In that brief span of time, Zhang Long swiftly came to the conclusion that his group stood absolutely no chance of winning.
He immediately decided to flee. From what the other side had said, this had clearly been a trap laid specifically for them.
They had split up the main fighting force, luring some of them here to be eliminated separately while weakening the defenses back at the base.
Though the base’s overall strength was formidable, its recent reckless expansion had left its defenses thin. On top of that, its personnel were a mixed bag, and the resentment and resistance of people from the bases they had absorbed had yet to fade. It was the perfect time for betrayal and unrest to erupt.
Zhang Long sobered up completely, in every sense of the word.
Since the people from the Harbor Base had already dug such a pit for them, the situation at the base was surely just as grim. There was no point clinging to meaningless hope.
If these people could slip into the neighboring town’s base without anyone noticing, then even if that base was too small to be worth mentioning, it was more than sufficient as a place to conceal combat forces and firepower.
Zhang Long knew his ambitions had come to nothing. But as long as the green hills remained, there would always be firewood to burn. Chu Yebai’s strength had crushed all the arrogance out of him, but he was still one of the strongest people in the post-apocalyptic world.
As long as he stayed far away from these monsters, he could still make something of himself.
And if things truly did not work out at home, he could always go abroad.
All these thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant. Zhang Long raised his hand and hurled something forward.
The object exploded, releasing countless flying insects. On closer inspection, they were mosquitoes as large as dragonflies.
The swarm surged wildly through the air, indiscriminately attacking friend and foe alike. Their strikes hurt badly, but once they latched onto someone, hundreds would descend at once.
One person screamed and tried to run, only to be drained into a desiccated husk in an instant.
This was a mutated queen mosquito he had subdued using Pei Ning’s ability. Under normal circumstances, only Pei Ning could control them.
But Pei Ning had been taken away by Guan Qian, and he had no way of getting her back for the moment. Naturally, there was no one left to deal with this problem.
Not only did these mosquitoes drain blood at a terrifying rate, they also carried a rare virus. The moment they were released, chaos engulfed the area.
Yet Zhang Long crushed a small glass vial on his person. It contained a substance formulated from a reverse version of Pei Ning’s pheromones.
Their base did not possess a genius as extraordinary as Gong Ran, but once the liquid rapidly evaporated, it could still provoke a degree of aversion in zombies and mutated plants and animals, causing them to avoid it.
Sure enough, even with one of his hands crippled and the smell of blood heavy on his body, the mosquitoes ignored him.
Zhang Long sneered. As for Chu Yebai, his ability might be powerful, but no matter how powerful he was, he still had to obey the fundamental laws of reality.
How long had humans even been awakening powers? Based on the patterns derived from countless samples studied at their base, someone at Chu Yebai’s current level would inevitably have had to sacrifice a certain degree of precision.
Just as their base’s rapid expansion had brought temporary instability in its structure and a host of internal troubles.
Whether it was supernatural abilities or the size of a base, both required time to properly consolidate.
If these poisonous mosquitoes spread out and harmed ordinary people in the neighboring town’s base—or their allies—the hypocritical Harbor Base would never stand by and do nothing.
He would use this opening to escape!
But after retreating only a few meters, Zhang Long slammed into an invisible wall. Focused entirely on fleeing, he had pushed his speed to the limit, and the impact left stars swimming before his eyes and his head spinning.
Already weakened by the excruciating pain, Zhang Long’s vision began to darken.
He saw Lin Ru not far away, a cold smile spreading across her face. “Since all the threats to the base are gathered here, why shouldn’t I move the shield?”
The base’s shield had already been withdrawn. In its place was a transparent cage that Lin Ru had somehow set up around herself.
At that moment, Zhang Long suddenly realized that the mosquitoes swarming through the air had completely overwhelmed their own people.
Even those with powerful abilities, who had avoided being surrounded by hundreds of mosquitoes and sucked dry, had still been caught off guard and injected with poison.
Only two defensive-type ability users had survived with their combat strength intact.
Then Chu Yebai smiled. The mosquitoes filling the sky suddenly froze, and in the next instant, they exploded into blood flowers the size of tennis balls.
Blood rained down from the sky, staining the ground red. The air reeked of blood.
Zhang Long finally realized where the strange feeling that had been bothering him came from.
Although the scene was chaotic, he could still see through the countless gaps between the mosquitoes that Chu Yebai and the others had not moved even once.
Chu Yebai spoke up. “I should thank you. You knew I was in a hurry, so you even helped me clear out the enemies.”
