TFRLTOP Chapter 79 Part 2

His expression turned cold at once. “No. You’re not going anywhere.”

“Why not?” she protested.

He sighed helplessly. “Why are you so set on going out? Isn’t it good enough to stay safe in the base?”

No, she thought. Whether scavenging for supplies or watching battles, everything outside seemed way more exciting.

After all, it wasn’t every day she got to experience the apocalypse—she couldn’t just sit around until it was over and then move on to the next world!

The system grumbled in her head: “You think this is a vacation or something?”

Ming Ming: “…Isn’t it, though?”

“You’re safe in the base,” Guan Yi continued. “Let us handle the fighting. You’re my support, my reason to come back alive. If I know you’re safe here, I’ll have something to hold on to.” He gave a small, self-deprecating smile. “That’s how I give myself a reason to survive.”

“Stop being dramatic,” she said flatly.

Guan Yi: “…”

All that pent-up emotion popped like a balloon. “How is that being dramatic?” he muttered indignantly.

“I can protect myself,” she argued. “You always bring non-combat support with you, right? My spatial ability could be really useful to you.”

“So let me come.”

“No.” His tone was firm.

Ming Ming glared at him.

“Spoiling me won’t work either,” he warned.

“…”

She spun on her heel and stormed off—right back to An Ning’s lab.

An Ning took one look at her angry face and sighed. Called it.

“What’s wrong? You two fought?”

“No,” Ming Ming muttered, recounting what happened. Her mood had dipped, and she finally accepted reality—better to stay put and not cause trouble. “He’s going out in a few days. I’ll just stay behind and keep you company, the two of us holding down the fort.”

“Ah…” An Ning let out a couple of awkward laughs. “Um, didn’t he tell you? I’m going too.”

“…What?”

Wait, what do you mean the male lead and the female lead are both going out—and no one’s taking me?!

The system sighed. “You seriously think this is a field trip?”

“I don’t care! I’m going!” Ming Ming snapped. “In an apocalypse, if I don’t kill at least a few zombies or mutants, I won’t even be able to tell people I lived through one! They’ll think I’m useless! Just you watch—I’ll blow their minds!”

System: Oh, you’ll blow something up all right… Also, who exactly are you planning to tell that you “lived through an apocalypse”? Who’s going to believe that?

Full of determination, Ming Ming borrowed a lab from An Ning and spent the whole afternoon working—sparks flying everywhere.

When Guan Yi came to pick her up after “work” (or maybe more like after “daycare,” though he’d never dare say that out loud), An Ning mentioned Ming Ming was tinkering with something. He didn’t think much of it—he was too busy planning to surprise her with some new grass-flavored mini cakes the kitchen had just made.

“An Ning! An Ning! I did it!” Ming Ming came running out, beaming. But when she spotted Guan Yi, he quickly cut in, smiling awkwardly, “They came up with a new dessert in the kitchen today—want to go try some?”

He wasn’t exactly sure how to make up for upsetting her earlier, but he figured starting with kindness couldn’t hurt.

Ming Ming didn’t seem mad anymore anyway. She held up a small box and gestured for both of them to follow her.

“Let me carry that for you,” Guan Yi offered, reaching for the box.

“No need,” she said quickly.

They walked toward an open area inside the base when the system suddenly warned, “You’d better not test that here. Go outside the base!”

Though puzzled, Ming Ming listened.

It was a long walk, so halfway there she thrust the box into Guan Yi’s arms. “You carry it for a bit.”

Whether “a bit” meant a minute or the whole way—well, that was unclear. Guan Yi chuckled helplessly.

Once they reached a safe spot outside, he asked, “We can’t stay out here long. What exactly are you doing?”

Ming Ming grinned proudly. “You’ll see.”

She took out a handheld device and a small mechanical sphere, coding in real-time to control its movement. After a few dozen meters, she was ready to stop, but the system insisted she keep going. The ball rolled on and on—almost a full kilometer away before disappearing. Even An Ning and Guan Yi were confused, and Ming Ming herself was starting to doubt what was happening.

“Alright,” the system finally said. “Now do the next step.”

Ming Ming typed a few commands and hit Enter.

A deafening boom split the air. The explosion thundered across the landscape, forcing all three to duck as Guan Yi shielded Ming Ming in his arms and covered her ears.

The blast radius stretched nearly a hundred meters. Even from a kilometer away, the heat washed over them.

They looked up to see a tiny mushroom cloud rising in the distance.

“Holy—!” Guan Yi and An Ning cursed in unison.

Ming Ming stared, dumbfounded. “What the… hell…”

“No wonder you told me to do this outside,” she muttered to the system. “If that had gone off inside the base, we’d all be dust right now.”

Guan Yi and An Ning both turned toward her. “Why are you so surprised?”

Ming Ming blinked at the fading mini mushroom cloud, laughed weakly, and stammered, “I-I think I used the wrong explosives… I wasn’t trying to make it that powerful. I just wanted to, uh, show off my coding skills…”

Her voice trailed off to nothing.

Quietly, she hunched her shoulders like a guilty quail.

She definitely wasn’t going to tell them that she’d originally planned to test it inside the base.

Never. Not in this lifetime.

An Ning sighed and rubbed her temples. “See? I told you—when outsiders look at our research materials, it’s like us looking at programming code!”

Guan Yi glanced at the box still half-full of those small metal spheres. His head instantly throbbed. He’d been carrying those mini mushroom bombs all the way here without even knowing it?!

“You…” He hesitated, then took her hand, his expression serious but full of lingering fear. “Baby, if you want to experiment again, tell me first. I’ll help you however you want—but don’t do it alone. I don’t want you to accidentally blow yourself up.”

Ming Ming: (._.)