Chapter 231

Chapter 231

While watching Yang Kai feed crystal cores to Gao Xuyang, the teammates took a short break to restock supplies and checked the map to confirm their route.

Cheng Jing and the others were out this time to "round up zombies," following a circular path around the base at a sufficient distance—essentially drawing a circle with the base at its center.

This way, they could complete their mission while also scoping out the area.

After all, based on weather data predictions by Professor Mo, they were expecting an extreme night to follow the extreme heat.

As everyone discussed, Jiang Nian picked up a bowl of instant noodles and walked over to their vehicle. Placing the container on the hood, he unfolded a map to study it himself.

Soon, Cheng Jing followed and, noticing the untouched noodles, joked with a grin:

"Not to your taste, or do you want me to feed you?"

Jiang Nian gave him a look before checking that the others weren’t paying attention and replied:

"I don’t like the curry flavor—it’s too heavy and overpowering. Let’s swap."

"Since when are you so picky?"

Cheng Jing chuckled, twisting some noodles onto his fork and feeding it to him.

The sour-spicy flavor was relatively more refreshing. After taking a bite, Jiang Nian took the container back. Since Bro Kai didn't usually do PDA, they shouldn’t hog the attention.

As Cheng Jing took a bite of the curry noodles and thought they were alright, he was about to speak when Jiang Nian lowered his voice and asked:

"Brother Jing, can you fill me in on the extreme night from your past life?"

He’d spaced on asking about it during Chen Yue’s interrogation. Though Cheng Jing had briefly mentioned it after waking from his dream, they'd gotten sidetracked by other matters at the time.

"..."

Cheng Jing went quiet for a beat before nodding:

"In my past life, the extreme night arrived much later than what Professor Mo predicted this time—months after the extreme heat. Daylight kept shrinking until the sun no longer rose..."

"The endless darkness lasted about half a month. After the extreme night, zombie swarms started hitting shelters nationwide. It was during the rescue missions for smaller bases under siege that I finally got word about you."

He hadn’t told the others about his dreams of the past life. No point bringing it up now.

Jiang Nian nodded and asked further:

"Did anything particularly bad happen during the extreme night?"

"Back then, Base S hadn’t fully stabilized its power supply. As an energy-type Superpowered, I was stuck working nonstop inside the base to provide electricity and firepower, so I didn’t notice much."

Frowning, Cheng Jing tried to recall while speaking. Being run ragged every day left him with no distinct memories of the extreme night.

Base S had too many Superpowered individuals. Even as a rare dual-attribute offensive type, he rarely got to shine. Compared to this life, his knowledge of the outside world had been next to nothing.

To put it bluntly, Xia Weiwei and her father had long known he was searching for Jiang Nian and had been pulling strings behind his back—whether by restricting his movements or misleading him with bullshit excuses during missions.

In his past life, he’d been targeted from the start. Before uncovering the truth about Jiang Nian, he’d been nothing more than an ordinary Superpowered, left clueless and obediently following Base S’s orders.

"..."

Jiang Nian pondered briefly and roughly guessed his passive circumstances back then. He let it drop and simply nodded.

"It's fine, knowing the approximate time is enough... A lot of things have been happening ahead of schedule in this life; I just have this nagging feeling."

"If something truly unavoidable occurs, we’ll take care of ourselves and do our best. Don’t overthink it. Overthinking in this heat kills your appetite—you're wasting away."

Cheng Jing knew he was worried about the ripple effects, but such worries were pointless. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

"Yeah, I get it."

Jiang Nian replied, then blinked.

"I don’t feel like I’ve lost weight. And didn’t you just say the other day that I'm in great shape now?"

After finishing the last bite of noodles, he wiped his mouth, took out a bottle of water, unscrewed the cap, and gulped a few mouthfuls before giving a contented belch.

Then, with a pleased look at the flustered man, he pushed the remaining half bottle of water toward him.

"Easy there, Brother Jing. No one's fighting you for it—whether it’s me or the noodles, they’re all yours!"

Haha, with such a considerate boyfriend, how could he ever overthink things?

"..."

Cheng Jing curled his hand into a loose fist and pressed it to his lips, giving him a warning look at the shameless guy.

If not for the broad daylight and all the eyes around, he’d definitely bend this guy over the hood and teach him a lesson!

"Hehe."

Jiang Nian hummed a tune as he folded the map and walked away to distribute after-meal treats to their teammates.

Cheng Jing shook his head helplessly, stashed the water bottle in his inventory, then turned away to hide his uncontrollable smile before incinerating the trash from their meal with a flick of his hand.

The team continued along the planned route, occasionally detouring slightly when encountering obstacles.

Any situation they came across was promptly communicated and discussed among the teammates by Gao Xuyang.

"..."

After successfully clearing several hundred more zombies, the energetic Teacher Gao turned on the walkie-talkie and spoke slowly.

"As zombies continue to evolve, they become more sensitive to human presence and movement... They share information among themselves, then gather and head toward human settlements, forming massive zombie hordes."

"If led by a Zombie King, not only will the horde be massive, but they’ll also strategize their attacks. As time goes on, the number of zombies will gradually decrease, but they’ll also be harder to eliminate... Of course, we have nothing to fear."

While the team felt fortunate, they couldn’t shake their worries.

Just referencing the mirage illusions captured by Zhou Rongbin’s superpower was enough to know that weaker shelters that can't defend themselves would inevitably become the zombies’ "zombie buffets."

They could only hope the official warnings would have some effect, encouraging more less capable survivors to join larger bases or proper military outposts.