Chapter 26

"I'm here, cub." Tao Shushu rubbed Nan Yuan’s ear.
"Shushu." Nan Yuan patted his chest, "Have sweet dreams too."
Tao Shushu ruffled the sweetie’s head and agreed with a smile.
This time, Tao Shushu really logged off. Tomorrow was Monday, and Monday meant having to wake up early for school.
Both Tao Shushu and Nan Yuan drifted into sleep.

At Huiwen’s first official class after the start of the semester, every teacher was going over the entrance exam papers.
Tao Shushu had already learned her scores from the system. She silently calculated that if her real physics score were counted, her grade ranking would be in the thirties.
To get first place in the grade, she had to improve her English and Chinese scores.
As soon as class ended, Tao Shushu took out her earphones and started listening to English audio.
While everything was steadily improving for her, Su Momo was nearly furious.
As the recently returned true daughter of the Su family, Su Momo was already under a lot of attention, but now even more focus was on her abysmal grades.
To make matters worse, the incidents from the banquet had spread. Even classmates who hadn’t attended the banquet knew that she had flaunted her academic achievements there, acting like a top-tier scholar, only for her chemistry score to turn out to be 8 points.
During the class meeting, Teacher Zhang Hai said with a smile, "We have new classmates joining our class now. No matter what your previous foundation was like, you’ll need to catch up from now on. In the International Class, the minimum requirement isn’t to make great contributions to the class, but to not hold the class back. What the International Class competes in isn’t your family background, but your personal ability."
Immediately, more than half the class turned to look at Su Momo.
Su Momo was too embarrassed to lift her head.

After a busy morning, it wasn’t until lunchtime that Tao Shushu had a moment to take out her phone.
She opened the game.
Another day had passed in the cub’s world, and it was already late at night.
Although he was lying in bed, his brows were tightly furrowed, and he clutched a particle gun tightly in his hand, looking extremely restless in his sleep.
His body was also slightly curled up.
The cub seemed a bit unsettled.
Tao Shushu reached out and gently smoothed the worry from the cub’s brow.
As she touched him, the event log popped up:
Your cub woke up after five hours of sleep.
Your cub called your name but received no response.
Tao Shushu’s heart ached instantly. She rubbed the cub’s forehead before continuing to read:
Your cub led a team on an expedition.
Your cub encountered a group of mutated rabbits.
Your cub sustained minor injuries.
Your cub gave the special medicine to the severely injured and bandaged his own wounds alone.
Not wanting to wake him, Tao Shushu didn’t pull back the cub’s blanket to check, so she didn’t know where he was injured.
The event log continued:
Your cub returned to the base, securing food and water supplies.
Your cub went to the spacecraft control room and discovered the ship was low on power.
Your cub held a vote: should the remaining energy be allocated to the spacecraft or for heating the base?
In the end, everyone agreed to reserve it for the spacecraft.
Your cub carefully inspected the base and personally removed the energy source used for heating.
Tao Shushu’s gaze snapped to the cub. So the base had no heating tonight. She touched the cub’s bed through the screen, unable to tell the temperature on his side.
But the cub was so cold he had curled into a ball.
He was still using that thin, worn-out quilt, having given the better supplies to others.
Tao Shushu pouted. The cub really tugged at her heartstrings.
He was strong enough, strong enough to protect himself in this post-apocalyptic world. Strong enough to command the respect of the entire organization.
Yet he always quietly gave the best resources to others.
Tao Shushu switched perspectives, searching the room for anything that could provide warmth.
But after looking around, she found nothing.
The cub’s belongings were pitifully few, just a single backpack.
Just as she was about to switch to an outside view, she suddenly noticed a thin layer of ice floating in the cup on the cub’s desk.
Shocked and angry, Tao Shushu realized the temperature had dropped so low.
The cub couldn’t afford to fall ill from the cold.
If he didn’t know how to take care of himself, then she, as his "mom," had to look after him properly.
