Chapter 37
Zhang Zhiyin was still walking alone at the front. He was completely immersed in his “I-am-finished-its-the-first-time-being-so-near-with-the-living-Yin-Nian-I-am-not-prepared-and-the-living-Yin-Nian-doesn’t-seems-easy-to-approach-will-I-straightaway-get-a-gameover…” own world. He was utterly unaware that Yin Nian was slowly falling behind, and soon joined Xiao Jin and Dadao.
Yin Nian, with a deadpan voice, asked, “Be more specific, what happened to your captain and the man with the surname Yang?”
Xiao Jin: Unexpectedly, such an impersonal-looking man is also keen on a nobody’s gossip!
Xiao Jin at once felt that the distance between Yin Nian and him was much shorter. He told Yin Nian about captain’s heart-rending, heart-wrenching love story in detail without using any coercion or temptation.
Although Xiao Jin did not know why he kept his voice down, his gossip’s instinct told him that the protagonists of his gossip should not hear what was being talked about.
Yin Nian: “So… The man who gave your captain the ring was the one your captain had been thinking about all along?”
“Yes, yes.” Xiao Jin nodded. “During the period when the captain was recuperating in the car, we went to see him. As long as we mentioned any relevant topics, the captain would look at the ring in his hand with a particularly melancholy look. He must be thinking about that man.”
…So, Zhiyin has been thinking about me and waiting for me to appear?
… But now I’m in front of him and he still doesn’t want to come and hug me…
… Sure enough, it’s still not the right time, but that’s fine…
And more importantly—
Yin Nian lifted his eyes: “Then how did your captain get involved with the man surnamed Yang?”
Xiao Jin: “He’s a high-level space ability user. At this moment, only Yang Fu seems to be the most qualified for the captain!”
Yin Nian’s face instantly blackened: “…”
Xiao Jin closed his eyes unconsciously because his surrounding turned dark. When he opened them again, they had already appeared in the water source, which was the destination of their trip.
Zhang Zhiyin had no idea what had happened so he looked at the latter three in puzzlement.
Yin Nian raised his chin: “So, I am also a high-level space ability user.”
At this time Dadao became interested: “Dr. Yin, are you a dual-ability user powerhouse?”
Yin Nian raised his chin reservedly.
Xiao Jin and Dadao immediately admired him more.
Zhang Zhiyin looked at the two men’s admiring expression: “…”
Actually he is not. He is a full-fledged ability user and he is also not a good person.
Yin Nian looked at their admiring eyes: “…”
Don’t you all have any additional thoughts? For example… ‘You are the most worthy of our captain.’
The task of exploring the water source went smoothly, and the four men soon turned back. Neither of them said more than three sentences from the beginning to the end. Finally, Zhang Zhiyin and the two went to hand in their assignments, while Yin Nian paused before he went off alone with his usual stranger-do-not-approach face.
Unfortunately, they saw You Kun again when they were collecting their crystal nucleus.
You Kun glanced at Zhang Zhiyin and sneered: “My shit luck is good.”
A nameless fire arose spontaneously. Zhang Zhiyin suddenly felt annoyed, and he seemed to have considered for a long time before frowning, “You Kun, be like a man, let’s fight fair and square. Of course, you may not necessarily understand the word ‘fair and upright’. The winner stays, the loser leaves here.”
He carefully calculated before, the Item Store had many inconspicuous items that could alter one’s stats and also many offensive items. If he used those items, he might not necessarily lose. In other words, there was a high chance of him winning; it was just a matter of spending money. Since <Tomorrow> had been taken over, there had been many new and powerful items coming out, but they were all consumables and expensive.
You Kun narrowed his eyes. At this time, he dared not readily agree.
Previously, Team 3 had been swallowing their anger and avoiding the sharp edges. When Dr. Yin pointed out that his guard team would be them, they became unyielding. It was hard not to doubt whether they had gotten any secret weapons from Yin Nian.
In the first place, there were many people coming in and out of the place to collect the crystal nucleus. Now that the two team captain had written a war challenge at the doorstep, it soon aroused many people to watch.
“What are you doing? What happened?” A loud voice sounded, and then a big man broke through the crowd and squeezed in. He looked at the confrontation between the two people and his two thick eyebrows twisted together.
Zhang Zhiyin recognized that this was the person in charge of all logistical works in the base. Maintaining the internal order of the base was certainly within his scope of work.
The onlookers were also aware and had shuffled away and concede to both sides. As the crowds dispersed, you could see a group of people looking at this side not far away, including the high-ranking leaders of the base and Yin Nian’s group who was visiting the base.
No wonder the logistics officer was so angry. Even in the end of the world, people were still accustomed to maintaining a bright surface in front of their bosses and guests.
Xiao Jin’s eloquence played a role at this time, and he soon talked about the series of incidents that arose due to You Kun’s bullying to the captain’s formal proposal of a fair competition as the solution.
