Her reaction struck Suzy as undeniably odd.
Why does this woman... seem so deeply invested in my uncle’s whereabouts?
"So... where is your uncle right now?" Tina pressed, unable to contain her curiosity.
Suzy hesitated for a heartbeat before answering, "A City, most likely."
To be honest, she couldn’t say with absolute certainty whether Leonard and the others were still in A City, but the odds were high. Even if Leonard were searching for her, he would restrict his search to the surrounding perimeter of A City. After all, even if he racked his brain, he would never guess she had somehow ended up in X City—over a thousand kilometers away.
"A City? That far?!"
"If I recall correctly, A City is well over a thousand kilometers from X City, isn’t it?"
The surrounding squad members had been quietly listening in on their conversation. Hearing Suzy drop the name A City out of nowhere, every one of them gasped in surprise.
"Miss Kale, didn’t you just say you and Leonard were separated temporarily...? How on earth did you end up all the way out here?" Tina picked up on the anomaly in Suzy’s words with sharp intuition.
"Uh... because of some... very peculiar circumstances," Suzy paused for two seconds, brushing off the question with a thoroughly vague response.
There was no way she could share the actual truth. More importantly, even if she laid it all out, none of them would believe a single word!
Recognizing that Suzy preferred to keep it to herself, Tina refrained from pushing further and smiled. "I see. So, what are your plans now?"
"I intend to head for A City," Suzy stated.
Tina gave an understanding nod, while the rest of the squad remained quiet.
A brief silence fell over the group. The others didn’t know Suzy well enough to pry, while Tina appeared lost in her own thoughts, thoroughly immersed in whatever was on her mind.
This time, it was Suzy who broke the silence.
"Um... Tina, I overheard you guys talking about Adam earlier. Do you happen to have news about him right now?"
Suzy shifted her form of address seamlessly to a warmer tone.
Snapping back to reality, Tina gave a firm nod and began sharing what she knew. Knowing full well that Leonard and Adam were close business partners—and that Suzy naturally knew him—asking after his whereabouts made complete sense.
"Adam is actually in the same base as me..."
The world truly was that small. The "Adam" they had been gossiping about was indeed the exact same Adam she knew.
Through Tina, Suzy learned that Adam was currently located in P City Base, roughly five hundred kilometers away from their current position.
As for how he ended up there, nobody knew for sure.
P City happened to be Tina’s hometown. Before the apocalypse broke out, she just so happened to be staying back home in P City; after surviving the initial wave of natural disasters, she joined the base as soon as it was established.
Not long after moving in, she crossed paths with Adam inside the compound. Given their prior acquaintance from the business world, they had run into each other quite a few times during her stay at P City Base.
"Adam is faring pretty well over at P City Base. In fact... he’s getting married soon," Tina remarked.
Adam had always been a standout figure among men, remaining exceptionally sharp even in the apocalypse. Shortly after arriving at P City Base, he was welcomed as an honored guest. The base commander held him in high regard, treating him as a trusted confidant.
Even the base commander’s daughter had fallen head over heels for him, tailing him wherever he went day in and day out.
Yet Adam harbored zero feelings for the commander’s daughter. His demeanor toward her had always been cold, distant, and utterly detached—avoiding her whenever possible. Tina herself had witnessed their interactions a few times; Adam had maintained strict, professional boundaries throughout, showing not the slightest hint of romantic interest.
Yet, after such a short time, word had suddenly spread that the two of them were tying the knot—a development that left even Tina thoroughly bewildered.
"Getting married? That’s... nice, I suppose..." Suzy managed to force the words out.
If Adam was truly building a life with the base commander’s daughter, his future prospects in the apocalypse would be far from bleak.
And yet... Suzy just couldn’t bring herself to feel happy about it.
Was it because her system was bound to Adam, giving rise to some territorial sense of possessiveness? Whatever the cause, an undeniable knot of irritation tightened in her chest, leaving her feeling suffocated and glum.
"Nice? How is any of that nice?! There is definitely something shady going on behind the scenes!"
At the mention of this juicy Adam gossip, the rest of the squad broke their silence, eagerly chiming in.
One of the men glanced at Suzy, waving his hand with an air of complete authority. "If you ask me, Adam is totally being coerced into this."
Suzy’s heart skipped a beat, her eyes wide as she locked onto him. "What makes you say that?"
Her intensely focused reaction deeply satisfied the man’s desire for an audience. He flashed her a secretive grin before laying it out in a deliberate tone:
"Adam can’t stand that Rina—oh, that’s the commander’s daughter. Last time, I literally caught her throwing herself into his arms, only for him to shove her away with total disgust. There is zero chance a guy like that would willingly marry her!"
"Holy crap! When did you see that?! You never mentioned a word!"
"You sneaky bastard, keeping out-of-bounds secrets from us!"
"What was the exact setup?! Spill the details—hurry up and spill! How are you only telling us something this good just now?!"
The moment the man dropped that bombshell, the rest of the squad couldn’t sit still. He had never breathed a single word about this before!
"...Hey, I just couldn’t find the right moment to bring it up," the man offered a dry chuckle, launching into the finer details of the encounter.
Though the incident itself wasn’t overly dramatic, the squad hung onto every single word now that the full picture was laid out.
"...Reason I kept quiet was that spreading rumors like that could backfire badly on me. Plus, both of them caught me staring at the time, so... well, you guys know how it is."
If that scandalous story had leaked back at the base, anyone with half a brain could have traced it straight back to him. And Rina was certainly no pushover to mess with.
Having held this secret in for so long, stepping outside the base and stumbling into a conversation about Adam and Rina finally gave him the perfect opportunity to vent it all out.
The man let out a long breath, feeling a wave of immense relief wash over him.
Man, that felt good.