by Chen Ran
No matter what era it was, power was the most basic form of protection. Without strength, he could only be trampled on like an ant. This point, Zero was very clear.
He took the electronic card that Lea gave him and left the house, walking towards the direction of the weapon warehouse. zero. There were not many 50 warheads left, so he had already obtained 20 bullets from Sheriff Smith, leaving him with only 7 remaining. This number was not enough for a zero round shot. Moreover, he needed to familiarize himself with the M500's recoil. This consciousness required a lot of practice.
Practice required a large amount of bullets.
Walking along the corridor of the living quarters, he met many people from the base. It was work time, and most of the people who stayed in the living quarters were women. The way they looked at Zero was a bit strange. These women were all of different ages and had different appearances, but all of them, without exception, saw the 'invitation' in their eyes. There were many married women among them, but they did not try to hide their presence. In this turbulent era, strength was everything.
That was proportional to the value of the zero. The greater the zero's strength, the more money, wealth and status one would receive. And women were exactly one type of wealth.
It was just that Zero was not interested in the invitation. Of course, he was not a Puritan, nor was he opposed to the idea of having fun in the nick of time. Sometimes, after a fierce battle, there was a need for some sort of pleasure in order to quell the stimulation that the bloody battles brought to the nerves. It was just that Zero seemed to have a strong self-control over his own desires. For him right now, the Lover of the Water was far less important than increasing his strength.
Under everyone's disappointed gazes, Zero directly flew away.
At the door of the armory, Zero accidentally met Zog. When the base's chief soldier saw Zero, he laughed out loud and walked over, then affectionately patted his shoulder. He frowned, as though he was not used to Zog's enthusiasm, but did not voice any objections.
Zog seemed to be accustomed to Zero's apathy, and did not put Zero's expression in his eyes at all. He laughed loudly: "What, coming to the armory the moment you wake up? That's not good. You have to learn to relax. How about I buy you a drink at the bar? You probably don't know that the most beautiful waitress in the bar, Rita, is extremely interested in you. You might be able to sleep in her bed tonight. That is the dream of many men in the base. "
"Including you?"
"Including me!"
He didn't believe it. With Zog's position as the general leader of the soldiers, if he had to sleep with a woman, and with it being a female attendant, how could she reject him?
Zog knew what he was thinking and explained, "This is Old Jack's rule. The base did not object to the love of men and women, but everything had to be willing on both sides. If anyone tries to force their way in, they will be thrown out of the base the moment they are discovered. That is a death worse than death, so no one would dare to violate this rule. "
Su Ling thought of Lea, maybe that was the old man's way of protecting her granddaughter.
"Let's go, fellow. Believe me, Rita's long legs guarantee that you will never return." Zog patted Ling Tian's shoulder, and said while smiling.
Zero shook his head and said, "I'm not free."
With that, he gently pushed Zog away and went into the armory himself.
Looking at Ling Yun's back, Zog shook his head: "That guy who doesn't know how to enjoy himself at the moment is truly boring."
Half an hour later, Zero returned to his room.
He returned empty-handed.
Not in the armory. This particular bullet, the head of the armory had told him, might have to be specially ordered in the large company's military district if it was needed. After all, in this era, there weren't many people who still used revolver with large caliber like the M500. Therefore, it was impossible to mass produce the bullets, and it was quite expensive to craft them by hand. Zero only had 150 yuan on him, he could probably only buy 50 rounds of bullets.
Thinking of this, Zero poured out the coin from his purse. These coins were made of silver. In turbulent times, paper money could no longer be used. This was something one could only imagine. Only metals like gold and silver, which had a circulating value in any era, could be used as currency. Bullets, firearms, and other materials could also be used as semi-currency, except that they were not as constant in terms of value as gold and silver.
Of course, big companies and chauffeurs might also develop their own credit facilities, but it was easy to guess with their toes that once these things left the company's base or branch offices, they would be nothing more than scrap paper, so they were far less practical than coins made of gold and silver.
Put all your belongings under the pillow and go to sleep. The job of protecting Lea would only officially begin tomorrow, with a day's worth of precious resting time. He did not want to waste his energy on a banquet or dealing with women. Just like that, he fell into a deep sleep.
He had that dream again.
In the dream, the beautiful figure was drifting about like the reflection of a flower in a mirror. Whenever he tried to hold her hand, the dream would vanish like a bubble. And then it happened again, over and over again.
After an unknown period of time, Zero suddenly woke up.
There was someone outside.
This was what his intuition told him. Soon after, knocking sounds could be heard at the same time. Since people could knock on the door, it meant that they were not enemies. But Zero had always been careful, so he hid behind him with the Fine Steel Dagger and opened the door.
Outside was a woman reeking of alcohol.
He was older than Lea, but not by much. It looked to be around zero, but had a face that was even more mature than Lea. The woman's lips were dyed an exaggerated purple, giving off an aura of dust and wind. She was dressed as a waiter. She wore a white blouse with a flower collar, and a black dress that fit her well. Under the skirt, there were long, straight legs, and a pair of 10cm high shoes. The woman was almost zero in height.
