Apocalypse: My Companions Are From The 3D District

Li Pu felt a sudden chill below—he'd forgotten he wasn't wearing pants.

He quickly covered the caterpillar covered in Chun Li's hot lip prints, jumped onto the bed, and burrowed under the covers.

Chun Li watched her rebellious disciple's reaction and burst out laughing, only stopping when Li Pu complained.

"I'm done teasing you, you little dummy."

"Your movements are a bit off, but you've already grasped the core essence. When did you learn this? I remember I haven't taught you yet." The more Chun Li spoke, the more puzzled she became.

Li Pu's lie came out effortlessly: "Master, I learned it from watching you fight enemies before." His big eyes blinked innocently, his face wearing an earnest expression of "You have to believe me."

This kid's talent is this high? Did I pick up a martial arts prodigy?

Chun Li let out a soft laugh, her heart blooming with joy.

Wearing flat shoes, she picked up the clothes and walked toward Li Pu on the hospital bed.

Every time Li Pu looked at Chun Li's flat-soled old Beijing cloth shoes, he couldn't help but sigh regretfully: Why aren't they high heels? Attack-speed shoes or barefoot strap-ons would be even better.

But he also knew that would be too cruel for a female fighter, so he kept this perverted thought hidden.

The fragrant breeze hit his nose—even after being stuffed full like a cream puff last night, Chun Li's floral scent remained undiminished.

"Come, let your master dress you." She cupped her cheek with one hand, revealing a slightly perverted smile.

"I can do it myself!" Li Pu quickly refused.

A few minutes later, Li Pu was pinned down on the edge of the bed by a serious Chun Li, sitting obediently.

Even after awakening the Street Fighter Physique, his strength barely matched hers, but when it came to technique, he was tens of thousands of miles behind Chun Li.

Li Pu silently complained: This Street Fighter World's Fighter Physique is just an entry ticket—a ticket to ranked matches.

But the gap between Bronze and King is enormous! At first, he could catch her off guard and break free a few times, but once Chun Li understood his pattern, he never succeeded again.

Treated like a doll by Chun Li, Li Pu decided to stop thinking about strength and instead summarized the rules for gaining Affection Points.

"It seems to trigger every time there's physical contact?" He kept recalling.

"The more emotionally charged the contact, the faster Affection Points rise?"

"Does first blood or doing it give a huge amount of Affection Points?"

Without hesitation, he looked at Chun Li, who was fussing over him, and decided to test it.

"Master, open your mouth—I have something urgent!"

Chapter 20: The White-haired Woman and the Asura

In a desolate land shrouded in darkness.

Flames surged, blazing fiercely, dyeing everything blood-red.

Silence reigned, broken only by the weeping of countless anguished souls echoing in the ears. Wails and screams from the depths reverberated through the air, sending chills down the spine.

On the scorched earth, a snow-white figure appeared.

A white-haired woman with pained eyes trudged forward with difficulty.

Last night, she had been imposing in the hospital; now, she looked utterly miserable.

The biting wind cut through her, her tall, voluptuous figure completely naked, scars stark against her pale skin.

Her round, delicate toes were burned crimson by the sharp, hot ground, and several sharp pebbles pierced the soles of her jade-white feet.

A yoke was locked around her swan-like neck, with handcuffs, ankle shackles, and even chains binding her waist.

Nine Tang-dynasty-style beauties with exquisite figures escorted her, their faces hidden behind ferocious Asura masks, each holding a ghost infant in their arms.

They wore the bold, open-necked Tang Dynasty style—loose silk skirts half-revealing their chests, snow-white necks and half-exposed ample bosoms on display.

The nine women chattered and laughed, but their hands mercilessly yanked the chains.

The white-haired woman, Gardenia, dragged by the chains, couldn't understand a word they said.

Ever since she gained that strange power, every time she fell asleep, she entered this place.

She wouldn't wake up until she completed the process; her body rested, but her spirit endured constant torment.

She could only grit her teeth and persevere.

As usual, after enduring the scorching heat, a towering iceberg appeared before her.

Piercing cold instantly spread through her body, making her shiver violently, her teeth chattering.

She would now have to climb the iceberg, dragging the nine beautiful women with her chains.

"These bitches!" She exhaled a breath of freezing air and grabbed the ice to start climbing.

Her steps were agonizingly slow, her breaths short. Even as her body grew numb from the cold wind, she still firmly sought each foothold.

The nine masked women calmly held onto the chains, hanging beneath the white-haired Gardenia on the steep ice cliff.

As her strength gradually drained, unprecedented exhaustion and despair washed over her once more.

On the verge of collapse, she recalled her younger sister's smiling face, more than ten years her junior.

A flood of memories rushed in like a lantern show.

Her father was hounded to death by a violent debt-collection gang over usury, and her mother soon passed away from grief, leaving behind nothing but a mountain of debt and a young sister.

The loan shark company tied to the underworld latched onto the two impoverished sisters.

She, gifted in dance, decided to drop out of school to repay the debts and support her sister.

A few years slipped by. With her full head of hair, she should by all rights have reached the age for a happy family.

But instead, she could only wear herself out across three daily jobs, trading her time for meager wages.

In the vast sea of people, everyone rushed about for their own lives, yet she had nothing to yearn for.

