Author Archives: Thingyan

“Three pieces of fourth-tier mutated scorpion skin, intact, top quality, exchangeable for 50 points each, totaling 150 points,” the girl at the exchange quickly converted their high-tier beast skin materials into the universal exchange points used in the base. Once the points were counted, she effortlessly summoned the exchange page, displaying rows of armor that left the onlookers dazzled.

Glancing at the red icons displayed above their heads—signifying them as fat sheep to be slaughtered at will—the exchange attendant adjusted her exchange standards and offered whatever suit of armor accordingly. She deliberately undervalued their exchange materials, unaware of the valuable items these people were hoarding. Eventually, they managed to scrape together 1000 points, enough to exchange for a complete set of armor.

Back in their accommodation room, the man who had just completed the procedure looked around and quietly complained to the silent man wearing glasses standing at the back of the line, “Dean, with so many top-tier materials, I can’t help but feel a pang of regret for trading them.”

The dean, holding the set in his hands, gently tested the material and examined its details, his eyes filled with contemplation.

Before this, despite seeing the promotional videos of Noah Base’s products and hearing about the mysterious aspects of this underground base from others, the man knew well that rumors often contained exaggerations. He understood his junior’s research capabilities; though slightly inferior to his own, his kindness often restrained him from being innovative and destructive.

But this set of armor…

To an outsider, it seemed like a strong defensive gear, but upon closer inspection, he realized it was not assembled as they had assumed, but rather made of a novel molecular material. It was as if a special extraction method had been used to extract the essence of the beasts from the skin, breaking it down completely, and then recombining it according to the needs of an individual.

It was known that different mutated beasts possessed different abilities, but most of them hid a vast amount of ability factors within their fur.

Just by placing a hand on this piece of skin and scanning it with psychic power, one could faintly feel how the material bent here, how it conformed to the curves of the body there, how it thickened here, and how it let the wind pass over the body, carrying away sweat.

Such technology was beyond his imagination.

The method of extraction was the work of a genius.

Pushing his glasses up, the man smiled faintly, “Did you notice that the person at the exchange has been watching us above our heads?”

“Above our heads?” he asked, puzzled. “What’s above our heads?”

“What’s above our heads,” the man said coldly, his lips curving slightly. The more he smiled, the more uneasy the person in front of him became. “It’s probably some kind of distinguishing mark that we can’t see.”

He bent down slightly, a hint of cruel coldness flashing in his eyes behind the lenses. “If you look down on others without hiding your thoughts and intentions, you better leave early and don’t get in my way.”

He didn’t know how the base distinguished their thoughts, but observing most people in the base, he was certain that the base must have its own way of discernment. So he always maintained a learning attitude. Throughout, he had no ill intentions.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Shen Cheng noticed within the base that a group she previously marked as red had turned yellow, and two yellow groups had turned green.

Oh, so the friendliness system can change too?

Yellow is a neutral color, like the group of researchers she encountered at Walmart before, who were neutral yellow until they tore off their facade of friendliness.

Green indicates friendliness, typically held by individuals who harbor a great fondness for the base, and there’s even a high possibility of them joining.

Shen Cheng had seen yellow turn red before, and green turn red as well, but yellow turning green and red turning yellow?

Huh, did the friendliness system break again?

Shen Cheng quietly clicked on one of the groups and saw that the originally red group had split up. Several yellow figures escorted a red figure away, leaving the rest in an ambiguous shade of yellow.

This kind of change from yellow to green was even simpler. Each group had a person with a physical disability, who probably originally held a skeptical attitude towards Noah Base’s limb regeneration potion. Now, for some reason, they fully believed and thought their children could be saved. Consequently, the reputation of Noah Base among them changed from neutral to admiration.

Li Weilan was well aware of the complex situation among the people who received invitations to the base.

As Shen Cheng described what she had discovered, Li Weilan’s eyebrows subtly twitched when she mentioned the names of the people in the group that had changed from red to yellow. Then, he nodded slightly. “It’s them.”

From Shen Cheng’s tone, it seemed there was more to the story.

Shen Cheng asked, “Do you know them?”

“Xia Jinshi from the Academy of Sciences, senior brother of Fu Yanzhou. Of course, I know him. But he doesn’t know me,” Li Weilan said lightly, mentioning the name of the person.

Xia Jinshi.

This was the first person Shen Cheng had seen with only a name, but whose attributes were all question marks.

She had always thought the game system was all-knowing and all-powerful, but it seemed that for this man, the game system’s inclusion of him was restricted, to the point where most of his attributes were question marks.

When Li Weilan mentioned Fu Yanzhou’s senior brother, Shen Cheng immediately realized who this person was. He was the one who hosted the research that inflicted heavy wounds on cub’s life.

Xia Jinshi.

She didn’t say a word and went straight to browse the game store. Shen Cheng didn’t believe there were things that couldn’t be accomplished with money these days.

If one price didn’t work, then try a hundred. If a hundred didn’t work, try a thousand. If a thousand didn’t work, try tens of thousands. In any case, she would buy the most expensive weapon in the game and take a shot at him from afar. If he didn’t die, then they could talk.

Li Weilan understood her intention to protect him very well. When she suddenly stopped speaking, Li Weilan knew exactly what she was up to. A faint sweetness arose in his heart, but his tone was firm. “Cheng, don’t.”

Shen Cheng, hearing his resolute tone, stopped searching for weapons in the game store and blinked. “Why not?”

“There’s something you don’t know,” Li Weilan said slowly. “After the zombie attack on the city, when the battlefield was being cleaned up, Fu Yanzhou dragged that three-headed zombie back for research. He found traces of artificial stitching, experimentation, and control on the three heads of that zombie. Moreover, no crystal nucleus was found in the zombie’s head, suspecting it was not a natural evolution.”

Shen Cheng didn’t immediately understand what he meant, but when she grasped the implication of his words, on such a hot day, she felt as if her back was covered with goosebumps.

Even with her overpowered assistance that time, there were still casualties at Noah Base.

But if there were traces of artificial stitching on those three heads… Didn’t that indirectly indicate that the calamity might have been influenced by human factors?

If that were true, how would the victims cope?

The person who committed such heinous acts had never thought that they were both human beings and should not harm each other.

“After that,” Shen Cheng’s voice struggled dryly, “other bases were…”

“Yes,” Li Weilan nodded. “The J City Base was also attacked.”

So, there’s no evidence.

Even Fu Yanzhou’s testimony and research are ultimately just speculation, not solid evidence. And Xia Jinshi was already a famous scholar in the country before the apocalypse arrived. Based on the current evidence, accusing him and shaking his reputation is far from enough.

Shen Cheng didn’t even know how many tricks he had up his sleeve. Acting recklessly before understanding his background could not only alert him but also provoke criticism from other bases.

So, he wasn’t fixated on direct retaliation or physical elimination now because his hatred in his heart was no longer the same as it was a year ago.

He already had the most precious gift of his life, and his hatred towards the Institute was no longer personal but with some other concerns that occasionally gnawed at his heart. If the Institute always acted under the banner of acting for the good of humanity, if they could treat him like this today, what if one day they found out that all this strangeness stemmed from Shen Cheng? Would she also be threatened, bound, and restrained by them?

That was a scenario he didn’t dare to imagine.

But Li Weilan didn’t want to bring up these things to her.

Li Weilan didn’t say it, but Shen Cheng became more and more angry and scared. How could the game let such a group of insane people into the base? They clearly knew they had ill intentions, yet they still sent them invitations, and their friendliness was still yellow. Wasn’t this game just a scam?

She suddenly remembered something and her voice trembled. “You… you mustn’t appear in front of them.”

Those people know you.

“Cheng,” Li Weilan stood up, looking into her eyes seriously. “Noah isn’t as fragile as you think, and neither am I.”

She was too protective of him.

Although Li Weilan said so, Shen Cheng still couldn’t rest assured.

Especially after finding out that Bai Su and Tang Lu from the J City Base had also arrived, and undoubtedly brought with them the red bloods, she felt like cub was surrounded by a pack of wolves and tigers.

It was at this moment that a new task prompt popped up in the game.

Quan Quan seems to have something to say, please go and see Quan Quan.

Quan Quan.

Shen Cheng clicked on the base’s fish pond, and the giant octopus sensed her arrival, slowly rising from the bottom of the pool.

As the transparent eyes of the giant octopus caught sight of them, large drops of water suddenly splashed out, making a loud noise in the pond. The originally obedient fish couldn’t sleep anymore and began to jump out of the pond one after another.

Quan Quan made a rattling noise, and Shen Cheng read the bubble to Li Weilan. “My little master is gone.”

Accept Quan Quan’s revenge task? Y/N

The long-lost system task prompt appeared once again.

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

The auction is still a full week away. Apart from the medicine, Shen Cheng has prepared armor made from mutant animal fur and shells for the auction.

The armor from the Noah Base is all uniformly produced by the system. Currently, the armor available for auction is either not fully compatible with the attributes of the materials and internal personnel of the base, or it has relatively low attribute values, or the buyers themselves are ready to upgrade.

To put it bluntly, it’s either defective goods or second-hand items.

But even if they are second-hand or defective, after removing the cost of labor and the premium brought by multiple market circulations, the final starting price and attributes still surprise many people. Some even doubt whether armor with such attributes can actually exist.

But in the video, a Tier 3 ability user wearing a set of “Defense 20” insect shell armor indeed managed to withstand the attack of a Tier 3 strength-type zombie. And after he took it off, he showed that besides a relatively obvious white scar, the shell was almost intact.

With such defense and such armor, the starting price is only 500 credits.

Has the Noah Base become so affluent?

There was a sound of the remote control being slammed on the table.

The man pushed his glasses up his nose and squinted. “Playback.”

“Playback.”

“Play it again, two seconds.”

He watched it a total of five times, and the footage finally stopped at the scene showing the armor.

Actually, the people around him didn’t quite understand what the man was looking at until he coldly scanned the entire room. “Have any of you noticed anything?”

In the end, a female voice in the room answered, “There are no seams.”

He nodded.

With his approval, the girl who answered correctly smiled proudly and happily.

The man said, “If this set of armor is hand-sewn, or even machine-sewn, as long as the previous industrial standards are used, there will definitely be traces of stitching. And stitching will bring about wear and tear.”

This is an undeniable fact.

Even if the material itself is sturdy and durable, if the material or the stitching technique doesn’t keep up, the overall durability of the armor will be greatly reduced.

This is the problem that most base armor production is facing now. The materials are always sufficient, but there aren’t enough skilled seamstresses. And no matter how expensive the materials are, once they fall into the wrong hands, they become nothing but scrap.

Scrap, which disregards human life.

Even after two whole years in this wasteland, many ordinary people still die under the claws of zombies, and one of the most important reasons is the high price and scarcity of armor.

The research institute has also been trying to solve these technical problems. They just came up with a way to replace stitching with something else, but achieving a completely seamless finish is still not possible.

Yes, after being reminded by the man and carefully watching the footage, everyone in the room thought of four words.

Seamless.

Isn’t that what the legendary armor is supposed to be, seamlessly integrated with no gaps between each part?

And this kind of clothing, even their scientific institute hasn’t been able to make it using mutant beast materials. They can use synthetic materials that can be cast, but most synthetic materials cannot replace mutant beast materials, whether in terms of cost or abrasion resistance.

