The sudden sensation of weightlessness nearly made Yun Ying cry out, but seeing the zombies behind the wall of fire, she remembered Yu Yao's words.
Never scream when encountering zombies. Fear would only rob her of the ability to think, and it would only make the zombies more frenzied, attracting even more of them.
She buried her head into the crook of Yu Yao's neck, eyes squeezed tightly shut, clinging to him like an octopus.
Yu Yao carried Yun Ying as he leaped to the other side of the stairwell, grabbing hold of the handrail on the opposite pipe with one hand. The zombies had no capacity for thought—they actually let go of the railing and lunged straight at them, tumbling down one after another.
He pulled the gun from his waist, channeling his supernatural ability into the muzzle to form a miniature shock cannon. Fireballs wrapped around bullets as they exploded amidst the zombie horde. Yu Yao fired several shots in succession, blasting a gap at the bottom, and the zombies crawling up the pipe plunged down as if falling off a cliff.
Once they had piled up to fill the crater his bullets had carved, Yu Yao emptied the magazine, and the shells blasted the horde into bursts of blood.
Yun Ying dared not lift her head. While he was busy clearing out the zombies, all she could do was hold tight to Yu Yao's waist to keep herself from falling, listening to the gunfire ringing in her ears and the guttural howls of the horde—until the shooting stopped and Yu Yao reloaded a fresh magazine with one hand.
He tucked the gun away, wrapped an arm around Yun Ying's waist, and leaped down with her, landing back at the original pipe opening.
Yun Ying gagged, catching the rancid stench of burning flesh in the fire. Yu Yao said, "Hold your breath for now."
Yun Ying obediently covered her nose and mouth. Yu Yao scooped her up and quickly dropped down through the pipe opening. The stray zombies in the corridor were taken care of, and he kicked open the door to a room, setting Yun Ying down.
Finally able to breathe deeply, Yun Ying watched as Yu Yao opened a freezer and pulled out a bottled mineral water from before the apocalypse. He walked over, took her hand, opened her palm, and pressed the ice-cold bottle against her burned skin.
"I don't have any medicine on me. Make do with this for now." Yu Yao glanced up at her. Yun Ying's face was pale as death, but she hadn't screamed or panicked—compared to most people, she was already composed enough.
Yu Yao asked, "Old He and the others have already come down to back us up, but it'll still take a while. I don't know if there are still zombies on this floor. You're not safe alone, so you have to come down with me."
Yun Ying swallowed hard, gripping the icy bottle in her palm.
"You're going after that High-rank Zombie?"
Yu Yao steadied her by the shoulders: "Yeah. If you're scared, I'll stay here with you and wait until Old He and the others take you out. Then I'll go handle my business."
Of course Yun Ying was scared—scared to death. She'd never seen a High-rank Zombie before, but she'd heard their combat power was ferocious and their agility extremely high.
"How about you just leave me here and go find that High-rank Zombie? Don't wait until its Semi-dormancy Period ends—it'll be much harder to deal with then."
"You're worried about me?" Yu Yao actually looked pleased. Seeing the girl frown and raise her foot to kick him, he stopped his teasing and said seriously, "But no can do. You said you were thrown in here, and that alarm earlier was probably manually triggered too. This floor might not have only zombies. I won't feel safe leaving you here alone."
He looked up at the blinking red light on the ceiling, his lips gradually pressing into a thin line.
Yun Ying couldn't figure it out at all—had she wronged someone somehow? Following Yu Yao's gaze, she started to look up, but just as she raised her head, Yu Yao grabbed the hood of her sweater and pulled it down over her face. He took hold of her wrist.
"Don't even look at that filth," Yu Yao said coldly, pulling out another handgun and shoving it into Yun Ying's hands.
The heavy gun landed in her grip, startling her—before the apocalypse, this would've been a strictly regulated item. She pulled her hands back, trying to return it.
"Keep it for protection." Yu Yao gripped her hand, pried open her slender fingers, and taught her how to hold the grip.
Yun Ying hurriedly said, "I don't know how to shoot!"
"Then learn."
