The small cart shook violently, and Ling Jiujiu lost his balance, tumbling off completely.
Seeing Jiujiu’s head about to hit the ground, Lu Chen quickly caught him.
Just then, another intense explosion sounded from not far away.
Lu Chen realized there were people nearby, and that person was under attack—possibly by zombies or other humans.
Whatever it was, he had to check it out since it was so close.
If there was trouble, he could strike first; he never liked being passive.
The explosion wasn’t far, and thick black smoke billowed upward, pointing the way.
The blast would definitely attract zombies, so he needed to hurry.
Lu Chen drove with Ling Jiujiu to the vicinity of the explosion, then approached quietly on foot.
Using his Clairvoyance, he scanned the interior of the blasted building—it was littered with zombie limbs and corpses, with no survivors.
Right then, sounds of fighting and zombie howls came from the adjacent building.
Lu Chen looked up; even without Clairvoyance, he could see what was happening.
On the shattered rooftop, a person was surrounded by zombies, and one had already bitten his arm.
Ling Jiujiu, holding his head, followed behind Lu Chen. Seeing the human above being bullied by zombies, he felt a pang of pity.
“Aren’t we going to help him?” he whispered softly.
Among the humans he’d seen, some fought over food, but others helped their own kind.
Somehow, he felt Lu Chen was the latter.
Yet Lu Chen stood up and walked away without any intention of rescuing the person.
“That guy’s already been bitten. It’s no different from being dead.”
Ling Jiujiu thought to himself, weren’t you bitten too? But you didn’t die.
If there were only one or two zombies, he might have lent a hand.
He wasn’t some saint, but he couldn’t ignore another’s life either.
If everyone in the apocalypse disregarded others’ lives, he would have died long ago and wouldn’t have survived till now.
But there were just too many zombies up there. Saving the person would require using guns.
That would draw even more zombies, and he’d end up dead here too.
He could save someone, but risking his own life for a person who’d been bitten? He wasn’t that noble.
Just as Lu Chen was about to leave, another explosion erupted from the rooftop.
Hearing the blast up close, Ling Jiujiu jumped in fright. Looking up, he saw the person on the rooftop leap down.
Instinctively, Jiujiu covered his eyes, but there was no expected thud of a heavy impact.
Peeking cautiously through his fingers, he saw the person hanging from a rope in the middle of the building.
Swaying back and forth, it looked a bit like those doll wind chimes hung in supermarkets.
Zombies rained down from the roof like dumplings, while the red-haired man dangling in the middle used his core strength to swing left and right, dodging them.
The building was filled with zombies; in the windows near the man, a group of zombies pressed against the glass, howling.
The rope wasn’t long enough. Stuck in the middle, the man had zombies above, no way down, and zombies waiting hungrily in between—a complete dead end.
Watching the man suspended mid-building, Lu Chen’s expression shifted slightly.
That person, that flashy red hair… why did it look so familiar?
It couldn’t be. That guy should be at Sea Serpent Base right now. How could he possibly be here?
Though he thought so, Lu Chen still moved closer to take a look.
It was indeed him!
Why had Xu Jie come here alone? This place was miles away from the Sea Serpent Base—even searching for supplies wouldn’t bring him this far.
The top priority now was to rescue him from the zombies.
But due to the earlier explosion, the entire building was swarming with zombies—dozens of them by the looks of it. There was no way he could break through.
Xu Jie, perhaps also feeling hopeless, pulled out the knife from his waist, intending to cut the rope tied around him.
Seeing this, Lu Chen didn’t care if there were zombies around and quickly called out to Xu Jie above.
“Xu Jie, hold on a little longer!”
Xu Jie froze for a moment—had he just heard Boss Lu’s voice?
When death was near, hallucinations were bound to happen.
“Watch out above!”
Xu Jie jolted and quickly dodged the zombie falling from above.
Only then did he realize that what he’d heard wasn’t a hallucination.
He hurriedly looked down—it really was Boss Lu!
“Boss Lu! I knew you weren’t dead!”
Lu Chen was speechless: “I’m not dead, but you’re about to be!”
Xu Jie laughed, looking down at Lu Chen: “With you here, Boss Lu, I won’t die that easily.”
Lu Chen had no time for idle talk. More and more zombies were approaching, and if this continued, there would be no turning back.
“You want to save him?” Ling Jiujiu popped up to ask.
Only then did Lu Chen remember the little half-zombie, Ling Jiujiu. Zombies wouldn’t harm him, so sending him up with a rope shouldn’t be a problem.
“Jiujiu, can you do me a favor?”
Lu Chen took a climbing rope from his storage space and handed it to Ling Jiujiu: “Go into this building and give him the rope.”
Ling Jiujiu hesitated: “What if he hits my head?”
Others only wanted to hit his head or send him off to be dissected for research. Only Lu Chen would protect his head.
“He won’t. He wouldn’t dare,” Lu Chen said.
Ling Jiujiu nodded—he trusted Lu Chen.
“Then I’m off.”
The building’s entrance had been blown apart by Xu Jie’s bomb, leaving only a small hole to squeeze through.
Fortunately, Ling Jiujiu was small and thin, just barely able to squeeze through.
Ling Jiujiu wriggled his butt, trying hard to squeeze into the hole, but the opening was smaller than he’d imagined. He got stuck halfway, unable to move forward or backward.
“Lu Chen, I’m stuck. Help me,” Ling Jiujiu cried out helplessly.
Lu Chen looked at Ling Jiujiu’s stuck butt: “…”
Though the little guy had hardly any meat on him, his little buttocks were unexpectedly round and plump.
Perky, even.
Lu Chen: “!”
What on earth was he thinking?!
Lu Chen shook his head vigorously, as if trying to shake off those messy thoughts.
He went over and pushed Ling Jiujiu’s buttocks, but he didn’t dare use too much force, afraid of hurting the delicate young master.
Ling Jiujiu could feel Lu Chen pushing him, but the push was so gentle that he didn’t budge at all.
Ling Jiujiu: “Push harder.”
Lu Chen: “…”
Soon enough, Ling Jiujiu was pushed through by his buttocks.
After getting up, Ling Jiujiu rubbed his buttocks, feeling as if they’d been flattened.
Putting that aside, he took the rope and, following Lu Chen’s directions, made his way to the floor where Xu Jie was.
Ling Jiujiu wasn’t afraid of zombies, but climbing thirteen floors in one go nearly took half his life.
He panted heavily as he crawled into the room, where the zombies inside heard the noise and turned their gazes toward him.
Although Ling Jiujiu couldn’t understand their speech, the way they looked at him seemed to say: “Bro, how did you end up in such a sorry state?”