A base has actually surpassed them.

For all those who consider themselves geniuses, this is undoubtedly a heavy slap in the face.

The man’s gaze was deep and unpredictable. His eyes flickered. “junior brother is still in Noah, right?”

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

The Noah Base has been relatively quiet for almost a year.

After confirming that their vegetables and food only had relatively low levels of contamination, the man repeatedly probed the situation at the Noah Base, but found nothing suspicious.

If one must say, his overall impression of the Noah Base is that its administrator must be an idealist.

He doesn’t dislike idealists.

Although they are not of the same kind, in this world, the fact that some people can still uphold ideals is ridiculous yet worthy of admiration.

So, the man hadn’t issued more intelligence infiltration orders regarding Noah before. To him, the value of Noah at that time was not worth it.

But now, the armor, especially this video, has piqued his interest.

His slender fingers lightly picked up the invitation card on the table, and he smiled faintly as he pushed up the reading glasses on his nose. “This time, let me lead the team personally. I’m also very interested in all the products they have at the base now.”

On her phone, Shen Cheng watched the outsiders walking around the Noah Base, tagging all non-base personnel she could see.

In fact, Noah Base had already conducted a screening and registration when entering the base, giving names to those they thought needed closer observation. But for Shen Cheng, seeing so many yellow, green, and red figures moving around the base still made her a little worried.

After observing, Shen Cheng found that the auction attendees were mixed, with the majority being neutral (yellow), a dozen or so being green, and the number of reds being about the same as the greens. These reds were probably spies sent by other bases’ loyalists. Shen Cheng noted down all their names and gave them to Li Weilan. He looked at the list and nodded lightly. “It’s similar to what I expected.”

Li Weilan lightly tapped a few names on the list, crossed them out with a pen, then raised his face to look towards the empty space, although he couldn’t see the other person’s face, hearing her voice was enough for him. “These few people were the ones we were uncertain about before, but with your help, it’s confirmed now.”

Shen Cheng scratched her head and smiled. “It’s what I should do.”

Li Weilan handed the list to Su Yun, the poison-based ability user who wore the only face-changing mask in the base. Her originally slightly colorful facial features had become plain and inconspicuous over the past year, and her demeanor had become as cold as frost and snow, blending into the shadows when she didn’t speak.

Li Weilan knew that her hands were stained with a lot of blood, but no matter what, all that blood was shed for the base.

So when Su Yun was on leave, she had a lot of power and the best enjoyment. But he had seen that her vacation was usually spent with the children in the base.

The only softness in this woman’s heart was revealed only when she saw the little children.

Su Yun didn’t ask where this list came from.

She read it three times, memorized all the names marked in red, and then glanced at the remaining yellow names before rolling up the paper and burning it in the fire.

“Be careful of trouble,” Li Weilan said.

“Don’t worry, Brother Li,” Su Yun nodded.

Her ability had evolved to Tier 4.

Unlike other common types of abilities in the base, her ability, to evolve, meant the passing of life.

In the early days, the base did not intend for Su Yun to engage in the espionage and intelligence work she does now. Initially, they planned to let her do some work she enjoyed, like taking care of the children in the base who had lost both parents and were still young.

Su Yun had also tried it for a while.

But later, as the base developed and that lady boss no longer appeared, more and more people came to the base, and even the place where the children lived occasionally had people poking their heads around. There was even one time when Su Yun found someone attempting to abduct one of the children.

That person is dead.

Although Su Yun’s initial ability only caused rashes and itching upon contact, she managed to complete every mission perfectly through other auxiliary methods.

So now she has been promoted to the head of the counter-espionage department.

Shen Cheng still remembers her. If she remembers correctly, she was the first ordinary person in the base to gain abilities through the activation agent.

But Su Yun is already at Tier 4 now.

Her upgrading speed is too impressive.

“Lan Lan, about those who are hostile to Noah,” Shen Cheng finally couldn’t help but ask this question. In fact, after the system sent out so many invitations, Shen Cheng had also worried about this issue. But seeing Li Weilan not worrying, her heart settled a bit. “Will it be okay to let them in?”

Her impression of Noah still lingered on last year’s impression of needing to complete misleading tasks to prevent leaks. Perhaps because in reality, it had only been two months, Shen Cheng remained quite worried.

“Cheng Cheng,” Li Weilan said, “Don’t worry, I’ll earn you some materials.”

Shen Cheng didn’t quite understand what he meant at first. But when she saw the base directly bringing out those discarded or broken equipment from the warehouse and taking them to trade, exchanging them for various rare materials, even the red bloods (Red color marked people) came to exchange a bunch.

To Shen Cheng, they were basic equipment, but to those people, they were not.

The basic attributes of these equipment were also very high.

Unlike the gold masters who might pursue gold artifacts and green sets, for most people in the wasteland, having a set of such high basic attribute armor, especially with high defense values, was already very desirable. They had never seen weapons with additional attributes like “armor penetration.”

Those Red Bloods had no idea that their prices were different from others, after all, everyone traded what they had. They also didn’t know that they were being treated differently by the Noah Base, exchanging for what was deemed mediocre equipment, and Noah Base had confirmed weapons to counter them.

On the other hand, what they exchanged for were all high-level raw materials, just enough to match their psychological expectations.

The people at the Noah Base were quite arrogant. Their attitude was basically “take it or leave it, there’s only us, no alternatives, if you don’t exchange, get lost.” This made those few people feel frustrated, but in the end, they obediently took out the materials.

With this exchange, their high-level materials were exchanged for even better armor by Noah, which was then placed into their exchange warehouse. Watching the income, Shen Cheng couldn’t help but wonder why they were even holding an auction. With this income, Noah could splurge for a long time.

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

The moment Tang Lu heard Bai Su say she might not be able to do it, his face turned ugly.

Base J sold Bai Su’s high-level healing ability for a high price. People within the base would pay Bai Su for treatment, but for ability users from other bases, not only would they have to pay her, but they would also have to offer benefits to their entire team and base.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t even get to see Bai Su’s face.

Because her ability could treat organ and bodily ailments, which was much more special than those who could only barely heal surface wounds, nobody in this world would reject having an extra chance at life. People from other survivor bases also rarely offended her, so Bai Su lived a very prestigious life.

But now, with the clear mention of limb regeneration on this auction item, combined with the fact that Bai Su had previously refused to treat some people for various reasons, which eventually led to disabilities, if these people got their hands on this potion, her good days might be over.

Unique things are precious. If there are substitutes, or even better options, who would still hold her in high regard?

Bai Su recalled several times when she had refused Tang Lu’s gentle requests to treat some people. At the time, she thought she was just rejecting people who had lost any potential, and it wouldn’t be a problem. But now, thinking back, they all had the potential to return to their peak. Bai Su realized how many enemies she might have unknowingly made by her refusals.

If those people crawled out of the abyss…

Bai Su’s face turned pale instantly. She pulled Tang Lu’s hand gently and said softly, “Tang Ge, I don’t believe there’s such a miraculous potion. If there really is, why would it only come out now? I suspect they claim it’s a potion, but it might be that they’ve found another healing-type ability user and want to challenge me.”

She remembered hearing vague rumors before that Noah Base had healers, but later heard that it was a misunderstanding, and in fact, they relied on the base’s potions for healing. However, those potions were only for treating external injuries and were only used internally within their base, so they didn’t pay much attention to it.

But now, it seemed that Noah might envy their prosperity gained through healing, and wanted to challenge their healer.

Bai Su gritted her teeth secretly. She knew she and Noah were archenemies.

There were many others who received invitations at the same time.

Some indeed had such needs, while others were well-known ability users from other bases.

Of course, the research institute also received this news.

Although Shen Cheng hadn’t expected the game to turn the base’s two medicines into a grand auction, the Noah of today was not the same as the one she had started playing with. After a year of effort from the little people, Noah now seemed better in terms of population size and living conditions than most large and medium-sized bases.

More importantly, because of the endless high-tech advancements, the survivors in Noah had hope for the future. Even ordinary people had a future in Noah.

Living away from the ground was quiet and stable, without the immense pressure of survival brought by zombies. Many people even gained a little weight and had smiles on their faces.

Noah’s “anomalies” would eventually be known to the other survivors in the world. Concealment was not always the best option. Shen Cheng didn’t know how Li Weilan and the others managed to keep a low profile, develop infrastructure, recruit people, and prevent those people from leaking secrets, but now that she was back, perhaps it was time to show her edge.

However, although she firmly believed in “quality assured by the system,” Shen Cheng still gave the first batch of produced medicine to several people in the base for “trial” to see if the actual effects of the medicine were as powerful as described.

Although it was a “trial,” the quantity of medicine was limited, and the survivors in the base also needed to queue up according to their total contribution value. Then, they would be individually notified to inform them that the base had produced new medicine.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

In the base, most survivors don’t have issues with physical disabilities, but there are some families who bring their loved ones along, with one supporting the other. Among them is a household where the wife, Wang Fang, fled with her husband and child. Once they encountered a mutant dog, Wang Fang went out to find food, leaving her husband, Li Heng, to protect the child. In doing so, he ended up having half of his leg bitten off.

They all thought he couldn’t possibly recover.

Healing abilities are extremely rare, and they had only heard that Base J had a high-level healing ability user. However, that healer charged a high price, and due to demand, people like them who couldn’t afford the high price weren’t worthy of being treated by such an ability.

By the time Li Heng’s wound gradually healed, they had given up on the idea.

In this world, being able to live together as a family, striving to survive, was already a stroke of luck. Where else could they expect more?

Their usual arrangement was for Wang Fang to work in the base’s water purification room while her husband took care of the child and did some light household chores. It was a relatively peaceful and happy life.

But when they heard that there was a potion in the base that could regenerate limbs, Wang Fang was stunned. When the girl responsible for registering and relaying messages asked if she wanted it, Wang Fang hesitated for only a moment before nodding frantically, fearing that she might be too slow to express her eagerness. “Yes, yes, whatever contribution points are needed, we’ll definitely save enough for one.” Her husband used to manage a small company before the apocalypse, while she was a homemaker. But after that incident, her husband didn’t say anything and automatically took on more household responsibilities to ease her burden.

But he was gloomy, depressed, and sleepless at night, and both of them knew it.

Wang Fang couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. However, despite her sadness, they still had a child and had to maintain their family, so Wang Fang could only choose to selectively ignore her husband’s despondency and work harder to show him that she could handle this responsibility.

Nobody ever thought that the base would provide them with this medicine.

They had heard about the auction, but it was said that the base had sent invitations to external ability users. Since there were many people who needed this kind of medicine in this world, Wang Fang never dared to think that they might get a bottle through the auction. It must cost a fortune.

After a brief excitement, Wang Fang hesitated. “How many contribution points are needed?”

She bit her lip. “Can we borrow?”

Even if they had to borrow, even if they had to sell everything, she would eventually pay it back. As long as her husband could recover, it would be enough.

The woman who came to relay the message smiled. “Don’t worry, this is one of the benefits of the base. You’re also a senior member of our base now. The medicine is only sold at this price.” She held up one finger.

“What, 1000?” Wang Fang was shocked, but then she immediately turned ecstatic.

“1000.” It was a bit high, but Wang Fang had saved over a thousand points in the past year, so even after buying this, she would still have some left. She breathed a sigh of relief. That should be enough. Not having to borrow money was the best outcome.

