Hearing commotion downstairs, Lin Buyu trotted down to see what was happening.
Xiao Jingcheng and Su Ya had been fooling around when the sound of footsteps echoed from the staircase, prompting both of them to look up toward the origin of the noise.
A girl dressed in a white slip dress came jogging down the stairs—radiant, breathtakingly beautiful, and immaculately clean.
In an instant, the two realized that Nie Fei’s earlier description hadn’t contained a single bit of exaggeration.
This girl was far too delicate for this ruined world.
To maintain such smooth skin and pristine looks in the middle of an apocalypse meant she must have lived a life of ultimate luxury and privilege.
Could she be the cherished daughter of a leader from some major surviving base?
That was the only logical explanation they could come up with.
Yet, if someone like her possessed no real power, once she lost her protection, she would be left with no choice but to survive as a clinging dodder flower attached to a stronger host.
“Are you Lin Buyu?” Su Ya was the first to shatter the silence. Comparing herself to this girl, she had to admit that she truly was ridiculously tough by contrast.
Still, a soft, lovely girl like this was genuinely easy to like.
Lin Buyu appraised the duo opposite her, rapidly analyzing their identities.
If her memory served her right, these two were Jiang Ran’s teammates from back before the main villain developed his world-ending mentality.
The woman had to be Su Ya, known colloquially as the “Barbie Doll with Muscles”—a power-type ability user built with tight, defined muscle.
The young man wore black-rimmed glasses and possessed delicate, refined features. That was Xiao Jingcheng, whose ability functioned somewhat like the Medusa’s Gaze.
When he activated his power, he could instantly petrify any zombie or human who met his eyes.
However, he couldn’t petrify targets permanently; there was a strict time limit. Once the duration expired, the target returned to normal.
Furthermore, the stronger the opponent’s power, the shorter his petrification effect lasted—sometimes failing to work at all against high-tier entities.
Still, in a life-or-death duel, freezing an enemy for just a brief second was often all it took to settle victory and defeat.
“I’m Lin Buyu. Hello!” She greeted them with a bright, friendly smile.
Neither of these two was listed among the villain’s deadly henchmen, so she didn’t need to eliminate them.
“Hello,” Xiao Jingcheng replied, pressing his lips into a polite, gentlemanly smile.
Su Ya had a straightforward mind that didn’t mess around with subtle mind games. Skipping the meaningless pleasantries, she asked point-blank: “Are you our team leader’s bedmate?”
Ah, what a shameful yet unexpectedly thrilling title.
Lin Buyu nodded without batting an eye. “That’s right, I’m Jiang Ran’s bedmate.”
She was even more direct than Su Ya—after all, it wasn’t real anyway.
Xiao Jingcheng shot her a surprised look, instinctively pushing his glasses up his nose bridge.
In the apocalypse, even if someone became the bedmate of a powerful figure, they rarely declared it so openly and unbothered.
A bedmate was neither a wife nor a girlfriend; it didn’t belong in the category of a true partner, serving merely as an outlet for physical desire.
She truly was different.
Perhaps, just as Nie Fei had speculated, this girl wasn’t a fragile dodder flower at all, but a beautiful, lethal man-eating piranha plant.
In a wasteland like this, few had the luxury to stand around chatting nonsense, as no one ever knew when danger might strike next.
Having just returned from a mission, Xiao Jingcheng and Su Ya were both suffering from heavy energy depletion. They needed to rest and allow the crystal cores inside their bodies to replenish their drained reserves.
After brief introductions with Lin Buyu, both retreated to their respective rooms to recover.
Lin Buyu, however, had no need for sleep.
Being a zombie meant drowsiness simply didn’t exist for her.
Unable to sleep, she decided to head out for a stroll around the premises.
Yulan Base was situated deep inside a mountain basin surrounded by steep peaks on all four sides. For a post-apocalyptic shelter, the mountainous terrain provided a supreme natural defense.
After all, the dense swarms of zombies were mostly concentrated in major urban areas.
The entire perimeter of the base was ringed by towering walls, topped with high-voltage electrified barbed wire.
After all, it was already a year into the apocalypse, so everyone’s defenses were far better than when the outbreak first hit.
The entire base contained only three standalone villas, with Team A occupying an entire building to themselves.
