…
"I don't want to believe you. Did you read too many fantasy novels again?"
As expected, he did not believe her. Su Jin simply summoned her vines, the thin one, and wrapped it around Lu Hao's wrist.
Lu Hao, "..."
"This is my wood-type special ability. Less than a month from now, many people all over the world will awaken their special abilities, including you." In her past life, before she had been taken to Lu Hao's team, she had heard that Lu Hao had a special ability, and a really strong one at that. However, the person who brought her to claim the bounty had not told her what his ability was.
"Why will we gain these abilities?" Lu Hao was starting to believe her now, but why did Su Jin say that she had died once before? Could it be… that he failed to protect her?"
"Not long from now, a virus will ravage the earth. Anyone who gets infected will behave like the zombies we see in movies, attacking humans and eating brains and such." Su Jin saw Lu Hao frowning, but she continued.
"If normal people are scratched or bitten by someone who's infected, they'll become a zombie too. The only way to kill them is to destroy their brains, for example by shooting their brains."
The soft thin vine was still wound around Lu Hao's wrist, a stream of energy flowing into his body. It felt extremely soothing, as though he was soaking in a hot spring. If what Su Jin was saying was true, though, how could he have let her encounter any danger?
"You said you survived in the zombie apocalypse for two years, right? Where was I? Weren't we together?" Lu Hao asked anxiously.
Su Jin put away her vines and wrapped her arms around Lu Hao's waist, leaning against his chest as she continued, "Back then, I was still in G Province on my business trip. I couldn't make it back in time before the zombie apocalypse struck. When it happened, the whole world was thrown into chaos. Planes, trains, and buses all stopped running, and the electricity was cut off.
"I heard that you and Mr. Chen came to G Province to look for me, but by then I had gone with another team to a base in the next province over, so we never met. Later, you put a huge reward out for me, and it worked, Someone brought me to your team, but it just so happened that you were out at the time. One of your subordinates locked me up so I couldn't meet you, and then she injected me with the zombie virus while my guard was down. After that, I woke up on the flight to G Province a week ago. I thought it was all a dream at first too, but I retained my wood-type ability, didn't I? Lu Hao, it was not a dream. It's really an apocalypse, and it'll be happening in less than a month from now!"
"That subordinate of mine who killed you. Who was it?" Lu Hao's voice was rather cold. Su Jin could tell that he was angry, but that was not the main point right now!
"I'll tell you that later. What's important now is that you gotta believe me!"
Lu Hao was still drowning in guilt. He believed her, but he could not believe that he had managed to lose her. How could he?!
He held Su Jin tightly. No matter what happened, he swore to stay by her side and protect her, so that no harm would ever come to her.
Su Jin could sense Lu Hao's emotions, so she calmed down.
She knew what he was thinking. She had not thought about it before, but now that she was in his arms, she finally faced the fact that she had died once already head-on. Was it painful? Very much so. She was all alone, having lost her family and friends. For those two years, she spent every day in extreme fear. The hunger and the cold compared to the loneliness. She had traveled with a few teams, but in the end, she barely had anyone she could trust with all her heart.
Lu Hao touched Su Jin's face with his hand and realized that she was really crying. His heart ached even worse in his chest. He had never blamed himself more than he did in this moment, because he had failed to protect her, and his subordinate had been the one who killed her. If he ever found out who it was, he was afraid that he would tear them from limb to limb!
"Don't cry, Lil Jin. I'll stay with you. We'll be fine." Lu Hao panicked. He had no idea how to comfort her.
"Lu Hao, there's one more thing I have to tell you." Su Jin sniffled and straightened up. In front of Lu Hao, she took the jade tablet out of the dimension.
"Is that your special ability too?" Where did Su Jin suddenly get that from?
Su Jin was in no rush to explain. She just grabbed Lu Hao's finger and cut it with a razor leaf from her vines. The blood soon oozed out of his finger and dripped toward the jade tablet.
As the blood landed on the tablet, Lu Hao suddenly felt a suction force pulling him somewhere. The next second, his surroundings changed.
He and Su Jin were now face to face and sitting on a large stone. It was quiet around them, and the air was clean. Was illusion this part of Su Jin's special ability too?
Su Jin looked at his confused expression and smiled slightly. "We're inside the pendant you have me. I just happened to stumble across this function a few days ago, too. I think your ancestor passed it down your family through the generations, but somewhere along the way, it somehow lost its function."
After that, Su Jin led Lu Hao on a tour around Lu Mansion. They talked as they walked, though it was mostly Su Jin explaining things to Lu Hao.
Lu Hao never knew his family had such a secret, and he had never heard about the pendant's magical ability before. That was why he concluded that the pendant could choose its own owner, and that it would only open its little dimension here to someone it acknowledged as worthy.
Lu Hao's hypothesis made sense to Su Jin too. Still, this dimension belonged to the Lu family, as it had for generations.
The two of them spent almost an hour walking through Lu Mansion. There was no helping it, Lu Mansion was just too big. After they toured the side halls on the left, they had to turn back and survey the ones on the right, too.
There were tons of rooms. After allocating some as bedrooms, Su Jin planned to turn most of them into storehouses.
"Lu Hao, if I said I want to let my family members in here too, would you be okay with that?" Su Jin asked a little nervously. She was worried that Lu Hao would refuse, and then a rift would open up between them.
To her surprise, Lu Hao agreed without a moment's hesitation. "Your family is my family, of course I'm okay with it. If what you said is right and an apocalypse is coming, we'll need to stick to our own groups. Naturally, it would be best if our group consists of our families." Lu Hao was extremely fond of Su Jin's extended family, including her grandparents. If he were not so busy, he would probably pay them a living fee and spend most of his time with them.
"The fewer people know about the dimension, the better, though. We can trust Mom, Dad, your grandparents, and the rest, but let's discuss before we let in some of your more distant relatives!" Lu Hao was worried that the information would leak if too many people knew about the dimension, and that might end up putting Su Jin at risk.
"I understand. I just wanted to ask what you thought, oh might Captain Lu."
Only their closest family could know about the dimension and the jade tablet contract. If anyone became greedy for more or refused to carry their own weight, even if they were her family, Su Jin would still turn them down. Lu Hao was of the same opinion.
As he looked around this unfathomably large dimension, Lu Hao finally felt his sense of guilt fading slightly. If Su Jin was ever im mortal danger in the future, she could just hide in here.
The most important thing now was to gather more resources.
Luckily, Lu Hao's mission with his team was complete, and they already arrested the suspect too. He could now take some time off to go shopping with Su Jin.
Lu Hao remembered the man they had caught and frowned. "Wait, you mentioned zombies just now, right? What do they look like?"
"Why? Don't tell me, have you encountered them too?" Su Jin was shocked.
"I can't be sure. When we caught that suspect, he was already insane. He tried to bite everyone, but we just thought he was high on heroin. That's why we cuffed him and brought him into the station."
"Were any of you scratched or bitten?" Su Jin asked anxiously. This was dangerous. If they had been infected, it might already be too late!
"No. We were all wearing bulletproof clothing, so while he did take down one of my team members, he did not break their skin." Thank goodness for the wide coverage of their police uniforms. He did not want to lose any of his team members, especially not like this.
It looked like things were already starting to go out of control. The two of them had to make their preparations as soon as possible.