This medicine was like a gospel and a lifesaver for someone like her husband. It was almost half of his life. As long as her husband could stand up, their family would have an extra pair of hands, and their life wouldn’t be as tight as it is now.

“The effect?” she hesitated to ask, but then quickly realized that her question might be inappropriate and hurriedly added, “I don’t mean to question its effectiveness. I just… can it really grow an identical leg? Will it be incompatible? Will it just be for show, unable to run or jump, and require careful care?”

“To be honest,” the woman didn’t exaggerate the effectiveness of the medicine based on the product description. This was also a clear requirement from Li Weilan. Although it was a trial before the auction, it was still exchanged for contribution points, so the informed consent of the recipients was necessary, “Your family is the first batch in line, and it’s because of your high total points. You’ve also seen the healing potions produced by the base before, and I don’t need to say much about their effects. Now, this medicine, if you don’t want it, you can wait until after the auction to see the results and then wait for the next batch.”

Wang Fang bit her lip.

After the auction.

If the auction is a great success, and they decide they want it later, will they still have the face to ask for it?

Wang Fang gritted her teeth. “I’ll buy it.”

The next day, Wang Fang brought her husband to the research institute.

Their group of family members stayed outside, while those who needed the medication, like Li Heng, went inside.

It didn’t take long before cries of pain echoed from inside.

Wang Fang’s heart pounded. Fortunately, the treatment room had glass windows on both sides, allowing her to clearly see her husband’s condition. Despite Li Heng’s agonizing groans as he held his waist, she could see through the glass that his empty trouser leg seemed to be filled up slowly, swelling and expanding until it looked like there was something inside it.

A leg.

A new leg was growing.

Not just Li Heng, but several survivors in their group who were missing fingers also exhibited much milder symptoms. Now, they could clearly see their missing limbs slowly regenerating.

The wounds that had already healed were torn open again, causing extreme pain, and the process of bone regeneration brought a squeaky, soft sensation, but the sight of bones and tissues slowly knitting together brought joy that was hard to conceal to almost everyone’s faces.

Wang Fang covered her face, laughing and crying at the same time. The corridor where the family members waited turned into a sea of tears. Another middle-aged woman nearby patted Wang Fang’s back. “Sister, our lives will get better. It’s all over now.”

Seeing this scene on her phone, Shen Cheng couldn’t help but feel moved. Even if this was just a game, just for this scene alone, she might be tempted to spend money.

There’s nothing more beautiful than seeing one’s own characters living happily.

In the base, the first batch of medicines was sold cheaply, almost like a giveaway. But photos comparing before and after the treatment were taken, along with some footage of the participants engaging in various high-intensity activities. All this evidence was then sent to potential buyers. The next batch of medicines to be auctioned was no longer just for welfare.

They were purely money-making tools and carrots to attract potential talent.

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

What does “getting rich overnight” mean?

Receiving millions from selling a house is getting rich overnight. Opening the space and seeing countless grains of rice, it’s equivalent to seeing shiny gold coins. That’s the feeling of getting rich overnight.

Shen Cheng looked at the nearly overflowing pile of grains. In reality, she just wanted to ask cub one question: is your liver still okay?

Oh no, is your back okay?

Bending over to harvest wheat every day, can your back handle it?

You see, cub doesn’t have an auto-harvest function. After the rice matures each day, he must manually harvest it. Although the system automatically dehulls and cleans, harvesting and storing, every grain she saw here was the result of cub’s hard work.

During the days she wasn’t in the game, cub must have diligently come to plant and harvest rice at the appointed time every day, and then carefully store it.

Shen Cheng imagined the scene of cub, his little chili figure, working in the fields that could cover his body, and felt a slight pang in her heart. During her two months away, she had been thinking about him. It was this longing and the hope of meeting him someday that kept her going. But what about him during this year?

What made him through this entire year, during days of planting and harvesting, what was he thinking each time he did this?

He even lied to her, saying he hadn’t figured it out at the time. If he hadn’t held on to the idea that she would come back someday, where did he find the strength to harvest and plant every day? Isn’t this a joke?

Shen Cheng snorted. It’s too late to sell the rice now; these are all clear evidence. She had to have a clear conversation with cub first.

Li Weilan heard her coming aggressively, and this time her tone was very strong. “Hey, Li Weilan.”

“Cheng.” Li Weilan smiled helplessly. “The situation in the base now…”

“Hmm?” His eyes widened slightly.

Her fingers lightly pressed against his lips through the screen.

It was as if separated by only a screen, he could fully feel the soft touch of her fingers lingering on his lips.

A faint redness appeared on Li Weilan’s face.

Although Shen Cheng’s tone was strong and aggressive, she was actually shy. As she spoke, her voice lowered. “Tell me the truth, do you think about me every day?”

His gaze flickered.

“I think about you every day,” Shen Cheng said softly, “I was afraid that something unexpected might happen to you while I couldn’t log in. I was afraid that when I came back online, I would see you covered in scars. I couldn’t eat or sleep well during those days until the game suddenly appeared again.”

Li Weilan’s eyes grew larger and brighter, but whatever he wanted to say was blocked by the faintly intensified touch on his lips.

“No talking,” Shen Cheng murmured softly and coquettishly, “Don’t say things I don’t like to hear. I don’t care; you have to listen to me first.”

Otherwise, she might lose her courage.

“I know you must care about me. I don’t want to hear about any regrets or anything you said before. I don’t want to listen. During the two months when we couldn’t communicate, I thought it through very clearly.”

Shen Cheng’s voice lowered a bit, but her meaning was clear and firm. She felt her face heating up, but regardless, she had to convey her intentions to him. “I don’t want to leave behind a lifetime of regrets. I just want to cherish every moment we have together. You said you liked me, and I just want to tell you, I like you too. I care about you, and I don’t want to lose you. Whether we can ultimately live together is not important. There are so many people in the world who are in long-distance relationships or even online relationships without ever meeting. At least we’re better than them; we’ve met and even held hands. You’re not allowed to abandon me halfway.”

Shen Cheng finished speaking before removing her finger from his lips. “Okay, if you have any objections, you can speak now.”

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Li Weilan chuckled.

His voice was that kind of very magnetic bass, and when he laughed in her ear, it felt like little feathers lightly tickling the walls of her ears.

Shen Cheng’s face turned red from his laughter.

She couldn’t help but protest, “What’s so funny?”

“Of course, it’s because you’re cute,” Li Weilan stopped laughing and looked seriously at the screen. If he had any shadows before, they were completely wiped away by her sweet words that seemed to ooze honey.

“These words should be said by me to you. I’m sorry they had to come out of your mouth first. Cheng, I originally wanted to tell you this in person, but my hope is the same as yours: to spend every remaining day of my life with you.” Of course, this wasn’t the scene he had originally imagined.

Shen Cheng’s face blushed.

She stammered, “So, so is our relationship considered confirmed?”

After some thought, she hesitantly gave herself a definition: “online girlfriend, um.”

Li Weilan remained silent for two seconds, then shook his head. “No, you’re the only girlfriend.”

He looked at her seriously. “The only girlfriend in my life.”

Shen Cheng felt her face burning. Even though she knew cub couldn’t see her, she still felt like her face in front of the screen must be hot. She couldn’t help but be glad that she and the other person were separated by a screen. Otherwise, he might suddenly realize that her face was blushing badly.

After their relationship was confirmed, Shen Cheng finally had the heart to sell the rice for gold coins.

After selling the entire year’s harvest, Shen Cheng became rich overnight, and her coins soared to over sixty thousand. Although in reality, her disposable passive income was already several thousand per month, the five-figure sum in the game could buy many, many things. Just looking at it was pleasing to the eye.

Shen Cheng knew very well that cub’s production of so much rice was not easy. Thinking about it, every dollar was carefully saved by cub for her while she was offline. Shen Cheng felt even more that this money couldn’t be spent casually.

There were only three types of high-level medicinal herb seeds in the store: ginseng, cordyceps, and snow lotus.

Buying ginseng seeds required a total of 1000 gold coins, but the medicinal herb field for planting ginseng required careful care by a wood-elemental ability user of level four or above in order to thrive. Moreover, the daily output was only enough to produce a bottle of anti-aging elixir. If it weren’t for the fact that the base intended to sell this product as a luxury item to those suckers, Shen Cheng wouldn’t spend so much money on a single seed.

Shen Cheng planted the upgraded ginseng seeds in the high-level medicinal herb field and then dragged the only wood-elemental ability user in the base, Xi Bei, to this building to take care of the ginseng planting.

Xi Bei didn’t expect her job to suddenly change from handling ordinary breadfruit and ordinary fruits and vegetables to ginseng.

Even when she started inputting her wood-elemental ability, she discovered that this seemingly ordinary, light brown seed, only the size of a fingernail, was actually a big eater of abilities. It greedily sucked up every drop of her ability that she transferred over, biting down and refusing to let go, like a pond that was never filled, crazily swallowing her abilities.

Xi Bei had never encountered such a plant before.

Most of the plants she had dealt with before, even if they were at her current ability level, would only need a couple of sips at most. Where could there be a seed like this one, which hadn’t even sprouted yet, that was about to be insatiable?

The degree of greed in absorbing abilities was almost like absorbing as much as possible.

Xi Bei was even forced to mobilize all the abilities in her body and couldn’t hold back anything, until she felt that her ability core was empty. Only then did the seemingly satisfied seed slowly release the link between her and it.

After a short while, a small sprout slowly emerged from the soil.

Xi Bei wiped the glistening sweat from her forehead, took a long breath, and almost collapsed to the ground.

She really wanted to ask what kind of gluttonous plant could absorb abilities like this.

But even if Xi Bei didn’t ask, she could guess. This must be some advanced plant. The contamination levels of the apples she secretly tested had already been revealed, reaching pre-apocalyptic levels of 0.

This secret was currently only known by her and Fu Yanzhou. Xi Bei felt very worried. She suspected that with the passage of time, the research institute would eventually uncover their small deception.

After all, long-term consumption of contaminated food could lead to ability riots, accelerated aging in ordinary people, and even, they heard, a significant weakening of the reproductive abilities of some ordinary people.

Although the extent of the weakening was a secret, the changes in the ordinary people of Noah Base over the past year had not been significant.

The research institute might overlook them for a while, but they couldn’t ignore them forever.

Xi Bei let out a long sigh. She didn’t know if the leaders of the base were ready.

By now, presenting such high-end plants, could it be that they were preparing for provocation and war?

When Shen Cheng went offline to sleep, Li Weilan led a team to take the beehive.

If it were the old Li Weilan, Shen Cheng would definitely be worried. But now, most areas on the map were low-risk for him, including the beehive, so Shen Cheng let him go with peace of mind.

Sure enough, after the system’s confirmed round trip time ended, Li Weilan successfully brought back the beehive and the queen bee. Although the huge, chubby queen bee, who couldn’t move, was extremely angry about being wiped out while she slept, her protests were completely ignored. The queen bee, with some intelligence, could only obediently stay in Noah Base to produce honey and royal jelly for them.

At this point, the main products of the fourth and fifth-tier pharmaceutical factories, anti-aging elixir and limb regeneration elixir, could enter mass production.

After confirming the efficacy of these two medicines, Shen Cheng impatiently clicked to confirm the products. Immediately, a prompt popped up in the game.

