Her crystal core had been ripped out; she currently possessed zero superpowers.
Lin Buyu offered a dry, forced smile. “My name is Lin Buyu. You can just call me Buyu.”
An entirely evasive answer.
Jiang Ran had no interest in indulging her charade. He turned, preparing to vault off the edge of the high-rise on his own, when a pair of slender arms suddenly wrapped around his arm.
From right behind him came her sweet, coaxing voice: “I don’t have any powers… Can you please carry me down?”
The coquettish plea flowed with effortless ease, as if she were thoroughly accustomed to using such tactics.
He glanced sideways at her. She blinked innocently, her bright, liquid eyes radiating what appeared to be complete and utter purity.
Jiang Ran’s lips curled into a faint, knowing smirk. No elemental powers, yet she manages to look like this in the middle of an apocalypse? She definitely has hidden motives.
She’d better be harbouring malicious intent.
He was actually looking forward to seeing what kind of destructive plot she was planning to pull off against Yulan Base.
“Fine. I’ll carry you down.”
A thin smile hovered on his lips. His powerful arm gripped her securely as he leaped from the roof, taking her with him into a steep descent.
It was Lin Buyu’s first time feeling wrapped in the protective embrace of elemental power.
That surging wave of raw energy made her realize all the more clearly how fundamentally different this world was from her own.
Here, physical strength was not the ultimate truth.
Elemental powers ruled supreme.
For an ordinary person without abilities, attempting to shake someone powered by elemental energy was as difficult as reaching for the stars.
Upon returning to the base, Jiang Ran escorted her straight to the new arrival registration office.
Lin Buyu was strikingly beautiful, but more importantly, she looked nothing like the wretched survivors who spent their days running for their lives in terror.
Her porcelain-white skin looked like that of a top-tier celebrity meticulously maintained before the fall of civilization.
Yet this was the apocalypse; no one had the time or luxury for senseless skin care.
Because of this, her glowing, vibrant presence stood out in stark, jarring contrast to nearly everyone else.
As Jiang Ran walked her down the corridor toward the registration office, heads turned all along the way, throwing suspicious and wary glances in her direction.
Still, because she was being personally brought in by Jiang Ran, no one dared to utter a word.
Jiang Ran led her inside, leaving her at the desk while he leaned casually against the doorframe, his posture lazy and detached.
The clerk at the registration desk conducted standard questioning to assess incoming capabilities, ensuring tasks could be assigned efficiently.
The wasteland didn’t feed free-riders.
“What is your elemental power?” the registrar asked without looking up.
“I don’t have one,” Lin Buyu replied flatly.
The clerk didn’t bat an eye—ability users were rare, so non-powered survivors were the norm.
She continued her line of questioning: “We need electricians, network specialists, and mechanics to maintain equipment. Did your work before the apocalypse match any of these fields?”
It was already one year into the apocalypse. While the threat of zombies remained severe, established bases still needed structural stability to function.
Although many lacked elemental abilities, their pre-apocalyptic vocational skills played a vital role in rebuilding basic infrastructure.
Lin Buyu fit none of those categories. She shook her head candidly. “None of the above.”
In other words: utterly useless.
The registrar lifted her gaze to look at Lin Buyu, momentarily dazed by the brilliant, untroubled smile on the girl’s face.
“If you don’t fit any of those, you only have two options at our base. Option one: join the general workforce in the fields doing heavy manual labor. Option two…”
“I’ll take option two.”
Lin Buyu chose the second option without a second thought.
Manual labor in the fields was completely out of the question. If she were sent off to farm, she would be pushed further and further away from core members like Jiang Ran, likely losing any chance to even see him again.
And if she couldn’t see him, how was she supposed to reform him and stop him from destroying the world?
The answer came as no surprise to the registrar. She let out a soft sneer—as expected, the universal fate for pretty girls in the apocalypse.
Her fingers clattered against the keyboard. “A girl with your looks won’t be sent to the lower levels. You can select one person from the upper tier to serve under.
She turned the screen toward Lin Buyu, revealing a long list of names displayed on the monitor.
There were over a dozen names listed.
Among them sat Jiang Ran’s name.
Lin Buyu had assumed that “serving under” someone simply meant being assigned as a member of their crew or staff.
