Chapter 160

Chapter 160: Trust

Very quickly, Heloise and Vala walked over and with puzzled faces asked, “What are you guys laughing so happily about?”

“Actually, it’s nothing much, just some jokes!” Bai Yi looked at the computer and saw that Yeye had already deleted the tests. After seeing confirming this, Bai Yi could finally let out a sigh of relief. It wasn’t that Bai Yi absolutely had to hide this, but this kind of embarrassing thing didn’t need to be shown to any more people.

“Eh~?” The two of them looked at Bai Yi suspiciously. The signs of him trying to conceal something were way too obvious.

The two of them then looked at the others. Momo would definitely listen to Bai Yi and not say anything, while Sharpei, Pupu, and Chinchilla couldn’t possibly talk to begin with. Hence, the critical person was now Alodia. The moment the two of them looked at Alodia, Bai Yi also immediately made a ‘please’ gesture to her, and his pitiful expression immediately caused her to laugh. Alodia normally had a lot of reverence for Bai Yi, but she suddenly discovered his true temperament after seeing him like this.

“En, nothing much!” Alodia smiled and shook her head.

“Really?” Vala and Heloise both considered Alodia suspiciously.

“Really! I guarantee that there’s nothing going on. So, how did the things you went off to do go?” Bai Yi immediately asked and tried to change the topic.

“The situation actually isn’t too good; the other few factions are all quite patronizing, so it won’t be easy to obtain the resources we want. There’s enough of a supply of manpower, but can you be at ease using it though? Lucretia from the Ministry of Medicine has a relatively better attitude, but she wants Nancy to transfer over to her side for further development.” Vala immediately explained when she heard Bai Yi’s question, and didn’t pay any more attention to the issue of why were they laughing.

“And Nancy, what’re your intentions?” Bai Yi looked at Nancy, who was walking over from the other side of the room.

Nancy shook her head. “I’m a member of this team now.”

Bai Yi studied Nancy. Although she was somebody who they had just happened to meet in Wellington and had joined the team by chance, she had been a great help to them. However, Bai Yi did not wish to restrict her growth just because of this. At least for now, Nancy still had a lot of room for improvement.

“I approve of you going over to Lucretia’s side. You have talent, but because you weren’t a doctor before, you are lacking in the basics. In becoming a Medicinal Maker, you relied solely on groping around by yourself, so you are still wanting in a lot of ways. But Lucretia’s side is different. Many of them were originally doctors, and there’s a huge team there. Many things inside there were developed together by all of them. If you can go and learn over there, it would definitely be better than you trying to figure things out alone. Just treat it as furthering your studies.” Bai Yi explained.

Nancy stared at Bai Yi, and only nodded her head seriously after a long while.

Bai Yi nodded as well before looking at Vala, who continued to report: “Ji Hua Qing is indeed a very famous researcher. After learning that that old man was Ji Hua Qing and that we were willing to hand him over to the Ministry of Research, the other side finally agreed to supply us with research materials. Since it was a one-off deal, I was a little greedier during the negotiations.” Vala started smiling as she spoke.

“Eh?”

“There’s a small research lab close to the recovery center. It was originally the medical research department of this hospital, but it was taken over by the Ministry of Research. I got it back from them, along with the more complete facilities and equipment inside, and many other things.” Vala said. Just remembering Isaac’s pained look made her want to laugh.

“That’s really good news!”

“But we don’t have any suitable researchers. We can’t make use of the research lab even if we’ve acquired it.” Heloise creased her eyebrows.

“We can look for researchers if we don’t have any. Everything must start somewhere. Moreover, don’t forget about our main goal—to increase our individual strength. If we really can’t find anybody, then we can also use this research lab to familiarize us with experiments on ourselves.” Bai Yi said, seemingly not minding this very much.

“Bai Yi, I still don’t understand. Why did you give Ji Hua Qing away?” Heloise asked.

“Because I don’t trust him. In the end, we only have his word to rely on regarding his motives for coming to New Zealand. Putting aside the issue of whether his explanation is true or not, a lot can be seen from how he treated the special forces soldiers that came to protect him. For the sake of entering that research facility, he wanted to persuade those soldiers to assimilate with activated cells and become evolved humans. Those people clearly came for the sake of protecting him, and I can’t trust someone who would treat such people so apathetically.” Bai Yi explained.

Bai Yi was shocked when Yeye said that Ji Hua Qing was a titan in the field of biology research in China, and had thoughts of holding onto him too; however, he gave up on those notions in the end.

Maybe this was just a personal feeling. It was obvious that Ji Hua Qing was very important, but Bai Yi simply couldn’t trust him.

“So, we’ll leave it like this and exchange Ji Hua Qing for resources. Nancy, you go over to Lucretia’s side to methodically learn modern medical knowledge, along with what else they have developed so far. If the rest of you have nothing to do then just stay in this recovery center; I don’t really trust anybody else. Other than that, the most important thing for you guys right now is not to battle with evolved lifeforms outside, but steadily accumulate strength instead.” Bai Yi said.

