Chapter 17

Their cub wanted to infiltrate the enemy’s lair and take them all down in one fell swoop, which aligned perfectly with Tao Shushu’s own plans.
After being released, the speed-type ability user set off a signal flare.
"We need to hurry back. It’s almost dark. With the full moon approaching, mutated animals are very active," the speed-type ability user said. "We’re the first team. If we don’t return on time, reinforcements will come immediately."
Nan Yuan tossed the four into the tank, scattered some corrosive slime from Bloodsucking Grass around his truck, and then returned to the tank.
The four had been muttering about the tank’s tracks being blocked by large rocks, but when they saw Nan Yuan effortlessly move them aside, their fear of his power only grew.
Nan Yuan sat in the back seat, and none of the four dared to look back.
Tao Shushu yawned. It was already her usual bedtime, but the events ahead were bound to be thrilling.
Their cub was planning to take on a notorious organization of ability users all by himself, with only a little lion by his side. How could she not provide backup?
Taking down this organization and finding a safe base would net a reward of 1,500 gold coins. They were about to get rich, so Tao Shushu decided to spend some gold coins to prepare some weapons for Nan Yuan in advance.
Tao Shushu opened the in-game store and began making arrangements.
First, energy orbs were a must. On the night they encountered the wolf pack, the cub had scavenged a few energy orbs from the vicious wolves, but three had already been used to power the truck.
Energy orbs were categorized by quality, with the lowest tier costing 50 gold coins each. Tao Shushu had 270 gold coins left. After some thought, she bought two.
Apart from the particle gun, the cub didn’t seem to have any other weapons. He was quite skilled at aiming and sniping.
As long as he had a weapon in hand, he could always lock onto the enemy.
After browsing the store for a long time, Tao Shushu finally found something suitable, a miniature weapon cylinder.
The weapon cylinder appeared as an inconspicuous silver bracelet on the outside, but inside, it contained numerous fine needles as thin as ox hair. If energy orbs were available, it could also generate air needles using their energy. If fired at close range, it would be a highly lethal weapon.
The price was 150 gold coins.
Tao Shushu didn’t hesitate to make the purchase.
Nan Yuan felt something heavy appear in his arms out of nowhere. He opened his backpack and found two energy orbs and a bracelet inside.
Tao Shushu watched as Nan Yuan held the small weapon cylinder in his hand, worried that the cub wouldn’t know how to use it and might accidentally press the trigger.
Fortunately, after examining it for a while, Nan Yuan put the weapon cylinder on his wrist, in the correct orientation.
"We really need to unlock the voice system soon. Communicating only through drawings is so inconvenient," Tao Shushu thought to herself.
Tao Shushu now had 22 gold coins left, enough to buy 11 bottles of basic health potions, which should sustain them for a while.
Nan Yuan rubbed the weapon cylinder and energy orbs that had appeared out of thin air.
Both bore the same mark, resembling some kind of script.
Where had she found these things?
Since she appeared, she had given him highly effective healing potions, radiation-proof thermal suits, energy orbs, this weapon, and even clothes.
Nan Yuan gently pinched the hem of his sweatshirt, it also bore the same mark.
The things she brought included both high-tech mechanical products and everyday clothing. What kind of organization could manufacture such a wide variety of items, and where did she get them from?
As Nan Yuan pondered, the speed-type ability user turned around and asked, "Boss, we’re about to meet with the second squad."
"Proceed as usual," Nan Yuan said. "Remember my identity: I was once a prisoner, exiled to the other side of the barren planet before the apocalypse. I was lucky enough to find a treasure and survived because of it. When the beast tide came, the other side had too many beasts, so I wanted to seek refuge in the base. I’m not very strong, but even if captured, I refused to reveal the treasure’s location. My name is Yuan."
"Got it," the four of them nodded in unison.
The speed-type ability user turned back, filled with envy. Just look at this guy, he had four or five energy orbs all to himself. Truly a wealthy individual. Meanwhile, they could hardly get their hands on one even after exhausting themselves.
Nan Yuan didn’t care what the four of them were thinking.
He loaded an energy orb into the bracelet weapon cylinder and carefully prepared for combat, pricking up his ears to listen for any movement in the distance.
Tao Shushu was getting a bit bored waiting but didn’t want to distract the cub by teasing him.
She opened the memory fragment she had just obtained.
Instantly, a line of text popped up:
[Congratulations on activating the hidden quest: Your cub seems to have lost a part of his memory. Work hard to help him recover it. Rewards: ???, ???, ???]
Hidden quest, unknown reward. Tao Shushu's curiosity was piqued.
She continued reading,
[In the battle against humanity, artificial intelligence had held the upper hand from the very beginning, but they had been secretly searching for something. They scoured every super laboratory and classified department, yet found no clues.]
After reading this, Tao Shushu guessed that the AIs had lost something crucially important. But what did this have to do with her cub? Could it be that her cub knew where this thing was hidden?
After these words disappeared, the system prompted: Hidden quest progress 1/10.
She still needed to find 9 more memory fragments. There was no use rushing. Tao Shushu closed the hidden quest panel and continued following her cub forward.
The tank happened to stop at that moment. The speed-type ability user flashed outside and chattered for a bit.
When he returned to the vehicle, he said, "Boss Yuan, Jess believes us. We can return to the base now."
