Desolate street.
With Lin Fan around, it felt a little different from before. If you paid close attention, you could feel it: the light of righteousness.
"Doing good deeds really is satisfying."
Lin Fan smiled.
He knew that many people had changed beyond recognition in the apocalypse. They had become terrifying, but no matter how frightening they became, he would fear nothing.
When faced with evil, only by confronting it bravely could you defeat it. Even if you were hurt in the process, you would have no regrets.
He was willing to become evil's nemesis.
He would show evil that if you hurt others, the law would punish you severely.
The traffic light turned red.
He waited quietly.
When the light turned green, he walked away with light steps.
He passed a cake shop.
He looked at the curtained second-floor windows. He truly felt there was someone inside. Even from a distance, he could sense someone watching him as he passed, but he didn't say anything or startle them.
In the apocalypse, everyone was on edge. He could understand how the other person felt right now. They probably didn't trust other survivors and believed they would hurt one another.
It was just like when the apocalypse had first begun. He had stood upstairs, watching what the people below did. In that moment, even the closest friends had become nothing more than tools for survival.
He sniffed the air and caught the scent of cake.
Well, it seemed the other person had enough food and water. They should be fine.
Su Xiaoxiao secretly pulled back the curtain a little and found that the other person had disappeared again. She was anxious.
"Why can he walk openly down the street without anything happening to him? And where did the zombies that came running when they heard me smashing things go?"
She sank into deep confusion.
It couldn't be. It made no sense.
Even so, she didn't dare try anything recklessly. Staying alive was best. For now, she had food and water in the cake shop, so she wouldn't starve to death anytime soon.
The outside world was far too dangerous.
How she wished a group of well-trained soldiers would appear, armed with all kinds of weapons, sweep through the streets and clear out those terrifying zombies, then rescue her from this living hell. Maybe such a scene, with help arriving out of nowhere, could only happen in her imagination.
Suddenly.
Su Xiaoxiao pulled back the curtain and looked outside through the window. Then she suddenly spotted a head right outside it.
"Ah..."
Su Xiaoxiao was so startled she nearly screamed. She hurriedly covered her mouth and frantically searched around, like a frightened little kitten.
She picked up a glass bottle. That didn't seem good enough.
She kept rummaging, then hefted a chair. That still didn't seem good enough.
She searched again and finally found a fruit knife. Gripping the handle nervously, she pointed it at Lin Fan outside the window, as if to say, "Go ahead, try coming in. Even if I can't stab you, I can stab myself. Then you won't get to enjoy a warm body."
Seeing her like this, Lin Fan felt there might be something wrong with her.
He smiled.
He waved.
Then he disappeared from the window, dropped to the ground, and headed toward the residential compound.
He felt this survivor had surely been frightened out of her wits by the apocalypse. He didn't want to get any closer and scare her. Whatever the case, he needed to give her plenty of time to adjust.
Hmm... He had decided.
Every day, he would come to her window and smile at her once, using kindness to win her over and show her that he meant no harm, so she wouldn't need to be so afraid.
Su Xiaoxiao secretly looked into the distance. The figure kept walking away, gradually disappearing at the end of the street.
"He saw me."
"What should I do? There's no way I can run away. He'll definitely tell the other survivors. I absolutely can't let them catch me."
At that thought,
she hurriedly opened her laptop. It had lots of apocalypse novels she'd downloaded, most of them featuring strong female leads. Before, when she'd read them, she'd thought such things could never happen.
But now...
She opened a strong-female-lead apocalypse novel, Apocalypse Nirvana. Its heroine had been reborn in the apocalypse and knew what was coming. She was well prepared and faced the post-apocalyptic world with composure.
In the story, the heroine was beautiful and drew the attention of many men. She rescued many women who had been abused and formed them into a group, teaching them how to survive in the apocalypse.
It was a thrilling story, with killing from beginning to end. The heroine killed not only zombies but also men. In the end, the world was free of zombies and men alike, leaving only women.
So, though all she knew how to do was bake cakes, she frantically studied the survival tips in these novels, learning what to do if a man started watching her.
