PSW - Chapter 153

Chapter 153

Lou Chen nodded thoughtfully. He clearly also felt that fabricating stories and broadcasting them... wouldn't be very efficient.

But it was fine; these things could be discussed and revised slowly. Zheng Yi's strength was plain to see. At worst... the next time Zheng Yi wanted to fill the water tanks, he could borrow some equipment, set it up, and broadcast it live to the entire city of Changping, letting everyone feel the "little shock" from a water ability user.

Ling Xunyun, on the other hand, already had a bit of a plan. After all, the water dragon Zheng Yi had conjured at the residential building had been accidentally witnessed by quite a few ability users and other residents; otherwise, the news wouldn't have reached them so urgently. Everyone would surely be very curious about such a strange phenomenon, and it might even give rise to many rumors. Now that they had confirmed their cooperation with Zheng Yi, they could use this to directly promote her in Changping. As for how to tie her to the "Saint" persona and get everyone to accept Zheng Yi...

What Lou Chen said about her deeds wasn't entirely unfeasible, but there was no need to fabricate them. Codename Saint... just the few snippets of her deeds that Yu Yinan had revealed were shocking enough. As long as Yu Yinan or Zheng Yi were willing, they could find someone to polish the stories a bit and publish them in a book or newspaper. As for the broadcast, they could just broadcast the stories of Zheng Yi and Yu Yinan's travels. These true, verifiable stories would better reflect "Saint Zheng Yi's" "thunderous methods and bodhisattva heart."

Ling Xunyun merely asked Yu Yinan for her opinion, and Yu Yinan immediately agreed.

"That's a great idea. How about this, give me three days... no, just two days, and I'll write down all her deeds and give them to you. You can find a reliable person to polish them a bit." Writing a book for Zheng Yi? Just the thought of it made countless words of praise uncontrollably flood Yu Yinan's mind. She recalled Zheng Yi's various actions over time and felt a surge of inspiration, wishing she could start working immediately.

"By the way, I hope you... won't display that water dragon technique again for the time being." After hearing Ling Xunyun's words, Lou Chen pondered for a moment and came up with another idea. "We'll keep the news confidential, but we'll secretly spread word of the water dragon miracle, linking it to various strange phenomena. After the book about her deeds is finished, you can display it one more time. It would be even better if you could thoroughly shock the ability users in the base with your immense power. Then, when we start the publicity campaign, it will be twice as effective."

The cooperation was officially established.

Overall, Zheng Yi was quite satisfied. The two base leaders had shown sufficient sincerity, and Zheng Yi naturally wouldn't let them get the short end of the stick. She didn't wait for them to produce results, instead asking who they wanted to be her point of contact. When Ling Xunyun stepped forward, Zheng Yi directly purchased an Unlimited Communication Mark and bestowed the pattern onto the back of Ling Xunyun's hand.

Throughout this process, Ling Xunyun still appeared to show no major emotional fluctuations. But when everything was over and she and Lou Chen were taking their leave, Yu Yinan saw that as Ling Xunyun turned around, she couldn't help but raise her hand and repeatedly rub the pattern on its back. After the two base leaders left, Chi Heqing didn't stay long either. She had to make a trip to the research institute to report on the matter of the meteor fragment.

Once the three guests had completely left, Yu Yinan sat down at the table, asked Zheng Yi for a pen and paper, and looked as if she wished she could start her creative reminiscence right away.

"Didn't Jiejie want to walk around the base?" Zheng Yi pulled out the chair next to Yu Yinan and sat down gently beside her. She suddenly spoke just as Yu Yinan, after a moment of thought, was about to start writing. She propped up her chin with a look of innocence, gazing at Yu Yinan with her exceptionally bright, dark eyes.

"!" Her train of thought was interrupted. Yu Yinan froze for a moment before remembering that was indeed the case. She pressed her lips together slightly, but showed no impatience at being disturbed. Instead, she quickly placed the pen and paper on the table and stood up. "Mm... sorry, I forgot. Shall we go now?"

"I can also wait until Jiejie is done with her work~"

"Me? I don't have anything to be busy with..." Yu Yinan smiled. "Since we just arrived at this base, we really should familiarize ourselves with the layout first. It's just... their idea was excellent. After they mentioned it, my mind is now completely filled with you. I can't wait to write it all down, to record it, to let everyone know how powerful you are." And such a powerful person had also saved so many people so effortlessly.

"For someone like me... to be able to be by your side, it's truly wonderful."

Yu Yinan suddenly expressed this heartfelt sentiment.

Zheng Yi chuckled lightly. She raised her hand and gently poked Yu Yinan's forehead. Although she didn't use much force, Yu Yinan's unresisting cooperation caused her head to tilt back slightly. "What silly things are you saying, Jiejie? We're a couple, you know."

Zero One watched Yu Yinan break into a silly grin at Zheng Yi's words and looked away, somewhat helplessly. This one... no matter when, she's always completely wrapped around Zheng Yi's finger. Speaking of which, it seemed Yu Yinan... had almost never shown any anger or impatience toward Zheng Yi, had she?

And this Zheng Yi...

Zero One's gaze shifted to Zheng Yi, who was linking arms with Yu Yinan with a faint smile, walking out the door intimately side-by-side with her. It looked searchingly into those dark eyes, which held a light smile, still unable to discern whether the emotion she showed was genuine.

It had been so long now. From meeting and accompanying Yu Yinan, to confirming their relationship, and even having deeper contact that had gotten it locked in the little black room—they had already been through so much. Given all this, Zero One thought with some hesitation: Zheng Yi must care about Yu Yinan, right?