A scorching embrace pressed up against her back, his broad frame completely wrapping around her. Yu Yao held Yun Ying's hand on the gun grip, guiding her toward the door, and in Yun Ying's horrified gaze, yanked it open.
The zombie wandering at the end of the corridor suddenly turned, locking onto them with precision, baring its teeth and snarling as it charged toward them.
As the zombie sprinted at them, Yun Ying heard more guttural growls—other zombies from elsewhere drawn by the noise.
Yun Ying's eyes went wide, and she struggled desperately to back away, but Yu Yao blocked her retreat. Her struggles meant nothing to him.
"Yu Yao, Yu Yao!"
"Miss Yun, in the apocalypse, the only one you can truly trust is yourself."
Yu Yao tightened his grip on her hand, and when the zombie was only a few steps away, he pulled the trigger with her.
Yun Ying squeezed her eyes shut. The heavy recoil wasn't as brutal as the machine gun from before, but it still numbed her palm, sending her stumbling back into Yu Yao's chest.
"Open your eyes." Yu Yao fired several more shots with her, and just as Yun Ying fluttered her lashes open, he suddenly let go, leaving her to hold the gun alone.
The last zombie burst out from the corner, and Yun Ying shrieked in fright, "Yu Yao!"
Yu Yao crossed his arms, leaning lazily against the wall, and chuckled. "What are you calling me for? I already taught you. Congratulations, Miss Yun—you've graduated."
Bastard!!
Yun Ying closed her eyes, and when the zombie was only steps away, she fired round after round, sweeping wildly in its direction. Empty shell casings clattered to the ground with sharp, dull pings until the magazine ran dry, and all she could breathe was the acrid smell of gunpowder.
Her heart pounded too fast to calm, her gun hand trembling—until a low chuckle reached her ear, crisp and cool, right against her skin: "That scared, huh?"
She snapped out of it. The shadow of being bullied by Yu Yao too many times was carved into her bones, and she instinctively kicked him in the knee.
Yu Yao didn't care. He glanced at the footprint on his tactical pants, then let his gaze fall on the zombie Yun Ying had turned into Swiss cheese.
"No matter how scared you are, you hold your gun steady." Hearing the sound of zombies in the distance, Yu Yao quickly shoved a freshly loaded magazine into Yun Ying's hands, hooking an arm around hers and dragging her away.
Yun Ying stepped over the zombie's body, glancing back—half her shots had hit the wall.
"Relax, you just shoot." Yu Yao looked back at her with a teasing grin. "Bullets are unlimited."
When he learned Yun Ying had gone missing, Song Huai asked nervously, "She's gone—the City Guard already took her away, so do I still need to go out on my mission?"
Zhang Qin stared at him coldly. "Your girlfriend's missing, and your first reaction is worrying about yourself?"
Song Huai's face went pale, and he forced out, "Of course I'm worried about her, but—but this is the base, after all. She should be fine, right?"
Zhang Qin gave him a cold look. "She's gone, so of course you're going out on that mission."
Under Song Huai's ashen face, Zhang Qin drove away, rolled up the car window, ignored the desperate shouts behind him, and headed toward Yu Yao's residence.
The car parked in front of the standalone small building had disappeared. Zhang Qin rang the doorbell several times with no response. He frowned and stepped back a few paces. Just as he was about to contact Yu Yao via radio, the wireless intercom in the car rang.
Zhang Qin walked over and picked up: "What is it?"
The person on the other end said hurriedly: "Captain Zhang, the Comprehensive Hall has been attacked!"
Zhang Qin's expression darkened. He pulled open the car door and jumped in, driving toward the Comprehensive Hall.
The Comprehensive Hall was indeed in complete chaos.
On the street, the disguised RV was parked beneath a tent. Lu Yao sat alone inside. Seeing a group of people rushing over from several streets, she knew that He Fangchen and the others had already started fighting.
Formless water surged up from underground, imperceptibly creeping past the soles of those people's boots. Several of them noticed the chill and looked down. The clear water that had not even reached their soles instantly froze, condensing into frost that firmly froze them to the street.
