A vehicle traveled along a desolate road.
The apocalypse had dragged on for far too long, and this town had long since become a dead city. Every so often, a few scattered skeletons could be seen along the roadside—probably people who had died in the early days of the apocalypse. The blackened, emaciated, or rotting corpses, on the other hand, belonged to those who had died within the past two months.
“Ah Ying.”
A dry piece of bread was held out from the side.
Yun Ying looked up. Song Huai was crouching in front of her, his body large enough to shelter her completely in his shadow.
The vehicle was packed with people, so Song Huai kept his voice low as he slipped the bread he had secretly held onto all the way here into Yun Ying’s hands.
Worried that someone might hear, Yun Ying whispered, “Where did you get bread?”
“Don’t ask. Just eat it first.” Song Huai nudged her and crouched down in front of her.
Yun Ying knew immediately. He must have secretly kept it when they were gathering supplies earlier. She hurriedly tried to give it back.
“If the base finds out—”
“They won’t.” Song Huai quickly pressed her hand down and pushed her farther into the corner. From behind, it looked almost as though he had his arms around her.
A few laughs came from nearby, followed by someone saying, “There are so many people here. Keep it under control. Whatever you want to do, wait until you get back.”
Song Huai turned his head and called back, “Got it. My girlfriend isn’t feeling well, so I’m keeping an eye on her.”
“You’re so skinny, kid. You sure you can satisfy her?”
“Haha. How’d this little girl ever pick you? Why don’t you just—”
A man with a sinister grin started toward them.
Song Huai hurriedly said, “She’s my girlfriend. The base has an explicit rule against snatching people!”
“Gangzi, forget it. Come back.”
A man who looked like a skinny monkey called out to him.
Gangzi glanced at the corner of clothing visible beside Song Huai. With obvious reluctance, he gave a contemptuous snort and turned back to his seat.
He exchanged a look with the skinny man. Something dark and unreadable flickered through his eyes.
Yun Ying kept her head lowered, tightening her grip on the bread.
Six months into the apocalypse, all order had completely collapsed. The ugliness of human nature had been laid bare.
Yun Ying had smeared her face with dirt the entire journey, never daring to expose so much as half an arm, and she had encountered plenty of filthy men like that.
If she hadn’t happened to run into her university senior, Song Huai, along the way, the two of them had teamed up and pretended to be a couple, and Song Huai hadn’t happened to possess a water-based ability, she probably wouldn’t have been nearly as safe.
His level wasn’t particularly high, but the base had always favored ability users. As his “girlfriend,” Yun Ying was able to enjoy some degree of protection.
Song Huai whispered, “Eat. Hurry up. We’re almost there.”
Yun Ying looked at him.
“I already ate. I’m really not hungry.”
Even so, Yun Ying broke the bread in half and gave part of it back to him. She lowered her head and nibbled at the dry, tasteless bread.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Song Huai watched the stray strands of hair she had tucked behind her ear, revealing a patch of skin as smooth and pale as jade.
Yun Ying was actually very fair. She simply kept her face filthy on purpose.
But Song Huai knew how beautiful she was.
Back at university, she had been the beauty of her department. He had heard that she had a boyfriend, someone she had been dating since freshman year. They had never broken up even by the time she graduated.
But now the apocalypse had begun, and that boyfriend was nowhere by her side.
Probably…
Song Huai turned his face away and chewed through the bread in two or three bites.
After Yun Ying finished eating, she stuffed the bread wrapper into her pocket and hastily brushed away the crumbs. Only after making sure nobody had noticed did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.
The vehicle stopped in front of a factory.
Several offensive ability users got out first to clear the initial wave of zombies. Then the base’s ability users all piled out and opened fire.
It took half an hour to clear the zombies from this section of the factory.
Five ability users had died.
The casualties were considered relatively light.
“Everyone out. You all remember what we’re looking for?”
“Yes.”
The people in the vehicle answered in unison.
When Song Huai got out, he gave Yun Ying a hand and said, “This factory is huge. The zombies could be hiding in any corner. Stick with me. I’ll protect you.”
Yun Ying looked at him gratefully.
“Thank you, Senior. You need to watch out for yourself, too.”
She tightened her grip on her machete and followed closely beside him.
