Ch 119: TGCIR

Li Weilan didn’t immediately answer Chen Jie’s question.

He crouched down, looking at the puddle on the ground that was still wriggling, as if it were still alive, twisting and trying to stick back together the rotten flesh.

If he hadn’t torn apart a part of this monster’s tissue directly with spatial rifts, completely separating the cells and losing their ability to fuse due to spatial isolation, the cells of this zombie would definitely be able to infinitely connect, evolving by devouring other zombies, even harder to kill than cockroaches.

Chen Jie’s gaze also fell on the sticky mess, and after just a dozen seconds, a disgusted expression appeared on her face.

“Have you seen this thing before?” Li Weilan asked her.

It took Chen Jie a long time, as if she had finally made up her mind, to slowly nod.

Chen Jie hesitated for a moment. “I don’t know why you’re asking these questions, but the affairs of the Institute are not something we can handle. Your abilities are indeed very powerful, but if the Institute finds out that you killed the treasure they repeatedly instructed us to bring back alive, you…”

She paused.

Then frowned and said, “Anyway, today you helped us. I, Chen Jie, am not ungrateful. I’ll help you cover up today’s events to avoid causing you trouble. But don’t come back to Base J.”

Li Weilan’s gaze slightly narrowed, and he smiled, “Help me cover up?” as if he had heard something amusing, “Do you think, with your ability, you can cover it up?”

Chen Jie froze.

She looked at the still squirming ghostly thing on the ground, then at the sharply cut wound. She despairingly realized one fact: she had said some nonsense.

What could she use to cover it up? Would the institute believe her just because she said it?

Li Weilan went straight to the point. “When did these monsters start appearing?”

For research, the Institute must have experimental equipment.

The appearance of these quasi-immortal zombies, what kind of experimental equipment was used?

A possibility flashed through Li Weilan’s mind.

Chen Jie hesitated before saying, “This is the first time.”

“The first time.” Li Weilan chuckled, “From the beginning today, you’ve been holding back, right? It’s because the Institute told you to keep us alive.”

Chen Jie frowned, not answering yes or no.

Li Weilan continued, “The first time they researched a new result, it ran away, and they sent you to catch it back, but you couldn’t find anything. Instead, you killed it. Guess what, how do you think the Institute will feel about it?”

Chen Jie gritted her teeth.

“Chen Jie, have you ever considered one thing? How did such a big flesh mountain run away right under the noses of the researchers?” Li Weilan’s sharp question pierced directly into Chen Jie’s heart. In fact, at the very beginning of receiving this task, she had also considered this question. Yeah, this flesh mountain was so conspicuous, so huge, how could it possibly have run away on its own?

Chen Jie’s teeth creaked.

The original Storm Team had sixteen ability users, and these sixteen ability users were Chen Jie’s most loyal core team at the beginning, her former colleagues or old classmates and friends from her previous company. They were her hardcore supporters.

But in the past year or so, more than half had been lost, and she had to continue to recruit new members to the team. However, even though the abilities of the new recruits weren’t too bad, they weren’t people she had known before the apocalypse, and Chen Jie gradually felt that her control over the team was not as good as before.

Every time they went on a mission from the Institute, they could indeed get the much-needed supplies, but the missions became more and more demanding, and the casualties increased day by day. Until this time, seeing how difficult this zombie creature was, Chen Jie even began to doubt whether the capture by the Institute was really a request, or a restraint on them.

Chen Jie returned to the base with Li Weilan.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

The fire-type ability user in the team was left behind to clean up the battlefield. According to Chen Jie’s request, all cells and debris had to be burned completely, leaving nothing behind.

Over there, Chen Jie was telling the team that this bait used to be a special forces soldier, with extraordinary skills, and he saved Chen Jie once. The team needed to treat him with respect and courtesy. Watching the whole scene, Shen Cheng couldn’t help but ask Li Weilan, “What exactly does the Institute want to do?”

“They probably want to test the abilities of this type of zombie,” Li Weilan glanced at Chen Jie sitting in front.

By now, he had put on a duckbill cap and a loose sports hoodie, covering up his outstanding appearance.

Since Chen Jie brought him back, his treatment as the savior who saved their captain’s life had also improved. He no longer had to stay in the cage behind the car.

To avoid being too obvious, Chen Jie treated the other baits equally. Everyone sat together in the car. However, the looks others gave him were a mix of awe and confusion. They probably couldn’t understand how an ordinary person like him could save Captain Chen.

Shen Cheng didn’t immediately understand what Li Weilan meant. She pondered over the words “testing abilities.”

Testing what abilities?

Was it to test the combat abilities against ability users or the ability to command other zombies?

“This is too…” Shen Cheng couldn’t help but utter four words, “insane.”

