As soon as the off-road vehicle left the southern base’s perimeter, Pang Cancan lunged forward and fiercely hugged Su Su.
“Uuuuu! Uuuuu! Uuuuu!”
She hugged so tightly that Le Rui, pitifully, could only cling to Su Su’s small arm from the side. “Sister Su Su! We all thought you were dead!”
From the rearview mirror, Wei Yan also glanced over, a multitude of complicated emotions flashing in his eyes.
After the avalanche that day, they had cleaned up the aftermath and attempted to dig through the underground cave to find someone.
However, the rocks and soil had buried the underground passage too tightly. Even after digging dozens of meters with great effort, they had already reached the limits of human capability.
Under such circumstances, everyone believed—Su Su was already dead.
Yet, clinging to the last shred of hope, they lingered in the village, waiting for over a month. Only when that hope was completely extinguished did they finally pack up and continue southward.
“Hiss!”
The female was being occupied by two humans—Xiao Hei let out a displeased, threatening hiss.
Pang Cancan was somewhat afraid of it, but her affection for Su Su overpowered her fear.
She stiffened her resolve and puffed out her chest. “I just want to hug her! If you want to bite me, go ahead! I won’t die anyway!”
Seeing that she refused to back down, Xiao Hei angrily shut its eyes.
It wasn’t as if it could really bite her—if it did, the female would get mad again.
Considering that they had just arrived in time to rescue them, it decided to let her off for now.
“Huh?”
Xiao Hei actually didn’t retaliate—how rare!
Pang Cancan immediately hugged Su Su even tighter. “Sister Su Su, what exactly did you go through? How did you survive? And Xiao Hei—why has it grown so big?”
Su Su briefly recounted her experience in the underground cave.
Everyone in the vehicle was dumbfounded as they listened.
There were such deep caverns beneath the ground? Xiao Hei ate a giant python? She even encountered a tomb?!
Guan Zixuan had thought their own experiences were shocking enough, but he didn’t expect Su Su’s to be just as astonishing!
While everyone was still in a state of shock, Su Su took the opportunity to scrutinize them all.
There was no need to mention Wei Yan—he had already reached the peak of Tier 4.
Guan Zixuan and Pang Cancan had also advanced to Tier 4.
Even Le Rui was now a Tier 3 ability user.
Su Su still had a few Grade 4 crystals left in her possession, originally prepared for them. But now, it seemed they weren’t needed at all.
She was rather curious. “What about you all? I thought you had stayed in the southern base, but no matter how much I asked around, I couldn’t find any trace of you.”
At the mention of this, everyone’s faces lit up with excitement.
Even the usually composed Wei Yan had a faint smile in his eyes. “Zixuan, you tell the story.”
Guan Zixuan coughed twice, assuming a grandiose posture. “Well, this is a long story.”
“We originally planned to head straight to the southern base, but we ran into a little… incident along the way. A small base was nearly wiped out by a zombie horde led by a Tier 4 Zombie King.”
“So, we helped eliminate that Tier 4 zombie and temporarily stayed at the small base. Brother Wei saw that the people there lacked direction, so he took charge and started infrastructure development. One group focused on building greenhouses to grow vegetables and grains, while another started constructing a defensive net to withstand future zombie waves.”
“As it happened, after the snow disaster ended, more and more people were heading toward the southern base. Some of them passed by our small base, found it decent, and decided to stay. Others didn’t like the southern base and, after leaving, chose to join us instead.”
“And just like that, our base quietly grew richer and stronger, expanding in the shadows until we now have a population of several tens of thousands.”
“……”
Guan Zixuan spoke eloquently, going on and on, slipping in plenty of self-praise along the way. He emphasized how he had been courageous, decisive, and almost preternaturally intelligent in defending the city and expanding the base, contributing significantly to its development.
Pang Cancan was about to refute him but, after thinking it over, realized that he had indeed done quite a lot. So, she grudgingly let it slide.