“Auction notice has been sent to the entire server. Please confirm the sales quantity and minimum starting price.”

“Auction across the server?”

Is this asking me to hold an auction?

Shen Cheng hadn’t expected the game to automatically turn buying and selling into an auction. But thinking about it, doing it this way could greatly enhance the reputation of Noah Base and her own medicine. Shen Cheng gritted her teeth and decided to sell seven bottles of each, along with some surplus armor from the base. This way, when the big bases received the list of goods for their auction, they would all be in an uproar.

In Base J, Tang Lu looked at the photos and descriptions of the auction items in his hand, threw them onto the table with a snap, rubbed his forehead irritably, and asked Bai Su, who was sitting beside him, “Limb regeneration, can you do it too?”

Bai Su was the only healing-type ability user Tang Lu knew, and her healing ability was exceptionally powerful. Not only could she heal wounds, but more importantly, as long as there was a breath, she could keep someone from dying.

This was also the main reason why Bai Su could establish herself in Base J and even have a superior position.

But no matter how powerful her ability was, it could only treat new injuries. For injuries that had already healed, even bones that had grown back, unless the injured person had the courage to directly cut off the limb and reattach it, it was absolutely impossible for it to grow back.

Bai Su looked at the description above and shook her head.

But she muttered, “Why is it Noah again?”

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Shen Cheng received over two million yuan from selling her house. Now she no longer has to worry about her family’s cub going hungry, Due to a recent slight increase in property prices in the small city, the amount she received was even more than she had initially estimated.

With over two million yuan, buying a house in the new first-tier city where she currently resided would only allow her to make a down payment on a mixed commercial-residential property or a new house that wouldn’t be ready for occupancy for several years. Shen Cheng had no intention of settling down, especially now that she realized her affection was for someone from another world. She had no plans to spend a large sum of money on real estate in reality. As for whether they could truly be together in the future, she could only say she hadn’t thought that far ahead.

Optimistically speaking, since Lan Lan could come to her world once, maybe one day she could go to his world by herself. Maybe one day she would go and never come back. Life was filled with so much uncertainty, but once a choice was made, one had to bravely face it.

Even in real life, couples, even spouses, couldn’t guarantee they would always stay together. It was pointless to agonize over whether they could make it to the end. The only thing that mattered was the present moment.

During the more than two months she had lost him, Shen Cheng had thought through these things thoroughly.

Of course, spending over two million yuan solely on games was impossible. But dividing it for use on daily necessities and purchasing short-term bank guaranteed financial products, then using the interest earned daily to play games, was quite comfortable.

If it wasn’t for Shen Cheng’s desire to maintain a certain social status, she could even live off the interest alone.

With nearly a hundred thousand yuan in interest earned in a year, Shen Cheng had earned nearly fifteen thousand yuan in interest in the past two months alone. After deducting some expenses for improving her living environment, she could now play games without restraint.

Li Weilan watched in astonishment as the base expanded madly, the deep metallic collisions never stopping. In just a few minutes, a living area as large as the original base was built.

Compared to her previous careful calculations and limitations in playing games, Shen Cheng could now be described as lavish. She bought over a hundred ordinary rooms and dozens of luxury suites in one go, leaving most of them for the base to allocate freely, taking only one room for herself and leaving it directly for Li Weilan.

Another huge change in the base was the hydroponic room. Shen Cheng hadn’t logged into the game for a year, yet even Xi Bei, who had just stabilized at the third rank, had reached the fifth rank. There were also more plant-based ability users in the base now, although most were only at the second or third rank. Despite this, the hydroponic room was now densely packed with a large number of plants.

Perhaps because she hadn’t logged in, the hydroponic room couldn’t upgrade and expand according to official requirements. The plants cultivated by these plant-based ability users could only grow densely in the room’s water tanks, striving to grow upward. At first glance, the room was full of greenery, but once the plants reached the ceiling, they started to fight for territory, intertwining and covering even the walking paths.

The trees were densely packed with various fruits, but the variety was still limited without the new species she could purchase, as the base’s development couldn’t support their growth in the hydroponic room.

Shen Cheng quickly clicked on the upgrade for the hydroponic room. A golden light surrounded the room, flashing five times in a row before stopping. After reaching the fifth level, upgrading the room and the base didn’t cost anything as long as the experience points were sufficient. After the hydroponic room reached the fifth level, its area expanded to more than twenty times its original size, and the variety of plants that could be grown increased significantly.

Xi Bei and the other plant-based ability users in the base also heard the announcement that the hydroponic room had been upgraded, and Xi Bei couldn’t help but recall when she first arrived at Noah’s base a year ago.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

She immediately understood what had happened over the past year. That boss, whether missing or facing some other issue, had never appeared.

Without her, brother Li became even more sharp and aggressive than a blade. Those who knew about their relationship might have thought they had fallen out, but no one dared to touch on his sensitive topic or inquire about the whereabouts of that person.

Enduring for a year, the hydroponic room ran out of space, and there was no way to renew the variety of seed crops. They could only come up with some solutions to barely meet the food needs of the base population.

Over the year, the situation outside had been getting worse, and more and more people hoped to live in the base. However, their capabilities were limited, and they could only do their best to accept a portion of them. They selected those who had a better chance of survival, more labor power, and were more loyal to the base. As for the rest, they were more like wishful thinking but powerless to act.

But now, things were different.

Xi Bei looked at the huge room and the large tank quietly flowing with colorless liquid. As soon as she stepped into the room, she could feel the active presence of wood element in the air. The trees swayed their bodies, expressing their satisfaction with the suddenly expanded space.

They no longer felt as cramped as before.

Moreover, the new nutrient solution tasted really good.

Their bodies began to grow, their stiffened branches started to stretch out. For the first time in over half a year, they didn’t need to input too much plant-based ability. Just relying on the nutrients in the water, the plants felt satisfied.

She could faintly hear the whispers of the green elements. A smile appeared on Xi Bei’s face as she reached out and plucked a red apple swaying on a branch. She sniffed it, catching a whiff of its mature fruity aroma.

She recorded the yield of this fruit under her own share. This was the first fruit produced after the expansion of the hydroponic room. She needed to take it to test the pollution level with Fu Yanzhou.

After finishing the food and accommodation tasks, a new prompt popped up in the game for Shen Cheng.

“Please check the current commercial status of the base and select trade goods for the base. Mission completion reward: Business Route 2, population 500.”

Commercial Status?

Shen Cheng remembered that the base had some trade dealings with merchants before. If she recalled correctly, when she built the electrolysis water room, she lacked platinum, and it was cub who helped her exchange with the outside merchants.

A year had passed, and the base should have had some commercial development.

Shen Cheng surveyed the situation in the base and found something quite puzzling. The base only had contribution points and a contribution point system. Regardless of what the people needed or wanted, if one family lacked something, they would basically exchange goods with each other. However, until now, the base had nothing luxurious to exchange, which resulted in a nearly zero commercial status at present.

Trade options were indeed a problem. Shen Cheng pondered the situation in the base, thinking about what they could trade with other large bases.

Trading weapons was out of the question. Selling weapons to other bases and then causing conflicts would result in greater losses than the benefits of commerce.

Food was also not feasible. Despite the high quality of food produced by Noah’s base, there were transportation losses and preservation issues, and most merchant caravans were unlikely to be equipped with high-level spatial ability users. Li Weilan’s situation was very special. Most spatial ability users didn’t have attack abilities, so they needed protection wherever they went. In merchant caravans, they were certainly not as safe as they were in some other large bases.

Selling food and weapons was ruled out, leaving only armor and medicine.

These two options were actually quite profitable. In the absence of healing ability users, medicine was more precious than anything else. Whether it was an ability user or an ordinary person, they were willing to pay a certain price for this extra guarantee of safety.

Shen Cheng included these two options in her consideration.

Speaking of medicine, Shen Cheng suddenly remembered the healing-type girl she encountered before. She had looked around the entire base and hadn’t found a single healing-type ability user. As a result, the base still didn’t have a treatment cabin or a prayer room. No matter what illness the ability users had, they mostly relied on taking medicine, going to the hospital, and seeing doctors.

Shen Cheng even wondered if there was only one healing-type ability user in the entire apocalypse.

After they missed her, the treatment cabin and prayer room would never open again.

However, Shen Cheng always felt that the treatment cabin and prayer room sounded like something from a charlatan.

Thinking about it, if they had accepted that tree that could produce Mana as food and accepted the healing-type ability user into their base, the entire base could have adopted a charlatan style. In that case, the name Noah might have been more fitting.

Shen Cheng checked the current prescription and medicinal fields of the base. Noah’s base currently only produced one type of medicine, which was an external universal healing potion, commonly known as the Little Red Bottle. When ingested, it mainly facilitated rapid recovery from external injuries.

However, this medicine mainly targeted external injuries and had no therapeutic effect on common ailments like colds or runny noses. Additionally, it lacked a means of replenishing abilities if exhausted.

Shen Cheng checked the system and found that the pharmaceutical factory could produce “Common Disease Universal Healing Potion” at level two, “Ability Replenishment Potion” at level three, “Aging Delaying Solution” at level four, and “Limbs Regeneration Potion” at level five. Shen Cheng wasn’t very interested in selling practical potions at levels one to three; instead, she prioritized level four and five potions.

Even in the apocalypse, there were still wealthy and privileged people.

Among these people, there would surely be some willing to pay a huge price for aging delay and limb regeneration.

After upgrading the medicinal field and pharmaceutical factory, Shen Cheng realized that the raw material for the Aging Delaying Solution required royal jelly as a base material, while the Limbs Regeneration Potion required the cultivation of high-grade ginseng.

It seemed that the pharmaceutical factory would refine the essence of these two already quite precious medicinal materials and then synthesize them into potions.

Beekeeping was required for royal jelly, and ginseng seeds needed to be purchased in cub’s space. Shen Cheng looked at the location marked as the Queen Bee’s Nest on the map and decided to go buy the ginseng seeds first.

As soon as she opened Li Weilan’s space, she was immediately shocked.

This is cub’s space?

Endless waves of wheat fields filled the horizon, and the warehouse was packed to the brim with harvest.

Just how hard did cub work during the time she was offline?

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Li Weilan took Shen Cheng around the base.

Shen Cheng was shocked to find that just over two months of not playing the game had resulted in such significant changes.

The number of survivors in the base had skyrocketed, and Shen Cheng saw many unfamiliar faces.

But she keenly noticed that every person who had been here treated Li Weilan with a mixture of awe and respect. This made Shen Cheng couldn’t help but be curious. What had happened in this world during the time she couldn’t play the game?

With these thoughts in mind, she asked.

Li Weilan paused.

“You said, just over two months,” he raised an eyebrow, seemingly amused.

“Yes.” Since the game time matched real-time, Shen Cheng had always found this time flow particularly friendly. Even during downtimes, she could still catch up with special events in the game. Later, when she learned that the game was also a real world, it all made even more sense to her.

Li Weilan sighed softly.

He turned his head to look into the void. “However, it’s been a whole year for us here.”

Shen Cheng fell silent instantly.

In her world, it had been just over two months. She had almost been counting the days with her fingers, opening her eyes to see if the game had returned, closing them to wonder if it had resumed normal operation.

She went to work in despair, returned home in despair, and went to bed in despair.

