Lieutenant Colonel Dalton furrowed his brows. He took a quick glance at Zerra, who was also looking at him and waiting for his reply. "Alright. We can work together." He nodded expressionlessly. However, Zerra sensed he had his guard up slightly after Derek and others appeared. They were silently scrutinizing each other. Zerra lowered her eyes. When Derek spoke to her earlier, she felt several of particularly intense gazes from his group. Were there researchers among them? The person beside Derek frowned, unhappy at Lieutenant Colonel Dalton’s nonchalant regard toward them. He didn’t seem to take them seriously. His mouth opened just in time to meet Derek’s gaze. He closed his mouth again. "Then, let’s go. These people should have noticed our presence already. We don’t want them to run away." Derek gestured to them, taking the lead. Lieutenant Colonel Dalton immediately moved after him. The entire group followed. "I hope you didn’t encounter anything dangerous in the past few days." At some point, Derek walked beside her. The person beside him earlier, who might be an assistant or his student, was taking the lead, discussing with Lieutenant Colonel Dalton and maintaining a cordial behavior. On the other side of her, there was Cassias. She felt a little flustered inside. Clearing her throat, she nodded at Derek. "I met people from the base not long after. Nothing dangerous." After she said that, she sensed someone entwining his fingers with hers. Oh, it was Cassias. He smiled when their eyes met. Derek didn’t seem to be bothered by Cassias’ action. He still maintained the same neutral expression, nodding in acknowledgement at Cassias. His expression didn’t even change when Cassias didn’t give a response . "Are you Zerra’s friend? May I know your name?" He opened his mouth and smiled as a friendly gesture. "A fiancé," Cassias answered. "Pardon?" Derek had an expression of bewilderment on his face. Zerra thought it wasn’t that odd, considering people’s relationships had gotten so complex in the apocalypse. They did things only for pleasure and didn’t care much about labels like that. Only the married couples were a little better because most of them had gotten along for so long. Hence, they felt more responsible to each other, unlike the labels that were easily discarded even before the apocalypse happened, like dating or engagement. "I am her fiancé." Cassias repeated patiently. A look of realization crossed Derek’s face. He scratched his head. "So, you are Zerra’s fiancé." His hand reached up to fix his glasses. "I am Derek Ashford. I didn’t know that Zerra had a fiancé all this time. May I know your name?" Zerra really wanted to crawl away. What was wrong with these two? The atmosphere between them was a little weird. "My fiancé’s name is Cassias," she responded weakly. She met Cassias’s soft smile and looked away. Derek nodded. "So, your name is Cassias." As they conversed, Zerra still sensed a lot of ability users glancing their way. Most of them were from Derek’s side. She just guessed they didn’t like seeing a talented researcher from their side being so friendly to people from the base. Although the Research Institute had some ability users on their side to do jobs like taking care of mutated plants or animals, their number was too few compared to the ability users at the base. She faintly sensed the way they regarded the human base’s ability users. A lot of the Research Institute’s ability users looked down on them, thinking they were somewhat superior. After the introduction finished, they discussed another topic. "We caught someone yesterday. He seemed to be an ability user, wandering alone." Derek frowned. "When we tried to ask him about his identity, he got mad and attacked us suddenly." Zerra tilted her head. "Do you think he was one of the ability users conducting the human experiment?" "It seems so." Derek frowned. "He looked chaotic, like he couldn’t control himself." She knitted her eyebrows. Why did she have a bad feeling about this? The symptom was somewhat familiar. Didn’t it resemble the excessive exposure of the mutated mushroom they had found at Scott’s animal barn? "With you bringing so many people here from the Research Institute, you might have also startled the snake." Cassias opened his mouth. Derek’s expression froze a little when he heard Cassias’s words. He pursed his lips unhappily. "You might be right." "I told the Chief of the Botanical Research Department about this, then we went to the Director." He pondered. "When they heard I was going to this forest again, they might have been suspicious." Zerra nodded with a serious expression. "They should have known you noticed something was wrong the moment you returned only with a few ability users." "They might have killed me had I approached their people," Derek sneered, his expression darkening the more he thought about it. "Even if I hadn’t discovered anything wrong, they would have killed me to stop me from discovering clues. It will make the perfect reason to stay in the forest longer." After he said this, his expression became a little odd. They were currently whispering, walking a bit far from other people. Zerra wondered whether Derek knew Cassias had erected a barrier with his mental power to stop any prying ears from listening to their conversation. That was why he could speak to them so freely about his guesses, even with the ability users he brought not too far away from them. Not all of them were trustworthy after all. However, she couldn’t confirm them for the time being. She just knew from this experience that Derek wasn’t as simple as he looked on the surface... "You noticed we spent three months and not just a week in that place, right?" Derek suddenly asked. "I almost fought with my chief when we insisted on different times with each other..." Zerra thought about it. The image must have been a little funny. If she hadn’t seen the proof and how haggard Cassias was, she might have done the same because of the sheer incredulity. "Yes, I also didn’t expect that such a long time would have passed after we came out of the illusion," she admitted. "When you took care of me when I was sick in that cave, did it mean a few days had actually passed? We seem to have fallen into the wrong dimension, or was it because of an illusion?" Derek had a look of pondering on his face. Cassias narrowed his eyes. Zerra could feel his fingers tightening on hers when he heard Derek’s words. He seemed a little disturbed, making her feel a bit surprised... She turned to him. His expression had soured a little, as if something was bothering him. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⚫𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖⚫𝕟𝕖𝕥 Could it be that Derek’s words about her taking care of him were bothering Cassias? Her heart suddenly palpitated. She instinctively squeezed his hand back in reassurance. Not wanting him to misunderstand, she hurriedly added, "When I saw you had a lot of wounds all over, not even sober and there was even a vulture eyeing you, I had no choice but to find a nearby cave." "I didn’t notice the surroundings back then." She keenly noticed his tense muscles eased a little after her explanation, but he wasn’t completely at ease yet. "You just had to mention my embarrassing history, did you?" Derek scowled, and the atmosphere lightened a little. He was obviously joking. Zerra also smiled. Previously, she was in doubt about the reason Derek had deliberately mentioned that she was taking care of him when he was sick. Did he do that without ulterior motive, simply recounting the past or... maybe she had overthinked it a little too. "The wooden hut is nearby," Zerra suddenly said, jogging toward Lieutenant Colonel Dalton. She was a little embarrassed when she had dragged Cassias along, but he didn’t seem to mind. She cleared her throat and pointed. "There." The person who was close to Derek, furrowed his brows. He stood beside Lieutenant Colonel Dalton. After he glanced in the direction she pointed at, he asked in doubt, "Did you see it wrong? I didn’t see anything. Isn’t the wooden hut supposed to be visible?" In order to prove they were at the correct location, Zerra released Cassias’ hand and walked to a tree. She unfastened the cloth she had used to tie a small branch. "It’s a cloth I had used to mark the place before. This is correct," she explained. "This should be the place, but you can’t see it because the illusion has changed." The person still looked unconvinced, but Lieutenant Colonel Dalton nodded. "Where is the place, Miss Zerra? We will go there." She nodded. "The people there seemed to be unaffected by the illusion last time, so once we break into their place, it should be fine." Hearing that, Lieutenant Colonel Dalton immediately ordered the ability users to go in the direction she had pointed. Derek also did the same. However, something unexpected suddenly happened. "You... Why did you stab me?" "Aren’t we on the same side, you traitor!" There was a lot of commotion and the sound of fighting. "We shouldn’t have trusted you, Research Institute dogs!" Someone cursed as he fought. The people from the Research Institute had betrayed them.