Tao Shushu immediately opened the system shop. She had completed two study tasks earlier that day, earning gold coins, and now had a total of 43 coins.
After carefully browsing for a while, she settled on a lightweight yet warm combat suit.
The product description was filled with impressive-sounding terms, but what really caught her eye was: "Made with light-sensitive coating material, stores and transfers heat through photosynthetic fibers, and changes color according to the environment."
It was essentially a combat suit with both solar energy and chameleon-like functions.
Of course, it also included all the standard protective features.
Tao Shushu bought the suit without hesitation. Even though her gold coins were back to single digits, her cub needed proper clothing.
She gently laid the suit over the cub’s blanket.
Unexpectedly, the cub suddenly opened his eyes and sat up.
He grabbed his particle gun and aimed it forward.
Tao Shushu quickly spoke up, "Cub, it’s me."
The fierceness in Nan Yuan’s eyes faded, softening into warmth. "Shushu?"
"Yes," Tao Shushu replied.
Nan Yuan had so many questions he wanted to ask.
He wanted to know how Shushu’s day had been.
He wanted to know why she hadn’t come to see him.
He wanted to know how things were on her end.
Shushu was willing to share her name with him, so in principle, he should have been satisfied. Yet, in the end, desire is a bottomless pit.
Nan Yuan smiled. "What brings you here now?"
He carefully recalled the timing of Shushu's appearances. In the past few days, the longest she had been absent was just over half a day. Today, however, she had been gone for an entire day.
"If I hadn’t come, I wouldn’t have realized you’re treating yourself so harshly." Tao Shushu cleared her throat, preparing to deliver a loving lecture to her "cub." "Sweetie, the water has frozen solid, and you’re still using such a thin blanket. What if you catch a cold?"
Falling ill in the apocalypse was a serious issue, any virus or bacteria could become a source of infection.
Thinking of this, Tao Shushu asked, "Where were you injured today? Are you okay now?"
Nan Yuan rolled up his sleeve. "My arm got scraped while blocking an attack. It’s just a scratch."
Before Tao Shushu could say anything, he added, "Even though the water froze, I don’t actually feel that cold. The base’s heating system still has some residual warmth."
"Hmph, I saw you curling up from the cold while sleeping. Let me check your wound, and then change into these clothes." Tao Shushu only had three coins left, so she spent them all on medicine and tossed it to Nan Yuan.
Nan Yuan responded calmly, unwrapping the bandage to show her. "It really is just a scratch. I’ve already disinfected it, and as an ability user, my recovery is fast. It’s fine now."
Internally, he noted that Shushu seemed to have no direct perception of the external environment. She judged it based on phenomena, like the water freezing or him shivering, rather than describing the sensation of "cold" directly.
Nan Yuan filed this observation away in his mind.
Tao Shushu examined the wound and saw that it had indeed healed. Remembering how Cheng Feimao could run the day after breaking his leg, she reluctantly accepted the rapid recovery speed of ability users.
"Alright, but you still need to take care of yourself. Don’t treat minor injuries lightly," Tao Shushu said. "I’ll step outside for a bit. Change into the clothes."
"Thank you, Shushu, for buying me new clothes," Nan Yuan replied.
Tao Shushu snorted. "Cub, even when I’m not around, you have to take good care of yourself. Eat properly, dress warmly, and don’t act like a willful child."
Nan Yuan casually tugged at his sleeve, revealing the muscles on his arm. "Okay, I’ll take good care of myself from now on."
"Hmm." Only then was Tao Shushu satisfied.
She happened to switch maps and looked around the base.
Teams composed of ability users and ordinary people were patrolling the base, making it quite safe.
After walking around the base and feeling satisfied, Tao Shushu was about to return to her cub's room when she suddenly noticed two figures sneaking furtively through a door.
Tao Shushu let out a surprised sound and followed them inside.
They turned out to be familiar faces.
On the day they were supposed to enter the base, a tall, thin man and his companion had tried to hoard supplies and incite others to return to the Slaughterers' base.
