“Why would he come begging to join us? He seems to be living quite comfortably inside that strange city,” Lin Mancha said. “I saw him rescue several people before. He’s probably coming to save us this time.”
“If he really is here to rescue us, should we follow him to that city?” asked the woman who had first spotted Xiao Yi. “He looks incredibly strong. We may have a much better chance of surviving if we go with him.”
“Submit to him? In his dreams!” Shen Jiabin declared arrogantly. “He can join us, but only if he agrees to obey my every command!”
The thought of submitting to a loser he despised was worse than death to a proud man like him. In his mind, only someone as noble and perfect as himself deserved to lead.
He alone could command others.
No one had the right to command him.
Meanwhile, Xiao Yi had already reached the gymnasium.
All of Shen Jiabin’s guesses about his purpose were nothing but jokes.
Xiao Yi did not care whether the survivors on the roof lived or died. He had come to the gymnasium for one simple reason: to find a few mutated zombies.
Nothing more.
He found a raised platform outside the building and rested briefly while surveying the structure. The gymnasium stood roughly nine meters tall and had a simple rectangular design.
Xiao Yi had visited it several times before the apocalypse and still remembered its basic layout.
The hulking mutated zombie he had seen previously had last appeared in the corridor leading from the third floor to the rooftop.
Unless something unexpected had happened, it should still be there.
Xiao Yi did not know whether any other special zombies lurked inside. For now, that hulking zombie was his primary target.
Of course, he would be delighted if he encountered several more along the way.
After drinking some water and resting for a moment, Xiao Yi picked up his Mo blade and cautiously approached the gymnasium.
It was noon, and few zombies remained in the large plaza outside. Those that did were sluggish beneath the sunlight. Xiao Yi expended little effort reaching a wall with a drainage pipe running up its side.
He slung the Mo blade across his back and began climbing.
“Hey, brat! What are you trying to do?”
Xiao Yi had climbed only halfway when several heads appeared over the edge of the roof and stared down at him warily.
They belonged to Shen Jiabin, Tang Jingyan, and the others who had been observing him.
Xiao Yi raised his expressionless face toward them, then continued climbing without offering the slightest response.
There was no love without reason in this world, and no hatred without reason either.
Xiao Yi considered himself a villain, but he was not so deranged that he would slaughter innocent people without cause.
As long as these people did not provoke him, he could not be bothered with them.
“Hey! I’m talking to you! Are you deaf?” Shen Jiabin shouted angrily. “You aren’t welcome here! Climb any higher and don’t blame us for getting rough!”
He brandished a baseball bat over the edge of the roof as he spoke.
“If you want to come up and join us, hand over your food and water,” Gu Fanghua added with insufferable superiority. “Then we might agree to take you in.”
The two had planned their approach in advance: one would threaten Xiao Yi while the other tempted him with acceptance. They intended to use the domineering authority they had cultivated on the basketball team to subdue Xiao Yi and make him work for them.
Xiao Yi glanced coldly at Shen Jiabin once more. Then he rapidly climbed to the third-floor corridor and leaped through the opening.
His unexpected behavior left Shen Jiabin and the others dumbfounded.
They had already prepared to negotiate with him, never imagining that he would ignore them completely and jump directly into a corridor filled with zombies.
What was he trying to do?
“Look! He’s killing the zombies!”
“He really did come to rescue us! He must be clearing the lower floors so he can take us back to his city!”
Tang Jingyan leaned over the edge to watch the third-floor corridor and cried out excitedly.
“He’s merely demonstrating his abilities so he’ll have more leverage when he asks to join us,” Shen Jiabin declared with smug certainty. “It won’t help him. If he wants a place in our group, he must obey me. I’m the only one capable of leading everyone through the apocalypse!”
“But he has that blade, and judging by the way he fights, he’s extremely strong,” Zhuang Qiang said, narrowing his eyes. “We may not be able to defeat him.”
His gaze turned colder.
“Perhaps he isn’t here to save us at all. Perhaps he wants something we have.”
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