Author Archives: sandy

On the second day of playing games, when Shen Cheng logged into the base, she noticed that there were already many survivors there. However, she also noticed that the current happiness level of the base was not as high as before.

This was normal, as problems tended to increase in places with more people. Most of the previous survivors in the base were those who had finally found a glimmer of hope after enduring various difficult situations. However, this new batch of people was different. Although they were also wanderers, they did not have the same sense of belonging to the base as the previous survivors.

With less sense of belonging, there was a corresponding need for better support. This support was not just about providing a safe shelter to avoid their homelessness, but also about providing various aspects of basic living facilities. With a settled mind, the base could only retain more people with abilities and form a virtuous cycle by upgrading its current infrastructure and conditions.

Shen Cheng checked the four dimensions of the residents’ perception of the base:

Clothing: No uniforms. Most residents still wear their own clothes.

Food: Tasty, but with a limited variety of ingredients.

Housing conditions: Dormitory-style living, poor. Lack of privacy and no family concept.

Travel conditions: None.

All four areas needed improvement! There was still a long way to go.

Shen Cheng noticed that the lowest satisfaction level was with the housing conditions. Due to the player-friendly environment of the game and the fact that many of the new ability users she recruited had families, the demand for single rooms in the base had become increasingly urgent.

In the early days, the base only had dormitory-style living, which brought many problems. Shen Cheng could see from the scene in one of the rooms that there were people arguing.

Qi Hang didn’t expect living in a communal bunk would cause so much trouble.

As a chef, he received an extra portion of meat due to the base’s appreciation of his exceptional taste buds. However, Qi Hang himself couldn’t bear to eat too much, so he secretly brought it back home, planning to share it with his wife and father who only had basic rations.

But who knew that the smell of the fish meat would be noticed by a child living next door. The child cried loudly and begged Qi Hang for some. The child’s mother, a woman in her forties, immediately began to pester Qi Hang, threatening to report him for hoarding food, which was a serious offense in the post-apocalyptic world.

Qi Hang was afraid that the base would punish him unfairly, and he cherished his stable life and the base’s appreciation of his abilities. So, he tried to calm the situation by giving the child half of the fish meat. Although it pained him, he thought stability was more important than anything else.

However, Qi Hang’s wife did not share the same opinion. She thought they hadn’t done anything wrong. Although the adults in the base received an extra portion of meat, many people were starving to death on the wasteland. She didn’t tolerate the child’s unreasonable behavior, and she argued with the child’s mother.

As the two women pushed and shoved each other, Qi Hang was about to step in and separate them when he heard a mechanical voice from the central control center of the base: “Qi Hang, please come to the main control center.”

The middle-aged woman chuckled with delight upon hearing the news, pointing and poking at Qi Hang’s wife, who was almost in tears with anger, and sneered, “Looks like the truth is out! Maybe your whole family will be kicked out.”

Qi Hang was annoyed and pulled his wife, who was already crying, and gave a cold glance at the middle-aged woman before heading to the control center.

His father had just come back from a walk and saw the couple with a serious and weeping expression. He only found out about the incident during his absence and sighed, “It’s not always a misfortune, and misfortunes can’t be avoided. I don’t think the base leader is the kind of person who doesn’t distinguish right from wrong. You should go and listen first and see what they say. As long as we’re still together, it’s enough.”

Qi Hang’s heart calmed down.

He took his wife to the control center, but when he stood in front of the console, he found that there were other ability users who had been called here, along with those who had been assigned work and positions in the base, as well as those with their families.

It seemed that they were not the only ones, and judging by the situation, it might even be a good thing.

Soon, they were told that a batch of upgraded family suites had been built in the base, with a double bed, a living room, and a children’s bed if necessary. However, the family suites could only be paid for with base points, and the base had now opened up missions for clearing the wasteland. As long as they went on a mission once a week or had a stable income in the base, they could afford the family suite’s expenses and their daily needs.

Qi Hang’s ability was not combat-related, but he was naturally excited to hear about the family suite. He was initially worried that he wouldn’t have enough points, but after checking, he found that his position’s points were barely enough!

Qi Hang’s wife tugged at his sleeve. As an ordinary person, she seemed a little worried, “Honey, maybe we should forget it. It’s not easy to earn a few points, and judging by the situation, we might need to use more points in the future. Let’s save some points. I can endure it.”

Qi Hang looked at his wife’s haggard and exhausted face, and remembered their argument in the room earlier today. He gritted his teeth and shook his head, then raised his hand and shouted, “I want one!”

“Swish,” all eyes turned to him.

Standing on the platform, Li Weilan smiled.

His gaze fell on Qi Hang and his wife beside him, and his smile carried some blessings. He checked Qi Hang’s points and confirmed that the score of this ability user was enough. “Congratulations. This is the key to Room 01. Note that points will be deducted directly from your account at the beginning of each week. If you don’t have enough points, please remember to clear out your personal belongings early.”

“Thank you,” Qi Hang said, and took the card with the number “01” from the stage carefully.

One family became the first to taste the crab. Other ability users who were already married or wished to be in a quiet place also became active.

They each exchanged their points for keys with Li Weilan, and soon, the initial ten family suites were all allocated.

Shen Cheng looked at her phone screen and saw a surge in residents’ satisfaction and loyalty to the base. She breathed a sigh of relief. These ten family suites cost around 600G, which was accumulated from the grains sold in Li Weilan’s space for about ten days. In this way, she had no more gold coins without completing new missions or spending money.

Making money was really not easy.

As she was dozing off, a new task suddenly popped up in the game:

[The residents’ loyalty has reached the requirements. Please help the protagonist complete the first collective sweep: the abandoned high-rise apartment building. After the first sweep is completed, the base will activate the option to automatically complete the sweep mission three times a day, only going to unlocked scene maps, and will bring back supplies and item fragments for the base. The first daily sweep will earn 50G.]

Sweeping is 50G, and grain cultivation requires 30 fields, each of which produces 2G per day. It can ensure a stable income of 110G per day, which can be considered a stable source of gold coins. The sooner you start, the better.

Shen Cheng opened the map and found a nearby sweeping point. The name on it was “Abandoned City High-rise Apartment”.

Shen Cheng looked at the appearance of the building on the map and noticed that it had started to peel and fade in just one year. The outer walls were covered with ivy. She silently suspected that this place could be a meat grinder.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

If it was once inhabited by people, there might still be a large number of zombies wandering in the rooms or corridors.

The corridors in the apartment building were narrow, and once they were blocked in the front and back, it would be very dangerous.

If the other zombies on the street were also attracted over, then…

She couldn’t help but tremble slightly, worried about the safety of her cub.

But on the phone screen, her cub had already set off with a team of people.

The base is currently out of oil. According to Fu Yanzhou, one of the projects researched by the research institute before he left was to use the electricity of lightning-type ability users to charge electric vehicles. However, the stability of the battery is still a problem that has not been completely solved.

Because of this problem and the unresolved issue with the vehicles, Li Weilan and his team temporarily cannot leave the Noah base too far. But there are ruins of H City about an hour’s walk away from them. This was once a large city with a population of several million, but now it is just a pile of rubble.

When the apocalypse first came, the people in H City quickly evacuated to the central city of S City, which was not too far away from them, and most of them entered the base near S City. But those who did not evacuate, especially in the university town of H City, were said to still be guerrilla fighting with the large number of zombies in the city, surviving in a way like groundhogs.

But there are still many resources that can be collected in the city.

This is Li Weilan’s first time taking the newly recruited ability users out to scavenge, but they don’t plan to go deep into S city. Instead, they plan to gather resources in a standalone high-rise building outside the city.

This high-rise building is actually quite unique.

When it was built, it was originally planned to be one of the landscape towers for the new city. However, when the residents moved in and the surrounding facilities were not yet built, the end of the world came unexpectedly.

Because its garage was on the lowest floor, but the entire first floor collapsed due to the fighting, the garage was sealed off by the falling stones, and the first floor was also sealed off.

Among the ability users recruited by the Noah Base this time, there was one who had lived in this tower before. He said that there might still be some survivors hiding in their own rooms in the tower, but they would eventually run out of supplies. He had heard that someone had recently jumped off the tower.

To scavenge this tower, they first need to find a way up.

Since the first floor has collapsed, an earth-type ability user needs to clear a layer of debris before they can go inside. However, if they don’t have a stable team, it’s easy to attract the attention of nearby zombies while the earth-type ability user clears the debris, resulting in an attack by zombies or mutated beasts.

Perhaps because they are worried that there is nothing good left in the tower, and the cost and reward are not proportional, this tower is currently still in a sealed state, waiting for the arrival of the ability users from the Noah Base.

Li Weilan chose it because he felt that the difficulty and situation were just right for their first scavenging trip to hone their team cooperation and make some preparations for future zombie attacks.

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

It’s terrible!

Video chat is ruining me!

How can I keep my status as mother with this in my head!

Although she really wanted to see him as “cub,” seeing his message and his face, she suddenly felt so embarrassed!

If “cub” called her “Master” with that face…

Shen Cheng’s face turned red at the thought of “cub” calling her “Master.” She couldn’t think any further and patted herself before calming down. The instant noodles on the table were already cooked, so she opened the lid and started eating, keeping the game screen in front of her and watching the little people in the base gather for a meeting.

Since the auction incident, Tenglong Base had been constantly updating. Li Weilan remembered it very clearly. They had noticed the zombie tide heading towards Tenglong Base on their way there.

However, the Tenglong Base is not a small base either. It has been able to stand in the apocalypse for so long because it has its own set of defense systems and security measures that keep it from falling. This time, its downfall may not only be because of the change of power within Tenglong. According to Li Weilan’s speculation, there should be other reasons.

For a long time, humans were able to withstand the attacks of millions of zombies because the zombies were only blindly attacking humans. But in the past year, not only humans but also zombies have shown clear signs of evolution. They have become faster, more agile, and seem to have begun to use simple tools.

Therefore, the fall of Tenglong Base is likely to sound an alarm for all other bases, as it is the only major base to have fallen in the past month. Of course, as fellow humans, they hope that this will be the last.

The main character entered the meeting room and calmed down a bit. Curious, she clicked on the icon for “Tenglong Base” and was surprised to find a row of hidden small characters above the base image:

[Accepting refugees from Tenglong Base unlocks the ‘Fall of Tenglong Base’ cutscene. Prerequisites not met.]

Shen Cheng furrowed her brows slightly. She didn’t know how detailed this so-called “cutscene” was and how much benefit it would bring to the upcoming zombie siege and Noah Base in a month. As for the evacuees, if it was suitable for Noah’s own development, Li Weilan and his team would accept them, right?

The conference room inside the base has been closed with the sign “In a meeting” on the door. It wasn’t until Shen Cheng finished her instant noodles that the meeting was over. The game then updated with a task prompt:

[Long-term task for this month: Please help Noah Base complete the preliminary preparations for the zombie siege.

Recruiting (ability users): 0/200

Food preparation: 200 people’s rations * 90

Uniforms: 0/200

Weapons (sets): 0/200]

“!!!” This task seems a bit too demanding.

Shen Cheng took another look and found out that in the short time they had the meeting, the little ones in the base had actually created a super-complete point exchange system. This system not only regulated the behavior of all ability users and ordinary people, but also established a very detailed standard for how to exchange benefits, food, and weapons in the base.

With this system in place, the subsequent operation of the base can be stably maintained.

Shen Cheng thought for a moment and clicked on the satisfaction sections for “Food” and “Clothing” of the little people in the base. She found that their satisfaction with these two items was relatively low.

Although it was already good that all the little people said they could eat their fill, the food in the base is currently relatively simple. It seems that it is necessary to increase the variety of food in the base, improve the taste, and make clothes.