A booming voice came from behind him. “I’ve never seen anyone cooperate so willingly before. I’m almost too embarrassed to kill him.”
Chu Yebai smiled. “His ability is quite powerful. Even in his current condition, Guan Tian might not be able to kill him.”
Guan Tian immediately objected. “Want to find out?”
As he spoke, the burly man stepped forward. The two surviving ability users from Aolong Base, quick to read the situation, surrendered at once.
The burly man called out to Zhang Long, “I heard your ability is controlling air? Conveniently, mine is similar.”
Zhang Long’s eyes darted about as he tried to find a way out of this predicament. In truth, the simplest solution would be to kill Lin Ru. Once she was dead, her shield would naturally disappear.
But Chu Yebai’s ability was far more precise than he had anticipated—so precise that Zhang Long could no longer judge it by common sense.
Lin Ru was less than five meters from Chu Yebai. The moment he revealed his intention, Chu Yebai would probably kill him before he could even touch the hem of Lin Ru’s clothes.
At that moment, Zhang Long was both anxious and hesitant. Even if he killed Lin Ru and removed the obstacle of the shield, could he really escape safely while facing Chu Yebai’s vast range, terrifying precision, and superior firepower?
But the instinct to survive was human nature. Zhang Long sneered. “I’m not prey for you to toy with and slaughter.”
“If you want a fair, open fight, then you have to guarantee that, if I win, you’ll let me leave immediately.”
That loudmouth looked like a simple-minded man who would be easy to fool. Besides, Chu Yebai’s earlier remark had stoked his competitive spirit. He could use that to his advantage.
Even if Chu Yebai refused, the time spent negotiating would be enough for Zhang Long to make some preparations.
In the hand he had not crippled, another capsule-sized object dropped into his palm.
He had already anticipated exactly what the loudmouth would say.
But the very next second, Guan Tian’s expression fell, and he said boredly, “And I’m supposed to let you leave? Keep dreaming.”
“Forget it. The mission comes first. You should just die.”
As he spoke, he raised his gun. A shot rang out, and a bloody hole appeared squarely in the center of Zhang Long’s forehead.
It happened too suddenly. Zhang Long had been entirely focused on figuring out how to secretly plant the contents of the capsule in the ground. He hadn’t even had time to activate his ability to defend himself.
How could this happen?
That was the last thought Zhang Long ever had.
Guan Tian lowered his gun and saw the people from the neighboring town’s base staring at him with complicated expressions.
He hurriedly explained, “It’s not that I don’t play fair. That kid was obviously up to no good. Did he really think Grandpa here was stupid enough to fall for it?”
Anyway, their boss had already become someone’s pretty boy. What was there left to care about when it came to winning, pride, or saving face?
The remaining two had been scared out of their wits and were taken under control. Guan Qian also let Pei Ning out.
The moment she emerged, Pei Ning complained, “It was still kind of stuffy in there.”
Guan Qian snorted. “Wasn’t there an oxygen tank inside? You just didn’t use it.”
Chu Yebai smiled. “For Guan Qian’s spatial ability to develop this far in such a short time is already impressive. It seems Pei Liang’s regard for the two of you is well deserved.”
The two immediately looked smug, already looking forward to the luxury rooms waiting for them once they returned to the base.
Pei Ning took the capsule from Zhang Long’s hand and tossed it into her storage bag.
“Just as I expected, there was a mutated earthworm inside—one I helped him tame. The seven of them all had their own little schemes going on, and each of them privately asked me to train mutated insects for them.”
“If this thing burrowed into the ground, it would grow rapidly. Its diameter and length would be enough to make it as tall as a building. It could swallow everyone here in one bite.”
“It might not have wiped us all out, but it would have been enough to disable the protective barrier and buy them some time.”
“His combat instincts aren’t bad,” Chu Yebai said. “I wonder how things are going on your sister’s side.”
How could they be going? Naturally, the base had already been taken.
The preparations made before Pei Ning and the others arrived had not been empty talk. And that was before taking into account the traps they had set afterward, thanks to the convenience of Pei Ning’s ability.
If undercover agents from Aolong Base could infiltrate Harbor Base, then Harbor Base’s spies would only be more capable.
Every critical point in the base had long since been mapped out. Through the food deliveries, Pei Ning smuggled out the seeds of the mutated plants she had cultivated from the heavily monitored building where she was being held.
The people planted inside Aolong Base distributed them and buried them throughout the compound.
The moment Pei Liang launched the attack, before the defenses could even activate, the suddenly rebellious personnel and the wildly growing vines had already brought everything under control.
