"You’re going to stare your eyes out!" Cres pursed his lips, scoffed, and glanced at Zuo Li.
He then looked at Xie Ning, who was standing there staring intently at the other woman, and waved a hand in front of her face. "What’s so interesting?"
She was amazing!
Absolutely spectacular!
Xie Ning felt as if Captain Zuo was coated in a layer of golden light, the kind that radiated for miles.
She was the most dazzling person in the crowd, bar none.
Just then, two brawny men in black vests came over, laughing and carrying a cage. "Zhong, we found this iron cage behind the glasses store. See if it can hold that kid—"
Their voices died abruptly. It seemed they had only just realized that Zuo Li’s people had brought the situation completely under control.
And the men they were so proud of, Zhong, Fa, and the rest of their crew, were all knocked to the ground, struggling in vain to escape.
"Run!" One of the men in black vests threw down the iron cage and turned to run.
But it was too late.
The team members around Zuo Li were all elite Superpower Users. When they struck, they left no opportunity for escape.
Xiao Qi Zi and his men pinned the black-vested men to the ground. They didn’t even have time to pull out the inhibitor sprays tucked into the back of their waistbands.
Xiao Qi Zi’s group confiscated the sprays, their faces filled with righteous indignation. "We’re all human. In times like these, why are you still turning on your own kind?"
’Are they nuts?’
’Absolutely nuts!’
Two days ago, several heavily injured people had escaped back to Golden City Base, saying their squad had been ambushed at the highway entrance.
Only two or three of them made it back to the base, but they brought the news to the base commander.
When Captain Zuo heard that seventeen or eighteen Superpower Users had been captured, she took on this extremely difficult supply-gathering mission at the shopping center.
And she partnered with several other Superpower User squads, like Golden Eagle and Feixiang, to come along.
The shopping center was a massive area, far too large for the base to clear out and secure all the supplies on its own.
Partnering with the Superpower User squads was a win-win, the best possible scenario.
When the squads heard that a spray capable of inhibiting superpowers had appeared, they became very cooperative out of concern for their own safety.
"What’s this iron cage for?" Xiao Qi Zi angrily questioned the large, black-vested men, who were darting their eyes away.
Xie Ning glanced over before quickly looking away.
’Could it be? In my past life, did Beichen fall into the hands of these regular people, just like this, and get locked in a cage and treated like a dog for a time?’
’Is that why, later on, Beichen showed such immense malice toward the lower-class regular people?’
’Every effect has its cause.’ Xie Ning felt she must have stumbled upon the truth.
’So the boy is actually quite pitiful.’
’A High-level Healing System user, kept in a cage like a dog by regular people... No one could get over a past like that.’
Xie Ning silently swept her gaze over the young man.
But the boy was surprisingly perceptive, his eyes instantly finding hers from behind the crowd.
As their eyes met, an indescribable hostility clouded the boy’s gaze.
Xie Ning turned away, her face impassive, pretending she hadn’t been watching him.
’Fine. Even if his past-life experiences were tragic, I still can’t bring myself to like a twisted Healing System user like him...’
’It’s best to keep my distance from him in the future. We should stay out of each other’s way.’
"Okay." Yu Tianfeng stood up, handing his phone to Zuo Li. "I’ve recorded all the medical supplies I just used—disinfectants, anti-inflammatory drugs, gauze, everything—in my notes here. Remember to pay us back with equivalent supplies or Crystal Cores later."
"My treatment fee isn’t too expensive. Twenty First-order Crystal Cores per person is fine. However, this Superpower User was seriously injured. I performed a deep healing on him, so that’ll be one hundred First-order Crystal Cores."
A lanky team member next to Xiao Qi Zi snapped at Yu Tianfeng, "Why don’t you just go rob someone?"
"I’m earning a fair and legal wage for my labor!"
"This is clearly fair and legal robbery!"
"Alright, alright!" Zuo Li waved her hand, exasperated. "We’ll settle up with supplies after we’ve cleared the whole shopping center!"
Yu Tianfeng scurried back to Xie Ning’s side, fuming and muttering, "This is such a thankless task. Ningning, let’s go."
Xie Ning nodded, taking off her disguise and preparing to leave.
Suddenly, Cao Fa and Lu Zhong, who were lying on the ground, began to struggle violently and shout.
"It’s you!"
"I recognize you!"
Xie Ning stopped in her tracks. Her cold gaze met their unusually agitated looks as she gave a slight, indifferent smirk.
"You were the one at the Aquatic Products Market that day! You scraped a bunch of stuff together and stole our car!"
"That’s right! We were living just fine over in the old apartment building. We had food and drink, life was bearable! Then you people suddenly showed up and ruined everything."
"It was you, wasn’t it? You stirred up all the zombies that had been quiet!"
"You Superpower Users are completely depraved and inhuman!"
"That’s right, you only care about yourselves!" Cao Fa stared at Xie Ning, his eyes filled with chilling hatred. "You made a huge mess, then you ran for your lives without us! You even stabbed us with your Gold Ability and stole the RV we had our eye on!"
Xie Ning hadn’t recognized them at first. But after listening to their rambling accusations, it dawned on her: these were the young thugs who had tried to steal their RV at the Aquatic Products Market.
’They’re really good at twisting the truth, aren’t they? Just a few words from them, and suddenly *we’re* the ones who stole the RV?’
Lu Zhong continued his indictment with a cold expression. "It was after that incident that I had a revelation. We regular people can’t live like this anymore!"
"Why should regular people be backed into a corner with no way out by Superpower Users?"
All eyes turned to Xie Ning. The regular people in the crowd, in particular, began to resonate with Lu Zhong’s words, completely forgetting how they themselves had just been abused and oppressed by these very men.
"At Lanshan Lake Base, Superpower Users are treated like royalty! It’s a hundred, a thousand times easier for them to earn points than it is for us regular people. Why is that fair?"
"Why do regular people have to live in the slums, in conditions worse than pigs or dogs, struggling every single day just to survive?"
"I, Lu Zhong, want to build a society of equals! Oasis will be humanity’s last sanctuary—a pure land with no conflict, made up entirely of regular people!"
Xie Ning let out a snort of laughter.
Her laugh was startlingly out of place in the heavy silence.
"What a pity you’re not capable of it. You can’t even fight your way to the second floor. You can’t even get to the hot pot restaurant across the street for a sip of the water they wash the pots with. You’re having these morons follow you—what, so they can be trapped here with you, stewing in your own misery until you all die?" Xie Ning’s soft, low laughter was like a shower of ice picks, stabbing brutally into the hearts of Lu Zhong and his men.
"Shut your mouth!" a brawny man in a black vest roared, his face flushing with shame and anger. "Stop laughing! What’s so damn funny?"
"So this is the speech you use to deceive these fools?" Xie Ning’s eyes glittered as she stared at the red-faced Lu Zhong.