There were a lot of little people in the tent area above the base that were still marked as “To be determined”. Shen Cheng tried to drag a yellow-green little person, but found that she had to drag the whole family at once.

This game is actually quite interesting. Shen Cheng clicked on each little person and found that each one has their own background story. If you only drag one person into the base, they may struggle and cry towards their family members, completely unlike other games that set all characters as single.

Shen Cheng is a soft-hearted person. Basically, if she sees that the whole family is coming together and the friendly level of one or two people towards the base is similar, she will choose to allow the family to enter at once. This operation can turn those, who brought their families, from yellow to green, especially those who brought their whole family.

But at the same time, Shen Cheng also discovered a sigh-inducing fact: even so, there were very few elderly and children waiting in the base, and most of the elderly and children who could reach here had an ability user relative. The rest…may not survive.

Among the elderly, almost no one has developed an ability. The end of the world is not only a disaster for civilization, but also for families.

**

Qi Hang nervously and excitedly stood with his wife and elderly father at the steel gate of the Noah Base, and he didn’t expect them to be the first to be let into the Noah Base.

In his bag was a large kitchen knife, and behind him, the handcart carried all their remaining belongings.

The kitchen knife had already begun to dull from chopping zombies on the way, but it was the only mark he left before the end of the world. Qi Hang was not willing to throw it away, so it was still in his bag.

As soon as the gate opened, a white mist rushed towards him, and the sound of “sizzle” kept ringing in his ears. Qi Hang’s heart tightened: What’s going on? Ambush? Anesthesia? Explosion?

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Could this base actually be a robber base where people kill and steal things?

He was just about to resist, when he heard a mechanical voice in his ear: “Disinfection complete. Identity check complete. Clear. You may enter.”

Then there was a “drip”, and the inner door opened.

Qi Hang finally breathed a sigh of relief and felt that his wife’s hand was also icy. He squeezed her hand and stepped into the interior of the base.

As soon as he entered the base, he opened his mouth wide: he had originally prepared himself to enter a dark and damp underground world, but the interior of this base was clean and tidy, with only a cold metallic atmosphere, and no feeling of darkness that he had in basements before the end of the world. The lights inside the base were bright, and the people coming and going all had a hopeful light that only existed before the end of the world. Qi Hang had not even seen this kind of hope in some of the larger bases he had visited.

“You guys are new here, right?” greeted a young man, who looked at Qi Hang’s family and said, “The base only has a large dormitory for now, but can we arrange you in one room?”

As he quickly arranged accommodations and food, he asked, “Do you have any special skills?”

“…,” Qi Hang hesitated for a moment, unsure if the other person would laugh at what he was about to say, but he still spoke up, “I have a mutated sense of taste. Before the apocalypse, I was a chef.”

This ability was completely ignored in most large bases, and some people even mocked him for having such a useless ability. However, the words fell into the young man’s ears and he instantly became excited, “A chef?” he exclaimed, “Come with me!”

The young man brought Qi Hang to the base’s kitchen, where he saw kitchen utensils, spices, fresh black fish, and rice noodles. Qi Hang widened his eyes and took a deep breath. He couldn’t help but swallow his saliva as he walked up to the cutting board in shock. He noticed some leftover dishes from lunch, picked them up, sniffed them lightly, and couldn’t help but furrow his brow, “This is what you guys ate before?” The cooking was terrible, the seasoning didn’t penetrate the ingredients, and the knife skills were subpar. What a waste of good ingredients that the base could or could not have seen after the apocalypse!

The young man nodded like a chick pecking rice, “Why don’t you try making dinner first? Our base chefs have high contribution points…”

When Qi Hang heard the word “contribution points,” he immediately nodded.

On that day, everyone in the base had a meal made by the head chef, and the base’s population slowly began to increase.

**

Shen Cheng logged off the game and thought back to the video call with her cub. She felt like something wasn’t quite right.

Oh, right!

She remembered what was wrong!

Her cub’s face was so handsome that if it was played by a real person, he could be a celebrity!

Every expression was so real, every emotion vividly portrayed. He looked so real, but if he was a real person, how could he not be famous? How could he have never been mentioned before?

This just didn’t make any sense!

And then there were the other people she had met at the base. Even though Fu Yanzhou was introverted, he was still a handsome guy. Xi Bei was a sweet little girl, while Yan Hongyu was an icy cold beauty. With the current technology in the world, it’s still impossible to create so many people with such different styles and such lifelike details, right? Or could it be that this game, like Detroit: Become Human, used real people for motion capture and then imported them into the game? Even the voice acting was designed in advance by AI using trigger words?

Making such a game… wouldn’t the game company go bankrupt?

Shen Cheng couldn’t help but feel scared when she thought about it. She opened Baidu and started searching for the game called “The Last Survivor.” She remembered finding a lot of reviews about the game the last time she searched, and this time, she added “real-life role-playing” to her search. She found some videos of game company actors introducing themselves, and in one of the videos, she saw a screenshot of a person who looked almost identical to Li Weilan sitting on stage with a microphone.

Ah, so it really was played by a real person!

Shen Cheng finally breathed a sigh of relief and gently lowered her shoulders. It was only then that she realized that her heart had been beating abnormally fast since she opened the webpage.

What a silly idea.

That kind of thing is impossible. If he was a real person, then their interactions would become a more advanced version of a life-simulation game, right? If she thought about it carefully, the game’s worldview would collapse.

This is how it should be…

Shen Cheng didn’t realize that, in addition to feeling relieved, there was also a faint sense of disappointment in her heart, although she didn’t know what exactly she was disappointed about.

She closed the webpage and let out a sigh: “Okay, just focus on raising the cub. Don’t pay attention to the real-life role-playing actor.”

The most important thing was just her cub in the game.

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Sandy: Damn manipulative game. They even created fake search results and stuff

Shen Cheng propped her chin with her hands, lost in thought for a moment.

After about half a minute, she finally made up her mind. But before clicking “Agree”, Shen Cheng first adjusted her hair and pulled down her nightgown collar a bit. She wasn’t wearing a bra, but it didn’t matter since the other side wouldn’t be able to see it anyway. Plus, realistically, the phone screen could only show her face and upper chest.

Shen Cheng rubbed her face shyly, trying to snap out of it. “Hey, idiot, wake up! Why do you feel so shy as if you’re meeting someone online?”

It’s not like it’s a real video call! He’s just an AI, and one that you raised at that. How can you show such a feminine side to your cub?

If it were a real face-to-face meeting with her cub, she should be assertive and show her maternal side!

As Shen Cheng thought about this, she suddenly felt a bit more strength in her hand, which she had just wanted to pull back in fear.

She was afraid that this “video call” had a time limit, so she quickly adjusted her clothes and finally clicked “yes”.

Li Weilan’s eyes widened in that moment.

She clicked “yes”!

He suppressed his excitement and smiled slightly at the camera. “Cheng Cheng, good evening.”

It was already night on her side, and the room was dimly lit. On her desk was a box of instant noodles with a Kindle on top, probably waiting for the noodles to cook.

Life was so simple, with bare walls and a room that didn’t look like a girl’s. The more Li Weilan looked at it, the more heartbroken he felt. He thought for a moment… both he and the base were like blood-sucking parasites clinging to her.

She should use her money to buy herself some good food and clothes. At her age, young girls should be happy talking about cosmetics and buying new clothes, shouldn’t they?

She shouldn’t be accompanied by game characters…

While despising his own desire to keep her from leaving, Li Weilan couldn’t help but feel heartbroken for her.

His mentality was so contradictory, but in Shen Cheng’s eyes, the person on the other side of the video was a handsome, manly mature man with every feature that hit her G-spot. His gaze was focused on her face, as if she were the most precious treasure in the world. He was dressed in a simple uniform that was clean and tidy, but the lines of his muscular body were flowing and complete, revealing broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and long legs.

Her face turned red, and even though she was looking at a game character, she couldn’t help but feel that… how could something similar to a real person be so real? With today’s technology, can simulations be so accurate? Her breath caught in her throat, and she didn’t even dare to look up at his expression, so she missed the surprise and amusement that flashed through his eyes. “Ah… it seems that his drawing style is not childish today.”

Li Weilan looked at his own uniform, slightly adjusting his posture, trying to make his waist more upright and his back straighter. However, seeing her somewhat stiff gaze and the faint blush on her cheeks, Li Weilan felt a growing sense of joy in his heart: She’s satisfied, that’s great!

It took Shen Cheng a while to control her pounding heart, but she still couldn’t look directly into his deep and charming eyes. She only whispered, “Good evening, Li Weilan.” Oh no! This game is too much, even if he wants to seduce me to keep playing, he doesn’t need to suddenly turn from a cartoon into a real person!

He’s really handsome, but… she doesn’t even dare to look him in the eye! Why does she feel like there are stars in his eyes?

Even the corners of his mouth, which vaguely revealed a small dimple, seemed to be holding back a smile that could make one’s heart race.

Li Weilan could hear the difference in her tone from usual.

He sensed her shyness, and suddenly felt much better: after all, she had realized that he was also a mature man, even if only in the game, which was better than her always treating him like a child, right?

If she continued to treat him like a child, he would eventually leave, because a child could not always be with her.

As for what he wanted to become to her… Li Weilan had not yet thought it through.

Maybe… an online friend from a different world?

That was probably the best ending he could think of right now.

Li Weilan smiled and steered the conversation towards the base: “Everyone in the base is very grateful to you.”

“Ah…” Shen Cheng always felt breathless when she looked at his face. His earnest gaze, like a blazing fire, followed her closely, and could easily make her face blush. Fortunately, he let her off and switched the topic to the base. She was like someone who had just drunk alcohol, a little dazed, and was only brought back to reality by his words. She smiled shyly, “I didn’t do anything.”

“No, you gave them a future,” Li Weilan said softly. “Without you, many people would have already given up. In this world, ordinary people live too difficultly.”

“Mmm.” Shen Cheng empathized with this, and nodded, “We have to work hard. There are still so many wanderers in the wasteland,” she thought of the people still being screened by the base and trying to get in, “If we can be the hope for the future, Noah might become something someday.”

Li Weilan chuckled softly. She’s so gentle.

That is something he never thought about.

All he wanted was revenge, and at first, the most he wanted was to die with his enemies, destroy all the research institutes and Dawn light , and destroy those things that harmed people.

However, when she spoke those words, when she spoke those seemingly childish dreams, he never thought that he would not follow her wishes.

If she wanted, he also hoped that he could become a person like her one day.

“We are already hoping now.” Li Weilan’s deep eyes followed her face closely, carefully choosing his words. Every time he spoke, he reminded himself that he was just an “AI” and should not say anything inappropriate or do anything that might scare her. “Shall I show you around the base?”

Shen Cheng nodded involuntarily.

Li Weilan took her for a walk around the base, and Shen Cheng saw all the base members who had previously been just paper figures to her.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Yan Hongyu was a cool and elegant lady, Xi Bei was a soft little girl, Xi Nan was basically a standard sister control, a small follower running back and forth with his younger sister. Fu Yanzhou was extremely social phobic and basically liked to stay in the lab and not come out. Through the white walls, one could see his handsome but pale profile. Su Yun, who had just evolved, was a pretty woman, but there seemed to be something hidden in her gentle and watery eyes. And there was Quan Quan, sleeping under the fish pond, with water ripples vibrating back and forth, but the little fish swimming happily by its side.

No matter who it was, their attitude towards Li Weilan was respectful and admiring. Li Weilan took her for a walk and sighed lightly, “This base is yours. It will always be yours. We’ll wait for the day you come back.” Even if that day never comes.

“… ” Shen Cheng felt as if her heart had been pinched by someone, a bit of twisting and soreness.

“Shen Cheng, ” Li Weilan looked at her and suddenly smiled slightly, “we are going to be okay. You need to take care of yourself first, okay?”

