For the past two days, Brother Ping had been very polite to Ji Zhaoxi and her companion, but she still couldn't shake off an ominous premonition.
She noticed that someone's gaze was constantly lingering on her, but whenever she looked over, the gaze would disappear.
Finally, on the third day, this premonition was confirmed.
"Mr. Pei, Miss Ji, would you like to consider joining our team?" Brother Ping asked with a smile on his face.
"We have almost all types of natural element ability users, and our supplies are very abundant. We might not have absolutely everything you two want, but we have the vast majority of it."
Hearing the words "almost all types of natural element ability users," Ji Zhaoxi raised her head.
A hint of surprise flashed in Brother Ping's eyes. "It seems Miss Ji is interested?"
Through his observations over the past few days, Brother Ping knew that Ji Zhaoxi was highly cautious; she barely spoke a word.
Ji Zhaoxi nodded and looked at Pei Yufeng beside her. Pei Yufeng caught her gaze. Their eyes met in the air, then quickly darted away.
Brother Ping led Ji Zhaoxi and Pei Yufeng downstairs.
"We have already witnessed Mr. Pei's abilities, but we might still need to see Miss Ji's."
The further down they went, the heavier the stench of blood became.
"Am I going to heal an ability user?" Ji Zhaoxi asked curiously.
Brother Ping gave an ambiguous answer, "Anyone is fine."
They finally reached the logistics room. Inside lay over a dozen severely injured patients. Only one was an ability user; the rest were ordinary people. Their bodies were covered in festering wounds.
Brother Ping sighed. "Miss Ji, to be honest, we used to have a healing ability user too, but due to an accident, he left us."
"Miss Ji, is this level of injury difficult for you to handle?"
Ji Zhaoxi walked up to the ability user, with Pei Yufeng following silently behind her.
Under the watchful eyes of the others, a soft, pale green light radiated from Ji Zhaoxi's hands. As her healing energy surged into the ability user's body, his expression immediately relaxed.
At the same time, a tendril of her ability pierced directly into the ability user's crystal core. Because it was so direct, the man couldn't help but let out a muffled groan.
Watching the gradually healing wounds on the ability user's body, Brother Ping's eyes lit up. "Miss Ji's healing ability is very mature."
Ji Zhaoxi lowered her hands, and someone in the corner quickly spoke up, "Then Miss Ji, hurry and heal the others as well."
Ji Zhaoxi looked at them and said honestly, "I can't heal that many. Healing abilities consume a lot of energy."
A man with a sharp mouth and ape-like cheeks quickly brought over a vial of reagent. His eyes were red, and his hands trembled uncontrollably. "We know, Miss Ji. This is a special reagent made by our base. Drink it and you'll regain your energy, Miss Ji..."
Ji Zhaoxi frowned and took a step back. Pei Yufeng stood behind her, quietly staring at the man holding the reagent.
The atmosphere instantly froze.
Brother Ping let out a few dry laughs to smooth things over. "It's fine, it's fine. Today was just about testing Miss Ji's abilities anyway."
He asked tentatively, "Shall we... leave now?"
On their way out, Brother Ping secretly glared at the man. Why was he in such a rush? He definitely made them suspicious again.
The man holding the reagent shrank his hand back.
Night fell, and the moon hung lonely in the sky. The narrow room was filled with the smell of rust, and faint sounds of breathing could be heard from time to time.
"Do you want to leave?"
"I'm running a little short on crystal cores..."
"Mm."
In the basement, an unknown liquid permeated the floor. A dim oil lamp flickered violently, stretching the shadows on the wall until they looked like monsters.
The cramped room was packed with people. Rat held a vial of reagent, one of his eyes covered with a cloth. He looked at this group of numb meat shields, his voice sharp and high-pitched.
"You are all a bunch of useless trash. If it weren't for the ability users protecting you, you would be torn to shreds by zombies in an instant."
"Do what you are supposed to do, and always be prepared to sacrifice yourselves for the team. Only when you sacrifice yourselves will your true value be realized, and everyone will be grateful to you."
"The team will take good care of your families. Failing to evolve into an ability user is already a sin you have committed. For the rest of your lives, you should be atoning for your sins!"
Under this high-frequency verbal bombardment, the ordinary people in the room began to weep bitterly, swearing endlessly to Rat that they would dedicate their lives to contributing to the team.
