Ch 115: TGCIR

“Only 200 can enter each day,” Shen Cheng grumbled, looking at the people lining up outside the base, surprised. “How long do we have to wait?”

Yeah, how long indeed.

With only two hundred slots available each day, but looking at the queue outside, it might take more than ten days to get in.

Not to mention, the queue numbers for today would be invalidated by tomorrow, and everything would reset, starting from scratch.

Shen Cheng didn’t know what Li Weilan had in mind. She looked at the long queue in bewilderment, wondering if this wasn’t a bit of a waste of time.

Li Weilan went to join the line.

On the first day, the number was over a thousand, on the second day, over two thousand, and on the third day, it was still seven to eight hundred. By the fourth day, he encountered a familiar figure, a somewhat shifty-looking man who nonetheless appeared to be honest and straightforward.

“Just like it used to be.” Li Weilan murmured softly to himself.

From an official perspective, the J City base was a massive war machine. When it was in operation, the rumbling power sustained all life within it.

However, beneath the sunshine lay shadows, and the man represented a part of those shadows.

The lives of the people above were bright and colorful, but what about those below?

Life in the wasteland only widened the gap between rich and poor, good and bad.

“What’s your number?” As expected, the conversation didn’t change much.

Li Weilan lowered his gaze and unfolded the small piece of paper with his number written on it for the man to see.

Although his face was smeared with soot, he couldn’t hide his handsome aura. The man looked at his face, somewhat satisfied, and leaned in closer, lowering his voice. “You’re still waiting? The base has to clear out a wave of zombies every half month. When that happens, all the camps set up at the entrance like yours will have to be dismantled. There won’t be anything left. Those who can’t get into the base will all be driven away. If you keep waiting like this, don’t even dream of getting through the gate.”

“He’s telling the truth,” Shen Cheng’s voice sounded slightly astonished in his ear.

In Shen Cheng’s view, there were many places in the apocalypse that required manpower. Noah had almost always been recruiting. Although there was some screening involved, the main focus was on whether people harbored any unusual intentions toward the base.

What was going on with the J City base? Were they planning to lock all the ordinary people outside to die? The daily draw of two hundred slots was just a big carrot dangled in front of these ordinary people, purely for show.

“Really,” Li Weilan whispered softly to her.

He didn’t reveal the whole truth.

But the situation was even more brutal than what the man had described.

Although the man’s words were slightly exaggerated, they weren’t entirely wrong.

Seeing him shaken and his brows furrowed, the man rubbed his fingers together and smiled, “Brother, do you have any relatives inside the base?”

He already knew the answer when he asked the question. He had observed carefully beforehand, and he was always cautious in his actions. Few of his prey slipped through his fingers.

“None.” As expected, when answering, a hint of impatience and irritation appeared on the handsome man’s face. “I just heard J City was the safest.”

The trap was set. Like a spider sensing the slightest movement of its web, the man quickly approached, his face showing a faint hint of satisfaction but still maintaining a pretense. “I can get you a spot within the first two hundred, but you’ll have to trade goods for it. What do you have?”

What good stuff could an ordinary person offer?

The man thought disdainfully, but his face still retained a hopeful expression.

Li Weilan hesitated for a moment. “You say you have a way?”

The man snapped his fingers with a grin, and a string of orange flames rose up following his gesture.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

“Not convinced yet?” He noticed a small plastic bag nearby, gave it a flick, and immediately, the tent filled with the smell of burning plastic.

“Hmph, not that impressive, just a low-level pyrokinetic, isn’t worth showing off like that,” Li Weilan heard Shen Cheng’s sarcastic comment.

Yeah, the orange flames, from crimson to orange now, had only advanced from second-tier to third-tier fire abilities over a year. Crimson was 700 degrees for second-tier pyrokinetics, and now orange was 1000 degrees for third-tier ones. Stuck firmly at the third-tier bottleneck, it seemed he might never get past it.

Li Weilan thought calmly to himself. Perhaps because he had heard her sarcasm, everything he had experienced had turned into faded silhouettes. The pain he thought he would always remember had turned into black-and-white photographs. He even watched this person’s familiar sequence of flashy actions calmly and simply said, “Brother, that’s the potted plant I brought in.”

The man was taken aback. “Ah,” he exclaimed.

