WEF - Chapter 12
Chapter 12: Ms. Dali, Why Are You Running?
"We're almost there."
Wang You sat up from the reclined seat and stretched her neck, which was not stiff at all. She sighed appreciatively. "The vehicle I summoned this time is so comfortable."
It was quiet and smooth, and fast. Riding in it no longer felt like an ordeal, but a pleasure.
"You were so lucky this time." Zhuang Yuezhen gave her a thumbs-up. "We should summon the same vehicle next time."
"Obviously. I've already memorized every detail of it." Wang You lifted her chin, her voice brimming with the joy of newfound prosperity. "We'll be seeing much more of this vehicle from now on. It's mine now."
Ning Dali listened in silence, finding it all rather miraculous.
She had used two Memory Crystals to erase certain memories from Wang You and Zhuang Yuezhen. She had expected them to notice immediately.
She had even prepared an explanation in her head, never expecting that neither of them would realize several stretches of their memories were missing.
It seemed as though some strange logic had automatically filled the gaps and forcibly spliced the disconnected memories back together, such as Wang You's memory of summoning the vehicle.
She had forgotten the beginning and forgotten the end. In any case, one blink and the supercar was right in front of her. It was a little different from the usual process for summoning a vehicle, but it did not matter. The car was there. She really was lucky.
She had no way of knowing whether the Memory Crystal was powerful enough to do that, or whether those two were simply too dim to notice any memory loss.
Or perhaps they had noticed the gaps but were afraid to say anything, joining forces to put on an act in front of her.
Ning Dali watched them for a while and decided the third possibility was most likely. Those two cowardly drama queens were boldly pretending to be calm and putting on a show.
The Memory Crystal's effect only erased memories. It did not fill in the gaps.
No. More likely, it could not.
That explained why Ying had not taken out a Memory Crystal and erased her memories at the time.
Memories could not solve the problem. If she lost the RV, she would report it to the police and make a big fuss.
Ning Dali's fingers tightened unconsciously, as if they still remembered the feel of the crystal she had crushed.
Even if the erasure was noticeable, a Memory Crystal's effect was powerful enough to be practically impossible to counter.
It activated instantly, and there was no way to defend against it.
Even if the victim noticed afterward, it was useless. They would have no idea who had done it, and the memories could not be recovered.
Earlier on the road, Ning Dali had searched online for information about Memory Crystals.
The web barely mentioned them. The only article she found said that many years earlier, a powerhouse had crushed nearly ninety thousand Memory Crystals at once and erased a child's memories again and again until nothing remained.
After that, Memory Crystals had all but vanished from the market.
All but vanished? In other words, a few were still in stock.
And Memory Crystals were not the only kind. There were Truth Crystals, Invisibility Crystals, Holy Light Crystals, Tracking Crystals... so many different crystals that Ning Dali's head began to spin.
The more she learned about this world, the more dangers she saw everywhere, the less certain she was of surviving from one day to the next, and the more certain she became that she needed a home in the Fertile Base.
"Can the Fertile Base's Shield block crystals?" Ning Dali suddenly asked. Inside its range, no ability could interfere with or affect you. What about crystals?
Zhuang Yuezhen was blindsided by the question. She froze, then hurriedly said, "It should. Probably."
Ning Dali turned her gaze to Wang You and asked again, "Can it?"
"According to the news reports, it can." Wang You was more precise. "I haven't seen any reports about anything similar."
Ning Dali spoke slowly. "Then, if someone used an Invisibility Crystal outside the base and entered the range of the Shield, would she still be invisible?"
Wang You: "..."
Big shot, that is a very advanced question. I have never used a crystal. How would I know?
"Why don't we wait until we reach the base and ask one of the staff?" Wang You pointed at the base ahead. "Xiao Zhen and I have never joined the Fertile Base, so I'm afraid we might get it wrong."
"That makes sense." Ning Dali nodded and stopped asking. Instead, she turned her attention to the view outside the window.
For the past half hour, buildings had begun appearing around them.
The wilderness, once so barren that not a single blade of grass could be seen, now had scattered buildings. Occasionally, vehicles passed by.
Now, however, they were very, very close to the Fertile Base.
Through the window, Ning Dali could see a city shrouded in a faint halo of light.
That halo was the Shield.
The Shield was far larger than Ning Dali had imagined. It enveloped the entire base.
Its range covered the sky above, the ground below, and even the depths of the earth.
The Fertile Base's wall had been built flush with the edge of the Shield's range. From their direction, they could see two enormous gates.
One was the entrance to the base. Outside it, a long line of vehicles stretched into the distance. Vehicles arriving from all directions stopped at the end and waited to enter.
The other was the exit. Cars occasionally emerged from it.
Apart from the line of vehicles, the wall, and the Shield, there were many houses and tents outside the base.
Some of the houses had halos over them too, though each was much, much smaller than the Fertile Base's.
The people gathered outside the wall far outnumbered what Ning Dali had expected. The place was bustling like a small market.
"Are you two staying there tonight?" Ning Dali asked.
She remembered Wang You saying that they could not afford to buy a house inside the Fertile Base. Sometimes they camped outside for a few days, traded supplies, and rested.
"Yes." Zhuang Yuezhen said, "We'll drop you off at the gate later, then pitch our tents over there."