“… ” Shen Cheng hesitated for a moment, “I have been taking good care of myself.”

“Your face looks very pale.”

You seem very tired.

If it weren’t for my selfishness, I would even tell you not to play games anymore.

Li Weilan held back these words in his heart and carefully said to her, “Please take care of yourself, okay? We don’t need to develop so quickly…”

Before he could finish, an alarm bell rang in the base with a “didi didi” sound. Shen Cheng looked at his phone, and although it was originally a serious matter, she couldn’t help but burst out laughing: official backlash is the most deadly!

He wanted her to spend less money, take good care of herself, and she understood!

She understood his meaning and would really spend less money from now on!

But when it’s time to spend, she still needs to spend! But she will really take care of her life first…this is the gentle reminder from him.

[The Tenglong Base has been destroyed.]

[The next wave of zombies will arrive in one month. Countdown begins now. Please prepare the Noah Base.]

Not only did this message appear on Shen Cheng’s phone, but the main control room of the Noah Base also played this announcement and countdown simultaneously. Even other base members who had no idea where this information and mechanism came from heard this broadcast almost at the same time from their respective positions.

The base suddenly exploded.

Li Weilan heard the noise outside and had to interrupt the plan to continue chatting with her. But fortunately, the message that he really wanted to convey, which was to prioritize taking care of herself, had already been conveyed.

He wanted to say something else, but the signal suddenly fluctuated and the screen in front of him suddenly flashed. After the blue light screen shook for a while, it suddenly disappeared.

Li Weilan opened his mouth.

“This is good, no need to say goodbye to her.”

Goodbyes between two worlds may be permanent every time they happen.

He would rather not say it, so that he can keep a thought.

The appearance and disappearance of the screen were both sudden. Li Weilan did not think it was a prank or something that could be done by the technology on their planet, so he was no longer as panicked as he was at the beginning. He just softly said, “Looking forward to meeting you again.”

This message turned into a bubble appearing on Shen Cheng’s phone screen. But this time, even though “cub” had returned to being a small paper person, Shen Cheng still remembered his heroic and lean figure from the video chat, and could not see him as “cub” anymore!

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Sandy: Long chapter eiii

The poison ability is also considered a very rare type of ability.

However, the woman named Su Yun who was confirmed to have awakened the poison ability was not very happy. First, she tested her own ability: the newly awakened ability was very weak, unlike those who were among the first to awaken their abilities after the meteorite impact, such as Li Weilan, who generally had at least second or third level abilities. Su Yun, whose ability was triggered by a drug, had a relatively weak ability and could barely demonstrate even first level ability during her first test.

So, what can a first level poison ability do?

It can probably just cause mild diarrhea or slight stomach pain in someone’s food.

After the initial excitement of awakening her ability faded, Su Yun became somewhat gloomy.

There are not many ability users in the base. Xi Bei happened to pass by and saw her sitting on the experimental bed, lost in thought. She lightly knocked on the door and walked over to ask her with a smile, “Congratulations, Sister Su, on awakening your ability.”

Su Yun smiled, but Xi Bei could see that there was still a hint of worry behind her smile.

Xi Bei was astute and immediately guessed the possible reason.

She calmly talked about her own experience with Xi Nan when they were bullied and how she was “pursued” and almost caused an ability outbreak. Seeing the look of emotion on Su Yun’s face, Xi Bei whispered, “Sister Su, my ability is just planting flowers and vegetables. It’s nothing special. Your ability is much more useful than mine. I envy you.”

“What’s the use of it…” Su Yun sighed, “If I awakened a plant or healing ability, it would be more useful for the base. Poison ability… Am I supposed to throw poison at the zombies outside?”

“Of course, it’s useless against zombies,” Xi Bei smiled, “But what about humans? Our base is not peaceful. With your ability being developed by a drug, our base will become a target. Just think about it, when that time comes, you can easily take down a large group of people. Isn’t that impressive?”

Su Yun was shocked and looked at the face of the young girl in front of her, who was sweet and smiled. She had a more thoughtful expression.

At first, she thought about the poison-type ability and believed it wouldn’t contribute much to the base, nor would it be useful for fighting mutants and zombies.

But she was not entirely correct. In this wasteland, the most poisonous thing is human nature!

She had always wanted to be a knife for the base, a dagger that would pierce the heart of the enemy and a hidden assassin who guarded from the shadows!

Then… isn’t this ability the most suitable for her?

Su Yun’s face showed a faint understanding, and Xi Bei quietly smiled. When Fu Yanzhou sneaked in, he saw someone wanting to escape, and Xi Bei winked at him and mouthed, “You owe me one.”

**

When Shen Cheng joined the game, a new mission popped up:

[The residents of the base seem to have new wishes. Please check and fulfill their desires to increase their loyalty! Current progress: 0/5. Reward: 200G upon completion.]

Shen Cheng saw many exclamation marks above the heads of the little characters walking around the base.

She first clicked on Su Yun, who was still sitting in Fu Yanzhou’s lab. At that time, the little character was looking at her palm, and her wish appeared next to her:

[I want to control my own destiny. Please help me improve my ability. Current base training facilities: 0.]

Su Yun wanted to train her ability!

Shen Cheng thought this was entirely logical: her newly awakened ability was only first-tier, and compared to Li Weilan, who was already at level 4 and had even advanced once, her ability was indeed weak. Girls didn’t want to rely on others for protection, but to become stronger themselves. Such a desire was very positive!

She looked through the base facilities and found a building called “Ability Simulation Training Grounds,” but it was a bit expensive at 200G. After impulsively spending a lot of money last time, Shen Cheng hesitated and didn’t immediately buy the training grounds. Instead, she chose to continue looking at other characters.

There were other girls in the base, and their wishes were basically “to awaken their ability abilities.” And basically… every girl who didn’t have ability abilities had made this choice!

Shen Cheng’s heart felt heavy: She hadn’t forgotten that the primary ability awakening potion had a 10% mortality rate, which meant that out of ten girls who tried to take the risk, one would die!

Fu Yanzhou had only made 20 bottles of the potion, and Shen Cheng had looked at the synthesis materials in the system and found that two of them, “High-Grade Strange Beast Blood” and “Life and Death Flower,” were relatively scarce. Although “High-Grade Strange Beast Blood” might be obtained by extracting blood from a high-grade strange beast like the octopus, “Life and Death Flower” was located in an extremely dangerous area on the map, which obviously couldn’t be conquered by them for the time being.

In other words, this batch of potions might be the last one before they went to gather raw materials.

Shen Cheng checked the physical fitness, psychological conditions, and loyalty of those girls and finally selected the five best candidates and sent them to the laboratory. After informing them of the danger again, the little people drank the “Primary Ability Potion.” It was unknown if it was because of their physical fitness, but none of the girls in this batch died, and two of them successfully activated abilities, gaining fire and strength abilities respectively.

After fulfilling their wishes to awaken their ability abilities, Shen Cheng clicked “Complete Mission” and used the 200G to buy an “Ability Simulation Training Ground,” which she placed in the base.

Watching the little people run in one by one and come out covered in sweat, Shen Cheng inexplicably felt satisfied and moved in her heart: It felt so good to be able to exchange her efforts for a better future!

The base has introduced an extremely high-tech “Ability Simulation Training Ground,” and Li Weilan naturally went to try it out.

The equipment in the Ability Simulation Training Ground is very simple: something similar to VR before the end of the world, but once you put it on, you can immediately enter a simulated area full of zombies.

In this area, Ability users will be stripped of their abilities and can only rely on their bare hands and the lowest level of ability to fight against the zombies that are all around.

The first wave of zombie monsters are also first-tier, but there are only three of them. However, by the second tier, there are nine of them, and then it increases to 21. Li Weilan only made it to the third level, but when he took off the helmet, he was surprised to find that the Ability he used in the virtual space seemed to also be consumed in reality, not just running out of it, but he also felt that the upper limit of his Ability had been slightly exceeded. More importantly, he had cut so many zombies in the mission space without the help of props and weapons. It was obvious that both the accuracy and proficiency of his space cutting ability had greatly improved.

Li Weilan immediately realized what was going on: by training like this, his Ability could be further upgraded!

No wonder the several newly awakened Abilities users who had trained before all had smiles on their faces!

If Li Weilan didn’t know that this might just be a game for her, he would have been ecstatic too.

But now, a faint haze has enveloped his joy.

Looking at the small person on the screen with sweat on his forehead and lost in thought, Shen Cheng was about to reach out and pinch his small face to say something when he suddenly heard the soft voice of cub, “You’re here!”

“Good evening!” Shen Cheng greeted him with a smile.

“How was your day today?” Cub suddenly changed his opening.

Oh, could it be that because the mission in the base has progressed, the relationship between cub and me has changed too?

Shen Cheng happily thought to herself and said to Li Weilan with a smile, “Thanks to you, my life has improved recently.” It was true that her life had improved. Her roommate was afraid of her like a tiger, and setting up a stall outside had increased her income. At least, if she continued at this pace, she would have no problem moving to a better place or having more money on hand.

“Really?” Cub murmured, his face showing a hint of sadness. “But one day, you will leave me, won’t you?”

“What?” Why was cub so worried again?

Before Shen Cheng could say anything, a barrage suddenly popped up in the game:

[Li Weilan wants to have a video call with you: accept or decline? Y/N]

“What?” Shen Cheng widened her eyes in this instant. A video call? A video call?

She hastily looked at herself and the small boxes piled up in the room and exclaimed, diving into her pillow.

Although…although she knew that cub was probably just a paper cutout, he could see her messy room, even if it was just virtual ‘seeing’. Thinking about his possible reaction, she felt so embarrassed!

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

What Shen Cheng didn’t know was that while she was hesitating whether to say yes or no, a huge screen appeared in front of Li Weilan. It also showed this line of words:

[Cheng is considering whether to have a video call with you], and below it, he could see the soft, white, tender little girl biting her lips, rolling up her nightdress at the base of her thigh, her fingers scratching the blanket unnaturally, and a faint blush appeared on her face. Perhaps she was hesitating!

Li Weilan trembled all over, his eyes widened, but he didn’t dare to make a sound, afraid that if he breathed too hard, the transparent screen from who knows where would disappear the next second.

What he saw…was Cheng, right?

Yes! It’s Cheng, isn’t it!

Originally, she lived in the same world as him!

But… her life is so difficult!

Li Weilan’s gaze swept over her cramped room and the boxes piled up inside with a heart full of pity. He felt a heavy weight on his chest just from breathing: for someone who was so kind to everyone, what kind of life did she lead on a daily basis!

But even so, her attitude towards life remained optimistic and positive. In such an environment, flowers still bloomed in her heart.

Even towards the paper people in her heart, she treated them with patience and tenderness, rather than with disdain and self-determination.

Li Weilan greedily reached out to lightly touch her cheek, which still had small hairs, but when he just raised his hand and saw her stunned expression, he immediately realized something and put his hand back: no, he couldn’t let her realize he was a real person.

Otherwise, she would definitely be scared away.

It’s true. If it wasn’t for the fact that even a fantasy world like the Apocalypse has come to reality, he might not be able to accept the possibility that his world is just a game.

Don’t scare her.

Li Weilan tried his best to appear calm, only slightly tilting his head and looking at the screen with hopeful eyes. But deep down, he silently prayed to all the gods and buddhas, hoping that whichever deity was in charge of this matter would kindly let her agree.

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Sandy: he can see her now. Yessssss Lanlan, my poor cub, if Chengcheng is too busy, you can come to this translator too hehehe

Cub hasn’t paid attention to her for two days.

Shen Cheng was simply unable to eat or sleep well. Cub was like he was possessed, completely out of his mind.

She knew it wasn’t right, but her cub, whom she had spent money to raise, was angry and giving her the silent treatment. It was only natural for her to worry!