Living at the base required contribution points. Points could be earned by going on missions or taking a job at the base.
But there was no work at the base suited to Yun Ying’s field of study. Her only option was to go on missions.
If she couldn’t go on missions, then unless someone was willing to support her and give up their own points, there was only one outcome…
Yun Ying knew that anyone who couldn’t contribute to the base was eventually thrown out.
Song Huai didn’t have enough points to support two people. Yun Ying had perfectly good hands and feet, and she didn’t want to become a burden to him.
So unless a mission was particularly dangerous, she would volunteer to go along.
This time, the base was running short on anti-inflammatory medication.
In the apocalypse, having no medicine was a deadly problem. An ability user had detected a pharmaceutical factory here, so they had come to investigate.
The journey had gone almost too smoothly.
Yun Ying had no idea where all the zombies in this town had gone. They had only encountered a handful here and there. Apart from the group outside the factory gates, there hadn’t even been enough to constitute a proper horde.
Song Huai walked ahead while Yun Ying followed behind. They were able to deal with the occasional zombie without much trouble, and Yun Ying had hacked down several herself.
“I think the anti-inflammatory medication section is up ahead,” Song Huai said quietly.
The eyes of several people behind him lit up, and they quickened their pace.
If they could bring back several more boxes of medicine, their contribution points would increase accordingly. They might even be able to rest for a while instead of going out on missions.
It was far too dark ahead.
The power system had collapsed long ago, so once they entered the factory, they had to rely entirely on flashlights.
Yun Ying frowned and quietly said, “Something feels wrong. There are far too few zombies in this town. And there was such a large group outside just now. Why are there none inside?”
“It’s fine. Don’t worry.”
Song Huai knew how careful and cautious she was. He raised a hand, intending to rub her head, but Yun Ying quietly stepped out of the way.
His raised hand curled slightly.
A trace of darkness entered his eyes before he withdrew it as though nothing had happened.
The others were moving too quickly, eager to find the supplies. Song Huai became anxious as well, afraid the others would take everything, leaving them with nothing but the basic mission points.
“Ah Ying, we should hurry.”
Yun Ying still had an ominous feeling in her gut.
But seeing how anxious Song Huai was, she quietly murmured, “Mm.”
The group passed through rows of shelves and headed toward the corner at the very back.
A sign on the door read: ANTI-INFLAMMATORY MEDICATION.
“If we really find it this time, we’re set! A single box of anti-inflammatory medicine is worth a lot of points!”
“Exactly. If we get enough, I’m not going on another mission for the next two months.”
“Wonder if they’ve found the stuff over there yet. Either way, we got here first.”
The man leading the group ran ahead at full speed.
Everyone rushed forward in a mad scramble.
Song Huai was just about to catch up when Yun Ying suddenly grabbed him.
“Senior, I still think—”
Before she could finish, a scream came from inside.
Song Huai immediately swung his flashlight toward the sound.
…It wasn’t darkness ahead.
It was a mass of zombies, every single one of them standing there with their eyes closed, waiting for them.
And now the horde had been awakened.
They surged toward them like a swarm of bees.
“A zombie horde!”
Song Huai spun around and ran.
Yun Ying hurried after him.
The two of them hadn’t been near the others to begin with, and the people behind them were being knocked down one after another by the horde, which meant the zombies didn’t immediately turn their attention toward them.
Just as they were about to escape through the main gate, a zombie suddenly burst out from between the shelves on the side and lunged at Song Huai with a roar.
“Senior!”
Yun Ying swung her machete.
The blade sank into the zombie’s skull. The obese zombie toppled backward, and its weight dragged Yun Ying along with it.
At this point, she weighed less than ninety pounds.
“Ah Ying!”
Yun Ying fell.
Boxes from the shelves came crashing down on top of her.
Song Huai was just about to move them when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the horde already surging around the corner.
He looked at Yun Ying, buried beneath a stack of boxes.
His hands began trembling uncontrollably.
His lips moved.
“Ah Ying… I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”
Yun Ying had just shoved one of the boxes aside and was reaching toward him.
But Song Huai seemed not to see her.
He turned and ran out of the factory.
He closed the door behind him.
Yun Ying knew he had no choice but to shut it.
