Lin Buyu was not someone who had spent a year surviving the apocalypse.
Before transmigrating into this world, she had been an elite special forces soldier—unwaveringly honorable, righteous to the core, and utterly unassailable in her principles.
She had been taught that all people were created equal, and that no one was born to die for another.
Because of this, hearing Jiang Ran’s words struck a painful chord within her. It felt far more jarring than hearing that scumbag earlier say the exact same thing.
She had genuinely believed that Jiang Ran was different from those with such base, callous mindsets.
Setting her chopsticks down on the table, she fixed her clear, bright eyes on Jiang Ran.
“The apocalypse stripped away the order of a civilized world,” she said. “But I believe the true cause of this world’s collapse isn’t the zombies, nor the virus. It’s this very mindset—that ordinary human beings are disposable.”
“In the face of disaster, we humans should huddle together for warmth and stand united against external threats. Having superior abilities doesn’t give anyone the right to burn, kill, loot, and disregard the feelings of others. Those without powers are fighting just as hard to survive. What gives you ability-users the right to rob them of their life and dignity? They were never meant to be meat shields for disaster.”
Though her voice was quiet, every word rang out with resolute, razor-sharp clarity.
Before the end of the world, people might have applauded her impassioned speech.
Now, they would only view her as hopelessly naive.
Jiang Ran looked at her, every trace of humor fading from his eyes.
“You ask me by what right?” he replied coldness settling in his voice. “I’ll answer you: by the right that they lack the power to fight back.”
Lin Buyu let out a dry laugh.
She slowly clapped her hands together.
“Bravo,” she said, her voice laced with sarcasm. “Excellently put. So, when Gao Changsheng was in front of me, he lacked the power to fight back against me. My intervention wasn’t poking my nose where it didn’t belong—it was just me being pissed off! Let me tell you something, Jiang Ran: I am not like the rest of you. As long as I have the strength to resist, I will keep sticking my nose into your business. I will never let evil run rampant, and I will save anyone I can. In my eyes, no one is born to be sacrificed.”
She despised one thing above all else: going with the flow of a corrupt tide.
Because so many people shared that callous mindset, the world was growing colder by the day. Yet, when facing catastrophe, human connection was the very engine that kept the world turning.
Most people were neither the main characters nor the strongest among them. Only by standing together did they stand a chance at surviving this nightmarish apocalypse.
If you turn a blind eye to the injustice inflicted on others today, no one will stand up for you when injustice visits your door tomorrow.
There was no justice in surviving a natural disaster only to be destroyed by the coldness of human nature.
If people chose not to rescue others, that was their prerogative—but they had no right to condemn those who did.
As for a lowlife like Gao Changsheng, she didn’t regret taking his life for a second. If anything, she felt she had let him off too easily. If she had been capable enough, she would have torn him apart piece by piece.
Lin Buyu accepted that different experiences shaped different worldviews. Perhaps if she had lived through a year of this desolate post-apocalyptic world herself, she too would have grown just as indifferent.
But she hadn’t. And she refused to conform to their cynical logic.
Furious, her appetite vanished completely, leaving her bowl of noodles untouched.
Jiang Ran stared at her in dead silence for a long, heavy moment.
He stared for so long that Lin Buyu began to feel deeply uncomfortable.
She raised a hand and rubbed the bridge of her nose, a sudden, horrifying realization washing over her.
Oh no. She had said way too much.
She had actually just lost her temper and snapped at Jiang Ran. Holy hell, did she have a death wish?
She was supposed to be getting close to him, reforming his morals, and stopping him from developing those world-ending tendencies!
Had she managed to offend him right at the start?
Lin Buyu felt a strange surge of panic.
She cast a guilt-ridden look toward Jiang Ran.
Jiang Ran had already lowered his head, tossing out a cold, sudden remark: “I hope you can hold on to that way of thinking.”
Lin Buyu: “?”
He wasn’t angry?
After finishing her noodles, Lin Buyu headed back upstairs to her room. Feeling increasingly powerless in her situation, a desperate urge to rapidly enhance her strength took hold of her.
