Chapter 111: Snow World

When a survivor plunged headfirst into the lake water.

Chen Ye finally withdrew his envious gaze from Chu Che.

At this moment, Chen Ye was more concerned about whether the lake water was problematic.

His eyes were fixed intently on the survivor who had thrown himself into the lake.

Even with Chu Che as the pathfinder present, Chen Ye hadn't let down his guard. What if there was an Anomaly in the lake skilled at concealment? If he went into the water, he might be the next unlucky one.

Right now, those ordinary survivors were quite useful.

For Chen Ye, this was one of the uses of these survivors.

The survivor diving into the lake splashed large amounts of water, with carefree laughter ringing continuously.

Then came the second, third, and even fourth.

Some female survivors were slightly more reserved, but they also took off their shoes and stepped barefoot into the lake.

Everyone's first action was to drink water.

Some more particular ones endured their thirst, filled a bottle with water, and then drank heartily.

Those less particular threw their whole bodies into the water, not caring how dirty they were, directly plunging their heads into the water to drink greedily.

If this were before the apocalypse, everyone's first reaction upon seeing such lake water would be whether it contained bacteria, parasites, or viruses.

But now...

No one cared about that.

Even the Pink-haired Girl was standing barefoot in the water, a smile spreading across her face.

Iron Lion was even more exaggerated—he had already plunged completely into the water and started swimming freely.

Ding Dong stood by the lakeside, also smiling.

"You, are you always this cautious about everything?"

Beside him came Chu Che's sarcastic remark.

Chen Ye retorted without hesitation: "Aren't you the same?"

The two looked at each other, both seeing mutual appreciation in the other's eyes.

The two old men were thinking alike again.

"Old Bao, get these people out. This water needs to be drinking water, not their bathing spot."

The survivors who had just plunged into the lake and hadn't swum for even a few minutes were driven out.

Although somewhat dissatisfied, no one dared to oppose Old Bao.

In the convoy, aside from the Superhumans, Old Bao was their supreme authority.

Tonight's campsite was naturally by the lake.

After drinking their fill and getting excited enough, the survivors began setting up tents.

Tents were being erected one after another.

The convoy itself didn't have many tents; most were obtained earlier from the Camel Train.

Chu Che, who had somehow acquired a stick, walked to the center of the campsite.

"Captain Chu, what are you..."

Chu Che didn't speak, but raised the stick in his hand and thrust it hard into the ground.

A transparent circular light shield directly descended from the sky, its diameter appearing over a hundred meters, almost enveloping the entire campsite.

It wrapped around the whole campsite like an inverted large bowl.

After completing this, Chu Che seemed completely drained, his chest heaving as he gasped for breath, as if he had run five kilometers.

In just a brief moment, Chu Che's forehead was covered in cold sweat, his clothes quickly soaked through, with a small patch of sweat falling on the sandy ground.

"Huff huff... The Pathfinder Sequence 2 Mystic Hermit's new ability, Concealment Barrier!"

"It can eliminate living human aura to some extent, making it harder for Anomalies to detect us quickly!"

Chu Che explained to Chen Ye.

Chu Che had no intention of hiding things from his teammates; all Pathfinder abilities were for survival, with no particularly strong combat capabilities themselves.

Teammates understanding the Mystic Hermit's abilities could play a crucial role at critical moments.

Hearing about this ability, Chen Ye's eyes lit up.

"You mean we can stay here longer?"

"At most three days. After three days, we must leave! Huff huff..."

Chu Che plopped down on the ground, looking utterly exhausted.

Seeing this, Old Bao quickly brought over a camping chair and moved the sitting Chu Che onto the chair.

"Three days is enough!"

After the long trek, even though Chen Ye was a Sequence Superhuman, he felt physically and mentally exhausted.

Being able to rest by this lake for three days now was an incredible luxury.

The transparent barrier naturally attracted the survivors' attention.

Many looked toward Chen Ye and Chu Che.

"Chu Che, Yezi, what are you two doing? What is this thing?"

The Pink-haired Girl, who had just been about to find a place to bathe, saw this inverted transparent barrier.

For girls, not bathing for nearly half a year was simply unbearable.

"Old Bao, go... tell them they cannot easily leave the barrier range. If they want to go outside, they must report to you."

When the survivors in the campsite learned they could rest here for three days.

The campsite erupted with thunderous cheers.

Even the always calm Ding Dong couldn't help but smile.

In the following time, Chen Ye also found a place to take a proper bath.

He scrubbed off layers of dirt from his body.

Many people in the convoy were doing the same thing.

Not bathing for nearly half a year—even the most slovenly person couldn't stand it.

While the temperature hadn't completely dropped yet, everyone went to find places to bathe.

When Zhou Xiaoxiao, freshly cleaned, appeared before Chen Ye.

Even Chen Ye was stunned by this girl's beauty.

The first time he saw Zhou Xiaoxiao, the girl was practically a tomboy.

To avoid trouble back then, she dressed entirely like a boy.

But now, Chen Ye finally understood why the entire entertainment industry had been waiting for her debut.

Her exquisite facial features looked as if generated by AI.

