Wei Heng's guess was correct. Before long, a broadcast sounded over the camp, summoning everyone to the administration hall for a meeting.
The confidentiality agreements were probably ready.
Gu Xi was leaning against Wei Heng's shoulder. Just as they stepped out of the infirmary, the roar of helicopters once again filled the sky above the camp.
Soon, several helicopters bearing special insignias landed in the clearing at the center of the camp.
In that instant, the hand Wei Heng had loosely placed on her arm for support suddenly tightened its grip.
It hurt a little.
Gu Xi frowned slightly. Following the line of the hand gripping her arm, she turned her head to look at Wei Heng's face.
In that instant, she saw nostalgia, loss, anger, and a certain indescribable emotion in the young man's eyes.
But she quickly looked away, her gaze once again falling on the row of dark green, almost black, mutant plants beneath the high wall in the distance.
'My power is malfunctioning and I'm incredibly weak. If I want to recover quickly, my only choice is to plunder.'
'The endless sea of mutant plants covering the mountains outside the camp would have been my best targets. Given the chance, I could have restored my power without anyone being the wiser.'
'But with the recent malignant transformation of the mutant plants outside, the entire camp will probably be on lockdown for a while.'
'It looks like I won't be able to get out anytime soon.'
In that case… As Wei Heng stared blankly at the helicopters, Gu Xi's gaze once again swept over the area beneath the high wall. There weren't many plants, but they should be enough to temporarily alleviate her extreme weakness.
'It's a drop in the bucket, but it's better than nothing.'
Gu Xi sighed to herself and, taking the still-dazed Wei Heng with her, nonchalantly began to walk toward the high wall.
Meanwhile, the helicopter's cabin door opened.
Several men in black combat uniforms, wearing masks and wielding specialized weapons, were the first to jump down. They then stood on either side of the cabin door, protectively flanking a young girl in a surgical mask as she headed toward the camp officials.
The girl wore a pink tracksuit, her hair tied up in a bun. A few stray locks fell around her ears, giving her a playful charm unique to a naive young woman.
The last to jump from the helicopter was a young man wearing a black face mask.
The man was very tall, at least six-foot-three by the looks of it. His mask obscured most of his face, leaving only the distinct silhouette of a high-bridged nose and a sharp, clean jawline.
The black combat uniform on his frame gave him a natural, sharp-edged, and imposing aura. It further accentuated his lean, towering height and ramrod-straight posture. His long, straight legs in military boots looked packed with explosive power.
This was a very powerful superpower user.
'He must be the one I saw earlier.'
Gu Xi frowned slightly, her steps faltering for a moment.
After getting off the helicopter, the man ambled along at the back of the group. The young girl in front suddenly stopped for some reason and turned to glare at him, though her bright, clear eyes held a touch of charming naivety.
Just then, several of the camp's leaders approached them, their expressions grave.
For some reason, the young girl suddenly took off her mask, turned to the camp leaders, and gave them a sweet smile.
The moment she got a clear look at the young girl's face, Gu Xi subconsciously murmured—
"Ye?"
"Mr. Ye!" Almost at the same time, Wei Heng finally snapped out of his stupor, his voice thick with a complex mix of emotions.
Gu Xi's heart skipped a beat. She turned to meet Wei Heng's incredibly complex gaze. Both of them paused, seeing confusion reflected in the other's eyes.
After exchanging a look for a moment, Gu Xi turned her attention to the brightly smiling young girl and asked, "You... know that girl over there?"
She paused. Recalling the name he had just cried out, Gu Xi lowered her gaze to hide the complex emotions in her eyes and sighed softly. "Ye... when did she become captain?"
'Ye?'
"You mean Ye Nan?" Wei Heng gave her a strange look. "I do know her, but she's not the captain of the Superpower Special Team..."
'Ye Nan, not Ye Xin?'
Hearing the unfamiliar name, Gu Xi froze for a moment, then asked, "Then the captain you mentioned is..."
Wei Heng lowered his gaze. "Ye Junhan." His former captain.
Gu Xi glanced toward the man's imposing figure in the distance before her gaze quickly shifted back to the young girl beside him.
'The girl looks so much like the person from my memories... Especially her smile. It's identical.'
