He Zheng

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

He Zheng became a delinquent in middle school and began fending for himself early. His parents paid little attention to him, so he frequently stayed at his girlfriend Yang Qiao’s home. He repeated two school grades and admits that he spent his time outside school rather than studying, leaving him unable to read the English signs encountered in the underground base 11 32 40.

His poor performance in his first Death Exam left him trapped in a cycle of inadequate rewards and limited enhancements. Even when he risked his life and carefully rationed points, he struggled to earn enough to improve his chances. Before meeting Ye Lin, he had survived several exams but held little hope of eventually escaping 8 40.

One earlier survival exam involved an insect swarm. Although he later boasts about cutting through the insects for three days and nights, he actually spent that time fleeing them, lost half his backside, and survived because teammates hauled him onto a bus. Other former companions died from monsters, environmental hazards, or insufficient points; some asked him to carry messages to their parents, despite his own uncertain chances of returning 32 40.

Appearance

• Initially misleading maturity: His manner makes him seem older than he is; his excitement over the zombie exam reveals how close in age he is to the newcomers 40.
• Bloodline enhancement: Redeeming Odin Warrior visibly swells his muscles. Pale blue patterns briefly flash across his body, and twin bloodstained axes appear in his hands 40.
• Combat attire: Before the next exam, he equips a combat uniform, bulletproof vest, and flight pack 41.
• Temporary injuries: He loses his left arm while restraining a Species and later suffers a shattered spine and severe facial damage aboard the escape ship. System repair restores him afterward 10 30 31.

Personality

He Zheng is hotheaded, profane, boastful, and sensitive about losing face. He initially intimidates newcomers through threats and displays of strength, even badly injuring a boy while supposedly saving him from the protective barrier. His confidence often conceals fear: after volunteering to lead the group into the basement, he privately regrets trying to act tough 2 8.

Despite his abrasive manner, he repeatedly accepts dangerous jobs and makes himself useful. He retrieves an acid-soaked corpse to help the group escape, sacrifices an arm to restrain a monster, and reluctantly spends valuable Healing Capsules on injured teammates. His early ruthlessness has a boundary: he considers refusing to save someone different from deliberately sacrificing them, and Ye Lin’s willingness to do the latter unsettles him 5 6 10 17 18.

His affection for Yang Qiao exposes a gentler side. Around her system-created counterpart, he becomes attentive, affectionate, and less foul-mouthed, treating her as a real person rather than merely a copy. His gratitude toward Ye Lin is similarly sincere: gaining the bloodline he had long wanted prompts him to pledge lasting loyalty, regardless of whether Ye Lin is a good person 32 40.

Abilities & Skills

Odin Warrior Bloodline

• Enhanced strength and endurance: The C-rank bloodline substantially improves his physical capabilities and establishes him as a Tier 1 fighter 40 41.
• Bloodthirst Talent and Frenzy Skill: Both are listed as bloodline benefits, but their individual mechanics are not explained in the provided passages 40.
• Durability and recovery: During the manor raid, he takes two bullets head-on; they are pushed out of his body within seconds, with only minor bleeding 44.
• Limits: The bloodline is explicitly described as having poor speed. His Tier 1 strength also remains far below Ye Lin’s post-enhancement Tier 2 power 40 41.

Melee Combat

• Axe fighting: Before obtaining Odin Warrior, he can deeply notch a finger-thick chain and deliver blows strong enough to split a human opponent. A Species’ armored head nevertheless withstands his axe strike 5 9.
• Creating openings: He restrains the first fish-headed Species for Ye Lin’s eye shot, then adapts after losing his arm by striking another Species’ leg at a doorway 10 13 14.
• Targeting weak points: Uses a sliding dagger thrust taught by Huang Liang to attack the vulnerable organ beneath a Species’ abdomen; later kills a retreating Species by stabbing its eye 25 27.
• Post-enhancement offense: Cleaves a bodyguard in half and fights infected students and zombie hordes with his twin axes 44 47 49.

Exam Knowledge and Team Support

• Newcomer instruction: Explains the protective barrier, point exchanges, survival payments, and the stated requirements for returning to reality 2 43.
• Scenario knowledge: Warns that paranormal, meme, and special-event exams may require targeted exchanges rather than ordinary physical weapons 32.
• Team preparation: Gives Hu Jia and Zhang Tie last-minute training and advocates choosing enhancements according to combat roles 38 39.
• Knowledge limits: An Ke has more experience than he does, and he initially knows nothing about the rating system 32 40.