“You go back first and talk about it later.” The logistics officer waved with the intention of sending them away.
The Level 6 wind ability user who was on intimate terms with You Kun was following behind the leader at this time. He hurriedly rushed up to ease the situation when he saw You Kun. “You Kun, you take this Captain Zhang back first. If you remember correctly, Captain Zhang also took care of Dr. Yin these days, right? It’s not good to fight with your own people at this time.” When he said the last two sentences, he looked at Zhang Zhiyin with a warning hidden in his eyes. Just now Xiao Jin was very fast, all the reasoning had went to Zhang Zhiyin and You Kun, they also did not refute in time. In the face of so many people, turning big problems into small ones, and small problems into no problem at all was the right choice. When things had settled down, naturally, there would be ways to settle Zhang Zhiyin and his people.
“There is no need to worry about me.” At this time, Yin Nian suddenly interrupted. The implication of his words was that if you want to fight, then solve it quickly.
The logistic officer frowned again. He considered it for a moment, and then simply said, “Then, Team 2 of You Kun and Team 3 of Zhang Zhiyin will battle. The loser will apologize.”
You Kun had yet to speak when he heard Zhang Zhiyin’s faint voice, but it wasn’t very firm: “No, the loser must leave the base.”
The leader and the wind ability user frowned.
Everyone was aware of that all kinds of underhand methods and dirty tricks could be played when interest differs between teams. Even if You Kun bullied others severely, it was too excessive and ignorant to persist in expelling someone from the base under the mediation of a high-ranking leader.
Zhang Zhiyin did not give anyone else to talk: “Six days ago, You Kun’s team and my team did the task of exploring an underground laboratory together. Unfortunately, I ran into a Level 5 poisonous zombie. You Kun and his team did not save me. On the contrary, he attacked me using his psychic ability and set up a barrier to lock me up with the zombie… a mere offer of an apology is not enough for this hatred of murdering.”
You Kun finally found his voice: “You are spurting nonsense.”
Zhang Zhiyin stood there and looked at him coldly. He remained quiet.
He remembered encountering such a person like this when he was in junior high school.
After his parents divorced, his father had a new home and another son. Saying “another” seemed inappropriate, because that child was only half a year younger than him. In junior high school, Zhang Zhiyin went to the best school in the city. The child happened to be in the next class. At that time, Zhang Zhiyin couldn’t understand his inexplicable hostility— He was brought up by his grandparents, while he had his father and mother. Why did he hate himself on the contrary?
One day after school, the two people happened to meet. The boy suddenly came over and shouted to him in a loud and vicious voice, “You useless thing will never do anything in your life! I’m sick of your existence!”
The man came to pick up his son and he was not far away. He heard all of his son’s words, but he didn’t say anything. Just as usual, he fetched his son away like any ordinary father.
Zhang Zhiyin stood there and watched them leave.
In the troubled years of youth, he tossed and turned, again and again, thinking that he must do something earth-shaking for them to see and retaliate severely against them. This idea once became the motivation to encourage him to study hard. But then he went to a famous university in the country and left the city where he lived as a child. He did not go back until he finished the funeral for his Grandparents. Little was known about the man and his new family, except by chance that his other son had dropped out of high school and was arranged to work in a factory in the city. The man himself was not a very capable man in the first place.
And he graduated, found a job that looked decent and wasn’t too tiring, but it was relatively low in salary. He lived an ordinary life in a busy city and did not get any revenge like in the novel or movie.
Life itself had already divided them into different worlds, there was no more meaning in going back.
Zhang Zhiyin did not respond for a moment as he was thinking back to his past, but Dadao and Xiao Jin who followed him trembled with rage. When Zhang Zhiyin came back, he did not say anything to the team. They guessed what must have happened at that time, but they did not expect it to be like this.
One of the most unacceptable things for most of the people present here was probably betrayal by teammates and stabbing knives behind their backs. So many of the onlookers felt that Zhang Zhiyin’s solution was simply too broad and pedantic.
You Kun took a look at Wang Feng, the wind ability user who was close to him. He was afraid that Zhang Zhiyin had obtained some secret weapons. If such a weapon fell on Zhang Zhiyin, this fight between them might not be in his favor.
Wang Feng understood what he meant at that time, and knew that he must have some worries. He protected him by telling the logistics officer, “Isn’t this not good? After all, the guests are still here.”
Wang Feng, after all, had a lot of authority in the base, so the logistics officer hesitated at that time.
Just that when he wanted to use Yin Nian to settle this situation, Yin Nian did not give him this face. He stood beside Zhang Zhiyin in two steps and said straightforwardly, “You want to protect him? Well, you join him, two versus two.”
Wang Feng himself was a powerful wind ability user, so no matter who came out from Zhang Zhiyin’s team, their chances of winning were still much higher.
You Kun could yet to be happy when he heard Yin Nian continued lightly, as if inadvertently:
“I will join Zhang Zhiyin.”
