Chapter 301 - 288: Bargaining Chip
Ye Junhan stared at her for a moment, his gaze finally landing on the small green sprout on her fingertip. "Alright. I’ll have someone go back and tell Yang Liu and the others to move the convoy to this area."
After a pause, he asked, "Those few in the trees..."
Gu Xi said, "They’re useless now. Have Yang Liu deal with them." The big fish wasn’t taking the bait, so those people were clearly disposable pawns. Gu Xi couldn’t be bothered to waste any more time on them.
Ye Junhan gave her a deep look, then turned to make the arrangements.
Gu Xi extended her ability, expanding the safe zone to a radius of about half a kilometer, and the group made camp on the spot.
Gu Xi walked ahead on her own for a while.
The A City Reservoir was immense, having supplied water to the several million residents of City A before the apocalypse.
Since the apocalypse, natural disasters had been constant. City A had suffered several earthquakes and then experienced the second great mutation of plant life. Now, countless plants had sprung up in the original body of water.
These plants had taken over the entire water’s surface, not only encroaching on the living space of the original aquatic creatures but also making the region’s ecosystem even more complex. Through the natural cycle of decay, the constant accumulation of withered branches and fallen leaves in the water produced a swamp gas infused with a special energy.
The miasma was the dominant force in this area, but not the only one.
Gu Xi discovered that the energy here was incredibly mottled and complex. Unknown No. 1 wasn’t picky, accepting everything that came its way, but Sproutie had only been working for half a day before it started to go on strike.
Although Gu Xi wanted to devour all this energy as quickly as possible and break through that threshold in one go, Sproutie, unfortunately, had started to slack off...
To justify itself, Sproutie even had a sound argument: ’Once that thing is done working, we can just swallow it in one gulp. Won’t that solve everything?’
’Saves time, saves effort. It’s practically perfect.’
Gu Xi: "..."
By noon the next day, Yang Liu arrived with the convoy.
Shen Yue had also returned, bringing several large vehicles loaded with supplies.
After the main group arrived, Ye Junhan had them set up camp on a hillside five kilometers outside the Miasma Forest. He only brought Shen Yue, Yang Liu, and a few others into the forest itself.
Gu Xi had temporarily carved out a safe zone at the edge of the Miasma Forest.
Shen Yue sauntered over to her side, his eyes holding a hint of inquiry as he looked at Gu Xi. "You alright?"
’Maintaining such a large safe zone must be a huge drain on her powers,’ he thought.
Shen Yue’s gaze fell on Gu Xi’s face.
"I’m fine." Gu Xi glanced at the others bustling about and gestured for Shen Yue to step aside with her to talk.
"Did something happen at the supply depot?" she asked in a low voice, her tone firm and certain.
"Yeah, a little something happened." Shen Yue casually leaned against a large tree. "But it’s fine. All in all, despite a few twists, it was a close call but no real harm done."
The massive earthquake had destroyed the supply depot, but luckily the supply trucks were large enough that they didn’t fall into the chasms. However, after seeing them, the people guarding the supplies insisted on sending the shipment back to A City Base for disaster relief.
They even claimed they were short-staffed at the depot and demanded that Shen Yue and a few members of the Special Service Team escort the supplies to A City Base with them.
Shen Yue knew something was wrong right away.
By the time they arrived, more than ten hours had passed since the earthquake. If those people had truly intended to transport the supplies back, they would have left long ago. Why would they wait until the exact moment his team showed up to mention it?
’Who would believe there wasn’t something fishy going on!’
Not wanting to waste time, Shen Yue proposed they wouldn’t take any other supplies, just some emergency Energy Blocks, but the other party then demanded they show the relevant paperwork.
But all communication signals with the outside world were down at that time. How could Shen Yue possibly produce any kind of official authorization?
The group argued back and forth over procedure for a long time.
Just as Shen Yue was about to take the supplies by force, a group of mutants appeared...
At this point in his story, Shen Yue’s expression turned serious.
"Gu Xi, these mutants were different from the ones we’ve encountered before," he said in a low voice.
Gu Xi lifted her eyes to look at him.
Shen Yue took a Crystal Core out of his bag and handed it to her. "Take a look at this."
Gu Xi took it and carefully sensed it for a moment. The energy contained within this Crystal Core was extremely mottled. Besides being corroded by X Energy, there was another faint energy coiled inside.
