Gu Zhun drew a deep breath, pushed the door open, and stepped inside, saluting the white-haired old man who stood at the window with his hands clasped behind his back.
The old man turned, smiling at him. “Good to have you back. Are you hurt?”
Gu Zhun shook his head to say he wasn’t.
Gesturing for him to set the data on the desk, the old man let out a soft sigh. “This bout of extreme cold caused enormous casualties. Here at the Yan City base, more than half our people are dead or wounded.”
Gu Zhun’s fists clenched at once, his expression darkening.
“Xiao Zhun, on this trip back, did you run into anything out of the ordinary?”
The office was quiet for a long while before Gu Zhun spoke softly. “Grandfather, would you believe me? Apart from the first night, the rest of the time we didn’t feel the slightest discomfort from the extreme cold.”
The old man was astonished. If the person before him weren’t the child he’d raised with his own hands from infancy, he’d have suspected anyone spouting such an unbelievable tale had gotten their brain frozen stupid.
Gu Zhun recounted in full detail how their vehicle had broken down outside Ning City, forcing them to enter on foot, how they’d then run into a blizzard and nearly suffered frostbite, and how, in the end, they’d been saved by Bai Zhuo.
He’d written none of this in his mission report. After the way Bai Zhuo and her companion had helped them, he couldn’t bring harm on them.
But the man before him was his own grandfather. He trusted him.
The old man’s expression turned grave, clearly he too had guessed that one of the two, Bai Zhuo or Xue Yanhen, had to be a space-type ability user, possibly an even more special kind.
“Befriending them was the right decision.”
Gu Zhun gently picked up the meteorological data. “Grandfather, this is also something they gave us. By the time we reached the weather monitoring station, there wasn’t a single living person left, it had all been overrun by zombies.”
“Grandfather, I want to go to Ning City.”
The old man never interfered much with his grandson’s decisions, but this time, he shook his head.
“You still have other missions to complete. It won’t be too late to go once this one is done.”
Gu Zhun lowered his eyes and answered, “Yes, sir.”
“Achoo—”
Bai Zhuo couldn’t help rubbing her nose. Surely she wasn’t catching a cold?
Xue Yanhen, walking ahead of her, glanced back. “Getting sick?”
“No, probably just my rhinitis acting up.”
Bai Zhuo thought nothing of it and quickened her pace to catch up.
Their target this time was the department store in Ning City. In a department store with nearly two hundred years of history, there might just be something Bai Zhuo wanted.
The department store looked as though it too had suffered a zombie assault, the outer walls bore layer upon layer of dark brown stains.
Bai Zhuo drew her gaze back, fished a filter mask out of her pocket and put it on, flashed Xue Yanhen a peace sign, and handed her one as well.
The two edged forward carefully, and the moment they stepped inside, a three-dimensional map of the department store surfaced in Bai Zhuo’s mind.
Bai Zhuo couldn’t help giving the system a mental thumbs-up, far more useful than before.
The first floor of the department store was a supermarket, the second floor phones and electronics. Their main goal today was to find a radio, and to bring back some supplies along the way, so once inside the two headed straight for the second floor.
The floor was strewn with corpses, human and zombie alike, clearly there a long time, rotted beyond recognition, which left the entire interior of the department store reeking with a foul, sickening, gag-inducing stench.
Xue Yanhen looked at Bai Zhuo, her eyes full of gratitude, if not for the mask Bai Zhuo had handed her, she’d probably have thrown up by now.
Climbing the long-stalled escalator, the two reached the second floor.
The second floor was much the same as the first. Bai Zhuo and Xue Yanhen exchanged a glance and decided to split up.
“Ten minutes.”
Crowbar in hand, Bai Zhuo headed for the shops on her right. A glance through the doorway showed her the goods inside had all been ransacked and smashed.
Skipping over several high-end phone shops, Bai Zhuo stopped at a corner.
There sat rows of old-fashioned senior-citizen phones, and radios.
Bai Zhuo went straight over and swept all dozen-odd radios into her system inventory, leaving only two out in the open.
She refused to believe not a single one of them would work.
Just as Bai Zhuo was about to turn back, a gust of wind grazed past her ear, followed by a stench that even the filter mask couldn’t block.
A zombie!
With no time to turn around, Bai Zhuo gripped the crowbar in both hands and jabbed it backward past her waist.
At the same moment, the zombie’s blue-purple hand landed on her shoulder. Turning her head, she could see the sharp, hideous nails.
Once the crowbar had pierced squarely into the zombie’s body, Bai Zhuo didn’t hesitate for an instant, she let go of the crowbar, seized the frying pan that appeared in her hand, and slammed it viciously into the zombie’s twisted, savage face.
The zombie let out an anguished snarl. Bai Zhuo, ever mindful of the principle of hitting a foe while it’s down [1]press your advantage when the enemy is weak jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2936274_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2936274_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, followed up with several more clangs of the pan.
The system-enhanced frying pan was harder than ever, and combined with Bai Zhuo’s strength, it flattened the zombie’s face outright, exposing the faintly glowing crystal.
A zombie on the verge of evolving an ability too!
A flash of savagery crossed Bai Zhuo’s eyes.
Before she could deliver the killing blow, two people suddenly darted out from the side and, without ceremony, used their ability to form a steel spike and drove it into the zombie’s head.
Lucky Bai Zhuo had dodged quickly, or she’d have been hurt too.
She looked at the man and woman who’d abruptly appeared, her gaze cold.
“We saved you. No need to thank us.”
The man’s words made Bai Zhuo roll her eyes on the spot. The nerve on this one. [2]the shameless gall jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2936274_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2936274_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
Xue Yanhen, who’d heard the zombie’s anguished snarl earlier, hurried over too. She eyed the pair warily and moved to Bai Zhuo’s side.
“This zombie, you two lured it over.”
Bai Zhuo was certain she hadn’t spotted this zombie when she passed by. So how could it have suddenly leapt out without a sound?
The man and woman looked a little put out, especially the man. He looked Bai Zhuo up and down, full of contempt. “You don’t even have an ability. What would luring the zombie over even accomplish?”
“Because you saw my secret.” A smile curved Bai Zhuo’s lips.
That single line made both their pupils shrink.
Yes, they had indeed seen it: a pile of radios vanishing into thin air.
The only one who could do that was a space-type ability user.
Bai Zhuo bent down and slowly drew the crowbar out of the zombie’s chest where it lay, continuing with a smile, “You lured the zombie over just to confirm my situation. If I really were what you imagined, you could show up like just now, kill the zombie, and then I’d feel grateful and want to befriend you, right?”
As Bai Zhuo laid out their scheme piece by piece, their faces grew uglier and uglier.
A steel spike took shape slowly in midair. The man watched Bai Zhuo with a sinister glare. “Since you’ve guessed everything, then, don’t blame me for being ruthless!”
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