Qi Xiang looked back, glancing at Zhao Qingxiao. The corners of her eyes lifted slightly in a bright, charming smile.
’With this pervert around, it’s impossible for to hide anything.’
’The mission Gu Xiaoxi gave was almost a failure!’
’Luckily, my luck has always been good.’
’And what do you know? Heaven itself delivered a helper right to ...’
Qi Xiang’s gaze shifted, and she shot Zhao Qingxiao a demure, flirtatious wink before turning to walk toward Ye Nan, who was organizing a team to collect samples.
Zhao Qingxiao was speechless. "..."
’No wonder they say a beautiful woman’s favor is the hardest to bear. Why do I feel like... Miss Qi’s smile was so creepy?’
In the distance, under the cold moonlight, Ye Junhan stood before a half-shattered wall, his head lowered. Half his face was hidden in shadow, his expression unreadable.
...
Three days later, Lu Shiliu secretly arrived at Yu City Base aboard a military transport plane.
"Miss Gu, everything is here." Lu Shiliu handed the items to Gu Xi.
A small piece of a red plant’s stem, and a tiny bit of dust-like Crystal Core fragnts.
After seeing these items, Gu Xi was certain her previous suspicions were correct. Both the red mutant plant and the Crystal Core fragnts held the residual aura of her own unique ability.
"Thank you." Gu Xi offered her thanks politely. Her gaze fell on the small pile of Crystal Core fragnts, and she paused for a mont.
"Miss Gu?" Lu Shiliu, worried he hadn’t done a good job, grew slightly tense. "Is there... sothing wrong with these items?"
"No." Gu Xi calmly retracted her gaze and looked up at Lu Shiliu. "Thank you for your hard work this ti."
"It was no trouble at all. I just ran an errand. It wasn’t hard work in the least." Lu Shiliu felt a little happy and excited. ’I can finally do sothing for my savior.’
He paused, then pursed his lips and said, "Miss Gu, before I left, Wei Heng asked to tell you that it’s not convenient for the folks back ho to contact you for the ti being..."
’The folks back ho? Not just him?’
Gu Xi raised an eyebrow. ’In other words, aside from Wei Heng, it’s likely inconvenient for even Shen Yue and the Qin Family sisters to contact now.’
Finally, Lu Shiliu added, "Mr. Shen also said that the scenery in the Southwest is nice. Since the fields back ho are all fallow right now, you’d just be idle if you went back anyway. You might as well stay and have fun here for a while longer."
Gu Xi nodded. "Okay, I understand."
There were people watching things at South City Base, so Lu Shiliu couldn’t be gone for too long. After relaying the ssages, he quickly returned to South City Base.
That afternoon, when Lu Chenyuan returned, he found Gu Xi staring into space.
"Gu Xi?" His steps faltered slightly, but he then walked over to her as if nothing was amiss. "What are you thinking about? Is it about that kid, Shiliu...?"
Gu Xi turned to look at him, her gaze unusually calm and cold. "Back then... I rember a lot of Crystal Cores were in circulation in the base. What happened to all those Crystal Cores afterward?"
Thirty years ago, Crystal Cores had all but replaced currency. They were in wide circulation, and even ordinary people had a few in their possession.
But after waking up this ti, Gu Xi discovered that Crystal Cores had almost completely vanished from people’s lives. No one even ntioned them on the forums...
Lu Chenyuan instantly thought of sothing.
His gaze went past Gu Xi and landed on the cabinet top beside her.
There, on a spread-out sheet of white paper, lay a small pile of Crystal Core fragnts.
"Gu Xi, you suspect these Crystal Cores..." he asked, looking up with a slight frown.
Gu Xi nodded. "They’re not all from ability users. There should be so Zombie Crystal Cores mixed in."
Crystal Cores from ability users and Zombie Crystal Cores look similar, but there are subtle differences between the two.
Gu Xi had lived through the darkest period of the apocalypse. You could even say she was among the people who dealt with Zombie Crystal Cores the most, so she could naturally tell the difference.
In fact, after seeing the items Lu Shiliu delivered, Gu Xi knew what she had overlooked before.
She had previously only guessed that the Crystal Cores appearing in the ruins of the NX1984 Area ca from the thousand-plus ability users who had gone missing in the Southwest.
But now, it seed that wasn’t the whole story...
