“Pull over and save them.”
The moment Cheng Yuchuan spoke, Qi Jin immediately found a spot to stop the car. The pursuing aberrants were all mid-tier or below, and Cheng Yuchuan handled them all by himself.
Seeing the two people Cheng Yuchuan brought back to the RV, Yu Yicheng’s eyes widened in shock: “Whoa, two pretty ladies.”
He had just said it casually, he didn’t think the heavens would actually deliver.
Fine, if they were going to deliver, why send two?
“It’s not your system’s doing again, is it?” Lu Xihe was also stunned. Was a max-level system really that capable? It could just hand out partners on demand?
“Surely not…” Remembering the earlier incidents with roasted chicken, grilled fish, and braised pork, Yu Yicheng suddenly felt uneasy. He quickly called out, “001, come out. Is this your doing?”
[…]
After waiting a long time with no response from 001, silence was the Cambridge of the night.
“See if you dare make random wishes again. Your system works better than a shooting star.” Lu Xihe’s tone carried helplessness, a mix of speechlessness and amusement.
“I won’t dare anymore. Who knew saying it would actually make it happen?” Yu Yicheng wore a miserable expression. This time, he was truly humbled.
Cheng Yuchuan handed the two people to Ning Wanli, asking her to first take them to check for any aberrant bites, then came to call Yu Yicheng over to take a look at them.
Hearing Cheng Yuchuan call for him, Yu Yicheng’s legs felt glued to the ground, and his hands and head shook like a rattle drum: “I don’t dare, I don’t dare, I don’t dare.”
“Don’t dare what?” Cheng Yuchuan was puzzled. It was just healing, what was there to be afraid of?
“I was just talking big. I didn’t actually want to get into a relationship. And… and picking people out or whatever, that’s not really appropriate, is it?” Yu Yicheng’s face was written with panic. He grabbed Lu Xihe’s sleeve tightly and looked at him helplessly.
After all, this was partly his fault to begin with, and Lu Xihe also felt this wasn’t right, so he chimed in to persuade: “Bro, this really isn’t appropriate. Relationships and all that should be mutual consent.”
“Huh?” Cheng Yuchuan grew more confused the more he listened. What did this have to do with relationships? “I asked him to go heal them. What are you two over here imagining?”
“…”
“…”
Cheng Yuchuan’s words were like a missile that crashed straight into Lu Xihe’s mind, sending up a mushroom cloud with a deafening boom. The heatwave of the explosion flushed Lu Xihe red in an instant.
“Ahaha… healing, right. Healing is good. Yeah, it should be you.” Lu Xihe let out an awkward laugh, frantically turning around as if looking for something, then yanked Yu Yicheng out from behind him. “Go on, go on. As a healing-type ability user, you’re the one who needs to check on them.”
Having made such a huge blunder, Yu Yicheng’s face burned with embarrassment. He fumbled around, turning his back and covering his face with both hands, completely unable to meet Cheng Yuchuan’s eyes.
Even so, just feeling Cheng Yuchuan standing behind him made Yu Yicheng feel like countless awkward gazes were fixed on him. He wished he had a spatial ability himself so he could hide away.
He shoved Lu Xihe into Cheng Yuchuan’s arms and babbled incoherently: “You’re also a healing type, you go treat them. I, uh, I’m tired. I’m going to sleep.”
With that, he fled back to his bunk, pulled the curtain shut, and cut himself off from the world.
It was over twenty degrees below zero outside, with no heating and no heated brick bed, yet a single thin cotton quilt had Yu Yicheng sweating all over.
“001, where the hell are you? Come out now!” Yu Yicheng called out in a low voice from under the covers.
He couldn’t take it anymore. Just thinking about those two people made him anxious beyond measure. He had to find out whether those two girls had come because of his casual remark or purely by coincidence.
001 initially ignored him. Getting no response, Yu Yicheng kept howling and yelling in his head until he finally forced 001 to come out.
[…I’m here.]
“Here what? Just tell me straight, did you bring them here? Is it because of what I said?” Yu Yicheng demanded angrily.
[It’s not because of you. The system backend shows that one of the two is a host bound to the protagonist support system S103, and they came to form a team. It’s just a coincidence, not because of you.]
Hearing this, Yu Yicheng’s anxious heart finally settled back into place.
Good, it wasn’t because of him. If the system had actually sent people because he casually said he wanted to get out of being single and have a pretty lady, then he should have wished for a tall, handsome guy with an 185cm height, eight-pack abs, a slim waist, and long legs.
Yu Yicheng grinned goofily, his mind conjuring an image of an ideal handsome man standing in the distance, smiling and opening his arms toward him.
In the scene, he ran forward with a blissful smile, leaping into the man’s embrace as the two spun around joyfully in a field of rapeseed flowers.
One spin, two spins, three spins, a clear, cheerful laugh rang in his ears, and then a sharp slapping sound snapped him back to reality.
“Cheng Yuchuan! Keep messing around and I’ll chop your hand off, believe me?!” Lu Xihe’s angry shout reached his ears, followed by Cheng Yuchuan’s soft chuckle as he rubbed his stinging right hand and played the victim.
Seeing this through the gap in the bed curtain, Yu Yicheng broke out in goosebumps all over.
The young couple was cuddled up together, one seriously working while the other was causing mischief, it was disgustingly sweet to watch.
Yu Yicheng’s face scrunched up in disgust, and he silently pulled the bed curtains shut, clipping every gap closed with clothespins.
Being single was better.
Yu Yicheng let out a long sigh, then suddenly remembering something, he slammed his head hard against Fluff Beast, looking like he wanted to just knock himself out on the spot.
Calling others mushy, what he’d just been imagining in his head was ten thousand times more nauseating than what they were doing now?!
