Before he could even finish speaking, Lao Gao turned his head and said, "Captain Zhang, the things outside the door? Those were done by us. Based on previous rules, we should get half the credit."
A smile almost broke free on Brother Zhang's face, but he quickly suppressed it and replied, "I know. I'll have people clean it up right away and credit it to your accounts immediately."
After Brother Zhang spoke, Professor Pei immediately stepped in front of him and asked, "Captain Zhang, these people are outrageous. How do you manage the psychic team in the base?"
Brother Zhang sighed helplessly. "Professor Pei, these people are not really part of our base. They were just passing by. Honestly, they did a huge favor for our base."
The professors were already aware of what had happened in the base. When Brother Zhang mentioned the psychic team that handled the giant cat and the ants, they immediately understood roughly what had occurred.
This psychic squad was truly strong, but also extremely proud.
Professor Pei said, "Even if they do not stay in our base, this kind of attitude is unacceptable elsewhere. You should teach them properly."
Brother Zhang was speechless. Lan Jin was proud, yes, but not to that extreme. This was entirely because of the professors' earlier meddling. "Professor Pei, maybe you should head back. It is chaotic outside, and the entrance still needs some clearing."
Speaking of the entrance, they had heard the initial alarms but had not seen the situation for themselves. Now that they had come out, they might as well take a look. Professor Pei then led the group to the base entrance.
When they saw the piles of mutated creatures at the entrance, fear made them instinctively step back two paces. Once their minds settled, one asked Brother Zhang, "Y-You handled all these mutated animals?"
Brother Zhang smiled bitterly. "Professor Pei, we do not have that kind of power."
Brother Zhang led Professor Pei outside and pointed to a few frozen insects on the wall. "These frozen on the wall? Those we handled. But look at the ice. The insects frozen inside are still moving a little. Now look at the ones at the entrance. Frozen solid, they cannot move at all. Not just the animals—the ice itself is completely different from what we handled inside."
Brother Zhang then introduced the abilities of the four of them to Professor Pei and the others, combined with reports. In short, the four of them were incredibly strong.
Once the professors in white coats realized just how powerful Lan Jin and the others were, Professor Pei spoke first. "Then don't let them leave. Keep them at our base. There are too many mutated creatures nearby. We need strong psychics."
Brother Zhang said, "It is not up to me. They are just passing through."
A woman in a white coat behind Professor Pei said, "But no matter how strong, that attitude is unacceptable."
Why hadn't this matter passed, and was Lan Jin really arrogant?
In short, the reality was that Lan Jin and the others were very strong. The professors, though highly respected in the base, could not handle a real crisis themselves. The best course was simply not to provoke them, since they would leave soon anyway. There was no need to clash in the limited time.
Professor Pei was different. He had been anxious about the experimental subjects and had spoken harshly, but he bore no ill will toward Lan Jin. In fact, he was more upset that she and the others would leave.
Professor Pei pulled Brother Zhang aside and quietly asked, "When do you think they will leave, and where are they going?"
Brother Zhang was puzzled at the question. Professor Pei did not hide his curiosity. "I heard there is something big in the south. Before they leave, why not have them bring it back?"
Brother Zhang almost laughed. "Professor Pei, you really see everyone as just tools, huh?"
Professor Pei frowned. "You said they are strong. Yes, I saw that just now. Since they are so strong, giving them a reward to help retrieve that thing is not too much."
Brother Zhang said, "Not too much, but they might not accept it. But…"
Before Brother Zhang could finish, the base alarm sounded again. [Attention comrades, attention comrades, a 5.3 magnitude earthquake is imminent. All units respond actively. Do not go outside…]
The alarm repeated. With the earthquake coming, neither of them could stay at the entrance chatting. They turned and reentered the base.
However, a thought suddenly struck Brother Zhang. Though animals had attacked the base before, it was never in such numbers. He had thought they came to save the giant cat. True, they were coming for it, but their attention might not be so simple.
Animals naturally sense disasters. They avoid dangerous environments perfectly and find suitable places to survive and mutate. So the environment…
Could something be wrong in the place where the giant cat was kept?
Once he had the thought, Brother Zhang could not ignore it.
"Everyone on the top floor, come out immediately! Everyone descend the mountain! Top floor, descend immediately! This is an order! This is an order!" Brother Zhang grabbed his radio, urgently sending orders inside.
The place where the giant cat was kept could only be the top floor.
The top floor was at the highest point of the base. From the outside, it looked like a simple room. But those in the base knew that below it had been dug very deep, with countless experimental subjects. Many guards were assigned.
Yet no matter how many experimental subjects, living people were more important. Whether or not his guess was correct, he had to get the people out first.
Hearing Brother Zhang's orders, Brother Li was confused. "What happened? Why bring people out? There are still many experimental subjects. It is dangerous without anyone guarding."
"Better than people dying."
No sooner had Brother Zhang spoken than the earthquake shook violently. Everyone's vision spun as the ground swayed.
For the first time, Lan Jin felt unsteady on the ground. After swaying, she held onto Ling Jiang against the wall. With the support, neither of them swayed anymore.
Lao Gao and Huang Jinghe simply clung to the material exchange counter, gripping it tightly without letting go.
But wait… the broadcast said a 5.3 magnitude earthquake.
Could a 5.3 magnitude earthquake feel this strong?
===
Hey guys, just a quick heads-up about my recent activity. I've actually been caught up in a totally different project—fonts. Yeah, fonts.
So, on my Android phone I've been using Droid Sans since like ever. I used to be on Roboto back in my college days (around 2017/2018 when I got my first phone), but somewhere around then I switched over and just never looked back. Even when I change phones, I always reinstall Droid Sans because I've gotten way too comfortable with it.
Recently, I suddenly thought: "What if I make this my default system font on my laptop too?" Sounds simple, right? Well… nope. The font is smaller than the default, which meant I had to spend two whole days adjusting things—editing CSS through Stylus so websites like YouTube, ChatGPT, Claude, and Deepseek, etc, don't look microscopic, plus tweaking buttons, menus, and other elements. Windows Explorer was easy (thanks to Advanced System Font Changer), but websites were another story.
On top of that, Droid Sans doesn't support certain characters out of the box—no Hanzi, no Katakana, no Hangul. And don't get me started on Pinyin diacritics, which looked totally messed up since some glyphs were pulled straight from Calibri and slapped on without adjustments. The result? Absolute chaos.
I've been patching it together by pairing Droid Sans with Microsoft JhengHei for Hanzi, which looks way better now. But the real headache is editing and building the Pinyin glyphs manually so they actually match the font style. As I'm writing this (Sept 18 at night), I'm still knee-deep in glyph editing. My brain is fried, and all I can think about is fonts instead of translations.
Hopefully, I'll finish all this by tomorrow and get back to translating. If not… it'll mean I've gone four days without translate anything, which feels super long to me. Normally that's enough time to crank out a bunch of chapters, so yeah, I'm kinda anxious about it.
Anyway, I think I'll share some screenshots of the "disaster phase" (my cursed ChatGPT/Claude/Deepseek screens) and the CSS edits I made on the comment section. Wish me luck—I really love this font, but wow, it's been a ride.