Chapter Seventy-Three: Gao Yi

I gently placed my hands on Huo Bing’s shoulders and spoke softly, “This is my secret. There’s something inside me that constantly guides me to do things, and then rewards me in return. This ability is granted by it.”

Suddenly, Huo Bing pressed her hand against my mouth, saying, “Brother Cao! You must never tell anyone about such a miraculous thing, or you’ll attract the attention of people with ulterior motives. Is this the hardship you mentioned before? Does it force you to blow up this chemical plant, or else it will be bad for you?”

Though her guess wasn’t entirely accurate, she was close enough; blowing up the chemical plant and killing the corpses served the same purpose.

I nodded lightly. Since I had spoken such words to Huo Bing before the explosion, there was no need to hide anything further from her.

“I won’t tell anyone. This matter is only between you and me…” Huo Bing leaned her head against my chest, her eyes blurred with tears, her body trembling slightly.

I chuckled, “I’ve noticed, young lady, you sure have a lot of tears. Try to restrain yourself a bit.”

Huo Bing broke into laughter through her tears, “Actually, Brother Cao, you didn’t need to tell me all this. You could have just brushed me off—I’m not the kind of woman who insists on digging to the bottom of things. If you choose not to tell me, I know you must have your reasons.”

“But you told me, and it makes me so happy… It proves you finally trust and accept me.”

Fourth Master: “Woof woof… hmm hmm…”

Glancing at Fourth Master, who was acting up, I laughed, “Alright, alright, you too, you too.”

Then I wiped the tears from the corner of Huo Bing’s eyes. “Since I’m willing to say it, I won’t deceive you. You’re worthy of my trust. Besides, you’re so clever, how could I ever fool you?”

Huo Bing smiled tenderly, then whispered softly into my ear.

After she finished, I was rather unaffected, but she was so shy her face turned as red as an apple, occasionally lowering her head to stare at her toes.

I doubted the truth of this gesture, though, since she probably couldn’t see her toes at all.

“Alright, I'll consider what you said carefully. Since that’s the case, you’d better get ready.” I teased, taking a glance at her alluring figure, her red eyes and white shoulder-length hair truly giving her a unique charm.

“Brother Cao… you’re impossible… teasing me like this.” Suddenly Huo Bing cast me a shy, angry glare, then picked up her protective gear and retreated to a corner to get dressed.

Haha, this girl still can’t let go, but it’s precisely this restraint that I like.

I examined the so-called dimensional space. It was actually quite large, with a capacity comparable to a small truck.

That made things much easier; there was no need to carry equipment and supplies everywhere anymore—I could just stash them inside.

The Gene Ecological Chain was reliable in its rewards for this task, and truly a practical talent.

After fitting Fourth Master with a gas mask, I checked everyone over again, making sure there were no gaps in the gear for the two of us and the dog.

No one knew what harmful substances might still linger outside after several hours, or what danger they posed to humans, so caution was best.

Fortunately, the dream was vivid enough that everything was almost identical to what I’d experienced there.

I pulled open the main control room door with force, hacking away at the debris blocking the entrance. After a while, I managed to clear the surrounding area.

Standing on the roof of the control room, the world outside was pitch black, with no moonlight to illuminate anything.

Even with my night vision, distance was a limitation—I couldn’t survey the entire area.

Huo Bing produced a powerful flashlight, custom-made, with a range and intensity far greater than anything sold in stores.

But precisely because of that, it couldn’t be used carelessly, lest it attract the attention of corpses or other threats.

Yet given the situation, there was no choice; we couldn’t see anything otherwise.

Sure enough, the area was a deep pit, exactly as it had appeared in my dream.

“Check available gene points.”

“Notice to host: Your available gene points are 6600.”

Only 6600? Just over double what I got at the oil depot, and that was with the moonlight’s double enhancement.

All that trouble for so little reward left me feeling a bit dissatisfied.

But thinking it over, it was quite reasonable.

The oil depot was in the center of the city, a huge number of corpses piling up there, and I kept luring more in. The city itself was a massive corpse repository.

The chemical plant was remote, surrounded by only a few small towns.

Even if the explosion was enormous, there were only so many corpses in the plant, and the outskirts were probably cleared long ago by other survivors.

Or perhaps by the one in the white coat—or rather, Bai Ye.

He must have controlled and lured them into the plant.

So the total number here was limited, and I blew them all up.

“Upgrade remaining sense of smell and endurance to advanced.”

“Upgrading… please wait…”

“Advanced sense of smell upgrade successful…”

“Advanced endurance upgrade successful…”

“Remaining available gene points: 4600.”

I sat patiently on the rooftop; upgrades always took some waiting, so I took the opportunity to rest.

“My physical abilities are all at advanced now. Does that mean I’ve unlocked the second-level gene lock?”

“Notice to host: Not yet. Unlocking second-level gene lock requires consumption of 10,000 gene points.”

“What!? Ten thousand… Are you messing with me?”

“…”

No response?

I opened the system panel, and sure enough, the second-level gene lock remained untouched, still black.

God, ten thousand. The fastest way to earn gene points now was surely through completing tasks.

Killing corpses didn’t yield as much as finishing tasks—one task alone was worth at least a thousand.

“Brother Cao, what should we do now?”

This wasn’t the time to fuss over the ecological chain; ten thousand gene points, so be it. The life-and-death task still carried a reward of two thousand.

We’d been out for nearly two days; it was time to head back and quickly figure out how to complete the task.

To find out what was threatening such a large gathering area with life and death.

“Let’s go. First, we’ll climb out of this pit, then head to the farm and see if the car is still usable.” I pulled Huo Bing and Fourth Master off the rooftop, beginning the slow ascent out of the pit.

…

We walked about five or six kilometers before finally spotting the farm we'd passed earlier.

Before arriving, we’d already removed our protective suits and left them behind. The outside was contaminated with toxic substances, and cleaning them was impossible.

It must be said, the explosion had cleared the surroundings considerably; we hadn’t encountered a single corpse in all that distance.

All that remained were the charred bodies lying on the ground, the dead fools.