"Damn, it's an ambush! It's a Water-type Ability User!"
The moment the speaker's voice fell, walls of ice rose from all directions, trapping them inside like a cage.
The survivors screamed and scattered, stepping through puddles to leave. Lu Yao's ability did not stop them. She glanced at Lin Xizhi, who unwrapped a lollipop, stuffed it into her mouth, opened the car door, and jumped down.
Lu Yao said: "I'll handle things up here. You go underground to support the captain."
Lin Xizhi flashed her an "OK" gesture. Her thin, slender figure was extremely agile, flipping over the fence like a ghost and jumping from the second floor into that seemingly secure building.
The underground floors had already erupted into fighting. Cheng Zainan and He Fangchen made their way to the third basement level. After knocking out everyone there, they ignored the quarantined survivors and quickly pressed the elevator button, preparing to go down.
The earpiece suddenly crackled. Cheng Zainan answered: "Captain."
Yu Yao said: "Don't take the elevator. They have control over it. Use the pipes."
He Fangchen asked: "Captain, are you okay over there? How's the sister?"
"We're fine." Yu Yao tightened his grip on Yun Ying's hand. The two of them circled around to the pipes on the other side. He jumped down first, climbing down along the ladder, and looked up at Yun Ying, who was slowly making her way down. "Pretty sister is fine too."
Yun Ying glared down at him, barely stopping herself from stepping on Yu Yao's paw and kicking him down.
What time was it, and this dog was still here flirting.
Yu Yao curved his lips and said into the earpiece: "You two come down first. Be careful on the way. I'll finish things up here quickly and meet up with you."
He cut off the earpiece connection. The thing drained too much battery, and they had nowhere to charge it now.
Yu Yao melted through the pipes of the next floor and jumped down. Only the green emergency exit signs glowed around him, eerie and gloomy, but he knew that the high-rank zombie was on this floor.
Yu Yao reached out his hand to her. The pipe was still some distance from the ground, and Yun Ying had no training. If she jumped down, she would likely injure something.
She knew it herself, so she steeled herself and jumped down toward him. Yu Yao caught her steadily. This time he didn't tease her with any ulterior motives and quickly set her down.
Yun Ying saw Yu Yao clench one fist and, channeling his ability into it, smash several deep pits into the wall on one side.
"What are you doing?"
Yu Yao patted the dust off his knuckles and said casually: "For an easy getaway later."
Yun Ying thought to herself that he was truly insane. They hadn't even climbed up through these places just now—he could easily vault over this pipe, so why go to all this unnecessary trouble?
Yu Yao took a small flashlight from his pocket and strapped it onto Yun Ying's hand: "You must stay close to me. If I end up fighting it, find somewhere to hide. I've seen the lab data—there's only one High-rank Zombie on this floor."
Yun Ying took a few deep breaths and gripped the gun in her hand tightly. "Y-you don't need to worry about me."
Yu Yao lifted his eyelids slightly and glanced at her. He could see her fear—it was something that ate people, after all. No one wouldn't be afraid.
"I'll finish it within thirty minutes, then get you out of here." Yu Yao grasped her hand through the sleeve of his hoodie and led her inward.
Yun Ying switched on the small flashlight on her hand. The back of her neck prickled with an eerie chill. She didn't dare look back, only following Yu Yao closely. This floor was too cold, making her shiver. Yu Yao seemed to notice—he conjured a small flame that hovered beside her.
He didn't look back. Yun Ying watched his broad, upright back.
They hadn't seen each other for nearly two years. During the time before she left, her relationship with Yu Yao had been very good—she had even agreed to get a marriage certificate with him right after graduation.
Yu Yao had loosened his watch over her considerably because of that. The night before Yun Ying left, she had still been intimate with him. Perhaps he never expected that the little sister he had watched grow up since childhood—such an obedient person—would dare to deliberately lower his guard, then block and delete him, and flee far away.
—"Little sister, you'd better hide well. Don't let me find you."
Yun Ying thought of that text message Yu Yao had sent again. The hand he was holding twitched instinctively. Yu Yao, walking ahead, noticed and turned back to glance at her.
