“Replace me?”
Bai Zhuo was a little baffled. “What’s there to replace about me?”
Xue Yanhen withdrew her gaze and gave a soft snort. “They think there’s some illicit intimate relationship between us.”
Bai Zhuo fell silent.
No, hold on now, what illicit intimate relationship did they have?
“In their eyes, if an ability user like me insists on teaming up with you, then unless there’s something intimate going on, I’m just plain out of my mind.”
Bai Zhuo rolled her eyes. “The ones out of their minds are them.”
Xue Yanhen tore open the packaging of the biscuits and gestured at Bai Zhuo. “Want some?”
“No. Let their brainlessness fill me up instead.”
Xue Yanhen couldn’t help laughing out loud. She had to admit she had a bit of a wicked streak, Xiao Bai puffed up and sulking like this was just too much fun.
The zombie horde broke out after all.
A little past three in the morning, the base’s alarm blared. Every enlisted ability user got up and assembled, to defend the base, to defend the people they cared about.
Bai Zhuo and Xue Yanhen stood side by side at the window, gazing out at the pitch-blackness, listening to the hurried footsteps and the faint zombie roars carrying through the dark.
Raindrops suddenly came pattering down against the glass, instantly blurring their view.
Raining again.
Bai Zhuo said nothing and called out to the system in her mind.
【You don’t have a mission for me?】
【No, host.】
Then it seemed this zombie horde probably wouldn’t pose too much danger.
Bai Zhuo had pretty much gotten a read on how the system worked, and thinking of that, she relaxed a little.
This horde really didn’t bring the Linzhou survivor base much trouble. If anything, it gave them a chance to clear out a wave of the zombies around Linzhou, buying them more time and more opportunities to spread outward in search of supplies.
That girl was still cozying up to Xue Yanhen, coming by every single day, but once Xue Yanhen understood what they were after, she stopped giving her the slightest response.
The girl shoved the door open and, exasperated, glared at the person inside. “I’m done! Every day that cold face, does she think she’s the only tier-three ability user in the base?!”
Seated inside was a man with a tattoo on his neck. He gave a derisive snort. “Tier-three ability users aren’t rare, but so far no one knows what her ability actually is. What if she’s that space-type ability user?”
The girl frowned. “I don’t think she is. She goes to collect her ration every day. If she really were a space-type, what would she need those things for?”
“Concealment.”
Toying with a long-broken lighter in his hand, the man said mildly, “You keep at the mission. I’ll go make a report.”
The girl couldn’t resist kicking the table, then grudgingly agreed.
Bai Zhuo lay on the bed, spacing out. She was weighing whether to keep staying here or move somewhere else. Safe as this base was, its constraints were considerable too.
【Beep, Mission issued: host, complete a regional exploration to obtain the truth behind why Professor Jiang Yongnian was hunted.】
Bai Zhuo flipped over and scrambled up, rubbing her fingers together lightly.
A regional exploration mission tied to Professor Jiang Yongnian being hunted?
In Bai Zhuo’s mind, a rough map of the Linzhou survivor base appeared, with several areas still shown in gray.
【The gray is unexplored territory, host.】 The system explained of its own accord.
Bai Zhuo rubbed her nose, a hint of a smile in her eyes. “All right, I’ll go take a look.”
Leaving a note for Xue Yanhen, Bai Zhuo grabbed a face mask and a hat and turned to head out.
The base had jobs set up for ordinary people, which could be exchanged for some supplies, enough, at least, to stay alive.
As Bai Zhuo walked along, plenty of people sized her up, openly and covertly. But this time Xue Yanhen wasn’t by her side, and with the hat and mask on, no one recognized her as the one who’d made a tier-three ability user give up teaming with other ability users for her sake.
Following the map the system had given her, Bai Zhuo wound left and right, and after passing through an iron gate, she saw a row of two-story townhouses.
Bai Zhuo raised an eyebrow slightly. Sensing someone approaching, she quickly darted to the side and slipped into the shadows.
The middle-aged man who came walking over wore an arrogant look. He asked the young woman behind him, “Still no word from your junior sister?”
“No. But given that she’s a tier-two water-type ability user, there shouldn’t be any problem.”
A tier-two water-type ability user?
Bai Zhuo raised her brows. She thought of the water-type ability user she’d killed at the Ning City mall the first time she’d met Chongming. Surely it wouldn’t be that much of a coincidence?
Before that thought had even settled, the man’s next line made her face darken in an instant.
“And the people who went to Yun City after that space-type ability user still haven’t come back either?”
Bai Zhuo narrowed her eyes slightly, committing the two figures to memory from a distance.
So it was them.
“Still nothing, Teacher. Our Linzhou base isn’t short of space-type ability users, why do we have to go after that one in Yun City?”
Faced with his student’s confusion, the middle-aged man gave a cold snort. “A space-type ability user is worth having, of course, for a great purpose.”
Teacher and student gradually walked off into the distance. Bai Zhuo kept her face dark and made no move.
Only after a long while did she step out of the shadows and head off in another direction.
Bai Zhuo didn’t expect that a single outing, before she’d even found the truth about Professor Jiang Yongnian being hunted, would let her stumble onto the person who’d sent those three to Yun City.
She exhaled a breath, reined in her emotions, and continued exploring toward the gray areas.
The first few she could still get into, but by the time Bai Zhuo reached the second-to-last one, she sensed something was off.
Guards had appeared up ahead, and all of them were ability users.
Bai Zhuo stopped in time and turned to leave before they spotted her.
When she got back, Bai Zhuo said hello to Xue Yanhen and told her about what she’d found, leaving out, of course, the parts involving herself.
Xue Yanhen listened, brows knitting tightly. “They didn’t spot you, did they?”
“No. I’m plenty sharp,” Bai Zhuo bragged a little.
“Still, be careful.”
Bai Zhuo looked away. Careful wasn’t really an option, she was still waiting to finish her missions and get the system upgraded.
Over the next few days, Bai Zhuo would slip out for a wander whenever she got the chance. She didn’t just go to those two gray areas either, she’d roam other places too, and by and large she got a clear read on the layout of the base’s interior.
Back in the room, finding Xue Yanhen out, Bai Zhuo sat down on the edge of the bed and sank into thought.
She had to find a way to sneak in and see what was inside.
But there was the problem: how was she going to get in?
Bai Zhuo rubbed her chin, her eyes rolling, and poked the system awake in her mind.
【Sys, look, I work so hard finishing missions, and it’s all to upgrade you too. So how about it, give me a hand?】
【Host, please do not attempt to cut corners or hoodwink the system.】
Bai Zhuo clicked her tongue. She couldn’t call it a brain-dead system anymore, it could actually tell when she was trying to hoodwink it.
Bai Zhuo tipped backward, flopping straight onto the bed.
【If you won’t help, I can’t get in, if I can’t get in, the mission goes unfinished, if the mission goes unfinished, you don’t get to upgrade. So it’s up to you, really.】