Cold-blooded, ferocious, wriggling.
A scarlet snake tongue flickered slowly, as if it had already locked onto its prey.
Su Su’s scalp tingled, and she didn’t dare to move a muscle.
She was afraid that if she so much as twitched, the black snake would lunge at her in an instant and sink its fangs into her.
After all, it had just been grabbed by Wu Zhi… Given the inherently vengeful nature of cold-blooded creatures, it might have already marked her as an “enemy” too.
The snake’s body, hanging from the tree branch, stretched longer and longer, drawing closer and closer to the human on the ground.
“Don’t bite me…”
Unknowingly, Su Su’s eyes had welled up with tears of fear, and her body instinctively shifted backward.
“Hiss… hiss…”
Just as the danger loomed ever closer, a sudden cry rang out behind her.
“Someone’s here!”
A burst of noise and footsteps flooded into the forest. The black snake, harboring ill intent, abruptly recoiled into the treetops, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
The beam of a flashlight swept over.
The leading ability user was the first to spot Wu Zhi’s corpse—his eyes wide open, his forehead darkened with a bluish hue, his death an unwilling one.
“This…”
“What happened?” Lin Weiran pushed aside the underbrush, and the next second, her expression turned particularly grim. “Wu Zhi is dead?”
She instinctively looked toward Su Su, who was collapsed on the ground with reddened eyes, and her tone unconsciously hardened.
“What happened? Why is Wu Zhi dead?”
The inevitable questioning had arrived after all.
Su Su hugged her knees, her tone devoid of emotion: “He was bitten by a venomous snake.”
“How could that be?” Lin Weiran frowned, somewhat skeptical.
Si Zhe, who was standing beside her, crouched down, scanning Wu Zhi’s corpse before precisely locating the leg where his pants had been rolled up.
“There are indeed bite marks from a snake on his leg.”
“What kind of snake has venom that strong? It killed Wu Zhi before he could even make a sound?”
Lin Weiran pursed her lips, feeling uneasy.
There were a total of seven ability users in the group, but only four were at the Tier 2—herself, Si Zhe, Wu Zhi, and Zhao Zhenyu.
On their journey south to escape, Wu Zhi’s strength-based ability had been immensely helpful. With a swing of his baseball bat, nine out of ten zombies had their heads smashed in, and the last one had its head sent flying.
Her fire ability and Si Zhe’s lightning ability were powerful, but they drained energy quickly in the early stages, making their attacks rather limited…
Thinking of this, Lin Weiran’s mood turned particularly sour.
The one who couldn’t hold back his temper was Zhao Zhenyu.
Zhao Zhenyu glared fiercely at Su Su. “What’s wrong with you? Wu Zhi was bitten by a snake, and you didn’t think to call for help? We were all just outside the forest. If you’d shouted even once, we might have been able to save him!”
Su Su remained silent.
At this, Lin Weiran also felt dissatisfied. When she looked at her cousin, her gaze was filled with deep disappointment and misplaced anger.
“Why didn’t you call for help?”
It was the exact same question as in her past life.
Su Su was momentarily dazed. How had she responded back then?
Back then, with a swollen, bruised face, she had clung to the last shred of hope, praying that these people would take her side.
—”He tried to violate me.”
“He tried to violate me.” Su Su still uttered the same words, only this time, her tone was eerily calm. “But before he could succeed, he was bitten by a venomous snake.”
She even smiled.
“It was the very black snake he had just caught. It came back for revenge.”
With those two sentences, the entire scene fell into dead silence.
“What nonsense?! Wu Zhi would need to force himself on you?” Zhao Zhenyu sneered, his face full of mockery. “Do you think this is still before the apocalypse, where you get to pick and choose your men? He’s a Tier-2 ability user. He could have any woman he wanted! Who knows if it was you who clung to him, begging him to take you into the forest, trying to trade for benefits? And now that he’s dead, you’re trying to push the blame onto him!”
His words resonated with several of the ability users, and suspicious gazes turned toward Su Su.
They were ability users. She was just an ordinary person—the kind that was the easiest to die. No amount of explanation would matter.
Su Su fell silent, like a mute, refusing to say another word.
Seeing her reaction, Zhao Zhenyu’s anger only grew. “Weiran! Your cousin got Wu Zhi killed—there has to be some consequence. If we don’t deal with this, we should just throw her out. A woman with such malicious intentions staying in the group… Who knows when she’ll end up getting all of us killed!”
From the moment Su Su uttered the word “violate,” Lin Weiran had gone silent.
“…Forget it.”
“What do you mean, forget it?”
“She didn’t do it on purpose. No one expected Wu Zhi to die from a snake bite.” Lin Weiran pressed her lips together. “Zhenyu, do me a favor and let this go.”
Zhao Zhenyu exhaled sharply through his nose. He held his frustration in for a few seconds before finally conceding.
“Fine. Since she’s your cousin, I won’t argue with her.”
The farce ended, and the others gradually left the forest.
Su Su struggled to her feet and began walking out.
As she passed by Lin Weiran, the latter called out, “Wait…”
Su Su pretended not to hear, keeping her head down as she walked straight out of the forest, blending back into the group of ordinary people.
Lin Weiran’s lips pressed into a tighter line. She instinctively turned to look at Si Zhe, who had been standing beside her the entire time.
“Did I make a mistake?”
“Maybe she didn’t like Wu Zhi, and yet I made Wu Zhi get close to her…”
“Don’t overthink it.” Si Zhe raised a hand and gently rubbed the top of her head. “Wu Zhi is already dead. None of this matters anymore.”
“You’re right.” Lin Weiran let out a breath, her tone resigned. “Honestly, I haven’t seen this cousin in years. Sometimes, I really don’t know what’s going on in her head. Wu Zhi… maybe if she had just called for help in time, he wouldn’t have died.”
