CH 65

The first batch of vegetables grown with anomalous energy in the hydroponic room of the base was distributed to the ability users who went with Li Weilan to sweep the wasteland.

The family of the deceased ability user received extra compensation points and three years of food rationing.

Due to the man’s selfless sacrifice before his death, the base gave extra compensation points. When his wife received the vegetables, her hands were trembling slightly.

The woman distributing the vegetables looked at her with pity in her eyes. The breadwinner of the family had passed away, and his wife was still pregnant. Even with three years of food rationing, the future would still be difficult for them.

She kindly whispered to the woman, “Only the teams that go out to sweep the wasteland every day can exchange the base’s credit points for vegetables. The amount is not much. I heard that the pollution produced within our base is very low and popular. You can try to go to the black market and exchange some dry food to store. There will be a lot of expenses when the child is born.”

Of course, the black market referred to the underground black market. Ability users had started to trade privately in the tent area above the Noah base, mainly exchanging personal daily necessities with other bases’ trading caravans and some individual traders. Although Noah was currently safe and food was abundant, it was still newly established, and the categories were relatively scarce. Some personal items such as perfumes, cigarettes, and alcohol could only be bought in the trading area above. Of course, vegetables and fruits were also long-term popular trading goods, but no one could exchange them before.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

The woman took her supplies and went to the black market.

After selling the vegetables in her hand, she exchanged a few necessary items for daily life such as dried meat and salt and returned to the base.

After she left, the man with glasses who had traded with her placed the vegetables he had received from her under the scanner in the tent area. When he saw the reading, he quickly went to find their leader and said, “Boss, look at this pollution level!”

The colorful vegetables that were neither deformed nor discolored, yet contaminated, were already striking enough. And when smelled, they were surprisingly crispy and full of moisture, just like before the end of the world, making one’s mouth water. They followed the clues left by the octopus and finally made a big discovery. Although this 3% still had some gap from the value they suspected, it was the smallest value they had ever seen!

The tall man glanced at the pollution meter in his hand and saw a reading of 3.

Compared to other pollution levels that were hundreds of times higher, this pollution level… was indeed eye-catching.

But even if it was close to zero, it was not zero after all.

Could someone turn something that was originally pollution-free into contaminated?

From this reading, the suspicion of the Noah Base was not too great.

But what worried him the most now was that the Noah Base did not know how to screen their applicants, and their people had not been able to infiltrate it yet.

If they could not infiltrate it, they would have to fight hard.

“Send someone to try again and explore the bottom of this base. I still can’t let go,” the man pushed his gold-rimmed glasses on his nose and gave a cold order.

When playing a game, a new mission popped up for Shen Cheng:

【You have triggered: Laboratory Probe Mission Chain 1.

Please discreetly place Spy No. 1 in the laboratory and dispel the other party’s suspicions. Mission failure will trigger: Laboratory Attack. Mission success will trigger subsequent probe plot.】

Spy No. 1?

The laboratory… Shen Cheng was shocked, suspecting that this laboratory mission was related to the laboratory where Li Weilan and Quan Quan had stayed before.

Did people from the laboratory follow them to the base?

Just by looking at this mission, it was clear that this group of people had not yet entered the base. Shen Cheng moved the camera to the waiting area above and saw a bunch of humanoid monsters with yellow health bars. Based on the health bars and “???” above their heads, they were definitely tougher enemies than the large zombie father and son encountered during the previous sweep!

Shen Cheng suspected that this game was fooling her.

First, she had to place the spy in the base and dispel their suspicions… but wasn’t the base full of vulnerabilities?

Quan Quan was a problem, Li Weilan was a problem, and the black technology was still a problem!

If they placed the spy inside but failed to cover their tracks, the base would undoubtedly suffer heavy casualties.

In this case, wouldn’t it be better to just leave the spy outside and fight them directly?

But looking at this, it’s a series of tasks, and Shen Cheng suspects that the follow-up of this task chain is related to the revenge of the hatchling. She gritted her teeth and tried to hide both the hatchling and the octopus monster, but found that the game displayed “Task not yet started, please put in spy No.1”.

“…” It seems like a race against time to grab this task.

Shen Cheng dragged a bunch of little people with “friendly” relationships into Noah, and in the middle, “conveniently” put in the little person with “Spy No.1” written on its head.

Spy No.1 walked into Noah with the crowd.

On the phone screen, as soon as this little person entered Noah, its eyes widened, looking left and right, even wanting to touch the walls and floor of the base, regardless of any perspective, it was not much different from the wasteland wanderer who had opened his mouth wide for the first time next to it. Even more shocked, it looked like it had never seen the world before!

If it weren’t for the name “Spy No.1” on its head, Shen Cheng might even think that this person didn’t look like a spy from their actions and demeanor!

But this game is really convenient, everyone else has a full name, and the cannon fodder is just Spy No.1.

What she didn’t know was that the person was really shocked.

From the first step of approaching Noah, even if he was an outsider, as an experimental subject, he knew very clearly the technological content and difficulty involved in building such an underground steel fortress!

He even touched every pillar and every brick of this sky-defying structure with near-worshipful reverence.

“Please follow the footsteps of the spy and complete the base inspection.”

On the phone screen, a switch perspective option appeared. With a light touch, the screen changed to the view of spy number one.

This was the first time that Shen Cheng had ever entered the perspective of a game character to view Noah Base.