Just as the vehicle was about to start moving, Nan Yuan asked, "What's that noise outside?"
The speed-type ability user was taken aback, he had already tried to intervene, but Jess was currently the favorite of Lin Wei, the leader of the "Slaughterers." With a pained expression, he said, "He's always like this, so..."
Before the speed-type ability user could finish, Nan Yuan had already flashed outside.
His hearing had evolved, and he could hear a woman struggling, crying, and pleading.
Tao Shushu couldn't understand the encrypted conversation on her cub's side, but seeing him flash outside, she immediately followed.
What she saw next was a nauseating scene.
A greasy-haired man sat in a car. A woman, protecting her younger sister, knelt before him, begging desperately. But he slapped the woman to the ground, then pulled the sister, who was as thin as a bean sprout, into his arms. Just as he tore open the sister's clothes and his greasy mouth was about to press against her...
Tao Shushu's eyes stung with discomfort. She slapped the car door.
The vehicle seemed to have been reinforced and didn't open from the impact, but the force of her slap still caused the car to skid.
The greasy-haired man lost his balance and slid to the side. He took advantage of the momentum to slide under the seat, pushing the frail little girl in front of him as a shield.
Nan Yuan coldly raised his gun. "They don't want to be treated like this."
The speed-type ability user scrambled out. "Yuan, it's just a misunderstanding. Calm down, calm down."
In the apocalypse, the weak who lacked the ability to protect themselves could only rely on and please the strong to survive.
Nan Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly but did not lower his gun.
Greasy-haired Jess roared, "Fine! You said he wanted to cooperate, but he's clearly here to provoke us Slaughterers. I'll..."
He had just picked up the communicator when his hand was pinned firmly to the ground, his finger bones snapping one by one.
Jess let out a howl of pain.
Nan Yuan opened the car door, casually picked up a stone, and stuffed it into Jess’s mouth.
“It’s alright now,” he said to the little girl.
Tao Shushu continued her one-sided beating of Jess.
She had spent 1 gold coin to investigate Jess and learned that he was a high-ranking lackey among the slaughterers. Relying on his slight supernatural ability, he committed all manner of evil deeds in the base. If ordinary people displeased him in the slightest, he would kill them. He also frequently assassinated weaker ability users to steal their energy orbs.
The woman and the girl in front of her were sisters, neither possessing any supernatural abilities. The older sister had submitted herself to Jess in exchange for protection. The younger sister was only five years old and was the only soft spot in her sister’s heart.
Yet Jess had shamelessly set his sights on the younger sister; she was only five.
Tao Shushu felt a wave of nausea and crushed Jess’s right hand. Jess was skilled in combat techniques, let’s see how he could act tough now.
The speed-type ability user watched, even more astonished. “Brother Yuan, your spatial ability is incredibly proficient.”
Not only had the three of them been subdued in a single move, but even from two meters away, he could render Jess, the base’s top enforcer, completely immobile.
Tao Shushu tugged at Nan Yuan’s sleeve, careful not to expose in front of others that Nan Yuan actually had an “invisible companion.”
Nan Yuan understood, stripped Jess of his jacket, and draped it over the little girl. “It’s alright, you’re safe now.”
The two sisters were still weeping in each other’s arms.
Nan Yuan couldn’t bear to watch.
Just then, Jess suddenly erupted. With a leap, he kicked out fiercely.
Nan Yuan nimbly turned, his knee striking Jess squarely in the groin.
At the same time, Nan Yuan’s hand seized Jess’s neck, pinning him against the car.
Jess’s team, realizing something was wrong, finally rushed over to rescue him.
Tao Shushu pressed them down effortlessly.
Nan Yuan fired silver needles from his wristband, silently eliminating them.
With the stone in his mouth, Jess’s words were muffled and unclear: “Who are you, really? If you harm me, Lin Wei won’t agree to an alliance with you.”
“An alliance?” Nan Yuan chuckled but didn’t answer. “Human ability users also have energy orbs in their bodies, right?”
Nan Yuan crippled Jess and tossed him to the two sisters. “Deal with him as you see fit.”
He untied the pouch hanging from Jess’s waist, which contained over a dozen energy orbs.
Noticing the woman staring at one of them, he asked, “Is it someone you know?”
The woman nodded. “It’s my father. He was a fire-type ability user.”
Nan Yuan handed her that energy orb.
The four men, led by the speed-type ability user, watched wide-eyed, not daring to make even the slightest move.
After they resumed driving, Nan Yuan asked, “Do you know what to say?”
The men nodded hurriedly.
Nan Yuan focused, listening to the distant noises while contemplating his next move.
Tao Shushu stared at the screen for another ten minutes. After passing through multiple checkpoints, the group finally arrived at the base.
Bored from watching the drive, Tao Shushu switched perspectives and sketched out the general layout and defenses of the base.
As she drew, she grew puzzled. The buildings in this base were severely deteriorated. Forget a beast tide, even a young lion could likely knock down the walls with a few hard charges.
The base meant to withstand beast tides probably wasn’t referring to this one.
Anxious about the still-unknown location of the safe base, Tao Shushu hurriedly installed the explosive weapons scavenged from Jess at several guard posts.
Just after handing the defense layout map to Nan Yuan, Tao Shushu watched as Nan Yuan and the others entered the main hall.
His gaze fixed on the man in the center, Nan Yuan’s eyes flickered with a trace of coldness.