I... Am... Awesome

After successfully killing the black bear, Jiang Zhaosu immediately began to happily enjoy the fruits of her victory.

Evolution had indeed consumed a lot of her energy; she ate nearly half of the bear meat herself.

By the end, even Qi Xing jumped down from the tree, pinched her cheek, and patted her belly, curious how someone so small could fit so much meat.

After eating her fill, Jiang Zhaosu's cheeks were bulging.

Qi Xing watched her with interest for a while, then poked her cheek with his finger and said, "Open your mouth."

Jiang Zhaosu: "..."

Her blood-red eyes had already turned black again, and her temper disappeared with them.

Jiang Zhaosu reluctantly opened her mouth.

Qi Xing cupped her chin with one hand, lifted her small face, and examined it carefully for a long time. Finally, he even reached into her mouth with his finger, his warm, delicate fingertip tracing along her teeth.

Jiang Zhaosu's scalp tingled from the strange sensation, and she almost bit down.

She widened her eyes in alarm, looking at Qi Xing, silently questioning him with her eyes about what he wanted to do!

Qi Xing lightly hooked something in her mouth with his finger, and Jiang Zhaosu almost gagged. She finally couldn't help but push Qi Xing away and began to cough violently.

She coughed and spat.

All the meat stuffed in her cheeks fell out.

Only then did Qi Xing say, "You're not a hamster, why are you hiding things in your cheeks? It's like you're trying to look cute."

Jiang Zhaosu's eyes teared up from coughing, and she glared at Qi Xing in shame and anger.

How was she supposed to know!

She just saw so much food and couldn't help but want to hoard more, so she stuffed it into her cheeks without thinking.

"Rat..." Jiang Zhaosu said, stammering to Qi Xing after she finished coughing, "Listen... to me..."

"Mm, it's probably because the Crystal Core you ate earlier contained the Crystal Core of their leader, so they now see you as their new leader," Qi Xing replied.

Jiang Zhaosu nodded as if she suddenly understood, and proudly wiped her nose with her finger: "I... am awesome..."

"Fugui is awesome."

Qi Xing turned to look at the bloody remains on the ground, as well as the few surviving Mutated Giant Rats that were now feasting on the black bear. He ruthlessly delivered a blow: "But King Fugui, your subordinates seem to have almost died out in one battle."

"Uh..."

Jiang Zhaosu hadn't thought that far during the fight; she just prayed she wouldn't die.

Before leaving, Jiang Zhaosu didn't forget to dig out the Crystal Cores from the heads of the black bear and the Mutated Giant Rats.

The black bear's Crystal Core was quite large, almost the size of a quail egg.

Because Qi Xing said that one shouldn't eat too many Crystal Cores at once, as the pain from evolution would become more intense, and one might not survive.

So Jiang Zhaosu decided not to eat it today.

Jiang Zhaosu cherished the Crystal Core like a treasure and put it in her pocket, planning to swallow it when she had enough food.

She and Qi Xing walked for almost a whole night, and it was only when the sky was starting to brighten that they finally walked out of the mountain forest.

Actually, this mountain forest wasn't that big. The reason they walked for so long was entirely Qi Xing's fault.

She shouldn't have trusted that damn directionally challenged Qi Xing.

Jiang Zhaosu was a zombie, so not resting for a night wasn't a big deal, but Qi Xing was completely exhausted.

He hadn't slept much the night before, and he had stayed up all night again. Dark circles had appeared under his fair skin, and his Fox Eyes were almost turning into panda eyes.

By the end, even the usually talkative Qi Xing had become listless and stopped speaking.

When the sun rose and its light shone on their heads, Qi Xing regained a little energy.

Today was unexpectedly a sunny day.

Although the sunlight wasn't bright, it still gave them some meager warmth.

The two walked from the forest to a patch of farmland, and then on a small path in the fields, they found a dilapidated bicycle.

The owner of the bicycle had either run away, turned into a zombie, or perhaps ran away after turning into a zombie. In any case, the bicycle was now ownerless.

But whether it had an owner or not, Jiang Zhaosu and Qi Xing both rode away on the bike with a clear conscience.

Jiang Zhaosu rode, and Qi Xing sat on the back.

Having not slept for two consecutive nights, Qi Xing was almost dead on his feet.

