“This is what?”
Bai Zhuo looked at the thing Gu Zhun held out, a little puzzled.
It was an iron tag, more precisely, something like a badge, with a snow wolf on it.
Gu Zhun’s expression was mild, but the emotion in his eyes was deadly earnest. “If you two want to stay in Ning City, take this to the commander of the Ning City base. He’ll help you.”
Bai Zhuo blinked, then gave a wry, amused smile. “One pack of instant noodles for a promise this big, seems like I came out ahead.”
“Not at all. You saved us.”
Gu Zhun knew it perfectly well: the night the extreme cold descended, if not for Bai Zhuo, every one of them would have died in the storm.
What he’d given away was just one of his own ID tags. Compared to six lives, it truly wasn’t worth mentioning.
The extreme cold lasted nearly eight days. Bai Zhuo and the others chopped up every piece of furniture in the house that could be chopped into kindling, and a mouthful of hot water down the belly felt wonderful.
On the ninth day, Bai Zhuo opened her eyes to see that the frost by the window had started to melt, and she rolled up and scrambled to her feet.
“It’s warming up!”
The others instinctively looked toward the window. It was only the tiniest change, but it was enough to thrill them.
Finally! It was over!
For the days after that, Bai Zhuo acted just like an ordinary person, no longer pulling things out of the system inventory, riding it out on those earlier compressed biscuits alone.
With the extreme cold over, Gu Zhun and the others prepared to leave.
But before they left, they meant to go to the spot they’d scouted earlier and bring back some supplies for the two of them, otherwise they wouldn’t feel right about it.
The black combat gear stood in sharp contrast to the white snow. As the “crunch, crunch” of combat boots on snow gradually faded, Bai Zhuo narrowed her eyes slightly.
Xue Yanhen stood behind her and asked mildly, “Are we going to the Ning City base?”
Bai Zhuo didn’t turn around. “No.”
“Okay.”
At that single word, Bai Zhuo withdrew her gaze and looked at her. “Aren’t you going to ask why?”
Xue Yanhen mimicked her, crossing her arms and leaning against the doorframe, and asked back without any change in expression, “Weren’t we the same way as kids? Besides, it’s not like you can sell me off.”
Bai Zhuo tilted her head slightly to look at her, then smiled. “True.”
Bai Zhuo wasn’t going, of course, because she didn’t want to expose how special she was.
There was another crucial point too: to this day she still couldn’t confirm which survivor base those three ability users had come from. If it was this Ning City one, wouldn’t going there be walking right into the net?
With the loot-box system in hand, she could earn draws just by casually completing missions, and out here she had far more freedom than inside a base.
Gu Zhun and the others came back quickly. Looking at that sack of survival supplies, Bai Zhuo gave them a thumbs-up.
Before leaving, Gu Zhun turned and reminded Bai Zhuo and Xue Yanhen once more to leave here as soon as they could and find their next safe house, otherwise, if someone caught on that something was off, it could bring lethal trouble down on them.
Bai Zhuo’s eyes curved, and she nodded with a smile to show she’d remember.
Drawing her gaze back from the hurriedly departing group, the smile in Bai Zhuo’s eyes vanished. Crowbar in hand, she and Xue Yanhen followed after them.
Her mission wasn’t complete yet, Gu Zhun’s little life could not be lost here.
The six of them headed grimly toward the Ning City base. While it was still cold enough that the zombies and other people hadn’t come out yet, they had to reach the base as fast as possible and make contact with their superiors.
Bai Zhuo and Xue Yanhen tailed them rather closely, the whole vibe being: don’t lose him now that he’s awake. [1]an internet phrase, “the entire point/aesthetic is X”, here a pun on a “do not lose” label, since they can’t let the Ning-City-bound man out of their sight jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2936271_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2936271_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
As they gradually neared the central district of Ning City, Gu Zhun suddenly stopped.
“Captain?”
Gu Zhun watched the road ahead warily, his sense of foreboding growing stronger and stronger.
The first to move was Bao Xiong. With a furious roar, an earthen wall abruptly shot up from the ground, blocking the ice spikes and fiery arrows that came flying from who-knew-where.
“Ambush!”
In her mind, Bai Zhuo unrolled and zoomed in on the map of Ning City she’d obtained. After confirming the direction the ice spikes had come from, she signaled Xue Yanhen to follow her.
Gu Zhun’s face was cold and hard. He raised a hand to signal his teammates back and to quickly find cover.
“Number Three, confirm where it’s coming from.”
“Yes!”
The other side seemed absolutely determined to wipe out Gu Zhun’s team. When the first strike failed, they swiftly ramped up the intensity of the attack.
Bai Zhuo and Xue Yanhen looped around behind the ambushers and closed in soundlessly.
The three in front had their attention fully on Gu Zhun’s group, utterly unaware that someone had crossed the railing and was drawing near.
Bai Zhuo raised the crowbar high and, without hesitation, brought it down hard.
The crowbar made intimate contact with the head of the ability user who was in the middle of condensing an ice spike.
Bai Zhuo, the girl of monstrous strength, knocked the ice-type ability user out cold with a single swing of the crowbar.
“Who’s there!”
Xue Yanhen struck at the same moment, using the back of her blade to knock out the ability user who’d just fired off a few fiery arrows.
The last one reacted quickly. Dodging Bai Zhuo’s crowbar, he leapt straight down.
Bai Zhuo jumped down right after him, landed on the platform below, and took off in pursuit.
With the attacks from their side halted, Gu Zhun looked over with a frown, and in that glance, he saw the two figures on the rooftop, one chasing the other.
His pupils shrank. Why was it her?!
Bai Zhuo raised the crowbar and hurled it like a javelin.
The crowbar struck the man squarely in the leg. He stumbled, and instantly went sprawling face-first into the dirt. [2]fell flat on his face jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2936271_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2936271_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
Bai Zhuo caught up and stamped down on his back, giving him no chance. She picked the crowbar back up and slammed it straight into his face, sending his nose gushing blood.
Bai Zhuo tossed her hair back and, with a cold smile, nudged the unconscious man with her foot. The person who could escape from her hands had yet to be born.
They’d parted not long ago, and now the two sides met again, not just Gu Zhun, but the others too wore complicated expressions.
Bao Xiong hauled over the other two knocked-out men. “Captain.”
Gu Zhun swept a glance over the three faces. All unfamiliar.
Bai Zhuo rested the crowbar on her shoulder and looked at Gu Zhun with a light laugh. “Didn’t realize you were so hated.”
The bespectacled young man crouched down, pulled out a palm-sized device, and scanned it across each of the three faces.
Before long he raised his head and, with a grave expression, shook his head at Gu Zhun. “These three aren’t in the Ning City ability-user registration system.”
Gu Zhun clenched his fist. “Understood.”
Bai Zhuo was quite curious. “Ability-user registration system?”
The bespectacled young man nodded and explained, “Every ability user who enters a survivor base gets registered.”
“So if they’re not in the Ning City base system, does that mean they came from some other survivor base?”
Bai Zhuo’s question left the others silent. It proved this attack was no accident, but something long premeditated.
“Captain—”
Gu Zhun turned to look toward the Ning City base, and, as if he’d made up his mind about something, said in a low voice, “We’re not going to the Ning City base to resupply. We leave now, directly.”
Bai Zhuo yawned. “Then this is goodbye. Good luck to you all.”
References[+]