Chapter 544: Seeking Guidance

"Why are they following us?" Leo Hale asked.

"Could it be another Psionics Unit from the base, looking to trail behind us, kill some zombies, and pick up Crystal Cores?" Alaric Fletcher chimed in, a puff of white mist billowing in front of his face with every word.

"Ignore them," Nina Jacobs said. Jessica Vance immediately dropped the subject, refocusing entirely on slaughtering the zombies below.

Their outdoor activity limit in this extreme cold was strictly thirty minutes per rotation. This duration was based on tests conducted by the base specifically for the harsh conditions. After half an hour, the freezing temperatures would begin to impair the human body’s mobility, sharply increasing the danger when facing zombies. Nina enforced this time limit rigorously, requiring them to retreat to the vehicles for a thirty-minute rest after every thirty-minute combat shift.

As for the sounds of fighting in the distance, Nina had initially planned to ignore them. However, under the effects of her Five Senses Enhancement, she picked up a familiar voice.

It was Ianna Jacobs.

Nina furrowed her brows slightly. She wondered why she was here.

Ianna was her younger half-sister, though only by a year. Raised by their father, Sterling Jacobs, Ianna had received an elite education from a young age. In her previous life, the girl had never bothered to hide her disgust for Nina, yet constantly sought to compete with her at every turn. Regardless of the setting, Ianna would repeatedly and aggressively challenge Nina’s team.

Sterling would often furiously reprimand Ianna right in front of Nina, only to follow up by sending supplies to comfort his older daughter. In her past life, believing she was entirely alone in the world, Nina had suddenly been reunited with the father she hadn’t seen in years. Lingering attachments to their blood tie had kept her from ever retaliating against Ianna’s provocations. Although she repeatedly rejected Sterling’s supplies under the guise of wanting nothing to do with him, looking back now, she realized her heart had already begun to accept his attempts at amends.

In this life, however, recalling those events brought a different perspective.

It was precisely Ianna’s endless provocations that made Sterling look so much like a fair and just father figure. But why had Ianna continued to antagonize her even after Nina forgave her time and time again? There was no bad blood between them, old or new.

In her previous life, the father-daughter duo had appeared before her together. This time, it seemed only Ianna had shown up. Since Chase Gallagher mentioned they came from the Oakhaven Base, could it be due to the zombie tide there? Nina remembered that Oakhaven Base hadn’t suffered such a massive zombie horde in her past life.

Though she couldn’t yet piece the puzzle together, the only thing she was certain of was that she needed to avoid Ianna—a walking headache—whenever possible.

Seeing that their thirty minutes were up, Nina turned to the group. "We’re changing locations."

Change locations? Was it because of those two vehicles tailing them?

"Switching spots is definitely the safest bet," Chase agreed, gesturing for everyone to start extracting Crystal Cores.

If two teams hunted zombies in the exact same territory, conflicts were bound to arise. They were out here today to train, not to pick fights.

The next location Nina chose was a mandatory choke point leading to the rural outskirts. According to her system map, it used to be a highway sandwiched between towering hillside slopes on either side. One end of the highway led to abandoned rural outskirts, meaning they wouldn’t have to worry about a massive swarm of zombies flanking them from the opposite direction. It was only a thirty-minute drive from their current spot, which would perfectly serve as their resting period.

"Killing zombies on a highway? Sounds pretty good," Leo remarked. Nina had taken them zombie hunting on highways before; as long as they kept moving forward, they could easily pick off stragglers and reap unexpected rewards.

"I recall there’s a tunnel section on that road, so be careful," Nina warned them in advance. The system map indicated a blocked segment along that route, suggesting there should be a narrower mountain pass just past the tunnel.

They arrived at the destination highway shortly after. As soon as Nina stepped out of the vehicle, the surrounding zombies began to converge.

CRACKLE!

A flash of lightning arced through the air, and several zombies were instantly charred to a crisp by Wayne Warner.

"This is the spot," Nina said, scanning their surroundings. The zombie population here was just right—neither too sparse nor too overwhelming—making it the perfect training ground for the Stellarys Team.

The group fought their way forward, slaughtering zombies as they went. Suddenly, Elara Dolan let out a sharp gasp. Startled, Alaric looked over and finally noticed a skeleton lying by the roadside.

It was a human skeleton, picked entirely clean by zombies. The pools of blood on the surrounding ground had frozen into a solid sheet of ice, and the scattered human tissue made for a gruesome, jarring sight.

"Looks like this happened within the last few days," Chase observed. Skeletons from before the extreme cold wouldn’t be frozen in such a state.

"What a shame. They were probably chased here by zombies," Wendy Marshall added.

As they continued forward, they stumbled upon several more skeletons in similar conditions. By the time the group took their third rest rotation, they finally spotted the blocked tunnel up ahead, exactly as anticipated.

"Do you think there’s anything inside...?" Leo murmured, staring at the massive metal plate sealing the tunnel entrance.

They had already wiped out every last zombie in the vicinity. A thick layer of frost coated the metal plate, glistening pristine white under the light and looking incredibly soft to the touch. Leo was just about to reach out and touch it when Nina stopped him.

"Don’t move. That’s a frozen metal plate!"

At such extreme sub-zero temperatures, the metal surface would instantly adhere to human skin, effectively frost-welding it in place. Besides, Nina was convinced there was something suspicious going on inside this blocked tunnel.

"Good thing you warned me." Leo hurriedly pulled his hand back.

"So, are we going to pry this open? Or turn back the way we came?" Holden Shaw asked, seeing that the road ahead was completely dead-ended by the blocked tunnel.

"Speaking of turning back, it looks like we’ve got company again," Jessica pointed toward their rear.

Sure enough, two vehicles came into view.

"Them again?" Wayne Abbott frowned, watching the two cars drive straight up to the roadside along the very path they had just painstakingly cleared.

"It’s them." Nina, on the other hand, felt a spark of interest.

If she had previously brushed it off as a coincidence, she was now virtually certain that the other party was tailing them intentionally. Perhaps it had been the same in her past life—Ianna’s target had been her right from the start. The reason most likely boiled down to Sterling.

However, watching Ianna and the others step out of their vehicles, Nina made no sudden moves. As far as the current timeline was concerned, she wasn’t supposed to know who Ianna was yet.

"You guys are the Stellarys Team, right?" One of the newcomers, a man with a long blade slung over his shoulder, tipped his chin up and asked.

"We’re Stellarys. And what exactly are your intentions, following us around like this?" Wayne Abbott asked bluntly, catching Nina’s subtle eye signal.

The man and his companions exchanged amused smiles. "Don’t misunderstand. We just heard that the Stellarys Team is the strongest Psionics Unit in the City D Base, so we came to ask for a few pointers."

"Pointers? Out here?" Wayne Abbott asked.

"Tell you the truth, we made a military pledge," chimed in another man, this one with long hair tied in a ponytail. "We swore to defeat the City D Base’s strongest Psionics Unit within three days. Our Captain Jacobs has been itching for this."

Just then, a woman with shoulder-length hair stepped forward. Her eyes held a mocking smile as she surveyed the group. "I heard your captain is named Nina Jacobs. We happen to share a last name. What’s wrong? All out of superpower energy, so you’re too scared to accept the challenge?"

"Accept the challenge? Of course," Nina replied evenly. "But we don’t have the time right now. If you’re sincerely asking for pointers, you can wait until our training is over."

In her previous life, clinging to that thin thread of blood relations, she had never once accepted Ianna’s challenges. But now, to her, they were total strangers.