"We sent people to her unit to pass on a message. We tried everything to call her back, but we still couldn't get her to come back! My sister—she just died like that! Died horribly! And now she still has the nerve to come looking for us. If I saw her, I'd want to tear her apart!" Hearing this, Caroline mostly understood what was going on. She turned to Kay, her eyes asking silently, Is that true? Kay lowered her voice and said, "I never received any message they claimed to send. I also didn't know anyone was causing trouble for them." The man continued cursing, "Oh, right, I never told you this, did I? After your dad died, your mom stayed with us the whole time. Back then, food was so scarce. We still shared what little we had with her. Who would've thought she'd end up getting killed by her daughter?" The moment he said that, Kay rushed forward and grabbed his arm. "My mom! Where is my mom?" No one expected the man to suddenly shake her off. He sneered coldly. "You already got my sister killed. Why would I tell you where your mother went? If you really want to know..." As he spoke, he rubbed his thumb and fingers together, wearing a greedy grin. "Then you'd better make it worth my while." Caroline looked at the man and felt something was off. This man was hiding something. Kay stood beside her, brows tightly furrowed, clearly thinking hard. Caroline knew that Kay's parents had gone missing when the apocalypse first began. Kay had searched for them for a long time and eventually believed they were dead. That belief had crushed her spirit. Now, out of nowhere, a man was telling her that her mother wasn't dead and even hinting that he knew where she was. Kay's heart had to be a mess right now. Anxious. Desperate. "Caroline, I can handle this myself," Kay said quietly. "Go take care of your work. I'll come find you later." That was always Kay's way. She carried everything on her own and hated troubling others. Even though she had clearly been bullied, she still pushed Caroline to leave. Caroline frowned and was about to say something. Kay leaned close and whispered in her ear, "I've killed mutated creatures on the front lines. Probably no less than 300,000. I've also killed people." Caroline suddenly looked up. What she saw was a pair of steady, determined eyes. Nothing like the timid, guilty look from earlier. Caroline understood at once. Kay had already seen through the problem. She had been playing weak on purpose, trying to draw out more information. "If there's trouble, come to me," Caroline said softly. Before leaving, she shot the man a cold glare. Unexpectedly, the man rolled his eyes back at her and muttered that she was sticking her nose where it didn't belong. He looked every bit like a street thug. When Caroline reached the entrance of the base, she saw a huge truck parked about 60 feet down the road outside. It was covered with a white tarp, so she couldn't see what was inside. But the stench of rotting mutated creatures drifted over clearly, even from that distance. Caroline hurried over. The soldiers guarding the truck had clearly been waiting for a while. It was still scorching outside, and it was midday. Just standing under the sun for a short time was enough to burn your skin. "Caroline!" "Hello, Caroline!" "Good to see you, Caroline!" The soldiers from the front lines weren't meeting her for the first time. They were all cheerful and greeted her warmly when they saw her. Caroline smiled as she walked over. As she moved, several chunks of ice formed in her hands. She handed one to each soldier. "Sorry to keep you waiting. Cool off first." The soldiers happily took the ice. One of them, shouting about how thirsty he was, bit straight into it. "It's always great working here with Caroline," one said with a grin. "We always get little perks. You know how strict ice rations are in the army now. It's rare for us to even get a piece." The squad leader laughed as he spoke and pulled back the white tarp on the truck. Inside were rows and rows of burlap sacks filled with insects. If Caroline had to guess, every single one held a mutated creature corpse. "Where's the cyan mutant cockroach?" Caroline craned her neck, looking around.A young soldier heard her question, braced his hands, and jumped onto the truck. In no time, he grabbed a small bag and tossed it over. "Caroline, catch this!" The moment Caroline caught the bag, she felt her storage space in her chest throb wildly. Even her heartbeat sped up along with it. Caroline climbed onto the truck, absorbed all the energy from the mutated creature corpses, and then created several more buckets of ice and filled them up for the soldiers before sending them off.