Chapter 28

New Base

He had always been there; at the moment the body completely collapsed and the head fell to the ground, Juan’s soul instantly withdrew from its original body.

Then, he appeared in this strange place alongside Pedro.

Standing beside Pedro, Juan enjoyed the torrential rain before him.

The place where he was born was very dry, so he had always loved the rain. Whenever it rained, he could take a good bath. Now that he no longer had a body, he let the heavy rain pour down, feeling as if his spirit was being washed clean as it fell through his formless self onto the ground.

The foul air from Eden had been washed away—standing with his eyes closed beside the boy, Juan reveled in the downpour.

Having been powerful for so long, he had forgotten that a human body needed to avoid the rain.

It was only when Pedro suddenly stood up and began searching around, eventually finding a piece of plastic to wrap the corpse of 485345, that Juan realized: Hmm… humans generally need to avoid the rain at times like this…

Juan then wandered around, trying to find a new body nearby.

After searching fruitlessly, he could only return to stand beside Pedro.

Then the group of people arrived.

He felt they could follow them.

Pedro was uncooperative.

Fortunately, someone managed to persuade him.

Now that someone offered to heal him, Juan felt it was good too, but Pedro was still uncooperative…

Seeing the unmoving boy, Juan reached out his hand toward the boy’s head, wanting to position his eyes in front of the thin man’s hands for treatment. However, when he couldn’t touch the boy no matter how he tried, a moth flew slowly past.

Then, a part of his wandering soul attached itself to the moth, following the original push direction, and crashed into the back of Pedro’s head, causing him to—

Feel as if he had been knocked out by a suddenly accelerated bullet.

But… if the moth was alive, how could he have entered its body? Yet if it were dead, how could it fly?

Juan fell into deep thought.

Meanwhile, the burly man, while his companions were focused on treating the boy, began to scan the surroundings.

He was much more observant than he appeared. Although he could explain the boy’s fainting as exhaustion, he still habitually wanted to confirm, and when he did so, he noticed the moth lying behind the boy.

Even though it was dead, he picked up the moth to examine it. Just looking wasn’t enough to tell anything, and finally, he didn’t know what he was thinking at that moment when he took out the detection device he always carried and aimed it at the moth’s body.

The red light at the top of the detection device lit up, and a line of small text appeared on the screen.

Seeing the results, the burly man’s pupils contracted, and he took off his tight-fitting clothes, using the fabric to extinguish the fire in the basin!

“What’s going on?” The woman who was warming herself by the fire asked in confusion.

The thin man who was treating Pedro turned his head as well.

“It’s a zombie moth! I noticed this guy suddenly fainted, so I wanted to confirm the reason for his fainting, and then I found this moth. It must have collided with him,” he whispered.

“A zombie moth? Can insects become zombies?” The woman was taken aback.

“Can a moth knock someone out?” The thin man’s head tilted in confusion.

“I don’t know! But the detection device confirmed it,” the burly man quickly said, instructing the two, “Check if there are any injuries on the back of his head from the moth.”

This was directed at the thin man.

“Get ready for a fight!”

This was directed at the woman.

As for himself, after saying those two things, the burly man immediately disappeared into the back of the vehicle and reappeared in the driver’s seat, informing the two in front of him about the situation.

“A zombie moth? I haven’t encountered one before, but I’ve heard there were places where they appeared. It seemed to be quite troublesome back then.” The man referred to as Brother Du appeared to be quite knowledgeable, and even the burly man listened attentively when he spoke.

“Why? Is it difficult to deal with?” The other two became tense.

Brother Du shook his head, then nodded after a moment, “The moth itself isn’t difficult to deal with, but it’s an insect. What animals eat insects? Birds and other small animals. While dealing with one or two isn’t hard, they generally like to gather in groups, and there are usually a lot of them…”

The two’s faces changed dramatically.

Immediately, they turned off the car lights and the interior lights, increasing the speed of the vehicle to the maximum as they rushed forward.

Fortunately, their journey went relatively smoothly; they only encountered two waves of zombies, which they managed to handle with their combined strength. They arrived at the base before the deadline for their mission.

“…It’s best to report the encounter with the zombie moth to the base manager.” Standing at the entrance of the base, Brother Du reminded the others in the vehicle. After giving his advice, he bid them farewell: “Thank you all; it was a pleasure working with you.”

