A moment later, a cute baby dragon nestled himself on her lap, tilting his head while looking at her in confusion.

"You..." Zerra sighed. "Where have you been?"

She suddenly thought of something and went to check her inner space. At the same time, the baby dragon also disappeared back in.

He pointed to the white fluff on the pillows, and then the baby tiger jumping toward him. He seemed to know what she was thinking. After he was done, he jumped out of her inner space again, looking proud.

"Thank you." She heaved a sigh of relief. There was only him who could get in and out of her space freely, so when she passed out of exhaustion, it must have been him who pulled them back.

Her mind suddenly played the scene last night when Cassias suddenly called her name. She was sure it was him.

Should she try to channel as much vitality power as she could?

"Miss Ze–"

Before Jasmine could finish her words, Zerra jolted, and she quickly shoved the dragon’s small butt into the inner space again. He roared in dissatisfaction, but he didn’t insist on staying outside.

"Has someone called us for breakfast?" Jasmine yawned and stretched, rubbing her eyes.

"Yes." Zerra nodded. "Let’s go. I don’t know the place."

They took some minutes to prepare, taking a quick bath. It felt refreshing after they did. Zerra was a little disappointed her time with Cassias was interrupted, but she also looked forward to meeting the tribe leader.

She really needed the map.

Jasmine walked out of the tent first, and she followed.

"Ouch," she let out a hiss when they stumbled against each other. Zerra looked at Jasmine in puzzlement. "Why...?"

Her words were stuck on her throat. Because in front of them, a man was standing. Zerra recognized him at a glance. He was the elder brother Gideon had treated last night.

Currently, he was cracking them an eerie smile.

"Why are you here?" Jasmine swallowed and slowly asked. "You should be resting."

Obviously, although she wasn’t that familiar with the man, she still recognized who he was because he was a member of the inner tribe.

He didn’t answer. Instead, he lunged toward them. His skin had darkened, which made it easy for them to suspect he had turned into a zombie.

However, it was only the darkening skin that was noticeable. No one would have such a great change to their appearance overnight unless something big happened to them. Overall, his skin still looked smooth...

Zerra pulled Jasmine aside. The latter was shaking slightly.

"Sorry, did I scare you?" The man got up from the ground, his voice rough. Because they had avoided him, he fell to the ground. "I slipped on something and fell down."

Some wounds formed on his skin. He once again gave them a smile, one that looked stiff and could make one feel uncomfortable. Zerra studied him, pulling Jasmine a few steps back.

"If you feel uncomfortable, I will go now. The tribe leader calls you two for breakfast." With that, the man turned around and ran. His gait appeared strange as he ran, as if he was dragging the other foot falling behind.

Jasmine shivered, and she turned to Zerra who was furrowing her brows. When she shifted her attention to the man again, he was gone. Her pupils constricted. Was he that fast?

"Let’s go. Show where your tribe’s dining room is." Zerra tugged on the other girl’s sleeve.

Her mouth opened—she wanted to talk to Zerra about the strangeness just now—yet, no words came out. Jasmine could only squeeze out some words, "Okay... let’s go there."

The other houses were still tightly closed. After all, it was too early, and because it was the apocalypse, most people didn’t dare to wander outside their houses unless necessary.

Jasmine led her to the biggest house. There were already some people inside, Gideon and his students.

"You two took so long, I thought you had gone back to sleep again." Will joked.

The tribe leader was a man with white hair and tan skin. On his cheeks, there were a few black stripes. His gaze was a little sharp. He smiled at them when they climbed up.

They didn’t stay inside the house. Instead, it was the open pavilion on the right side of the house. The place was quite wide and could house a lot of them at once.

"Someone else called us again not long after you left." Zerra swept her gaze around. The bitten man was not among the people present. Jasmine lowered her head and didn’t speak, but she jolted when she heard Zerra’s words.

"Has he gone back?" She put on a puzzled expression.

"We haven’t started breakfast yet. We were waiting for you." The other students of Gideon opened his mouth.

"Where is the person? Why don’t we call him to join us for breakfast?" The tribe leader’s deep voice suddenly spoke.

"It’s Amar," Jasmine said quietly.

"Amar?" Will had a puzzled expression.

"He should be the man who was bitten last night," Gideon answered.

They all exchanged glances when they heard that.

"I treated him again this morning with Will. He must have heard me telling Will to wake up the girls to get breakfast. Maybe he got the wrong message, thinking the words were for him." Gideon shook his head.

"He had been bitten. That boy shouldn’t have run around." The tribe leader shook his head regretfully.

"It’s my fault." Gideon immediately said. "I should have made it clear the message was for Will."

The tribe leader consoled Gideon with a few more words, and they finally started their breakfast. Zerra ate quickly. It didn’t take long for them to finish.

During the breakfast, Zerra introduced herself. When the tribe leader heard that it was Gideon who had brought her in, he let her stay.

After they were done, they climbed down from the house. The other inner members were already bustling outside, taking care of the plantation fields.

The tribe leader and Gideon stayed behind. They seemed to have something to discuss together.

"Do you two want to join us?" Will asked. The other men also looked at Zerra and Jasmine expectantly.

"Yes." Jasmine immediately answered, and now they were looking at Zerra. The latter was a bit impatient about wanting to study the baby dragon. Maybe Cassias would finally recover once she figured out the correct treatment plan.

However, looking at their faces... she finally nodded. She didn’t want to arouse their suspicion. After helping a bit with the plantation fields, she could excuse herself.

They headed to the plantation field.

"There are not that many people in this tribe," Will muttered, nodding at the inner tribe members who were greeting them in acknowledgement. "But they have the highest rate of wood ability users we have ever seen."

"As we know, wood ability users are extremely sought after in many human bases. With just some seeds, they could help people with food supplies."

Zerra nodded and smiled. "Mr. Gideon does not immediately leave to come back to the Capital. Could it be that you people are studying this?"

Will shoot her a surprised look. "How do you know? Have you guessed we are from the Research Institute?"

She lowered her head. "You all don’t seem to be an ordinary teacher and student the first time I saw you, so I just made the guess myself. I don’t expect it to be true."

"Yes." Will caught a mutated insect in his hand and crushed it, smiling at her. "My teacher wants to contribute to society so that we humans can survive."

"We are researchers, so we should use our knowledge wisely, all for the sake of humanity. As you can see, Zerra. The world is getting more unpredictable."

He sighed. "Humans are advancing in strength, but so are the zombies. If our power falls just a little behind, we might get wiped out, considering their numbers are currently increasing. It’s no longer about an individual’s survival anymore. One person couldn’t go against a whole city of zombies."

"So, we are willing to stay here in this dangerous place. It’s unlike the Capital which can be regarded as a safe zone with minimum zombie number," he added.

Zerra stared at him. "You all seem to be interested in plants... but you are not from the Botanical Department, are you?"

The man shook his head and admitted. "We are not. We are responsible for researching the ability users... how their advancement works and the limit of their power. We are also the ones who found the use of crystal cores."

She was silent when she heard that, but inwardly, she was shocked.

"Don’t worry though, we are good people. I know some of you are wary of us researchers from the Research Institute. We also don’t agree with human experiments." He took a deep breath.

He let out a bitter sigh. "Actually, my teacher doesn’t want to come back because some researchers’ hearts at the Research Institute have been swayed. More and more of them began to secretly conduct human experiments... they even started a faction."

Her pupils constricted when she heard that. "Why are you telling me all of this?"