Later, when the money from selling the house arrived, she even cried happily. Originally, she had planned to use that money to buy something in the game to improve their lives, but by the time the money arrived, he had already disappeared from her life.

Two months were like a dry well in her heart. She was almost on the verge of giving up. Then, what about his one year?

Especially since he disappeared for a whole year right after saying “I like you” to her.

Would Zai Zai think that she wanted to avoid him, avoid his confession, and that’s why she disappeared so abruptly?

He couldn’t possibly not have considered that possibility at all.

If it were her, she might even be so sad that she wouldn’t dare to open her heart to anyone ever again.

Thinking of this, Shen Cheng didn’t want to change the subject anymore. In fact, during the two months when the game disappeared, Shen Cheng had enough time alone to think about what he had said, her feelings for him, and what she really wanted.

The boyfriend from another world who traveled far away.

The boyfriend who still needed her to send money for his support.

Shen Cheng felt that she had considered all the pros and cons clearly. She smiled a little, her tone sweet and a bit shy as she asked Li Weilan, “Lanlan, do you remember what you asked me back then?” Her next words were already eager to come out, “Let’s be together, I promise you.”

But Li Weilan’s expression was strange. He paused for a moment before responding.

He furrowed his brow slightly, looking somewhat conflicted.

“I’ve thought about it carefully during this time,” he suddenly lowered his voice, “I may not have understood it back then.”

Shen Cheng’s eyes widened, and the words she had prepared got stuck in her throat.

She looked at Zai Zai, who still looked cute and adorable, and suddenly felt like she had missed something.

Moreover, she felt somewhat unfamiliar with her feelings towards Zai Zai now that she was back online.

She was angry. A person who had passionately confessed to her one moment and had just told her he would wait for her forever could actually ignore her request to define their relationship the next.

This was simply the most shameless person she had ever encountered.

What’s worse, he even smiled gently, as calm as a spring breeze. “Back then, I put you in a difficult position.”

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

“Is it my turn to speak now? Clearly, I didn’t mean to make things difficult for you. And it was because I was so shocked to be confessed to for the first time that my phone fell into the water. Now you’re assuming I made things difficult for you.”

Shen Cheng was furious.

Hmph, perhaps Zai Zai thought she wouldn’t come back while she wasn’t playing the game, so he found someone else, like a frog wife, for her in the game. Now he’s denying everything, pretending nothing happened.

Just thinking about this possibility made Shen Cheng want to beat him up. Even if it was just a thought, she couldn’t stand it.

She remained silent for a while, then finally said angrily, “Whatever.”

Li Weilan seemed not to notice her change in mood at all. He continued to introduce her to the buildings in the base, the changes in the base, and his own strength changes. Shen Cheng was irritated and listened reluctantly for a while before finding an excuse to log off.

After she logged off, Li Weilan sighed heavily. His brows furrowed slightly, and his face showed a hint of coldness.

Phone fell into the water.

Was such a coincidence even possible in this world?

Li Weilan never believed in fate. For him, behind all accidents lay inevitability.

He didn’t know who had connected them with the red thread, nor did he know why they had to be separated for a whole year. But after exhausting all prayers and means available, he had learned one thing: to eat meat, you had to first bring it back to the den.

Once something was within reach, it must not be let go.

If he confirmed their relationship now and they lost contact the next second, leading to the possibility of painful separation, he would rather choose a safe and secure time to bring her back home and never let her leave again.

He didn’t even want her to know about those dark, selfish thoughts he had.

Just a couple of seconds after Shen Cheng logged off, before the screen of her phone even went dark, she was suddenly startled. After the game had finally reappeared, she couldn’t help but wonder if everything would disappear once she turned off her phone.

Compulsively, she brought her phone closer to her. This had been her first action every time she woke up during the past two months.

She always checked the game first thing when she woke up, making it part of her daily routine.

She glanced at the icon on her phone and breathed a sigh of relief. The game had indeed returned; it wasn’t her imagination.

Thinking about it, Shen Cheng suddenly remembered her earlier speculation. As she thought more about it, she felt silly for being so angry at him for making her log off.

She remembered a classmate she used to know, who flirted with a guy online, until one day she caught that guy also flirting with other girls online. Instead of repenting, the scoundrel had shamelessly said, “It’s not my fault, you didn’t spend enough time with me. If you didn’t play with me, I had to find someone else to play with.”

Thinking of these words, Shen Cheng recalled her definition of her relationship with Li Weilan, a friend from another world.

Oh, yes, and now she had to add a friend she hadn’t seen in a year.

They said that if you didn’t go online for a week, online relationships would find someone new.

Could Zai Zai be like that too?

The more Shen Cheng thought about it, the more unsettled she became. Silently, she opened her phone and followed the main character without a word, intending to observe what he was doing first.

Zai Zai seemed completely unaware of her tracking.

He was very busy, without the assistance of Shen Cheng’s system, he had to make decisions about almost everything in the base, big or small.

Without Shen Cheng, there was no more money-spending or high-tech stuff. The new people entering the base had to dig their own houses and develop on their own. There were more people, but the expansion of the base hadn’t kept up with the pace.

Li Weilan needed to make decisions about the direction of various base constructions, allocate resources, distribute accommodation, and worry about food.

Shen Cheng looked at the base, now displayed as a “Level Five Base,” but with many resources highlighted in yellow, indicating a particularly tense situation. Somehow, she felt a sourness in her heart. Ah, during the time she couldn’t log in, Zai Zai seemed to have been really struggling.

After staring at him for a while and confirming that he was truly fully immersed in his work, and seeing that the girls in the base also seemed to genuinely respect and fear him, keeping a considerable distance even when discussing important matters with him, Shen Cheng silently pressed the “Purchase New Dormitory” button. In the depths of the Noah Base on the right side, rows of rooms began to expand, a sight that many in the base had never seen before. They crowded over to see the additional rooms.

The flat path extended inward, and suddenly, the seemingly solid iron walls of the base opened up. In the blink of an eye, the metal surfaces fitted closely together, forming a new room with seamless angles between the metal. One room, then another, and another extended out of nowhere. Everyone was amazed to see this scene, finally realizing just how terrifying the black technology of the Noah Base they had heard about was. The earth they couldn’t dig through before now seemed as easy as tofu.

The newly constructed rooms even came with a set of drainage and ventilation equipment. As they entered the rooms, the lights turned on, the air was clean, without the typical murkiness and odor of newly constructed underground rooms. Some people had dug their own spaces to live in, which was uncomfortable enough, and there would even occasionally be small animals coming out of the ground. How could that compare to these rooms that looked halfway comfortable?

The Noah Base had expanded wildly over the past year. After repelling the zombie siege, both in reputation and scale, it was on par with other large bases. If it weren’t for the strict review process, it would have long been overcrowded.

Li Weilan looked inexplicably in the direction of the void, listening to the people outside shouting wildly. How could he not know who was responsible for all this?

Only her.

There was a hint of a smile in his eyes. Didn’t she say goodbye? She hadn’t even logged off yet.

Little trickster.

Why did you lie to me this time?

Li Weilan’s lips suddenly curled up with a sincere smile, the first hint of sweetness that had surfaced in his heart after so long.

It had happened so suddenly, he almost felt like he was losing his sense of reality. Even if she had touched his face, touched his hand, it all seemed like something experienced in a dream.

Too much anticipation, too beautiful a dream, waking up was too painful.

Without seeing her, he couldn’t even be sure if all this was still just an illusion.

It wasn’t until this moment, knowing that she was just as hesitant and uncertain as he was, that he realized, we’re all the same.

Then he heard her mutter softly to herself, “The money was originally meant to be spent on Lan Lan. Hmph.”

Li Weilan’s smile widened.

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

The loading page of the game this time kept showing side notes.

This was different from before.

Curiously, Shen Cheng leaned in to take a look and found that it said:

“Game qualifications distribution in progress”

“Screening game qualifications”

“Confirmation of game qualifications”

“Communication in progress”

“Further mission confirmation in progress”

“Affection system construction in progress”

“Affection points confirmation in progress”

“Character affection system settlement in progress”

Every few minutes, it refreshed and jumped. The progress bar slowly moved forward, one step at a time. But it got stuck on “Affection points confirmation in progress.”

“Damn game. Is this a joke?” Shen Cheng glared at the page, hoping to stare it into being more sensible. “Come on, progress bar, you’re already a mature and sensible one. You should know to move forward.”

She stared at the page, her eyes red from exhaustion. Motionless like a statue, she kept staring until after 1 o’clock in the morning. Unable to hold on any longer, she closed her eyes and fell asleep on the table, feeling fuzzy.

Shen Cheng found herself floating in mid-air.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

She saw in another pink, dreamily decorated room, a pretty girl playing with her phone.

Curiously, she floated over to take a look and found that the girl happened to be playing the scene where “save the cub” began.

She scooped up some sand and saw Li Weilan struggling inside. For some reason, she suddenly giggled and threw her phone away, sneering maliciously, “Such a weak protagonist, probably just an R card. I don’t want that, I want to draw SSR.”

Watching the yellow sand slowly bury him as he struggled desperately in the sand pile, Li Weilan gradually weakened.

In the end, Li Weilan closed his eyes.

“Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!” Shen Cheng let out a hysterical scream in the air, but the girl poked at the game screen at this moment, pouted and giggled, “I want to play with the strongest protagonist. This weakling doesn’t deserve me.”

“Why would you do that? He’s a living person!” Shen Cheng screamed wildly in mid-air, kicking and hitting in front of her, but she was just a bystander. Though furious to the extreme, she posed no threat to her.

The screen changed again.

This time, it showed a small room that reminded her of her old rented apartment, and a fragile-looking girl holding a phone playing a game.

Although Shen Cheng had a premonition, she still floated over to take a look.

Even though the scene was different, this time it showed the scenario of mutated wolves slowly gathering around Li Weilan.

“Buy a protective shield! Ah!” Shen Cheng shouted hoarsely, but the girl, trembling all over as she watched the incredibly realistic mutated wolves on the screen, didn’t do anything at all. With a slap, she put down her phone, and soon the sound of wolves biting and tearing came from the phone.

“Coward,” Shen Cheng looked at the incredibly realistic scene and splattered blood compared to her game, covering her face in agony.

She didn’t want to watch anymore.

She already knew what this game was trying to tell her.

She didn’t even want to know if all this death and suffering was real or just a dream.

She hoped it was just a dream. She hoped none of it was real, and she hoped she didn’t know anything.

Shen Cheng trembled with anger, and just then, she suddenly felt a huge suction force coming from above her head, pulling her head up with a “whoosh”. Her head throbbed as if being lifted up, and the next second, she opened her eyes abruptly.

On her phone, the screen had suddenly completed the progress bar.

Shen Cheng saw that she had logged into the game.

Welcome back to the Last Survivor.

Congratulations to the player for completing the preliminary task.

Congratulations to the player for completing the zombie siege stage task.

The game has undergone soul binding.

Soul binding successful.

Shen Cheng stared at the row of words, and her worst guess came true.

Other players really existed besides her.

Everything she just saw wasn’t her hallucination, it was all real.

Shen Cheng immediately noticed that there had been a huge change in the base. The entire base had expanded significantly, the number of people had increased, and even their equipment seemed more complete than before. During the time she couldn’t access the game, Li Weilan, another controller of the base who had building permissions but lacked the ability to recharge, had pushed the progress bar of the base’s construction forward by himself.

