You'd Better Hide Well

"One, two, three, four... five? Almost forgot, Hu An is an Evolutionist."

Su Huan counted while carefully plucking a few fruits.

If the water plant trade went smoothly, he wouldn't mind leaving Hu An a path to survive.

But since the deal had fallen through, he truly couldn't find a reason to let Hu An live.

As for the supplies at the water plant or the fair-skinned women, he had little interest; only the benefits that landed in his own pocket were real. Right now, the most immediate gain was the meat on Hu An's bones.

Feeding them to the Blood-Thirsty Vine would help catalyze even more Blood-Thirsty Fruit.

After picking the fruits, Su Huan walked toward the train.

Liang Kuan was leading some passengers in clearing out zombies. Working in small groups, they used long poles and similar weapons to knock the zombies down before swarming them with a brutal beating.

These zombies, which hadn't even reached the First Order, posed no threat to organized humans as long as they didn't form a large-scale horde; they were even less dangerous than some large carnivores.

"Drag all the zombie corpses to Carriage No. 2," Su Huan said indifferently as he passed by.

"Understood."

Once on board, Su Huan looked left and right before finding Wan Xing in the dining car.

She sat on the sofa clutching a potted plant, her delicate face gazing calmly out the window.

Outside, the people hunting zombies looked like a painting filled with dark irony—civilization and savagery intersecting, death and hope intertwined.

Yu Yue was wiping down the pots and pans in the kitchen; the crisp, rhythmic clinking brought a sense of normalcy back to the atmosphere.

Ever since Su Huan no longer had time to cook, the dining car kitchen had become her domain.

When Su Huan appeared, both women subconsciously turned their gazes toward him, their expressions tightening.

Su Huan walked straight up to Wan Xing, pulled out five Blood-Thirsty Fruits, and asked, "Try extracting this today."

Wan Xing sat up straight, curious. "What is this?"

"Blood-Thirsty Fruit. A fruit formed by mutated plants absorbing flesh and blood. It can promote biological evolution, but don't eat it raw—you'll die a violent death."

"Alright, I'll give it a try."

Wan Xing took the fruits and stood up, heading to Carriage No. 2. The carriage originally designated for weapons had now become a garage and a large tool room.

The air still carried a faint, bloody stench; even with the air conditioning on full blast, it couldn't disperse the metallic reek.

"They'll bring the zombie corpses over in a bit. Extract those too, and keep an eye out for things other than Pan-Energy Crystals. Come find me once you've succeeded."

After giving his instructions, Su Huan went straight to the second floor. He was still soaking wet, but that wasn't a concern right now.

His gaze pierced through the glass and blast-proof mesh, sweeping over the dense rows of buildings to land on the tall, sturdy water tower. Thinking of Gao Zhe hiding in some shadow waiting for him, Su Huan couldn't help but lick his lips.

"You'd better stay hidden well; don't you dare show your face."

He took the First Order Pan-Energy Crystal he'd harvested from the Night Demon out of his pocket and sat on the floor, quietly extracting the energy within.

The outer walls of the water storage tanks inside the plant were covered in dark green moss, and ruptured pipes snaked across the ground like shadows.

Gao Zhe held a blood-dripping steel bar in one hand, tapping out a stuttering, vibrating sound against the metal stairs.

It pressed hard on the nerves of the guards inside.

Three men in security uniforms stared nervously at the iron door of the monitoring room, suddenly sensing a faint movement behind them.

"Who's there!"

The tense guard shouted at the top of his lungs.

The moment he turned his head, he only saw half a blood-stained steel bar flying straight toward him.

"Bang—"

The steel bar pierced through his eye socket, pinning the guard directly to the wall.

A large patch of crimson bloomed.

The other two turned around just in time to see a one-armed figure in a hoodie leap down from the window.

He landed on one foot, surging forward like a crouching tiger, slamming into them with his entire body. A sickening sound of snapping bones echoed in rapid succession.

"Boom!"

Gao Zhe slammed the two men against the wall, braced one hand on the floor, and twisted his sturdy waist to stand up. He pulled the steel bar from the wall and swung it at the two guards who were whimpering on the floor.

After a crisp sound like a breaking cucumber, silence returned to the room.

Only a rustling sound came from the bedroom.

Gao Zhe pressed against the wall and walked to the inner room. He placed his palm on the door, took a deep breath, and shoved it open violently.

But he didn't move for a long time. His tall body stiffened, his pupils shrinking to the limit.

A stench of rotting, stewed meat wafted out from the room.

The thirty-square-meter space was piled high with moldy food packaging. More than twenty women were tied by their hands and hung from the ceiling, their toes barely touching the floor, forced to maintain their balance at all times.

Four people were still hanging from the ceiling fan in the center of the room, forced to walk in circles as it spun. Two of them were barely breathing, their arms blackened and bruised, their bodies dragged along by the rotation to carve concentric trails of blood into the floor.

Seeing Gao Zhe enter, the women's eyes remained devoid of any flicker, as silent as if they were mutes.

Even the Armed Train, which Gao Zhe considered a living hell, was far inferior to this small, thirty-square-meter room.

People were hung there stark naked, like strips of cured meat in a drying shed.

"You..."

The hoarse voice startled Gao Zhe; he could hardly imagine that this sound had come from his own throat. After a long pause, he hurriedly found the fan switch on the wall.

He turned off the rotating fan.

Then, he stepped forward to lift the nearest woman down. "You, they... forget it, let me get you down first."

For the first time, he found his language so impoverished.

He could only move his hands and feet with haste, hoping to spare them a little more suffering.

Just as he finished lifting everyone down, he heard the sound of a window being slid open. He turned his head in confusion, only to see one of the women leap out.

"Don't—"

Gao Zhe's heart lurched.

This was the sixth floor!

Feeling the struggle in his arms, he hurriedly looked down.

The woman crawled out of his embrace, knelt on the floor, and kowtowed heavily to him three times before crawling toward the window as well.

Gao Zhe reached out to grab her, gritting his teeth. "There is a train outside, there is food! Come with me, you can live!"

But he saw the woman turn back and open her mouth, revealing a hollow, empty cavity.

There was no tongue, not even any teeth.

The woman wore an incredibly hideous smile, kowtowed while backing away, and finally crawled to the window, mimicking the first woman by jumping straight out.

Gao Zhe stiffly retracted his hand, clenched his fist, and slammed it heavily against the floor. He bit down on his teeth, his expression as dark and gloomy as if water were about to drip from it.

"Thud, thud, thud..."

The sound of kowtowing erupted throughout the room.

After a long while, apart from the few women who had already died, only Gao Zhe remained in the room.

The sky finally cleared, and dim, yellow sunlight spilled in from outside the window, carving a bright yellow patch onto the wall.

Gao Zhe slumped into the boundary between light and shadow, his expression dark and murky.

"I... did I do something wrong... No, I didn't! Those who exploit and toy with others deserve to die just the same!"

"Su Huan!"