Radio Reception

Zhou Bai had originally thought Dr. Zhuang would have some kind of countermeasure. He had not expected such a speech instead.

"Let's pray we get lucky and remain undiscovered... We... are humanity's last hope." Dr. Zhuang patted Zhou Bai's shoulder and left.

Watching Dr. Zhuang's somewhat lonely figure, and recalling the cat that had appeared yesterday, Zhou Bai could not help muttering to himself, "A monster? If that white cat's true body is in the base, does Dr. Zhuang know... or not?"

As the thought arose, Zhou Bai could not help wondering, Should I tell him about the cat?

Both the white cat and the Auxiliary System it had brought were far too suspicious. They might even be inextricably linked to Zhou Bai's current situation, making him unable to stop questioning their purpose. After all, he believed there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

Dr. Zhuang was even more suspicious. The underground base, the rumors of doomsday, and the strange Demonology Class all carried an air of sinister evil.

Tell Dr. Zhuang everything? Or find that cat, which might be a monster, myself?

After thinking it over and over, Zhou Bai finally made up his mind. There are too few clues. I'd better search on my own for now. At the very least, if I can make use of this Auxiliary System, I'll have a little more strength to protect myself.

Just then, Zhou Bai felt his shoulder get heavily rammed. A boy nearly six feet tall walked past him with a cold expression.

Elsa came up and shouted, "Hey! Bandu, what are you doing? Don't you watch where you're going?"

The boy called Bandu turned around and shot Elsa and Zhou Bai a frigid glare. "If you don't want to be bumped into, don't stand in my way."

Watching Bandu's departing back, Zhou Bai twitched the corner of his mouth. Damn, this kid's pretty arrogant.

Elsa stamped her feet in anger and shouted at Bandu's retreating figure, "If I was in your way, couldn't you just say so?"

"That's not really the point..." Zhou Bai helplessly patted Elsa's shoulder. "All right, Elsa. Let's go eat."

At the mention of food, Elsa's eyes immediately lit up. She instantly forgot the unpleasantness from before and happily followed Zhou Bai toward the cafeteria.

After getting their meals and sitting down, Zhou Bai considered his next move.

"I've basically explored the living areas on the second and third underground floors. If that cat really is in the underground base, it should be on the fourth or fifth underground floor?"

Thinking of this, Zhou Bai asked, "Elsa, have you been everywhere in the base? Have you ever gone to the fourth or fifth underground floors?"

Elsa had her head down, wolfing the synthetic nutrient paste from her bowl, as if she had not heard a word Zhou Bai said.

Zhou Bai asked several more times. Seeing that she still seemed unable to hear him, he simply took away her bowl, only to see Elsa stretch out her neck and follow the moving bowl with her mouth, eating all the way.

"This girl..." Zhou Bai had figured out Elsa's traits over the past few days, so he simply waited until she had finished eating before asking again.

Elsa said, "We went to the fourth underground floor before when we helped the teacher move things. I've never been to the fifth floor. No one except the teacher is allowed to go there."

Elsa then told Zhou Bai bit by bit about what she had seen on the fourth floor.

On the chair behind Zhou Bai, Alice silently listened to their conversation, a thoughtful expression appearing on her face.

A few days later, after Demonology Class had ended, Dr. Zhuang called on several students to help him move supplies. Zhao Yao volunteered at once.

More than ten students followed Dr. Zhuang to the fourth underground floor. Before Zhou Bai stood a massive warehouse, its various supplies needed by the base arranged neatly by category.

As Dr. Zhuang assigned tasks one by one, the students went to different locations and carried the supplies upstairs trip after trip.

After Zhou Bai carried up two boxes, he returned for another load. Looking around and seeing no one paying attention to him, he headed deeper into the warehouse.

"First, I'll check whether there's anything on the fourth floor. If not, I'll have to find a way into the laboratory on the fifth underground floor and take a look."

Zhou Bai followed the rows of supplies down the corridor, seeing huge quantities of nutrient paste, compressed biscuits, purified water, as well as all kinds of medicine, medical equipment, and common tools...

"Nothing seems particularly unusual..." Zhou Bai paused when he saw an open area piled with all kinds of old, battered devices.

"This..." Zhou Bai picked up a cylindrical object, fiddling with it as he guessed, "Is this a flashlight?"

The next moment, his eyes lit up. He grabbed a small appliance nearby. "This looks a bit like a radio."

Zhou Bai tried pressing the switch, but nothing happened.

"Is it broken? Or does it have no power?" Zhou Bai rummaged through the surrounding items, and actually found two batteries inside one of the appliances.

After inserting the batteries into the radio, Zhou Bai switched it on again and immediately heard a hiss of static.

He adjusted several frequencies without hearing any human voices, then suddenly realized, "This is underground. There probably isn't any signal..."

Just as Zhou Bai began to feel disappointed, the sound from the radio in his hand suddenly sharpened.

"This is the Heavenly Court Rescue Team. This is the Heavenly Court Rescue Team."

"We are rescuing humanity on a global scale."

"Survivors who receive this message, please..."

Zhou Bai stared at the radio in shock, but the voice vanished halfway through. The radio resumed its hissing static, and no matter how Zhou Bai adjusted it afterward, he could no longer receive that voice.

Just then, a light clatter rang out behind Zhou Bai. He immediately turned around tensely and saw Alice standing not far behind him, having accidentally kicked over an iron pipe.

Seeing Zhou Bai look over, Alice raised a finger to her lips. "Shh. Don't be nervous. I won't tell the teacher."

"You just now... heard it?" Zhou Bai asked.

Alice nodded. "Actually, I've always been skeptical of this so-called doomsday. There are some things you might want to see."

Zhou Bai followed Alice to a corner of the warehouse and found rows upon rows of bookshelves before him. His eyes lit up as he hurried over. "Chinese... mathematics... chemistry... physics... They're all educational books?"

Alice said from the side, "Come look at this."

Alice opened a book, took out a sheet of paper from inside, and handed it to Zhou Bai.

Zhou Bai took the paper and saw that it was covered in writing.

"Don't open the door. He only wants to eat us..."

"It hurts so much... My chest hurts more and more. Something is about to burst out..."

"Jack is gone too. He must have been eaten... What are we supposed to do?"