There were still people from the base outside. If the horde got out, countless people would die. They might all be wiped out here.
But now a vast black mass of zombies was rushing toward her.
Their rancid stench was right in her face.
Yun Ying couldn’t even scream.
Overwhelming terror robbed her of the ability to think. All she could do was raise both arms and cover her head.
“Heh.”
Amid the zombies’ snarling, Yun Ying seemed to hear an exceptionally faint laugh.
Then—
A mass of flames erupted.
It burst outward from a point just three feet in front of Yun Ying like a wave of sound. A wall of fire rose high into the air, and the zombies that rushed into it were reduced to ash in an instant.
Before the next wave could reach her, a vine descended from above, wrapped itself around Yun Ying’s waist, and yanked her upward.
She was dragged from the first floor all the way to the third.
The sudden sensation of weightlessness finally forced the scream out of Yun Ying that she had been unable to release before.
She had barely cried out once when her back slammed into something hard and solid.
There was no rancid smell of zombies.
Instead, there was a clean scent—something rarely encountered in the apocalypse.
“We brought the person up.”
Cheng Zainan pulled her up, shot his team leader a disdainful look for staring at the girl, then vaulted over the railing with one hand and jumped down.
Several more agile figures rushed out from behind him.
Half of them leaped straight from the third floor.
The other two raised their guns and rested them against the railing, sweeping the area with practiced bursts of gunfire.
Yun Ying stared at the crackling flashes of electricity and flames on the first floor, listening to the gunshots exploding around her.
She had only just escaped death, and her legs were so weak they could barely support her.
Both knees gave way.
She was about to collapse when an arm wrapped around her waist.
The arm was muscular and powerful, hard enough to dig into her flesh. With effortless ease, it lifted her and left her hanging against it.
Even after six months of the apocalypse, Yun Ying’s manners remained intact.
She stammered out her thanks.
“Th-thank you. I-I’m just a little weak in the legs. I’m sorry for troubling you. You can put me down. I just need to catch my breath for a… a little while.”
She genuinely couldn’t stand.
The terror of nearly being torn apart and devoured by the horde had left her mind filled with nothing but the sight of those countless zombies swarming like ants.
She had no attention to spare for the identity of the person who had saved her.
Her legs were still trembling.
…But Yu Yao was staring at the woman in his arms.
She was very thin.
Her loose sweatshirt hung around her body, making her look as though she were practically swimming in it. Standing in front of him, she took up barely half his width.
The little girl had only dirtied her face before going outside. She hadn’t wiped any dirt onto her neck, probably because she was afraid of staining her jacket.
After all, water was scarce in the apocalypse too.
She must be very fair.
Yu Yao’s arm around her waist tightened unconsciously.
Her prominent shoulder blades pressed against his chest, as though he were drawing her into his very bones.
Only then did that inexplicable possessiveness inside him become slightly satisfied.
Such a lovely little girl.
Her boyfriend really had the heart to let her go.
Yun Ying was squeezed so tightly that she could barely breathe.
She raised a hand and pressed it against the arm around her waist, feeling the sturdy fabric of his tactical jacket and the powerful muscles beneath it.
Summoning her courage, Yun Ying trembled and looked back.
“Sir, please put me—”
…Oh, no.
The moment she saw that face clearly, one thought filled her mind:
I’m screwed.
I would honestly rather have died in the zombies’ mouths than run into this lunatic.
Apparently, the darkest moment of her life came with a Plus version.
Even though he stood in the shadows, Yun Ying could recognize him by the flickering light of the lightning and flames from the ability users below.
She knew exactly who he was.
Yu Yao was extremely tall, standing at six foot three. Broad shoulders, narrow waist. Years of training had left him powerful rather than lean, and he had always been more than capable of making Yun Ying see stars.
His eyebrows were thick and sharply defined, his brow ridge high, his eyes deep-set, his nose straight, his features strikingly angular.
His strongly defined features could sometimes make him look rather fierce.
In fact, as far as Yun Ying was concerned, Yu Yao really was fierce.
And he was bad.
Back when he had forced her into a relationship with him, Yu Yao always drove over to pick her up and take her home on weekends.
More often than not, Yun Ying could barely get out of bed.