That day, when she told him she was his “mother,” he immediately threw a tantrum.

Shen Cheng knew it was wrong the moment the words slipped out of her mouth. After all, the command she usually used to activate them in the game was “Hello, Li Weilan”. She guessed that this requirement was probably because the AI might become violent when it heard other names. But now, she accidentally called him “cub,” and now everything was wrong.

It’s all my fault for being too quick with my mouth!

She had been observing him carefully for two days, and strangely, cub had not shown any anger or unhappiness. He was just cold and unresponsive, playing by himself. If she had to say something, it was like he had turned into a plastic pet. On the surface, he was all smiles, but deep down, it was like there was a volcano waiting to erupt.

Even when he looked at her, Shen Cheng felt like she was being questioned and observed.

But she didn’t know how to explain it.

How could she explain why she called herself “mother”?

The first time she said “mother,” he didn’t ask much about it. The second time she said “mother,” she made up an excuse to get around it. But this time, she called him “cub” and then called herself “mother.” How could she make this sound right? It’s impossible to come up with a logical explanation for this!

Shen Cheng was extremely sad.

She was quick to speak, and now she was caught up in an explanation that couldn’t be made clear. She caused this problem herself, and now she had to deal with it herself. She had angered her cub, and she could only comfort him herself.

Actually, Li Weilan didn’t want to make things difficult for her.

He wasn’t as emotional as he appeared to be.

Her calling him “cub” and referring to herself as “mother” had already given Li Weilan a clue about their relationship.

With the information he had previously received and this new address, he already knew how she saw him: probably as a cartoonish, cute, and soft creature. No wonder she always wanted to rub his own head, which is not normal towards a person who was somewhat an oppressive adult male. She obviously thought of him as a soft, little animal!

And the reason was not that she was a giant monster. In the eyes of a giant monster, he would only be a different kind of creature, and how could he mistake her for his mother?

It was more likely that he was living in a two-dimensional world for her!

Not in the same dimension, not in the same world, and even unable to see the reality here.

Li Weilan’s mind was in chaos, and he couldn’t face her at all.

Especially since he knew in his heart that his dependence on her was more like a bond and a budding concern.

But what could he do?

Not in the same world, how could he cross this chasm?

Even as a giant monster, one that could swallow a city or even a whole landmass in one gulp, it was still possible to touch and feel things, but to her, he was more distant than the distance between heaven and earth.

Li Weilan spent three whole days sorting out his emotions.

Shen Cheng couldn’t help but poke his face carefully: “Yin yin yin, Li Weilan, don’t be angry, I promise not to call you ‘cub ‘ again, okay?”

(Note: yin yin yin is crying sound).

When she poked him, Li Weilan was actually calm.

But from her tone, Li Weilan felt her concern. He was moved, but on the surface, he calmly asked, “What about the experiment? Do you still plan to be the test subject?”

Of course, the experiment had to be done.

Shen Cheng was a bit hesitant and reluctant to tell the truth: it was just a projection clone she bought through recharging, not her real self. Without any feeling, it was like creating a paper doll out of thin air for Fu Yanzhou to experiment on. And since completing the mission would benefit the base, what was the problem? Shen Cheng didn’t quite understand.

Her hesitation was actually the answer.

Li Weilan sighed, “Me asking Fu Yanzhou to stay was already the biggest challenge to my bottom line. But if you expect me to keep conceding, to the point where I allow him to experiment on a part of your body that you don’t care about, then you don’t understand me at all.”

“… ” Shen Cheng could only remain silent.

“I have a fantasy,” his voice was gentle, as if any more weight would shatter this dream, “that one day you will open your eyes in this body, smile at me, and say ‘good morning’ face to face. That’s my biggest dream right now.”

His gaze turned sharply towards her direction, as if he could see the operator sitting behind the screen. “Even though I know it’s just a dream, I can’t bear to see your body broken and shattered in front of me, and this dream being torn apart. Promise me, don’t shatter it, okay?”

Even with a cartoonish appearance, his expression still made it difficult for anyone to refuse.

For some reason, Shen Cheng sensed a strong sense of plea in his tone, as if in his heart, at least at this moment, he was focused and unwavering.

Although the mission probably couldn’t be completed anymore, since this was what he wished for, and he had already said so much…

Alright then.

She obediently, a bit regretfully, agreed: “Okay.”

Li Weilan smiled slightly and reached out to touch the screen on his end. For some reason, Shen Cheng felt as though his gaze was piercing through the barrier of the screen and focusing on her face. “Thank you, Cheng.”

It seemed like offering her body was not an option anymore. Previously, Shen Cheng had only briefly extended the usage time of her body, but the most frustrating thing was that the extension had to be purchased with RMB through a weekly card and couldn’t be substituted with gold coins. Since the body was not needed for the task at hand, she decided not to spend any more money on it for now.

There were too many places in the base that required money, between spending on the body and spending on infrastructure, mother really couldn’t keep up.

As the two seemed to have come to an agreement, a thin, weak voice suddenly came from the side, sounding timid: “What does ‘broken and shattered’ mean? What do you guys think my experiment is about?”

“???” Li Weilan turned around, and Shen Cheng changed her point of view.

Both of them looked over to the corner, where they saw a figure crouched on the ground. Fu Yanzhou bravely stood up–he had felt that something was off that day and had originally wanted to clarify something, but his social anxiety made it difficult to figure out what to say. It wasn’t until he heard Li Weilan’s conversation with Shen Cheng this time that he realized he had been completely deceived, so he gathered his courage to come out and explain: “My experiment doesn’t require fragmentation. I’m just testing the system and route of ability operation, and all I have to do is use up the energy every day…”

“???!!!” Li Weilan and Shen Cheng were both shocked.

Okay, social anxiety Fu, you’ve killed someone with your deception!

When they heard the word “scientist” and thought about previous experiments, both of them imagined scenes of crazy scientists in white coats cutting up strong men and weak women. Who knew that he was talking about this?

What’s there to argue about? If Shen Cheng is needed, she can just work a little harder and use up more blue energy!

It’s so simple!

“……” Li Weilan was silent for a while, then looked at Fu Yanzhou wordlessly and said, “Do you know that you almost died?”

“???” Fu Yanzhou’s face showed obvious confusion.

He immediately thought of something and stammered, “I won’t reveal your bedroom secrets, I promise! I have no interest in other people’s private sexual preferences! Whether you call each other mother and son or something else is your personal preference, I promise not to discriminate, spread, or object!” He was full of survival instincts! Full of survival instincts!

“…” Fu Yanzhou, you’re dead!

**

Shen Cheng handed her projection over to Fu Yanzhou for research.

She could check the progress of the research at any time, and Fu Yanzhou’s research progress was completely open to her. So even though Li Weilan was initially not at ease and basically squatting in Fu Yanzhou’s laboratory, she gradually saw that Fu Yanzhou was not doing anything strange to her ‘body’. He was indeed just examining her use of the energy circuit and other things, so she put her mind at ease.

Every day when Shen Cheng logged on, she could see that the progress of the experiment was moving forward. After about twenty days, the progress bar of the “Primary Energy Stimulant” in Fu Yanzhou’s hands finally reached full.

The first person in the base to drink the unstable solvent that was still in Fu Yanzhou’s mouth as an “experimental product” was one of the women rescued by Yan Hongyu and the others.

On the way to escape, her husband became an ability user, and soon after he left her because she didn’t have any abilities and would only hold him back.

What she had hoped for the most before was to eventually become an ability user herself, and to give that man who had cheated on her a slap in the face and tell him how foolish he was. But she had heard that if you didn’t stimulate your energy within two months after the meteorite fell, it would be impossible to do so in this lifetime.

She had long given up on that dream.

The woman’s fingers trembled slightly as she looked at the bottle that was said to be “unstable,” which was not a finished product solvent. “You don’t have to drink it,” Li Weilan reiterated, “Fu Yanzhou said that the reagent may still be adjusted for proportion and efficacy. Waiting for a while will be more secure.”

The woman said “thank you” but asked, “What is the likelihood of triggering an ability?”

Fu Yanzhou had been silent with his head down all along, and now he said, “The probability of successful stimulation is 35%, the probability of death is 10%, and the probability of no effect is 55%. Further adjustments are possible, but it will take at least several months. This is already the best state that the remaining materials I have on hand can achieve.”

The woman nodded. She didn’t hesitate anymore, tilted her neck and drank all the light blue liquid in the bottle without leaving a drop.

“Why wait,” tears gradually appeared in the woman’s eyes, “thank you for the base. Even if the medicine is unstable, if there is a 1% chance of triggering, I would be willing to take the risk of death to try it before. Moreover, now there is a 35% chance of success.”

The drug began to clash in her body, and the painful feeling twisted and convulsed her facial muscles little by little. The woman groaned softly, but still tried to smile, with her gaze slightly blurred.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

“Terrible!” Fu Yanzhou connected a large number of wires to her body and manipulated the instrument. His face looked a little ugly. “We can’t let her lose consciousness! Once she passes out, the probability of death will soar to 40%…”

Chen Feng, who had been watching silently by the side, spoke up at this moment. “Let me bring Xiao Ai over.” The woman liked children the most, and among the children, she liked Xiao Ai the most.

Maybe letting Xiao Ai call her name could stimulate her will to survive.

Xiao Ai quickly came over.

The soft and gentle girl saw the woman lying on the experimental bed in a half-comatose state, her face flushed red, and she anxiously grabbed Chen Feng’s hand, “Big sister! Big sister, what’s wrong with you!”

She still remembered the scars all over her sister’s body.

The child’s slightly frightened cries reached the woman’s ears.

She moved slightly, and the weight that seemed to be pressing on her body immediately dissipated. The woman struggled to open her eyes and vaguely saw the little child crying by the bed.

“She’s awake…” Fu Yanzhou nodded slightly. “The values are starting to stabilize.”

The woman felt a rush of air flowing through her body, like it was trying to find a way out but couldn’t.

That rush of air was completely unrestrained, like it had gone crazy, wildly rushing around, causing her whole body to sweat profusely, and her skin to turn red as if it had been boiled.

Her eyes gradually turned red, and after a few more minutes, threads of blood began to seep out of her facial features.

Xiao Ai looked at her face, which had twisted but still recognizable, turn into a bloody mess, and cried out, “Waah!” while grabbing Chen Feng’s hand, “Brother, brother, save big sister, her face is covered in blood…”

The crying kept the woman’s mind clear for the last moment.

Suddenly, a “achoo” sound came from the woman’s nose, and a deep black liquid sprayed out, stinking and unpleasant. As soon as the blood flowed out, she immediately felt relaxed.

She vaguely felt that there was something more in her chest.

Fu Yanzhou saw that she had regained consciousness, tested her with an instrument, and nodded with some excitement: “Congratulations, you have awakened the poison ability.”

“Poison ability?” the woman asked weakly.

“Yes, as long as you want, everything you touch in the future will become poisonous,” Fu Yanzhou said flatly. Although his tone was calm, anyone could hear that he was extremely excited at the moment.

Yes, there was finally a hope for the ordinary people in the base.

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Sandy: are the abilities reflected on a person’s own mental state? Like the woman’s motivation was to faceslap her ex-husband and probably thought about using poison to kill him or something 🧐

Cub didn’t respond immediately.

The dark room was not lit, with only faint light coming in from the corridor outside, creating a dark and blurry silhouette.

He remained silent in the dark for a long time, and it was only after a while that his hoarse voice was heard: “No need.”

After saying this, cub seemed to gradually recover.

He repeated, “There’s no need for that. Fu Yanzhou’s ability is very useful for the base… um…”

His mouth was gently covered, with the touch as gentle as the wind, leaving a lingering warmth.

Shen Cheng fingertips pressed against his lips through the screen. In the darkness, she couldn’t see the faint blush on his face, but she earnestly told him, “What matters is not the base, but you.”