“It’s just one less fighter. Do you not trust me?” Si Zhe lightly grasped her palm. “Even if I were the only one left, I could still get you safely to the southern base.”
Lin Weiran’s face turned red.
“Of course I trust you.”
—
Once everyone had left, the forest returned to its eerie silence.
Under the cover of night, no one noticed the black snake coiled around a thick tree trunk.
It slowly poked its head out from behind the tree, its vertical pupils shifting as it once again fixed its gaze on the direction where the group had gathered.
After a moment, the underbrush suddenly rustled violently, as if something had just slipped past.
In the team, someone’s backpack hadn’t been properly secured, leaving a gaping opening.
A cold-blooded creature from the darkness slithered in, slow and stealthy.
—
The next day, the team resumed their journey.
Having gone an entire day and night without food, Su Su was so hungry that she hunched over, her back curled inward.
Finally, they arrived at the next service area.
The roar of car engines attracted the zombies lingering in the rest stop. They swarmed forward, charging at the convoy in waves.
“Zhao Zhenyu, take the others and clear out the zombies outside. Si Zhe and I will handle the ones inside! We’ll regroup at the convenience store later!”
“Got it!”
Four ability users stayed outside, led by the Tier-2 Zhao Zhenyu. A few dozen low-level zombies were no match for them.
Among the ordinary people in the convoy, some strong men and women also picked up weapons to fight off stray zombies.
Zombies had energy cores in their brains. Ability users could consume them to strengthen their powers, while ordinary people could only trade them for supplies.
Su Su remained motionless in the group of “old, weak, sick, and disabled” individuals.
She had once been one of those who fought to kill zombies, teaming up with weaker women. If luck was on their side, they could even take down a stray zombie.
“Su Su? Aren’t you going to fight?” A companion tugged at her sleeve in confusion. “Last night’s matter… well, they’re letting it go. Staying alive is what matters most.”
Staying alive is what matters most?
She had struggled for four years in the apocalypse, only to die in the end anyway.
Soon, the zombies outside the service area were cleared.
The ability users, pleased with their success, headed toward the convenience store. The ordinary people remained where they were, waiting for them to finish collecting supplies before searching for whatever was left behind—an unspoken rule of the group. It was also one of the reasons Lin Weiran and her team tolerated so many people trailing behind them.
“By the way,” Zhao Zhenyu suddenly turned back, his gaze locking precisely onto Su Su in the crowd, his tone dripping with implication. “Some people who don’t contribute shouldn’t even be allowed into the convenience store. If anyone lacks self-awareness and dares to sneak in for supplies, don’t blame me for throwing them out.”
No one said a word.
Everyone knew exactly who he was talking about.
Zhao Zhenyu disappeared into the convenience store, while the others deliberately avoided it, preparing to search elsewhere.
The only ones left by the convoy were the old, weak, sick, and disabled.
Suddenly, Su Su, who had been like an invisible person since last night, stood up, drawing quite a few gazes.
She didn’t explain anything. In full view of everyone, she walked into the service area.
Hunger twisted her stomach in painful cramps. This time, she made a completely different choice from her past life.
Why shouldn’t she be allowed to search?
She was going in.
If she couldn’t go to the convenience store, she could go somewhere else.
Su Su randomly picked a building. The door wouldn’t open. Peering through the window, she saw that the room was neat and tidy—it seemed to be an employee workspace.
No zombies inside.
With her head spinning and legs feeling weak, she climbed in through the window.
She rummaged through drawers and cabinets for a long while before finally discovering two packs of instant noodles at the very bottom of a filing cabinet.
A faint light flickered in her numb eyes. She grabbed a pack, tore it open, and shoved a handful into her mouth.
Crunch. Crunch.
She chewed instinctively, forcing down the dry noodles. The crushed pieces scratched her throat as she swallowed, but finally, her stomach had something in it. The dizziness from hunger faded slightly, and her mind cleared.
Now that she could think straight again, she took in her surroundings.
From this angle, she noticed a dusty, half-eaten pack of instant noodles in a dim corner. The once non-perishable noodles had discolored, as if they had been abandoned for a long time.
And the locked door—it was bolted from the inside.
Su Su suddenly stopped chewing, realizing something was wrong.
At that exact moment, an overwhelming sense of danger stabbed into her spine.
She instinctively dodged to the side.
Bang!
A zombie crashed violently into the desk!
“Roar!”
It quickly got back up, its shriveled arms lunging straight for Su Su with precise, deadly accuracy.
No way to dodge!
Su Su watched in horror as the zombie pounced toward her with unnatural speed. Its ghastly pale face was twisted in a feral snarl, rotting fangs bared, desperate to sink into living flesh.
“Get away—!”
She screamed, and in that moment of sheer survival instinct, the dazzling white light flashed again—piercing into the zombie’s body like a lightning strike.
Like a scene frozen in a movie, the zombie’s movements abruptly halted.
Su Su hesitated for only a second before grabbing the chair beside her with all her strength and slamming it down on the stiffened zombie—once, twice, three times…
Until its head was smashed into pulp.
A transparent crystal core tumbled out from the shattered skull.
Su Su’s hands froze mid-motion, her gaze fixed blankly on the crystal.
The low-level zombies outside the service area only had unranked miscellaneous crystal cores in their heads. Those could be absorbed by any ability user, but their energy was weak and didn’t significantly aid advancement.
But this one—this was a Grade 1 crystal core.
With just three Grade 1 crystal cores, a newly awakened ability user could instantly advance to Tier 1.
Without a moment of hesitation, Su Su quickly picked up the crystal.
Only after tucking it into her pocket did she recall what had just happened—that flash of white light was definitely not her imagination!
What was it?
Could it be… an ability?