Bai Zhuo unconsciously clenched her fist.
The images had hit her too hard, for one instant Bai Zhuo felt as though she were standing in the middle of the zombie horde herself.
【They were human once.】
Bai Zhuo’s hand jerked. What did that mean, human once?
A sigh so faint it was almost impossible to catch drifted up, and Bai Zhuo nearly thought she’d misheard.
【A portion of humanity, in the apocalypse, betrayed their own kind. The Linzhou base that falls three months from now, its leadership are among them.】
Humanity betrayed itself.
Bai Zhuo could not calm herself for a long while.
It wasn’t until Xue Yanhen rolled over on the other single bed that Bai Zhuo came back to herself.
【Why would they do such a thing?】
【To survive. To survive forever.】
To survive forever?
A scornful smile tugged at the corner of Bai Zhuo’s mouth. They weren’t even human anymore, what was the point of talking about staying alive?
【So you come from the future? To stop them? Then why do you call yourself the loot-box system? And why did you choose me?】
“Bzzzt—”
A crackle of static cut across her hearing. Bai Zhuo rubbed her ear. The system wasn’t leaking current, was it?
【The auxiliary system is attached to the main system. Please do your best to survive, host.】
Bai Zhuo’s mouth twitched. Hey now, buddy, you didn’t actually answer a single one of those questions, did you?
Telling her to do her best to survive?
Bai Zhuo laughed silently. It had said this same line to her the day the system first appeared, and now it was repeating it all over again.
Was her life really that important?
Maybe it was the aftereffect of the jamming device’s backlash, but Bai Zhuo’s mind felt off. She wanted to check this round’s mission rewards, yet before long she’d drifted off to sleep.
The next day Bai Zhuo was jolted awake by a violent pounding on the door. She opened her eyes with a frown.
Before Xue Yanhen could even get up to answer, the people outside broke straight through the door and reached out to seize them.
“Wait!”
Bai Zhuo swung herself off the bed and gestured for them to back off. “Don’t go grabbing people at random.”
The man at the head sized Bai Zhuo up. “After sundown yesterday, where did you go?”
They’d traced it to her already?
Bai Zhuo’s heart sank, but not a flicker showed on her face. She let out a mocking snort and shot back, “What business is that of yours? Are we not even free to move around inside the Linzhou base?”
“Quibbling. Take her away!”
Xue Yanhen’s expression went cold and she reached to draw her blade, only for Bai Zhuo to force her hand back down.
A voice threaded with laughter rang out from beyond the door, “Captain Lin.” The one who walked in was the very man who had processed Bai Zhuo’s registration that day.
At the sight of him, Captain Lin was visibly wary. “What are you doing here?”
The newcomer pointed at Bai Zhuo and said with a smile, “She was with me last night.”
“Together doing what?”
“A lone man and a lone woman shut up in one room, Captain Lin, what do you think we could’ve been doing?”
Even though she knew he was saying this to clear the suspicion off her, Bai Zhuo still shot him a speechless glare.
Captain Lin was wary of the man, but he clearly trusted him too. Once the man had given Bai Zhuo her alibi, Lin gave a cold huff and left.
The young man shut the door and smiled at the still-guarded Bai Zhuo and Xue Yanhen. “My surname’s Zhou, just call me Old Zhou. Before Chongming left, she told me to look after you two.”
Bai Zhuo recalled how he’d behaved while registering her information at the base gate, and it all clicked. “So that’s why you got so worked up after you saw my name.”
“Yes.” The young man fished a badge out of his pocket and handed it over. It was the same as Gu Zhun’s and Chongming’s, only the mark engraved on the back was different.
Having made his identity clear to the two of them, the young man looked to Bai Zhuo. “Last night’s incident, that was your doing?”
Bai Zhuo nodded, admitting it.
The young man drew a deep breath and spoke gravely. “Then you can’t stay here any longer. They suspect your companion is a space-type ability user.”
Xue Yanhen stiffened, then quickly caught on. “So that’s why people kept trying to get close to me and win me over.”
“Yes.”
“How do we leave?”
“I’ll arrange it.”
The young man left that one line behind and hurried off.
In the abruptly silent room, there was only the sound of Bai Zhuo’s and Xue Yanhen’s breathing.
After a long while, Bai Zhuo raised her head to look at Xue Yanhen, who smiled back at her and said nothing.
The young man moved fast with his arrangements. Even now, with the danger of another zombie wave still hanging over them, the base leadership would still send ability users out to search for supplies.
It was a perfect opportunity. The young man brought forged identity cards and slipped Bai Zhuo and Xue Yanhen in among a team going out to scavenge, and they made it smoothly out of the Linzhou survivor base.
Once they’d broken free of the main group’s line of sight, the three of them found the car the young man had stashed ahead of time. Confirming it would still start, they didn’t hesitate for a moment and drove straight out of the city.
“Where are we going?”
“Sorry, you may have to come back with me to the Jing City base.”
Bai Zhuo, in the passenger seat, turned to look at the young man. His face was apologetic, but the car didn’t slow at all.
“You’re not afraid I’ll jump out?”
“The doors are locked,” the young man said, perfectly honest.
Bai Zhuo was so annoyed she laughed, but then her tone dropped cold in an instant. She grabbed the crowbar and leveled it at his neck, making no effort to hide her killing intent. “You’re not afraid I’ll kill you?”
Not a shred of change crossed the young man’s face, he stayed utterly calm. “I’m a rank-4 metal-type ability user. You can’t kill me.”
Bai Zhuo ground her back teeth. Comparing yourself to other people would drive you to an early grave!
Xue Yanhen, in the back seat, gripped the modao in her hands. If the two of them really fell out, she could be sure to strike at the young man in the first instant.
Bai Zhuo narrowed her eyes. Watching the young man leave himself completely undefended, as if just waiting for her to drive the bar in, she gave a cold laugh and drew the crowbar back. “If I kill you, I won’t know the way to the Jing City base.”
The near-frozen atmosphere inside the car eased at once, and the young man’s grip on the wheel loosened a little too.
“Relax. We only want to know what you saw in that place.”
“Then I can tell you right now.”
The young man shook his head. “I’m not the one who should hear it.”
Bai Zhuo rolled her eyes. Stubborn.
Tossing the crowbar aside, she turned back and nodded at Xue Yanhen, signaling her to stand down.
Once she’d settled Xue Yanhen, Bai Zhuo folded her arms and closed her eyes to rest.
But the moment her eyes shut, the footage the system had shown her the night before flickered before her without pause.
Humanity betrayed itself.
Bai Zhuo turned the sentence over carefully in her mind two more times, and then she smiled.
No. Only a few had betrayed it. Far more people were still holding on, still fighting, the human base in that footage proved it, and the system, perhaps sent back from the future, proved it too.
They had not yet given up hope.
And there was more—
Bai Zhuo opened her eyes and looked again at the young man driving in earnest. There were them too, Gu Zhun, Chongming, and countless others she’d never met, all of them fighting.
Since she was the one the system had chosen, then, alongside her dream of lying flat, she would fight together with them.