Caroline asked the question that had been on her mind, and Jasper's head immediately drooped. The way he looked made her heart ache a little. "Hmph! That awful two-legger is way too smart! He used my weaknesses, tracked my routes, and even calculated where I'd run! And on top of that, he kept making noises all over the storage space, walking around like some kind of maniac, checking everything. I couldn't relax. I was afraid he'd mess up the storage space, so I had to keep running back to check. Who could've guessed ... he always figured out where I'd show up, and the moment I did, he'd grab me instantly." By the end, Jasper's voice was practically grinding between his teeth. As Caroline listened, a vivid scene played out in her mind—Jasper running, Nelson chasing, and Jasper with absolutely nowhere to escape. Alright ... time for a few seconds of silence for Jasper. But Nelson was having the time of his life inside the storage space, and she couldn't just kick him out. Besides, the more Nelson explored the storage space, the more likely he was to notice something she hadn't, something about the storage space or the Zero System. Caroline even considered opening up the storage system interface for him when she had time, reading parts of the descriptions aloud, because she'd already realized that every line that looked like a joke or sarcastic comment actually hid something deeper. Nelson might be able to discover the secrets more easily than she could. Intelligence-wise, Nelson was definitely a genius. He might become a major help for Caroline in understanding the storage space and the Zero System. So for now ... she could only let Jasper suffer a bit. When Caroline left the storage space without taking Nelson out with her, Jasper looked like he might cry. But all he could do was quietly lick his paw and say, "Goodbye, Caroline." But the moment Caroline stepped out of the storage space, she froze. She had only been inside for about an hour. Not long at all. And yet ... the oxygen inside the base had thinned so drastically that breathing had become almost impossible. In that single hour, the already-limited oxygen in the base had plummeted sharply.What in the world had happened? Caroline had oxygen tanks stored inside the storage space. She immediately took one out and inhaled from it. Only then did the painful tightness in her chest ease. She looked around and saw no sign of Denton or Tyler. In the yard, several of the small pets had woken up, but they were wobbling unsteadily. Even the two giant trees looked as if they were about to wilt, their leaves drooping and lifeless. This was exactly what oxygen depletion looked like. The ground was still shaking, but unlike before, all the fissures on the surface had now sealed shut. Caroline immediately understood why the oxygen had suddenly become insufficient. First, all the pets that had been unconscious earlier were now awake, meaning their oxygen consumption had increased. Second, there must have been another strong quake just now. The quake had closed up all the cracks in the ground. Those cracks had been the base's only source of minimal air circulation, and now they were gone completely, turning the entire place into a sealed box with zero airflow. Caroline quickly pulled out dozens of oxygen tanks from the storage space. This time, she used her ability to destroy all the tanks at once, releasing oxygen throughout the base. There weren't just one or two small pets in the base, especially not with Denton's mutant rat army. There were easily several hundred of them. Those little creatures couldn't possibly each have their own oxygen tank, and most of them didn't even know how to use one. So Caroline could only do it this way, letting the oxygen spread throughout the area. Sure enough, after she shattered dozens of tanks, the small pets' condition improved significantly. And it was exactly this series of actions that caught the attention of Denton and Tyler inside the house. Both of them had been indoors, looking for Caroline and Nelson.Caroline had disappeared so suddenly earlier. She hadn't said where she was going, just that she "had something to take care of." The two of them assumed she had gone to her room. When the quake hit moments ago, they immediately started searching for her. As for Nelson, Caroline had said she'd saved him, but never mentioned where he was. And from the look of things, Nelson couldn't have left the base either. So how had both of them disappeared? Even though the house was large, it was only two floors. The two of them had gone back and forth several times. They had even entered Caroline's room and Nelson's lab for the first time. They had knocked on the bathroom door, too, yet still found no trace of them. Meanwhile, the animals were waking up one after another, and the air was growing thinner by the second. Both men could feel the suffocating pressure. But relying on sheer determination, they kept pushing themselves to keep searching. Tyler especially was on the verge of panic. His worst fear was that Caroline had fallen into another fissure somewhere, and now that the cracks had all closed up, the thought of what that meant sent him into a near-frenzy. He was seconds away from completely losing it.