Everyone nodded without any objections, and they slowly dispersed.

…

Nancy looked for Vala in private. Within the team, only she and Ji Hua Qing had been sent away. It was impossible for Nancy to not have any stray thoughts of her own, and she had a sense of not being trusted in her heart. “Older sister Vala, why does team leader want me to go over to Lucretia’s side?”

“Because, team leader trusts you.”

“Why? He clearly wanted to send me away.” Nancy couldn’t understand.

“Because we are all skilled in different things. To put it bluntly, in this team only the abilities of you and Melvin are ones that New Zealand places importance on now. One of you is a Medicinal Maker, while the other is a Weapon Armor Maker. But after all, these are classes that only just started developing. Bai Yi said it as well: he doesn’t want you to grope around and try to figure things out alone, as it would be a waste of your talent. It’s different for Melvin since his ability requires the use of his own blood. Before we have enough power to protect him for sure, it still isn’t time to expose his abilities to the outside world. Just think about it. You are a member of the team, and you even helped Bai Yi by nursing his body and witnessed his breakthrough from the cocoon. If he didn’t trust you, how is it possible that he would let you out?” Vala explained.

“But that Ji Hua Qing knows quite a lot too.”

“That’s different, Ji Hua Qing only knows some superficial things. It’s just a bit of information on the team when we weren’t prepared at the very start.” Vala still wanted to continue speaking, but she discovered Bai Yi walking over from the other side of the room.

“Bai Yi’s here, he probably has things to say to you.” Vala patted Nancy’s shoulder and walked off somewhere else.

Bai Yi only came over after he saw Vala leaving, and asked Nancy, “Interested in taking a walk with me?” However, Bai Yi didn’t wait for Nancy’s reply before walking away at his own pace. Seeing his actions and recalling Vala’s words earlier, Nancy immediately followed after him.

Very quickly, the two of them walked through the passageways of the hospital until they reached the rooftop. A gigantic tree more than a hundred meters tall had already grown above the roof, appearing verdant and lush.

“Nancy, what are your thoughts on a group of people like those in a team?”

“A team?” Nancy was very puzzled. She didn’t expect Bai Yi to pop a question like this out of nowhere.

“That’s right. Undeniably, a team is a small group of people formed under New Zealand’s unique environment. Within the team, the team leader usually has absolute authority. However, after New Zealand gradually stabilizes, these kinds of small groups will definitely slowly split apart. This is the most basic pattern in the development of society. Even if New Zealand never changes, what about when we reach the outside world? It can’t be that we would still remain in many small individual teams, that doesn’t fit an impartial view of the composition of society.” Bai Yi shook his head.

“All along, I treated you as a friend, and not just as a teammate. You also shouldn’t fixate on the idea that you’re stuck in the rigid and simple role of merely being a team member.” Bai Yi looked at Nancy with a gentle smile on his face.

“So, you also don’t need to restrict yourself to staying together with everyone else all the time.”

“Honestly speaking, you are very talented—talented in medical studies—but you have a very weak foundation. That’s why you must go out and learn, and fight for the chance to become even better, to become a true Medicinal Maker!” Bai Yi said to Nancy, his face full of encouragement.

Nancy stared at Bai Yi’s face. Bai Yi’s appearance clearly still had a lot of strange characteristics to it, but she actually felt a slight tug in her heart. After subconsciously lowering her head by a bit, she nodded.

…

Very quickly, the situation in the Recovery Center for Berserk Evolved Humans stabilized. Other than using his Reverse Flower Eyes on a few people at a certain time every day, the rest of Bai Yi’s time was spent on studying and familiarizing himself with his body’s changes. It had already been two years since New Zealand’s changes had started, and they had always spent all their time constantly on the move. This new kind of quiet life just happened to be very suitable for them to rest and recuperate fully, as well as to begin to consolidate and accumulate their own strengths.

That was why Bai Yi didn’t let Woolf and the rest continue battling with evolved lifeforms outside but made them stay in the recovery center.

As if a drop of clear water dripped onto the still surface of his mind, Bai Yi’s expression instantly regained its clarity, and he turned his gaze away from his study text. Afterward, he closed his eyes, and all the information he had read just now slowly appeared in his mind. Bai Yi could clearly understand every bit of knowledge that so appeared.

100% focus!

Taking Yeye’s suggestion, Bai Yi could barely force himself into such a state through self-hypnosis. In this state, Bai Yi’s speed of learning was many times faster than before. Only now did Bai Yi suddenly sigh and understand that humans really did not make good use of their time while studying normally. Even while trying to study, a lot of time was spent being distracted or daydreaming.

Bai Yi’s schedule was packed to the brim nowadays. After recalling all the things that he had studied once in his heart, Bai Yi looked out the window. He reckoned that it was probably time to let those spies around him know the ‘real limits’ of his eyes. However, he still needed a suitable opportunity, and Bai Yi hoped for one that this was naturally occurring rather than a man-made. Otherwise, the signs of it would be too obvious.