A few days later, Brother Ping invited Pei Yufeng to join them on a supply run.
Seeing that Ji Zhaoxi was also going to follow, he smiled and said, "Healing ability users don't need to go when searching for supplies. It's fine for you to stay at the base."
"It's fine, let's go together," Ji Zhaoxi spoke up.
Brother Ping didn't say anything more and simply smiled and nodded.
Rat drove them to a medical building. As they headed down to the bottom level of the cold storage, Pei Yufeng held Ji Zhaoxi's hand, frowning deeply.
As soon as they entered the bottom floor, the sound of nails scratching against metal echoed, and countless pairs of red eyes lit up in the darkness.
Pei Yufeng glanced at the others. Their expressions were far too calm, as if they had known all along what was going to happen here.
Immediately after, countless zombies crawled out of the ventilation ducts. The meat shields stood at the front to block them, while the other ability users hid behind obstacles to launch their attacks.
Brother Ping's face had originally been calm, but upon seeing the zombies swarming the walls and ceiling, his expression finally changed. "Why did Rat lure in so many?"
The fire ability user at the front roared continuously, the flames producing violent explosive sounds in the basement. However, those mutated zombies couldn't feel pain at all. Braving the tongues of fire, they bit down fiercely on his shoulder. The ability user frantically swatted at the monsters on his body, but in the next second, he quickly disappeared into the sea of flames.
Brother Ping panicked. He desperately pushed away the person next to him, stepping right onto the man and breaking his ribs. The man he stepped on had a severely contorted face and screamed incessantly.
Hiding in the shadows, Rat observed this scene, his eyes full of malice. He didn't just want to kill Pei Yufeng; he wanted to kill Brother Ping right here too.
He violently kicked over a nearby load-bearing support, and his spatial ability instantly tore a rift in the air.
"Ji Zhaoxi!"
The spatial ability and mental ability violently collided, creating a powerful repulsion field in the air.
Ji Zhaoxi and another man tumbled into the spatial rift together.
Dizzily, she observed her surroundings. Everything around her was silver-gray, the air was thick with the smell of metal, and the temperature was absurdly low.
The other man crashed to the ground. He wasn't an ability user, and the spatial rift had directly torn his shoulder open. He was covered in blood, and due to the cold and lack of oxygen, his face gradually turned a livid, ashen color.
Ji Zhaoxi's face also began to turn pale. She was so cold that her entire body was trembling, and the gases in the air continuously eroded their bodies.
Ji Zhaoxi looked at the red emergency box hanging on the wall. She smashed the outer glass cover and took out the small oxygen tank inside.
"Wheeze... wheeze..."
The man beside her panted heavily, his gaze fixed on Ji Zhaoxi as she put on the oxygen mask.
"Give it to me! Give it to me!" The man's eyes were utterly crazed. He staggered and lunged toward Ji Zhaoxi, violently tearing the oxygen mask off her face.
His hands clamped tightly around her neck. A wave of suffocation washed over her, and her vision began to blur. Clenching her jaw, Ji Zhaoxi suddenly drew her military knife and plunged it ruthlessly into the man's neck.
Squelch—
Scalding blood splattered across Ji Zhaoxi's face. The man's eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at her, his once iron-like grip falling limply away.
Ji Zhaoxi sat on the ground, gasping heavily for air. Once she finally caught her breath, she stabbed him a few more times just to be sure.
Inside the confined space, Ji Zhaoxi could hear the constant crashing of heavy objects and the shrieks of ability users outside.
Not daring to go out, she dragged the man's body closer to her, smeared some more blood on her face, and then lay perfectly still in the corner with her eyes closed, playing dead.
Boom—
The reinforced metal door shattered violently. Amidst the permeating smell of smoke, Pei Yufeng's disheveled figure burst into the room. His mental energy had completely spiraled out of control, radiating an intensity that distorted the air around him.
Pei Yufeng's eyes were heavily bloodshot. The moment he saw Ji Zhaoxi lying limply on the ground, motionless and covered in blood, the last string holding his sanity together snapped.
That striking red magnified endlessly in his vision. The muscles in Pei Yufeng's face twitched slightly, and his complexion took on an ashen, almost deathly pallor.
