Chapter 31: Superior in Every Way to Hope Base
The van jolted along the broken roads for two hours before Su Han finally caught a glimpse of Revival Base through the grimy window.
Built against the bones of the old imperial capital, Revival Base far outstripped Hope Base in both defense fortifications and technological infrastructure.
“The registered permanent population of Revival Base has already reached one hundred thousand—the scale of a modest township,” Cheng Ruoyan introduced smoothly.
“We have three hundred and twelve registered ability users on record. Among them, there is only one space user, two time users, and one life user. None have managed to cross the threshold into the primary tier yet.”
A trace of regret tinged her voice as she spoke.
According to the findings of her father’s research division, abilities outside the standard elemental classifications were terrifyingly potent.
Yet the rare few currently residing in the base were barely indistinguishable from ordinary mortals. At most, the time users could stall the ticking of a second hand by a few fleeting microseconds.
As Cheng Ruoyan explained, the vehicle rolled steadily into Revival Base.
Towering perimeter walls stood formidable as ever, punctuated by narrow gates sized strictly to permit one vehicle through at a time.
Even with Cheng Ruoyan being the supreme leader’s daughter, passing through the gates required submitting to rigorous physical screenings and a mandatory quarantine of at least three hours.
After serving their full time in the observation chamber, Su Han and Shen Chengyin were escorted by Cheng Ruoyan to a five-story administrative complex in the heart of the settlement.
Throughout the walk, Su Han couldn’t help scanning their surroundings.
The paved streets of Revival Base were remarkably clean and orderly. Street vendors even set up stalls to barter goods—a bustling scene of vitality that had never existed in Hope Base.
The man running Revival Base certainly possessed real capability.
“Power from the plant is currently reserved for municipal heating and perimeter lighting, so I’ll have to trouble you both to take the stairs,” Cheng Ruoyan remarked.
Upon returning to the settlement, she had changed into an exquisite blue-and-white qipao. The supple fabric hugged the graceful curves of her figure, draped with a plush fur shawl that made her look as though she had stepped straight out of a painting.
Reaching the upper floor, Su Han and Shen Chengyin were ushered into a reception lounge, while Cheng Ruoyan slipped ahead into the leader’s office.
The heavy solid wood door clicked shut behind her. Cheng Ruoyan lifted her chin, gazing upon the man seated behind the broad desk.
His temples were dusted with grey, bearing facial features that shared a striking fifty percent resemblance with Cheng Ruoyan, exuding an effortless aura of quiet authority.
“Dad, I brought back a life ability user from my run outside!”
Dropping her poised exterior, Cheng Ruoyan stepped swiftly to her father’s side, speaking in a coy, spoiled tone: “He’s breathtakingly handsome! I want him!”
A father knew his daughter best; Cheng Yibin understood her desires instantly.
In an apocalyptic world, whatever his daughter fancied was hers for the taking.
“What are you thinking of doing with him? Let’s hear it.”
Leaning close, Cheng Ruoyan murmured a few hushed sentences into Cheng Yibin’s ear. Moments later, the unsuspecting pair waiting outside was invited in.
Those perched at the top rarely spoke from the heart. It was nothing more than hollow pleasantries and feigned benevolence—handing out a favor to settle Su Han and Shen Chengyin into comfortable quarters.
Shen Chengyin sat with his long legs casually crossed, neither servile nor haughty, parrying the grand promises tossed his way with practiced, evasive tact.
The two traded subtle barbs, neither yielding ground. Cheng Yibin’s gaze deepened as he scrutinized the young man before him.
All the while, Su Han kept a hawkish eye on Cheng Ruoyan’s every move.
In the original novel, Cheng Ruoyan was far from the aloof, ethereal fairy she appeared to be; she was an expert at underhanded schemes.
On multiple occasions, the male lead had nearly been drugged and compromised by her.
“To maximize the safety of every single survivor, the base has had to compress its residential sectors to curb administrative costs,” Cheng Yibin remarked, setting down his porcelain teacup.
“At present, our vacancies for metahumans are quite limited. There are only two single units available: one in the south district and one in the north. I trust you two understand our constraints.”
Su Han’s eyes narrowed into slits.
The original text never mentioned such a scenario… Were they deliberately trying to separate him and Shen Chengyin?
Cheng Ruoyan chimed in smoothly right after: “A new batch of temporary housing units is currently under construction, which should be finished within two weeks at most. You two can move back in together once they’re done.”
Shen Chengyin might not have seen through her shallow maneuver, but Su Han saw through it with absolute clarity.
