The one at their head sized up Bai Zhuo and Xue Yanhen with what he thought was a discreet once-over, then broke into a smile that looked reasonably gentle.
“You two beauties just got to Linzhou, right? Have you joined the Linzhou base yet? How about we take you in? That way the zone and supplies you’re assigned would be a bit more generous.”
Bai Zhuo hefted the frying pan in her hand and clicked her tongue. “Ugly to begin with, and even uglier when you smile.”
The man’s face instantly stiffened, a flash of vicious malice darting through his eyes.
“Boss, why bother saying all this to them?” the man behind him said, rubbing his hands together sleazily. “Just haul them off and be done with it.”
Bai Zhuo tilted her head and said with a smile, “You’re welcome to try.”
When she said “try,” the man actually took it as an invitation. His revolting gaze grew even more unconcealed as he sidled toward Bai Zhuo with a leer.
Bai Zhuo watched him, perfectly composed, the smile on her face deepening, then she raised her arm and brought the crowbar down hard across his face.
“Aagh!!”
The man let out a scream on the spot, blood gushing from his nose.
Bai Zhuo kicked him flat to the ground, lifted her head, and, still smiling, asked, “Anyone else want to try?”
The man at their head gave her a long, hard look, then flung out a jet of flame that shot past, grazing the hair beside Bai Zhuo’s ear.
“Oh? So you’re an ability user after all.”
Bai Zhuo’s reaction, the opposite of what he’d expected, and her teasing tone made the man’s face go grim in the extreme in an instant.
“Roooar!!”
A zombie’s roar rang out. The expressions of the people across from them turned to panic at once, and they bolted for the exit without the slightest intention of turning to fight.
An ashen-gray-skinned zombie leapt down from the third floor and slammed straight into the ground, shattering the floor into pieces and even leaving part of it caved in.
That physical strength…
Bai Zhuo narrowed her eyes. Another tier-two zombie.
The zombie twisted its neck and looked at Bai Zhuo and Xue Yanhen from a grotesque, horrifying angle, then charged at them.
Bai Zhuo swiftly raised the crowbar to block its attack, while Xue Yanhen drew her blade and slashed straight down.
The two of them had teamed up to kill a tier-two zombie before, so they had a clear grasp of a tier-two’s physical strength, which was why Xue Yanhen put every bit of her force into that strike.
Then something unexpected happened.
The zombie actually dodged the strike, deliberately!
Shock flashed through Xue Yanhen’s eyes as she raised her blade and slashed down again.
Dodged again!
In the instant the zombie was evading Xue Yanhen’s attacks, Bai Zhuo seized her chance and drove the sharp end of the crowbar clean through the zombie’s chest.
Xue Yanhen followed up with another cut, and the zombie toppled straight over, pitching into the crater.
Bai Zhuo pulled out the crowbar and wiped it off on the zombie’s clothes.
She dug the crystal out of the zombie’s brain and handed it straight to Xue Yanhen. “Come on, let’s see if there’s anything else here we can use.”
The two of them made a lightning circuit of the supermarket on the mall’s basement level, only to find there was nothing left, it had long since been picked clean.
“No wonder that squad just now left empty-handed. And here I thought space-type ability users had become as common as cabbages, running around all over the place,” Bai Zhuo joked.
Xue Yanhen’s expression was somewhat grave. The zombies were already dodging attacks deliberately, didn’t that mean their awakening to consciousness wasn’t far off either?
Bai Zhuo reached up and patted her shoulder. “There’s nothing we can do to change these things even if we know about them. Of course, if we happen to run into Chongming or Gu Zhun, we could give them a heads-up.”
When the two of them headed back the way they’d come and saw the figure standing cold-faced at the roadside, clutching a sniper rifle, Xue Yanhen shot Bai Zhuo an odd look. Talk about speaking it into being. [1]what you say comes true, as if by magic jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2936280_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2936280_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
Bai Zhuo rubbed her nose. She didn’t expect to run into Chongming again so soon either, and by the look of it, the other woman seemed to be waiting for them on purpose?
Chongming nodded to them and stated her purpose: she had indeed been waiting for the two of them to come back.
“Good timing, we’ve got something to tell you too.”
The three of them settled in the living room. As Chongming set down her rifle, she felt a moment of disorientation, this setting nearly made her think she was back in those early days of the apocalypse before she’d found her footing.
Chongming pressed at her brow and recounted the whole of her trip to the Linzhou survivor base.
She’d hit a wall.
By the end, even Chongming found it a little funny, she’d gone there to complete a mission for the sake of the Linzhou base, and ended up getting stonewalled by them.
Bai Zhuo frowned. “So, are you leaving, then?”
Chongming shook her head. “I won’t leave, at least not now. I still have a mission to finish.”
“The zombies might be about to evolve a will of their own.”
Xue Yanhen’s seamlessly delivered line made Chongming’s head snap up toward her. “What?”
In a low voice, Bai Zhuo told Chongming about their fight with the zombie in the mall, and about the signs of zombie evolution they’d discovered.
“All the evidence points to it, humanity’s situation has just gotten a lot harder.”
The room fell silent. Chongming clenched her fists, then let out a soft sigh. “Don’t worry, I’ll get the word back. Not everyone at the Linzhou base is useless.”
Bai Zhuo nodded with a smile. “It’s in your hands, then. So, want something to eat?”
The topic shifted so fast that Chongming couldn’t keep up for a moment.
Xue Yanhen, on the other hand, followed Bai Zhuo’s train of thought right along. “Eat what? We’ve got a few packs of instant noodles left.”
“Then let’s finish them all off.”
Chongming opened her mouth, about to say there was no need, she still had a few packs of compressed biscuits. But before she could get the words out, Xue Yanhen had already risen and headed for the kitchen.
Chongming sighed. “You two really do live the good life.”
Bai Zhuo just smiled and said nothing. Just you wait, when she could finally show off her faked “space-type ability,” they’d see what living the good life really looked like.
Chongming left before nightfall, and not long after she was gone, the heavy rain came pouring down again.
Standing at the window watching the downpour outside, Bai Zhuo let out a soft sigh.
【System, say I fail to complete a mission and the zombies swallow up all of humanity…】
【That won’t happen, host.】
The system’s words rang out firm and forceful, enough to startle even Bai Zhuo.
But then she smiled. 【Mm. That day will never come.】
The next morning, while Xue Yanhen was changing the dressing on Bai Zhuo’s hand, she was surprised to find that it seemed to be healing much faster than an ordinary person’s would.
Bai Zhuo was a little taken aback too, she’d never been like this before.
Looking at the hand freshly wrapped in clean white gauze, Bai Zhuo curled her fingers slightly. This could only be something the system had brought about.
As for that guess of hers, the system gave her a definite answer.
【Host, system upgrades feed back into the host as well, so please be sure to complete lots of missions~】
References[+]