Actually, this hotel was quite good overall, but due to the current electricity shortages, there was no air conditioning available.

After a night of snow outside, the room became even colder.

Nan Muran was still wearing her thin black home pajamas, so her whole body was naturally icy cold.

Si Ye, feeling distressed, pulled her into his arms. He was a bit annoyed with himself for having forgotten—forgotten that when facing Jin the Madman and the underground laboratory, Nan Muran would inevitably experience collapse and anxiety.

It wasn’t until she curled up on the soft, warm sofa that Nan Muran really felt how cold she was.

“I’m sorry. I can’t believe I only just realized,” Si Ye said, his voice hoarse.

Nan Muran understood what he meant and leaned into his arms with a smile. “Don’t overthink it. I’m just simply feeling upset, that’s all.”

Si Ye reached out to cover her with a warm military coat but didn’t say anything, knowing she was just trying to comfort him.

“When did you come back?” she asked.

“Three months before the apocalypse. So you can imagine how much good stuff I installed in Xuanwu,” Si Ye said, feeling guilty.

Nan Muran, sensing his guilt, deliberately played along to lighten the mood.

Si Ye nodded helplessly. “Must have taken a long time, right?”

“Yeah, and cost a lot of money too. But being able to survive until today with them and Xuanwu makes it all worth it,” Nan Muran said. Her original plan for the apocalypse was always to live out her days peacefully at the Mid-Mountain Villa.

Unfortunately, even though the Nan family members were all dead, the underground laboratory that had tortured them to death in her previous life was still there. To oppose such a powerful force, she had no choice but to forge ahead.

Si Ye kissed the top of her head. “Sleepy?”

“A little.”

“Then sleep. I’ll stay here with you,” Si Ye said gently as he hugged her.

Maybe it was because she was being held, but the warmth and sense of security finally settled in.

Since her rebirth, it was rare for Nan Muran to be able to sleep well after hearing news about Jin the Madman.

Because the Chen and Ouyang families were extremely influential within the Lan City safety base, and their group was quite eye-catching, after checking in, they decided not to go out.

Solving the problem of accommodation wasn’t hard, but the hotel didn’t provide meals, and figuring out food was much trickier.

They needed someone reliable to handle meals for everyone.

After Han Yingting explained the situation to Zhou Ling, Zhou Ling agreed without hesitation.

Originally, they wanted to pay Zhou Ling with mutated cores as compensation, but since Zhou Ling hadn’t awakened any powers, cores were of no use to him.

After some thought, Nan Muran gave him a black-red fruit as payment.

Zhou Ling could tell the fruit was precious just by looking at it, but he didn’t expect it to be so precious that it directly awakened his powers.

Thus, when he got up the next morning, even though he kept bumping into things and bruising himself because he couldn’t control his new teleportation ability, he was still extremely excited.

Zhou Gang looked at his idiot son grinning foolishly and felt a pang of anxiety.

Was he scared silly by the zombie horde? “A-Ling, don’t scare your old man. What’s wrong with you?”

“Look, Dad!” Zhou Ling exclaimed excitedly—and his body teleported from the second-floor stairway straight into the living room, slamming headfirst into the TV wall.

Zhou Gang first felt heartache seeing his son bruised and battered, but then his plump body froze completely, blood solidifying in his veins. His hands trembled wildly, his mouth opened wide—but no words came out.

“Dad, calm down, calm down,” Zhou Ling quickly comforted him, knowing he was just overwhelmed.

“Ability?” After a long while, Zhou Gang finally squeezed out two words, almost in disbelief.

“Yeah, but I’m not very good at using it yet. Dad, let me tell you, I ran into an amazing group of experts. Just nine of them dared to fight tens of thousands of zombies.

They can even handle level-five mutated zombies. Your ability team is nothing compared to them!”

…

Watching his son waving his arms around, Zhou Gang sighed silently. Even though his son awakened powers, he was clearly still a fool. Otherwise, how could he daydream like this?

Handling tens of thousands of zombies, and level-five mutants? In an apocalypse where a level-three awakened person could dominate a base, someone who could already reach level three at this time would be a king wherever he went.

But even those people couldn’t possibly do what Zhou Ling described.

Normally, Zhou Ling would get mad if he saw his father’s disbelieving look.

But today, he wasn’t mad at all. His emotions were so stable that even he was surprised.

Meanwhile, at the hotel, Nan Muran had started investigating the situation of all the guests—but she deliberately avoided the ninth floor, where Jin the Madman and his people were staying.

One reason was that Jin the Madman must have powerful ability users at his side. The other was that Nan Muran had an unexplainable feeling that Jin the Madman was… strange. As if he had some way to deal with ability users.

For example, that vine he had—similar to Xiaobai’s—which could instantly suppress a user’s powers.

Luckily, the organizers of the exchange meeting, like Ouyang Yun, Chen Shuhan, and several staff members, weren’t staying on the ninth floor with Jin the Madman and the underground lab’s people—they were staying on the seventh floor instead.

“Dr. Jin said he lost a prized disciple. What did he mean by that?” Chen Shuhan asked Ouyang Yun, confused.

Ouyang Yun sighed helplessly. “It’s my senior brother, Qi Li. Very talented. He was Dr. Jin’s last disciple. Unfortunately, a few months ago, the Venomous Snake Squad sent to fetch him disappeared along with him.”

“What about the girl you encountered in West City?” Chen Shuhan was very dissatisfied with the situation over there.

“Her name is Nan Muran, a plant-type ability user. She has two extremely terrifying mutated plants with her.

Dr. Jin said one of them is a level-seven mutant,” Ouyang Yun said, getting a headache just mentioning Nan Muran. She was too uncontrollable.

“What? Level seven?!” Chen Shuhan was utterly shocked. In a world where level-three ability users could rule, the sudden appearance of a level-seven mutant was like a bad joke.

“They also said that the plant’s strength depends on the girl’s own power level, so it’s still controllable for now.”

Hearing that, Chen Shuhan wanted to pry open everyone’s heads to check if they were full of mush. A level-seven mutant plant—and they said it was controllable? Controlled by what? Those late-stage level-three test-tube warriors from the lab?

“Once the drug trials succeed, we’ll be able to cultivate stronger ability users ourselves, and then we won’t need to fear her,” Ouyang Yun said unhappily, catching the disdain in Chen Shuhan’s eyes.

Chen Shuhan grew angry. “The drug trials need at least another six months. Can you guarantee that girl won’t cause trouble for the lab in those six months?”

“What are you implying?”

“Forget it. I’ll arrange it immediately. Before the exchange conference, we must conduct a complete inspection of the entire Lan City base,” Chen Shuhan said without hesitation. He had always been thorough, unwilling to allow even the slightest mistake.