And this energy... was strikingly similar to the energy found within the plant-human hybrids discovered in the underground laboratory beneath that factory.
But Gu Xi remembered Yang Chi saying that he had destroyed all the data in the underground lab. The only remaining data was now stored in her space.
’So, what’s the deal with this batch of mutants Shen Yue and his team encountered?’
Gu Xi quickly recalled Li Xiao’s words, and the self-detonation incident at the Central Base’s quarantine hospital... ’It seems that before the hospital blew up, someone had already obtained Lu Xiao’s biological samples from there.’
’And they applied it to those mutants.’
In fact, Gu Xi suspected, ’the so-called self-detonation of the quarantine hospital was very likely a cover-up for this whole affair.’
’After all, it wouldn’t be the first time those people have done something like this. Wasn’t the 176 self-detonation incident in South City just the same?’
Gu Xi suddenly found it all so tragic. Back then, her generation had given almost everything they had to eliminate those monsters. But now? How long had those people in power enjoyed their peaceful, comfortable lives before they started actively creating monsters themselves?
’They were even afraid the monsters weren’t powerful enough, so they tried every means possible to enhance their attributes!’
’Have these people already forgotten what life was like for humanity when the zombies were running rampant?!’
Li Ming had once said that those who nurture a tiger will eventually be devoured by it... A flash of derision crossed Gu Xi’s eyes, but the fire in her heart only burned hotter and more fiercely.
Gu Xi took a deep breath, pressing her left thumb hard against the bone of her index finger.
"This is a mutant’s Crystal Core?" she asked, looking up at Shen Yue, her eyes dark and deep. "It’s fused with plant-type power."
’And the defining characteristics of plant-types are tenacious life force and terrifying regenerative abilities.’
’Once those mutants possess such an ability... forget ordinary people, even ability users probably wouldn’t be a match for them anymore.’
’What’s more,’ Gu Xi recalled, ’the mutants they’d encountered last time hadn’t lost their human reasoning.’
’That’s the deadliest part.’
’Those mutants clearly possess human memories and intellect, yet they can no longer return to their human form. In such a twisted state, after being enslaved and controlled for so long, who knows what kind of thoughts they will ultimately develop?’
’Will they seek revenge on humanity?’
’And if these plant-type mutants get out of control... the consequences would be unimaginable.’
’So, are those people’s brains filled with shit? Before doing this, did they ever stop to think about the consequences? Whether they could even bear them?’
’Do they really think there will always be someone to clean up their messes for them?!’
Gu Xi squeezed her eyes shut. She abruptly released her hand. She had been pressing so hard that a distinct crescent-shaped mark was indented on the bone of her index finger.
She knew her emotions were getting the better of her, and she knew she had to calm down. Otherwise, if her anger burned away her reason and unleashed the beast she kept caged within her heart, the situation would spiral completely out of control.
With Li Ming holding down the fort at the Central Base, she wasn’t too worried in the short term.
But as for City A...
Gu Xi looked up and said, "Li Xiao told me that during the military’s operation to surround and destroy that underground lab, two researchers escaped. It’s highly likely those two have disguised themselves as refugees and fled into A City Base."
"You don’t have to worry about that." Shen Yue seemed to guess what she was thinking. After a moment’s thought, he said, "Yang Chi should have reached City A by now. That kid is sharp."
"Say what you will, but when it comes to intelligence gathering and sabotage, that little cousin of mine has a special talent."
But Gu Xi thought of what Li Xiao had said to her before he left.
He had said, "Miss Gu, there are still hundreds of thousands of survivors in A City Base."
Gu Xi hadn’t understood the meaning of that sentence before.
But now, seeing the Crystal Core Shen Yue had brought back, she suddenly understood.
’For a new type of mutant to appear at a supply depot outside City A in such a short time, it’s obvious. They’re probably being raised somewhere near City A, or even inside a laboratory within the city itself!’
’And if these mutants get out of control, with hundreds of thousands of survivors in City A, could Gu Xi really stand by and do nothing?’
’No.’
’So, in the eyes of certain higher-ups, these hundreds of thousands of survivors are nothing more than a bargaining chip to hold her hostage and force her to obey.’
Although Gu Xi had known since she was young that in the apocalypse, human life was the cheapest thing there was.
But now, her heart was still filled with sorrow and rage...