“Chen Jie probably understands it too.” Li Weilan sneered. “Otherwise, she wouldn’t have agreed so readily. Besides, she has no other choice now.”

Indeed, Chen Jie had no other choice.

She personally went to the Institute to hand in the task, but when she mentioned the results of the mission, the registrar immediately changed his expression.

“What did you say?”

Chen Jie felt increasingly uneasy. In the bustling task hall, this sharp “What did you say” attracted more and more attention, and more and more onlookers pointed and whispered at her.

“That zombie killed several of our brothers. We had no choice but to completely destroy it.” Chen Jie repeated once again, emphasizing the part where it killed several of our brothers.

The receptionist looked at her incredulously.

Then, he snorted disdainfully, a mocking smile appearing on his face. “Killing people from your team? I guess Captain Chen doesn’t even know how much she weighs. When you took on the task, didn’t we tell you…”

Chen Jie hadn’t forgotten.

The first rule was to capture alive.

For this, she even brought a huge cage and control chains.

She tried to argue, “But that zombie was impossible to control.”

“Captain Chen is a fourth-tier cryokinetic ability user. Even such a simple task as freezing it into an ice sculpture and bringing it back couldn’t be completed. Now, you’ve even destroyed our important research specimen. You really have some nerve.” The researcher scolded her mercilessly, and Chen Jie could only hear the buzzing of whispers around her, her face turning as red as a pig’s liver.

Freeze it into an ice sculpture?

That flesh mountain wasn’t a toy that couldn’t move, waiting to be frozen in place.

The way this person put it was too simple.

Chen Jie’s heart was filled with resentment. If she had been thinking about how to round things up before, being scolded like this in public made her unable to bear it anymore. After all, she was a high-tier ability user. Being humiliated like this, she couldn’t bear it. “To complete this mission, five of our brothers died in our team,” Of course, there was no need to mention that the baits died, “Since the Institute doesn’t care about our lives, then I’ll just stop taking your missions in the future.”

The buzzing sounds around her suddenly rose again.

This time, the discussion was not so biased towards the Institute.

After all, they were all ability users. Today, five people from Chen Jie’s team died without any sympathy, solely blamed on her for destroying the experimental specimen. This was too heartless.

Now that Chen Jie had announced she wouldn’t take any more tasks, what if similar tasks fell on another team in the future?

How many more casualties would they suffer?

Some people present listened to these words and began to have second thoughts.

However, the receptionist did not notice this shift in public opinion. For him, the resources held by the Institute and the constant supply of advanced plans, weapons, and equipment were his backing.

So, he just snorted, “Fine, Captain Chen. Now that you have grown wings and no longer respect the Institute, don’t forget, the foundation of your team today is provided by us. Without the institute, you are nothing.”

Chen Jie stormed off in anger.

Once out of the task hall, her shoulders slumped, and she let out a long sigh. She had barely managed to get through this, but how would she navigate the future? With the resources from the Institute cut off, what would their team do?

[The main character has triggered the survival mission of the Storm Team.]

Please ensure the survival of the Storm Team within the next five days. Friendly relations with Chen Jie must reach 80 or higher to trigger the institute truth mission line. Current friendliness level: 10.

Shen Cheng directly read the mission requirements to Li Weilan. When she read that the friendliness level was only 10, she was surprised. She hadn’t expected the friendliness level to still be only 10 after completing the task of the flesh mountain.

After all, they had saved a member of their team, huh?

“Lan Lan, do you think the danger in this mission comes from the Institute?” Shen Cheng analyzed that while the Institute might not be pleased, they wouldn’t go as far as killing members of their team.

Li Weilan listened to the task requirements and had already roughly guessed the possibilities of this mission. Suddenly, she smiled. “Cheng, human nature is unpredictable.” He paused. “Since we have a total of five days, let’s do something else first.”

“Huh?”

Shen Cheng was puzzled. Although the mission required completion within five days, wasn’t Li Weilan afraid that during their break, they might fail the mission?

What was cub thinking?

She tried to understand Li Weilan’s thought process, carefully examining the mission requirements. Finally, Shen Cheng guessed a little possibility and asked Li Weilan, “Do you think… Chen Jie’s friendliness…”

“Her friendliness is only 10.” Li Weilan sighed and shook his head. The biggest challenge of this task might not be ensuring the survival of the Storm Team; it might be increasing this friendliness level.

After fighting side by side once, Chen Jie’s friendliness was only 10 points. From this perspective, Captain Chen was not easy to deal with at all.

No matter what she knew, getting her to reveal everything wouldn’t be achieved by rescuing her a few times or offering her a few benefits.

This was also the biggest clue hidden in this mission prompt.

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