After finishing the wild vegetable pancake, Gu Xi looked up and asked Wei Heng, "When can we get our land allocated?"
Wei Heng paused, the look in his eyes turning a little strange. "You want to get your land allocated right here? I thought since you just came out of the ruined zone, you'd want to go back to the base to check things out first..."
Gu Xi knew her origins could be a minefield. To avoid exposing herself, she said casually, "It's just that I've been scared of starving for the past few years, you know? I want to settle down and have my own land as soon as possible..."
"You have no idea, I absolutely love farming," she said, her expression suddenly serious.
Gu Xi was telling the truth.
Ever since she was a child, the people around her had always told her, with expressions of nostalgic yearning, just how wonderful the world had been before the apocalypse.
And Gu Xi yearned for it, too.
So, the chance to farm in peace, to stop fighting and killing, to live a self-sufficient life where she could sleep soundly through the night—this was the most fundamental dream of her twenty-eight years.
"In that case, you'll probably have to wait a few more days."
Wei Heng gave her a deep look before leading her toward the administration hall. "We just had a malignant mutant plant incident here, so the military will probably send people over to screen the area again soon..."
"Besides, our camp was just established. A lot of the heavy machinery hasn't arrived yet, and supplies are a bit tight..."
At this, Wei Heng suddenly turned his head and asked her, "By the way, back in the ruined zone, were you living all by yourself the entire time?"
"Yeah," Gu Xi answered casually. She didn't know what clue she'd given away to warrant this probing from a man who clearly had a story of his own.
She glanced at him and asked back, her expression unreadable, "What about you? Didn't you say you have connections up top? Why would you come out here to clear wasteland?"
Clearing wasteland in the post-apocalyptic world was exhausting work.
Moreover, this place was a million miles from the nearest safety base. It was, without a doubt, the most difficult region to live in.
Wei Heng gave her a wink. "Because all the land near the safety bases has already been claimed by people with connections. Even if I stayed there, I'd get two acres at most. But out here, getting eighty or a hundred acres is no problem at all."
Gu Xi thought about her own allocation—at least a hundred acres.
She had found it strange before. With the conditions in the wild being so harsh, how could a single person possibly farm a hundred acres?
But after witnessing the terrifying growth rate of the mutant plants with her own eyes, Gu Xi understood.
Take bok choy, for example. Before the apocalypse, it took about a month to grow from seed to harvest.
But now, a mutated stalk of bok choy—even one with the lowest mutation index—took a week at most.
With such a terrifying growth rate, as long as you could successfully cultivate the plants, it wouldn't be a problem at all with the help of mechanized harvesting.
The hard part, however, was figuring out how to successfully cultivate them in the first place.
After all, the wilderness was teeming with wild mutant plants with extremely high mutation indexes. The wasteland you cleared today could be completely overgrown with them by tomorrow...
Wei Heng glanced at her, then suddenly leaned in. "So, why don't we team up? How about we get our land allocated next to each other? It's perfect—you have a Wood Element ability, and I have an Earth one..."
Gu Xi shot him a surprised glance. "You're an Earth Ability user?" Honestly, she never would have guessed.
His face was pale, his steps unsteady... In Gu Xi's experience, no ability user was ever as weak as the man before her.
Wei Heng shrugged, feigning indifference as he retorted, "What, I don't look the part?"
Once, he too had been a powerful ability user. But then... there was an accident.
To stay alive, he now had no choice but to constantly take a superpower inhibitor.
Gu Xi looked Wei Heng up and down. "You..."
"We're here. Let's go on in."
Wei Heng suddenly cut her off, leading her to the only two-story building in the camp. "This is the camp's administration hall. Weren't you asking about the land allocation? Once we sign the non-disclosure agreement, we can go ask about it..."
...
「Meanwhile, on the second floor of the administration hall.」
The camp's director, Liou He Ping, solemnly handed Ye Nan a collection of samples—mutant plants with low mutation indexes that had been gathered from the surrounding area recently.
Seeing this, several nearby team members immediately pulled instrument cases of various sizes from their large backpacks and quickly assembled a precision device on the spot.
Once the power was connected, Ye Nan placed the mutant plant samples onto the device. Then she closed her eyes, slowly raised her hand, and released her ability...
In that instant, almost everyone subconsciously held their breath, their gazes fixed on her, their faces a mixture of tension and anticipation.
The only exception was Ye Junhan.
He stood ramrod straight by the window, seemingly flipping through a file on the camp with casual indifference.
Suddenly, the man's narrow, deep-set eyes narrowed slightly. His gaze landed on a newly created file, but his mind flashed back to the moment he had slashed at the mutant plants below the high wall...
A thoughtful expression flickered in Ye Junhan's eyes.
'Gu Xi? A drifter from the ruined zone? Only brought back to the camp yesterday?'
'It's true that anyone who can survive alone in the ruined zone after the apocalypse must be capable, but something still feels off.'
'That's it. When the girl dodged my blade, her speed seemed hurried, and her movements looked a little clumsy.'
'But... in that moment, her eyes were too calm. So calm it was impossible not to notice.'
Ye Junhan wasn't one to meddle in others' affairs, nor was he an overly curious person.
But Wei Heng was his best friend!
They were once comrades-in-arms who had entrusted their lives to one another!
But ever since that incident half a year ago, Wei Heng had voluntarily left the Superpower Special Team. Later, he even cut off all contact with them.
Ye Junhan had tried to find him in private, but to no avail.
He never imagined he would see Wei Heng again here, under circumstances like those...
Suddenly, the man's ears twitched, as if he'd heard something.
The next moment, Ye Junhan spun around, his gaze shooting out the window.