"I see some houses with separate Shields." The slight upward lilt at the end of Ning Dali's voice made the statement sound like a question.
Drawing information out of Zhuang Yuezhen was easy. At the upward lilt in Ning Dali's voice, Zhuang promptly rattled off everything she knew.
"Yes. Although those people have not joined the base, they maintain friendly relations with it. They have special channels for asking the Base Lord to open a separate Shield for them, as long as they pay points."
"That kind of Shield cannot be used too far from the Fertile Base, and it is charged by the hour. Even converted into a daily rate, it costs more than buying a house. Most people cannot afford it."
"I see." Ning Dali nodded. The Fertile Base's Base Lord is easy to talk to.
The fact that she could obtain a Shield without joining meant she had even more room to choose.
The Rolls-Royce pulled up to the queue and stopped at its end.
Once it stopped, ten minutes passed.
Only after ten minutes did Ning Dali belatedly realize that the line did not seem to be moving at all!
Even with only one entrance here, this pace was not right... Ning Dali glanced at Zhuang Yuezhen and Wang You, but neither showed any particular expression, as if they were long used to the Fertile Base's inefficiency.
Neither of them had even complained once about how slow it was.
Was there something else about this she still did not know?
After a pause, Ning Dali asked in an offhand tone, "Will standing in line with me delay you two?"
After all, the queue looked as though it would take at least several hours. By the time they reached the front, it would be dark.
Zhuang Yuezhen blinked. "Huh?"
"No. We have to line up to exchange for points too. We can queue together."
Line up to exchange for points? This line is for exchanging for points? Aren't they lining up to enter the base?
Ning Dali's mind raced. She swept her gaze outside, trying to extract every scrap of information.
Unfortunately, the line was too long. From her position, she could see nothing but row after row of tail lights.
After patiently waiting five minutes, Ning Dali said, "It's a little stuffy in here. I'm going out for some air."
She opened the door.
The absurdly luxurious Rolls-Royce had already attracted countless curious looks.
The instant the door opened, the noise outside fell silent. A sharp collective intake of breath followed, and from several vehicles away, someone shouted earth-shatteringly,
"Holy shit! An Extremist Eater this big?!"
"The Extremist Eaters have even come to the base gate. Why don't we surround her and beat her up?!"
Ning Dali turned her head toward the voice.
The cars caught in her gaze hurriedly shut their doors or raised their windows. After quite a din, someone deliberately shouted,
"Would you please read the base notice? What Extremist Eater? This is the Strongman ability!"
Ning Dali was speechless for a moment. When no one else made any move, she shook her head and walked forward.
She was going to find out what they were doing at the gate.
As she walked, she could not help stretching her arms.
After three hours in the car, she really was a little sore.
As she moved, Ning Dali failed to notice how much attention she was attracting. Her muscles were obvious even when she sat still. Now that she was moving, the thin fabric of her clothes clung to her arms, and every muscle was sharply defined.
"Hiss!"
"Hiss!"
The hissing rose around her in waves, as if she were in a nest of venomous snakes.
Only after she finished did Ning Dali realize: "..."
She lowered her arms and continued walking as if nothing had happened.
She glanced toward the gate from a distance, trying not to make it obvious.
At the head of the queue, eight staff members in base uniforms surrounded a vehicle and inspected it.
An Ability User stood to one side, watching helplessly as the staff members rummaged through every corner of the vehicle for food.
They searched, weighed it, and recorded it.
Once the recording was complete, the staff members took all the food.
Ning Dali's eyes widened.
Wait, what were they doing? Were they simply forcing the trade?
This was such an important matter. How could Zhuang Yuezhen not have said a word?
At that moment, the inspection finished. Ning Dali saw one of the staff members nod and say, "Inspection complete. You may enter. The points will be credited directly to your account."
The inspected Ability User did not look the least bit reluctant. Smiling, she said, "Much appreciated."
Watching from a short distance away, Ning Dali struggled to control her expression so she would not look so surprised.
If she remembered correctly, this was the Famine World, where food should be the most precious resource.
The Ability User drove into the city, and the long-stagnant line finally moved.
Ning Dali watched eight staff members surround the next vehicle and begin confiscating its food. She frowned and took a step back.
She seemed to understand.
This line was both the queue to enter the city and the queue for exchanging food for points.
Exchanging all their food for points was a required step in entering the base.
Ability Users were not allowed to hoard food once they entered. The base controlled all food, and Ability Users had only points, which they could exchange for food inside.
This was not a rule of the Fertile Base. Every base operated the same way.
Zhuang Yuezhen had not warned her separately because she had assumed Ning Dali already knew.
"This is such a ripoff."
Ning Dali turned away without the slightest hesitation. She was not joining the base. No matter what, she was not joining. She still had plenty of beef to eat.
The instant she turned around, a staff member in a green suit came racing out of the base, her face alight with excitement.
She immediately locked onto the most burly silhouette in the crowd.
"Ms. Dali? Is that you, Ms. Dali?"
"Why didn't you let us know you were coming to the Fertile Base? My colleague said you were at the back of the line? Ah, people with a Three-Character Ability have a VIP lane."
"Huh? Ms. Dali? Ms. Dali, why are you running? Come this way with me to the VIP lane."
"Huh?" The worker looked thoroughly bewildered but set off after her. "Ms. Dali? Ms. Dali, are you in a hurry? What are you running for?"
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