Secondary Skills and Limitations

• Hearing: Initially has the best hearing in the group and detects scraping sounds mixed into the approaching Species’ shrieks 9.
• Firearms: Can provide emergency pistol support, but his poor aim makes fast-moving targets difficult to hit 18 19.
• Driving: Can operate a truck, but admits he is not a good driver after a destructive escape and collision with the manor gates 44.
• Language: Cannot read the base’s English signs; An Ke later supplies him with a translator earpiece 11 41.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Twin Odin Warrior axes — Supplied with his bloodline exchange rather than purchased separately. The system states that they can hack through steel plates 40.
• Fire Axe — His principal scavenged weapon in the underground base. Its blade chips against the escape-door chain, and its wooden handle breaks in a Species’ mouth. He later replaces the handle with steel pipe 5 10 13.
• Healing Capsules — Cost five points per bottle of three. Rapidly close wounds and relieve pain, but do not regrow his severed arm during the exam. He shares them with Zhang Tie and Hu Jia 10 18.
• Silver-white pistol — Scavenged by Ye Lin from a dead soldier and passed to He Zheng for emergency use 18.
• Triangular-bladed dagger / three-edged military spike — Used against Species when gunfire would risk attracting more monsters 25 27.
• Spacesuit — During the Repair Zone escape, the group’s suits cause Species to retreat, allowing He Zheng to earn points from kills 25 27.
• Flight pack — Part of his later loadout; used to escape the city’s zombie horde with the team 41 49.
• Combat uniform, bulletproof vest, Antidote, and dagger — His equipment, including the flight pack and miscellaneous supplies, costs less than seven points in total 41.
• Translator earpiece — Given to him by An Ke before the next exam 41.

Relationships

• Ye Lin — Initially an intimidating newcomer who holds him at gunpoint and negotiates for points above his sixty-point survival requirement. He Zheng increasingly relies on Ye Lin’s decisions and eventually pledges to follow him as the team’s core fighter 2 5 7 40.
• Yang Qiao — His girlfriend since his middle-school delinquent days, whom he describes as practically his wife. He creates a counterpart of her in his private room and regards her as a reason to keep living 32.
• Zhang Tie — A teammate he generally respects. They cooperate in restraining and disabling Species; He Zheng berates his recklessness but gives him medicine and later trains him 10 14 18 39.
• Hu Jia — Initially despised for his timidity and perceived uselessness. He Zheng’s insults deepen Hu Jia’s resentment, although he treats his injuries, trains him, and encourages him to earn points 11 18 27 39.
• An Ke — A more experienced examinee whose concealed history surprises him. She challenges his proposed weapons purchases and helps redirect the team toward flight packs, Antidotes, and bloodlines 32 40.
• Huang Liang — Fellow combatant who helps cover the group’s escape, teaches He Zheng a sliding attack, and becomes the team’s ranged specialist 21 25 40.
• Old Wang and Zhao Ming — Deceased former companions remembered during his explanation of private rooms and exam life 32.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Underground Base Exam

• Initial guide: Introduces the Death Exam rules, stops a newcomer from leaving the barrier, and organizes the first search of the building. Ye Lin’s confrontation quickly challenges his authority 2 3.
• Acid escape: Fails to break the exit chain by strength alone, then retrieves Huang Bin’s corpse to carry sulfuric acid to it. Despite extensive burns, he urges the others to finish breaking the chain 5 6.
• Frontline defender: Leads the descent and helps kill two fish-headed Species. The first fight costs him his left arm; the second demonstrates his adaptation to fighting one-handed 8 10 13 14.
• Awakening Morrigan: Holds the laboratory entrance alongside Ye Lin and Zhang Tie while Hu Jia activates Morrigan’s pod. The Rotten Crab overwhelms the defenders just before she awakens 19 20.
• Escape and return: Helps reach the Repair Zone and farm points from retreating Species. The monster concealed as Wang Yuanyang later incapacitates him aboard the ship, but he survives and is repaired after the exam 25 27 29 30 31.

Recovery and Team Formation

• Private-room guide: Introduces customizable rooms and their created inhabitants, presenting Yang Qiao as the person he most wants to see 32.
• Team preparation: Hosts a shared meal, proposes role-based enhancements, trains Hu Jia and Zhang Tie, and redeems Odin Warrior 38 39 40.
• Power comparison: Nearly receives a devastating punch when Ye Lin awakens from enhancement in a killing frenzy. Ye Lin stops himself, and their planned strength test is abandoned 41.

Zombie-Outbreak Exam

• Entry: Explains the rules to the sole newcomer, who nevertheless flees the barrier and is erased 43.
• Investigation: Seizes a truck and helps coerce an influential businessman into locating Professor Carlton. At the university, Carlton attempts to bite him, prompting He Zheng to kick him through a window 44 47.
• Outbreak combat: Attacks infected students before they can spread the meme further, then fights alongside the team through a zombie horde 47 49.
• Latest documented situation: Escapes by flight pack to a highway gas station, where he sees the exam’s A rating and the instruction to “fight to the death” 49.

Notable Quotes

“A friendly warning: you're better off choosing the person you most want to see. At least that gives you someone to hold on to, another reason to stay alive...” 32

“Ye Lin, I'm not good with words. Anyway, from now on, if you tell me to charge, I'll charge. If you need me to cover the rear, I'll cover the rear!” 40