WEF - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: [Old Liar]

The punch came fast and vicious. The woman did not even grunt, simply closing her eyes.

Seeing how cleanly she had gone down, Ning Dali reached out to check her breathing.

Luckily, she was still alive.

Ning Dali took a pair of handcuffs from the Supply Crate, fastened them around the woman's wrists, then rose from the driver's seat and walked to the RV's refrigerator.

She entered the code, opened the refrigerator, and took a veterinary anesthetic from the cold compartment.

It was powerful stuff. A single injection could knock out a fully grown elephant.

No ordinary household would keep something like that on hand, but Ning Dali was not an ordinary person.

She had once spent an entire street being chased by a knife-wielding madwoman.

The two had no grudge against each other and had never met, but the madwoman had drawn a cleaver the moment she first laid eyes on Ning Dali.

One cut ran from her shoulder to her waist, straight through her entire back and nearly cutting her in two.

One cut was not enough. The madwoman chased Ning Dali from one end of the street to the other, then back again, utterly determined to cut her dead.

With no choice, Ning Dali could only fight her head-on.

With one clash, her opponent was dead.

This should have counted as self-defense... except the madwoman was a scion of a financial dynasty. Her family could bend the Federation to its will, while Ning Dali, an orphan, could only end up in prison, sentenced to ten years.

She had been only eighteen that year. While other people were sitting their university entrance exams, she was being marched into prison.

While others were learning specialist skills and building networks at university, Ning Dali was learning professional knowledge and making connections in prison.

After her release, Ning Dali promised the prison guard that she would turn over a new leaf. She would not take lives lightly, especially when it came to strangers.

So the moment she was released, she tracked down a friend from her prison days and bought the anesthetic.

The anesthetic was not cheap. Her prison friend advised her that something as deranged as that was the sort of thing a normal person might never encounter twice in a lifetime. The madwoman's entire family had already been taken down, and there was no need to be suspicious or overly defensive.

Besides, the anesthetic was unavailable through official channels and prohibitively expensive on the black market, while Ning Dali had only just gotten out and had not a cent to her name.

Letting her pay on credit would put their friendship behind bars at risk.

Ning Dali took a box of the anesthetic anyway.

Before it wore off, she finally put it to use.

Without it, given how little she knew about the world of Ability Users, she would have had to kill the woman to be safe.

That was not impossible, but she had only just arrived and knew neither the place nor its people. It would be easy to leave trouble behind.

Now that she had the anesthetic... give or take, she had saved a life.

Ning Dali injected the woman with half a dose, then reached out to check her breathing again.

As she reached out, her fingertips accidentally brushed the woman's cheek.

A row of white numbers appeared before her eyes.

[00:33:23]

Ning Dali: "..."

What do you mean by showing up now? Try being a human being for once.

After a moment of silence, Ning Dali's thoughts took a new turn.

She poked the woman's cheek and watched the Countdown blink in front of her eyes. It was a little hellish, but not necessarily a bad thing.

A conscious person did not count as food, and touching one would not summon a Countdown.

Only when a person was dead or unconscious would they be treated as food and summon a Countdown.

The Countdown could help her determine a target's condition and administer another injection in time.

Very convenient. Smarter than a dog.

Ning Dali carried the woman to the passenger seat and meticulously searched everything on her person.

Most of the pockets in the woman's clothing held food from Ning Dali's RV.

All that remained was what might be a smart device, two crystals whose functions she could not identify, and a packet of spoiled crackers.

The smart device would not open without a password. Ning Dali pulled its battery and tossed it into the storage box with the crystals.

Next, she pulled open the woman's collar and examined the mark on the inner label. It read Harvest Base. Ning Dali made a mental note of it.

She searched the woman three times from top to bottom and inside out, then scanned her entire body twice with a metal detector. Only after confirming there was nothing amiss did she stop.

When she checked the Countdown, only ten minutes had passed.

Even the SUV beside the Airdrop had not left.

Ning Dali rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

Some Ability Users in this world were very strong, able to use their Abilities at a distance or manipulate shadows. Others were so weak that a single punch could knock them unconscious.

Since even an Ability User who could be knocked out with one punch had dared to climb into her RV and steal things, did that mean most Ability Users were not that strong?

She had no idea how strong the two people at the Airdrop were, whether they would be easy to bully, or whether she could even talk to them. Ning Dali took out her binoculars and watched.

A few minutes later, as the two appeared ready to leave, she placed a smoke grenade and a demolition charge beside her, started the engine, and drove closer.

---

The two beside the Airdrop were Wang You and Zhuang Yuezhen.

Neither had the slightest idea they were being watched from concealment as they debated which bag to glean.

Under Article Eight of the General Base Management Code, each person could take only one item from any Airdrop, and could take no more.

So both were choosing their bags with enormous care.

"Which one do you think I should take, this bag or that one?" Zhuang Yuezhen asked her teammate for an opinion.

Wang You looked at the two bags in Zhuang Yuezhen's hands.

One held rice in a riot of color. Red and green mold had grown across the yellowed grains, along with several unidentified black objects.

The other held greens so rotten they had liquefied, their original shape barely discernible.

"Take the greens," Wang You advised. "They are a little rotten, but you can trade them in with the Farming Folk for Points."

"The rice could work too," Zhuang Yuezhen hesitated. "And I think it could still be eaten if I processed it. That would be better value than Points."

"It definitely can be eaten. You won't get poisoned, so what are you afraid of?" Wang You changed her tune and encouraged her.