At the very least, in Zheng Yi's eyes, Yu Yinan must have become someone special a long, long, long time ago. Otherwise, with Zheng Yi's personality, she would never have allowed Yu Yinan to become this intimate with her, right?

'Don't just recklessly speculate about me because you're a system. Zero One, you should... take some protective measures, shouldn't you?'

[!!?] The sudden mental voice struck Zero One like a blow to the head. Its entire system froze. Countless streams of data flowed densely through its body, but in that instant, everything seemed to have crashed. It briefly entered an unresponsive state.

In Zero One's eyes, Zheng Yi acted as if she hadn't said or noticed anything. She showed no abnormalities as she linked arms with Yu Yinan and walked onto the street. She even suddenly stopped Yu Yinan after passing an intersection to straighten her collar.

It must be an auditory hallucination, right? A system malfunction or something... Is it time for scheduled maintenance? But this has never happened on previous missions...

'Dear Zero One, my mental power has made another little bit of progress.'

'That special mental frequency for communicating with mutated plants—once you entered it, you couldn't even exit on your own. Zero One, did you not report this and patch the vulnerability?'

Mental power? But Zheng Yi is the host! She's the one who's bound! Why can she hear my inner thoughts? The inner thoughts of a system! I can't even actively listen to the host's mental activities, so on what grounds can she? This violates the system privacy regulations, doesn't it! In that instant, Zero One's emotions fluctuated violently. It was completely unable to remain calm. But it also quickly understood the principle. Perhaps this was just a small experiment by Zheng Yi. A "small experiment" after her mental power had another breakthrough, just like when she had tried to communicate with the mutated plants using her mental power.

Clearly, she had succeeded.

Zero One's mind went blank. After a long moment, it asked in a trembling voice, "Host, have you... recalled all your memories? Are you, are you..." It wanted to ask if Zheng Yi was "alive," but realized that wasn't the right way to phrase it. Zero One then thought of the word "existence" and wanted to rephrase the question, to ask if Zheng Yi was human, or some other kind of existence before she became Zheng Yi.

'What, do you wish to hear my true name?'

[No! I have absolutely no such intention!] Zero One denied loudly, feeling like it was about to crash again. It was thankful it was only a system, yet also frustrated that it was only a system. [This is incredible... You were actually able to break through... break through the system's? This kind of high-dimensional protection... I mean, you're truly amazing.]

'Thank you for the compliment~ Don't worry, I'm not interested in your mental activities.' Zheng Yi's mental voice was extremely gentle and even held a hint of a smile. But her communication with Zero One was happening simultaneously with her conversation with Yu Yinan, and she seemed to have perfect control over it all. Therefore, Zero One couldn't determine if the emotion clearly revealed in her tone...

No, this was the emotion Zheng Yi was displaying, the one she wanted it to believe. Zero One stopped thinking too deeply and probing any further. [Yes, I am just a Saint Growth system. I will do everything in my power to provide you with... some insignificant assistance.]

Zheng Yi didn't respond again.

Amidst its anxiety, Zero One tried calling the host's name in its mind but again received no response. It seemed Zheng Yi's experiment was over. Yes, yes, Zheng Yi doesn't seem like someone who would be interested in my inner thoughts. Even the communication of the mutated plants was just noisy and uninteresting to her.

Zero One breathed a sigh of relief and began to speculate about Zheng Yi's origins... A reincarnated master? A transmigrator from another world? No, those identities might indeed make one's mental power stronger than an average person's, but it could never reach Zheng Yi's terrifying level. And Zheng Yi's growth... her strength was increasing almost exponentially! True name...

Zero One couldn't help but shudder. It looked again at Zheng Yi, who was intimately holding hands with Yu Yinan and sightseeing around the Changping base like a young couple. It only stole a glance before quickly averting its gaze to the blissfully happy Yu Yinan.

Zero One couldn't understand. But then again, it had never understood Zheng Yi, so not understanding now seemed normal.

But, Yu Yinan... Zero One's face scrunched up in worry: What is Zheng Yi really thinking? After the apocalypse ends, after everything is over, what will happen to Yu Yinan? Will Zheng Yi stay? To spend... a fleeting lifetime with Yu Yinan?

These were not questions that a Saint Growth system should be worrying about. But ever since being bound to Zheng Yi, Zero One had never really worried about the mission aspect. Its focus of concern had naturally shifted to Zheng Yi herself... and, in Zero One's view, to Yu Yinan, who was already receiving special treatment from Zheng Yi.

---

The layout of Changping was very similar to Humanity's Light. However, there were no schools here. There was a library, but it wasn't as large as the one at Humanity's Light, nor was its collection of books as extensive. It was also heavily guarded; entering and exiting required registration and a body search, and no books could be privately taken out.

As for the cafeteria... it was more accurate to call it a food processing station or a food exchange center. The Changping authorities didn't proactively cook and sell finished products like congee, steamed buns, or noodles. However, there were cooks here who would process food for ability users in need. Upon entering, you could pick up a small booklet that listed each cook's specialty cuisine and their fee for cooking—this was usually a small portion of the finished food, and only rarely were other goods accepted as payment. The food exchange center part was even simpler. If one ability user had compressed biscuits and another had packaged bread that had undergone special processing like dehydration and drying and hadn't yet expired, they could simply trade if they reached an agreement.

It was worth mentioning that Changping also had a bathhouse. However, the fees were expensive, making it a luxury. The bathhouse was built next to the plantation area, and the used bathwater would undergo several stages of treatment before being sent to the plantation to water some of the crops.

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