Chapter 48, Wish
After Si Xu finished cleaning up the base, Jiang Ran found the place where the food was kept. In the dark dungeon, the sound of footsteps approaching from afar made the previously quiet people become restless.
They huddled together like lambs to the slaughter, cowering in a corner of the dungeon.
It was like this every time. Those people came down, picked someone they liked from among them, took him away, and then that person never came back.
"Woo woo." As the footsteps approached, someone broke down emotionally and let out a sorrowful cry, but his mouth was immediately covered by the people around him.
—It's all a scam, Xiling Base! This isn't Xiling Base at all! The people in the base barely survive on supplies from passersby, and when they run out, they resort to cannibalism.
This is not the base they think is safe, but a real hell.
…
Jiang Ran held a torch, stepped into the dark and damp dungeon, and walked in the direction where the sound came from.
There was a foul stench in the air, and through the flickering light of the torches, the situation in the dungeon could be clearly seen.
Looking at the people with different expressions in the corner, Jiang Ran wrinkled his nose and decided to make a quick decision.
"Are there any people with special abilities among you?"
…
Unexpectedly, the person coming down this time was a beautiful girl. The people huddled in the corner of the dungeon exchanged glances with each other, and no one answered Jiang Ran's question.
"Are there any people with special abilities among you?"
The girl repeated it again, but still no one answered.
"If there's no answer, that means there's no answer." The girl glanced at the lock hanging on the door, frowning in thought, "Does anyone know where the key to this lock is?"
This time, someone finally came out to talk.
A thin girl slowly crawled out of the crowd, her hands on the iron gate, her eyes looking at Jiang Ran quietly.
Because of malnutrition, her cheeks were deeply sunken, making her eyes look big and round. Her dark pupils were like black agate, bright and full of life.
These are a pair of eyes with soul.
Jiang Ran looked back at her without looking away.
The girl looked at her silently for a moment, then said softly, "The key is not here, it's in the hands of the administrator."
"Okay." Knowing that he couldn't open the door by himself, Jiang Ran gave up and turned to leave. "Wait here for a moment. I'll find something to open the door."
After the fire died down, the dungeon returned to darkness.
Someone asked the girl leaning against the door: "Qi Yuan, what did that girl say?"
"She said she was going to find something to pry the door open."
"Open the door? Could it be that she is here to save us?"
Because of this sentence, there was a commotion in the crowd.
A glimmer of hope rekindled in their dim eyes, and they began to discuss in low voices.
"Are they here to rescue us? Are they from Xiling Base?"
"But didn't those people say that Xiling Base is far away from here? Why would people from Xiling Base come here?"
"Maybe he's a new mutant who doesn't want to be in the same boat with them, so he came to save us?"
"That girl," the girl at the door said calmly, "is not a mutant."
In stark contrast to the excited voices of the crowd, her calm words instantly quieted down everyone in the dungeon.
"Not a psychic?" A girl hiding behind someone scoffed, unwilling to see her hopes dashed. "Qi Yuan, you're not a psychic, how can you be so sure?"
The girl curled up, resting her cheek in her arms, and replied sullenly: "Because she couldn't open the door lock."
Yes, if he is a person with super powers, how could he not be able to open this door lock?
The group of people who had originally ignited hope fell into despair again. They were even certain that the strange girl would never come back after leaving.
"Why didn't you grab her?" The girl who had just questioned her, with nowhere to vent her anger and despair, turned her attention to the girl at the door. "Qi Yuan! You knew she wouldn't come back to save us, why didn't you hold her back?!"
The girl remained silent and did not respond.
The dungeon fell into silence again.
Time passed by unknowingly, and the girl who left did not come back.
"Hey, tell me, who will those people take away next time they come down?"
In the silence, someone couldn't help but speak in a low voice.
"Can we please not talk about this topic? No matter who is taken away, it's not something to be happy about, right?"
"I'm not happy at all. I just feel like it's better to die soon and be reborn... Living like this, worse than pigs and dogs, is really better off dead."
"You always say that. Why did you hide so far back when you came down to lead people last time?"
“…”
"Well, come to think of it, the fact that we were caught is Qi Yuan's fault! If she hadn't exposed those people, they wouldn't have arrested us at all!"
"What you're saying—do you want to be like those people, eating human flesh and drinking human blood? Even in the end times, we still have to abide by basic human ethics!"
"Yes, we obeyed the order, and now we have become someone else's food..."
"What's the point of complaining after the fact? Those people won't let us go even if we complain now!"
"I'm just saying, why are you so fierce?"
After a few more words of discussion, footsteps suddenly sounded outside the dungeon again. This time, it was clearly not a single person.
The people who had been imprisoned for many days were startled like frightened birds and huddled together again.
The girl leaning against the door raised her head and looked at the person who came back again.
The girl held a torch and walked down the mossy steps holding the hand of a young man.
Because she was walking in a hurry, the girl slipped and the man immediately supported her and grabbed her waist to prevent her from falling again.
Seeing the interaction between the two, Qi Yuan slightly widened his eyes and stretched out his hand to Jiang Ran: "Are you here to save us?"
When she asked this question, she already had the answer in her heart.
Although it was the first time she met a girl, she had a hunch that these two people were not companions of the demons in the base.
She came to rescue them.
…
After cutting off the lock of the dungeon door, Si Xu kicked open the iron door and glanced at the dim cell.