Zhuang Yuezhen scratched her head. The moldy rice would be filling, while the rotten greens would improve the meal she shared with her teammate, leaving her caught in a dilemma.

Wang You had chosen her own portion long ago and could not help but remind her, "We've already been choosing here for half an hour."

Even if someone had gleaned an Airdrop until only rubbish remained, it was still an Airdrop.

It deserved the respect of one.

"So long?" Zhuang Yuezhen said in surprise. Her fingers fidgeted in indecision before she picked up the bag of rice. "Then I'll take this."

"Fine." Wang You nodded and lifted her own bag of pungent-smelling dried tofu. Just as she turned to leave, she saw a huge RV approaching.

It was a white RV six meters long, with no way to tell which base had manufactured it. It was probably a custom model.

There was no license plate on the front, and privacy film had been applied to the windshield with conspicuous care. Two vague silhouettes could be seen through it.

Wang You and Zhuang Yuezhen exchanged a glance. The fingers holding their plastic bags curled instinctively, afraid the driver had noticed their moldy rice and moldy dried tofu.

The RV rolled slowly to a stop in front of them, neatly blocking their path.

Their hearts sank again. They had already steeled themselves to be robbed.

The driver's-side window lowered, revealing the driver's plain, harmless face.

In stark contrast to that face was the driver's physique. From outside the RV, only the upper half of her body was visible.

She wore white coveralls and rested one hand casually on the steering wheel. Even sitting still, the firm lines of her arm muscles showed through the fabric.

She radiated the strength of a powerful woman.

In this world, ninety percent of all food came from Airdrops. Strength meant ample food, which meant power, and power meant she was not someone to provoke.

It also meant she might roam around robbing people and stealing their food.

Wang You had a bad feeling in her gut. It might not be only the dried tofu she lost; she could lose her SUV too.

Ning Dali felt that the way the two women were looking at her was somehow strange. She could not pinpoint what made it strange, but there was unmistakably something odd about it.

If she had to put it into words, it was a little like the way the prison guard had looked at her back then.

There was helplessness, caution, and defensiveness, along with a trace of admiration so faint it was almost impossible to notice.

Caution and defensiveness were normal, but Ning Dali did not understand the helplessness or the admiration.

She had no intention of understanding.

"Friends, I have something to ask you," Ning Dali said, casually toying with the demolition charge in one hand and remaining ready to blow someone up at any moment.

There was no malice in her words. She did not sound like she was there to rob them, and Wang You and Zhuang Yuezhen both exhaled in relief.

"Y-you go ahead. Y-you say."

"My friend was attacked. Her injuries are severe, and she may be dying."

Ning Dali pointed to the unconscious woman in the passenger seat, her expression filled with concern.

Zhuang Yuezhen followed her gaze to the unconscious woman. Her eyes lingered on the woman's gaunt face, then shifted to Ning Dali's healthy, rosy, glowing face.

"Friend?" she asked.

How did someone with such a completely different build become friends with someone else? That is some unfair way to split the spoils!

Wang You stomped hard on Zhuang Yuezhen's foot, telling her to say less.

Without changing her expression, Ning Dali gave a seamless answer. "I met her on the road. We have been friends for less than a day. We have not known each other long, but our bond runs deep. She was hurt because of me, and I cannot ignore that."

Wang You and Zhuang Yuezhen were taken aback, never expecting Ning Dali to possess so much compassion and sense of responsibility.

"I see," Zhuang Yuezhen murmured.

"That's right," Ning Dali nodded. "Her injuries are severe, and she needs proper treatment right away. If we delay any longer, I am afraid there will be no saving her. If either of you happens to know where the nearest base is..."

"But the nearest base is at least a full day and night away by car!" Zhuang Yuezhen blurted out.

Ning Dali: "?"

A full day and a night? Your bases really are so far away? No wonder she had spent three days driving around the area without seeing a single building. She had wasted no small amount of fuel, too.

Without a map, she could drive around forever and never find a base.

Wang You glanced at Zhuang Yuezhen and added cautiously, "The base is rather far, but there might be some healing-type Ability Users nearby. You never know."

Healing-type?

Ning Dali filed away another piece of information and asked, "Do either of you know any?"

Wang You shook her head.

Healing-type Ability Users were rare, and most were kept by bases. As for wild healers, given the population density here, the chance of running into an Airdrop was greater than the chance of finding one.

Ning Dali frowned as though she were grieving over her friend's condition.

After a moment, she spoke as though she had finally steeled herself for a terrible decision. "No matter the outcome, I intend to try to make it to a base. Even if she dies on the way, at least I will have tried. I cannot give up on her just because the base is so far away."

"Uh-huh, that makes sense," Zhuang Yuezhen said.

Wang You said nothing, but a dark premonition stirred in her heart.

"But my RV does not have enough fuel. I may not be able to make it to a base. Do you still have much fuel in your vehicle?" Ning Dali continued.

Zhuang Yuezhen: "..."

Wang You: "..."

Out in the wilderness, there was nowhere to refill gasoline, and no one ever complained about having too much fuel in their vehicle.

But.

Wang You looked at Ning Dali's distinctive RV, then at her solid muscles, and finally at the "friend" who looked close to death.

No one with even a little intelligence or social savvy would have dared refuse at a moment like this.

"We have some," Wang You said resignedly.

Ning Dali's smile widened as she prepared to offer thanks.

A single line of snow-white numbers appeared before her eyes, filling her entire field of vision.

[00:00:00]

[You have completed a challenge. You will soon acquire a wondrous Ability. Ability draw in progress... Ability draw complete!]

[You have acquired the following Ability: Old Liar]

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