Where had she gone?
The virus rain was getting heavier and heavier. The pattering of rain was so loud that it nearly drowned out Lin Buyu’s sense of hearing.
Her white tracksuit was completely soaked through as she moved alone among the hordes of zombies.
Nearly half of the base had already fallen.
Where had Jiang Ran and the others gone?
Lin Buyu was getting anxious. The plot kept changing, and she was genuinely afraid that before she could change Jiang Ran’s fate, he would turn into a zombie and destroy the world.
At a time like this, she could only turn to the system for help.
“Do you know where Jiang Ran is?”
The system had bound itself to Lin Buyu specifically to change Jiang Ran’s fate and alter the ending of this world.
So when it came to anything related to Jiang Ran, it knew everything.
“He’s in the basement of the central building of the base.”
The central building of the base?
If nothing unexpected had happened, that should be the building Jiang Ran had gone to for the meeting.
Lin Buyu didn’t dare waste any time. She immediately ran toward it.
Meanwhile, in the basement of the central building—
“Fuck! Is this apocalypse seriously not going to let us live?”
Nie Fei, who was usually all smiles and jokes, couldn’t help but curse.
Just now, when they had been fighting the base’s ability users, a series of deafening thunderclaps had suddenly erupted from the sky.
Jiang Ran had been the first to sense that something was wrong and ordered them to retreat immediately.
The apocalypse was full of strange and unpredictable dangers. None of them dared to stay and fight. After taking down several ability users who had gotten too close, they immediately retreated with Jiang Ran.
They fled into the building and had barely found shelter from the rain when they heard terrified screams and frantic howls coming from behind them.
Everyone who had been caught in the rain had turned into zombies.
Even more terrifyingly, the moment the rain began, all of them lost their abilities.
It was as if they had returned to the helpless early days of the apocalypse.
Nie Fei was agitated. Su Ya trembled instinctively, while Xiao Jingcheng had lost his usual confidence and sat dejectedly in a corner.
Without their abilities, they had become the prey in this cruel world where the strong preyed on the weak.
After surviving in the apocalypse for a year, everyone knew exactly what kind of hell people without abilities had to endure.
Jiang Ran leaned his head against the wall, his dark eyes frighteningly gloomy, filled with a violent rage.
Lin Buyu…
She must have turned into a zombie too, right?
She had gone after those zombies in a direction where there was no shelter from the rain.
Su Ya suddenly burst into tears, and the sound caught Jiang Ran’s attention.
He turned to look at her.
Su Ya was sitting on the floor with her arms wrapped around her knees, her entire body trembling violently.
He remembered that Su Ya had once told him that before she awakened her ability, she had nearly fallen into the hands of a group of bandits and become their plaything.
Fortunately, she had awakened her ability in time.
Now that she could no longer sense the power of her ability, she was probably terrified.
But what about Lin Buyu?
He had always known that she was no ordinary person. Her claim that she had no ability had clearly been a lie.
She had been so bold before because she had her ability to rely on, hadn’t she?
Now that she had suddenly lost it, would she be frightened and terrified?
Or had she not even had time to become afraid before the virus rain turned her into a zombie?
He slammed his fist against the wall, then suddenly strode toward the basement exit.
The moment he moved, Xiao Jingcheng immediately stepped forward and blocked his path.
“Brother Ran, you can’t go outside to look for Lin Buyu.”
Jiang Ran raised his eyes. There was no emotion in them.
“Move. Don’t force me to attack you.”
“Even if you beat me to death, I won’t move.”
Xiao Jingcheng pushed up the black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, trying his best to keep his voice calm.
“Lin Buyu isn’t someone who can only survive in the apocalypse because of her ability. If she didn’t get caught in the rain, with her abilities, she could definitely deal with those zombies. But if she did get caught in the rain…”
He didn’t finish the sentence, but everyone understood what he meant.
Nie Fei and Su Ya looked away in sympathy.
Jiang Ran understood what Xiao Jingcheng was saying better than anyone.
He stared steadily at Xiao Jingcheng, his Adam’s apple moving unconsciously.
After a long silence, he finally said,
“I’ll deal with her myself if she’s turned into a zombie.”
That girl who was always spouting cheesy pickup lines and could make them sound sweeter than a song—not only did she love being beautiful, she was also obsessed with cleanliness.
If she really became a zombie, she would definitely want someone else to put her out of her misery.
And if she hadn’t turned into one, even better. With him there, she would have another person to rely on.
Besides, she had saved his life at the hospital.
A debt of gratitude had to be repaid.
He looked calmly at Xiao Jingcheng.
“Move.”
Xiao Jingcheng hesitated.
When he met Jiang Ran’s unwavering gaze, he eventually stepped aside.
He moved behind Jiang Ran and let him pass.
Just then, the quiet basement suddenly echoed with the sound of someone pounding on the door.
“Bang! Bang!”
Su Ya and Nie Fei, who had been sitting on the floor, immediately jumped to their feet.
Xiao Jingcheng stepped in front of Su Ya, already holding an iron rod he had picked up from the ground.
Nie Fei rushed over and stood shoulder to shoulder with Jiang Ran.
“Brother Ran, there’s a zombie.”
Jiang Ran unzipped his jacket with one hand and pulled out a short knife.
Xiao Jingcheng and Nie Fei were already prepared to fight the zombie, while Su Ya hid behind them and reached for the door.
The moment the door handle turned, the dagger in Jiang Ran’s hand shot toward the person outside.
Lin Buyu had imagined all kinds of scenarios before coming to the basement.
Being nearly assassinated the moment she arrived was the one thing she hadn’t expected.
For a moment, she even thought she had come to the wrong place.
She immediately raised her right hand to block the attack. Then, with a swift twist, she struck the attacker’s wrist with the edge of her hand, forcing him to loosen his grip on the dagger.
Lin Buyu was about to restrain him when, in the next second, the owner of that hand grabbed her arm and pulled her inside.
“Click.”
The basement lights came on.
Lin Buyu instinctively closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, she found herself staring into Jiang Ran’s dark, bottomless eyes.
“It’s you guys?”
She was surprised.
“I thought your disgusting old man was hiding in here.”
After all, someone had tried to kill her the moment she opened the door.
Su Ya had already closed the basement door.
The others stared at Lin Buyu in stunned disbelief.
“You’re okay?”
After her initial shock, Su Ya looked relieved and even a little happy.
“Thank goodness!”
Nie Fei and Xiao Jingcheng also instinctively breathed a sigh of relief.
But she had gone so far away to chase those zombies.
Had she somehow managed to avoid getting caught in the rain?
Jiang Ran’s gaze slowly swept over her from head to toe.
There wasn’t a single trace of water on her white tracksuit.
Even her hair was completely dry.
She was fine.
Before entering the building, Lin Buyu’s clothes had been almost completely soaked through.
But her body had quickly absorbed the virus rain, like a gigantic container endlessly devouring the rainwater filled with viruses.
“What happened to those zombies?” Jiang Ran asked.
His voice was unconsciously several degrees softer now, no longer as tense as it had been before he went looking for her.
Lin Buyu answered casually,
“I killed them.”
“You killed all of them?”
Nie Fei and Su Ya were shocked once again.
Those had been three extremely high-level zombies.
Lin Buyu nodded.
“They were three extremely high-level zombies, but their abilities clearly weren’t actually at that level.”
“They were high-level zombies artificially modified by humans.”
Jiang Ran finished her sentence for her.
Knowing that she was safe and that they had all reunited, everyone finally relaxed.
Xiao Jingcheng said,
“Thank goodness you’re okay. Otherwise, Brother Ran would have been worried to death.”