What matters is your happiness, your ability to live like a human.

The base exists for you, it’s built for you, and mother even spent money on it for you.

Cub lowered his head.

He coughed lightly, and his voice seemed to finally have a bit of vitality: “We won’t expel him, but I won’t cooperate with his experiment, is that okay?”

Meeting his flickering eyes, Shen Cheng almost wanted to agree without hesitation.

At this moment, a new task prompt appeared on the screen:

[Do you want the protagonist to cooperate with the experiment? Y/N Please note: the experiment result is extremely important for the base.]

Without hesitation, Shen Cheng clicked “N”. This was a rubbish game with a crappy plot. Did they really need to include such an option? Was cub important to the base? She played this game not to become a dragon among men in the apocalypse, nor to dominate the world. She only hoped that, at least in the game, cub could live happily.

The scene after choosing “Y” is something that Shen Cheng cannot even bear to think about. Whenever she imagines the possibility of her little cub being bound to the experimental table again, a feeling of resentment fills her chest: not only towards the people who have hurt him before, but also towards the game planner.

But she immediately becomes fearful: she chose “NO,” but what if there are many, many players who choose “YES” for the sake of their bases? How much harm will her cub have to endure?

Li Weilan let out a long sigh of relief.

Yes, what importance do those other people have?

Isn’t it enough that it’s only her?

Shen Cheng was just thinking about how to express her concern for him, but her cub had already stood up from the bed.

He turned on the light, with no hint of sadness or anger on his face. Instead, there was complete calmness. However, in his eyes, which were looking into the void, there seemed to be a particularly fervent light: “I think we need to talk to Fu Yanzhou again. There are still many doubts in what he said.”

Shen Cheng hesitated.

Li Weilan went back to the next room.

Fu Yanzhou was still standing in the corner of the room, with his back against the wall. His toes lightly tapped the ground as he hung his head, expressionless.

When he saw Li Weilan come in, he raised his face slightly, seeming to squeeze out a faint smile with some effort: “Have you figured it out?”

There was a loud bang.

Before Fu Yanzhou could finish his sentence, he was pushed to the ground by a huge force. He felt an irresistible force on his head and groaned before being pinned to the ground. After struggling for a few times, he failed to get up. Fu Yanzhou sat on the ground with an expressionless face, looking at the dust, dirt, and grime on his white clothes with disgust.

Li Weilan watched the scene and slightly curved his lips. In this smile, there was finally no shadow. Yes, why be angry? When he hadn’t had the chance to be angry, someone had already been angry for him, someone had taken action for him with true feelings. Wasn’t that enough?

“Watch your words,” Li Weilan smiled lightly and pointed his finger at the void, saying to Fu Yanzhou, “After all, she is on my side.”

Fu Yanzhou felt an unknown force on his head and suddenly realized that he seemed to know nothing about the reality of this world.

A rare hint of confusion floated in his eyes, and he nodded somewhat dazedly.

“You said that experiment was proposed by you…” Li Weilan asked the first question, “but why have I never seen you or heard of you?” He had been to four laboratories and had stayed in each laboratory for about three months during each repeated torture. He remembered the face of every enemy clearly in the darkness, and those faces became clearer and clearer, and every name was shocking. But not him.

Li Weilan knew clearly that Fu Yanzhou was not among them.

“Because I was exiled for opposing their experimental plan from the beginning of the experiment,” Fu Yanzhou said. “I did propose to monitor and test the first contactees of the meteorite, because the reactions on your bodies are the initial form of abilities. Especially you, I suspect that you are the first person to obtain abilities, and the spatial ability is particularly special. So the abilities on your body may be the reason for the emergence of other abilities. But…” He frowned slightly, “they hoped that you could upgrade your abilities as soon as possible, and their testing method was through pain. However, I believe that evolution is not just through pain and the brink of death.”

Although he was pressed to the ground, his gaze was still calm and cold, just like he didn’t care about his safety and life and death: “I found you by following that tree. That tree was one of our test subjects, and it had a tracker on it that would record some reaction data and footage.” Looking at Li Weilan’s slightly anxious expression for a moment, Fu Yanzhou shook his head lightly, “I have destroyed the data on the tree. Don’t worry, they won’t find you.”

Fu Yanzhou rarely spoke so much. His social anxiety made him reluctant to reveal too much even if he sat on the ground with his back against the wall. In fact, Fu Yanzhou rarely thought about whether he should feel guilty towards his former experimental subjects. However, looking at him standing in front of him alive and with a completely different look from before, he suddenly remembered his previous proposal: it was he who had the laboratory place them all under supervision and provided the initial direction for the experiment. Although it was ultimately those people who stole his experimental plan, he was the first to propose the idea.

Li Weilan breathed a sigh of relief.

Looking at Fu Yanzhou sitting on the ground, he said coldly, “I won’t cooperate with your research.”

“Okay, that’s your choice.” Fu Yanzhou didn’t try to persuade him, he just sighed slightly disappointed. Although he was a research maniac, he knew very well that today’s Li Weilan was not the same as Li Weilan who had just obtained his abilities.

[Congratulations to the player for triggering the follow-up task of Fu Yanzhou’s research. Please provide enough research materials for Fu Yanzhou without using Li Weilan as a test subject. Upon completion of the research, you will receive: Ability Excitation Room (Primary), which will open up a skill excitation room for ordinary people.]

Shen Cheng frowned slightly.

The task was triggered, but she hadn’t decided whether to do it or not.

The Ability Excitation Room sounded great, but… can Fu Yanzhou’s responsibility in this matter just be overlooked?

Regardless, he caused such a miserable situation for the experimental subjects!

Even if he now says that he was not involved in the bloody experiment from beginning to end, he did not strongly oppose it either!

Can he escape from any responsibility?

Li Weilan sensed her dissatisfaction.

“Tell me,” he looked into Fu Yanzhou’s eyes and said each word slowly, “what is the name of the person who started this plan?”

“Chi Ning.” Fu Yanzhou lowered his eyelids. “His name is Chi Ning.”

He wasn’t lying. Li Weilan had heard this name vaguely and painfully before. At that time, he even wondered why this gentle name had a pair of hands stained with blood behind it.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Some experimental subjects had been drained of all their blood. On him, they drew blood, healed, drew again, and healed again. But the healing depended on overusing the body’s potential. During the bleeding process, Li Weilan gradually went from pain to numbness. Later, it seemed that he could feel a pair of slender eyes watching him behind the two-sided mirror, looking at his painful appearance.

Hatred took root and sprouted in his heart, but his ability upgraded in pain. Li Weilan even thought, why, even though he was mentally suffering, his ability did not die out, but instead had a greater space.

He wished his ability was a combat one.

If so, he would bury everyone in this research institute.

“Chi Ning…” Li Weilan chewed on this name twice and nodded.

Fu Yanzhou suddenly said softly, “Your spatial ability has upgraded, right? What I need is a high-level ability user as a research subject to study the cause and way of the body’s ability activation and upgrade. If you can cooperate with my research, and once my research produces results, I will take you back to the research institute. I still have the authority of the research institute, and I have connections there. As long as my research produces results, I can die without any regrets. If you still have hatred and anger towards me at that time, I can find a place to die on my own, and you don’t have to do it yourself.”

Li Weilan’s pupils contracted.

At this moment, her voice rang in his ear: “You don’t need to cooperate with him, I have a way.”

Shen Cheng didn’t understand why the game prompted her to “provide enough experimental props for Fu Yanzhou” at first, but when she heard their conversation saying “abilities are triggered from Li Weilan,” “the more powerful the ability, the more research value it has,” she knew the hidden meaning of the game: hey, you have to spend money!

She guessed what this task was for, but she wasn’t sure yet. She ordered Li Weilan to go outside.

Li Weilan was pushed out by her.

Shen Cheng silently took out the projection body, which she previously used to appear in front of Li Weilan, and slowly placed it in front of Fu Yanzhou. Fu Yanzhou was stunned for a moment, before he could say anything, he heard a “bang” from the door. The door, which had been closed properly, was suddenly pushed open. Li Weilan looked at the woman who had her eyes closed and was pale, he felt trembling all over.

He took two steps forward and knelt in front of the projection body. He looked at the void with a trembling voice: “Are you going to rip out my heart?”

He guessed her possible choice, but he was not at ease at all.

How could this be possible!

Li Weilan almost instantly drew out Thunder and held it to Fu Yanzhou’s neck, who still had a puzzled look on his face. He sneered, “If you choose to do that, I would rather shed blood today.”

??? Cub? That’s just a projection! Mother won’t feel any pain or anything!

Shen Cheng didn’t dare to provoke him. She looked at him holding the blade with lightning flashing on it, knowing he was not joking. She hurriedly stopped him: “That’s not my real body! I don’t feel anything! Besides, I don’t even know if it works…” She only guessed that the skills of this body were also very powerful, and the price of using this projection could be calculated by “week,” and the weekly price was not too expensive. She had previously thought that the game was preparing to let her control another character, but now it seemed that this projection was designed by the game for Fu Yanzhou to research.

However, she didn’t dare to say this to cub.

“Don’t lie to me!” Li Weilan said excitedly, not believing her at all.

Even if it wasn’t her body, there would still be a cost to creating it.

He already knew that her condition was not good. How could he let her pay the price for him?

Even if Fu Yan Zhou’s research was for the public, what did it have to do with them? Why should she pay the price for him?

She and them weren’t even from the same world!

“Cub,” Shen Cheng spoke with a heavy heart, exceptionally painful. She didn’t even notice that she was using an endearing term or that Li Weilan’s expression had almost cracked for a moment. “How could your mother lie to you!” Your mother will always be your mother. Why would a mother lie to her own cub?

Li Weilan froze.

Fu Yanzhou, who had been able to hear their conversation since the clone appeared, also froze. He sneakily glanced at Li Weilan and felt like he had heard something he shouldn’t have. This time, he might really be in danger of being silenced.

Oh no, what should I do if I heard my boss and his girlfriend using the endearing terms “mother” and “cub” for each other?

Urgent, online waiting!

Will playing dead work?

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Fu Yanzhou: What kind of sick game this couple playing? What mother and cub? Freaky!!!!

This chapter is dedicated to SOS13 for their Kofi support. The translators and I will continue to work hard (∩˃o˂∩)♡

Love,

Thingyan (Editor-in-cheese)

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

The grilled fish chunks were cooked until golden yellow and sprinkled with enough seasoning. The aroma was so tempting and crispy that it mercilessly crawled into the stomachs of the people who were generating electricity like lab rats. One of them ran and cried, and tears and snot dripped down with saliva.

With a “drip,” the machine detected his slowing speed and instantly popped up a warning: “Warning, your power output is insufficient. Do you want to enter rest mode?”

Resting time was only two hours a day, and at night, the hamsters running on the wheel collapsed on the big bunk beds, wishing they could sleep forever.

Over these past few days, the men who had attacked Noah base and wanted to capture the women inside as slaves had tasted the feeling of being constantly tortured by the machines. If they were even slightly slack, the machine’s tricks would make them hate their laziness.

The man who cried out could not stop. Looking at one of the men with a scar on his face, who was once full of trust, now only had dissatisfaction and anger. “If it wasn’t for you instigating, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Sob, sob, sob. I saw them already starting to select people outside the camp. If I waited a bit longer…”

The accused man coldly stared at him and continued to run, not wanting to speak.

The hamster wheel would squeeze out every bit of energy from you. When a person was exhausted, they naturally could not think about conspiracies and tricks. Therefore, instead of arguing with this person, it was better to save some energy and run a few more laps to finish generating today’s electricity and rest in time.

Every ounce of his strength, crying out now, only added more pain and prolonged the agony.