Jiang Zhaosu, a zombie, pedaled the bicycle with all her might in the front, while Qi Xing leaned against her back, hugging her waist as he dozed off, no longer caring where Jiang Zhaosu would take him.

The gentle breeze blew as Jiang Zhaosu rode the bicycle along the cement road through the fields. Looking at the endless farmland around her, she felt like she had returned to her middle school days.

She attended middle school in town, and the orphanage that adopted her was in a village, two kilometers away from the school.

Every day, as soon as it was dawn, little Jiang Zhaosu would carry her schoolbag and cross a large expanse of farmland like this to go to school.

However, back then, she didn't have money to buy a bicycle and had to run to school on her own two feet.

Sometimes, classmates riding bicycles would pass by her, and Jiang Zhaosu would always watch them with longing for a long time.

Now she had a bicycle too, which was like fulfilling a past dream.

As Jiang Zhaosu rode, she inexplicably felt very happy.

If she could speak properly now, she would definitely sing a song at the top of her lungs.

Although she couldn't sing, to express her joy, Jiang Zhaosu still let out a couple of "awoos," which startled Qi Xing, who had been dozing off behind her.

Qi Xing opened his eyes. The first thing he did was pull Jiang Zhaosu closer with one arm and draw the dagger he carried at his waist with the other.

He quickly scanned his surroundings vigilantly, left and right, front and back, but found no approaching danger.

Before him was only a little zombie excitedly pedaling, howling "awoo" with its mouth.

Qi Xing sheathed his dagger and wrapped his arms around Jiang Zhaosu's waist again, saying helplessly, "Fugui, you scared me to death."

I wish you were scared to death.

Jiang Zhaosu ignored Qi Xing's sarcasm and continued to sing her tuneless song happily.

She felt Qi Xing, who was behind her with his cheek pressed against her back, tremble a few times, seemingly chuckling to himself.

The two traveled for another half hour, arriving at a village.

This village was remote and not very prosperous. Most of the houses were single-story, and there weren't too many zombies inside.

Qi Xing killed a few and successfully entered a house.

He first searched the kitchen and found a pile of pickled radishes.

In the apocalypse, vegetables were precious, but Qi Xing's expression wasn't particularly happy.

Because this stuff was really too unpalatable.

It was fine as a side dish to go with rice after pickling, but eating it alone was simply torture.

Qi Xing tore off a few pieces of pickled radish and chewed them like chewing wax for a long time. When he finally swallowed, he choked and pounded his chest. After finally managing to swallow, the salty and bitter taste made him want to vomit.

Seeing Qi Xing's expression of wanting to vomit but suppressing it, a look of utter despair on his face, Jiang Zhaosu couldn't help but recall her own unpleasant experience the first time she ate a mutant, feeling a sense of empathy.

These days, it wasn't easy being a zombie or a human.

After eating, Qi Xing, who was severely sleep-deprived, felt even more drowsy and kept yawning.

He saw that Jiang Zhaosu was still very energetic and kept looking outside. He said to her, "Fugui, I need to sleep for a while. If you're bored, go play outside, but don't go too far. Come back before nightfall, okay?"

Jiang Zhaosu nodded her head.

Qi Xing went to bed to sleep, and Jiang Zhaosu immediately ran out excitedly.

She didn't have to worry about zombie attacks and leisurely rode her bicycle around the village.

After spending so much time with Qi Xing, she had also caught his habit of "treasure hunting." Seeing a door, she wanted to go in.

Jiang Zhaosu searched house by house, looking for any good items. She also kindly found some more food for Qi Xing.

Jiang Zhaosu placed these foods at the entrance of the house where Qi Xing was staying, then ran out again, happily riding her bicycle to play in the fields.

Until the sun set, Jiang Zhaosu remembered what Qi Xing had said and rode her bicycle back towards the village, to see if Qi Xing had woken up.

As a result, when she reached the village entrance, she unexpectedly found a group of people coming from the other side.

Those people seemed to have seen her too. One woman with a ponytail tugged at her companion and pointed at her with her hand.

The woman's hairstyle reminded Jiang Zhaosu of the nightmarish Xiao Chuxi.

Jiang Zhaosu was startled.

Fearing that there might be powerful Ability Users among those people, like Xiao Yi and Xiao Chuxi, whom she couldn't defeat, Jiang Zhaosu quickly pedaled her bicycle into the village to call Qi Xing.