Even though they suspected the girl in front of them might have something wrong with her head, there was no denying it, these compressed biscuits could genuinely save their lives.
Bai Zhuo really wanted another round of instant noodles, but one look at the group across the room and she thought better of it.
Survival came first.
Giving away compressed biscuits might not cause her any trouble, but if she let slip even a hint of being a suspected space-type ability user, that could be a very big problem.
Munching on a compressed biscuit, Bai Zhuo studied the semi-transparent system panel before her.
The countdown numbers were still ticking away, and the system had even slapped a bold red warning on it. By the look of it, if she didn’t complete this mission, not only would Gu Zhun die, even the system would blow up.
Bai Zhuo took another bite of biscuit. Below the countdown was her mission briefing.
After this one day of brief contact, Bai Zhuo had discovered that Gu Zhun was extremely wary, more so than any of his teammates. Even toward her and Xue Yanhen, the very people who’d saved them, he’d said nothing beyond his thanks.
So how was she supposed to complete this Gu-Zhun-related mission without him noticing?
Hand him the weather data he needed, and get him safely out of Ning City.
Bai Zhuo frowned. Couldn’t they give her something a bit more specific? How was she supposed to know when Gu Zhun would die, was she supposed to follow him around the whole time? She’d come off as a total creep.
Still, before the extreme cold ended, Bai Zhuo didn’t need to worry about Gu Zhun dropping dead here. If someone could die right under her nose, then she might as well tidy herself up, find a hole, and bury herself, forget braving the apocalypse.
Having taken stock of her current situation, Bai Zhuo set the rest of the compressed biscuits aside.
She still hadn’t used up the loot-box draws from completing the hidden mission. At that thought, her heartbeat quickened a little, besides insulation material, if she could pull some more weapons, that’d be great.
The modao had gone to Xue Yanhen, and her whole frying-pan act was a bit too conspicuous. If she ran into associates of that earlier group, it’d be walking right into the net. [1]delivering herself into their trap jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2936270_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2936270_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
【System, come on, open some loot boxes.】
Hearing that Bai Zhuo wanted to open loot boxes, the system was as excited as ever. 【Sure thing, host.】
【Congratulations, host. You have obtained: a map of Ning City ×1, weather data ×1, purified water 500ml ×3, insulated thermos ×2, a crowbar ×1, sleeping bag ×2. The above supplies have been sent to your system inventory.】
Bai Zhuo’s eyes lit up. Nice going, system, right after the upgrade you pull all these good things in one go.
But… a crowbar?
【System, be honest, did you actually haul over the whole armory from a certain battle-royale game?】
System: …would rather not comment.
Bai Zhuo went through the items in her inventory one by one, and only then belatedly realized the system had slipped the mission data in as a loot-box reward.
Bai Zhuo smiled. Fine. I praised you too soon, you rotten system.
Not far off, Gu Zhun picked up the thermometer and glanced at it, his hand tightening slightly. “Minus seventy-five now.”
Hissss—
Everyone couldn’t help sucking in a cold breath. Could anything still survive outside in this?
Bai Zhuo turned and saw that the frost on the windows had grown even thicker, a heavy layer that, apart from still letting light through, blocked out everything else.
“You don’t think this extreme cold will just freeze all the zombies to death, do you?” someone joked.
“If it does, that’d be great.”
Bai Zhuo’s eyelashes fluttered. They still hadn’t discovered that zombies could evolve?
Gu Zhun set down the thermometer and murmured, as if to himself, “If humans can have abilities, then what about the zombies, who used to be humans too?”
The house went utterly silent. Bai Zhuo looked at Gu Zhun with faint surprise, and he, seeming to sense it, raised his head and met her gaze before she could look away.
Bai Zhuo smiled. “Let’s survive first, then worry about the rest.”
The others exchanged a glance and sighed silently.
True, they had to survive first before they could think about the future.
After nightfall the north wind howled outside, yet inside, where Bai Zhuo and the others were, it stayed as warm as ever.
Gu Zhun had single-handedly suppressed all his doubts. He knew this whole thing had to be tied to Bai Zhuo and Xue Yanhen, and in ordinary times he’d have asked. But right now, they knew nothing about each other, whether the other side had abilities, what tier those abilities were, and rashly offending them would be the worst possible move.
Bai Zhuo mulled over how to hand the weather data to Gu Zhun without arousing his suspicion. Maybe she should put on an air of mysterious profundity?
No, that didn’t suit her personality.
Bai Zhuo’s gaze skimmed past Gu Zhun. Wait a little longer, let the countdown tick a while more.
Another night passed. The next morning, before Bai Zhuo had even opened her eyes, she heard a voice ring out full of shock.
“It’s minus ninety! This is practically closing in on an ice age!”
Bai Zhuo yawned. “Fun fact: the lowest temperature of the great ice age was minus fifty.”
Everyone across the room turned to look at her, while Bai Zhuo’s own gaze fell on the thermometer. “Don’t make such a fuss. It’s only minus 89.7 degrees.”
Only…
Girl, is that still Chinese you’re speaking?
Xue Yanhen looked up. “There’s a region in a certain country up north where winters stay around minus seventy year-round, and the lowest ever recorded reached minus 89.2 degrees. Our situation now is about the same as theirs back then. The difference is, that was one region, while ours is probably extreme cold on a global scale.”
Bai Zhuo nodded. “Nicely supplemented.”
The fire-type ability user across the room had recovered a good deal, and Bai Zhuo’s craving for hotpot began stirring again.
The fire-type ability user looked at Bai Zhuo and asked tentatively, “Did you need something?”
“I’m weighing the feasibility of chopping up the furniture upstairs to burn.”
This…
The group exchanged looks. They really hadn’t considered that.
Bai Zhuo rolled up and stood. “Let’s give it a try. You’ve got a fire-type ability user, after all, starting a fire’s no sweat.”
“Then… we try it?”
Gu Zhun watched his teammates go off with Bai Zhuo to dismantle the house, and couldn’t help his mouth twitching.
The bespectacled young man dug a pot out of the kitchen. With wood and fire on hand, not boiling some hot water to drink just wasn’t their style.
Bai Zhuo couldn’t hold back after all, and pulled a few packs of instant noodles out of another bag, which had the group across the room staring wide-eyed.
“Miss, we can’t ever repay you at this rate,” the bespectacled young man said with a wry smile, glancing at his captain’s expression.
“Well, I can’t very well eat in front of you and let you just watch, can I?” Bai Zhuo spread her hands. “Besides, you chopped the wood and you boiled the water, so it’s not like you’re eating for free. And if you can’t repay it, then you can’t, who knows if we’ll ever even meet again, and I’m not going to chase you down for it.”
The group listened, a little dazed. It sounded reasonable, yet something felt off somewhere.
Xue Yanhen looked away. Trying to argue logic with Bai Zhuo was the most illogical thing you could do, that mouth of hers had never met anyone who could out-talk her.
“This is for you.” Gu Zhun handed something to Bai Zhuo.
“This is… what?”
References[+]