Chapter 539: Claire Warner Steps In to Resolve It

Early morning. After a series of explosions, a figure appeared atop an abandoned tower in the city. The piercing, bone-chilling wind howled past. Accompanied by the ever-nearing roars of zombies, the figure leaped straight down.

Feeling the Wind Element Superpower lifting and surrounding her, Nina Jacobs landed steadily behind a zombie entirely clad in Gold Armor.

"Keep killing zombies," Nina commanded the Puppet Zombie.

Crestfall was her Training Ground. She planned to use the zombies here to advance herself into an Advanced Superpower User before departing for Arisdale Base. Today was already her second day of slaughtering here. Having already used the "Instant Explosion" Skill, Nina’s System Experience Points had increased by over ten thousand.

After continuing to slaughter zombies alongside the Puppet Zombie for over three hours, Nina decided to pay a visit to Tomorrow Base. As Claire Warner, of course. She also wanted to see if Tomorrow Base needed any supplies replenished.

Even though Nina had mentioned Claire to Felix Finch before leaving the base, he was still taken aback when Claire suddenly appeared at Tomorrow Base alone.

"Miss Warner, we thought you went back with Nina," Cordelia said, looking equally shocked.

The Claire standing before them was completely alone. Upon arriving, she didn’t say much and merely handed Felix a letter. The letter was written by Nina, and Felix understood immediately upon reading it. Nina was still worried about whether the base’s supplies were sufficient, especially winter clothing and heating materials.

"The base’s supplies are currently sufficient, but we are indeed a little short on winter gear," Felix said.

Tomorrow Base had been built from scratch. Although he had traded with Claire twice before, he hadn’t expected the temperature to drop to such an extreme level.

"I happen to have collected some a while ago. Let the base use them," Claire replied after hearing his concern.

"Alright. Everyone has collected quite a few Crystal Cores these past few days, enough for a trade." Felix was naturally delighted.

Most of the survivors at Tomorrow Base had suffered greatly. Even though it was freezing outside, many had taken advantage of the initial period when the zombies were frozen solid to kill quite a few of them. In addition, a significant number of zombies had perished in the traps set up around the base. The sheer volume of Crystal Cores was even greater than Nina had imagined.

"By the way, there’s one more thing. A few days ago, a group of outsiders came to the base. They approached me saying they wanted to sell a type of potion, but I turned them down," Felix added. Nina had mentioned in her letter that he could tell Claire anything regarding the base, and she would handle it on her behalf.

"Oh? One bottle of Holy Water for one ton of supplies?" A hint of interest appeared on Claire’s face.

"You know about this, Miss Warner?" Felix asked in surprise.

"Yes, I heard a bit about it from a friend. Are those people still in the base?" Claire asked.

"Four of them left first, and one stayed behind. Do you need us to do anything?" Felix asked. It seemed there had been some sort of conflict among them; they had left one woman behind in the base while the rest simply departed. Three days had passed, and the others hadn’t shown up at the base again.

Claire nodded. "Arrest that woman. I’ll interrogate her."

Sherry Renner had already drawn several Truth-telling Talismans, which happened to be sitting in the system’s storage grid. It seemed her timing today was perfect.

She was going to interrogate her? Although Felix had his doubts, he still did as Claire instructed.

After completing the supply trade, Claire headed straight for the interrogation room. The person sitting inside was none other than Elara Calder, whom Nina had seen at Meridia Base. She was one of the individuals who had been selling Holy Water with the others. At that time, Elara had intentionally raised the price of the Holy Water, thinking that Mordecai Quinn would be anxious to buy it, but to her surprise, Mordecai had flat-out refused.

"Why did you arrest me?" Elara stared warily at the strange woman in front of her.

"I’m looking for information about the Holy Water." Only the two of them were in the interrogation room. To save time, she stated her reason directly.

Elara laughed upon hearing this. "I have to say, you impoverished little bases are something else. A few days ago, we offered to let you buy it and you refused. Now you want it? Too late."

"Who gave you the Holy Water? Or rather, who sent you to sell it?" Claire asked, completely ignoring her arrogance.

"Are you an idiot? Do you really think I’d—"

Elara suddenly felt a sharp pain in her abdomen. Immediately after, she saw a cluster of burning yellow paper appear in Claire’s hand. Just as she was about to scream, Claire unceremoniously poured a cup of strange water straight down her throat. She wanted to spit it out, but the physical pain forced her to swallow it obediently.

"What country are you from?" Nina asked once Elara had quieted down.

"Me? I’m a Veridian. Heh, no one knows my real name. The woman named Elara Calder died a long time ago. Do you know how she died? She refused to tell us where the Space Superpower User in their team went, so I had no choice but to carve her up, one slash at a time, until she was dead."

SLAP!

Nina slapped her across the face, cutting off her excited expression.

"Where did you get the Holy Water?" Nina asked coldly.

The woman became much more docile after being hit, her expression no longer twisted. She replied, "It was Aidan. We got the Holy Water from Aidan. The others and I were competing to see who could collect the most supplies. Aidan has six wives. If I win, he’ll take me to see The Holy Emperor, and I’ll become his most honored wife..."

Nina listened with a frown. What kind of nonsense was this?

However, she did glean a few facts. This man named Aidan was also a Veridian loyal to The Holy Emperor. He had sent the fake Elara and five others to various bases in Drakonia to sell Holy Water in exchange for supplies. But their instructions were strictly limited to trading directly with the bases themselves.

"The bases in Drakonia... have a lot of smart people, but also a lot of fools. The smart ones will trade with us in secret and maintain a long-term cooperative relationship. As for the fools, even if they can’t afford it, they won’t kill us to steal our goods."

After the fake Elara finished speaking, Nina took out a pen and paper. "Write down the names of all the bases and people you’ve traded with so far, along with the exact amount of supplies you’ve acquired. Also, where is this Aidan you mentioned? What secrets does your Holy Emperor have? How does he get the Holy Water?" Nina threw out all her questions at once.

However, just as she had expected, the fake Elara didn’t know much about The Holy Emperor at all; she merely viewed him as a god-like existence.

"Aidan is waiting for us at Oakhaven Base. A lot of people died during the zombie horde there, but Aidan credited all those achievements to the third-in-command, Marcus Gallagher."

The zombie horde at Oakhaven Base...

Nina remembered Ian Chandler mentioning this to her a couple of days ago. Could it be that the reason Oakhaven Base suffered such heavy casualties during the zombie horde was because these people were involved?

Nina’s eyes grew a fraction colder, while the fake Elara continued to complain incessantly. Ten minutes later, Nina simply had a Little Zombie Rat turn the fake Elara into a zombie.

Outside the door, Felix and the others immediately walked in after hearing the zombie’s snarls.

"She was a Space Superpower User. See what’s inside her space," Claire said, her expression entirely unchanged.

The matter of her interrogating a Veridian here could no longer be reported to command through City D Base.

"Felix, I have a list of personnel written down by Nina. Have them get ready."

"Ready for what?" Felix asked.

Claire replied, "Ready to go to Base A Command."