"That's a preliminarily purified virus serum. Once we take it back to the settlement and process it through certain methods, it can be used for self-enhancement."
Hmm, that's pretty much what I had guessed.
Though I wonder how they discovered this.
"When we get to your base, can we also have you process and use that serum?"
Ji Mengyao's heart leaped with joy, thinking silently that the fish had finally taken the bait.
"Sure, but you'll need to join our exploration team first~"
She gripped the steering wheel while keeping her eyes on the road, pretending to be nonchalant, as if it didn't matter whether they joined or not.
"What does the exploration team do? Things like what you did today, rescuing people?"
Ning Yu wasn't surprised by this requirement - there's no such thing as a free lunch.
"Yeah, we received a distress signal from a man a couple days ago, so they sent the two of us to rescue him."
Ji Mengyao jerked her head backward, gesturing toward Ning Yu.
"Aren't you afraid it might be fake news?"
Ning Yu raised a very reasonable question.
"Hahaha, we're not afraid. Some idiots tried to rob us before, and naturally, we raided their place in return."
"That was exactly what they deserved."
Ji Mengyao said with a cigarette between her lips, showing an arrogant smile, appearing fearless.
Ning Yu couldn't help but think of a movie quote:
Nobody dares to bully our Axe Gang; we're the ones who do the bullying.
"There's also a little girl inside named Wang Yuan. She's the daughter of one of our exploration team members. We found out about this during our communications."
"So we're pretty sure it's genuine."
She added a few more explanatory words.
"So, what do you say? You both seem pretty skilled. Want to join us?"
"We've got plenty of food and clothes, more than enough to go around. Plus, there's rewards and salary for exploration missions!"
"Right now the exploration team is full of smelly men, I don't have a single female friend there. It's so boring!"
Ji Mengyao's tone carried hints of depression, seemingly really eager to have some female teammates.
"Follow big sister's lead, and I'll take you dancing through zombie hordes!"
"Bang!"
She stepped on the gas, running over two mindless zombies.
Black blood splattered on the windshield, and she casually flicked a switch near the steering wheel, turning on the swaying wipers.
"Let us see your place first, then we'll think about it."
Ning Yu maintained a cool demeanor, appearing very calm, her amber eyes deep in thought.
"Deal! Take your time thinking about it~"
Ji Mengyao wasn't in a hurry. She reached out to turn on the old pickup truck's music player.
A dreamy city pop song suddenly burst from the truck's speakers.
The synthesizer-heavy electronic tones seemed to transport everything away from this desolate apocalyptic world. The truck's speakers weren't of great quality,
But this actually added a lofi flavor to the music.
In this powerless world, using car speakers was a decent option if you wanted to enjoy music.
Ji Mengyao seemed to really love this song, her body swaying to the drum beats and bass line in the intro.
She squinted her eyes and took another drag of her cigarette.
In this space filled with blueberry menthol smoke, she seemed to have returned to those colorful, bustling nights in the big city.
"What's this song called?"
Ning Yu asked, feeling this must be a song unique to Blue Star.
"'Plastic Love'"
Ji Mengyao's cigarette-holding hand rested on the steering wheel, unconsciously tapping along, thoroughly enjoying this brief moment of entertainment.
Ning Yu observed her profile, thinking how she had the face of a pure and pretty girl-next-door, probably around the same age as Shen Yiyue.
Yet she styled herself rebelliously: skull T-shirt, gold-patterned baseball cap, golden hair braided into plaits.
Combined with her unexpectedly tasteful music preferences.
There was an indescribable sense of contrast, but it didn't feel disjointed - rather, it was somehow cool in its own way.
"Nice song, right?"
Ji Mengyao flashed a bright and straightforward smile. It was hard to imagine she could also be tsundere.
"Why would love be plastic?"
Ning Yu withdrew her gaze and casually asked an odd question about the song's title.
"Huh? Who knows, I find it strange too."
Ji Mengyao tapped some ash into the car's ashtray, carelessly handling the steering wheel.
"Maybe it's because love takes 1000 years to decompose."
She offered an equally absurd explanation.
The car fell into a brief silence.
"Actually, besides rescuing people, we also hunt mutated zombies."
Ji Mengyao started up the conversation again after a while, apparently having forgotten she just told Ning Yu to take her time thinking.
"Oh? Is it for the serum?"
Ning Yu made a reasonable guess.
"Yes, that's one aspect - the serum makes us stronger."
"The other reason is to reduce threats around the base. Most people there are actually ordinary civilians."
After answering, she suddenly turned to look at Ning Yu:
"It's quite rare to see two awakened ones traveling together like you two."
Seeing her turn her head, Ning Yu couldn't help but remind her:
"Shouldn't you be watching the road while driving?"
"Pfft, I've driven this broken road countless times!"
Ji Mengyao pouted and grudgingly turned her head back.
Only then did Ning Yu continue:
"It's just a coincidence. I can see zombies' weak points, and her bullets can curve. We're a match made in heaven."
She concealed all their other combat abilities, only revealing what Ji Mengyao and Wu Di had already seen.
"You can really see mutated zombies' weak points?!"
Ji Mengyao exclaimed, though she had vaguely guessed this already.
"If you could join us, we might lose fewer people."
She seemed to recall something, her eyes growing distant with memories.
"Never mind! Don't worry about what I said, it's entirely up to you whether you join or not."
Perhaps realizing her words carried a hint of emotional manipulation, Ji Mengyao quickly explained.
"In the base, ordinary people can also live well with food and clothing as long as they contribute their efforts."
"This is our common ideal, and the vision of the Ark."
Listening to Ji Mengyao's words, Ning Yu's impression of this survivor settlement seemed to improve somewhat.
It didn't seem as dire as she had imagined.
If their exploration team focused on killing mutated zombies, perhaps she could use them to complete her tasks by hunting mutated zombies.
She had some vague plans forming in her mind.
"By the way, what would you have done if we hadn't come earlier?"
Ning Yu wanted to probe Ji Mengyao's "Death Resistance" ability.
"Me? After dying another ten times or so, I probably would have worn that thing down."
Ji Mengyao spoke these terrifying words casually, as if it was completely normal.
"You... don't feel pain?"
Ning Yu pretended to be sympathetic as she expressed her 'concern'.
"Nope, I was born without the ability to feel pain. Got bullied a lot as a kid because of it."
Bringing this up seemed to anger Ji Mengyao, and she punched the steering wheel:
"Hey, you're not making fun of me, are you? For having to work so hard to kill it?"
Seeing this golden-haired tsundere being so competitive, Ning Yu understood:
Her rebellious and competitive personality probably had something to do with her childhood experiences.
"No, no, I'm just curious."
"Oh...."
Ji Mengyao responded sheepishly, feeling she had overthought things.
"Well... really, thank you guys for earlier. It would've been rough having to die that many times...."
She said these words of gratitude with a red face and somewhat stubbornly, her voice getting increasingly quieter.
Ning Yu was speechless - why couldn't you say this earlier outside?
Was it because there were more people around then?