Cradling the baby, Lan Jin soothed her while replaying the key word she had just heard.
Suppressant.
What exactly was a suppressant?
Why was a suppressant the first thing people thought of the moment they learned they were infected with this mutating virus?
Once injected, did a suppressant clear the virus from the body, or only slow it down?
Was the suppressant targeted? For example, were there types by species. One for bugs, one for big cats, one for rabbits, in short one for every kind of animal. Or was there one shot that covered everything, effective on any virus that could force people to mutate?
And why would anyone in a base develop a suppressant? What pushed people to research it?
Too many questions circled in Lan Jin's mind, but as for going around asking for answers—
Sorry, she had no intention.
The less you know, the better you can keep yourself safe when the world goes chaotic.
…
No matter how Lan Jin rocked her, the baby would not calm down. Food and a clean diaper were what she needed. With nothing on hand, why would a baby quiet down?
Besides, Lan Jin loved her own child, but that did not mean she had endless patience for every child. After trying a bit and getting nowhere, Lan Jin grew irritable. She walked to Captain Zhang, shoved the baby into Captain Zhang's arms, and turned away without a word.
Captain Zhang froze with the infant, looked at this person and that one, and when everyone dodged his gaze, he resigned himself to bouncing the baby alone. Watching Lan Jin's retreating back, he muttered, "If I could beat you, I would not spoil your bad habits."
Of course it was a joke. No one took it seriously. Still, after the quip, the mood on deck eased a little.
…
A blast that large would not clear so quickly. After another round of decontamination, Captain Zhang rotated people back into the cabins to rest. During that time, he reported the entire incident to the Capital city Base, which would pass it upward, then wait for orders on whether to continue the mission.
That would take time.
Before a decision came down, after shifts of rest, the smoke had thinned. All the ships turned back toward the J City base.
Now—
As they closed in, everyone on deck could see the anomaly above J City more clearly.
A dark mass still churned over the base.
Earlier they had thought it was lingering smoke from the explosion, but now that seemed wrong.
Ling Jiang stood at the rail, puzzled. "What lure does J City have. It is blown up this badly, so why have they not left."
Lan Jin said, with meaning, "Hard to say."
There was a lot tucked into Lan Jin's tone. Ling Jiang and the others understood. Some matters were better left unasked.
So they left it unknown. Truth be told, none of them were that curious.
…
The ships drew closer, and the ruin of the J City base came into view.
Just when they all expected an unwatchable wasteland, they saw the buildings had collapsed, but not crumbled into complete rubble.
A teammate beside them asked, surprised, "Didn't they trigger the self destruct. The shockwaves felt strong. Why does it look like not much blew up."
"What did you expect it to look like."
"I thought it would be nothing but gravel."
"It cannot be blasted to that extent," someone explained. "They 'blow it up,' but the principle is more like demolition. Charges go under the foundations to bring buildings down. As they collapse, the small internal charges kick in and auto target dangerous organisms and destroy them."
In other words, it was blown, but not every corner. If it had been, the previous shockwaves would not have been that mild.
With that explained, it did make sense. Besides, once the large mutants were handled, these details were not worth chasing.
They entered J City's open gate again. Standing on the debris, Captain Zhang said, "Our job is to wipe out every small insect circling over the base. Anything in sight, destroy it, leave none. At the same time, watch for any materials nearby we can salvage. And those mutants pinned under stone may or may not be dead. Do not act alone. Stay alert while you work."
Tasks this fiddly would not be given to high tier ability users like Lan Jin, and there were other things for them to do.
Right then, as soon as Captain Zhang finished the assignments, several of them were led to the rear laboratories.
He had crews open the area and then searched on the spot.
Blown up like this, nothing useful could be found.
After another full day and night of work, Captain Zhang returned to the ships with a few live insects for the professor team waiting aboard.
…
He had barely handed over the specimens when the satellite phone rang.
Captain Zhang assumed the call would order them home. With so many dead, sending them onward would be suicide. But the message was yes, return, and also that the Capital city Base had bad news.
The previous night, just the night before, the mutant snakes with fire crystals set in their heads had all started crawling toward the Capital city Base.
The base had spotted them early.
The gates were shut in advance. Sulfur and realgar were spread at the entrance. That did not do much, but it could buy time. The ability users who had stayed behind began extermination—
But more and more snakes arrived. The ones left at the base were not that strong. Even after loading them again and again with crystals, they barely killed any. The horde only grew.
With no choice, after discussion, the base decided to keep the gates sealed for now.
The gates closed, and inside the protective dome, people felt the sky getting dark.
Endless daylight meant the sun never set. How could it go dark now. Yet today, it did.
When everyone looked up at the transparent shield to see what blocked the light, good grief, many nearly threw up.
===
Hey guys~ just a quick update ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ
Technically, I've got 9 ongoing projects listed on my account. But! Mom's Apocalypse Survival Log, The Invincible Money-Grubbing Fairy, and My Daughter is the Empire's Lucky Charm are all fully translated already. Right now (as of September 29), Reborn as the Fallen Idol, I Leaned Into the Chaos! has less than 50 chapters left to go.
That means, out of the last 5 projects that are truly active, 3 of them are complete works (the original novels are already finished). The other 2 are still being serialized by their authors, but I've already caught up with the latest chapters—those are also queued up in my drafts with over 400 chapters ready to roll (148+260).
So really, my current active projects are just 3. Yay progress! (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و
On my side, I also just got a job offer starting in October. I don't know the exact details yet, so I'm holding off on picking up any new big translation projects for the moment. If I do start working, I'll have to juggle both job and translations, and I don't wanna push myself into burnout (ง •̀_•́)ง.
Originally, I planned to dive into another historical-themed novel right after finishing Mom's Apocalypse Survival Log, but that might have to wait a bit. Or if I do take it, I'll probably slow things down to about 2 chapters a day instead of my usual 5. Some of you have also asked me about continuing Glitched: Highway Apocalypse, and I'll see if I can sneak it into my schedule ( •̀ ω •́ )✧.
For now, until I know how much free time I'll actually have, I won't be starting any giant 400+ chapter novels (unless the chapters are really short). If it's on the longer side with heavier word counts, I'll probably cap it around 300