The rest of the accommodations resembled standard apartment complexes.
Jiang Ran had left earlier during the day and had yet to return. There was no telling where he had gone.
The base also had a residential area designated for ordinary civilians.
The so-called civilians were survivors who possessed neither elemental powers nor standout vocational skills, let alone influential family ties.
Within the base, they occupied the lowest rung of status and held zero voice in matters.
Lin Buyu happened to be wandering past the front of the civilian residential block when the sound of mocking laughter and a girl’s terrified gasps caught her attention.
Turning a corner, the entire scene came into view.
Lin Buyu tilted her head slightly, peering over.
Standing there was a thoroughly repulsive man, his face practically radiating the arrogant glee of a petty villain who had suddenly lucked out.
He sported a shock of red hair, both arms covered in ink.
His left hand held a thick iron chain—the other end hitched to a leashed zombie—while his right arm tightly pinned a young girl to his side against her will.
The girl’s eyes were wide with terror; she desperately wanted to fight back, yet lacked the courage to move.
The zombie crouched on the ground like a vicious dog, letting out low, wet snarling sounds toward another man collapsed on the pavement.
His body battered and bruised, the fallen man glared up at Gao Changsheng through gritted teeth: “Gao Changsheng… bringing a live zombie into the civilian zone is a direct violation of base rules! Aren’t you afraid of the leader punishing you?”
“Hahaha! Punishment?” Gao Changsheng burst into uproarious laughter. “You honestly think the leader would punish an elemental user like me for a useless piece of trash like you? Xu San, a whole year into the apocalypse and you’re still acting so damn proud, huh? You’re nothing but a power-less, useless waste!”
Sneering, he slammed his boot down onto Xu San’s hand, crushing it against the concrete with deliberate force.
“AAAAHHH!”
The sickening crunch of breaking bones rang out as Xu San convulsed in sheer agony.
Gao Changsheng was not merely crushing his hand; he was actively channeling his wind elemental energy straight into the bone, slicing it to shreds from the inside out.
Yet even as cold sweat drenched his forehead and agony wracked his body, Xu San refused to beg for mercy.
Beside him, the girl tried to break free, only for Gao Changsheng to tighten his grip around her neck until she could barely breathe.
“I told you, move one more inch and I’ll let this zombie chew your brother to death right now! You want to see your brother turn into one of those flesh-eating corpses, too?”
“Gao Changsheng! Let go of my sister!” Xu San roared through gritted teeth, writhing in pain on the ground.
“Let her go? You’re dreaming!” Gao Changsheng grinned wickedly. “I never expected that after you two kept putting me in my place before the fall, you’d end up cowering here like pathetic rats just to survive. And now that I’ve stumbled upon you… do you really think I’d let you off easy? Ha! Not only am I going to destroy you, but I’m going to make you watch with your own eyes as I toy with your precious little sister!”
Gao Changsheng’s laughter was insufferably wild and unhinged.
Meanwhile, Lin Buyu was rapidly processing the background files supplied by the system.
Gao Changsheng—one of the main villain Jiang Ran’s future deadly henchmen.
Over the coming year, this man would frantically hunt and devour the crystal cores of other ability users, evolving into a dangerously powerful high-tier elemental user.
He would ultimately become one of the key driving forces behind the main villain’s apocalyptic destruction.
In the current timeline, Gao Changsheng had only joined Yulan Base a week ago.
Because he possessed wind elemental abilities, he had been recruited straight into the base’s elite division.
However, he had not yet come face-to-face with Jiang Ran within Yulan Base.
This exact event was designed to expose his true villainous nature in the original narrative.
Before the apocalypse, Gao Changsheng had been nothing more than a low-life street punk. Xu San and his sister, both trained in martial arts since childhood, were skilled fighters who would step in to beat Gao Changsheng up whenever they caught him harassing women or bullying others.
Then the world ended. Some awakened superpowers; others were destined to remain ordinary mortals.
Yet those who awakened powers were not necessarily capable or decent people from before the fall.
Riding on the sudden gift of superpowers, men like him leaped straight into positions of supreme authority.
In the original plot, after this chance encounter with the Xu siblings, Gao Changsheng would let the zombie bite Xu San to death before violating Xu San’s sister.
The zombie he smuggled in, along with the newly turned Xu San, would both be easily disposed of by his wind powers.