And spinning around in each other’s arms, with a man just like him.
“…”
Yu Yicheng shut himself off. He really had been watching too many gay couples showing off their love, he was actually starting to want a boyfriend. Had he finally gone crazy from eating all that dog food?
Yu Yicheng refused to accept this reality he couldn’t bear to look at. He was the world’s most invincible steel-straight man, after all. He couldn’t just go gay from watching a cute couple being too sweet.
“001, do you have any good videos to watch? Guy and girl ones.” Yu Yicheng closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them again with an unwaveringly determined gaze.
[Sorry, I’ve activated the minor protection mode. 001 doesn’t have what you’re looking for.]
“What the hell? If you don’t have it, you don’t have it, who’s a minor?” Yu Yicheng puffed up like a blowfish at 001’s “minor protection” comment, loudly protesting in his mind.
[Sorry, the minor protection mode cannot be turned off once activated. However, the system album can provide some photos for your viewing.]
“What photos?” Yu Yicheng was curious. No videos, but photos would work just as well, he just wanted to prove he hadn’t gone gay anyway.
[Photos of handsome guys’ abs, and long legs.]
“Are you insane?” Yu Yicheng rolled his eyes.
This dumbass 001 was probably just trying to cause trouble. He was worried he might be turning gay, so he wanted to find something to verify his orientation, and now it was giving him photos of handsome guys’ abs and long legs? What was the point of that?
To speed up his transformation into a gay spiral?
[Fine, don’t look then.] 001 wasn’t going to cater to him either.
“Hey, hey, hey, wait!” Yu Yicheng hastily called out, a whirlwind of complicated emotions churning in his mind.
It didn’t matter if there were no girls. If he looked at guys and felt nothing, that would prove he wasn’t gay, right?
Logic checks out. Feasible.
“So… go ahead and show me. I-I’ll just take one look.” Yu Yicheng casually scratched his face, forcing calm.
He’d thought a few simple photos wouldn’t cause any ripples, but with just one glance, Yu Yicheng’s heart was pounding wildly at the man’s godlike beauty in the photo.
This was exactly his type!
That face, that body, everything hit right in his heart.
It was over. He was gay.
Yu Yicheng accepted the fact that he liked men in just one second. Finding a suitable partner in the apocalypse was so hard, he couldn’t afford to be hesitant. If he liked someone, he had to make a move.
“Where is he? Is there any chance I could meet him?” Yu Yicheng covered his face and rolled around shyly on the bed, asking in a small, embarrassed voice.
[He’s dead.]
One sentence plunged the air into complete silence. After a long moment, Yu Yicheng burst out cursing: “Damn you! If he’s dead, why show me his photos? You have no sense at all.”
[…]
“Go away, go away. I’m done talking to you. You’re just messing with me.”
Yu Yicheng lay on the bed lost in wild thoughts for a long time. It wasn’t until Lu Xihe came to call him for dinner that he realized the sky had already darkened. Six people were seated around the dining table waiting for him to arrive before serving the food. Seeing Cheng Yuchuan and the two newcomers, Yu Yicheng’s face was still burning hot.
After dinner, everyone began getting to know each other. Somehow Qi Jin had said something to Cheng Yuchuan, and the latter took out six high-grade crystal cores, handing them to the two newcomers while proactively introducing himself.
“Hello, I’m Xiang Shenwan, a level-three ability user.” The short-haired woman was the first to stand up and take the crystal core, her gaze shifting back and forth between Cheng Yuchuan and Qi Jin, as if she wanted to say something but held back.
The atmosphere froze for a moment. Just as Cheng Yuchuan was about to ask who the host of S103 was, Qi Jin suddenly cut in, pointing directly at Cheng Yuchuan and saying bluntly: “He’s the protagonist.”
The moment Qi Jin spoke, Ning Wanli hastily patted him, then whispered close to his ear: “No one asked.”
Hearing this, Qi Jin let out an awkward but polite chuckle and lowered his head to poke at his already empty rice bowl.
In a corner no one noticed, another fragile heart quietly shattered.
Though Qi Jin’s words were abrupt, they inadvertently resolved Xiang Shenwan’s confusion. She turned to face Cheng Yuchuan directly and said without beating around the bush:
“I’m the host of System S103, here to assist you in completing the main mission of building the new safe zone. Before the apocalypse, I was a professional in architectural engineering with experience independently managing large-scale construction projects. You can safely leave the construction of the new safe zone to me.”
Then she looked at the other long-curly-haired woman beside her, a hint of tenderness surfacing in her eyes, and her tone softened as she continued:
“Shuyue is a PhD in agriculture. After the new safe zone is built, she can be in charge of food cultivation. I have only one request, no matter where we go, I must bring Shu Yue with me.”
Seeing Xiang Shenwan mention her, Sheng Shuyue also stood up, offering a graceful smile and warmly greeting everyone: “Hello, everyone! My name is Sheng Shuyue, a Level 2 ability user. It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”
“No problem, welcome aboard.”
That evening, Cheng Yuchuan learned about the abilities of Xiang Shenwan and Sheng Shuyue, taught them the synthesis method, and then briefly explained the team’s current mission to head to Spirit Stone Mountain to find spirit stones.
When Cheng Yuchuan mentioned that spirit stones could repel the aberrants, and since the RV was heading in the opposite direction from where they had fled, Sheng Shuyue pulled out a stone the size of a chicken egg from her pocket, faintly glowing with a golden light.
“Is this the spirit stone you’re talking about?”
After confirmation from S101, the stone in Sheng Shuyue’s hand was indeed the spirit stone they were seeking. Upon hearing this, Xiang Shenwan and Sheng Shuyue both tensed up, letting out solemn sighs:
“There are no more spirit stones left on Spirit Stone Mountain. The one we have is the last one.”