Shen Cheng didn’t have time to carefully examine the extent of the changes in the base. What she was most concerned about was whether cub was still in the research institute she had seen.

Cub?

She quickly searched the base but didn’t see him. Shen Cheng slapped her forehead, realizing she was being foolish. It had been so long since she played this game that she hardly remembered how to operate it, let alone find someone.

She clicked on the main character page and only then did she realize that cub was sitting alone by the pond in the deepest part of the base. He silently leaned against a pillar by the pond, quietly gazing at the pitch-black water surface.

Octopus Quan Quan’s territory had expanded again.

Its own size had also increased; it had become much fatter for some reason. Occasionally, it would raise one of its tentacles above the water’s surface, gently brushing against cub’s feet, looking very relaxed.

However, cub’s expression was cold and numb. He stared quietly at the water’s surface. For some reason, Shen Cheng felt like she could see the words “lifeless” written all over his Q-version soft face.

He’s not in the research institute.

Shen Cheng felt a wave of joy. She didn’t know what had happened yesterday. She couldn’t even be sure whether she had truly crossed over or not. If it was a false crossing, she could still search for the payment screen for buying the knife. But if it was a true crossing, the current plot was obviously different from before.

Whatever, those things don’t matter. Maybe it’s just a scam by the crappy game to cheat her money.

Or maybe the crappy phone went crazy after getting wet.

Who knows what this broken game is thinking, it just disappeared out of nowhere.

Shen Cheng called out to him, “Lan Lan.”

Li Weilan suddenly raised his head. His fingers trembled slightly, and his eyes almost instantly surged with turbulent emotions.

But soon, all emotions subsided, and he closed his eyes again, redirecting his gaze back to the water’s surface.

Huh?

Shen Cheng was confused for a moment. What’s wrong with cub, ignoring me like this?

For her, although she couldn’t access the game for some time, her memories of cub remained on the cub who gently said to her, “I like you.” Now, suddenly he was as cold as ice, showing no reaction at all. Shen Cheng really didn’t understand why.

Could it be that he is angry?

But it’s not her fault that she couldn’t access the game.

Or maybe cub thinks she was scared by his confession and ran offline directly?

If that’s the case, Shen Cheng’s heart was uneasy. She tentatively reached out to hook cub’s hand, not daring to do any of the usual poking his face or touching his head gestures, fearing that it might provoke him into getting angry.

Until she actually hooked his hand, cub suddenly trembled all over, looking down at his own fingers in disbelief.

His hand had moved slightly as she gently hooked it.

Li Weilan’s gaze, at this moment, shifted from numb coldness to trembling.

He suddenly shouted into the void, “Is it you, Shen Cheng? Is it you?”

Then, as if remembering something, he frowned and said, “If it’s you, move my hair.”

Shen Cheng reached out and gently rubbed his head.

Li Weilan trembled uncontrollably. The silence that had settled in his heart was suddenly broken, as if his heart, which had been silent, was infused with blood once again.

If this was a dream, if it was just another dream, he would rather never wake up.

If her disappearance was a punishment for his delusions, he would rather never mention it again, as long as she could come and see him every day.

However, before he could voice these thoughts, he heard her hesitant and soft question, “Lanlan, I seemed to have dreamed of you being locked up in a research institute. Was it a dream?”

Shen Cheng was still a little worried after all.

Even if it was just a dream, the feeling at that time was too real.

It made her feel uneasy, unable to calm down.

“The research institute?” Li Weilan trembled all over, then as if suddenly realizing something, he furrowed his brows. “What kind of place was this ‘research institute’ you mentioned?”

Seeing his reaction, could it be true after all?

Shen Cheng nervously described the scene, emphasizing the room she saw and his appearance. Then, she added, “It was said to be a qualification for crossing. I thought I could come directly to see you. I was afraid it wasn’t safe here, so I brought a knife just in case. Then, I left the little military knife behind.”

Before she could finish speaking, Li Weilan’s gaze grew heavy.

His voice turned hoarse. “So, it was you back then.”

He had been wondering why a little military knife suddenly appeared in the heavily guarded research institute.

Was it because of a kind-hearted guard who, seeing his plight, silently left it there?

For this, he even held back when breaking out, just because of that glimmer of hope. It was this small glimmer of hope that prevented him from completely despairing of this world.

But it turned out there was never any kindness.

Throughout his life, all the kindness he received came only from her.

From beginning to end, only her.

Suddenly, Li Weilan thought of something and nervously asked her, “Cheng Cheng, how long has it been on your end?”

He hesitated for a moment, originally wanting to ask about the matter of the zombies on her side, but after some thought, he swallowed his words. Since she still had time to play the game, she must have been able to control it and her world hadn’t turned into a wasteland like their side. So, he swallowed what he originally wanted to say and asked instead, “Is everything okay?”

As soon as he spoke, Shen Cheng immediately forgot about being upset that he had ignored her earlier. She happily replied, “I’m fine, just…” She took a sip of water and hesitated before saying, “I miss you a lot.”

Li Weilan froze.

Shen Cheng saw waves of emotion in his eyes.

The coldness above his head seemed to melt away in an instant, as if the previous icy distance was all just a misunderstanding.

His eyes sparkled with laughter, as if there were stars twinkling softly. “What a coincidence, I miss you too.”

He didn’t even mention that since her disappearance, his heart had fallen into an indefinite despair.

Because he had already heard that she didn’t want to avoid him.

This was good.

This was already a thousand times better than what he had imagined before.

“I’m sorry,” he heard her soft apology, “my phone got wet, and I couldn’t open the game no matter what. I was so worried that I wanted to cry, but when I asked around, they all thought I was crazy. Some even suggested that I go to a mental hospital, suspecting that I had delusions. I didn’t dare to tell anyone.”

As Shen Cheng spoke, she became more and more sad, unable to recall how she had managed to get through that period of time. “I was even afraid, afraid that I might never see you again.”

“How could that be,” Li Weilan interrupted her at this moment. “I’ve always been here … waiting for you.”

He looked at her earnestly and said, “Just waiting for you, and you alone.”

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Thingyan: what’s with this soul binding? Can they be together now? Ahhhhhhhhh

The game she played was gone.

On her phone, the game never returned to normal. She checked the reviews and screenshots of other players under the same game, but couldn’t find any traces similar to hers.

No matter from which perspective, it seemed like only her phone and her life were abnormal.

Shen Cheng was almost ready to believe that everything she had experienced was just an illusion.

Wait.

She suddenly jumped up and frantically flipped through her phone’s photo album. There, she found screenshots of her game: the first time she poked Zai Zai’s little face, his helpless expression; Zai Zai’s first “thank you” written on the car window; Zai Zai in his uniform; the first time she entered the game and the scene at the base; and the image of them sitting side by side in Zai Zai’s space.

As Shen Cheng looked at these images, memories flooded back. All these screenshots were telling her that this was not an illusion.

With this realization, Shen Cheng immediately jumped up. She quickly searched the X app and found the contact information for the guesthouse where she had stayed. She called them to ask if they remembered the man who had saved her.

The answer was affirmative.

She was exhilarated. She called the second-hand store, and thankfully, the old man still remembered the man who had come to sell Hermès with her. He could even roughly describe Li Weilan’s appearance and height. He vividly recounted all the details of that day, matching Shen Cheng’s memories perfectly.

She wasn’t crazy.

Her memory wasn’t faulty.

It was only her game that had disappeared.

Shen Cheng was certain that he existed, not just as a figment of her imagination.

But as the days passed, Shen Cheng found herself spending her time between boredom and madness. She even managed to level up the normal game character to the maximum level, leading the character and his dog through all the challenges. When the game finally displayed the “the end” sign and started rolling the credits, Shen Cheng stared dumbfoundedly at the screen. Suddenly, she burst into tears.

In the empty room, Shen Cheng cried uncontrollably.

Tears fell onto the black and white screen, and suddenly, the screen flickered.

A line of small black and white text appeared:

“Do you want to purchase the qualification to travel to another world? One hour.”

Shen Cheng stared at the line of text, speechless.

The qualification to travel to another world.

She sniffed and suddenly felt like a fool for crying so much.

She glanced at the price: 299.

299.

Although she knew that 299 might not be significant in the grand scheme of things, for someone who had never spent so much money on a game at once, Shen Cheng couldn’t help but mechanically complain, “299 is so expensive.”

Expensive or not, her fingers didn’t stop clicking “buy.”

But instead of clicking directly, Shen Cheng thought for a moment, went downstairs, bought a small army knife and some portable medicine, and grabbed a kitchen knife before returning upstairs. Then, she clicked “purchase.”

With a swoosh, she disappeared from the room altogether.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Surrounded by darkness, Shen Cheng curiously surveyed her surroundings and noticed a timer on her head.

The numbers on it were constantly changing, ticking down from 60:00 to 59:59, and continuing to decrease.

Shen Cheng understood that this timer indicated the time she could stay in this place.

It was then that she realized how impulsive she had been in purchasing the so-called qualification for crossing over. She gritted her teeth, and upon looking down, she noticed something peculiar – she couldn’t see herself.

What was the use of this crossing qualification?

Shen Cheng looked around curiously and realized she was in an extremely dark and damp place, slightly chilly, with a faint smell of blood in the air.

This place didn’t seem like Noah’s Base.

It didn’t resemble any place she had ever been to.

Shen Cheng tried to roam around but found sturdy boundaries on all sides. It seemed like she was confined to this place and couldn’t run out.

Strange, was the 299 yuan purchase just for a confinement experience?

Shen Cheng almost wanted to give it a bad review manually. Suddenly, a glaring white light shone into the area where she was leaning against, and she quickly moved aside. A pungent smell of blood rushed into her nose.

“Taste too?”

Shen Cheng suspected that although she couldn’t see herself, she might be invisible but still had a body and senses.

So she quietly pressed against the wall. The bright light outside was dazzling, hitting the face of the person lying on the ground with his eyes closed.

It was then that Shen Cheng finally saw his face.

Two people in white robes had thrown him into the room and left. Even though only half of his face was visible and his hair was long, Shen Cheng could clearly see that it was him, her little leopard.

It was him.

His sleeves were rolled up, revealing countless fresh scabs from recent deep wounds.

Shen Cheng rushed over as soon as the door closed. She rolled up Wei Weilan’s sleeves and was so angry that she could hear her teeth grinding. She could see clearly that underneath his sleeves, there were numerous scabs covering his arms.

Not a patch of good skin, not a piece of intact flesh.

Shen Cheng couldn’t help but wonder if his body had long been covered in wounds.

What’s going on?

What happened to Zai Zai when she wasn’t playing the game?

How did they make him like this?

Shen Cheng paced anxiously in the room. Just then, there was a “clank” at the door, and a wooden bowl containing a thin liquid was brought in from outside.

The sight of the food seemed to stir Li Weilan, whose long lashes, stuck together by sweat, trembled slightly as if he were about to wake up.

His lips were already chapped, and his complexion was as pale as a ghost. Shen Cheng could hardly believe that this was the same chubby Zai Zai she had nurtured, the one she had stocked up with so many supplies and weapons.

She was on the verge of exploding with anger.

Unable to bear seeing him struggle to reach for the food, Shen Cheng hurried over, picked up the bowl of porridge, and brought it to his lips. She carefully fed him spoonfuls, watching as he weakly drank it down, spoonful by spoonful.