Lu Chenyuan lowered his eyes slightly. "Back then... not long after you slayed the Zombie Emperor, the zombie virus suddenly disappeared. The top brass of the bases designated Zombie Crystal Cores as a non-renewable strategic energy reserve and began to collect them all..."
Gu Xi faintly felt that sothing was wrong.
She suddenly thought of Da Hong back ho, and a thought struck her: ’As long as mutant animals don’t go extinct, they can continue to produce Crystal Cores endlessly...’
"Are the major bases all raising mutant animals now for their Crystal Cores?" Gu Xi asked.
’No wonder no one buys the various mutant ats in the supermarkets, yet the major bases still spend so much manpower and resources to raise that livestock...’
’So it wasn’t just about the at and protecting biodiversity; it was also an energy issue.’
"That’s part of the reason," Lu Chenyuan said, glancing at her. "Ever since the second great mutation, the Crystal Cores inside plants suddenly vanished. Even the energy in the Crystal Cores from mutant animals beca much weaker, nowhere near comparable to the old Zombie Crystal Cores."
Gu Xi guessed this was because X Energy didn’t exist in the form of a Crystal Core. After the second great mutation, both plants and animals seed to be evolving in so sort of orderly direction...
"But Zombie Crystal Cores are no longer renewable. Each one used is one gone forever... And with the current energy shortage, the higher-ups are very strict about controlling them," Lu Chenyuan said.
He paused, then looked up at Gu Xi and said, "In recent years, the only ones with access to Zombie Crystal Cores, aside from the military’s energy departnt, are certain research institutions..."
’So, people from the Abnormal Ability Research Institute had the opportunity to access those Zombie Crystal Cores, and even... swap them out and move them secretly.’
A cold glint flashed in Lu Chenyuan’s eyes.
But Gu Xi was thinking about sothing else:
’If soone dared to defy universal condemnation years ago and use Crystal Core Fragnts from ability users for human experints, trying to artificially cultivate new ability users... then today, faced with an energy crisis and the promise of imnse profit, what wouldn’t those people do?’
Her appearance in the ruins of the NX1984 Area over half a year ago was definitely not a coincidence.
Gu Xi suspected that soone had been conducting secret experints in the NX1984 Area, and the content of those experints was most likely related to Crystal Cores and artificial energy sources.
From the looks of it, the experint used not only her and her Crystal Core Fragnts, but also Crystal Cores from ability users, Zombie Crystal Cores, and...
But sowhere along the way, sothing went wrong. She, the primary test subject, was accidentally found and taken away by Wei Heng, and the experint itself had an accident, ultimately causing the large-scale malignant mutation of mutant plants in the NX1984 Area.
’And so, to cover it all up, soone wanted the military to launch the N001 missile and destroy everything...’
Gu Xi told Lu Chenyuan her speculations.
Lu Chenyuan sucked in a sharp breath, his expression turning grim. "You suspect they’re trying to artificially create Zombie Crystal Cores?" ’Haven’t they considered that the consequences of doing so could very well bring back the zombie virus?’
’That’s completely insane.’
Gu Xi’s expression, however, was perfectly calm.
Li Ming had once taught her that human nature is greedy, and money is especially tempting.
"When the profit is great enough, so will be eager to make a move, so will take desperate risks, and so will even dare to trample all human laws, unafraid even of the gallows." (1)
’In today’s world of dwindling energy, if sacrificing a small number of people could create an endless supply of energy cores, then why not?’
’After all, they wouldn’t be the ones being sacrificed!’
Gu Xi was very calm.
Perhaps it was because she had already been sacrificed many tis years ago...
’And this ti,’ Gu Xi guessed, ’soone probably discovered that the Crystal Core in my head can regenerate after being removed. So they wanted to use all kinds of other Crystal Cores to stimulate , to see if they could turn into an energy source that endlessly produces various High-level Crystal Cores?’
Of course, these were all just her theories. To confirm what other secrets were hidden in the NX1984 Area, she would have to go and see for herself.
After a long mont, Gu Xi looked up at Lu Chenyuan and suddenly asked, "Do you know where all the mutated people who turned into monsters over the years ended up?"
She had discussed this with Wei Heng once, but because the truth was too cruel, she didn’t press the matter at the ti.
But now... Gu Xi sighed.
Perhaps the truth... was even more cruel than she had imagined.
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