“What about Xu Wei and that Lin Yao?” Han Chao asked.
“Send them to the base. We can’t possibly keep dragging them along forever.” From the very beginning, Pei Huaiye hadn’t intended to send them to the base, but he had been entrusted with a secret mission by the higher-ups—something even close confidants like Han Chao and Xu Sui didn’t know about.
“And her…” Han Chao pointed at Ning Ran.
“Her?” Pei Huaiye smiled. “Keep her around to play with. She’s carefree and good for relieving stress.”
Protecting a little idiot was still well within the limits of his abilities.
“Wild-ge, you’ve really changed. You’re completely different from before.” The old Pei Huaiye had been not only a workaholic, but also a love-brain. Now, he approached everything with his own clear plans, which greatly surprised Han Chao.
Not far away, Ji Hengyuan and his group finished off the last zombie and walked over toward them with broad smiles.
“See that? The capabilities of Ji Hengyuan and the others have improved quite a bit compared to when we first met,” Han Chao said, leaning against the front of the car.
“I’ve always known their potential, which is why I stepped in to save them. If they had run into Shen Shuhe first in this life, they probably would have ended up standing against us long ago,” Pei Huaiye snapped open a lighter and lit a cigarette with a snap.
“Well, Wild-ge, smoking too much is bad for you. How about leaving them to me?” Han Chao was more than willing to take on that harm for Pei Huaiye.
“Such ambition. If you want them, just take them—it’s not like we don’t have any…” Pei Huaiye pulled two packs of cigarettes from his spatial storage and tossed them to Han Chao: “Smoke them sparingly; after all, nobody is manufacturing this stuff anymore.”
Just as Han Chao was about to speak, he watched in horror as Ning Ran ran toward a zombie. The creature was wearing a Lolita dress, and had her behavior not been so bizarre, she would have looked just like a normal person from any angle.
“What’s wrong?” Seeing his abnormal reaction, Pei Huaiye turned his head and saw Ning Ran approaching the creature. He was so shocked that his cigarette dropped straight to the ground.
“Little idiot, get back!” He hadn’t even realized that his voice had changed.
Ning Ran walked step by step toward the woman in the Lolita dress, whose face was pale and eyes flushed with an abnormal, blood-red hue.
“Are you hungry?” She didn’t seem to sense anything abnormal about the other person.
The woman stared at her with a bizarre expression, closing in on her bit by bit…
Right at that moment, Pei Huaiye lunged forward swiftly, grabbed Ning Ran’s arm, and yanked her backward.
At the same time, the bizarre woman began launching an attack on the two of them. It wasn’t a physical attack, but a mental one.
Pei Huaiye felt a sharp, splitting headache wash over him, and in the next second, he felt as though he were under mind control, involuntarily stepping forward to offer himself up to her.
“You’re not allowed to touch Brother,” Ning Ran spoke up, instantly shattering the mental control.
In the very next second, Pei Huaiye bound the bizarre woman tightly with vines, leaving her completely unable to move.
“Han Chao!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.
Understanding instantly, Han Chao immediately channeled his Lightning superpower, preparing to blast the creature to pieces.
“Brother, she said she can summon zombies and control human minds.” The moment the lightning struck down, Ning Ran spoke up.
Han Chao’s Lightning superpower swerved off course, cracking open a scorched gash in the ground.
Fortunately, Pei Huaiye’s vines were sturdy enough that the target couldn’t escape no matter how hard she tried.
“You can converse with her?” Pei Huaiye asked.
Ning Ran nodded: “She’s the one who called out to me! She said she was so, so hungry and wanted to eat something…”
“Wild-ge, what kind of freak is this? Why does it look so bizarre?” Han Chao didn’t even dare to look into the woman’s eyes—they were blood-red, enough to give anyone goosebumps.
“A Psychic zombie, capable of controlling humans and making them walk right into her hands,” Pei Huaiye answered calmly.
Normally, Psychic zombies like this weren’t supposed to emerge until half a year later—why were they starting to appear now? Could it be that his rebirth had altered the original timeline?
