Calamity of Tomorrow - Chapter 9: Found

“Don’t scare me!” Alice hugged Zhou Bai, her voice trembling as if she was about to burst into tears.

“Why did you come out if you’re so scared?” Zhou Bai shook her off and used his Primordial Spirit power to extend himself outward.

In his free time in the past few days, he had tested the limits of his Primordial Spirit power. The farthest it could reach was about ten meters from his body, and it could return tactile sensations the way hands did, letting him know if Primordial Spirit power touched anything.

But Primordial Spirit power wasn’t inexhaustible either. Just like running, walking, or swimming, when you used it a lot, you got tired and needed to rest.

That’s why Zhou Bai didn’t use it carelessly.

Using Primordial Spirit power to sweep the area, he found no one within a ten-meter radius.

Zhou Bai swallowed, recalling the size, appearance, and setup of the cafeteria.

Our current location is the right corner of the cafeteria, he noted. If they’re outside the ten-meter radius…

Zhou Bai suppressed the fear in his heart, dragging Alice to the door of the cafeteria a few steps away.

“This is the only exit. If I block it, then he’s still in this cafeteria…”

Zhou Bai planned a route in his head. He used his Primordial Spirit power to lift chairs and tables, then put them down. He needed to sweep this entire cafeteria inch by inch, cornering and finding the opponent.

Alice stayed in the darkness but didn’t know what was happening. She could only hug Zhou Bai tightly and listen to the noise of Zhou Bai pushing the tables and chairs in the darkness. She asked nervously, “What’s happening? What’s that noise?”

……

Zhou Bai felt her thin body shaking against him. He was a little scared too, but he bucked up and said, “Don’t worry. Stay with me.”

But after Zhou Bai used the cafeteria furniture to block the door and used his Primordial Spirit power to search the entire cafeteria, he still found no trace of anyone else.

“Gone?” Zhou Bai felt uneasy. “Who is it? I blocked the door as soon as I could; how did he get out?”

Alice didn’t know about Primordial Spirit power, but while she followed Zhou Bai, she figured out what he was doing. She said, “You’re looking for that person? Do you want to look in the vent duct?”

Zhou Bai was alert. With the assistance of Primordial Spirit power, he quickly walked to the location of the vent duct. As Primordial Spirit power reached into the vent duct, his heart skipped a beat.

Zhou Bai said, “The bars we saw in the daytime have been torn off.”

“Does that mean that guy might have come up from the lab in level five? And walked into us? Then went back?”

Zhou Bai looked with alarm in Alice’s direction, but he saw nothing but darkness. Still, he was surprised this teenage girl reacted so quickly. Even in this environment, she could suppress her fear and think.

Alice asked, “What do we do now? Have we been discovered? Does teacher know?”

Zhou Bai rubbed his chin and said, “You come down with me.”

“Huh? You still want to go down? But we’ve already been…”

“I don’t know what will happen if we get discovered, but if we rush down now, we’ll have a chance to find what we’re seeking before they can react.” Zhou Bai looked at Alice, who was standing to the side. “I’m worried you’ll be in danger if you stay here alone, so either you come down with me, or I’ll walk you back now.”

Alice fell silent for a few seconds, then nodded firmly, “Walking me back will waste too much time. I’ll come with you.”

“Come up. I’ll carry you….”

Alice’s thin body approached. For Zhou Bai’s current 18-year-old body, this girl was light. He could even feel her ribs pressing against him.

The base provided basic food and water. But to conserve resources, they gave too little for a growing girl like Alice.

This situation was also the reason Elsa always said she was hungry. Of course, Zhou Bai thought that aside from there being too little food, the reason this rice bucket always said she was hungry was that she had a huge appetite.

Carrying Alice, Zhou Bai climbed into the vent duct. With the help of Primordial Spirit power, his journey downward was easy. Not long after, they went down and saw light.

Exiting the vent in level five, they saw a long passage that appeared before them. Faint night lights were scattered on the sides of the passage; it was no longer total darkness before them.

Alice and Zhou Bai hadn’t been there before, so Zhou Bai set Alice down and picked a random direction to walk in.

“Follow me closely.”

A screech came from the depths of the passage, stunning Alice and Zhou Bai.

They looked at each other and quickly ran in the direction of the screech.

Soon, brighter and brighter lights appeared before Zhou Bai and Alice. A giant laboratory appeared before them.

The two of them knelt, hiding in the shadows behind a table.

In the center of the laboratory, a distorted person was locked inside a transparent cultivation tank. He kept knocking on the glass, making a growling sound.

“Ban…Bando!” Alice looked at the deformed person in the cultivation tank in shock, but she recognized him from his remaining facial features.

Seeing Alice was about to run up, Zhou Bai grabbed her. “Don’t be rash.” He frowned, looking around the laboratory, but didn’t see Professor Zhuang.

Tears streamed down Alice’s face. Looking at Bando inside the cultivation tank, she asked, “Why did Bando become like this? What happened?”

In the cultivation tank, the space below Bando’s belly button was empty. His remaining upper torso was swollen and distorted.

Zhou Bai sighed. Alice was just a teenager, so it was normal she couldn’t control her emotions. In fact, she was being calm enough by not screaming.

But why am I so calm too? Zhou Bai wondered. In this eerie situation, he couldn’t help entertaining the idea of whether he had the qualities of being calm in urgent situations, and being witty and brave like a main character in a story.

As Zhou Bai fell into reverie under pressure, a female voice rang in his head.

“What are you waiting for? Come save me!”

Zhou Bai went blank for a second, and the female voice sounded again. “Look behind the table to your left!”

Zhou Bai ran over with Alice and saw a long-haired white cat in the glass cover behind the table. She looked at them, jumping and talking in Zhou Bai’s mind.

“Let me out! That guy’s about to return!”

Hearing this, Zhou Bai used his Primordial Spirit power to lift a chair on the side and smash the glass. After a few hits, cracks slowly appeared on the glass cover. Then his Primordial Spirit power pressed downward and instantly made a hole.

The white cat jumped out of the hole, pouncing at Zhou Bai.

“Hahaha! Idiot! It’s all mine!”