Li Weilan calmly blew on the debris in the plastic bag. When the ash floated up, the man saw the remnants of burnt branches inside.

He almost cried.

His fingers trembled as if he had Parkinson’s. “That’s a plant! Why didn’t you remind me? What kind of plant did you say it was?” His heart felt like it was breaking into pieces.

“A small pot of cacti,” Li Weilan said calmly and naturally. “It’s the last one I have left.”

“Gone, it’s gone for real!” A pot of cacti was worth much more than this guy. With ornamental plants almost extinct now, there were plenty of upper-class people in the base willing to pay for plants. This potted plant might fetch a higher value than this guy.

The man almost went crazy.

He dashed around the tent like he had ants in his pants. When he realized there was indeed only this one pot left, he angrily yelled at him, “Why didn’t you stop me?”

“I wouldn’t dare to stop an ability user,” Li Weilan hesitated, somewhat fearful.

As expected, he heard the girl’s low, amused sarcasm again. “Lanlan, you’re like a drama queen.”

Really quite the drama queen.

Shen Cheng watched as the man was about to have a heart attack from anger, finding it a source of amusement for the day. She didn’t know what had happened between Li Weilan and this person, but seeing him try to show off for a minute and then suffer for tens of minutes afterward, well, it was quite entertaining.

He heard the laughter in her voice.

“Never mind, never mind,” the man looked around and saw that the plants were indeed gone. With a sigh, he said, “Do you have any other goods to exchange for admission?”

Li Weilan hesitated, looking weary and worn, and furrowed his brows, revealing a pitiful expression. “Will I still be able to get in?”

The man angrily wanted to kick him.

Finally, his eyes lit up with an idea. “Fine, wait for my message.”

After the man left, Li Weilan let out a long sigh of relief, and Shen Cheng saw his knuckles finally relax.

“Sorry,” he forced himself to rein in the killing intent in his eyes. Even as he said this, his jawline remained tense. Shen Cheng could see it clearly. From the moment the man entered his tent until he left, Li Weilan’s fingers remained tightly clenched.

“Lanlan, were you waiting for him these three days?” Shen Cheng asked cautiously.

Li Weilan nodded. “This is a shortcut into the city.”

Shen Cheng hesitated.

She wanted to ask, “Lanlan, have you been through this before?”

“Soon,” Li Weilan told her, “we’ll be able to get in.”

As he had said, by evening, the man came to collect them.

He brought not only Li Weilan but also a pair of sisters and a young man. Their demeanor was cautious, typical of wanderers. When they saw Li Weilan, they nodded in greeting. The bags on their backs looked large but were mostly empty.

Once everyone was gathered, the man began to explain the rules.

He said they would start entering once the moon was at its zenith. They were to hide in a barrel during this process and remain quiet. When they woke up, they would be inside the base.

“What if we’re stopped and asked for identification once we’re inside?,” one of them asked. Normally, people entering through the official channels have their names registered. Even if they managed to sneak in as instructed, wouldn’t they still be undocumented?

“Don’t worry, people go missing or die in the base all the time. Once you’re inside, someone will tell you the name and details of the person you’re replacing,” the man assured them confidently.

Several of them climbed into the barrels.

As the creaking of the vehicle filled the air, a chill filled the cramped space. Li Weilan didn’t feel too cold, but Shen Cheng noticed the others in the barrels were starting to shiver.

Suddenly, she had a bad feeling about this ride. Perhaps this vehicle wasn’t headed to the base as the man claimed, but more like a vehicle filled with death and uncertainty.

When they passed through the checkpoint, the man even exchanged jokes with the guards. To some newcomers, this familiarity might prove the pyrokinetic’s abilities and connections. But to Shen Cheng, it seemed like the guards knew what the man was up to and, for some reason, chose to turn a blind eye, merely playing along with his act.

This entire scene was for the benefit of the ordinary people in the barrels.

To control them, make them obediently sit in those barrels, heading into the unknown cruelty in the darkness.

Amid Shen Cheng’s various speculations, a silent mist began to seep out from the vehicle and slowly entered the barrels through their breathing holes.

“Everyone else is asleep,” Shen Cheng whispered to Li Weilan.

Li Weilan also closed his eyes.

This time, she didn’t hear a response from him. She only saw the speech bubble above his head, indicating his heartbeat. “I’ve been down this road once before.”

Huh.

He had been down this road before.

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