Chapter 22: Volume One and Two: Chapter 22: The Secret Base’s Location Revealed

Hangar Core.

The anti-aircraft gun turret pointed skyward, its metal burned through by the heat. A massive spike had punched through an armored vehicle. A tank turret had been crushed out of shape by overwhelming force.

Thick moss covered it all. Bodies filled the scene, and as Fuling walked among them, a deep sense of desolation made her fold her arms around herself.

After passing a cluster of tents set up on the runway, Linglan looked toward the hangars.

They were riddled with holes, their support beams collapsed.

The hangars had been used to store supplies and equipment. Judging by the damage, there probably wasn’t much worth digging out.

Well.

At the intelligence center’s entrance, Linglan peered inside through the glass. The room was empty, with folders scattered all over the floor.

The army must have expected the area to be swept by missiles after their evacuation. They’d left in such a hurry that they hadn’t destroyed the documents.

The two went inside. Linglan headed for the map, while Fuling opened a drawer and found an unopened box of pistol ammunition and two magazines.

“Ehehe~”

Fuling looked so pleased with her find that Linglan turned to the map, determined not to be outdone.

There were so many markings, packed so close together that she couldn’t make heads or tails of them!

Xuzhou, Xuzhou… Oh! Here it was.

Linglan carefully searched the map with her flashlight. She remembered the underground base was in the suburbs, but the complicated military markings made it seem as if any spot could be the base.

This isn’t working—

After searching for a while, Linglan lowered her hand in defeat and turned her attention to the documents strewn around the room.

Suddenly, Fuling leaned over from the side.

“Ling, I found the generator. Want to restore power?”

The intelligence center had been sealed for years. Maybe the electronics would still work.

“I’ll get the fuel~”

Fuling had just turned to leave when Linglan got up and hurried after her.

“There are no monsters here. I can go by myself.”

Fuling clasped her hands behind her back and looked at Linglan with a confident smile.

Linglan shook her head.

“Huh~” Fuling thought for a moment, then flashed a mischievous smile.

Could Ling be afraid of being lonely?

She cleared her throat and put on a serious smile. “Then let’s go together.”

Once they were outside the city, they could run into Zombie Beasts, which were more vicious and still had their hunting instincts.

Linglan wasn’t about to risk becoming the protagonist of a horror story by splitting up and triggering the classic bad-luck trope.

Thankfully, everything went just fine~

Gurgle, gurgle.

After they added gasoline, the generator vibrated with a low hum. When they connected it to the intelligence center’s external power supply, lights flickered behind the glass.

As the current stabilized, the dim room lit up.

Linglan turned off the lights to save power, then sat down in front of a computer and started fiddling with it.

“Wow, it lit up,” Fuling whispered. It was the first time in three years she’d seen a modern device power on.

Her eyes were wide, shining brightly as the two of them stared at the screen.

The system booted into the BIOS. Thank goodness the motherboard battery hadn’t failed.

Linglan held her nonexistent breath. A motherboard battery could preserve settings for about two years without power. Once it ran out, the system would reset and the boot password would disappear.

The files stored on the hard drive, though, would still be there…

Linglan pressed F1, watching expectantly.

The screen flickered, and a beautiful blue sky dotted with white clouds filled the display.

[Enter password: _____]

Ahhh!

This was military-grade equipment. There was no way it would have a vulnerability like that!

I’m screwed.

“It’s okay! Let’s try the others!” Fuling raised a hand to cheer her on.

Linglan appreciated the encouragement, but she already knew the other devices would all have passwords, too.

This was the frontline of the fight against intelligent mutants. How could they let information leak so easily?

Still, seeing Fuling’s bright, optimistic expression, Linglan decided to keep opening boxes.

Blue skies and white clouds.

The two sat dejectedly in front of a table covered in paper documents. Linglan sighed and pulled out a random sheet, meaning to fold it into a paper airplane.

The corner of her eye caught a line of large print, and her attention snapped to it.

The Feasibility of Reversing Mutation in Mutants

A thought suddenly flashed through Linglan’s mind. She kept reading.

It was a proposal from Central Theater Command, dated the eightieth day after the disaster began—the day Red Sun Base was completed.

The person behind the plan hoped to capture an intelligent mutant and send it to location XZ12. The Prototype Entity there would reverse the mutation and allow researchers to develop a targeted virus weapon to eradicate the spores.

The proposal had ultimately been rejected for one reason: the Prototype Entity in the bunker had already been eliminated.

XZ12…

That had to be where the Mother Entity with the mechanical arm was located. Five months before the Hell Spores outbreak, countries around the world had already detected strange spores lingering in the air.

After studying them, many people realized that once the spores reached a certain threshold, they could trigger mutations in humans. So countries had begun preparing for the apocalypse well in advance.

What they hadn’t anticipated was that early zombies would still be intelligent. Some could even suppress their hostility toward humans and infiltrate human communities, causing devastating losses.

The Prototype Entity had been a Mother Entity that humans had accidentally brought to maturity before the apocalypse.

The document said the Mother Entity had been eliminated. In reality, she’d hidden part of her body in the mechanical arm as a prank, accidentally escaping death.

Once she realized humans wanted to kill her, the Mother Entity had retreated into seclusion. She’d somehow managed to survive one disaster after another.

Linglan froze for a moment, then hurried to the map to search for the address.

Her pale finger swept quickly across the markings until—

[XZ12]

Her fingernail stopped at a marker southwest of Xuzhou City.

Found it!

Ha! Stupid computer, you’re useless now! I’ll take you apart and sell you to some tech nerd later!

Paper documents really are the best~

Linglan hurried over to Fuling to share the good news.

“Is this the place Ling was looking for?”

Fuling didn’t understand what was so special about it. But Linglan had once worked among the military’s upper ranks. She must have known a lot of secrets.

It had to be somewhere important.

After they found the base’s location, night began to fall. The two decided to spend the night in the intelligence room.

Unlike human-shaped zombies, most wild Zombie Beasts sunbathed during the day and hunted at night. To avoid encountering one on the road and having their only vehicle destroyed, they’d wait until morning.

So—

Rustle!

The curtain swung open, and Fuling happily spread pieces of fabric along the windows, blocking every source of light inside.

Outside, Linglan surrounded the generator with metal plates. There wasn’t much fuel left; it would run for half an hour before dying out. There was no need to worry about it overheating and catching fire.

Once they were sure the generator’s noise and the light inside wouldn’t give them away, the two sat down at the table with an air of ceremony…

Linglan pulled out a Chinese chess set.

It was a waste of a rare chance to enjoy a lit evening if they went straight to bed!

The electric kettle bubbled as it boiled water. An opened self-heating noodle ration steamed inside its heating pouch.

In the warm, comfortable room, the two sat in the glow of the lights, facing each other.

“Smack!”

Fuling slammed her knight down to capture a pawn!