Li Weilan seemed truly exhausted. His lashes trembled slightly, and his lips quivered as he sucked on the meager sustenance, consuming every last drop.

As he finished drinking, Shen Cheng paced angrily around the room. Suddenly, she realized that without the god’s-eye view from the game, her options as a physical entity seemed incredibly limited.

With only a few minutes left until her hour was up, Shen Cheng searched every corner of the room but found no other interactions available.

“This darn game, will it ever get better?” she muttered to herself.

Just as the time was about to run out, Li Weilan’s eyelashes fluttered, and he opened his eyes, looking dazed. His gaze trembled, void of any expression, carrying a cold numbness.

“Lanlan,” Shen Cheng called out to him.

He didn’t react at all. His eyelashes drooped over his eyes, his expression devoid of life.

As Shen Cheng watched the seconds tick away, realizing there were only a few tens of seconds left, she suddenly had an epiphany. She knew what to do.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the Swiss army knife, gently placing it beside him and covering the blade with his clothes.

Shen Cheng could feel the presence of the knife, but like everything else she carried, it was invisible to her.

She could bring items back and forth, and when Li Weilan came to see her, he could bring a bag with him. So, could she leave the knife behind? She didn’t know if there were any surveillance cameras in the room. If there were, then the knife might be the only variable, the unexpected element in Li Weilan’s life.

As time reached its final second, Shen Cheng felt the pull again, and a second later, she was back in her room.

When Li Weilan woke up, he felt something at his leg. It was hard, and though he hadn’t touched it yet, he could feel its rigid shape. Li Weilan didn’t make any noise. In the silent darkness, he moved his hand inch by inch until his fingers confirmed the shape and nature of the object. He squinted slightly.

In the research institute, they had never given them any hard objects. Even the utensils for eating were made of wood, to prevent suicides.

But regardless of who provided it, or where it came from, he knew clearly that this was his only way out. He carefully concealed the object in the last intact part of his shattered space.

He knew this was his lifeline.

Twenty-four hours later, researchers came and dragged him onto the research bed. Li Weilan endured it until their research was complete. The healing ability user came to give him superficial treatment, sealing the various cuts around. With nobody around, everyone knew that this was when the subjects were most vulnerable. There was no need for special guards, and they couldn’t do anything.

Li Weilan remained silent. The knife silently rotated from its hidden place under the bed and swiftly sliced through the throat of the healing ability user, who wore a bored expression, as if cutting through cheese. The blade severed his windpipe. Li Weilan’s expression was as cold as a specter as he calmly sat up from the sickbed.

He didn’t even gasp loudly. He watched the man make choking sounds, clutching his throat, but only able to watch his blood gush out like a spring from between his fingers.

Li Weilan stepped on the man’s hand, silently forming a smile. He watched him breathe his last breath.

Then he stripped the man of his clothes and draped them over himself.

He thought, he could finally leave this place.

Meanwhile, Shen Cheng had been waiting until she returned to her room. She saw her phone lying quietly on the table, but suddenly it jumped to the loading screen she hadn’t seen in a long time. That’s when she realized her game had actually come back.    

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Thingyan: so she went back in time and that’s how cub escaped huh 😍😍😍

Upon hearing his serious tone, Shen Cheng felt a sense of guilt welling up inside her. At first, she didn’t understand the meaning behind his words, but upon careful consideration, she realized that he was expressing concern for her.

The concerns such as being unfamiliar with life there and unable to adapt to the rough and dangerous lifestyle, he had thought of them even before her. That’s why he expressed his hope that she wouldn’t come.

And only someone who is more worried about your safety than seeing you would express such concerns. Typically, they would treat you as precious and prioritize your safety and emotional experience above all else.

Shen Cheng clearly understood the deeper meaning hidden within the simple words spoken by cub. Her heartstrings were tugged slightly, as if emitting a faint sound.

“But you’ve already been to my world,” Shen Cheng couldn’t help but express her true thoughts, “I also want to go to yours.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Li Weilan was taken aback, his heart feeling a little sweet. At this moment, he suddenly remembered something and took out a large necklace from his pocket, holding it in his hand. “The items disappeared from the space before. Maybe you can try moving things from my space to yours. Try this.”

He was telling the truth to Shen Cheng. In fact, the reason he speculated wasn’t the disappearance of items out of thin air, but his fluctuating ability.

When he went to her world last time, he needed to input spatial abilities. Li Weilan vaguely guessed the abilities he had fluctuated a few times before, compared the missing items in the space, and then guessed the possible reasons.

Could the daily disappearance of part of the output from the space be brought to her world?

Thinking of this, he felt a stir in his heart. Could it be that this beautiful necklace, which he specially left behind, could also be successfully handed to her?

Shen Cheng looked at the palm of cub. A large sapphire platinum necklace, nearly half the size of his hand, lay quietly. Platinum and diamonds surrounded the center, like a heart, with a sapphire the size of a heart, shining with a faint light.

Even though it was in a q-version form, Shen Cheng could imagine how beautiful it would be when it actually appeared in front of her.

Such a sapphire necklace could be auctioned off as a valuable item in reality. She had only seen it in photos in her life. No woman would not love jewelry, even if she saw it in q-version through her phone, she could feel the cub’s intentions, and she felt a faint stir in her heart.

“This…” Shen Cheng’s breath caught for a moment. Then, pretending to be angry, she teased her cub. “Lan Lan, you’ve become bad. You hide private money behind my back. Tell me, where did you get this necklace?”

Li Weilan was surprised by her use of the phrase “private money.” He couldn’t suppress a laugh and echoed her slip of the tongue, saying “private money” again.

Shen Cheng was taken aback. Those three words seemed to carry some ambiguity. Under what circumstances could she mention “private money”? Her face flushed red. Thankfully, her cub couldn’t see her.

She struggled to find the right words, and Li Weilan couldn’t bring herself to embarrass her. With a smile, he responded, “It was those merchants who assumed I was going to make jewelry for you when I received the platinum. This gemstone is round and looks very pleasing, so I decided to leave it for you. I thought you might like it. The main reason is that when I last saw you in your world, you were wearing simple clothes without any jewelry. I wanted to leave something for you. You’ve given me so much, but my ability to reciprocate is limited.

If only I could send it to you.

“Giving me 20 kilograms of jewelry?” Shen Cheng thought about her task needing 20kg of platinum, and the merchants mistakenly assumed all of it would be used to make jewelry for herself, which made her very uncomfortable.

Looking at it now, this sapphire necklace, which is at least 15 carats or more, doesn’t seem so extravagant.

However, when it comes to the issue of materialization, Shen Cheng suddenly realized what materialization was, which appeared to be a very interesting skill.

She had experimented with it before.

In the beginning, she materialized fruits, and the result was a success.

She also materialized condoms from cub’s space, and that was successful too.

But when it came to materializing other things like gold, silver, or jewelry, it appeared the materialized objects were fake.

It seems like the game is consciously training her abilities, unwilling to directly give her monetary rewards but hoping she can earn money herself and then invest it back into the game.

So, if you calculate it this way, it seems she won’t need that sapphire necklace anymore.

Shen Cheng shared with Li Weilan the mechanisms she had currently explored. Li Weilan nodded thoughtfully, but another thought crossed his mind: since fruits can be materialized, and so can condoms, would she be able to consume exotic high-level fruits from his space later on?

After all, they share the same space, so farming in the space should also keep up.

Shen Cheng also exclaimed as she listened to him. She remembered seeing in the game store before that there were Spirit Springs that could only be obtained through lottery, as well as Spirit Rice cultivated with Spirit Spring water. If what he said was true, then these things really existed.

Maybe if things could be materialized in reality, it meant she herself might come to have abilities.

Thinking like this, Shen Cheng suddenly felt that this game was really amazing.

***

The combat readiness materials at Noah’s Base had just been stocked up, and the outskirts shantytown had been completely evacuated. Just as night fell, the person who had been guarding the base’s gate suddenly noticed that their field of view turned red.

They didn’t immediately understand what was happening.

Even if it suddenly turned dark, the peephole should gradually darken bit by bit, it shouldn’t turn into a bright red all at once like this.

The next second, he suddenly heard a “bang”.

Then another “bang” sounded loudly.

Then, a blood-red color completely blocked his peeping vision.

It was thick, viscous blood slowly flowing down from the glass. The special glass used for observation outside the base shook twice from the impact but did not shatter.

The observer’s heart tightened, even though he knew the observation hole was very small, and zombies couldn’t climb in from that position, his heart still skipped a beat. Was the zombie outside the observation hole where the blood came from?

With his vision blocked, all he could see was a red hue no matter how he turned.

After a few more seconds, the deep crimson color gradually faded and became thinner. He saw a blurred face covered in blood firmly pressed against the observation hole.

The observer was shocked, about to call out for help, when he turned and saw Brother Li already standing behind him with other base personnel. Everyone was armored, even the ordinary people wore full armor, armed to the teeth, and fully prepared.

He was about to nervously call out Brother Li to report what happened outside when Li Weilan patted his shoulder and said, “I’ll handle it.”

He handed over the observation mirror.

Curious about the construction of the observation mirror, a zombie whose eye had completely rotted away pressed its eyeball against the mirror. From Li Weilan’s perspective, he could clearly see the eyeball of the zombie outside the frame.

It moved slowly, and as everyone in the base waited for the observation results, the zombie, for reasons unknown, seemed to hear a command or something, with a “bang,” it fiercely punched the mirror, shattering it into pieces.

The glass shards scattered, and the observed image became blank.

Silence filled the room.

Breathing was audible.

Everyone knew the zombies were only separated from them by the base and the layers of soil above.

That was probably about two meters away.

“Brother Li,” someone behind whispered Li Weilan’s name. Their voices were barely audible, as if afraid that speaking louder might awaken something.

“Are those zombies? Will they come in?” they asked.

Li Weilan nodded slightly.

Li Weilan looked around at everyone’s taunt faces and asked just one question, “Are you ready?”

“We’re ready,” came the unified reply.

Li Weilan then asked Shen Cheng, “What are they doing now?” The observation hole was no longer visible from their side, but she could still see from there.

Shen Cheng’s phone displayed a countdown reminder of the zombie siege. She had been wondering why they were facing a zombie siege when the base was underground, and the scent of living people was buried. However, as the countdown ended and she saw the zombies crowding towards the observation hole along with the cautiously moving living people on the ground, she understood. The base was built underground to defend against the mindless zombies. Without intelligence, the zombies posed no threat. As long as the scent of the living people inside the base was contained, the safety of the base personnel could be ensured. But now, with a unified brain directing them, the situation was different.

Under this unified command, the zombies acted like ancient armies, using nearby living people as shields, forcing them to dig open the base’s ventilation holes and observation holes.

The first person forced up seemed to resist. He hesitated and refused to act, immediately becoming a meal for the zombies, bitten alive in front of everyone.

After the zombies finished with the first one, they pushed forward the next person to dig. This person immediately knelt down without a word and started digging silently. A group of zombies stood by, their lifeless eyes silently watching him. Another person was then pushed forward, and then another.

They probably know they don’t have high intelligence, and the high-intelligence zombies hiding behind are unwilling to come to the scene. But using living people to dig is surprisingly efficient.