She reached out her hand to push Zero towards the door, and while shaking off her high heels she said: "I heard from Zog that you aren't interested in me. But I'm interested in you. Well, let me sleep with you tonight. Or are you an incompetent wimp? "
Ye Zichen frowned. Women meant trouble. Drunk women were a bigger problem.
The woman pushed him to the side of the bed as he backed away. She pushed him down hard on the bed and then sat on top of him in excitement. Her purple lips stuck out her sharp tongue. She gently licked Zero's face and said, "You smell really good. You smell much better than those stinking men."
However, a dagger suddenly appeared at the side of her neck.
"Get out!" He frowned, his face ashen. Beads of sweat dripped down from his forehead, as if he was enduring some sort of pain.
The woman did not know that Zero was trying very hard to control his body, or else the dagger would not have been placed on her neck, but would have stabbed into her body and sliced her limbs into pieces.
A loud voice kept shouting in his head: Kill her! Eat her! Kill her! Eat her!
Shut up!
Zero let out a loud roar in his consciousness. Only then did he gradually suppress his voice. Then, to the woman's incredulous eyes, he forced her out of the room with his dagger, finally throwing out his clothes and heels before slamming the door.
Sitting down by the door, Zero closed his eyes in pain. His head felt like it was being roasted by fire, hot and painful.
Outside, a woman's disgruntled voice sounded: "Zero, I will definitely find a chance to fuck you! Remember my name, I am Rita! "
Zero roared, as if trying to force the pain out of his body, and punched the ground.
With a bang, Zero's fist caused the ground to groan, and a circular pattern of cracks to spread outwards. Zero's pain lessened but he was still staring at the scene in a daze. He co
uld not remember having such great strength that could shatter the concrete floor with a single punch!
Rita bitterly put on her clothes, her eyes still spitting fire, she kicked the door twice, turning to leave.
However, just as she turned around, a black shadow swept over and struck her in the forehead. Rita's body shook violently and he fainted. A man's voice was heard as her body fell into a pair of rough palms, "Scoundrel, since they won't do anything to you, why don't I take advantage of them!"
Chapter 14 - Mutations
The next morning, Zero came to Lea's laboratory. Lea was currently classifying and summarizing the medicinal herbs Zog and the others had brought with her, so she was not too surprised to see zero arrival. Old Jack had already told her that from today onwards, Zero will replace Holt as her bodyguard. To Lea, it didn't matter who became his bodyguard.
"Come, help me bring those things over." Lea pointed to a few potion boxes on the table at the side of the room and said. Sometimes, the job of a bodyguard was not just about simple protection, it also included letting Lea order all sorts of trivial things.
Su Yi brought out the item and made a special request.
"I want you to do another ability assessment for me."
"Huh?" Lea lifted her head. Today, she was wearing a pair of flat glasses, giving this beautiful girl a hint of intellectual beauty.
Lea thought she misheard, and asked: "What did you say just now?"
After repeating it again, Lea put down the words in her hand and circled around zero: "What, you feel that there's something wrong with your body?"
"A little." Remembering last night's madness and the sudden appearance of power, he added, "But regardless of the outcome, I hope you can keep it a secret for me."
"What if I tell you, do you... Will he kill me? " Lea asked half-jokingly.
Zero shook his head and said seriously, "I will leave."
He had his own considerations.
Previously, when Lea mentioned power users, she pointed out a rule that was publicly accepted by the world. That was, survivors who had never experienced the Cataclysm Day. Because their genes did not experience shock, they were unable to produce abilities and evolve. If Zero was able to appraise his abilities, then he would definitely be treated as a freak. Although he did not know much about the new era, he knew that even in the old era, the emergence of new species meant capture and research.
He didn't like being a prey, nor did he want to be a white rat. That was why Lea kept her words a secret.
Lea nodded sher head as she carefully locked the door. Even if someone suddenly arrived, they wouldn't immediately notice the abnormality of zero. As for Lea, he did not believe that a change would happen to Zero's body at all.
Because it was impossible.
Just like last time, Zero laid down on the appraisal machine's platform. He closed his eyes and felt the platform sliding towards the machine. His heart was in turmoil.
In this chaotic era, of course, zero wanted to acquire a stronger ability. However, at the same time, the ability to mutate was contrary to the rule that the world recognized. This could only mean that the origin of Zero was even more mysterious and complicated. Otherwise, how could he, who had not experienced the catastrophe, have undergone such a change?
Lea's ten fingers nimbly moved on the operating table s, following the input of a group of orders, various types of lights started to flicker within the appraising device. With every flash of light, a set of data would be sent to the data center, and the data would gather there, then gather together and display on the operating table.
When the number zero appeared on the screen, Lea had to cover her mouth with her hands to prevent herself from shouting out loud.
