Jiang Ran opened his eyes and looked at her, his dark gaze searching as if trying to peer into the deepest recesses of her soul.
With the crisis escalating, how could Lin Buyu possibly spare a second to ponder what he was thinking?
Without a word, her slender hand flashed out, snatching the rifle resting on the front console right out from under Nie Fei’s nose. Grasping the edge of the roof, she vaulted through the window and onto the top of the vehicle in a single fluid motion.
The move was fast, seamless, and completely effortless—as if she had practiced it thousands of times before.
Raising the rifle and aiming it straight at the approaching mutants, she shouted down at Xiao Jingcheng: “Xiao Jingcheng, get out here! Use your Medusa’s Gaze!”
During the earlier chaos inside the hospital, Xiao Jingcheng had already revealed his petrification ability in front of her, so he didn’t stop to question her instructions.
Scrambling out of his driver’s seat and crouching low on the roof of his own car, he called out through the roaring wind: “My ability can only freeze green-eyed mutants for a few seconds! Against these blue-eyed monsters, it might not even hold for a single second!”
The blue-eyed mutants were closing in at a terrifying speed. Flipping the safety off with a sharp click, Lin Buyu assumed a flawless firing stance and answered with cool composure: “0.1 seconds is all I need.”
Xiao Jingcheng had never heard anyone make such an arrogant claim in his entire life.
These mutants were moving so fast they were practically teleporting. Did she even realize what a 0.1-second freeze meant?
It was practically nothing.
Still, he followed her lead, unleashing his petrifying gaze on the blue-eyed beasts sprinting toward them.
There were zombies everywhere—closing in from both front and rear.
Lin Buyu squatted on the vehicle’s hood. Inside the cab, Nie Fei and Su Ya watched her with bated breath, their nerves stretched to the breaking point.
Meanwhile, Jiang Ran’s gaze remained fixed on her, dark and unreadable.
Xiao Jingcheng repeatedly activated his ability, targeting every monster charging into view.
Yet 0.1 seconds was so fleeting, and the mutants were moving so fast, that the instantaneous freeze offered virtually no opening for an attack.
And yet, Lin Buyu took the shot anyway.
The moment Xiao Jingcheng triggered his power, before he could even register the exact fraction of a second the creatures froze, a rapid succession of gunshots echoed through the air: Bang! Bang! Bang!
One bullet, one head.
No matter how formidable a mutant was, a precise headshot guaranteed a instant end.
Xiao Jingcheng watched in absolute awe as the terrifying creatures collapsed one after another in rapid succession.
He snapped his head toward Lin Buyu. The howling wind tossed her long hair wildly across her face, making her soft, delicate side profile appear strikingly cold and lethal.
It wasn’t just Xiao Jingcheng; everyone inside the car was staring at her in shock.
“Why are you looking at me? Look at the zombies!” After blowing open another mutant’s head, Lin Buyu barked out a quick order to Xiao Jingcheng.
She had to admit, his Medusa’s Gaze was a remarkably handy support power.
Paired with a sharpshooter like her, it was the ultimate combination.
Give her a gun, and she felt completely in control.
Her godlike marksmanship left everyone thoroughly stunned.
Naturally, the first five targets she eliminated were the ungrateful blue-eyed monsters—the ones that had consumed her blood and dared to rebel against her control.
With those threats eliminated, Lin Buyu immediately dropped back down inside the cab and yelled at Nie Fei: “Drive! Go, go, go!”
Rifle still in hand, she leaned half her body out the window, casually picking off the remaining mutated zombies one headshot at a time.
Su Ya wasn’t idling either; transforming her arms into massive metallic fists, she crushed any zombie that managed to leap close to the vehicle.
In the open terrain, the mutants’ differing speeds meant only the fastest could keep pace with the cars. Instead of swarming them all at once like they had in the narrow hospital hallways, the creatures leaped up in manageable waves, making them far easier to handle.
Nie Fei and Xiao Jingcheng focused entirely on flooring the gas pedals.
