Bai Zhuo discreetly rolled her eyes. Complete lots of missions~ my foot. At the rate she was going, at the rate the zombies were evolving, before long she probably wouldn’t be able to kill a single zombie, would she?
Xue Yanhen finished tidying up and turned back to her. “We’ve used up most of the medicine and gauze. I’ll go out in a bit and see if there’s a hospital or a community health center nearby.”
Bai Zhuo instinctively pulled up the local map in her mind, sure enough, she could see two hospitals.
“I’ll go with you. Two people can look out for each other.”
“Okay.”
The rain outside was still coming down. Bai Zhuo shifted the system-issued rain slicker from her system inventory into her hiking pack, then pulled it out and handed it to Xue Yanhen.
The slicker was pure black, and to the touch its material felt no different from an ordinary one.
Bai Zhuo couldn’t openly lead the way, but Xue Yanhen had observed the area on the way in. After getting her bearings a little, she headed off in the right direction.
Compared to the night before, the rain now wasn’t heavy.
Bai Zhuo watched their surroundings as she walked, afraid a zombie might come lunging out from who-knew-where.
The hospital wasn’t far, the two of them reached it after about a ten-minute walk.
From inside the hospital came the occasional roar of a zombie, and from a distance they could even see zombies wandering about.
The instant Bai Zhuo stepped into the hospital, a three-dimensional map of the entire building appeared in her mind.
Xue Yanhen suggested they split up and regroup here in half an hour. If either of them ran into danger, she should scream loudly, the hospital was very empty now, so a loud scream would definitely reach the other.
The suggestion suited Bai Zhuo just fine. She flashed an OK sign to show it was no problem.
Bai Zhuo headed up the stairs, her goal clear: the hospital pharmacy. She had no idea how much usable stock was left.
Bai Zhuo dodged aside from a zombie that suddenly sprang out and, with a swing of her arm, drove the crowbar straight into its head. A clean, efficient move.
Low-level zombie, no crystal.
Withdrawing her gaze, Bai Zhuo pulled out the crowbar and stepped into the pharmacy, which had already been trashed beyond recognition, glass bottles shattered all over the floor.
Bai Zhuo had just laid her hand on the iron shelf in front of her when the system’s voice suddenly rang out, stopping her mid-motion.
【Beep, Emergency mission issued: rescue Jiang Yongnian.】
Jiang Yongnian?
Bai Zhuo had heard the name before, a renowned bioengineering expert. That virus a few years back that had swept across most of Huaguo, he was the one who’d led the team that conquered it.
“Where is he?”
If it was Jiang Yongnian, then the emergency mission wasn’t hard to understand.
【Host, basement level two.】
Without Bai Zhuo even having to ask, the system automatically zoomed in on the 3D map and marked the target’s location.
Bai Zhuo picked up the crowbar and turned to head out. The system hadn’t just given her the target’s position, it had even thoughtfully marked out the route.
Bai Zhuo vaulted out through the window, chuckling softly to herself. She was getting more and more curious about the origins of this fellow that called itself a loot-box system.
Pushing open the door leading underground, Bai Zhuo made her way down with light steps.
There weren’t many zombie corpses here either, but the air carried a moldy smell that was unpleasant to breathe.
Bai Zhuo dug out a face mask and put it on, then tugged the hood of her rain slicker down to cover most of her face, she looked a bit less than upstanding, in fact.
Making her way down the stairs, Bai Zhuo watched herself draw closer and closer to the red dot on the map, and couldn’t help gripping the crowbar tighter.
“Professor Jiang…”
Bai Zhuo halted, quietly listening to the voice sounding up ahead.
“Professor Jiang, our leader’s intentions are perfectly clear. Hand the thing over to us, and naturally we’ll release your granddaughter. Pity you insist on being stubborn, so don’t blame us for playing rough.”
“Beasts! Animals!” The aged voice was laced with the utmost fury.
The earlier voice, as if it had heard something hilarious, suddenly burst out laughing.
“That’s right, we’re beasts, we’re animals. So what about you, Professor Jiang? Guarding all your precious things and refusing to hand them over to save your own granddaughter, what makes you any different from the likes of us?”
Bai Zhuo clicked her tongue soundlessly. That voice really was, infuriating to listen to.
What sounded next was a young, somewhat girlish, but remarkably resolute voice.
“My grandfather is trying to save more people! He’s not like you!”
Bai Zhuo raised her leg and kicked the door in front of her clean open.
Everyone inside instinctively turned to look at her. On finding it was a young woman, their expressions visibly relaxed a little.
One of them reached out to grab at Bai Zhuo, only to have his shoulder run clean through by the sharp end of her crowbar. He let out a scream of pain on the spot.
Bai Zhuo pulled out the crowbar and looked at the group across from her with a soft laugh. “Bullying an old man and his grandkid, aren’t you all a little too shameless?”
“You’re asking to die!!”
They were clearly ability users, Bai Zhuo knew perfectly well that she might pull off one surprise attack, but not necessarily a second.
Bai Zhuo simply pulled out the handgun she’d used at the mall last time, it was the only firearm she’d drawn from the boxes so far.
Ordinary people might fear or shrink back when facing ability users, but for Bai Zhuo, she’d already killed plenty of ability users, so a few more made no difference.
The moment the group across from her saw the gun Bai Zhuo pulled out, their movements froze.
The one at their head looked Bai Zhuo over, killing intent swelling in his eyes.
“We can’t let her leave here alive!”
Bai Zhuo’s lips curved up. “What a coincidence, that’s exactly what I was thinking!”
The instant the first man screamed, Xue Yanhen had come racing down, only to be held up a bit along the way by a few zombies.
Xue Yanhen charged down, modao in hand, only to be met with the sight of corpses strewn all over the floor.
And Bai Zhuo, she was looking at the little girl in her arms with an odd expression.
The girl looked about twelve or thirteen, her face pale as she lay collapsed in Bai Zhuo’s arms.
Hearing the hurried footsteps, Bai Zhuo looked up. “Hey, it’s all handled.”
Xue Yanhen breathed a sigh of relief and reached back to shut the door. “What happened?”
Bai Zhuo said she’d wanted to come over and see if there were any supplies, and ended up running into this old man and his granddaughter, along with the people trying to take them hostage.
“The situation just now was actually pretty dicey,” Bai Zhuo said earnestly, patting the little girl in her arms lightly. “It was her, she suddenly awakened an ability and took them all out.”
Xue Yanhen was a bit surprised. “What ability?”
“If I saw right, it looks like some kind of wood-type variant.”
“It’s a wood-type variant. You guessed right, child.”
Professor Jiang Yongnian coughed hard a few times, his gaze full of gratitude as he looked at Bai Zhuo.
He raised a hand, and a soft green light surfaced over it, then flowed into the little girl’s body.
“This will make it a bit more comfortable for her while her ability awakens. Thank you.”
Bai Zhuo shook her head. “Where are you headed?”
“The Linzhou survivor base. I have some things that need to be handed up the chain through them.”
Recalling what Chongming had said about the situation over at the base, Bai Zhuo frowned and said bluntly, “Then I’d advise you not to go.”