However, the computer used its inorganic voice to report the data. The overall stats for his body had increased by 3 to 5 percentage points compared to before, which was almost negligible. What surprised Lea the most was the numbers at the end: "... Target ability: Strength + 1, Defense + 1. Evolutionary point data: 1. "
When Zero came down from the platform, Lea suddenly reached out to hold his face, and then, with a joyous cry, she hugged him. Zero's head was buried by two piles of software, and its nose was filled with the healthy body fragrance of a young girl.
"Great, zero. The first stage of strength strengthening and defense strengthening, this was the Fighting Domain's ability. "There is also an extra point of evolution, you can naturally evolve a certain ability, or buy mature formulas from a large company to catalyze the direction of the ability." Lea let go of Zero, excited to the point that tears welled up in his eyes. "Great, our base finally produced a special ability user, I will immediately tell Grandfather."
Letting go of Ling Yun, Lea turned around and was about to leave, but she was stopped by Ling Er.
Zero looked at her and slowly shook his head. Only then did Lea remember the words she had promised Zero. She asked softly, "I promise I will only tell Grandfather, there won't be a third person who will know."
"Only you and I know." Zero stressed.
"Why?" Lea did not understand.
Zero concisely replied, "I'm afraid of trouble."
Lea was also a smart person, what was the trouble of thinking of Zero Point? Indeed, if the truth of zero were to be revealed, the rule that the world regarded as an iron law would be overthrown. Who knew how many large companies and organizations would want to capture and research Zero as a mutated species? This was something Zero was concerned about.
"Then aren't you afraid that I'll tell others?" Lea asked again.
"I don't know." In Zero's mind, the beautiful figure in the dream overlapped with the young girl in front of him. He then said, "But I believe in you."
It was as if electric currents had passed through Lea's entire body. She trembled slightly, lowered her head, and said: "Then … This is a secret between us. "
"Yes."
"A tick?" Lea reached out her pinky and made a childish gesture.
Su Yun hesitated for a moment, but in the end, she still linked her pinky with Lea. Lea let out a satisfied laugh, and then said worriedly: "But if you didn't tell Grandfather, he wouldn't have asked the Parkland's valve for a ripe formula and medicine. I don't know how long it will take for the evolution to take, and I don't know if the newly formed ability will be stable or if it will be dangerous. "
In turbulent times, Adepts were immeasurably valuable. Even normal Adepts were recruited by small companies. For the sake of safety, many Adepts chose to use potions that were well-developed and sold by major companies. The ability to do so was both stable and not dangerous. Only a small number of battle maniacs, or other Adepts with no power to rely on, would take the risk of letting the point of evolution evolve to produce new abilities.
An ability that wasn't targeted could transform, it could produce a powerful combat ability, or it could also be a type of support ability that left people at a loss of whether to laugh or cry. Thus, if it wasn't necessary, no one would choose to evolve the point of evolution.
After Lea told Su Ling about the power, the latter stubbornly shook her head. Compared to transforming the first evolution point into a directional ability, Zero was more willing to let it transform naturally. After all, his ability to expose himself was too risky. As for the formula, he believed that as long as he could raise his strength, he would be able to find a way to get it from a large company in the future. As for now, he didn't need to take the risk for the sake of an evolution point.
Seeing that Zero always disagreed, Lea did not persist. After the two of them reached an agreement, Zero began to help Lea with the division of labor and medicine. When it was almost noon, the radio in the base suddenly started to chime.
Old Jack's voice came from the broadcast, "Everyone come to Workspace, I have something important to announce."
The broadcast repeated three times, and even Lea did not know what Old Jack was going to announce. But she still went along with the task at hand, leaving
the laboratory with Zero and heading towards Workspace. As they walked along the path to the Workspace, from time to time, there were people passing by. From their soft chatter, the two of them heard some words being exchanged. The content of the words seemed to be related to a woman, and for some reason, Zero suddenly thought of Rita.
When he arrived in front of the entrance of the Workspace, it was already filled with people. There was an open space in the middle, and Old Jack was standing in the center with his usual clothes that never changed even after ten thousand years. To Zero's surprise, Zog was there too. He was leading seven soldiers to maintain order. Beside Old Jack, there were two people kneeling.
It was a man in his thirties with a wretched appearance. It was the white Hans who wanted to mess with him when he had just woken up. The man seemed to have been beaten up. His face was swollen, and there were many bruises on his body. There was blood at the corner of his mouth. It seemed that he had been beaten up a lot.
There was a woman standing beside Hans. She was tall and wore a white robe and black skirt.
Walking to the outer circle of the crowd, Zero saw Zog. The latter also saw him and walked towards him.
"What's going on?" Zero asked softly.
Zog looked at him, and revealed a bitter smile: "Rita went to look for you last night, right?"
Hearing that, Lea couldn't help but look over at the zero point. Rita's beautiful name had already spread throughout the Whole Base, so she thought that her men could line up into a long line. But Rita had never heard of anyone getting lucky, let alone sending themselves to their doorstep. And in Lea's gaze as she looked at Zero, something unknowingly appeared.
That stuff is called jealousy.
Zero did not notice and just nodded his head.
"And you sent her out of the house untouched?" Zog asked again.