Chapter 49: I’m a Vibe of Delicate Weakness (18)
Perhaps Jiang Zhiyan’s words had an effect, or perhaps there were other reasons, but Xue Lin was very well-behaved for a while. Apart from mission time, he rarely appeared in front of her and would even take detours if he saw her.
There was no progress on the A University incident. The investigation team looking into Chen Yang’s team’s deaths also returned. During the meeting, they concluded that they died at the hands of aliens. Regardless of the truth, the matter was considered closed.
However, this report was just to appease the ordinary people. Another investigation team was formed to investigate the truth.
Some believed that it was done by humans on Earth, while others thought it was extraterrestrial beings. They argued endlessly, but those who believed it was extraterrestrial beings had the upper hand.
The incidents at A University and on Donghai West Road became a heavy burden on the base leaders’ minds.
No one knew if those unknown creatures would attack the base.
When the system told Jiang Zhiyan about this, she was silent for a moment.
“I woke up, and suddenly I’ve become an alien and an unknown creature.”
“They’re probably going to keep investigating, sigh. It’s better to do less of that kind of thing, to delay exposure.”
“Then I hope there are fewer bugs in this world.” Jiang Zhiyan lay on the bed.
“But… the people you killed last time, Chen Yang and that other guy, were important cannon fodder. Now that they’re dead, it’s hard to tell if it’s a bug or the butterfly effect caused by your actions.” The system said hesitantly.
Jiang Zhiyan shot up from the bed: “So, your reimbursement request was rejected.”
“How did you know?” The system was shocked.
“Heh.” Jiang Zhiyan lay back down.
“But at least they reimbursed the skill card you used to blow up A University, which was a huge sum.”
“Since that was reimbursed, why didn’t they reimburse my travel expenses?”
“The reimbursement system said… you could have just used a cheaper teleportation card to teleport to the gate and then run over.” The system paused. “I also thought it was ridiculous, I argued with it for a long time yesterday!”
“Ha.” Jiang Zhiyan was speechless.
The system still didn’t understand: “It’s really strange. I feel like your reimbursement process is much stricter. I asked other systems, their hosts got everything reimbursed immediately, no need to itemize everything, and they just had to give a reason, but for yours, it actually reviewed the recording!”
“Did you offend it?” The system felt that something was definitely wrong.
“How would I know?” Jiang Zhiyan yawned.
“That’s true… how could you offend it? I didn’t offend it either, I don’t even know it, it’s inexplicable.” The more the system thought about it, the angrier it got. “No, I’m going to talk to it again, why can’t it be reimbursed! We didn’t know the situation outside, what if we were discovered after suddenly teleporting out there!”
The system’s voice got louder and louder.
Jiang Zhiyan was about to say something, but the system had already run off.
It was her first time seeing the system so angry.
Life at the base was peaceful yet boring.
The alien species appeared roughly every five days. There were no bugs this time, and the deployed aliens’ levels weren’t abnormally high anymore. Perhaps because the aliens at A University were too powerful, the training at the base was intense, and everyone’s evolution speed was much faster than in the original plot, so those aliens didn’t pose much of a threat.
“It’s a pity that E1 isn’t coming anymore, should we try other aliens?” Qian Rongrong couldn’t help but swallow. God knows how long she had been craving it. “I really want to eat hot pot. Eating pancakes every day, I feel like I’m going to become malnourished.”
Qian Rongrong clutched her head and rolled around on the floor, wailing.
“Ah, E1, my dear E1, where are you! I miss you so much!”
Jiang Zhiyan moved closer to Si Xu and whispered: “Senior, she’s scary.”
“Come closer to me, so you don’t get hurt.” Si Xu nodded.
Qian Rongrong lay on the floor, looking at the two sitting on the sofa: “You two… Si Xu, you weren’t like this before!”
“I wasn’t close to you before.”
Qian Rongrong widened her eyes, clutched her chest, closed her eyes, and collapsed on the floor: “Don’t save me.”
“I won’t, rest in peace.” Si Xu said.
“Cold-hearted woman.” Qian Rongrong opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling. “Do you really not want to eat hot pot?”
“I do.” Jiang Zhiyan swallowed and looked at Si Xu. “Should we go out and look tomorrow? But there’s no lab here…”
For some reason, the twelve of them tacitly didn’t mention that aliens were edible.
After all, they were on someone else’s territory, who knew if they would be taken for testing because Jiang Zhiyan had eaten aliens before, even though she seemed to be perfectly fine.
“Really, E1 is very delicious, as for the others… which one do you want to try?” Jiang Zhiyan looked at Qian Rongrong.
Qian Rongrong pondered, recalling the aliens she had encountered recently.
“That one covered in thorns, it definitely can’t be eaten.” Qian Rongrong shook her head.
Jiang Zhiyan: No, it can be eaten, it’s just difficult to remove the thorns.
“That one that looks like a mushroom, that one should be edible, right? It looks ordinary.”
Jiang Zhiyan: No, it’s fine to touch, but you’ll die if you eat it.
“And that one, that hairy one, with the upper body like a shrimp head and the lower body like an insect, that one definitely can’t be eaten!”
Jiang Zhiyan: Actually, it’s not impossible.
Qian Rongrong mentioned a few more, not a single one was correct.
Jiang Zhiyan looked at Qian Rongrong: “You should probably give up on experimenting and just suggest it to the base.”
“Why?” Qian Rongrong frowned.
“I hope you can still see tomorrow’s sun.” Jiang Zhiyan said seriously.
Qian Rongrong frowned.
Qian Rongrong: ?
“Jiang Zhiyan, you know, you’re starting to show your true colors.” Qian Rongrong looked at Jiang Zhiyan. “And here I thought you were a pitiful little thing.”
