Hope Fleet! Welcome aboard!

After a long while, the thin boy nodded slightly. "I agree to let him stay too."

"He is a Transcendent, after all."

"One more Sequence Transcendent means a little more safety for the fleet. Besides, he's of the [Apocalypse Shipwright] sequence. I'd guess he most likely knows how to repair ships. I'm sure everyone understands what transportation means out here on the ocean now."

"Of course, we still need to assess him. If he's a murderous villain with malicious intentions... we'll do what Little Ye said!"

"Okay, meeting adjourned! I need my beauty sleep."

"Hey, frens, see you tomorrow."

"Mm, meeting adjourned."

Qin Mao knew nothing of the three conspiring.

At that moment, he was lying on a crude plank bed, trying to sleep.

With the person he hated so deeply right nearby, he had a little trouble sleeping.

His memories involuntarily returned to the day he encountered the Eight-Eyed Ice Weird Spider.

At noon that day.

The fleet had found a small island and gone ashore to gather supplies.

He had wanted to find an opportunity to pick somewhere on the island far from everyone else and secretly share the system's secret with Su Miaomiao.

Thinking back now, that idea had been absurdly strange! So absurd that it was nothing like something his personality would have allowed him to do.

With his normal personality... he would never have revealed the system and exposed himself to unnecessary danger, even under pain of death.

Yet that day, he really had thought that way...

As luck would have it, Su Miaomiao had also said she had a secret to tell him.

She had even arranged for him to wait for her behind a reef on the other side of the island at four thirty.

Qin Mao had arrived on time, but no matter how long he waited, she never came.

He had waited there until five.

It's almost five. Why isn't Miaomiao here yet?

Just as he grew anxious, three deafening blasts of a horn made him jump.

Hoooo-

Hoooo-

Hoooo--

Two short blasts and one long, ringing across the island. It was the fleet's signal for immediate evacuation.

What?! Didn't they say we were leaving at six...?

The thought had barely formed when the ground shook, the violent jolt nearly knocking him over.

He looked up and saw a sight he would never forget.

A bizarre ice spider, seven or eight stories tall, was advancing toward the shore where the fleet was moored.

The fleet members were racing desperately aboard with the coconuts, fresh water, and other supplies they had gathered.

Despite all the strange horrors he had seen over those three months, the one before him still left him thinking, Holy shit.

Its eight spider legs were piles of human legs and arms mixed with ice. It had eight glowing green eyes as big as lanterns, and all sorts of fish and human torsos were embedded in the chaotic, irregular ice crystals covering its body.

Bloated, frigid, twisted, it looked as though countless corpses had been forcibly piled together and frozen in a cold-storage room.

Drooling, the monster would take a couple of steps before suddenly lunging forward. Its enormous mouthparts split open, swallowing the rocks, dirt, and people before it in one bite. Then it continued onward, leaving only a tooth-marked crater two or three meters across.

After staring blankly for two and a half seconds, he cried out in alarm, because among the fleeing crowd, he had spotted Su Miaomiao, who should have been meeting him in secret.

I have to save her!

-To the present-day Qin Mao, this was another utterly absurd decision.

At the time, he had not even bothered asking why she had broken their agreement. He hurried after her, completely disregarding the Eight-Eyed Ice Weird Spider that had already closed in.

But just as he helped lift the supplies and pulled Su Miaomiao along toward the ship, the woman gave him a vicious shove.

"Qin Mao, quietly dying right now is the most valuable thing you can do for me!"

"Thank you... for helping me so much along the way!"

The memory cut off abruptly.

Qin Mao thought for a long time. There were many things he could not make sense of.

First, the system.

You never flaunted your wealth. How could he possibly tell anyone about something he depended on for survival, something that might get him killed if exposed?!

Never mind companions he had only known for three months in the apocalypse,

he could not tell even his own parents that he had a system! What had he been thinking?

Then there was his later attempt to risk his life to save Su Miaomiao.

That was far too abnormal.

First of all, Qin Mao did not think he was that noble.

Second, he was not that brave.

Lastly, he was not that stupid.

That idiotic rescue attempt, practically handing over his own life... did not fit his personality at all.

Thinking it over carefully now, it was nothing like him. Nothing like something he would do.

Yet he had done exactly that!

Could it be... that something's off about Su Miaomiao?

Qin Mao quietly made a mental note.

He would definitely get revenge, but he could not afford to be caught off guard.

Still thinking, Qin Mao drifted into a deep sleep.

Having gone to sleep too late the night before, Qin Mao did not wake until eight thirty in the morning.

He got up, hastily wiped his face with water from the simple fresh water collector, ate a few snow rice crackers, and checked his physical condition.

