.”
He knew that in front of outsiders, Jiang Ran always accorded him a sliver of face.
Sure enough, after he spoke, Jiang Ran merely cast him a cold, mocking glance and fell silent, offering no rebuttal.
Jiang Congwen then continued: “Does anyone have a viable solution?”
Only then did the leaders of the other teams speak up.
“In my opinion, this phenomenon doesn’t necessarily mean a sentient zombie has emerged to fight us for territory. It’s equally possible that something inside our base is attracting those ordinary zombies. Perhaps we can try to root out whatever that source might be.”
Someone instantly countered: “We don’t even know what draws zombies in—how are we supposed to look for it?”
Another suggested: “Why don’t we capture a few zombies and bring them back to the base for proper research?”
Voices chimed in from all sides, yet not a single practical idea was brought to the table.
This left Jiang Congwen deeply anxious.
He was terrified that the position of power he had worked so hard to secure would vanish in smoke due to a sudden zombie outbreak.
Everyone in the room dreaded the unseen crisis lurking behind this wave.
Although the attack had subsided for now, what about next time?
What if the next wave proved endless, intent on razing their base to the ground?
After all, nearly eighty percent of the global population had already turned into zombies.
Surviving humans were few and far between.
The ratio of undead to the living was overwhelmingly stacked against them.
And this time, it was merely low-level zombies—if mutated, high-tier zombies joined the assault next time, what would they do then?
Just as Jiang Congwen was consumed by worry, the heavy doors of the conference room were pushed wide open from the outside.
A young man clad in a crisp white suit waltzed into the room at the head of a formidable entourage, brimming with arrogance and energy.
The moment he stepped through the door, he called out: “Dad!”
Jiang Ran slanted his eyes toward Jiang Tao.
The bastard is finally back.