Countless people from the bases that had only recently been absorbed were scattered throughout the compound. Once they received the signal, they struck back against the thugs who normally suppressed and supervised them.
In an instant, the base erupted in revolt. Before the management could even react and issue orders to suppress it, frantic alarms blared from the ruling building—
Intruders had entered.
Led by Pei Liang, more than a dozen ability users instantly appeared on the helipad atop the building.
The guards stationed there were startled and immediately raised their guns at them.
But before he could finish the move, his entire body froze solid, turning him into a human popsicle.
It was the appraiser's ability. Pei Liang glanced back at him and smiled. “The range is even longer now. Not bad!”
The appraiser turned his head away, still awkward whenever she praised or complimented him.
The group made their way down from the tarmac, bulldozing straight ahead. Every obstacle and act of resistance was smashed to pieces.
The four managers in charge of the base were still grinding their teeth over the chaos outside when someone knocked on the door.
“Who is it?” the four demanded warily.
They were well aware that countless people in the base hated them, so the building's defenses were exceptionally tight.
There was no way an intruder could have arrived so quickly—
“Food delivery!” a woman's voice called from outside.
It really was an intruder.
The main doors came crashing down. The firepower and abilities rushing toward them were all blocked by a seemingly thin but tough, flexible metal wall that nothing could break through.
The metal wall was irregular, and its edges were still shifting. The four immediately realized that this was the ability of Pei Liang's personal tool-man, Zhong An, whom they had learned about through their intelligence.
Pei Liang had come in person?
What shocked them even more was that the mutant plants and insects they had released to hold off the intruders showed no intention of attacking the enemy at all.
Instead, they turned their weapons on their masters—
“What is going on? Get lost—aaagh!”
One of them was caught off guard and was hit immediately, while the other three struggled desperately to hold out.
The metal wall withdrew, and Pei Liang and her group strolled inside.
Wherever they went, the plants actually moved aside. They even cleared a special space for her on the sofa.
The three men were instantly subdued by the ability users accompanying Pei Liang. One man in a white coat casually opened the door to a room.
He called toward the mutant plants and insects, “All right, in you go.”
The mutant creatures seemed to understand him. Though clearly reluctant, they all crawled into the room.
Once the door closed, the entire hall was spacious and bright again.
Half an hour ago, they had still been leisurely planning how they would enjoy the port base's abundant resources after conquering it. Now, they had become prisoners.
They had not even been able to resist for a full minute.
Even the mutant plants and animals they had painstakingly cultivated—their trump cards, which they believed would let them dominate the wasteland—had apparently already been tamed into obedient weapons by their enemy.
Weapons capable of switching sides on the spot.
Pei Liang walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked down over the city, clicking her tongue in admiration. “Your office has a pretty nice view.”
“I'm almost jealous. Though the taste is terrible. This was a perfectly good presidential suite, but after you lived here for a month or two, the walls have practically absorbed your awful stench.”
“What a waste of tens of millions in renovations.”
The three men’s hearts pounded, but they managed to retain a trace of composure.
After all, they were all renowned powerhouses in the wasteland. Even as prisoners, their value should have been enough to ensure that their lives would be spared.
That was what they thought, at least—until Pei Liang waved her hand dismissively.
“Kill them.”
“Wait!” The three panicked.
“You can't just kill us like this.”
“That's right. Our operation of this base isn't a sham. You'll have a huge mess to clean up if you kill us.”
“You know perfectly well what my ability can do. An ability user like me—”
Before he could finish speaking, the three men's heads were severed from their bodies.
“A few piles of dog shit, and you really think you’re irreplaceable.”
The one who spoke was Chu Yebai. He had already returned with Guan Qian and Pei Ning.
The three of them had dealt with the lives of Pei Liang’s men even faster than the reinforcements Pei Liang had brought. Afterward, he sneered at the people around Pei Liang. “Did I send you out to get things done, or to listen to them put on an opera?”
Naturally, the appraiser and the others would not undermine their boss. As for the other ability users who had joined them later and been entrusted with important duties, they all held Chu Yebai in high regard. A little scolding was nothing to them.
In other words, the only ones who were truly irritated were Gong Ran and Yu Cheng.
The two looked at Chu Yebai. It wasn’t as if they didn’t know the bastard was keeping a close watch on them.
He refused to leave them even the slightest opening. Yu Cheng was better about it—he merely felt vaguely uncomfortable, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on why. Gong Ran, on the other hand, openly dismissed him with disdain.