"Are you feeling unwell somewhere?"
Yun Ying shook her head, avoiding his gaze. "N-no, nothing."
Yu Yao stared at her for a few seconds, then turned back around—but held her hand even tighter.
Yun Ying swallowed with difficulty. She absolutely had to cut ties with Yu Yao cleanly and early. If one day this bastard suddenly remembered her, with his temper, Yun Ying's days would not be easy.
She felt that Yu Yao must have been nearly angered to death by her back then. This person was extremely petty—there was no way he would let her off.
The negative seventh floor had probably been excavated after the apocalypse. It had only recently been completed. The smell of construction materials mixed with disinfectant was pungent and unpleasant, but still much better than the stench of zombies.
But at the thought that there was a High-rank Zombie on this floor, Yun Ying couldn't relax at all. Her throat felt blocked, and she carefully watched her surroundings.
"Do High-rank Zombies… also have supernatural abilities?"
"This one might." Yu Yao walked a step ahead of her. "Didn't Jiangcheng Base tell you about the outside news?"
Yun Ying blinked blankly. "What happened outside?"
Yu Yao scoffed. "Seems they really didn't say."
If such a thing were spoken aloud, it would cause panic. Those upper-class people who seized power after the apocalypse worried their authority would be shaken. Until they found a way to deal with it, they would never inform the survivors.
"Two months ago, Huaishi Base was overrun by a Zombie Tide. The radio telegram they sent out said that within the Zombie Tide, they saw a zombie with supernatural abilities—the only supernatural-ability zombie seen among the major bases to date. What the ability is, no one knows."
Yu Yao was extremely calm, speaking in an almost placid tone words that shook Yun Ying to her core.
"The zombie tide… there's also a zombie tide gathering outside Jiangcheng Base. Those zombies seem to be hiding in an organized manner." Yun Ying murmured to herself, thinking of the previous zombie tide and those zombies that had climbed the ladders earlier.
"Could it be that the formation of a zombie tide is because of High-rank Zombies? Like evolution between species—when the living environment becomes harsh, organisms evolve?"
"Looks like you studied evolution theory pretty well. You haven't forgotten it after all this time. Were you a top student back in school?" Yu Yao chuckled, squeezing her hand.
Seeing the girl kick him, his conscience returned somewhat, and he answered her honestly: "Survival of the fittest, natural selection. Humans can evolve supernatural abilities to fight zombies, so in extreme environments, zombies can naturally develop powerful survival instincts as well."
Such as intelligence, abilities to counter Ability Users, and the power to command Low-rank Zombies.
Yun Ying asked, "Why is the High-rank Zombie from Huaishi in Jiangcheng?"
Yu Yao's voice was calm: "Then you'd have to ask the boss of Jiangcheng why they sent people to capture that zombie. Do you know how many people died in your base trying to catch that High-rank Zombie?"
Yun Ying didn't know.
She was just an ordinary person without supernatural abilities, following the base on transport missions that weren't too dangerous—manual labor. Missions that required fighting zombies had no use for her.
But it was true that the base had far fewer Ability Users now, which made even recent missions somewhat difficult.
"Why did you come looking for that zombie?"
Yu Yao turned to look at her: "So nosy about everything. What are you to me, Miss Yun, that I have to tell you all this?"
Yun Ying was momentarily at a loss for words, averting her gaze: "Forget it, you don't have to tell me."
Yu Yao found teasing her quite amusing. He took her hand and led her around a corridor, replying, "We need that zombie's crystal core to research the cause of its supernatural ability, as well as the identity of this zombie."
The former Yun Ying could understand, but the latter she couldn't quite grasp.
What identity could a zombie have?
After the apocalypse, social status and family relationships were all reshuffled. Whatever that zombie was before the apocalypse, it was just a High-rank Zombie now.
But Yun Ying didn't ask. She was thinking about whether that High-rank Zombie or Yu Yao was stronger, but since he dared to come down alone, he probably had confidence in himself.