Seeing her staring intently at the girl, Wei Heng thought for a moment before saying, "That girl's name is Ye Nan. She's the only daughter of Vice President Ye of the Central Base Superpower Research Institute. She has a Healing System ability and is known as the 'Light of the Apocalypse'..."
Ever since the second mass mutation of plants and animals thirty years ago, the threat to humanity had grown beyond a simple food crisis.
Because even when consuming food with an extremely low mutation index, over time, the accumulation of those bizarre energies would reach a critical limit within the human body.
And while the Healing System couldn't Purify those volatile, bizarre energies, it could temporarily pacify them, extending the time before they erupted inside the body.
As the main force responsible for hunting and eliminating mutant animals, the members of the Superpower Special Team were the ones who used their abilities most frequently.
If there was no Healing System to pacify the volatile energies that could erupt within them at any moment, these strongest of humanity's fighters could become mindless monsters at any time.
The consequences would be unimaginable.
Thus, over the years, those with Healing System abilities were gradually hailed as the saviors of all humanity.
And Ye Nan was the Superpower Special Team's exclusive healer.
"...And it's said she's the only one with a Healing Ability who might be able to Purify those bizarre energies." After he spoke, Wei Heng gave Gu Xi a deep, meaningful look.
Gu Xi didn't know what he was thinking, but she suddenly realized where the problem lay—because her own appearance hadn't changed from the past, she had taken it for granted that the acquaintances she once knew would also look as they once did.
She had subconsciously ignored the fact that thirty years had passed.
Gu Xi lowered her eyes. 'Right. I just had one drink, fell asleep, and woke up to find I'd inexplicably lost thirty years of my life...'
'Whatever.'
'There's no point in dwelling on it.'
'The most important thing now is to recover my power as quickly as possible.'
'No matter what, I have to be able to protect myself.'
The group that had disembarked from the helicopters was already some distance away.
Leaning against Wei Heng, Gu Xi nonchalantly drew closer to the row of mutant plants under the high wall.
She casually raised her hand, pretending to brush against the plants by accident, then quietly released her power and began to entice, to plunder...
The mutant plants also seemed to sense something and began to tremble slightly.
But just then, a dazzling arc of white light came slashing toward them from a distance.
Gu Xi fought back her instinct to retaliate, yanking hard on Wei Heng's hand and pulling them both down into a clumsy-looking crouch.
As far as she could see, the very mutant plants she had just begun to entice had been slashed to the ground, black-green liquid oozing from their severed stems.
'My power!'
Gu Xi regretfully retracted her gaze and looked up, meeting Ye Junhan's sharp, cold, deep-set eyes.
And, deep within them, a cold, arcing glint of silver light.
Gu Xi's gaze subconsciously shifted to the man's right hand, where he held a curved blade about a foot long.
'Is that... Xidao!'
Gu Xi froze.
'Xidao, named after me, was an advanced weapon crafted especially for me by the Abnormal Ability Research Institute!'
Gu Xi had grown up in the Abnormal Ability Research Institute. Every day, she was either training her powers to fight and kill, or she was cooperating with researchers studying her abilities.
From a young age, she had been deliberately forged into a living weapon.
But she was a living, breathing person, not a cold and emotionless weapon.
Then, during a mission, she stumbled upon a pre-apocalyptic film.
It was a wuxia film.
In the film, there was a handsome young hero whose weapon was a curved blade.
Gu Xi developed a crush on the handsome hero, and she fell in love with his curved blade as well.
Later, when the Abnormal Ability Research Institute was creating a personalized weapon for her, they modeled it after that very blade.
But mastering a curved blade like that wasn't easy, as a single careless slip could injure the wielder.
That was why, even though many at the base back then coveted such a blade, very few actually chose it as their weapon in the end.
'I never expected to see one in this man's hands today.'
Gu Xi couldn't help but take another look at the young man.
But Ye Junhan merely gave her an indifferent glance before looking away.
The man strode forward, his long legs in their military boots, and brought his foot down on the severed stem of a mutant plant, grinding it harshly under his heel.
As she watched blue-purple arcs of lightning surge from under the man's boot and into the mutant plant, obliterating the entire row and turning them to ash in the blink of an eye, Gu Xi felt a sharp pang in her chest.
'And just like that, my backup power source was completely gone!'