Just then, there was a sound from another room. Too lazy to watch the three of them bicker, Pei Liang turned and walked over to the door.
She threw it open and found several beautiful women packed inside, dressed in revealing clothes and each with her own distinct charm.
One of them, however, clearly stood out from the rest. She was dressed rather plainly, though her beauty was impossible to hide. She was holding a child in her arms.
They all stared at Pei Liang, trembling. Apparently, they had seen the bloody scene in the living room through the crack in the door.
Pei Liang smiled and held out a hand to the plainly dressed woman. “It’s all right now. Come out.”
But the woman seemed emotionally unstable, and the child in her arms was even more like a frightened wolf cub.
He suddenly lunged at Pei Liang, sparks of electricity flickering all over his body.
Pei Liang was startled. He was an extremely rare lightning-type ability user. At such a young age, he still couldn’t control his power, yet the leakage was already this obvious. His future potential was tremendous.
But before the child could touch Pei Liang, he was lifted into the air. Chu Yebai, who had somehow come over without anyone noticing, had grabbed him.
Frowning, Chu Yebai glanced at the snarling child and tossed him toward the corner of the wall. “Brats are nothing but trouble.”
The child’s mother cried out in alarm and hurried out of the room, gathering him into her arms and anxiously asking whether he was hurt.
The child looked dazed, but he had not actually been thrown hard. Chu Yebai knew his limits.
Yu Cheng frowned and shot Chu Yebai a look. “Only you could be so rough with a terrified child.”
Chu Yebai gave a derisive laugh. “Who are you to criticize me?”
Yu Cheng said nothing, but his expression made his meaning obvious. It was the same old refrain.
Who cares what you think? Just don’t lead a perfectly nice girl astray.
At that moment, Pei Liang spoke. “Your abilities and potential are both quite good. Come work for me.”
The mother and son had only just been captured. They had drifted through the apocalypse, suffering and struggling from place to place, and they held no favorable impression of so-called bases or their leaders.
At their core, none of the ones they had encountered had been decent people.
Pei Ning lowered her voice and said to her sister, “She probably thinks one of those perverts has his eye on both the mother’s beauty and the child’s ability, and is planning to use some disgusting, underhanded method to force them into submission.”
“No wonder they’re so guarded.”
Pei Liang sighed. “They really have had it hard.”
At her words, Yu Cheng’s expression softened.
Pei Liang crouched down halfway in front of the child, and the smile on her face suddenly seemed to billow with dark energy.
Then she said, “Come back with me and attend the ability-user school. Your mother can live nearby in a school-district apartment and take care of you. You’ll have a place all to yourselves, with no one to bother you.”
“Or you stay here, and your mother comes back with us to work in a factory. Pick one.”
Pei Liang had no time to coax a child right now. She could only scare him into returning to the base first.
Though she was speaking to the child, the one making the choice was really his mother.
Chu Yebai turned to Yu Cheng with an expression that said, *Doesn’t your face hurt?* “You said she couldn’t do this to a frightened, helpless child. Why aren’t you saying anything now?”
Yu Cheng’s expression did not waver in the slightest. “No. She’s simply taking emergency measures. Besides, it will help the child realize the cruelty of adults sooner, and teach him not to bare his teeth at the strong so easily. That will benefit him in the long run.”
“How did you end up just as cold-blooded as this guy?”
Chu Yebai: “...???”
After learning that they were from Harbor Base, the child’s mother finally found a tiny glimmer of hope. Coupled with the fact that she had no real choice, she could only agree to Pei Liang’s arrangement.
With headquarters occupied and all the administrators dead, the base naturally descended into leaderless chaos.
Using bee-shaped robots that the whiz kid had further upgraded with aerial projection capabilities, Pei Liang broadcast an announcement throughout the base declaring that she was taking over.
She also briefly outlined the plan to “restore pre-apocalypse order.” The projected image of Harbor Base—where life was nearly the same as it had been before the apocalypse—gave most people hope.
Even if these were simply new leaders who would bleed them dry, the outcome could hardly be worse than before.
When circumstances had deteriorated to a certain point, there was no longer much left to care about.
After the announcement, the ability users who were still stubbornly resisting—those whose interests and status depended on Aolong Base’s old system—were also rounded up as uncertainty about the future shook their resolve.
Looking over the prisoner counts being reported from various locations, Gong Ran asked Pei Liang, “With so many experimental subjects all of a sudden, I can conduct some more ambitious research projects now, right?”