It wasn't just dark down here—it was cold too. Especially when her leg stepped into some kind of place, her entire calf felt chillingly cold.
Yun Ying tugged at Yu Yao: "Can you move your little flame down a bit? My legs are cold."
Yu Yao's brows furrowed slightly as he looked down.
He acted as if he hadn't seen anything, continuing forward, then suddenly said, "Miss Yun, would you say you're blind?"
Yun Ying: "?"
If he wouldn't do it, he wouldn't do it—why the personal attack?
"Finding a boyfriend so useless, and you never thought to look down the whole way here."
Yun Ying: "…?"
Before she could look down, the hand gripping her wrist suddenly exerted tremendous force, yanking Yun Ying over. The massive inertia sent a tearing pain through her as she was pulled forward, and a blazing ball of fire brushed past her body, landing on her calf.
Yu Yao supported her waist with one hand, drawing another dagger from his waist with the other. The dagger spun in the air before he kicked it behind Yun Ying's calf, sharply severing the thick vines.
Yun Ying stumbled into his embrace, and only then did she see clearly what those things were.
They were two thick, menacing vines.
So it was a Wood-type Ability.
"Yu Yao!" Yun Ying called out, only to be pushed behind him by Yu Yao.
At the end of the corridor, dangling upside-down from the ceiling, a zombie rushed toward them at terrifying speed. Yun Ying caught sight of its brownish flesh that wasn't yet withered, and its long black hair hanging downward.
"Stay put and don't move. Keep your gun ready."
A wall of fire blazed up in front of her. Yun Ying coughed, choked by the smoke, and covered her nose and mouth with her hands. The flames blocked the vines that kept reaching for her, but they also made it hard to breathe.
She remembered the bottled water Yu Yao had given her earlier. Yun Ying crouched down, hastily poured some onto her sleeve, and pressed the damp fabric over her nose and mouth.
Yu Yao had driven the zombie all the way to the end of the corridor. Yun Ying heard the sounds of fighting and the zombie's hoarse, guttural growls, though the flames obscured their figures from her view.
But she had clearly seen the zombie on the ceiling just now.
Most zombies, after mutation, dissolved many of their organs to conserve energy. Their skin lost all moisture, becoming dry and dull, and their hair fell out in clumps.
But that zombie's skin was merely somewhat darkened and wrinkled, not stretched tight over bone like skin wrapped around a skeleton. It also had a full head of thick, lush hair.
High-rank Zombies evolved not only in intelligence and ability, but their appearances also drew steadily closer to that of humans.
Surrounded by flames, Yun Ying knew that vines were constantly trying to reach her from outside, and that Yu Yao was diverting his attention to reinforce the fire around her.
She was so hot she could barely breathe, yet she had no choice but to stay where she was.
Yu Yao didn't dare fight too far away. Glancing at Yun Ying's figure from the corner of his eye, he saw that after only a dozen or so minutes, she was nearly passing out from the smoke and heat.
This was a corridor, and Yu Yao didn't dare fire his gun, afraid that the heatwave unleashed by his ability would engulf them both. But if he didn't shoot, it would take longer to finish this.
Yu Yao kicked the zombie hard into the wall at the end of the corridor, and on his way charging toward it, he connected his earpiece. He could hear the sounds of fighting on the other end.
"How much longer do you need?"
He Fangchen snatched a moment to reply: "Ten minutes! Captain, you need to hurry—once reinforcements from the outer city arrive, it'll be tough for us to get away!"
Flames ignited on Yu Yao's fists, and he punched the zombie square in the face, caving in the side of its skull.
"You must come provide backup within ten minutes."
"Understood!"
After cutting off the connection, He Fangchen and Cheng Zainan gritted their teeth and charged out through the gunfire, fighting even more fiercely than before.
Yu Yao had just slammed the zombie into the ceiling and was about to leap up and tear out its crystal core when a gust of wind swept past from behind. His brow furrowed as a vine—somehow branched off from elsewhere—wrapped around his waist and hurled him hard against the wall.
The High-rank Zombie let out a fierce roar, skittering rapidly across the ceiling before lunging down at him.
