Gu Han regained consciousness in a warmth he hadn’t felt in a long time.
There was no bone-piercing cold, no omnipresent stench of decay, and no zombies roaring in his ears.
The surroundings were almost eerily quiet.
His eyes snapped open, and a beastlike vigilance instantly burst forth from his pitch-black pupils.
What came into view was a spotless white ceiling and a ceiling lamp emitting a soft glow.
A lamp?
The thought made his heart tighten.
Five years into the apocalypse, the global power grid had long collapsed. Aside from a few large survivor bases that could barely maintain partial electricity with generators, where could such steady and bright lighting possibly exist?
He struggled to sit up, but his entire body ached with weakness. The slightest movement sent tearing pain through his chest.
Lowering his head, he realized he was lying on a soft, comfortable bed, covered with a clean white blanket.
The tattered combat uniform he had been wearing was gone, replaced by a loose cotton hospital gown. And the wounds that had once been fatal were now mostly healed, leaving only shallow scars behind.
How… was that possible?
He clearly remembered being ambushed by a rare A-class mutated zombie, which then attracted a zombie horde. He had fought his way through them, already at the end of his strength.
In the end, he had exhausted every last drop of his ice ability just to kill the “runner” zombie outside the hotel before collapsing unconscious.
He had been certain he would die.
Yet now, not only was he alive he was lying in a place that was… impossibly clean.
There was no smell of blood or mildew in the air, only a faint scent of disinfectant. The bedsheets beneath him were soft and dry, carrying the subtle smell of sunlight.
Where exactly was this place?
Some secret medical center of a survivor base? Or perhaps the private refuge of some powerful figure?
Either way, as an outsider, there was no way he would be treated this well.
Something unusual must be going on.
The suspicion in Gu Han’s eyes deepened. Quietly, he gathered the last trace of ice ability left in his body and condensed it into a nearly invisible ice needle in his palm, ready to deal with any sudden danger.
Just then, the door to the medical room clicked open.
Someone entered.
It was a woman.
She looked young around twenty years old. She wore a simple white T-shirt and jeans. Her face was clean, and although her hair was a bit messy, it was clearly washed.
In the apocalypse, a woman who could maintain such cleanliness was already something extremely unusual.
She was holding a tray with a cup of water on it.
Had she saved him?
Gu Han did not relax his guard. He simply looked at her coldly, his gaze sharp as a blade.
The newcomer was Jiang Lingyue.
She had been eavesdropping outside for quite a while. When she heard no movement inside, she finally gathered the courage to push the door open and check. The moment she stepped in, she met Gu Han’s icy stare.
Good lord that look nearly made her drop the cup in her hand.
As expected of an S-class powerhouse. Even severely injured, his aura was terrifying.
Jiang Lingyue silently encouraged herself: Don’t be scared! This is your territory! You have the system! You can erase him!
Thinking that way, her back straightened a little.
She tried to look calm, imitating the powerful figures she’d seen on TV. Curling her lips, she gave what she believed was a mysterious smile.
“You’re awake?”
Her voice wasn’t loud, but it sounded especially clear in the quiet room.
Gu Han didn’t reply. He simply stared at her, his black eyes filled with scrutiny and investigation. He was assessing her her strength and the level of danger she posed.
Yet the result of that assessment only confused him further.
The woman before him showed no sign of any ability fluctuations. Her breathing was steady, her limbs slender. She looked like the most ordinary survivor perhaps even weaker than most.
An ordinary person?
Could an ordinary person possess such a mysterious and secure place? Could she easily heal the severe injuries of an S-class ability user like him?
Impossible.
The only explanation was that she was hiding her strength extremely well or that she had an incredibly powerful backing.
“Who are you? And where is this place?” Gu Han finally spoke. His voice was hoarse from dehydration, but the cold vigilance in his tone remained.
Here it comes the classic three questions.
Jiang Lingyue had prepared for this. She walked over and sat on the chair beside the bed, placing the water cup on the bedside table and trying to sound casual.
“My name is Jiang Lingyue. I’m the owner of this hotel.”
She paused, lifted her chin, and looked at him as she spoke word by word:
“As for this place… you can call it an ‘Apocalypse Safehouse.’ Welcome, my first… tenant.”
“Hotel owner?” Gu Han frowned, clearly not believing her.
He knew this hotel. Before the apocalypse, it had been a landmark building in the city. But it had been abandoned for five years full of dust and rats. How could it possibly have an “owner”?
“Tenant?” he sharply caught the other key word.
“Yes, tenant.” Jiang Lingyue nodded. Though she felt a bit nervous inside, she maintained a calm facade. “I saved you. So in return, you need to stay here and work for me using your labor to pay your rent and medical fees.”
She thought her logic was flawless.
However, after hearing her words, Gu Han’s gaze turned even colder.
Work for her? Pay rent?
It sounded more like a disguised form of imprisonment.
After a brief silence, he suddenly moved without warning!
A sharp ice spike instantly formed in his hand and shot forward like lightning, stabbing straight toward Jiang Lingyue’s throat!
He wanted to test her.
To test the truth of this place and the woman’s hidden trump cards.
“Ah!”
Jiang Lingyue screamed in terror, freezing in place as she watched the ice spike rapidly enlarge in her vision. Her mind went completely blank.
She forgot the system. Forgot the erasure ability.
Only one thought remained: I’m dead!
But just one second before the ice spike touched her skin, something unexpected happened.
An invisible transparent barrier suddenly appeared in front of her.
Clang!
With a crisp sound, the ice spike strong enough to pierce steel hit the barrier as if it had struck an indestructible wall. It shattered instantly, dissolving into tiny ice crystals that vanished in the air.
Gu Han’s pupils shrank sharply.
This was…
Before he could react, a powerful electric current surged from the bed, shooting through his entire body!
Crackle.
“Ugh!”
Gu Han groaned as his body convulsed violently. The numbing pain drained the little strength he had just recovered, and he collapsed heavily back onto the bed.
Tenant Gu Han has performed an attack against the host, violating Hotel Safety Rule #1. Level-one electric shock punishment administered.
The system’s mechanical voice echoed in Jiang Lingyue’s mind.
She was still sitting stiffly in the chair, her heart pounding wildly. It took a long moment before she finally came back to her senses.
She… she wasn’t dead?
She looked down at herself completely unharmed. Then she glanced at Gu Han on the bed, his face now even paler from the electric shock. Only then did she realize the system had intervened.
The fear of narrowly escaping death was instantly replaced by burning anger.
This bastard!
She had saved him and treated his wounds, and the moment he woke up he tried to kill her?
An ungrateful wolf!
Jiang Lingyue trembled with rage. She suddenly stood up, pointed at Gu Han, and shouted angrily:
“What the hell is wrong with you?! Do you have a death wish?! Believe it or not, I can kill you right now!”
It was the first time in five years since arriving in the apocalypse that she had yelled at someone so loudly.
She was truly furious.
Meanwhile, the shock inside Gu Han’s heart was hundreds no, thousands of times stronger than hers.
That barrier just now… and that electric shock…
He was certain those were not abilities. They were something he had never seen before something that transcended abilities.
A power belonging to rules.
Inside this room, inside this hotel, there seemed to exist an invisible set of rules.
And the one who controlled those rules…
His gaze slowly fell on the woman standing there with her hands on her hips, her cheeks flushed red with anger.
Her?
This seemingly fragile, ordinary girl actually controlled such terrifying power?
Just what kind of place was this hotel and what kind of person was this woman?