Jiang Ran was still completely paralyzed. Sitting in the back seat alongside Lin Buyu, he watched as her body leaned halfway out the window, her long hair whipping back in the wind toward him.
Staring at her long hair, a bizarre impulse welled up in the depths of his chest.
He wanted to touch her hair.
She was just as he had suspected—a formidable powerhouse hiding her true strength.
From the very first moment he laid eyes on her, watching her limp on the ground and pleading pitifully for mercy, he had known she was acting, putting on a front of weakness.
Her sole reason for playing the helpless damsel was to gain entry into Yulan Base.
As it happened, he held no particular affection for Yulan Base either, so he had simply pushed the boat along with the current and brought her in.
He was even secretly looking forward to watching her bring Yulan Base down.
After all, he was lazy and hated dealing with tedious troubles.
Minutes turned into hours, and the vehicles gradually left the chasing horde far behind.
Dusk was fast approaching.
In their frantic bid to outrun the swarm, their path had veered hopelessly off course, and the fuel tanks were practically running on fumes.
Fortunately, having completely cleared the urban perimeter, they finally pulled into an obscure, quiet little town.
The crew climbed out of the vehicles one by one.
Feeling the sheer relief of surviving against all odds, Xiao Jingcheng looked toward Lin Buyu, who was still inside the car, and remarked to Nie Fei: “If it weren’t for Lin Buyu, we’d all be toast right now.”
Nie Fei glanced back, noticing Lin Buyu’s eyes were closed as if she were fast asleep.
He let out a long, heavy sigh. “The stronger she turns out to be, the clearer it gets that her motives for joining Yulan Base aren’t pure.”
After all, why would someone so shockingly powerful willingly submit to another base just to play a bedmate?
Xiao Jingcheng adjusted his black-rimmed glasses, a faint smile touching his handsome face. “Yulan Base never saved our lives—but Lin Buyu just did.”
In the wasteland, finding a stable base to call home was no easy task.
Yet with their level of strength, they would easily be core members no matter which base they chose to join.
They had nothing to fear.
Nie Fei instantly caught Xiao Jingcheng’s drift. If Lin Buyu ever decided to move against Yulan Base, the absolute worst they’d have to do was join the fray.
Besides, they had long grown sick of a place like Yulan Base and a leader like theirs anyway.
“You’re right. Lin Buyu saved our skin, and a life-debt is something you pay back with your own life if it comes down to it. I just never expected a supposed clingy vine to be this terrifyingly strong. What do you think she was actually doing up there during those few minutes she led the swarm away?”
They had all guessed she wasn’t a delicate flower, but none of them had anticipated her being this formidable.
Her absolute composure in the face of absolute horror, coupled with her razor-sharp, flawless marksmanship, spoke volumes about her true capability.
More importantly, she didn’t give off the vibe of someone who had simply gained a sudden power-up from the apocalypse—she felt like someone who had been lethal all along.
Crossing her arms over her chest, Su Ya listened intently to their analysis before chiming in with her own conclusion: “Leave it to you men to assume her goals are some grand, world-shaking conspiracy.”
Huh?
Both men turned to stare at her.
Su Ya jutted her chin toward the vehicle, signaling for Nie Fei and Xiao Jingcheng to look at the two sitting inside. “As far as I’m concerned, Lin Buyu’s true objective has been Ran-ge all along.”
Even if it wasn’t romantic love…
It was definitely Ran-ge!
Having witnessed Lin Buyu’s lethal prowess, Nie Fei and Xiao Jingcheng naturally refused to believe someone like her could genuinely be a love-addled hopeless romantic.
They simply wrote Su Ya’s perspective off as naive.
Nie Fei’s mouth twitched. “Don’t tell me you actually buy that she fell for our Ran-ge at first sight?”
Inside the car, blissfully unaware of the debate outside, Lin Buyu was leaning practically flush against Jiang Ran, casually laying on the cheesy lines: “See, Group Leader? I told you my life wasn’t just useless garbage! Didn’t it come in handy when it mattered most? I literally blocked zombies for you! Aren’t you moved?”