He suffered no punishment whatsoever.
Having processed the full plot regarding Gao Changsheng, Lin Buyu felt her fists clench so hard her knuckles turned white.
What a absolute low-life trash of a villain.
To think that Jiang Ran would eventually align himself with a scumbag like this was thoroughly nauseating.
The disgust even bled over into how she felt about the main villain himself.
So she needed to destroy this scum before Jiang Ran ever came into contact with him.
…But how should I take him out?
Lin Buyu furrowed her brows. If abilities weren’t involved, she could have snapped a bastard like him in two within seconds.
Now, however, he held wind powers while she had none; more importantly, she couldn’t afford to expose her own identity as a zombie, or everything would crumble.
As she was pondering with a frown, the nearby zombie let out a low, guttural snarl.
The sound instantly jolted Lin Buyu.
Right. I am the Zombie King.
Though her crystal core had been ripped away and her former powers stripped, her blood still carried a unique, potent essence for these low-tier undead.
It could drive them wild!
Lin Buyu turned sideways, pressing her back against the brick wall. Pinching her fingertip until a bead of blood welled up, she flicked the droplet with precise force straight into the open jaws of the leashed zombie while Gao Changsheng’s attention was diverted elsewhere.
The zombie had been crouched lazily, letting out weak growls.
The moment Lin Buyu’s blood hit its mouth, its milky white eyes underwent a rapid, horrifying mutation.
The dull grey color shifted to solid chalk-white before suddenly bursting into a dark, eerie, ghastly green.
As soon as its eyes shifted color, the zombie snapped its head toward Lin Buyu.
Concealed deep within the dark shadows of the bushes, Lin Buyu locked eyes with the creature—and felt a bizarre, distinct connection take hold.
She could sense that this zombie possessed a deep, instinctual terror of her.
Her initial plan had merely been to drive the zombie mad, drawing the attention of other base guards to expose Gao Changsheng for smuggling a live zombie into the civilian zone.
Yet now, the zombie hadn’t gone wild in blind fury; it had mutated into a higher form—and feared her completely.
This… is a much better development.
Lin Buyu’s lips curled into a wicked smile.
She was no soft-hearted saint.
Especially not toward repulsive trash like this.
She attempted to project a clear directive straight into the zombie’s mind.
“Tear apart the man holding your chain. Bite through his neck and don’t give him the chance to turn!”
Once the command was issued—one second, two seconds, three seconds passed…
The zombie remained motionless.
Lin Buyu blinked in doubt. Did it fail?
The thought had barely crossed her mind when, in the next instant, the chained zombie launched itself off the ground, moving at a speed so blinding it left a blur in the air.
A speed-type mutated zombie!
Gao Changsheng was still laughing hysterically when the “useless, harmless” zombie he had dragged in appeared behind his back in the blink of an eye.
With a piercing, bone-chilling roar, it sank its jagged teeth straight into his neck.
The strike was far too fast for him to react.
His eyes bulged wide in utter shock.
The sudden turn of events sent Xu San’s sister into a panicked scream. Reacting instinctively, she broke free from Gao Changsheng’s loosening grip and scrambled toward her brother.
“Brother, run! He got bitten!”
A bite from a low-tier zombie came with a incubation period of a few minutes before conversion occurred.
A bite from a mutated zombie, however, meant the toxic infection spread through the nervous system in a matter of seconds.
Before Gao Changsheng could even attempt a counterattack, his neck began to lock up in violent, irregular spasms.
Lin Buyu grinned wider. Ooh, look at him turning into a zombie.
Except… he never got the chance. Before his body could fully complete the mutation, the newly evolved green-eyed zombie snapped its jaws with brutal force, cleanly severing his neck.
With his head gone, the mutation was halted mid-process.
Lin Buyu’s target was strictly Gao Changsheng; she had no intention of letting this newly upgraded zombie pose a threat to innocent humans.
The moment Gao Changsheng’s head hit the pavement, she plucked a sharp pebble from the ground and flicked it with lethal precision straight into the green-eyed zombie’s skull.
A clean headshot was always the fastest way to end a zombie.
“Team Leader Jiang, something seems wrong over there.”
Voices echoed from the distance, accompanied by a heavy, imposing wave of raw energy unique to Jiang Ran.