“Brother Du you must have worked with many people, right? I bet there are also S-level ability users among them. Was working with us more enjoyable than with them?” The burly man asked him with a smile.

Brother Du continued to smile, “If treating missions like a journey, then going out with different teams is like taking different journeys. I can only say that each has its own enjoyable aspects.”

“And each has its own unpleasant aspects?” The burly man grinned at him.

Still smiling, Brother Du waved his hand at him and also waved goodbye to the woman and others who had pulled him into the vehicle.

“Why are you saying that to Brother Du? He’s been honest the whole time and hasn’t caused any trouble,” the woman said as she pulled the burly man into the vehicle.

The burly man pouted, “It’s precisely because he’s been honest the whole time and hasn’t caused any trouble that he hasn’t done anything, right?”

“He’s a spatial ability user, responsible for storing mission supplies. His job is to pack things and take them away. How can you compare yourself to him?” The woman frowned.

The burly man snorted, “I can’t compare, but it feels unfair that one person takes away half the reward just for packing something…”

Their conversation was easy to guess even without hearing it.

Watching the vehicle of his former teammates drive away, Brother Du stood still, the smile on his face undiminished. He turned to the boy standing behind him and said, “I can only take you this far. While this isn’t the largest base nearby, it’s well-managed and has kind healing ability users. I think it will suit you well.”

“You can’t enter the base directly; you’ll need to be quarantined in a special room outside the base for seven days. After that, once it’s confirmed that you’re okay, you can enter the base.”

As he spoke, he walked forward with the boy. The boy ignored him, and he didn’t mind, directly leading him to the head of the quarantine area. He even used a little “bribery” tactic.

“Wow! This brand of chocolate is quite rare these days. Thank you!” Without hesitation, the small leader stuffed the chocolate into his pocket and smiled at him, saying, “Don’t worry, if he passes the quarantine period smoothly, I’ll let him in.”

After a moment, looking into the man’s smiling eyes, he added, “If that one next to him… doesn’t change after the quarantine period, can I let him in too?”

He gestured toward the corpse the boy was holding.

The base didn’t have a strict prohibition against bringing corpses inside, but there was no explicit permission either. This gray area depended on the management; as long as he agreed, everything would be fine.

Brother Du smiled again, thanking the man.

Finally, after glancing at the boy, he turned around and said goodbye to the staff at the quarantine area.

“Who was that?” The small staff member at the quarantine area asked his supervisor as he watched the man walk away. “I’ve never seen him at our base.”

“Of course you wouldn’t. He’s not one of us. I don’t know which base he’s from, just that he’s a pretty powerful spatial ability user. He came to take on a mission from our base, helping with transporting goods.”

Hearing this, the small staff member looked at the chocolate in his hand—indeed, the man had given him a pack, one less than the one he gave his supervisor.

“That sounds like a capable person. To just hand out these things, he must be wealthy. Why doesn’t he just take the kid with him?” The small staff member was puzzled.

“Busy? I heard that once he leaves our place, he’ll head directly to take on another mission. Did you see? He’s already in the car. People like him usually have dangerous missions, and their futures are uncertain. He probably can’t take the kid with him.”

“Of course, it could just be that he doesn’t want the hassle.”

As the small leader said this, he thought about the chocolate in his pocket and ultimately arranged a nice room for the boy. During the quarantine period, he allowed the boy to bring the corpse into the base.

Thus, standing next to Pedro, Juan finally saw the gates of the new base again.

He compared the base before him with the only human base he had ever seen—Eden’s base.

After a moment, he felt that the lord of this place—no, the base manager—was probably a serious and traditional person.

There was no light barrier, no colorful light bands; the new base had only a small door, and inside were identical buildings. They could be considered tall buildings, but not excessively so—about ten stories high.

Following closely behind the woman leading him into the base, Pedro observed the new place as he walked forward.

When Pedro swiped his card to enter, he heard a mechanical electronic voice from the side: “Beep—welcome home, owner.”

Owner? Juan thought in confusion.

Well, he realized that he still knew too little about the human society here.

If he had understood a little more, he would have discovered that this so-called new base was actually just a residential complex.

A large residential complex with many buildings!