In the midst of their dispute and bickering, a little child holding fried fish passed by the door. The man who had just cried ran to the fence and reached out his hand towards the child, with eyes filled with longing: “Little girl, little girl, please let me smell it. I’m really hungry!”

They, the laborers, eat rations that are dry and hard, filling but not appetizing. Their mouths taste like birds.

Xiao Ai, the child carrying a fish fillet passing by the fence, looks curiously towards the direction of the fence. She meets the eyes of a pair of beasts that shine brightly with desire because of their thirst. Xiao Ai is startled and takes a step back involuntarily.

Behind her is her sister who came looking for her and witnessed this scene. She looks at the man kneeling in the shadow of the fence, who looks so hungry and dability userate that he is drooling, and she reaches out to touch Xiao Ai’s head, gently bringing the fish fillet to her lips.

The delicious taste makes Xiao Ai forget the twisted face she just saw. She takes a bite, but on the other side of the fence there is a wailing cry like a funeral, and the man over there is crying out, “Inhumane! Not only do they force us to work day and night, they are stingy with our food too…”

Xiao Ai silently glances over there and looks at her sister with understanding. The base is good to their group of children, allowing them to have separate rooms to live in and to have enough to eat and wear to keep warm. But Xiao Ai knows that not everyone is so lucky.

Outside in the wasteland, there are many children who starve to death. Although the food they eat is hers, it is also allocated to them by the base.

The woman looks at Xiao Ai’s sensible, clear eyes and lovingly touches her head – she can no longer have children. She had a miscarriage this year, but did not have time to rest and was continuously used by those bastard dogs. Her body has been destroyed.

So when she sees these children, she is especially patient with them, but when it comes to the men locked up, she says they should be killed instead of being used as waste.

Fu Yanzhou was holding a fish fillet and looking for a quiet place to finish eating before leaving, but he happened to witness the whole scene from beginning to end.

Before… he didn’t have much profound insight into the changes in social order after the apocalypse, because he had been avoiding crowds and living in a vacuum of ivory tower-like research environment.

But since the arrival of Noah…

A hint of gloom flashed in Fu Yanzhou’s eyes.

**

Shen Cheng’s earnings today were quite good.

She carefully observed the demands of customers throughout the day and found that the purchasing power of young girls accounted for the majority of her earnings.

This was something she hadn’t noticed before.

When Shen Cheng set up her stall, she often encountered bargaining aunties, and she was not good at dealing with them. Sometimes she couldn’t get away once she was entangled. Bargaining aunties who love to take advantage of others are not actually her target customer group. Today, Shen Cheng adjusted the level of her stall, just like some experienced stall masters, even the background and the cart were made in macaron colors. In short, it looked like it was tailored specifically for young women.

The aunties basically just looked and left.

Instead, her target customer group was attracted.

Shen Cheng redesigned the fruit plate this time, creatively wrote “calories” on it, hand-drew words like “low sugar”, “weight loss”, “fitness special”, “won’t make you fat”, and deliberately paired it with fruit that had similar “functional” characteristics. She tied up her hair with a net, stood beside the cart looking clean and neat, and the price was also clear at a glance.

This style turned out to be appealing to young customers.

Upon completing their workout, several male customers noticed the informative notes about specific fruits that she had displayed next to her stall. It was surprising for them to see a young girl running the stall with such confidence and knowledge. They saw that she was a young girl setting up a stall and decided to buy a plate out of sympathy. Finally, Shen Cheng experienced the satisfying feeling of selling out and closing the stall early.

When she got home… she had earned several hundred yuan!

Woo hoo, this advice from the godlike cub really worked!

At this moment, Shen Cheng was no longer agonizing over the 300 yuan she had spent earlier. After all, now that she had found a money-making goose, spending some of the cash didn’t feel as painful.

When she logged into the game, the projection time of her body had already arrived.

Shen Cheng looked at the small print next to the “projection” category:

[This feature is only for temporary experience, and new experience packages will be launched in the future. Please stay tuned.]

After a small smiley face, it was probably the game developer’s sarcasm;

[Future experiences will be unlocked based on the player’s willingness to spend money. Spend 998 yuan and take the main character home!]

“…What kind of shameless dialogue is this?”

Shen Cheng was sure that if she had seen such a direct “spend money quickly” statement when she first downloaded the game, she would have immediately given up and not played.

Isn’t this basically saying “hurry up and recharge your account so we can develop more game features for you to experience?”

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

This game company was so money-grubbing. How could anyone say that they wouldn’t spend money and just grind through the game?

Sheesh!

However, now that she had been playing for a long time and had actually developed real feelings for her virtual pet, combined with the “don’t abandon the game” agreement she had signed with the company, Shen Cheng thought for a moment and decided not to criticize them.

She clicked on the protagonist and found a new prompt appeared in the game:

[Your main character appears to be engaged in a conversation. Please remain quiet and observe to confirm the direction of the game.]

Li Weilan is indeed talking to Fu Yanzhou.

It is no secret that Fu Yanzhou, who suffers from social anxiety, likes to stay indoors at the base. When he finally stepped out of his laboratory, Li Weilan guessed that he must have something to say.

But what he didn’t expect was that Fu Yanzhou, who suffers from social anxiety, hit him with a straight ball as soon as he opened his mouth: “I want to study your ability. But I need your cooperation.”

Li Weilan’s face changed slightly.

He never expected this.

The painful experiences of the past flooded into his heart, the wounds that were repeatedly opened, the blood gushing out, the moaning, the pain, the bright red…

The memories of black and red intertwined like a tide, even though it was only a few seconds, made Li Weilan’s eyes faintly filled with pain.

“What do you know?” His voice and breath were a little unstable.

“I remember you,” Fu Yanzhou’s voice was mechanical and flat, he said dryly, “Code number 0325. You are one of the influencers closest to the meteor impact point. You are also the only surviving subject of the experiment.”

Li Weilan’s face changed.

Fu Yanzhou could feel the anger, darkness, and hostility exploding from him for a moment. His lips trembled a bit before he continued: “Dawn light is a failed study. But my proposal was not originally…”

“Your proposal?” Li Weilan’s voice changed slightly.

“My proposal,” Fu Yanzhou nodded awkwardly.

His gaze was calm, like a bottomless lake: “I’ve seen their experiments. That was not what I wanted. So I left.”

Long, dead silence.

In the end, Li Weilan said nothing, turned around and slammed the door shut before leaving.

A new task prompt appeared on the dark orange screen:

[The main character’s emotions are too unstable]

[Your cub needs your comfort. Please ensure your cub’s mental health.]

Having witnessed the entire conversation, Shen Cheng felt a heavy weight in her heart.

Fu Yanzhou may have been one of the researchers that Li Weilan had not met before, and may even have been one of the leaders of the research. It was inevitable that Li Weilan would hate him after learning all of this.

Before comforting him, Shen Cheng thought for a long time about how to handle the aftermath.

She knew that comforting someone in deep pain was often futile. What could really solve the rot and pain was cutting off the decayed flesh and letting the pus and blood out.

The base really couldn’t do without Fu Yanzhou.

Without him, the base’s technology tree would have to be temporarily frozen.

But the second research staff member could be found easily, while there was only one cub.

Moreover, in this matter, the cub had a sufficient position to directly expel or even fight Fu Yanzhou, but he did not do so.

He could choose to suppress his anger for the sake of the base, but as his mother, Shen Cheng could not take his understanding and goodwill for granted.

When you raise a sensible cub, you must repay him with more care!

So Shen Cheng gently rubbed his head and blurted out, “Let’s let Fu Yanzhou go.”

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Sandy: Just 998 yuan and you can take cub home? I’ll triple the price, send him this way. Thank you #smirk

After spending 300G on this, she regret it.

The mentality of playing games is always about spending more and more. Once you spend the first 300, will you stop at the second or third?

The higher the sunk cost in the early stage, the more intense the reluctance will be when you have to give up later. In the end, you will be forced into a mentality where you feel like you wasted all the effort you put in before not spending any money.

In theory, if it weren’t for the temptation of the little octopus, and if the crystal ball where the octopus currently lives didn’t have a time limit of only 24 hours, she could wait until she finished the next two daily quests before considering upgrading her fishpond.

But precisely because of the temptation of the little octopus, the early investment has become a sunk cost with a disguised lure. This is why she just spent 300G.

Although her projection showed no expression and could not express her true feelings, Shen Cheng let out a faint sigh. For some reason, Li Weilan heard a sense of ominous exhaustion in her sigh.

A sense of foreboding surged in Li Weilan’s heart. He quickly stepped forward and moved the little octopus, who was about to climb out of the crystal ball happily and jump into its new home, to one side. He blocked its view with a box before whispering, “Is there some kind of benefit exchange in the fishpond?”

He’s so sharp!

Shen Cheng did not expect that the AI would notice this. At this moment, she was even a little surprised. Is cub really just a character in the game? Can an AI really do something so considerate, careful, and delicate as observing her?

But after thinking about it for a moment, she realized that she just spent 300, and the game may have sensed her recharge. They might have sent cub out to comfort her to prevent her from leaving the game.

Shen Cheng knew that she felt a little bit heartbroken.

Although it’s understandable to feel sorry for someone who spends money on a game, blaming them for it — even if it’s just directed at a virtual character like cub — is not an acceptable attitude.

Shen Cheng smiled and said, “It’s like… um… similar to your credit points!”

“Money?” Li Weilan couldn’t believe that this was the answer he got.

Credit points were still important in the apocalypse, but in their world, the currency for exchanging these things was still money. So, was she still living in a safe and calm world?

He hesitated and asked tentatively, “Do you need money?”

Shen Cheng chuckled silently.

Cub’s eyes widened with cautious probing, as if afraid that his question would hurt her self-esteem.

Who doesn’t need money?

The upper limit of financial freedom is 1 billion, which is an amount she wouldn’t be able to earn even if she worked for a hundred years.

With her gentle laughter, Li Weilan immediately understood, and then a vague sense of numbness and bitterness washed over him.

Her laughter contained a touch of self-mockery. Presumably, there wasn’t much money in her life.

She needed money, but she was still willing to spend what little she had on the base. Ultimately, it was all for him.

He was important to her!

With this confidence, Li Weilan blurted out his next sentence: “Can I help you earn more money?”

“Eh?” Shen Cheng stared at the screen with wide eyes, stunned.

Did cub just say he wants to help me make money?

Although the game company had credit points and RMB exchange, the base was newly established. If cub helped Noah earn too many credit points in large quantities, it would definitely arouse suspicion from other bases. There was a limit to how much he could earn, so how could he make money?

The next sentence from Li Weilan plunged Shen Cheng deeper into confusion: “What do you usually do? Is there anything here that can be exchanged for money in your world?”

Shen Cheng had thought about this question before.

The concrete amount she produced each day was only one orange, which was worth only a few bucks at most. Of course, this was not a way to make a living.

As for concretizing things like gold and diamonds, let alone expensive jewelry, which was also hard currency in the end times, even the glittering jewels in the game might be shoddy goods and might not be worth much in the real world.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

She never thought of getting rich by concretization. So she asked Li Weilan, “Why do you think someone else can sell things at 1.5 times the price of mine, even though their goods aren’t as good as mine?”

There was a small stall opened next to her fruit stall during these few days. The owner of that stall was a pretty girl who was good at talking and had many advantages in setting up her stall.

She bought a highlight lamp and made her fruits shine brightly. The cut fruit tray looked clean and tidy. Some of Shen Cheng’s customers were diverted by that girl, and her business was not as good as when she just started.

The girl’s fruit plate was priced higher than hers, and Shen Cheng even saw twice that the girl had cut up almost-rotten watermelon before setting up her stall — obviously the cost would be lower.

But the other girl’s profit was higher than hers, and she sold better than her. If you don’t accept it, you’re out of luck!

