“Kill me!”
Qin Yueming spoke with complete determination.
Lin Mingmei stared at him blankly for two full seconds, her thoughts turning into a chaotic mess.
This man looked tall, strong, and perfectly healthy. What a pity his brain seemed completely broken.
“Kill me. I know you can do it,” Qin Yueming continued urgently. “If you ever meet my comrades in the future, please give them my military ID…”
Lin Mingmei became even more speechless.
Had his body survived the zombie virus, only for his brain to fail from the fever?
If she actually killed him and later handed his military ID to his fellow soldiers, would that not amount to delivering herself straight to her execution?
Everyone knew soldiers valued their brothers-in-arms more than anything else.
Without hesitation, Lin Mingmei shoved the military ID back into his pocket.
Qin Yueming immediately became anxious.
“Please… I was bitten by one of those monsters. I probably won’t survive…”
The image of the girl he had rescued suddenly mutating into a flesh-eating monster flashed through his mind. She had nearly harmed innocent people.
He would rather die than become one of those creatures.
More importantly, if he transformed, the girl standing before him would be in danger too.
“Kill me… hurry…”
Even speaking had become difficult for him. His bloodshot eyes looked so red they seemed on the verge of bleeding.
Lin Mingmei reached out and pressed a hand against his forehead.
It was scorching hot.
“You won’t turn into a zombie,” she said calmly while looking directly at him. “You definitely won’t.”
Qin Yueming felt both stunned and strangely moved.
This girl was trying to comfort him.
But she clearly had no idea how horrifying infected people could become.
Suddenly, he gathered enough strength to grab her hand tightly.
Her hand was small, slender, and slightly cool.
Holding it in his burning palm felt unexpectedly comforting.
He wanted to tell her that he absolutely refused to become one of those monsters. Even if he had to die, he wanted to preserve the dignity of a soldier.
Unfortunately, Lin Mingmei gave him no opportunity to speak.
She quickly covered his mouth and gestured for silence before tilting her head to listen carefully.
Through the sound of heavy rain, frantic screams echoed from somewhere nearby.
Someone had apparently gone outside and attracted the zombies.
And the disturbance was dangerously close.
If Qin Yueming continued making noise, the half-open shutter door would never keep the zombies out.
Lin Mingmei hesitated briefly before leaning close to his ear and whispering softly, “Trust me. You won’t die, and you won’t become a zombie. But this place isn’t safe. The shutter isn’t fully closed. I’ll help you move into the storage room. It’ll be safer there.”
Qin Yueming’s entire body burned with fever, leaving him completely weak.
Yet her words somehow reignited his will to survive.
Supporting each other, the two staggered toward the back storage room.
The dim flashlight illuminated the cramped space.
Qin Yueming vaguely noticed the storage room was completely empty. In his dazed state, he briefly wondered why the pharmacy had no backup stock at all.
But the thought vanished immediately.
He no longer had the strength to think.
The moment they entered the room, he collapsed heavily onto the floor.
Lin Mingmei jumped in alarm.
After checking him quickly, she discovered he had merely fainted again.
When the apocalypse arrived, countless people transformed into zombies, while only a tiny number awakened superpowers.
Every superpower user had to survive a brutal, life-threatening fever.
And the number of people who died during the process was far greater than the number who succeeded.
Lin Mingmei had no idea whether Qin Yueming would survive.
She sighed softly and sat down beside him, hugging her knees tightly while mourning her ruined plan to gather supplies.
Was saving a stranger really worth the risk?
Hadn’t she sworn never to save anyone again?
It felt as though two tiny figures were fighting inside her mind.
One black.
One white.
The black figure questioned her fiercely.
Why risk yourself for someone else?
The white figure argued back stubbornly.
Helping him only took a little effort. Besides, he isn’t an ordinary person, he’s a soldier.
The black figure immediately fell silent.
Lin Mingmei hugged her knees tighter as memories from her previous life resurfaced.
When the zombie virus first erupted, the university had been packed with people.
That also meant an overwhelming number of zombies.
At first, the surviving students tried helping one another.
But soon everyone became selfish and divided into small factions.
Only when the military arrived did the terrified students finally see hope again.
The moment those soldiers in camouflage uniforms appeared carrying rifles, Lin Mingmei had cried together with everyone else.
At that moment, she had felt like an abandoned child finally finding protection.
She had desperately wanted to leave with the military and go to the survivor base they mentioned.
She longed for a stable, peaceful life under their protection.
But Gao Lang had firmly refused to go.
And because of him, she stayed behind.
Perhaps the longing in her eyes had been too obvious, because one young soldier suddenly ran out from the formation toward her.
He asked her one last time if she wanted to leave with them.
He promised they would protect her.
He even warned her that this would probably be her final chance.
He had been sincere.
But she rejected him anyway.
Because Gao Lang would be unhappy.
Because she didn’t want to separate from him.
That decision became the greatest regret of her entire life.
Later, after Gao Lang completely shattered her heart, after she was dragged around like a chained dog, after she was repeatedly torn apart by zombies only to revive again and again, she would often think back to that young soldier running toward her in camouflage uniform.
If she had simply gone with him back then, she probably would have lived peacefully, wouldn’t she?
While lost in those thoughts, Lin Mingmei suddenly realized something was wrong.
People only drifted into random thoughts like this when their physical condition was deteriorating badly.
Her head felt unbearably heavy.
Her body was burning with fever.
Was it because she had been caught in the rain?
Lin Mingmei immediately took medicine from her storage space and swallowed several pills dry.
But before the medication could take effect, an overwhelming wave of heat engulfed her completely.
Her entire body felt as though it were on fire.
Even her bones ached painfully.
Damn it!
At a moment like this, who had time to worry about others?
Survival came first.
Lin Mingmei bit down hard on her lip and forced herself to stand.
She had to return home.
Only her apartment was truly safe.
If she fainted here beside an unconscious man, the two of them could die without even understanding how.
But the instant she stood up, darkness swallowed her vision.
Her body collapsed forward.
Fortunately, she landed directly on top of Qin Yueming.
Before completely losing consciousness, one final thought flashed through her mind.
In this life… did she still possess the ability to resurrect after death?
Heat.
Terrifying heat.
It felt like molten lava surging through her body.
Her entire being seemed submerged in volcanic magma.
The pain was unbearable.
Then came freezing cold.
Bone-piercing cold.
As though she had fallen into an endless frozen ocean or been buried inside a thousand-year glacier.
The alternating waves of scorching heat and icy cold felt as though they were tearing her body apart.
The agony was even worse than being devoured alive by zombies.
Instinctively, she reached out desperately, grabbing onto something, anything, trying to stop herself from sinking into the endless sea of fire and ice.
After what felt like endless torment, a cool stream of energy suddenly flowed through her body.
The scorching pain faded instantly.
Then, a faint voice sounded beside her ear.
“Master, Master, please wake up quickly.”
Lin Mingmei abruptly opened her eyes.
A brilliant light nearly blinded her.
“Master, you’re finally awake.”
The cheerful voice rang out again.
Lin Mingmei narrowed her eyes and finally saw a small black sphere floating in front of her.
It was roughly the size of a ping-pong ball.
What was this thing?
“Master, I am not a ‘thing.’ I am your space spirit,” the little black sphere said aggrievedly.
Lin Mingmei blinked blankly.
The phrase “I am not a thing” sounded strangely awkward.
Wait…
What exactly was a space spirit?