Shadow In Your Mind [ARC 1- 5]

Chapter 181 - I never deny I'm an opportunist

XG 181 - I never deny I'm an opportunist

With his mind turned into a mess from her sudden collapse, Chen Yibo let Scot Lang guide them to a car and send them back to the building.

In the car with only three of them, Wong Xue Guo opened her eyes and met a pair of worried eyes staring straight down at her. There was no sign of exhaustion or confusion coming from her, which was unusual for someone that had fainted.

"Sorry for tricking you, but there's no right opportunity to tell you without breaking the cover," Wong Xue Guo said when Chen Yibo continued to stare down at her dumbly.

Oh, she could let him read her mind, but a part of her just wanted to see how he would react to her sudden fainting.

I never deny I'm an opportunist!

Driving steadily, Scot Lang offered an apology with his eyes never leaving the road. "My apologies for having you do so, my lady. Master said it's unwise to let the public view you in an unfavourable light and it will be better to 'weaken' yourself to avoid stirring unnecessary trouble from antsy people."

With a brief scan of his mind, Chen Yibo confirmed that Scot Lang was telling the truth. "It's alright. I'm just glad you are fine."

"I'm relieved that you had forgiven me. But Yibo... when is the right time?"

It took seconds for Chen Yibo to remember what he had blurted out in panic from the misunderstanding and blushed like a tomato once again. "That... I don't mean... I'm just-"

Wong Xue Guo graciously pardoned him, but her tone could not conceal her sulking. "I know. You don't mean anything about it."

"... Right."

His flustered reaction had unintentionally shared some of his real feelings, which made her happy. She grew even happier when Chen Yibo never mentioned about her head that was on his lap throughout the drive, even if logically she had to continue doing so for the charade.

When they arrived at the building, Chen Yibo had to carry her in, putting on a mask of a worried person.

Guiding them the way in was Scot Lang, who silently noted that the two young master and miss were rather good at acting, especially Wong Xue Guo in an 'unconscious' state that not many people could handle well. With dry lips and furrowed brows that seemed to suffer pain even when unconscious, others would subconsciously pity the delicate-looking Wong Xue Guo.

In a small private room, Chin Chun, Chen YiWen and Director Choi were waiting for them. Wong Xue Guo stopped playing unconscious the moment Scot Lang locked the door.

Chin Chun started, "First, I apologize for severely underestimating Xue Guo's ability."

"It's alright. I had also underestimated my shadow's capability." Her shadow stirred under her feet from her words. In that greek themed place, there were no zombies to be practised as there were only Mr Demon, a very powerful being, so she never had to learn to control her strength.

"Your ability is useful, but there are too many outsiders both inside and outside our base. Not all of them are willing to view your ability positively, and I want to prevent that. People tend to be more accepting if you have a 'weakness'."

"I'm unclear of my shadow's weakness yet, unless you count sunlight? My shadow range is smaller under sunlight."

"It is a weakness, but it won't be enough to placate them."

And so, Chin Chun suggested tweaking her 'ability' a bit, where instead of 'enhancer' and 'absorption', it would be 'extinguishing'. It would be somewhat 'reasonable' how the zombies would drop dead from touching her shadow.

"Won't that sound even more dangerous?" Chen Yibo asked doubtfully.

Chin Chun smiled, his long hair draped over one of his eyes made him look devious. "Not if her 'weakness' overshadows her capability."

And thus, the very next day, rumours of Wong Xue Guo's vicious ability were spread around the base, including the tale of her extreme side effect. Once she used her ability, she would faint from extreme exhaustion and would not recover till the next day. Without context, her fainting after absorbing the female boss zombie's heart strengthened that reasoning.

Not everyone believed that, but Chin Chun silently had his people ruthlessly threaten those that guessed the truth to throw them out of the base if they refused to accept the 'truth'.

It was understandable just how willing they would accept the 'truth' to stay safe from the danger outside the base. The apocalypse not only taught people how to survive but also taught them to lower their bottom line if they wanted to live longer.

As for those people that do not care about it how things work and only want to do whatever they want? Good luck to them.

Chin Chun hummed thoughtfully. "It will be quite dangerous for the shaman if the rescue is to be delayed further."

Chen Yibo affirmed that Max was telling the truth, and was very desperate in getting them to believe his words. Chin Chun was unsure if Max was the type that could self-hypnotise his own lies to be real to dupe everyone, but either way, it would not hurt them to find out if it was true.

Even if they agreed to rescue the shaman, their base was now in trouble, making Max even more anxious.

The heartless zombies seem to be in a rare workaholic mood, where they would come to their base in a large crowd without giving them much rest in between. Their people literally did not have enough rest and were in a high-tension state most of the time.

This tense situation drove people to stop being passive, which was good. But some that were weak to pressure had shockingly chosen to commit suicide.

The necromancer did help the rest of the people to accept Wong Xue Guo's ability in a positive manner rather quickly, with everyone united in mind that it was better to have their allies strong than weak.

What do those people that keep dissing and pouring oil onto the fire know other than complaining? They were not contributing to the fight as much as they talk!

Other than not having enough people to fight the zombies, they were also worried about the lack of time to go out and hunt for supplies. Their stock was quickly diminishing, due to even more people signing up to activate their genes. How useful an ability would be in a fight was clear to everyone after constantly fighting the zombies with only their weapons.

Wong Xue Guo was confused about why there were more and more survivors leaving the base, as surely their base does not look that bleak, right?

However, it turned out that there was a conspiracy theory spreading around about their enemy specifically targeting the Musihada base because it has many people. It lead to some people believing that small groups would survive better.

By now, even a stupid person knew that the zombies were not controlled by the female zombie that could curse males. They had thought that they had killed their leader but it seems that there was someone else behind the scene that was actually controlling the corpses.

Tired of fighting even if it was only the second day, they resorted to barricading their base with chopped-down trees, but it failed as the zombies would throw their comrades over the obstacles.

With the never-ending horde of zombies, more and more survivors started to believe that theory and took the opportunity to escape while everyone was busy protecting the base. Some had even boldly tried to sneak into the buildings as one last attempt to steal the goods, only to be beaten up before tossing them out of the base without mercy.

"Let's do it tonight. I can pick up the shaman," Wong Xue Guo offered.

She can act under the cover of the night, where her shadow would also be at its strongest. Chen Yibo would be going with her, along with Max and L.L. With her ability, there was no need to bring more people and make it harder to move quietly.

Luckily, Vihaan had returned to the base and quickly became one of the highest damage dealers, second to Do Eunhyuk. With both of them, their base would not be in danger even when Wong Xue Guo was away for a few hours. 

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