According to the background data provided by the system, Yulan Base was divided into thirteen elite teams, with Jiang Ran heading Team A as team leader.
Without hesitation, Lin Buyu pointed straight at his name. “I’ll go with him.”
Her soft, pale fingertip tapped against Jiang Ran’s name. The registrar glanced at the screen, then shot a pointed, meaningful look at Jiang Ran, who was leaning nonchalantly against the doorframe outside with his arms crossed.
She had been about to mention that Team Leader Jiang never accepted bedmates.
Yet the words died in her throat—after all, the girl had been personally brought in by Leader Jiang himself.
Leader Jiang had never brought an outsider back to the base before, so perhaps he actually had intentions in that direction.
She shot Jiang Ran a silent, inquiring glance. Seeing no sign of objection from him, she took his quiet posture as silent consent.
A warm smile spread across the registrar’s face. “Alright then, congratulations!”
Seeing the warm reception, Lin Buyu beamed right back. “Thank you so much!”
“You may go ahead and follow Team Leader Jiang now,” the registrar instructed.
Lin Buyu trotted after Jiang Ran, her mind brimming with curiosity along the way. She couldn’t help wondering how these elemental ability users actually wielded their powers—this world truly was full of wonders.
Jiang Ran led her to a stand-alone villa that spanned three stories.
The entire building was reserved for members of Team A, with Jiang Ran occupying the third floor. Since it was daytime, the other team members were out executing missions.
Stopping outside a doorway on the third floor, Lin Buyu turned to ask, “Is this where I’ll be staying?”
Jiang Ran raised an eyebrow, offering a smooth smile. “It is.”
His voice sounded soft and gentle, but knowing his character setup, Lin Buyu wasn’t about to mistake him for a good samaritan.
She reached out and pushed the door open.
What met her eyes was a dark, suffocatingly monochrome interior—everything was black.
Black curtains, a black bed frame, black sheets and comforters, and even the wardrobes were pitch black.
“This is my room?”
Jiang Ran brushed past her, walking over to the window to draw back the heavy curtains. “It’s also my room.”
Lin Buyu blinked. They were both speaking plain Mandarin, yet why did she suddenly feel like she couldn’t understand a word?
Was it… that kind of arrangement?
Receiving no response for a long moment, Jiang Ran turned around, watching her with a faint, unreadable smirk. “It was your choice, wasn’t it?”
Looking at his devastatingly handsome face, Lin Buyu’s brain worked in overdrive.
So “serving under” an upper-tier member at registration literally meant becoming a bedmate.
No wonder the registrar had given them that gossip-hungry look before they left!
“Uh…” For once, she was rendered utterly speechless.
Jiang Ran let out a light laugh. “Are you going to say you misunderstood what the clerk meant? I’m afraid Yulan Base doesn’t allow assigned roles to be revoked—unless you awaken a superpower or prove yourself useful in other ways. Until then, you can only accept the role assigned by the base and perform your duties diligently.”
He placed a subtle emphasis on the words perform your duties diligently.
Lin Buyu was genuinely left speechless now. She had wanted to get close to Jiang Ran, but she certainly hadn’t intended to get that close!
“Uh… do you demand a lot?”
If he wasn’t overly demanding, she could just have the system help her fake her way through it.
The abrupt question caught Jiang Ran completely off guard.
A rare flicker of surprise flashed across his ink-black eyes.
He stared at her intently, his brow knitting slightly.
Could it be that she really was just a helpless girl trading her body for protection, rather than a spy sent by a rival base?
Lin Buyu was far too sharp to miss it.
Though Jiang Ran’s hesitation lasted for only a fraction of a second, she caught it instantly.
What did that mean? It meant this guy was merely testing her and had zero intention of actually laying a hand on her!
Besides, this was a novel world, and didn’t novels always have a fixed troupe?
High-caliber villains, male leads, and top-tier male side characters were almost always painted as fiercely chaste, preserving themselves until they met their true love.
Lin Buyu possessed a delightfully shameless personality—one that backed down when the enemy was fierce, but grew bolder the moment the enemy backed off.
Seeing that Jiang Ran was actually uncomfortable with the situation, her boldness surged.
Stepping forward with sudden warmth, she clasped his right hand in both of hers, looking up at him with a picture of absolute devotion. “Since I’m already your bedmate, please don’t be shy! Come on, I’m totally ready.”