Chapter 197 Old Acquaintances? Core Members of the Building

Su Ze repeatedly processed the contents of the three pieces of intelligence in his mind.

The existence of Inner Demons weighed on his heart like a giant boulder.

This kind of Supernatural Entity that directly attacked one's mental will was far more troublesome than any physical enemy. Once it Burst, it could very likely disintegrate the entire defense system of Jinghai University from the inside.

Although the collective training in the afternoon had allowed most players to gain a preliminary grasp of the Spirit Guarding Incantation, it was still far from enough.

In the end, the strength of one's willpower varied from person to person.

He didn't have any immediate solutions right now. He could only take it one step at a time, first letting all the players become thoroughly proficient with the two skills.

"I'm going out for a bit to gather some supplies."

Su Ze stood up and spoke to the women in the Dormitory.

By now, his midnight excursions to search for supplies had become a routine, and everyone was used to it.

After all, zombies woke up after midnight. Aside from Su Ze, virtually no one dared to take a single step out of the Dormitory.

Moreover, after several incidents, the players of Jinghai University had all accepted an unwritten rule—everything that spawned on campus belonged to Su Ze.

If others wanted something, they either had to exchange merit for it or buy it with money.

No one objected; this was a rule Su Ze had established through sheer strength.

"Be careful," Jiang Yuwan urged.

"Good luck, Senior Su Ze!" Liu Qiaofei waved her small fist.

Su Ze nodded. Before leaving, his gaze swept over Li Xinran's face inconspicuously.

Li Xinran was currently looking down, seemingly calculating something. There was even a faint, lingering smile at the corner of her mouth, and she didn't notice Su Ze's gaze at all.

She seemed to be in a very good mood.

Su Ze didn't look further. He pulled open the door, and his figure quickly vanished into the darkness of the corridor.

...

Time returned to this afternoon.

On the plaza of Jinghai University, the air was filled with the clamor of voices.

Over forty thousand players were gathered together. Under the terrifying amplification of the All Hearts as One Halo, they were conducting an unprecedented collective skill training session.

Li Xinran was also among the crowd.

She absentmindedly followed the others in practicing the Spirit Guarding Incantation, but her heart was churning with a bit of resentment and helplessness.

She was a wealthy young miss before the apocalypse, yet in the end, she was only allocated 35 attribute points.

Meanwhile, Jiang Yuwan, An Lan, and even Qiao Yunge were allocated seventy or eighty points and entrusted with heavy responsibilities.

The pride in her heart made her want to prove herself even more.

But all this time, it seemed Su Ze had delegated power to Jiang Yuwan and hadn't given her a chance.

At that moment, a private message notification suddenly rang in her head.

She instinctively opened it, and when she saw the sender's name, she was completely stunned.

[Private Chat · Zheng Siyuan: "Xinran! You're actually at Jinghai University!! What a coincidence, I'm at the Global Financial Center right next door!"]

Zheng Siyuan?

Li Xinran's brows instantly furrowed tightly, and a flash of undisguised disgust crossed her beautiful face.

She didn't want to see this name again for the rest of her life.

The young master of the Zheng family from the Demon City was notoriously dissolute, changing girlfriends faster than clothes.

It just so happened that such a fellow's family had arranged a business marriage with her Li family, and the marriage partner was none other than herself.

According to the two families' plans, as soon as she graduated from university, she would have to marry this playboy.

Before the apocalypse, she had tried everything to get out of this marriage. She never expected that even in the apocalypse, she would have the bad luck to run into him!

How did he manage to send her a cross-regional private message?

Li Xinran didn't bother to think about it and directly closed the private chat interface; out of sight, out of mind.

But throughout the afternoon's training, she was somewhat unsettled.

It wasn't until the training was nearly over that her emotions calmed down a bit. Suddenly, her eyes darted as an idea popped into her head.

She reopened the private chat channel and took the initiative to contact the name that disgusted her.

[Private Chat · Li Xinran: "You're at the Global Financial Center?"]

The message was barely sent when there was an almost instantaneous reply.

[Private Chat · Zheng Siyuan: "Xinran! You finally replied to me! Yeah, yeah, I'm over here, doing pretty well for myself! What about you? How are things at Jinghai University? Do you want me to come pick you up?"]

[Private Chat · Zheng Siyuan: "Let me tell you, our Global Financial Center is way better than your crappy school! We have three major factions here, and I'm a core member of the strongest one. I'm Boss Lu Jiaming's confidant!"]

[Private Chat · Zheng Siyuan: "Boss Lu Jiaming is one of the top leaders! He has the most say among the five of them!"]

A confidant?

A curl of contempt appeared at the corner of Li Xinran's mouth.

To put it bluntly, wasn't he just a running dog under one of the leaders of the three factions?

Compared to a man like Su Ze, who led forty thousand players by his own strength, he was simply worlds apart.

However, she didn't show it. Instead, she feigned a bit of surprise.

[Private Chat · Li Xinran: "Is that so? I didn't expect you'd be doing so well now. I wouldn't have... thought so before."]

Seeing that he was getting somewhere, Zheng Siyuan immediately began to boast extravagantly, wanting to show off in front of his former fiancée.

Li Xinran quietly guided the conversation and soon fished out a lot of key information.

The Global Financial Center was indeed divided into three major factions.

The one Zheng Siyuan was in occupied floors 70 to 100 and was the strongest faction. The leader was named Lu Jiaming.

They possessed a special building called the "Research Center" and also an Halo.

[Private Chat · Li Xinran: "An Halo? What's the effect? Our Jinghai University's Halo gives an 80% boost to all attributes."]

Li Xinran deliberately threw out some bait.

[Private Chat · Zheng Siyuan: "80%?! Holy shit, that's so powerful? Our... our Halo's effect is a top secret. Only the five top leaders like Boss Lu know about it. But it's definitely not worse than yours!"]

The contempt in Li Xinran's heart grew.

He didn't even know his own faction's Halo, yet he dared to call himself a core member?

She didn't expose him and continued to probe indirectly.

To prove his "core" status, Zheng Siyuan dropped another bombshell.

[Private Chat · Zheng Siyuan: "Hehe, although I don't know the Halo, I'm responsible for guarding the 'Research Center' and a female professor named Qin! She's the treasure of our faction. Many powerful things were created by her and her team!"]

[Private Chat · Zheng Siyuan: "For example, our faction is currently the only one with production lines for molotov cocktails and simple explosives! How about that? Impressive, right!"]

molotov cocktails!

simple explosives!

Production lines!

These few words made Li Xinran's heart leap!

She instantly realized how immense the value of this was!

In this world where monsters ran rampant, the strategic significance of production lines for area-of-effect lethal weapons was self-evident!

If... if she could get these things to Jinghai University!

Then the merit she would earn would definitely be greater than Wang Meng and An Lan's combined!

At that time, would Su Ze still dare to look down on her?

Maybe she could even surpass Jiang Yuwan's position in Su Ze's heart and take her place in one fell swoop!

Thinking of this, a strong impulse and ambition grew wildly in the depths of her heart.

Her breathing became somewhat hurried.

She forcibly suppressed her excitement. Her fingertips tapped lightly on the virtual screen, and a fiery light flashed deep in her eyes.

She typed a reply:

[Private Chat · Li Xinran: "Si Yuan, that female professor you mentioned... "]