"Tian Tian?" Lin Duo, who was still holding a chicken leg, seemed a little flabbergasted and also pleasantly surprised.
When the apocalypse hit, people suddenly lost all contact with many relatives and friends. For example, Lin Duo and her older sister never heard from their parents after the apocalypse.
But in such a situation, no one had the heart to pay attention to the ones they could no longer contact. Everyone could only think about how to live to see tomorrow.
Under such circumstances, Lin Duo really was pleasantly surprised to hear news of Tian Tian again.
Tian Tian was her best friend and classmate in high school, so knowing that she was still alive was more important than anything else.
Lin Ke nodded. "She came here about three days ago. I wasn't at home either that time, but I saw her today."
"How is Tian Tian?" Lin Duo quickly asked.
"She didn't look too good." Lin Ke recalled Tian Tian's appearance when she showed up during the day and sighed. "Oh right, she said that if she doesn't come find you three days from now, she wants you to please help her investigate a certain place."
...
Inside the central research lab, Gu Nan held a girl by the back of her collar and looked down at her from above. This was precisely Tian Tian, Lin Duo's best friend.
Tian Tian found it hard to suppress the fear in her heart. She never imagined that she would run into Gu Nan here.
'Isn't he Lin Duo's Heroic Spirit? How could…'
"You said you're Tian Yuan's daughter?" Gu Nan spoke with great interest. "Little girl, I regret to inform you that your father… is a Heroic Spirit."
"You're lying!" Tian Tian glared hatefully at Gu Nan and shouted loudly, "My father has been a professor of the federation for over ten years. How can he be a Heroic Spirit?!"
Gu Nan shook his head lightly and casually threw her down. He waved his hand, about to cut her with a sword.
He originally wanted to see if Tian Tian knew something, but now, he's afraid that she was simply Tian Yuan's adopted daughter and nothing more…
'Wait, why would Tian Yuan adopt a daughter?'
Gu Nan's movements suddenly stopped, and a sudden flash of inspiration seemed to hit his mind. A certain idea suddenly appeared, and his eyes couldn't help falling on the little girl's face.
Tian Tian was startled by his gaze. That burning gaze seemed like a predator looking at its prey. It wasn't the kind of gaze a little girl like her could withstand.
And at this time, Gu Zhaoyue also happened to walk into the lab and saw Tian Tian sitting on the ground. He immediately got a fright.
"Damn it, I've clearly forbidden…"
Gu Nan waved his hand to stop his sentence. Tian Tian probably entered the lab through a secret door Tian Yuan left behind.
Perhaps she found Tian Yuan's old notes, so she came to this lab.
Gu Nan offhandedly knocked Tian Tian out and asked, "What's the matter?"
Gu Zhaoyue quickly bowed. "My Lord, the other two large settlements hope to join hands with us. They hope that the leaders of all three camps can meet. Will you…"
"You can attend this kind of thing," Gu Nan said impatiently.
He knew why Gu Zhaoyue asked this.
The three largest camps in the capital, besides the Star & Moon Camp established by Gu Zhaoyue, were the Glory Camp and the Hero Camp.
These three camps could be said to control over 80% of the capital's entire resources.
Such control naturally corresponded to amazing authority and status. Although Gu Nan could generously delegate power to Gu Zhaoyue, Gu Zhaoyue could never dare to truly think of himself as the boss.
He knew very clearly that power was the foundation of all this, and the power of the person in front of him was enough to easily destroy Gu Zhaoyue.
"Yes. Additionally, there's another matter…" After receiving Gu Nan's reply, Gu Zhaoyue added, "Glory just sent over some news. Moon thralls are gathering in a location in West City."
"The meeting of the three leaders is also to discuss this matter."
"Oh? Moon thralls gathered there naturally?" Gu Nan raised his eyebrows alightly. He was very interested in this.
"It's still unclear. I only know that the place is very dangerous. The people from Glory who went to investigate never returned," Gu Zhaoyue reported the truth.
Gu Nan nodded a little. He had instructed Gu Zhaoyue a while back to pay attention to abnormalities. Gu Nan's goal was an intelligent moon thrall, and once such a moon thrall appeared, it was bound to cause abnormal changes in the moon thrall population.
"I see, you can leave now." Gu Nan threw Tian Tian at him. "Take care of this little girl; don't let her die."
He paused, then added, "I'll be there for the meeting of the three camps."
"I understand." Gu Zhaoyue's face showed some excitement. The leaders of the other two settlements were both stronger than him, so persuading Gu Nan to attend was a good thing for Gu Zhaoyue.
Gu Zhaoyue's figure soon disappeared, and Gu Nan finally felt excited.
There had been no progress for half a month. Although Gu Nan could control his emotions, he would nevertheless feel a little agitated.
But it wasn't like he could abandon this mission. Gu Nan knew that dungeon missions were his foundation. Star Realm could only provide him with Evil Value, but he couldn't earn any points in Star Realm.
However, both Evil Value and points were indispensable in order to improve his strength.
Things were finally turning for the better—whether Tian Tian was a special existence remained to be tested, while there was probably something strange in West City as well, waiting to be explored.
...
At Lin Duo's home, after hearing her older sister's narration, she realized what place Tian Tian was referring to.
"The place she mentioned should be the forbidden area in the middle of the camp, right?" Lin Duo bit her finger, wondering, "Elder Gu said we must never enter there…"
Lin Ke also nodded. "I wonder what exactly is in it. Elder Gu's action of forbidding everyone entry into that place really is strange."
The two sisters joined this camp relatively early.
However, that lab seemed to have existed ever since the camp's inception, and no one had ever entered it—except Elder Gu himself.
To their surprise, the sun spirit suddenly spoke up, "That Gu person is hiding something."
Lin Duo rolled her eyes at him. "Little Ming, even though Elder Gu's orders are a little strange, he never forced us to do anything. How can you say that…"
The sun spirit frowned but didn't speak again.
However, the moon spirit added to her brother's words, "My little brother and I once snuck near that place, and there was a strong aura of moon thralls there… We suspect that a group of moon thralls are being raised inside that lab."
"What did you say?!" Both of the Lin sisters immediately exclaimed.
If moon thralls were being kept right in the middle of a settlement for human survivors… Then the camp's leaders were treating the lives of thousands of people too lightly!
"Impossible!" Lin Ke suddenly shook her head fervently. "Elder Gu could never do such a thing. What would he gain from this?"
At present, nothing inside a moon thrall's body was useful, so it was meaningless to keep moon thralls in captivity.
"She's wrong," Little Ming interrupted. His indifferent tone and calmer expression gave the two sisters some hope.
"I'm the elder brother," he finished seriously.
"…This isn't the time to care about this!!" Lin Duo slammed her hand onto the table in exasperation.
After a while, the atmosphere in the room finally became serious again. Lin Ke frowned. "If Little Ming and Little Yue's senses are correct… then we need to investigate what exactly is inside that lab."
"But how do we investigate?" Lin Duo pursed her lips. "Senior Gu won't let anyone enter. We won't get to enter unless he leaves this camp for another matter."
Lin Ke said helplessly, "Yeah! But even if he has to leave, it's not like he'll let people know about his absence…"
However, there was a knock at the door right then, and a man's voice sounded from outside, "Your Excellency Lin Duo, Elder Gu wants me to inform you of a matter."
Lin Duo and her sister looked at each other, then opened the door and asked, "What matter?"
The man said respectfully, "Tomorrow is the day when the leaders of the three camps will meet. Elder Gu sent me to invite you to travel with him."