Beating Shen Chengyin to the punch, he spoke up: “No need to go through all that trouble! The two of us can just squeeze into one room. Sister Ruoyan, you already brought us safely to the base and went out of your way to arrange everything—how could we possibly impose on you any further?”
Smooth and airtight, his words shut Cheng Ruoyan down completely.
Cheng Ruoyan’s breath hitched in her throat. “The allocated dorm is rather small. Squeezing two grown men inside might be a bit cramped…”
“Doesn’t matter at all! I can sleep on the floor,” Su Han offered with a toothy, harmless grin, looking entirely docile. “We’re used to roughing it in the barren wild anyway. Being able to sleep on a dry floor is more than I could ever ask for!”
Stifled by his reply, Cheng Ruoyan found herself rendered completely speechless.
Outside the gates, this little bastard had glared at her with open hostility. How had he suddenly put on such a sweet, obedient mask the moment he stepped in front of her father?
Cheng Yibin let out a hearty belly laugh. “Splendid! Genuine brotherhood is a rare treasure in this godforsaken world. If you wish to stay together, then so be it. The base’s supply rations won’t short either of you a single crumb.”
Shen Chengyin offered a polite nod. “Then we shall take our leave.”
Cheng Yibin dispatched an orderly to guide them to their assigned quarters, along with a modest crate of provisions.
The room was undeniably sparse; aside from a single twin bed and a lone wooden wardrobe, the floor was barren.
Su Han made the bed, traded a few polite words with the orderly, and shut the door firmly behind them.
The moment the room fell quiet, Su Han whipped around, fixing his gaze squarely onto Shen Chengyin.
Seemingly oblivious to the intense scrutiny, Shen Chengyin calmly folded his clothes on the mattress.
“Why did you suddenly decide to head for Revival Base?” Su Han pressed.
“To find a place to rest our feet.”
Su Han didn’t believe a word of it.
Between his spatial dimension and his life ability, Shen Chengyin could easily hole up in an abandoned ruin and live out a comfortable lifetime in isolation.
In the original plot, the first meeting between Shen Chengyin and Cheng Ruoyan occurred when a battered, desperate Shen Chengyin was pulled from a zombie siege by her squad. Could it be that Shen Chengyin had genuinely fallen for her looks?!
The moment that thought crossed his mind, Su Han’s face soured completely.
The system popped up to defend the protagonist: [Probably not. In the original novel, Shen Chengyin hated Cheng Ruoyan with every fiber of his being.]
“But right now, the male lead hasn’t been burned by her betrayal yet. Who can guarantee he didn’t just get blinded by a pretty face?”
Typical webnovel male leads—every single one of them let their lower half pilot their brains.
Beside him, Shen Chengyin let out a sudden, violent sneeze without warning.
Knitting his brows tight, Su Han began mapping out his next steps.
The immediate priority was establishing a firm foothold inside Revival Base, then methodically digging into the truth behind the eventual grand theft of the grain reserves.
As for who stole the grain, the answer was practically written in neon.
Excluding Shen Chengyin, there was only one registered spatial user in all of Revival Base:
Cheng Ruoyan’s uncle, Cheng Gaolang.
On their third day in the settlement, Su Han complied with mandatory laboratory blood screenings. Using diluted samples of the zombie virus as a reagent, the technicians officially confirmed his status as an awakened ability user.
However, because Su Han had yet to manifest a single visible outward anomaly, the researchers were unable to assign him a specific category.
And so, Su Han settled in under the unique distinction of being the base’s sole “unclassified” metahuman.
Adopting his old routine, he enlisted in the outbound scavenging squads. In this ruined world, these ragtag frontline teams were always the fastest channel for fresh gossip.
Shen Chengyin, owing to the extreme rarity of his life-force ability, was strictly barred from venturing past the city perimeter and reassigned directly to Revival Base’s sole central hospital.
As a result, the two could usually only cross paths at night.
Su Han lived in genuine dread that while he was out risking his neck, Cheng Ruoyan and Shen Chengyin would secretly hit it off behind his back.
He had no objection to the male lead finding romance, but Cheng Ruoyan was manipulative and bound to a web of treacherous factions—she was an absolute nightmare of a match.
Determined to snuff out Cheng Ruoyan’s designs before they could even spark, Su Han took full advantage of the camaraderie he built with the veteran scavengers, dropping a few choice remarks “in passing.”
Within two short weeks, a scandalous rumor spread like wildfire among the ability users across Revival Base:
That stunning life-element healer Miss Cheng had dragged back… was hopelessly impotent!
Apocalypse: Becoming The White Moonlight Of A Possessive Mad Dog