Yu Cheng stared at Gong Ran in shock. Although they were now on the same side, he had been occupied with other tasks and knew virtually nothing about Gong Ran’s research.
He had only visited the research base once. And since the system’s initial hints had made Gong Ran seem like a positive character, even if that did not match the facts, Yu Cheng had always believed he was not completely beyond redemption.
But this—?
Yu Cheng’s voice turned icy. “I won’t let you do that. You’re far too unscrupulous, with no reverence whatsoever for life or ethics.”
“Even if some ability users deserve to die, as long as there’s even a possibility that you might fabricate charges against innocent people with special abilities and drag them into your laboratory, you will not be allowed to act without restraint.”
Before the words had fully left his mouth, Pei Liang nodded. “Fine. These are extraordinary times. Humanity has too few cards left to play, after all. It’s good enough if the trash can serve some purpose before they’re used up.”
Yu Cheng immediately changed his tune. “True. There are countless mutated animals and plants, and the zombies are constantly evolving too. Some have even developed intelligence—they’re cunning. Harbor Base is relatively safe, but the bases outside could face a second or third viral outbreak at any time.”
“There’s nothing we can do about that.”
Gong Ran’s expression darkened. “Why is it that you can lecture me endlessly over the exact same thing, but when it comes to her, you support it with both hands? Not that I care what you think, anyway.”
Still, it was infuriating to hear.
Yu Cheng looked at him with an expression that said, *Do you seriously have that little self-awareness?* “Your motive is nothing more than your own personal interest. She, on the other hand, is acting for the common good of everyone in the world.”
“Sometimes justice inevitably demands sacrifices. And I believe she will always hold fast to her principles and never harm innocent people.”
“How can you even compare yourself to her?”
Gong Ran and Chu Yebai: “Fuck, we’ve put up with you for long enough. What, are you playing favorites here?”
Yu Cheng said, “I’m not playing favorites. I’m not that kind of person. Different at the core means different. You two are devious—don’t assume she’s one of your kind just because her behavioral logic sometimes overlaps with yours.”
One of their kind? Pah! Wasn’t she an even more terrifying devil?
Still, this idiot apparently had yet to realize what his double standard actually implied.
Neither of them saw any reason to point it out to him, though their fists were itching.
Aolong Base had expanded far too quickly—though naturally, that had been part of Pei Liang’s plan, since it made it easier for them to absorb the entire region in one sweep.
Aolong Base had risen to prominence in barely more than a month. It had seemed poised to become the leading power, capable at any moment of marching on Harbor Base and crushing it.
Yet it had been effortlessly absorbed by Harbor Base. Harbor Base had also issued a clear declaration: next, it would unify the entire country.
They would restore order to what it had been before the apocalypse.
Countless bases were on edge, but just as many were waiting in eager anticipation.
By then, Harbor Base had restored its shipping routes, and countless edible mutated plants were being distributed to bases across the country.
No matter what people envisioned for the future, the arrival of food undeniably eased the survival pressures facing the vast majority of bases.
Some understood that accepting these edible mutated plants was, in effect, a surrender to Harbor Base. Along with the food came a set of invisible shackles.
Most chose to accept. After all, the other side had already conquered the problem of mutated plants; their strength was simply on an entirely different level. Continuing to resist stubbornly would be as ridiculous as a handful of troublemakers occupying a hill and declaring themselves an independent nation.
But some chose to refuse. The very next day, people from Harbor Base came knocking.
In an apocalypse, refusing food was practically a flashing sign telling everyone: *There’s something wrong with our base. Please prioritize destroying us.*
As for those religious bases, many had already been dealt with before Aolong Base was brought down. As Harbor Base’s territory expanded, communications networks and production facilities throughout the country were gradually restarted.
Some areas had already regained internet access, and social order was visibly beginning to return to its pre-apocalyptic state.
With more and more capable people available, Pei Liang naturally found herself with less to do; she no longer had to personally handle everything.
According to the current plan and pace of progress, it was only a matter of time before the country fully returned to the state of society it had known before the apocalypse.
That day, Pei Liang and the others did not go out. Instead, they summoned Guan Qian over—only her. Even Pei Ning was not invited.
Before Guan Qian arrived, Pei Liang said to Chu Yebai and Gong Ran, “You’ve probably forgotten most of what happened the day we captured Yu Cheng.”
“I know that, in order to deal with this bizarre situation, each of you has come up with your own countermeasures. But there’s no need. Today, I’ll tell you everything.”
The apocalypse was now on track to be resolved. Next came the question of how to deal with the game.