“This is called ‘taking advantage of being favored.’” Jiang Zhiyan shifted on the sofa, then lay down with her head on Si Xu’s lap.
Qian Rongrong got up from the floor and bowed to Jiang Zhiyan: “I won’t fight you! I’m leaving, you two have fun at home. I’m so angry, hmph.”
Jiang Zhiyan shook her head and looked at Si Xu.
Si Xu was holding a document containing core information about the base. She had recently reached level six, and as the fastest-leveling person in the base, various factions were trying to recruit her. She was currently navigating the situation, not intending to choose sides yet.
Jiang Zhiyan knew she didn’t plan on staying at this base for long.
Si Xu could now replicate other people’s abilities, but no one knew about this except Jiang Zhiyan.
Jiang Zhiyan was overjoyed. Si Xu telling her this meant she already considered Jiang Zhiyan the person she trusted the most.
She leaned against Si Xu’s waist and closed her eyes. Just as she was about to fall asleep, the alarm outside jolted her awake. Apart from the alarm, there were explosions, the sound of something collapsing.
The sound was loud, making her head buzz, and the building trembled slightly.
Jiang Zhiyan immediately sat up and exchanged glances with Si Xu, then they both ran out.
There were three types of alarms at the base. This was the base under attack alarm.
The aliens usually landed in densely populated areas, so the base was always under attack. Recently, the base reinforced the ground and walls, some residential buildings were also reinforced, but the overhead defenses were still weak. There were only two people in the entire base who could create barriers, one was the one who tried to trap the insects at A University, currently level five, the other had recently reached level three. Even their combined barrier was fragile.
For evolved humans, the aliens were a manageable threat, but for ordinary people, it was still a disaster. The monsters could easily take their lives.
This time, the aliens were higher level. When Jiang Zhiyan came out, she saw two collapsed residential buildings, the ground caved in. Some people were rescuing survivors, others were paralyzed by fear, standing motionless until they were dragged to the shelters.
However, in this situation, there were no truly safe shelters. The danger was everywhere.
“Where are the aliens?” Jiang Zhiyan scanned the surroundings but didn’t see any monsters.
“They left.” Qian Rongrong was covered in dust, having just taken three survivors to a shelter. “As soon as I came out, I saw two things that looked like cannonballs crash down, then bounce off and leave.”
Si Xu and Jiang Zhiyan’s expressions turned serious.
“This life, it’s really impossible.” Qian Rongrong sat down on a nearby boulder. “When will this all end? There’s no hope at all. Even if we level up to max level, can we go up there and fight them? We don’t even know where they came from, or where they are.”
Qian Rongrong sighed and covered her face: “They come and go as they please, destroying our homes with just a flick of their wrists, so many people die.”
“I want to die, but I also want to live. Although I don’t know what’s the point of living now.” Qian Rongrong took a deep breath. “And I don’t understand, since there are aliens that can kill us instantly, why don’t they just do it? Why torture us like this, bit by bit?”
Qian Rongrong clutched her head: “I’m going crazy. Every time I think things are getting better, something else happens. What do they want?”
“I feel like we’re just barely surviving now, the difference between dying sooner and dying later.” Qian Rongrong wiped away her tears. “I don’t even know how my parents are doing now…”
Qian Rongrong couldn’t hold back her tears any longer.
Si Xu put her hand on Qian Rongrong’s shoulder, not knowing how to comfort her: “I’ll go help with the rescue, Zhiyan, you talk to her.”
“Okay.” Jiang Zhiyan nodded and sat down next to Qian Rongrong.
Qian Rongrong waited for Jiang Zhiyan to speak, but after three minutes, the person beside her didn’t make a sound.
Qian Rongrong: ?
Qian Rongrong turned to Jiang Zhiyan: “Why aren’t you comforting me?”
“Because I don’t know how to.” Jiang Zhiyan rested her chin on her hand. “Besides, isn’t there a saying, ‘being there for someone is the best comfort’? I’ve already comforted you for three minutes.”
“Ha.” Qian Rongrong gave three dry laughs. If she didn’t know Si Xu’s personality, she would really suspect that Si Xu deliberately sent Jiang Zhiyan to annoy her. Fortunately, she hadn’t expected any comfort from Jiang Zhiyan. “I’m just lost, I feel hopeless.”
“It’ll be alright.”
Qian Rongrong sighed: “I hope so, I want to eat hot pot, I was already feeling down, with nothing good to eat, my mood is even worse. Sigh, I used to play games and eat when I felt bad, now I don’t even know what to do.”
“Go out and kill aliens. You won’t even go to jail for it.” Jiang Zhiyan rested her chin on her hand. “Let’s go out tomorrow and see if we can eat hot pot. I’ll ask Senior.”
“Eat what? Eat what?” Qian Rongrong, tears still on her face, her expression brightened considerably at the mention of hot pot, her attention diverted.
After the apocalypse started, humans were forced to learn the skill of “quickly forgetting pain.”
“We’ll see.” Jiang Zhiyan was a bit speechless, feeling like she was taking care of a child. “Let’s go help with the rescue.”
“I don’t know if they’ll come again.” Qian Rongrong frowned, standing up. “I feel like we’re being toyed with. They just want to see us struggle again and again.”
Jiang Zhiyan raised an eyebrow and gave Qian Rongrong a meaningful look: “Maybe, maybe they even have bets going, to see who will survive to the end.”
“How despicable.” Qian Rongrong frowned.
“Maybe they see us as fighting crickets. How many people feel guilty when they make crickets fight?” Jiang Zhiyan flipped a rock over.
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