After dealing with the two masterminds who had harboured malicious intentions, the members of the Morning Light Squad did not return to that small base to trouble the other survivors. Since those people had known their place and had not tried to stop them, they were not so determined to wipe everyone out over this matter.
After being woken up by that group in the middle of the night, no one in the team had rested well. Everyone found another place and slept for a few more hours before setting off again from this small city in the middle of G Province.
They continued northward, travelling for another five days before arriving in H Province.
This was a province close to the sea. Although geographically, it was farther north than G Province, the temperature here was actually a little higher. Wearing a not-too-thick coat was enough to keep warm.
A month ago, before the team had encountered mutated animals, someone had once suggested taking a ship or some other kind of sea transport to the capital. There were no zombies on the ocean, so they had thought this route would be much faster and save them a lot of time, allowing them to reach the capital sooner.
However, the moment this suggestion was raised, Gu Yicheng, who knew the specific situation of the future, decisively rejected it.
When nothing happened, the sea looked calm and peaceful, as though it was especially safe. But because of the limitations of the environment, people at sea were sometimes in far greater danger than they were on land. If they were unlucky enough to encounter a powerful mutated animal attacking the ship, or a storm at sea, then once something happened in the boundless ocean, they would have nowhere to run. No matter how they called, neither heaven nor earth would answer.
Taking the sea route involved far too many uncontrollable factors. Their team did not lack supplies, time, or strength, so rather than risk travelling by sea, it was better to drive over by land. That would be more reliable.
Even if this method was far slower than taking a ship, and might even require an extra month or two, as long as they could reach the capital smoothly and safely, it would be worth it for them.
However, although the Morning Light Squad did not plan to travel there by ship this time, if they wanted to go to the capital, they still had to pass through this coastal province, H Province.
After driving through H Province for another ten days, they slowed down as they approached a border city near the edge of the province.
Along the way, they had encountered desperate situations where they narrowly survived, such as being surrounded by several hundred zombies, or running into a level-four zombie. Of course, they had also inevitably encountered all kinds of people. Some had merely passed them by without mattering, while others had stood against them because of benefits or supplies. They had seen no small number of matters of life and death, and people around them were capable of doing anything in order to survive.
In this oppressive and gloomy atmosphere of the apocalypse, these things did not strike down their confidence. On the contrary, they strengthened their determination to work hard to survive.
During this period, Gu Yicheng’s lightning ability advanced to level four. His space ability also made a breakthrough and reached level three. As for the others, Jiang Jingchao’s mental ability had also broken through to level three. Xie Fei’s fire ability and Lin Yang’s earth ability had also reached level three. Some of those still at level two were actually already on the verge of breaking through; they simply had not encountered suitable crystal cores along the way, so they had not advanced yet.
The reason the Morning Light Squad could cross two provinces without any casualties, apart from the strength of the members themselves, was largely because of Ruan Ning and Su Yunjin’s healing abilities.
Especially Ruan Ning. Her situation was special. She did not have the difficulties that other ability users faced when advancing. Unknowingly, her body was also changing, and the speed at which she healed wounds was growing faster and faster.
Basically, as long as a person in the team still had a breath left and had not been injured in the heart or head, she could heal them in time. It could be said that she played a very important role in the team.
They had been driving continuously for twenty days. Other than sleeping and eating, the team had almost not rested at all. Being in a state of high alert for such a long time had left them feeling a trace of exhaustion.
Gu Yicheng knew that in this city on the edge of H Province, there was a relatively large base. Although it could not compare with Base No. 3 in B City or the Hope Base in the capital, it could still rank among the top ten safe bases in Huaxia.
This time, they planned to rest at that base for a few days. Once they had recovered their energy, they would finish the final province before reaching the capital—Y Province.
“Brother Gu, there are quite a few people following behind our team.” Ever since Jiang Jingchao’s mental ability upgraded to level three, his detection range had doubled. Even though the people behind them were hiding very discreetly, after following for only a short while, Jiang Jingchao still discovered them.