Meanwhile, on the large balcony of the second floor, Jiang Ran stood alone. A cigarette rested between his fingers, its tiny cherry red ember glowing faintly in the dim light.
Cigarettes were a rare luxury in this apocalyptic wasteland.
Only someone like Jiang Ran could afford the leisure of casually grabbing a few packs while out scavenging for supplies.
Xiao Jingcheng strolled over to his side, speaking in a low voice: “You all said that delicate flower had no powers, but judging by her speed earlier, she doesn’t look helpless at all. Still, she really behaves like a sheltered little princess—actually holding on to a soft heart that wants to help others. It’s almost hilarious.”
Jiang Ran didn’t need to guess to know who the “delicate flower” referred to.
Holding the cigarette near his nose, he took a gentle whiff without inhaling.
Staring off into the distant horizon with dark, impenetrable eyes, he asked Xiao Jingcheng: “After living through a year of this apocalypse, how many times have you been betrayed?”
Xiao Jingcheng burst out laughing. “Lost count—far too many. But I awakened my powers pretty early on, so those people were dealt with long ago. You probably haven’t experienced much of that, though, Ran-ge. With powers as terrifying as yours, you must have awakened right at the very beginning of the outbreak.”
Jiang Ran brought the cigarette to his lips, taking a deep, long drag. “Yeah. Real early.”
It’s been a full year since the apocalypse started, and he only awakened three months ago.
Real fucking early.
“Do you think Lin Buyu looks like a sheltered little princess?”
Xiao Jingcheng shrugged. “Judging by her speech, she definitely sounds like one. Carrying a mindset like that in this world, she’s bound to suffer a painful lesson sooner or later.”
Jiang Ran continued smoking in silence.
Xiao Jingcheng added: “When Lin Buyu went after Zhao Peng, you were the one who stepped in to help her land the hit, right?”
Otherwise, even with all her speed, a powerless human couldn’t possibly wound an elemental user like Zhao Peng—the very man whose throat she had sliced moments ago.
Jiang Ran turned his head to cast a cold glance at Xiao Jingcheng. “I used to think you were sharp.”
Believing he had guessed correctly, Xiao Jingcheng gave a nonchalant shrug.
Jiang Ran looked away, not bothering to clarify that he actually thought he was acting pretty dense right now.
He had stepped in—but only after she had already drawn Zhao Peng’s blood.
Leaning against the railing, Xiao Jingcheng remarked: “Still, after what she did to Zhao Peng, knowing his temper and that of Team B’s leader, Xu Feiyan, they definitely won’t let this slide.”
Jiang Ran sounded completely unbothered: “If they won’t let it slide, then they die.”
The casual response caught Xiao Jingcheng off guard. He stared at Jiang Ran in disbelief: “You’re going to go to war with Team B just for her?”
“Go to war?” Jiang Ran scoffed, a dark, murderous glint flashing in the depths of his eyes. “They don’t have the right to be my enemies.”
Stepping out of the villa, Jiang Ran headed straight toward Team B’s quarters. He flicked the cigarette butt onto the ground, sending tiny sparks flying into the air.
He was in a foul mood because he despised getting involved in petty affairs.
Lin Buyu’s impassioned speech hadn’t awakened his long-buried conscience, but she had killed someone who had once inflicted brutal humiliation upon him.
Gao Changsheng.
Before Jiang Ran’s powers awakened, Gao Changsheng had broken both his legs, forcing him to drag his crippled body around and scrape by in a damp cellar for a month just to survive.
He was the very man who had taught him through brutal reality that a person without powers was meant to be trampled into the dirt.
She was lucky—she had killed someone who truly deserved death.
Yet he couldn’t help feeling deeply curious about how she had managed to command a zombie to commit murder.
She wasn’t a zombie herself; of that, he was absolute certain.
No zombie bled red, and no zombie carried a living breath.
Could her ability be psychological mind control?
Yet mental-type users could only control humans; they were completely incapable of commanding mind-shattering zombies devoid of logic and reason.