Her words were a bit vague, but Li Weilan understood immediately: her life wasn’t as good as he imagined it to be.

She had to sell things with others?

What was she selling?

Doubts emerged one by one in his mind, but Li Weilan quickly guessed the reason: “If I was your customer, what would you sell to me?”

Watermelon!?

Shen Cheng was stunned.

What fruit did cub like to eat?

She seemed to really not know!

As she hesitated, another thought dawned on Li Weilan: did the things she sold also exist in their world?

He felt that his previous guess about her was completely wrong, and perhaps her world wasn’t much different from his own.

And her living environment wasn’t much better than his either.

She wasn’t the kind of deity he had imagined before, who wouldn’t eat meat and was aloof from the world. In her world, she also had to work hard and diligently to earn her daily meals.

So, during the time she wasn’t paying attention to him, was she just busy trying to survive?

“Sometimes selling the best things isn’t necessary, but rather selling what’s most suitable.” Li Weilan used himself as an example, a blush creeping onto his face. “For me, the best clothes are uniforms because my needs are comfort, durability, and mobility. But for Fu Yanzhou, it might be pure white cotton, with not a single thread out of place. So…” He blinked, “Which one do you usually sell?”

Shen Cheng paused.

She silently understood Li Weilan’s meaning, suddenly realizing why sometimes she put in all her effort but customers still might not be satisfied.

The main customers for buying fruit plates were young girls who might not be that sensitive to prices, but they want fruit for weight loss, sweetness, and good flavor that could even help with fat loss.

So, it’s not necessarily about offering the best quality products to meet customers’ needs, but it’s important to consider their preferences and do the right match.

Shen Cheng’s heart was filled with excitement: Oh my god, what kind of magical game is this? I am even learning business from a character?

300 yuan to buy a money-making secret recipe?

At this moment, she felt a strong sense of dissonance: When she looked at the cartoonish and delicate game, for some reason, she seemed to be seeing this real and detailed world through her own projected eyes.

This feeling only flashed by.

Shen Cheng promptly thanked cub seriously, saying, “I understand, I will try again.”

“Promise me,” but cub insisted, looking at her, “Take care of yourself first, okay?”

Shen Cheng said softly, “Okay,” but her eyes were slightly warm.

Sometimes people are moved by trivial and subtle things, even just a caring word that can bring tears to one’s eyes. Shen Cheng feels that even during her toughest and most hopeless moments, if someone could have said “take care of yourself first” in exchange for 300 yuan, she would have been willing to pick up garbage for a long time to earn that money.

Because behind these words, she could feel the concern and care from the speaker.

At this moment, Li Weilan finally went to get the little octopus that had been protesting by tapping on the glass wall, and started putting it into the tank.

As Quan Quan slowly crawled and flailed its remaining tentacles, it protested, “Hey, I agreed to let you eat the tentacle I threw away, but you guys are whispering behind my back! You ate my body part and kept secrets from me. Hmph, I’m going to be moody!”

“…Why does this octopus talk so much?” Shen Cheng wondered.

She was glad that Li Weilan couldn’t understand Quan Quan’s words, or he would have been annoyed just like her.

As for eating Quan Quan’s leftover tentacle, it was not necessary.

Now that they knew Quan Quan was a sentient being, eating its body parts felt creepy, like eating human flesh. It was forgivable when they didn’t know, but now that they did…it just felt weird.

After crawling into the tank, Quan Quan leisurely swam around the pool and enjoyed the spaciousness and comfortable water temperature. The other decorations in the crystal ball, such as aquatic plants, rocks, and lotus leaves, fell out with Quan Quan and settled in the tank, adding a touch of greenery to the base.

Satisfied, Quan Quan looked around and opened its mouth, spitting out a bunch of colorful fish. With just one glance, there were probably thousands of them, and Shen Cheng wondered how they could fit inside its stomach.

Quan Quan lazily waved its little tentacle and patted its chest, “Don’t worry about the fish pond I’m taking care of! Just let me know when you want to eat fish!”

Shen Cheng took a look at the “Intermediate Fish Pond” in the base. The current data provided by the game is “Output: 20 fish/daily,” and they are mostly larger fish like grass carp and silver carp that can supply several people with meat from just one fish. At this moment, Shen Cheng didn’t think that spending 300 yuan on in-game purchases was too much.

Beside him, Fu Yanzhou rushed over upon hearing the base announcement and stared wide-eyed at the fish swimming in the pool. He had never seen such a large fish pond before, even in a particularly large base!

At first glance, it looked very delicious!

His decision to come to Noah was absolutely right!

The taste of fresh fish was probably something only those in Noah could experience at this time, right?

Although he didn’t know how they managed to succeed, and they weren’t even mutated fish from the end times but rather ordinary edible fish from before the apocalypse, Fu Yanzhou’s current passion was not to explore but to think, “Hmm… when can we eat it? I’m a little hungry.”

On this day, all the survivors in Noah Base had bread and grilled fish for their meal. It was an extremely rare delicacy in the post-apocalyptic world, and a small portion was distributed to the survivors waiting for approval outside the base. As for the prisoners who were used as low-level examples and only had the minimum ration to eat in the power generation room, they could only smell the aroma, but they couldn’t eat it. They were all going crazy.

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Sandy: Cub, stop being so smart and cute and all that. Translator about to melt with Cheng Cheng hehe

Quan Quan didn’t realize that it had already provoked Shen Cheng.

Shen Cheng was originally angry and wanted to hit it, but she realized that the octopus was a bit clever only after seeing Li Weilan being disturbed. Shen Cheng didn’t dare to translate the octopus’s words. Instead, she quickly began to ask questions while holding the crystal ball with the octopus inside: “Why did you bang the door yesterday?”

At this question, Quan Quan became a little shy and lowered its head to glance at Shen Cheng, then lowered its head again, and then even lower.

Even a fool could tell that it seemed to have something to say to Shen Cheng.

Although a giant octopus may be terrifying due to its fear of huge creatures, when it shrinks hundreds of times and becomes a small one, this action is particularly cute.

Shen Cheng looked at its particularly human-like movements and then saw that Quan Quan had lost two of its tentacles. She didn’t have the heart to do anything else to the small octopus and gently urged it, “Why did you do it? Tell me.”

“I’ve seen him!” The octopus waved one of its tentacles and happily pointed in Shen Cheng’s direction. “I’ve seen him! So I wanted to say hello to him! But now I look like this, he probably doesn’t recognize me anymore… sob, who knew you guys would attack me as soon as you came up!”

After Shen Cheng translated what the octopus said, Li Weilan was taken aback.

He still didn’t know the octopus’s name, but the octopus said it knew him?

He seemed to have no impression at all.

The octopus saw Li Weilan shaking his head and couldn’t help showing a little sad expression, “I was picking up discarded items to eat in the sewer at that time, and every time I swam through that section, I would see him…”

Shen Cheng saw the bubble clearly and suddenly froze: sewer? Discarded items?

This should have happened after the apocalypse, right?

Where did Quan Quan meet Li Weilan?

She was glad she didn’t immediately translate the sentence and instead asked, “Where is that place you mentioned? What are you doing there?”

“Of course, we’re doing experiments,” Quan Quan said, shaking its head and speaking, “If it wasn’t for the experiments, my body wouldn’t have become transparent. They say those people want to study the secrets of eternal life and gave me genes from jellyfish and earthworms and such, so I can be this powerful…”

Powerful?

Shen Cheng vaguely felt a slight pain in her heart: if they spliced together all sorts of genes from jellyfish and earthworms on the octopus, and it turned out like this, then what about cub? Her cub who experienced unknown experiments in the research institute like it did? In a place she couldn’t see, did cub also have unhealed wounds?

She didn’t want to bring it up again and changed the subject, “Who gave you your name?”

“My former owner,” Quan Quan said, its tentacles going limp when it mentioned this, “I was originally kept in a beautiful fish tank, eating and sleeping. Suddenly one day, I woke up and found my body was getting bigger and bigger, and some people were cutting my flesh. After they cut it off, they replaced it with some new parts, but that was also when my appearance started changing…”

Shen Cheng guessed that when it said it woke up, it meant it gained consciousness.

In other words, Quan Quan used to have an owner, and this pet octopus probably gained consciousness during the apocalypse and became a mutant creature, while its owner, for some reason, did not stay by its side.

Quan Quan said in a small voice, “I can come with you, but do you want the fish in the pond?”

“??? You can shrink all the fish and bring them with us?”

Quan Quan opened its huge mouth with an “ahh” and revealed its deep, bottomless interior. Its black mouth seemed to lead to some other dimension.

Quan Quan blinked its eyes mischievously, and its small eyes sparkled with cunning: “If you want fish, you must help me find my little master! Otherwise, I’ll…”

It hesitated for a moment, probably reluctant to eat all the fish in the “fish pond”: “I’ll eat half and bring half!”

“…” Shen Cheng doubted if they had made a loss-making deal.

With the appetite of this octopus, even if fish production increased by 100%, it might not be enough for it to eat.

She translated Quan Quan’s last sentence to Li Weilan and let him make a decision.

Li Weilan had been patiently waiting on the side, saying nothing.

Although he could only hear Shen Cheng’s words, he could infer from the octopus’s body movements and Shen Cheng’s words and phrases that the octopus knew him.

Thinking back to where he might have encountered this octopus…he could guess more or less.

He didn’t mind the fact that he had been through several labs and had lived with “monsters” before, but since she was avoiding the topic carefully and even brought up another topic to avoid upsetting him, he naturally accepted her kindness.

She wanted to avoid mentioning it, so he kept his mouth shut.

He just pretended that he had no idea what they were talking about until she carefully asked him, “The octopus said it wants us to help it find its little master. The condition is that it wants to take all the fish in the fish pond with it. Do you think we can agree to this condition?”

Find its little master?

When Li Weilan heard the word “master,” he thought of his relationship with her.

In fact, for him, whether she was called a master or a guardian angel, the title didn’t matter. What was important was that their bond still existed.

Since this octopus has an owner, it doesn’t have to worry about having other pets.

Li Weilan’s face showed a hint of a smile and nodded gently, “Okay. But we can only do our best. Before we find its owner, it can’t cause any trouble for us. Also, if we find the owner and they stand against us, it must at least not help them.”

“Wow, you have really detailed thinking, cub!” Shen Cheng praised.

Listening to his almost flawless reasoning, Shen Cheng nodded approvingly.

She repeated his words, and Quan Quan listened with almost drooping eyes. Although the octopus had developed intelligence, it seemed to have weak logic and intelligence, “What trouble? You just have to find them! I won’t rush you! And what do you mean by not helping? When the young owner becomes the old owner and you become the new owner, I can let the old owner help you, can’t I?”

“…” That seems to make sense.

Although Shen Cheng was unsure if Quan Quan could really be the octopus’s “old owner,” she agreed to Quan Quan’s proposal because she heard that the young owner was a cute and doting child.

After they agreed, Quan Quan crawled to the edge of the crystal ball and opened its mouth wide. The water in the lake surged like crazy through the channel and into the octopus’s huge mouth, with the fish jumping inside, occasionally splashing a few small drops of water.

When the lake calmed down, Li Weilan suddenly felt that the lake’s life had disappeared.

It was as if all the life in the lake had left with the octopus.

Was it because the octopus took away all the fish?

Shen Cheng asked Quan Quan, and Quan Quan patted its round belly and smiled, “There were no fish in this lake to begin with. These fish are all my little pets!”

Oh? That’s amazing!

From the attribute “Fish Farming Speed 80%” on Quan Quan, it can be seen that Quan Quan is of great benefit to the base. Similar attributes were only seen by the author in totems or artifacts in previous games. This octopus also has such attributes. What kind of monster did these experimenters raise when they did their experiments!