Seeming to sense Chen Ye looking at her, the girl appeared somewhat afraid and uncomfortable.

She was no longer the willful, spoiled future superstar she once was.

Facing Chen Ye, she would feel fear and nervousness.

The Pink-haired Girl also appeared in a change of clothes.

It had to be said this woman defied common sense. During this migration through the desert, many female survivors' skin had darkened several shades.

But this girl was as white as snow.

Was this one of the side effects of Sequence Superpowers?

Combined with her pink hair, she appeared full of vitality, radiating youthful energy for miles.

The epitome of pure desire—that described this girl perfectly.

As for Xu Lina.

The cleaned-up woman wore tight jeans with a white blouse, embodying the mature young woman style to perfection.

Most men in the campsite had their eyes fixed on this woman.

If it were just about feminine charm, Xu Lina surpassed Zhou Xiaoxiao and the Pink-haired Girl by more than ten blocks.

"Chen Ye, if you keep staring, I'll dig your thieving eyes out, believe me?"

Seeming to sense Chen Ye's gaze was too intense, the Pink-haired Girl raised her eyebrows angrily.

This girl didn't seem to care at all about their past connection.

As if she had completely forgotten about that matter.

Chen Ye rubbed his nose and turned toward the vehicle.

Xu Lina seemed quite pleased, tossing her long hair proudly as she walked through the crowd.

Hmph! Chen Ye, do you think I'm still worth having after a wash?

The three women attracted everyone's attention in the campsite.

Except for Captain Chu Che.

He had no interest in women whatsoever.

Chen Ye took out all the bottles from his vehicle.

The bottles accumulated during this period numbered over a hundred, piled densely into a small hill.

Chen Ye planned to fill all the bottles completely.

Not only Chen Ye was doing this—other survivors were engaging in the same behavior as Chen Ye.

Having survived the desert this time, everyone had gained a very clear understanding of water resources' importance.

When leaving this place three days later, everyone's bottles would be filled with water.

The evening meal was naturally abundant.

Some survivors even caught two large fat fish from the lake and brought them over.

Learning that Chu Che had advanced to Sequence 2 Mystic Hermit, the Pink-haired Girl, Iron Lion, and Ding Dong were all excited.

The Pathfinder advancing in sequence meant the convoy's survival capability had strengthened once again.

This time Chu Che advancing to Sequence 2 granted him four abilities in total.

One was the current Concealment Barrier.

Another was Weather Perception, able to sense weather changes within twenty-four hours.

As a Sequence Superpower ability, this weather prediction was much more accurate than weather forecasts.

If they encountered another sandstorm, Captain Chu would likely know in advance.

The third ability was Marking: able to imprint information on specific locations or objects, with anti-eavesdropping functionality.

When Chu Che explained this ability, the others exchanged puzzled glances, not understanding what it meant.

Chu Che directly wrote three characters in the air above the ground, then looked up to ask Chen Ye.

"What did I write?"

Chen Ye looked at the ground: "Are you messing with me?"

The Pink-haired Girl, however, gasped in surprise: "It's the traditional characters for one, two, three. Chen Ye, you really can't see them? Captain Chu's characters are glowing! Captain Chu, how did you do that?"

Chu Che smiled slightly proudly: "That's the anti-eavesdropping feature. If I want, I can decide who sees the information I leave behind."

If this ability existed before the apocalypse, it would have been useless.

But now, if used well, it was a divine skill that could play a major role at critical moments.

"And the last ability, Mystic Communication!"

"Two Pathfinders within a certain range can sense each other and conduct simple communication."

This ability was also useless before the apocalypse.

Because everyone had phones.

But now, it was also a very powerful ability.

In this apocalyptic world, various teams were like isolated boats on the ocean, making communication extremely important.

The three days passed very quickly.

When it was time to leave, everyone showed reluctance and sadness.

Perhaps they would never return here in their lifetimes.

But no one could forget the happiness of these three days.

Chen Ye looked at the lake in the rearview mirror, feeling reluctant too.

There was no choice—if they stayed longer, there might be danger.

The convoy returned to its normal routine: migrating, resting, leaving, then migrating again.

The days were still scorching hot, the nights still freezing cold.

But for some reason, Chen Ye felt the nights were even colder; even as a Sequence Superhuman, he was having trouble enduring it.

Last night, two more people froze to death in their tents.

This hadn't happened for quite some time.

At noon on the third day, Chen Ye finally understood why the nights were so cold.

The convoy finally reached the desert's edge.

But no one's face showed happiness; instead, each was filled with fear.

On one side was the endless desert, the sun hanging high in the sky, the distant sand dunes shimmering with heat haze.

On the other side, however, was a world of heavy snowfall, everything wrapped in silver-white, distant trees and hills completely covered in white snow.

Snow piled over a foot thick.

Even from a distance, the biting cold wind could be felt.

The two worlds seemed separated by some kind of barrier, completely unrelated—the desert's scorching heat didn't affect the snowy world in the slightest, and not a single snowflake from the snowy world fell into the desert.

Chen Ye looked at the flip-flops on his feet, then at his shabby pickup truck, and swallowed hard.

"Chu Che, are we... really going in there?"