Shen Cheng watched the densely packed zombies outside and the living people surrounded by them working in the middle, feeling furious. Just the thought of it made her angry and annoyed. “They’re forcing some nearby living people to dig the entrance,” she said to Li Weilan, estimating the distance inside and outside and added, “It’ll take no more than 20 minutes.”

In just twenty minutes, they could jump to the top of the base’s normal entrance following the entrance they dug open. She also saw a tall zombie in the zombie horde, its hands were metallic, likely a specially selected cutter.

By then, the base gate would be in serious danger.

Li Weilan made a quick decision and immediately pulled the fully armed and prepared people to the location where the zombies were about to break in. He arranged them in layers, each covering and protecting the other.

In fact, among these people, there were some who were half skeptical about Li Weilan’s arrangements. However, the prosperity and stability of the base up to this point made everyone fully obedient to Li Weilan’s command in this matter.

When, as Li Weilan had predicted, the first roar of the zombies came from above their heads, followed by the crisp sound of metal being cut, all their doubts and suspicions vanished completely. What remained was only shock at Li Weilan’s complete anticipation of the direction and method of the zombie attack. With such divine foresight, how could they possibly lose?

However, Li Weilan didn’t feel the slightest bit complacent.

Through the thick layers of soil, he could already hear the clamor of the zombies.

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Outside the space, the others should still be cleaning up the aftermath. Shen Cheng couldn’t believe that Li Weilan, who usually acted so cautiously, would directly pull her into the space, ignoring everything else outside.

But she genuinely didn’t think she was wrong. Let alone her being wrong, she felt it was the cheeky cub who was now boldly asserting his innocence.

Although the leopard was still stiff, Shen Cheng confidently spoke up, “I’m not wrong, you’re the one who’s wrong.”

“Alright.” Li Weilan chuckled in exasperation, regaining his composure. He gently brushed the fuzzy tip of the leopard’s ear, then took her in his arms and said, “I’m listening.”

Shen Cheng was particularly assertive. “It was so dangerous just now, of course I should have gone instead of you. Besides, I wouldn’t have been affected anyway. At most, it would have cost a bit of money. Plus, considering the whole base, only I have the ability to communicate with animals. If you were leading the team, there might have been casualties. Look at how well it turned out now. No one died, and we didn’t suffer any losses. Isn’t it smooth sailing to finish the battle like this?”

The zombie siege was probably a major mission, and Shen Cheng estimated that there would be many rewards once the task was completed. She was still eagerly awaiting the results, but the cub wouldn’t let her see the end of it. Naughty cub.

Her tone was too assertive, leaving Li Weilan silent for a moment, unsure of what to say. Worry and fear, all because of his heart.

His hand, which had been gently tugging at the leopard’s ear, loosened, and he let out a sigh of helplessness.

“You’re right about everything,” he said softly.

Everything was right, except for his heart. When he saw the leopard lying on the ground, unable to move even a step, he felt a pang of pain that he couldn’t suppress.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Li Weilan couldn’t articulate how panicked he felt inside.

He held onto a glimmer of hope, hoping that one day, when the apocalypse ended and everything returned to calm, they might be able to reunite in some world.

But all of this, perhaps, was just his own dream. To her, he was nothing more than a character in a game, someone to play with when she was happy and to set aside when she wasn’t. His joys and sorrows meant nothing to her.

Shen Cheng noticed the slightly sad expression on the cub’s face on the screen. However, because it was a chibi character, sadness was just a droop in the corners of the eyes, with the smile curve at the corners of the mouth missing, not too obvious.

She only noticed it because of his voice.

Shen Cheng immediately stopped talking.

She softened her tone and said, “I’m sorry if I upset you, don’t be sad.” Even though she wasn’t sure what she had done wrong.

Li Weilan couldn’t help but marvel at how quickly she apologized. Shouldn’t he be grateful that she was still comforting him?

Feeling disheartened, Li Weilan decided not to say anything more.

Shen Cheng, seeing his expressionless face, thought she had comforted him enough and reached out to poke his bun-like cheeks. “Then, um, we should go out now.”

“Cheng Cheng,” Li Weilan paused for a moment, suddenly saying the most heartfelt words he had uttered so far, “I like you.”

He didn’t wait for her response, nor did he feel like he necessarily needed it. “It’s because I like you that I don’t want to see you get hurt, especially because of me. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.”

Before he could finish his sentence, there was a soft sound of “plop,” and the leopard in his hand suddenly flopped onto the ground, lifeless.

She had logged off.

Li Weilan stood there in a daze, feeling like his world had turned dark in that instant.

At this time, Shen Cheng was staring at her phone submerged in water, feeling utterly helpless.

She shouldn’t have been playing games on her phone in the bathroom just now.

It’s all over, it’s all over.

Her face went from burning red to pale. For the first time in her life, someone had said “I like you” to her. In that moment, Shen Cheng’s heart raced too fast. Her hand went slack, and the phone she had been holding slipped into the sink with a splash, getting soaked inside.

Fortunately, her phone was an X-fruit, although it was an older model, it still had some waterproof capabilities.

Shen Cheng retrieved her phone from the bottom of the sink and frustratingly checked it. Despite being advertised as waterproof, it seemed like water had still managed to seep in.

The phone went from being on to off directly, and she didn’t dare to turn it on immediately. Instead, she reluctantly placed the phone in a bag of rice and left it on top of the fridge at home to let the moisture evaporate and see if there was any hope of saving it.

After going through all these remedies, Shen Cheng couldn’t help but worry about whether Li Weilan would think about her sudden disconnection. All she could do was pray that her phone wouldn’t malfunction due to water damage.

She was concerned that the high-tech game inside her phone might disappear because of water damage or if she switched phones.

If that were to happen, the door to that world would be firmly shut in front of her.

What would Li Weilan do?

Would there be another person who would open the game one day, and would they care about him like she did?

If they did, would he accept them?

Would he do the things they did together with someone else?

The more Shen Cheng thought about it, the more agitated she became, almost bringing tears to her eyes with her overactive imagination.

She regretted it so much—why did she leave her phone on the sink when she knew it wasn’t stable? One slip of the hand, and the phone would fall.

According to online advice, in cases where water has entered the internals of a phone, it’s best to wait at least 24 hours before attempting to turn it on again, or else there might be issues like the motherboard burning out.

Though Shen Cheng’s heart was in turmoil, she didn’t dare to turn on the phone again.

She silently covered her head with a blanket, lying on the empty bed, staring with open eyes until dawn approached. Eventually, she drifted into a fitful sleep for a short while.

Whether it was due to the thoughts during the day or the dreams at night, that night she saw a brief dream. She saw Li Weilan’s silent figure, sitting alone in the vast field of his space, his eyes bloodshot, staring at the black sky. The unconscious leopard lay softly beside him, and after a long while, it seemed like the leopard disappeared too. He sat alone in the space like an eternal stone.

Shen Cheng’s heart ached as she watched, and she couldn’t help but desperately call out, first as “Lan Lan,” then as “Zai Zai,” and finally as “Li Weilan.” The last cry turned into a heart-wrenching scream, as if she felt she was about to lose him.

She suddenly sat up from the bed.

The light of dawn had arrived.

Shen Cheng’s back was covered in chilly sweat as she suddenly realized that her dependency on Li Weilan wasn’t just typical feelings for a character in a game.

She had dreamt of male celebrities, even dreamt of the faces of real-life athletes and cartoon characters, but regardless of who they were, imagining them leaving didn’t cause the same tearing pain in her heart.

Perhaps it was because she had lost so much and was left with so little since childhood, deep inside Shen Cheng rarely felt the kind of stability that could permanently hold onto anything.

It was more of a helpless acceptance and repeatedly telling herself not to place too much importance on external things.

But in her dream, watching him seemingly turned into a permanent statue, and even imagining another game player entering his life, her heart simply couldn’t accept it.

Paper-cutout male gods might belong to many people, but there was only one kind of person, her exclusive possession, her one and only focus.

Shen Cheng anxiously rubbed her forehead, feeling the sweat there.

Yeah, she hadn’t been wrong in her thoughts.

Just like facing his “I like you” sentence, even if she dared not dwell on it too much now, looking back, she still only tasted the sweet honey from the depths of her heart at that time.

Sweet, joyful, and tingly.

Shen Cheng covered her face with her hand, realizing her emotional attachment to the game character, only to find out that she might never be able to log into the game again. What was she going to do?

Damn it, stupid phone.

Shen Cheng went to work that day feeling miserable from beginning to end.

Her complexion was so terrible that even sister Ma, who was close to her, couldn’t help but worry and ask, “Shen Cheng, you don’t look too good today.”

Shen Cheng forced a smile and replied, “My phone fell into the water.”

sister Ma knew about her financial situation, thinking that she was worried about having to spend a lot of money to buy a new phone again, so she advised her, “Nowadays, you can get one with slightly lower specifications for a few hundred yuan. It’s indeed troublesome without a phone. If yours is really damaged, you should buy a new one soon.”

Shen Cheng appreciated sister Ma’s concern, but her mind was in such turmoil that she couldn’t explain to anyone.

She didn’t care about the money for a new phone. What she cared about was if her phone was really damaged, or if there was a bug in it, and when it was repaired, everything would be gone. What would she do then?

Would she spend the rest of her days reminiscing about him?

Was anyone as miserable as her? Just as she realized her feelings for him, she might never see him again.

Shen Cheng bit her lip, forced herself to pull herself together, thanked her colleagues, and got through the day’s work.

Back at home, nearly 20 hours had passed.

Shen Cheng couldn’t wait any longer.

She hastily opened the bag of rice and felt around the phone. There was a slightly damp sensation. She carefully inspected the holes around the phone, and they all seemed dry.

Shen Cheng hurriedly took out her phone and pressed the power button. After a while, the phone started up normally.

“Phew.”

She breathed a long sigh of relief.

Without a second thought, she hurriedly unlocked the phone and saw the familiar home screen. Shen Cheng finally felt at ease.

“What the heck?” Her tone suddenly turned angry as she opened the game, and two seconds later, her anger flared.

She had relaxed too soon.

Shen Cheng felt like her heart was sinking deeper and deeper. She was on the verge of losing her mind.

Opening the game interface, indeed, it was a game about building a base and fighting zombies. But no matter how you looked at it, this wasn’t her apocalypse game.

This wasn’t the game she played.

There was no Zai Zai that she raised.

Shen Cheng incredulously controlled the camera to run around until the main character was overwhelmed by a group of zombies and torn to pieces. She slumped back on the sofa, covering her face with her hands. This wasn’t her game.

Where was her game? Where was the Zai Zai she raised?

Shen Cheng searched everywhere for the company behind this game, finding the name of the legal person and the studio’s phone number. She dialed it like a madwoman. The person on the other end listened to her frantic narration and almost suspected she had gone insane. “What? You said our game turned into another game, and the characters from the game came out?”

The more they listened, the more unbelievable it sounded, and they just hung up the phone.

They said it was impossible.

Shen Cheng searched everywhere, high and low, but all the information about the game, even about real people, seemed to have disappeared without a trace.

No traces were left behind.

Shen Cheng tried every method she could think of, but she couldn’t find him anymore.

Zai Zai seemed to have disappeared from her world.

It was as if, from beginning to end, it was all just a dream.

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Thingyan: cubbbbbbb nooooooo if that mummy isn’t available anymore, you can have me as your new mummy hehehe. Ok, I feel like a home wrecker now 🥲