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Shen Cheng didn’t delve into it for the time being, but she noticed that when they left the lake, the map was completely closed and replaced by a name change from “Abandoned Lake” to “Polluted Lake”.

Shortly after Quan Quan left, this lake also changed from its original beauty to a lifeless state.

Not long after, a group of scientists stopped by the lake.

Among them was a tall man in uniform who found the leftover tentacle slices and mucus in the cabin. After his subordinates confirmed that these traces were indeed from the giant octopus they were looking for, the man’s face turned gloomy.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

The ability of the giant octopus should be invincible in water.

Whether it’s stealth, sneak attacks, or commanding fish schools, it makes it impossible for hunters to get close.

But now, the remaining giant octopus was only a mess of gnawed tentacle fragments?

Who could have treated their experimental subjects like this?

Could it be other monsters that escaped from the No.4 Research Institute?

“Sir…” a man in a white research uniform walked up to him and whispered, “One of the footprints disappeared halfway. We are still tracking another person.”

“Damn it.” He gritted his teeth. “Keep watch and report to me once there is a similar abnormal energy fluctuation.”

Shen Cheng and Li Weilan quickly returned to Noah with the octopus. Xu Zhou was another ability user from a different base who also wanted to catch fish. Shen Cheng and Li Weilan thought he had been through a lot on the way, so they didn’t mention the fact that the giant octopus had become their pet. Instead, they gave him a few fish, but they also told him that the fish in the lake seemed to have disappeared. Xu Zhou vaguely guessed that this change was related to them. Although the lake was relatively close to their base and used to be a stable source of meat, it was now gone. He saw that their abilities were strange and didn’t say much to them, but he did say he would report back to the base.

When they returned to the base, Shen Cheng found that the “Basic Fish Pond” was now available for purchase. She clicked “Purchase Basic Fish Pond” and saw a small deep blue lake appear at the bottom of the base. She and Li Weilan took the octopus to the location, but the octopus started to complain softly: “It’s not big enough to live in.”

Oh, right. Shen Cheng sighed and said, “It says next to the little octopus that it needs a ‘Medium Fish Pond’. Sigh, upgrading from Basic to Medium costs 500G!”

She had completed the “Fish Retrieval Mission” task yesterday, which gave her 200G, but she still needed another 300G.

She felt so sad that she had to spend a lot of money just to put the octopus in the base to start raising fish.

Li Weilan noticed that both she and the octopus had stopped moving and were murmuring to themselves. After a while, the fish pond expanded.

What was used in the process of expansion?

The base buildings were created out of thin air and expanded out of thin air… What was she using?

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Sandy: Crap, mad scientists. Bet they’d want to catch cub once they see him. Noooo!

Only Shen Cheng could see that the monster in the lake can speak. Shen Cheng tried to talk to it, but after it complained, it just kept showing “crying” emojis on the screen, as if it couldn’t receive any feedback from Shen Cheng. In addition, the screen vibration became more and more intense, making Shen Cheng feel dizzy. She had to put down her phone and go to the living room to pour a glass of water to take a break.

Li Weilan also felt a slight vibration coming from the water. The water rippled, and bubbles formed at the bottom and rose up. The power of the water was pushing them up, as if the entire lake was pushing them away.

No, it was not the lake’s rejection, this power was more like a huge object hidden deep in the lake stirring up the water, trying to push them away quickly. Shen Cheng, who was unconscious, caused anguish in Li Weilan’s heart. Without hesitation, he put her body into his own space and dived into the deepest part below.

Perhaps feeling his approach, the monster at the deepest part of the water let out a “woo” roar, and then a powerful current rushed towards him. In the water, the monster’s invisibility was enhanced. Last night, under the moonlight, Li Weilan could only see that its body seemed to be filled with a translucent, slimy liquid. Today, its tentacles swiped fiercely along the water flow. Li Weilan only felt the surge of dark current when the water approached, and then he felt the huge tentacles hiding in the water flow.

He dodged the attack but only managed to avoid the frontal attack. His chest was swept away by the water flow, as if he had been hit by a car. Even if it was only a tail that hit him, he was pushed away, and the pain in his chest made him feel suffocated. Li Weilan quickly realized that this was not a battle he could win. In the water, the monster was the king. In addition, it seemed to have a natural ability to hide and lurk, and its eight tentacles were incredibly fast. If it hadn’t hit him and disappeared, Li Weilan doubted he could even confront it head-on.

What should he do?

Where is the core of this monster hidden?

Li Weilan wandered around and heard what seemed like her low voice in his ear: “Look at the fish!”

Shen Cheng returned with the water.

Her projection was pitifully placed in the space’s warehouse by Li Weilan. The game screen was stable now. She switched to the main character page and saw that he was in a brief stalemate with the monster. Shen Cheng realized the most difficult aspect for him: to make the invisible monster visible! Otherwise, it would be too difficult for him to defend passively with the enemy in the dark.

At this moment, the monster that had been crying “yiyiyi” was at the bottom, catching a fish and chewing it in its mouth, crying a few more times, then chewing another fish. But Shen Cheng could clearly see that those fish were all swimming towards its big mouth, as if they didn’t care about the few that had been eaten by it – perhaps the “yiyiyi” of this monster was a power that drove the school of fish!

The direction of the fish was the direction of the core of this monster!

Li Weilan was reminded of this immediately.

The monster was indeed invisible.

But those small schools of fish were not invisible like it.

The direction they were swimming was exactly where the core of this monster was!

Li Weilan remained calm, pretending not to know anything. He even deliberately turned around, pretending to search aimlessly.

Behind him, a hidden current slowly surged.

The monster slowly opened its huge mouth and happily stretched out its seven remaining tentacles, all rushing towards Li Weilan’s direction!

Li Weilan had already infused all the abilities into “Thunder.” When one of the tentacles touched his body, the knife was fiercely inserted into the tentacle, and an electric current that made the transparent octopus shine all over its body passed through it instantly. The nearest tentacle immediately contracted due to the shock, and the body of the octopus began to shine strangely in the water.

Li Weilan was about to chase after it, but the octopus suddenly spat out a bunch of fish that had already fainted and threw them in front of him.

Six tentacles surrounded its big eyes, and Shen Cheng saw the speech bubble on its head: “Ouch, it hurts.”

“…” Can’t you speak properly without whining?

You are such a big, fierce and scary monster, why are you whining there?

【Octopus Quan Quan begs for mercy from you, do you accept: Y/N Click to view Quan Quan’s attributes】

So this is still a monster with a name?

Shen Cheng suddenly remembered “Journey to the West”, where all the monsters with names survived, while those without names or backgrounds were all killed.

Quan Quan… looking at this name, was this octopus previously raised by someone?

Curiously, Shen Cheng clicked on Quan Quan’s attributes.

【Quan Quan: Mutated Octopus Monster (Water-based ability), water control, timid, easily frightened. Space requirement: fish farm (intermediate or above). Effect: fish growth rate 80%, maximum number of fish species that can be bred: 3】

Okay, although the whining monster was indeed annoying before, plus the fact that it injured people, seeing the attribute of 80% fish growth rate, in any case, Quan Quan, your life is saved!

Shen Cheng silently clicked “YES”, and Li Weilan heard her voice when he was beating the octopus monster’s tentacles: “Wait, this octopus has surrendered!”

Li Weilan stopped his hand.

Surrendered?

“Isn’t that right?” The octopus slowly put down its tentacles and revealed a pair of pitiful eyes. Then it let out a “wow” sound, which was like a buzz in the water, making people’s heads shake. The fish around it immediately froze in place.

“…,” Li Weilan and the octopus looked at each other. Perhaps it was because it saw Li Weilan’s cautious expression and that he was going to continue fighting, it continued to cry out “wawawa.” Then Shen Cheng saw language bubbles popping up one by one above its head: “Why do you want to beat me sob sob sob…”

“At night, you ate my fishy and I didn’t say anything.”

“Sob sob sob, I’ll give you another one to eat, why do you still want to beat me…”

“…” Looking at these text bubbles was a bit painful to the eyes.

Shen Cheng looked at the screen full of crying bubbles and suspected that the octopus monster was no more than three years old.

Fortunately, after she clicked yes in the game, a new item called “Octopus’s Temporary Residence” appeared, with a purchase price of 100G. Adding two respirators basically spent all the gold coins earned from yesterday’s task of showing affection. It was arranged clearly and plainly.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Shen Cheng bought the “Octopus’s Temporary Residence” and watched as the small crystal ball-like object made the octopus couldn’t wait to squeeze into it. Starting from one tentacle, the entire giant monster was slowly put into the small crystal ball until its huge body became a piece sinking at the bottom of the rock inside the crystal ball.

The octopus was happily playing with the rock. Li Weilan saw that it had shrunk to a size of half a hand, sighed, and didn’t want to compete with a mini pet. He slowly climbed ashore, dried his body, and then released Shen Cheng from the space.

In the picture, the little octopus’s head was still desperately emitting speech bubbles.

Shen Cheng estimated that cub couldn’t see it, so she read it to him word by word: “This place seems to be my old home.”

“Sob sob sob, there are just a few fish missing.”

“I love raising fish the most. If you throw in more fish, I will take good care of them…”

“It would be best if you could give me a pond… My fish life would be complete.”

After reading the last sentence, Shen Cheng couldn’t help but sarcastically remark, “Does an octopus count as a fish?”

“Hey, you can understand me!” The small octopus’s head once again produced a text bubble, and it happily floated up a bit. The remaining six tentacles scratched the rock, “Since you’re the first human who can understand what I’m saying, I won’t blame you for eating my tentacle!”

“…” What if I say I still want to eat it?

Yesterday, when Shen Cheng was crazily craving, she even wanted to click on “Octopus Takoyaki” to see if the game would really send her a serving of fried octopus balls.

Previously, the orange she received every day was basically part of a premium fruit platter, priced three times higher than the regular one, but there were still repeat customers. They say that after eating it, they could even lose weight and their acne would disappear.

She suspected that this game company wasn’t really making games, but making food.

But if octopuses were intelligent creatures, it felt a bit cruel to eat their tentacles, didn’t it?

Sob sob, it seems that there will be no stable supply of fried octopus balls!

After listening to her words, Li Weilan his head, and Shen Cheng didn’t know what he was thinking. Then he suddenly said, “But if you’re not here, no one can communicate with it.”

This was a relatively big problem.

Shen Cheng suspected that the reason only ‘she’ could understand the octopus was because Druids had a ‘communicate with animals’ skill, and her projection could only be used for 24 hours. She herself didn’t know if she could still understand what the octopus was saying after the projection disappeared.

Li Weilan looked at her silence, his expression slightly dimming, and a sad expression appeared on his face. There was no dimple.

Her silence only meant one thing, and that was that she could still leave.

She couldn’t stay, so she didn’t say “I will always be here”.

Li Weilan felt an impulse surge up from within, causing him to grasp the hand of the projection, but his gaze was fixed on Shen Cheng outside of the void, muttering, “One day is not enough…”

Shen Cheng’s heart pounded fiercely twice.

“Master, please don’t leave me,” he whispered softly and gently as he looked into her eyes.

“…” Yes…I’m sorry, I have a nosebleed.

Cub, mother won’t leave you behind!

Shen Cheng recalled the primary contract she signed, and she had already promised him that she would not abandon him. So now when she answered, Shen Cheng was a little more courageous, and no longer felt indebted: “I will not abandon you!”

In the crystal ball, Quan Quan patted the wall, and then began to applaud crazily, like a mentally disabled: “It looks good! It looks good! Act more!” Shen Cheng froze, and then remembered that there was this octopus that can act cute and understand human language. She stared ferociously at the octopus that was shining like a big light bulb beside her, grinding her teeth fiercely Said: “You! Hand! No! It’s gone!”

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Sandy: Oh cub, you flirt shtoppp *shy