Su Su, on the other hand, looked thoroughly impressed.
“You guys are amazing!”
They had set off just over a month earlier than her, and yet they had already achieved so much!
Beyond admiration, she also felt a deep sense of emotion.
From what they described, this small base was probably the very same “new-type base” that Guan Zixuan had established in her past life. She hadn’t expected that, in this life, after so many twists and turns, it would end up in Wei Yan’s hands instead.
But she still had one lingering question—”Then how did you find me?”
At this, Guan Zixuan glanced at Wei Yan.
This was entirely Brother Wei’s doing, but if he explained, all of Su Su’s goodwill would go straight to Wei Yan.
Feeling a little bitter, he muttered, “It was Brother Wei. He refused to believe you were dead. After settling down in the small base, he told us that if you were still alive, you’d definitely head to the southern base first. So we stationed people there to keep watch. The moment they heard of someone traveling with a snake, they would investigate…”
“Hey! On your second day in the city, our informant reported back saying that a seemingly ordinary person had killed a strong man outside the southern base using a venomous snake.”
“At that time, we suspected it might be you, but we didn’t dare to get our hopes up too much. It wasn’t until today that we confirmed it.”
Before Su Su could even turn to look at Wei Yan, the black serpent opened its eyes and stared at the man for a long time.
Su Su didn’t notice Xiao Hei’s unusual behavior.
She felt both touched and at a loss, but in the end, she simply said, “Thank you. I never thought you guys would still be looking for me.”
Wei Yan glanced at her through the rearview mirror before quickly shifting his gaze away. “You saved my life too. No need for thanks.”
This—this was what it meant to be companions.
No matter who was in trouble, they would spare no effort to help.
A warmth surged in Su Su’s heart, but she was still curious. “How did you all just happen to show up in the hunting zone tonight?”
In her mind, even if they had learned of each other’s whereabouts, they would have arranged to meet up somewhere or sent word for her to leave the southern base.
…This kind of dramatic entrance was completely unexpected and—frankly—way too exhilarating!
Pang Cancan clung to her arm and grinned. “That’s also thanks to Brother Wei.”
“?”
“Brother Wei’s hands-on approach—personally building greenhouses and laying bricks—attracted quite a few pre-apocalypse professionals. Since our base is close to the southern base and we’re both facing the same massive zombie horde, we tapped into the public channels of their walkie-talkies and radio broadcasts… Whatever they talk about, we can eavesdrop on some of it.”
“So, not only did we learn that the southern base was facing a zombie tide tonight, but we also found out that the base’s lord was sending people to monitor the city village where you’re currently living, Sister Su Su.”
Although they couldn’t access private channels, it wasn’t hard to guess that the city lord had set his sights on Su Su and Xiao Hei.
Rather than waiting for trouble, it was better to get Su Su out as soon as possible!
After discussing it among themselves, they originally planned to use tonight’s zombie horde as cover to sneak into the southern base and extract her. But just as they got close, they overheard the city lord’s blatant scheming!
Pang Cancan couldn’t wait any longer—she soared through the air, riding a venomous insect that could currently only carry people for up to two kilometers, and made an incredibly stylish entrance from the sky!
Su Su was utterly stunned.
She instinctively touched Xiao Hei, which was coiled around her wrist, and became even more certain—she had truly found an incredibly reliable group of companions.
Waves of emotion surged in her heart, crashing over and over. It took her quite some time to fully calm down.
“Really, thank you all.”
“But I might… still have to go back to the southern base.”
Grandma Niu was still there. No matter what, she had to get her out.
And then there was the city lord.
His existence remained a looming threat. Even if she followed Pang Cancan and the others to the new base, He Heng wouldn’t necessarily let her go. He might shift his focus to the new base instead, coming up with countless sinister schemes.
A sharp glint flashed in Su Su’s eyes.
If she had the chance—she truly wanted to kill him!