The happiest part of each day was coming home.

Because there, she had her only emotional anchor. No matter how hopeless the outside world, at home, a warm smile always awaited her embrace.

Seeing her sister's radiant grin seemed to sweep away all the gloom.

She didn't want her young sister to see her fragile side, so she always forced herself to muster a gentle smile in return.

After their parents died, her sister became her everything.

The warmth of their shared dinners sustained her through the monotonous grind of work, home, and work again.

A building cleaner, a convenience store clerk, a part-time dishwasher.

She never yielded to the underworld's temptations to sell her body, and the vengeful interest piled higher and higher.

This life was like a bottomless abyss, the debt seemingly never-ending.

Her sister was just like her—loved dancing from a young age.

Countless times, she gazed at the pretty dresses in shop windows and the meager cash in her hand, thinking that maybe her sister could wear one someday.

But her paltry earnings weren't enough. The gang broke into the home she shared with her sister.

They not only took her years of meager savings but also her only hope, watching her sister drift farther and farther away.

Something snapped inside her.

She burst out the door, chasing her sister through the rain, chasing the receding vehicle.

That was her only reason to live.

But she fell, hard. Blood gushed uncontrollably.

She curled up in the rain. In this world with no one to rely on, how could she get her sister back?

The local police were powerless against such things.

Gardenia, eyes vacant, made her way to the rooftop of a building and began to dance despairingly in the rain.

Ballet, tango—her graceful, elegant movements leaped through the downpour.

Rain lashed mercilessly against her face: "Is the happy time over?"

She leaped gracefully from the skyscraper.

Suddenly, some force pushed her back!

She struggled to her feet in the muddy rooftop.

A chorus of women's voices rang in her ears: "Take back the child! Take back the child! Take back the child!"

Overwhelmed by emotion, rage surged within Gardenia! An unknown, eerie power latched onto her body.

That rainy night, she stormed into the gang's office like a superhuman, but her sister was already gone.

To find out where her sister had been taken, she needed money—lots of it.

Caring for nothing else, Gardenia started robbing banks, robbing supermarkets, robbing wherever she went.

The legend of the White-Haired Bandit spread through the criminal underworld.

After some time, she finally learned her sister's whereabouts on the Black Market.

Furukawa Private Gynecology Hospital!

But her excitement gave away her trail, and she was arrested by the local authorities' elite a month before the apocalypse broke out.

Realizing she had already reached her destination, she unleashed astonishing potential!

"Hanako! I'm coming to save you!"

She pushed off with all her limbs, kicking hard! Her body shot forward like a rocket.

Carrying the nine beautiful women beneath her, she soared over the mountain peak and arrived at the final punishment of her dreams.

The Oil Pot Hell!

She and these nine beauties were old acquaintances by now.

On the wide, flat ice field sat a massive oil pot. The firewood beneath it burned red-hot, and the oil inside had already caught fire.

Beside the open ground stood a huge stone, inscribed with three characters: "Wujingdu."

She had looked it up—this was the Sanskrit transliteration of the Oil Pot Hell in the eighteen levels of Buddhist hell.

Every time she committed a robbery, the time she would be boiled in the oil pot increased.

Gardenia took a deep breath. To save her family, she feared nothing.

The nine beauties formed a circle, chanting in a steady, rhythmic murmur.

Gardenia had nearly memorized this passage of Chinese Buddhist scripture by now.

"An Asura is one who has no wine. They gather flowers from the four heavens and brew them in the great sea, but the karmic power of fish and dragons leaves the taste unchanged. Enraged and sworn to abstinence, they are therefore called the wineless gods."

"Thus have I heard. Ānanda! Within the three realms, there are four kinds of Asuras. Those born from the ghost path, who through the power of protecting the Dharma attain penetration into emptiness—these Asuras are born from eggs and belong to the ghost realm. Those who fall from the heavens due to diminished virtue, dwelling near the sun and moon—these Asuras are born from wombs and belong to the human realm. There are Asura kings who uphold the world, whose power penetrates without fear, contending for authority with Brahmā, Śakra, and the Four Heavenly Kings—these Asuras arise through transformation and belong to the heavenly realm. Ānanda! There is yet another kind of inferior Asura, born in the heart of the great sea, dwelling at the mouth of a submerged cave, roaming the void by day and returning to the water by night—these Asuras arise from moisture and belong to the animal realm."

This was a passage from a certain sutra where the Buddha introduced the Asuras. Gardenia had no idea why these women kept reciting it at her every day.

She just found them noisy.

"Nine female ghosts, and they have to cosplay as Buddhist scripture. Nuts!"

She was about to climb onto the rim of the cauldron and face her punishment when the scene suddenly shifted.

The oil cauldron vanished!

In its place was the Yin Mi scene from last night—that woman with the topknot crouching by the hospital bed, eating a child.

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Author's note:

Author's note: Gardenia's story is adapted and inspired by the Red-haired Lady chapter of the manga Supernatural Armed Dandadan. I borrowed from it, and I'm saying so openly. Please go easy on me.

Chapter 21: Abyssal Maw Chun Li

No rolling eyes or scowling faces.

Chun Li simply crouched down openly.

As if doing something perfectly ordinary, without the slightest hint of shame.