However, just an hour ago, they had only just finished dealing with a horde of zombies. Right now, they simply did not have any spare energy to care about what these people were planning.
“Don’t bother with them for now. If they’re only following behind us, pretend you didn’t see them. But if they want to rob us of supplies…” As he spoke, a trace of ruthlessness flashed through Gu Yicheng’s eyes. Then he quickly returned to calm and said indifferently, “Then there’s no need to be polite. Teach them a lesson.”
Near noon, they found a quiet corner by the roadside to sit down and rest. At the same time, they prepared to eat something to fill their stomachs.
When the Morning Light Squad stopped, a team that had been following them from a hundred metres behind also found a nearby place to rest on the spot.
…
Because there was a group of people with unclear intentions following behind them, the Morning Light Squad did not start a fire to cook lunch today. They simply ate some ready-made food.
After a while, the team over there finally could not hold back any longer, and someone walked over.
It was a woman with shoulder-length short hair.
When dealing with zombies, the biggest taboo for women was having long hair. If the hair was too long and a zombie grabbed it, it might even tear off the scalp. Therefore, very few people kept long hair.
Even though Ruan Ning had been reluctant to part with her own black, glossy long hair, she had cut it to shoulder length, just like this woman. Usually, she either tied it up into a bun or tucked it into a hat.
“H-Hello. I wanted to ask, are you heading to Yancheng Base? We are a team from A City. The base we stayed in before was besieged by a large wave of zombies, and the base couldn’t hold out. We barely managed to escape from there and, after many twists and turns, arrived here. We’re willing to take out some food. We only hope that you can protect us on the road from here to the base.”
A City was a prefecture-level city in H Province close to G Province. In other words, this team following behind the Morning Light Squad had crossed almost half the province to get here.
In this world, small teams had their own ways of surviving. For example, if they happened to be going in the same direction as a powerful team, they would pay a price in exchange for travelling together and seeking protection.
Because they had discovered that the members of this powerful team were almost all men, in order to reduce the possibility of being rejected, the team over there had sent the most beautiful female ability user among them to negotiate with the Morning Light Squad.
And Zhao Junru was this unlucky female ability user who had been sent over.
As a water-type ability user, since most water sources were now contaminated and water resources were scarce, her status had risen sharply. Therefore, in normal circumstances, troublesome and thankless tasks like this would never fall to an ability user like her. This time was a special situation.
At the thought that some disgusting people here might try to take advantage of her, Zhao Junru had come over extremely unwillingly. After all, she had never been able to understand—and even looked down on—those women who gave themselves to men for a little food.
But their team had suffered heavy losses in the previous city. A team that had not been strong to begin with now could no longer withstand outside blows. If they could not find a strong team to protect them, it would be very difficult for them to hold out until they reached Yancheng Base.
So for the sake of the bigger picture, Zhao Junru had no choice but to make this trip. To be honest, she was starting to hate her own appearance a little.
However, all these messy thoughts vanished after she walked closer to this team. The people in this team were not ugly or crooked-looking at all, completely unlike what she had imagined. Every single person present could be said to have proper features and an impressive bearing.
Thinking of this, Zhao Junru’s cheeks suddenly felt a little hot.
Her gaze unconsciously fell on the man in the middle of the team, dressed in black casual clothes.
A man with both such temperament and looks would have been extremely sought after even before the apocalypse. After the apocalypse, that went without saying even more. He was capable and handsome. With such a high-quality man standing before them, there were few women who would not be moved.
As for Gu Yicheng, who had been under her gaze the entire time, he did not even lift his head to glance at the woman who had walked over. He was busy taking care of the person beside him, trying to correct the picky-eating habit she had developed over this long period of time.
Being ignored by the powerful man in front of her, Zhao Junru suddenly felt somewhat disappointed. She moved her gaze away from him and looked at the young girl beside him.
A trace of envy could not help but rise in Zhao Junru’s heart. …If only the person sitting beside him were her.
Leave a Reply