"Is everyone still able to move?" Jiang Ran helped the girl by the door and asked the others, "If you can still move, let's go outside and talk."
Unexpectedly, these two people really came to rescue people. Those people were stunned and rushed out of the dungeon.
"Thank you." Qi Yuan thanked Jiang Ran gratefully and followed those people out of the dungeon.
Rescued...finally rescued - this life that my father and mother sacrificed everything to protect finally survived after many struggles.
…
I always thought that the dungeon was the most dangerous place in the world. When those people walked out of the dungeon and bathed in the moonlight again, they saw blood and corpses everywhere. Several timid girls fainted out of fright.
"This place... was attacked by zombies?"
"No." Si Xu, who was following the group, replied lazily, "I killed them—all of them."
The man's words made the expressions of the others present change.
"You, killed everyone?" The girl who had argued with Qi Yuan before covered her mouth with her hands, her face full of horror. "Those people, there were innocent people among them. You killed them all? You..."
Hearing the accusation in the girl's words, Si Xu asked indifferently: "What does it have to do with me?"
"What did you say?"
"Innocent people, what does it have to do with me?" Si Xu was in a bad mood today. His tone sounded sinister, lowering the temperature around him. "If you don't like the sight, kill him."
"You, how can you say that?"
The girl wanted to say something, but Jiang Ran, who was following Si Xu, was speechless. He simply waved the torch in his hand and passed it past the girl's nose.
"Ah!" The girl took two steps back in fright, her face pale.
"Have you said enough?" Jiang Ran sneered, "If you think we're cruel, you can go back to the dungeon and I'll lock the door again. That way, you can wait for someone less cruel to rescue you. How about that?"
The girl hadn't recovered from the shock of the torch burning her face yet, and when she heard that she had to return to the cold basement, she subconsciously shook her head.
Jiang Ran nodded with satisfaction: "Since you don't want to go back, just shut up."
His eyes swept over the faces of everyone present, and after roughly discerning what they were thinking, Jiang Ran smiled and said gently, "We are from Xiling Base. We originally came out with the Special Ability Team to collect supplies. We felt that there was something strange about this base, so we came to take a look.
"We already know how the superpowered people in this base survive. To protect the safety of the residents of Xiling Base, we killed these people.
"Saving you was just a matter of convenience, I don't need your gratitude or thanks.
"If you have nowhere else to go, you can come back to Xiling Base with us. Of course, if you feel you can't accept our style of doing things, we can all go our separate ways here and have nothing to do with each other."
Jiang Ran's words were very clear. After looking at each other for a moment, those people pushed one person out to speak.
"If you two don't mind, we'll follow you to Xiling Base."
Jiang Ran nodded in response without giving any further expression.
"My name is Jiang Ran." Deciding to go on the journey together, Jiang Ran briefly introduced herself. "There are still a few hours until dawn. You can find a place to rest first. We'll set off early tomorrow morning."
After those people took two steps, Jiang Ran added: "There are corpses everywhere here, and the smell of blood is too strong. You'd better stay away from here to avoid being attacked by zombies. Just gather at the gate early tomorrow morning."
After those people left, Si Xu took Jiang Ran to the gate.
The base was full of corpses, and the smell of blood quickly attracted the surrounding zombies and mutant beasts.
"Are you sleepy?"
Knowing Si Xu's plan, Jiang Ran was very excited: "I'm not sleepy!"
"Well, then practice well." Si Xu touched her head, "Get used to the night mode."
Night mode? Jiang Ran laughed: "Hearing you put it that way, it feels like a game where you can die and start over again."
"No." Si Xu corrected her, "Dead is dead. Buried in the ground, it turns into bones. There is no so-called soul, and there is no afterlife."
He was so serious that Jiang Ran nodded hurriedly: "I know, I will take it seriously."
"Yeah." Several zombies staggered towards him. Si Xu pushed her forward two steps and said, "Go ahead."
…
The next morning, after a night's rest, the people arrived at the base gate as agreed. When they saw the piles of zombies and mutant beast corpses at the gate, they almost dropped their jaws in shock.
Jiang Ran was recording her final battle record. When she heard the noise, she casually pointed at the van in the open space.
"The car is a little small, so you guys just squeeze in. It's fine as long as you can get to the base."
"You...you killed those people just to attract these zombies?" someone asked in a low voice.
Jiang Ran glanced at the person who was speaking - it was the girl who accused Si Xu of being cruel last night.
"What's your name?" Jiang Ran put away the gun, clasped his hands in front of him, raised his chin slightly and looked at the man.
"Shu Yue."
"Shu Yue..." Jiang Ran muttered the name again and asked, "How long have you been captured?"
"I don't know." They were locked in a dark dungeon, unable to see the sunrise or sunset, or the passage of time.
"Besides locking you up, have those people done anything excessive to you?"
Shu Yue shook her head.
"Oh, I see." Jiang Ran smiled and hooked his finger, "Come with me."
"Where are you going?"
"I'll take you to a nice place to see the scenery." After taking two steps, seeing that she didn't move, Jiang Ran said, "Come on, don't worry, I'm also an ordinary person, and I'm not interested in women."
Si Xu did not stop the two girls from leaving.
He glanced at the others who were stunned and said coldly, "Get in the car... The zombies are coming, I won't meddle in their business."
“…” What he meant was that if the zombies came, he wouldn’t take care of them.
Captain Chu's wife is out, she's a cute little sister~
(End of this chapter)
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