The wound on his left shoulder had stopped bleeding, but the gash was too large and showed no signs of healing. He still could not move his arm.

The three wounds from the Cable Blood Leech's bites had already scabbed over and seemed to be nothing serious.

As soon as he stepped out of the cabin, he saw many survivors gathered along the rails and bows of the three large ships, pointing at the Eerie Coconut and discussing something.

It felt like an outsider entering a village and being curiously watched and discussed by the old women at the village entrance. It made Qin Mao rather uncomfortable.

He was about to turn back into the cabin when Yan Qi called out to him.

"Hey, fren! Ship! That one!"

As he spoke, he pointed at the ship on the far right, where Yang Fan was.

Qin Mao made an okay gesture, stepped onto the wooden ladder beside the ship, and climbed with one hand.

His gaze swept quickly across the crowd, and he spotted Su Miaomiao among them, her eyes full of disbelief.

Woman, die!

Enemies saw red the moment they met.

Rage surged through Qin Mao, and he immediately prepared to charge over and hack the woman to pieces.

But the next instant, a surge of mental power struck him.

His thoughts were involuntarily interfered with and controlled, making him want to let the woman go.

Although that mental control was immediately nullified by the mental resistance of the [Free Person] ability, [Yearning for Freedom],

it still made Qin Mao pause briefly.

He suddenly calmed down.

He walked away as though nothing had happened.

So this woman... is a Sequence Transcendent too?!

She hid it so well! I spent three months with her and never noticed a thing!

What sequence is she? What abilities does she have?

Many things that had previously seemed strange and inexplicable suddenly made sense.

Qin Mao chose not to turn hostile on the spot.

Instead, he followed the intent of that mental control and ignored Su Miaomiao.

For one thing, he had only just become a Transcendent and still had little foundation. For another, he did not understand Su Miaomiao's abilities. Acting rashly could get him caught off guard.

And there was one more thing...

Remembering Su Miaomiao's greed and ruthlessness, he sneered, feeling that one particular plan could not be more suitable right now.

Meanwhile, aboard the Yaximu, Su Miaomiao was utterly horrified as she wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.

That was close. Why does he have a Transcendent aura?!

How could he have become a Transcendent after just a few days apart?!

Good thing I had mental guidance and used his hatred to divert his thoughts. Otherwise, I would've been in danger just now...

I don't know how long the mental guidance will last... No, I have to keep reinforcing it. I can't let him attack me!

Soon, Qin Mao boarded the ship and stood on deck, looking at the two men and one woman welcoming him.

The most eye-catching person on the left was undoubtedly the young woman in her early twenties. She wore a burgundy outdoor jacket and hot pants, and held an ordinary black-covered notebook in her left hand.

Her figure was slender and graceful, her curves soft and lovely. Her long, perfectly proportioned legs were astonishingly alluring, inspiring involuntary admiration.

Though conditions in the apocalypse were harsh and everyone looked bedraggled, they still could not hide her radiance. Especially memorable were her toothy smile on that sweet face, her bright eyes, her two distinct dimples, and her little pointed canine teeth.

"Hello! My name is Ye Xuanyin. I'm a Transcendent of the Oracle Healer sequence and captain of the [Rose], the ship in the middle. Welcome aboard!"

With a sweet smile, the young woman shook Qin Mao's hand.

Was she some school's campus beauty? So sweet. Not just her looks, but her voice too, like that blogger on a certain site who was famous for her little pointed canine teeth.

She looks like a very innocent girl! That was Qin Mao's first impression of Ye Xuanyin.

Yan Qi, on the right, also took a step forward.

This fellow had rather distinctive looks too. It was Qin Mao's first time seeing him from so close, and he felt thoroughly inferior.

A high, straight nose, deep, melancholy eyes, thick eyebrows, and lips neither too thin nor too full, paired with a strongly exotic appearance-he was simply more handsome than most male celebrities.

Qin Mao did not think he was ugly either. He had even been the best-looking guy in his college class, and his looks could just about count as above average. But beside this man, he felt somewhat ashamed of his own appearance.

However, the moment the man opened his mouth with "Hey, fren," the handsome illusion shattered.

"Hey, fren, I'm Yan Qi, Undead Bone Master sequence. The [Yaximu] on the right, mine! Welcome!"

Finally, the ordinary, thin boy in the middle, who looked the youngest yet occupied center position, naturally extended his hand toward Qin Mao. "Hello."

"My name is Yang Fan. Yang Fan, as in setting sail. Navigator sequence, captain of this ship, the [Hope]."

"And leader of the Hope Fleet."

"Welcome aboard!"