The spy walked forward, seemingly dazed and even swaying the camera as if he was drunk.

After a while, the camera suddenly stopped at the sign for the laboratory.

Fu Yanzhou pushed open the door of the laboratory, looking exhausted. The spy saw his face and froze.

Shen Cheng thought for a moment, then switched away from the spy’s point of view. She quickly entered Fu Yanzhou’s laboratory and discovered that there was only one completed ability charging board model on the experimental table. She hid it and replaced all the experimental supplies on the table with the trash she had picked up while collecting reed seeds, such as polluted apple seeds and unhealthy cucumber seedlings.

After finishing all of this, Shen Cheng opened the laboratory door a crack. As expected, after a while, the spy looked left and right and sneaked into the room.

He had no idea that someone was watching his every move carefully on their phone!

Spy number one carefully examined each petri dish and plant seed, using a device to scan them one by one. He found that the pollution levels varied but were mostly between 10 and 50.

He breathed a sigh of relief and a speech bubble appeared above his head: “Why is Fu Yanzhou here!”

He really knows Fu Yanzhou!

When Spy No.1 wandered around the room and strolled around the base after his morale was boosted, he returned to the wasteland with a worried look on his face.

The task was quickly updated:

[Probe Mission 1 in the laboratory has ended. Triggered: Probe Mission 2 in the laboratory:

Please observe Spy No. 1 and Fu Yanzhou’s conversation, coordinate personnel, help Fu Yanzhou answer questions and dispel doubts. Failure triggers Laboratory Attack. Completion triggers Laboratory Series Mission 3.]

Just as she received this follow-up probe mission, Spy No. 1 had already walked into the base again.

Fu Yanzhou was thinking with his head down at the time, suddenly felt someone approaching, was startled, raised his head and saw someone he vaguely recognized, but couldn’t remember the name for a while, and frowned.

“You are…” He hesitated for a moment and couldn’t remember, then shook his head. “Outsiders are not welcome in the laboratory. You should leave.”

“Professor Fu has a bad memory,” Spy No.1 smirked. “It seems you don’t remember me. Do you still remember your senior brother?”

Fu Yanzhou’s face instantly turned pale.

His eyes seemed to see some nightmare, staring wide, fingers clasping the wall to support his body, unable to speak.

Shen Cheng could tell from his body language that he was extremely nervous—because she had also experienced this extreme sense of insecurity when someone invaded her social safety zone. In this state of unease, she couldn’t speak and her mind went blank.

It seems that the person referred to as “senior brother” in his words is nothing but a nightmare for Fu Yanzhou!

Shen Cheng carefully looked at what Fu Yanzhou was busy with. She clicked on the small object in Fu Yanzhou’s hand and enlarged it a bit. The game displayed a line of small characters:

[Failed Cake Embryo]

Is it a cake?

Shen Cheng couldn’t help but laugh, but she immediately understood what was going on – Fu Yanzhou wasn’t doing research, he was making a cake!

Previously, Xi Bei had just told him about her birthday, and it seemed that this cake was what he was going to make for her.

**

Xi Bei was focused on inputting plant-type abilities in her room when suddenly, she felt a soft force push her back.

“!!!” She looked around but couldn’t find anyone!

But Xi Bei quickly realized that the person pushing her was probably the actual owner of the base that her brother and the others had been talking about, the mysterious woman who was like a dragon that couldn’t be seen!

It was the first time she had felt her presence!

Xi Bei was a little excited. She followed the mysterious force and soon appeared in front of a slightly open laboratory door.

What did that woman want her to do in the laboratory?

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Xi Bei curiously pushed the door open a little, and the scene before her eyes made her anger rise.

Instead of rushing in to defend the young man, Fu Yanzhou, she observed for a moment. His movements showed more resistance, disgust, and unease, but not much fear.

In other words, they must be old acquaintances!

Was it appropriate for her to enter?

Unlike the spy with their back to the door, Fu Yanzhou had already noticed the door’s movement.

He quickly realized what was happening, but his change in expression immediately aroused the spy’s suspicion.

Spy #1 turned around and saw a girl at the door, and just as they were about to pounce, they heard Fu Yanzhou’s voice: “Didn’t you ask me why I was in Noah?” He paused and then exclaimed, “She’s the reason.”

Xi Bei was dumbfounded.

Fu Yanzhou stuffed a dark lump into her hand – God knows, he didn’t actually say or do anything, whether it was the action or the words, all controlled by her like a puppet master.

The spy couldn’t see it, but Xi Bei clearly saw that his mouth didn’t move, yet the voice…it was Fu Yanzhou’s!

Shen Cheng frantically typed this sentence on the page and stuffed the cake into Xi Bei’s hand. Seeing the shocked expressions of Fu Yanzhou and the spy, she secretly revealed a little auntie smile.

Xi Bei understood quickly. She took a glance at the spy’s unfamiliar face, smiled in extreme cooperation, and hugged Fu Yanzhou’s shoulder, covering up his shocked expression. “Thank you, Zhou Zhou! You’re so good to me. My ability is going to upgrade again!”

Spy #1 looked at the green glow in her hand and felt the surging power of her ability, which was about to reach level 3. Finally, he relaxed a little.

Since Noah had Fu Yanzhou, and he suddenly had a crush who was also a plant ability user, then…it seemed reasonable and logical.