One suggestion was to smear zombie blood on your face, which might help you avoid being recognized by zombies. But that was only something described in novels. She didn't dare try it without knowing whether it was true.
Shanshui Manor.
An SUV streaked up, its body covered in blood. It pulled up in front of a villa and waited for a moment. The iron gate opened, and the vehicle drove inside.
In the hall.
"Big Brother, something's happened."
The driver rushed in, looking terrified. He had to make sure he looked frightened. Big Brother was already quite unhinged, and seemed to want to become something like an ancient emperor, ruling like a warlord and controlling the entire area.
The thugs inside were puzzled. Five men had gone out, so how had only one of them returned?
After a moment's thought,
could something have gone wrong?
They were rather afraid of those zombies. To be honest, even they couldn't be sure they'd come away unharmed if they faced a healthy zombie head-on.
When the zombies caught sight of flesh and blood, they usually charged at once. They ran incredibly fast and ignored all weapons. The force of their impact was truly terrifying.
"What happened?" A muscular man sat domineeringly on a leather sofa. The scar on his face only added to his imposing presence, giving people an intense sense of pressure.
The story behind that scar was quite legendary.
Two big shots had been negotiating over territory.
He'd taken out two knives, handed one to the other man, and said, "Let's slash at each other. Neither of us is allowed to dodge. Whoever doesn't die gets the territory."
When they started swinging, the other man got scared and backed down, because the knife had been aimed at his neck. But he hadn't moved an inch or even blinked. In the end, the other man retreated, and his knife slashed across his face.
From then on, his reputation had spread throughout Huang City.
They called him Mad Wolf Wang Dafu.
"Big Brother, we got to the Police Station, but we ran into another group of survivors. They were hiding in the dark, secretly watching us. Just as we found the firearms inside the Police Station, those bastards actually lured the zombies over..."
"I told them to hurry into the vehicle, but there were too many zombies, and they blocked the way. In the end, I could only drive away."
The driver spoke hurriedly. He obviously couldn't say that there had only been one guy, that they'd taken the guy for an idiot, and the guy had taken them for a bunch of useless fools.
I was so scared I didn't even wait for them to get in. When I saw that horde of zombies, I floored it. What did I care about teammates? Running for my life was the most important thing.
Wang Dafu narrowed his eyes and stared straight at him.
The driver grew nervous under his boss's gaze. That wolf-like stare was truly terrifying. He'd seen with his own eyes how his boss could chop through dozens of bricks with his bare hands and break cobblestones with a single slap. The man had real skill.
"Then why didn't you die there?" Wang Dafu asked in a low voice. He wasn't angry about his men dying. What mattered more to him were the firearms. As long as he had those things, he could command absolute respect.
He might have been doing well in Huang City, but he'd never dared to touch firearms. They were too dangerous. If the government set its sights on him, no matter who was backing him, he'd have to get down on his knees.
"Big Brother, I still want to drive for you," the driver said pitifully.
Crash!
Wang Dafu stood up without a word. There were other groups in Huang City, and they might also be planning to get firearms from the Police Station. That meant they were capable and ruthless. If they got their hands on guns, his own side would lose its advantage.
Not much time had passed since the apocalypse began.
All along, he'd wanted to clear out the entire villa community, turn it into his territory, build it into a survival base, and gradually expand outward.
But those zombies were terrifying.
He still hadn't found an easy way to deal with them.
"You bastard. You cost me four of my best men, and you're the only useless piece of trash who made it back."
Then he waved his hand.
The thugs nearby understood. They headed toward the driver. They knew their boss meant for them to beat him up good and proper. If he survived, that was his strength. If he couldn't take it, then he'd just had bad luck.
The driver let out a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness, thank goodness.
He was used to getting beaten up and could take a lot. He was sure he'd hold out.
It seemed the story he'd just made up had convinced his boss. He believed the driver had only run back because he'd had no choice. If he'd told the truth—that the whole mission had gone wrong because of just one man—wouldn't his boss have skinned him alive?
Before you continue