Yu Yao's gaze turned cold. He raised his hand and summoned a wall of fire.
But faster than the fire were the thundering gunshots that rang out in a chaotic barrage. Two bullets struck the zombie—one in its arm, one in its abdomen.
They weren't enough to punch through the zombie, but the bullets did embed themselves into its flesh. The zombie's pale, murky eyes fixed on the girl enveloped in flames, and as Yun Ying stared back in shock and terror, it abandoned Yu Yao altogether and lunged straight at her.
It could tell that this girl was very important to the High-tier Ability User. Zombies knew what weaknesses were—when they couldn't defeat a strong opponent, they would seize their soft spot.
Yun Ying grabbed the gun and fired several wild shots, all the bullets grazing past the zombie. It leaped down from the ceiling and lunged at her. She could no longer hold it in—she clutched her head and screamed.
A hand reached in from the side and gripped the zombie's shoulder in a death lock. Yu Yao forcefully hurled the zombie—which had been just one step away from Yun Ying—against the wall, tossed his wristwatch to her, and said in a low voice:
"There's a magazine in your pocket. Swap it in. From now on, count eight minutes."
Yun Ying had seen Yu Yao reload before. She fumbled to insert the new magazine while keeping her eyes fixed on the watch he had thrown her.
The fight was still going over there. Yun Ying covered her nose and mouth, staring at the wristwatch. Every second, every minute felt agonizingly long.
When the eighth minute was almost up, Yun Ying hurriedly called out: "Eight minutes!"
"Run! Go back the way we came!"
The flames surrounding her vanished instantly. The High-rank Zombie seized the moment and manipulated vines to charge at her. Yun Ying didn't dare think—she turned and ran back the way she had come.
The flashlight Yu Yao had strapped to her wrist lit the way. She had never run this hard, not even for the 800-meter dash in college. She fled without daring to look back.
After confirming she had left the area, Yu Yao drew his gun one-handed. The zombie was scaling the wall, charging at him. When it was only a dozen or so steps away, Yu Yao fired.
His powerful supernatural ability wrapped around the bullets, and a cannon blast hurtled toward it. He fired several shots in succession.
The exploding shockwave swept through the entire corridor. Yun Ying had just stepped onto the deep pit Yu Yao had left earlier and climbed up to the pipe entrance when she saw the wave of fire surging up from below.
She threw herself flat. A ringing buzz filled her ears—the piercing sound waves made her head spin. She didn't know how many minutes passed before Yun Ying shook her head and could finally see clearly.
Something occurred to her. She scrambled over and looked down the pipe.
The entire corridor was covered in blast marks, with a few clusters of flames still burning. Yun Ying shouted in panic: "Yu Yao! Yu Yao!"
Her voice was hoarse. Just as she was about to climb down to find him, she saw a tall figure appear at the end of the path.
Yu Yao was clutching a crystal core in his hand. Seeing her with one leg stretched out as if about to come down, he smiled despite the bloodied scrape on his cheek.
What a little sweetheart. This really had him wrapped around her finger completely.
"Looking for me?"
Yu Yao vaulted up, hooked one arm around Yun Ying's waist, and tucked her under his elbow as he headed for the pipe ladder.
He carried the still-dazed Yun Ying onto the ladder. She grabbed hold in a daze. Her ears were still muffled, but she saw Yu Yao's lips moving—he seemed to be speaking.
Yu Yao stared at her dust-smudged face.
"You should be hoping I'm dead. After all, if I'm not dead, you're stuck with me for the rest of your life. I'm not exactly a man with a conscience."
He raised his hand—the relatively clean one—and brushed the stray hair from her temple, tucking it behind her ear. His sharp gaze fixed directly on her face. His tall frame practically trapped her in his arms.
…It was too suffocating. It reminded Yun Ying of the past.
"Yu Yao, move."
She frowned and pressed one hand against his windbreaker to push him away. The ringing in her ears was slowly fading now.
So she could clearly hear Yu Yao's words.
"Miss Yun, I've been wanting to ask since earlier—how do you know my name?"