“Leaving this thing around is useless; better finish it off, otherwise it’ll end up harming more people.” As Han Chao spoke, he channeled his Lightning superpower and struck down directly upon the bizarre woman. This time, he used 100% of his power, blasting her directly into dust and leaving not a single trace behind.
At this, Ning Ran even felt a hint of regret—the woman’s dress had looked quite nice.
Hearing this, Pei Huaiye’s mouth twitched slightly: The creature wanted your life, yet all you had eyes for was her dress?
When Ji Hengyuan and the others walked over, the situation here had already been completely handled.
As a result, they only witnessed the scene of Han Chao unleashing his superpower.
“Boss, Chao-ge, what’s going on?” Xu Sui asked.
“A Psychic superpower—almost killed the little idiot,” Han Chao replied.
“Psychic zombies rely primarily on their eyes at first; as long as someone catches a glimpse of their eyes, nine times out of ten they get controlled. A zombie that shouldn’t have appeared until half a year from now has shown up ahead of time—we have no choice but to handle this with extreme caution.” Putting the off-road vehicle away into his space, Pei Huaiye led the group into a clean building nearby.
After a brief cleanup, the group prepared to spend the night here.
“Boss, Xu Sui and I will take the first half of the night, while Ji Hengyuan’s group takes the second half, taking turns to rest,” Han Chao proposed.
“Wild-ge, how do we counter this kind of Psychic zombie then? We can’t just obediently deliver ourselves to them as a buffet, right?” Xu Sui asked.
“There’s no other way. In my past life, plenty of people died in the mouths of Psychic zombies. Unless your own willpower is exceptionally strong…” Pei Huaiye had also encountered a Psychic zombie in his past life and had nearly lost his life to it.
Regarding this, he had no better suggestions to offer.
“Tch, I’ll put on a pair of sunglasses; I refuse to believe this thing can still control me through shades.” From somewhere, Han Chao fished out a pair of sunglasses and put them on his face, looking rather like a mafia boss.
Ji Hengyuan smiled and said, “That’s actually a pretty good method—much better than acting like a fool and delivering goods straight to your doorstep.”
The remark cracked a smile out of everyone.
In the middle of the night, even the sentries grew drowsy, but a few cries of crows snapped them awake, heightening their vigilance once more.
Fortunately, the night passed without incident. The moment dawn broke, Pei Huaiye urged everyone back on the road to return to Huacheng.
They were now only half a day away from Huacheng; setting off early meant they could return to the villa before noon.
Han Chao and Xu Sui were both in agreement—after all, the longer they stayed outside, the higher the probability of encountering danger.
Driving toward Huacheng, as they passed through a town, they spotted a group of humans surrounded by zombies.
Without a second thought, Pei Huaiye had Han Chao and the others lend a helping hand.
Vines bound the zombies’ limbs to halt their movements, while Han Chao and Xu Sui unleashed their superpowers directly, wiping them out without leaving a single one behind.
Though his capabilities were limited, Ji Hengyuan wasn’t sitting idle either.
Across the entire team, only Ning Ran was a bystander.
When the people inside finally broke out of the encirclement, Pei Huaiye realized it was Shen Shuhe and her group.
Their original team of seven or eight people was now cut down to half; Shen Shuhe, Zhou Xu, and the others looked thoroughly wretched.
“Huaiye, I knew you’d come save me.” Crying, Shen Shuhe tried to throw herself into Pei Huaiye’s arms, but was beaten to the punch by Ning Ran, who buried her head straight into the man’s chest instead.
“Hmph, if I’d known it was you guys, why would I have bothered wasting my effort?” Holding Ning Ran with one arm, Pei Huaiye spoke coldly.
Shen Shuhe’s sobbing stuck in her throat, her expression turning one of disbelief: “If you had known it was me, you wouldn’t even be willing to save me…”
She hadn’t expected him to be so angry with her.
“Huaiye, when I saw you enter the base, I decided to head back to Huacheng to wait for you. I never expected we’d run into a zombie horde…” With lingering fear written across her face, Shen Shuhe took a step forward and pleaded, “Please don’t abandon me, okay? There’s really nothing going on between Zhou Xu and me.”