Hearing the footsteps behind him, Gu Han glanced back at her, then turned his head again to continue watching the monitor.
His gaze was very calm so calm it was like a bottomless icy pool, revealing no emotion at all.
Jiang Lingyue walked to his side and stood next to him, her eyes also fixed on the screen.
On the screen, the middle-aged man was still tirelessly pounding on the door. His hands had already been battered until they bled, but he seemed to feel no pain.
“You bastards! Listen up, people inside!”
Perhaps because his cries for help had gone unanswered for so long, his despair began turning into anger.
“I know you’re in there! You heartless animals who watch people die without helping! You won’t die well!”
“You have food and drinks why won’t you save us?! You should be taking your supplies out and sharing them! You owe us that!”
His curses grew increasingly vicious and unbearable to hear.
The woman who had looked pitiful just moments ago was now clutching the child and glaring at the hotel door with venom in her eyes, muttering curses under her breath.
Only the old man and the teenage boy still had pure fear and despair on their faces.
Listening to those malicious insults, the last trace of pity and guilt in Jiang Lingyue’s heart was gradually replaced by cold indifference.
See?
This was human nature.
In their eyes, if you had resources if you lived better than they did then you were guilty. Your safety and your food should naturally be shared with them.
If you refused, you were selfish, heartless, a monster.
They would never think about what you had paid to obtain all of this.
They would only believe that it was your injustice.
Jiang Lingyue gave a self-mocking smile.
Just now, she had actually felt guilty for people like this. How ridiculous.
Her gaze slowly grew colder.
She turned to Gu Han beside her and asked softly, “If you were me, would you open the door?”
She didn’t know why she asked that question.
Perhaps she wanted to seek affirmation from a true powerhouse of the apocalypse.
To prove that her choice wasn’t wrong.
Gu Han was silent for a few seconds, his eyes still on the screen, before slowly speaking.
“I wouldn’t.”
His voice was low and heavy, like ice blocks colliding.
“Why?” Jiang Lingyue pressed.
“Because in the apocalypse, kindness is the most useless thing.”
Gu Han’s tone remained flat, as if he were stating the simplest fact.
“You save them, and they won’t be grateful. They’ll only think about getting more from you. When your hotel and your food are exposed in front of them, what do you think they’ll do?”
He turned his head, his dark eyes quietly looking at her.
“They’ll do everything they can to kill you… and take your place.”
His words were like a cold knife, cutting open the bloodiest truth of the apocalypse.
Jiang Lingyue’s heart completely chilled.
That’s right.
How could she forget?
In the apocalypse, the most terrifying things were never the zombies.
But the living.
“You… experienced that too?” she asked almost unconsciously.
Gu Han’s eyes flickered, but he didn’t answer. That brief silence already said everything.
To become an S-rank ability user and stand at the top among survivors, the betrayals and darkness he had experienced were probably far more than she could imagine.
At that moment, Jiang Lingyue suddenly felt that the distance between them had shortened just a little.
They were both people forced by this damned apocalypse to lock away all their kindness and innocence.
On the surveillance screen, the situation had become increasingly dire.
The zombies had already surrounded them.
The teenage boy awakened an ability while trying to protect the elderly man behind him. A small ball of fire ignited in his hand, but his level was clearly too low to stop more than a dozen zombies.
The middle-aged man was still cursing wildly, but fear had already crept into his trembling voice.
The woman screamed while retreating again and again with the child in her arms.
Soon, the first zombie broke through the boy’s weak fireball and pounced on the elderly man whose legs were too weak to run.
“Ah!”
A shrill scream rang out as blood instantly stained the ground red.
Then the second… the third…
The scene quickly turned bloody and chaotic.
Jiang Lingyue instinctively closed her eyes, unable to bear watching any longer.
But the sounds became even clearer in her ears.
Chewing noises, screams, cries for help… weaving together into a tragic song of the apocalypse.
Her stomach churned, and she felt like she might throw up.
A slightly cool hand suddenly covered her ear, blocking out all the sounds from outside.
Jiang Lingyue stiffened and abruptly opened her eyes.
Turning her head, she saw that Gu Han had somehow stepped in front of her.
He was more than a head taller than she was. Now he was slightly bending down one hand covering her ear, the other blocking her eyes.
His palm was large, carrying a cool touch, yet it unexpectedly made her wildly pounding heart gradually calm down.
“Don’t look,” his voice came from above her head.
It was still cold, but it seemed to lack the earlier distance that kept people at arm’s length.
Jiang Lingyue stared blankly at his chin so close to her face, catching the faint scent of blood on him… and a trace of cold fragrance.
She didn’t move and didn’t say anything, simply letting him block her sight and cover her ears.
No one knew how long passed before all the sounds outside finally quieted down.
Only then did Gu Han slowly lower his hands.
Jiang Lingyue looked back at the surveillance screen.
At the hotel entrance, there was only a mess of bloodstains left, along with several corpses that had been chewed beyond recognition.
The zombies were feasting on their spoils.
Everything was over.
Jiang Lingyue silently watched the scene, unable to describe what she felt.
There was no relief, no satisfaction only a heavy oppression that made it hard to breathe.
This was the apocalypse.
Real.
And cruel.
She took a deep breath, turned off the surveillance screen, and prepared to leave.
“You did the right thing.”
Gu Han’s voice came from behind her.
Jiang Lingyue paused but didn’t turn around. She only responded softly with an “Mm,” then quickly went upstairs.
She needed some time alone.
Gu Han watched her figure disappear around the stairway corner, then glanced at the now-black screen, his eyes deep and unreadable.
He walked to the main entrance and looked through the thick bulletproof glass at the zombies outside devouring the corpses.
He recalled a long time ago, when he wasn’t this powerful yet. Back then, he had once brought his companions and knocked desperately on a tightly shut door just like this.
The people inside had not opened it either.
That day, he lost all his companions.
Since then, he had understood one truth.
The only person you could rely on… was yourself.
And today, this woman named Jiang Lingyue had once again proven that truth through her actions.
She was timid, afraid of death, and even a little… naive.
But she wasn’t stupid.
At a critical moment, she could harden her heart and make the most rational and correct choice.
Only people like that could live longer in the apocalypse.
Gu Han withdrew his gaze.
For the first time, he felt a trace of genuine… recognition toward this hotel and toward this woman named Jiang Lingyue.