Now, these two were scheming in the middle of the night.
Tao Shushu observed the room, it was filled with minerals.
"With so many minerals, we're going to be rich," said the tall, thin man's companion, who had a fierce scar on his face.
Tao Shushu felt a bit speechless. They were on a barren planet, and all the surviving humans were in this base. Where would they even spend the money?
The tall, thin man also scolded, "Idiot, there's no place to spend money on this barren planet. We need to leave the planet to use it."
"But just starting the spaceship requires a lot of energy. Will refining these minerals really be enough?" asked the scarred man.
"Who said anything about refining minerals? With your weak fire ability, you can't even compare to Lin Wei. How long would it take to refine them? We need to build a reactor. Once it's done, we'll kill them all, take their energy cores and minerals, and we won't have to worry about recruiting subordinates when we get back to the capital planet," the tall, thin man plotted viciously.
"Right, right," the scarred man agreed.
The two began to fantasize about their wonderful lives after monopolizing the supplies.
Tao Shushu didn't listen any further. These two were truly ungrateful.
She returned to Nan Yuan's door and gently tapped the lock.
The door was immediately pulled open.
Once Nan Yuan was standing properly, Tao Shushu focused her gaze on her cub. He had changed into a pure black combat suit. Because his skin was so pale, he seemed to blend into the night, yet not completely.
Tao Shushu reached out and touched his face, mainly because she couldn't see his other limbs clearly.
"Cub, how is it? Do you like it?"
"It's very warm," Nan Yuan smiled, revealing his white teeth. "I'll wear it properly."
"Good, that's the way." After saying this, Tao Shushu briefly explained the tall, thin man and the scarred man's plan to Nan Yuan.
Nan Yuan's expression darkened. "We'll wait until they build the reactor and obtain the energy source before we make our move."
Those two weren't just thinking about leaving, they also wanted to kill and plunder. Nan Yuan lowered his gaze, concealing the violence in his eyes.
As soon as Nan Yuan finished speaking, a task prompt appeared on the screen.
[Energy cores, fuel, and radioactive stones can all be used as power sources for the spaceship. Please collect power energy for interstellar travel. Current progress: 2%. Task reward: C1 Star System Survivor Map x1, Gold Coins x2000, Primary Clarity Card x1.]
Tao Shushu clicked to accept the task and agreed with her cub. "I think so too, cub. It's still dark now, why don't you get some more sleep?"
"Will Shushu be leaving soon?" Nan Yuan asked.
Tao Shushu hummed in affirmation. After finishing her meal, she had sat in the cafeteria for quite a while, and Li Anyu kept giving her strange looks, especially when she was talking to her cub.
"Alright." Nan Yuan paused. "Shushu, can I know when you'll appear again?"
Tao Shushu thought for a moment. She had physics competition training an hour after school ended in the afternoon. She could log in for about ten minutes before that.
"In the afternoon or at night. I'll try my best to come see you."
"Alright, I'll wait for you," Nan Yuan said.
Tao Shushu initially wanted to say it wasn't necessary, she would appear right beside Nan Yuan as soon as she logged in. But after a moment's thought, she realized the cub was quite lonely, with no one in the base to confide in. It might be better to give him something to look forward to.
So Tao Shushu agreed.
As she put away her phone, Li Anyu seemed to hesitate, opening and closing her mouth several times before finally saying, "Shushu, are you really playing a single-player game? Are you sure you're not in an online romance with some guy?"
"I am playing a single-player game," Tao Shushu insisted.
"But you were smiling just now like a girl in love," Li Anyu said, quickly stepping away to avoid Tao Shushu's reach. "Especially when you promised to go see him in the afternoon or evening."
Tao Shushu: ...


Author's Note:
Mini Theater:
Shushu: Just to clarify, I'm playing a parenting game.
Nan Yuan: Just to clarify, I'm eighteen with an eight-pack.