As the two began conversing, several unfamiliar heads gradually emerged from the other vehicles.
Judging by their appearances, they didn’t seem like easygoing people.
Su Su had no intention of traveling together with them.
However, before she could refuse, Guo Yingjun had already discerned her rejection and quickly added, “We are ability users who escaped from S City. Our old base was overrun, so we had no choice but to establish a new one. But the location we chose for the new base was rather poor—we’ve suffered more than ten zombie waves in just over a month… In this desperate situation, we happened to hear that a few other new bases were planning to join forces to reclaim the old base. So, we decided to head over and lend a hand.”
“Look, we’re veterans who are familiar with the old base, and we also have quite a few people. You’re alone and outnumbered—why not join us? It would benefit both sides, don’t you think?”
How should she put it? This guy was barely sincere—at least he had explained his purpose upon meeting her.
But Su Su had also caught onto the part he was hiding.
She deliberately asked, “I heard that a few mid-sized bases received support from the Scientific Research Guild and set off days ago. Why are you guys so slow?”
Guo Yingjun let out an awkward chuckle.
He realized that this female ability user before him had quite an extensive source of information. He immediately forced a smile and admitted his mistake, “My bad, my bad. I didn’t finish my explanation. Our base… isn’t very strong. We reached out to those bases earlier, hoping to cooperate, but they had enough manpower, so… so they rejected us.”
“Oh, really?”
Since he had already said this much, Guo Yingjun simply came clean, “To be honest, in our team, we only have one Tier 6 speed-type ability user. The rest of us, including myself, are at most Tier 5.”
Su Su understood.
With this level of strength, they didn’t even qualify as a mid-sized base. At best, they were just a small base with a Tier 6 ability user as their strongest member.
It was no surprise that they had been rejected—S City was a sea of corpses, and having an additional high-tier ability user meant a greater chance of survival. The other bases wouldn’t turn down a Tier 6 ability user… However, in the current era of widespread zombie evolution, speed-type abilities were easily countered by ranged abilities. If restricted, they could barely handle zombies of the same tier, let alone deal with powerful Tier 5 zombies.
Moreover, since the Scientific Research Guild had already dispatched personnel, there was no need to bring in a few more small bases to divide an already limited pie.
Su Su fell into brief contemplation.
Should she pretend to join them?
Traveling alone to S City was convenient, but it also made her an easy target. Blending into an inconspicuous team would help her reduce her presence to some extent.
Perhaps sensing her hesitation, Guo Yingjun pressed on, “Miss, we may not be able to obtain Grade 7 crystals, but we can still get a share of the spoils. If you join us and we successfully reclaim territory in S City, even if the other bases refuse to acknowledge our contributions, they’ll have no choice but to. At that time, we can negotiate for greater benefits and establish our own foothold in S City as a new power!”
Su Su finally understood.
So the S City base was governed by multiple forces—no wonder it fell so quickly when the zombie horde arrived.
With that thought, she feigned deep contemplation for a few seconds before finally nodding, “You’re right. There’s strength in numbers. I can join you.”
Before Guo Yingjun could express his delight, the beautiful female ability user added, “But I’m a Tier 6 time-type ability user, making me the strongest in your team. I get the lion’s share of any loot we seize.”
Guo Yingjun’s dissatisfaction didn’t even have time to surface before it was completely replaced by joy. “You’re a Tier 6 ability user?!”
Su Su nodded with an air of arrogance. “That’s right.”
She was imitating Ah Xuan’s expression.
It must have been quite a good imitation—otherwise, the guy opposite wouldn’t be looking at her like he had just picked up a gold nugget, his joy overflowing while his respect and apprehension deepened.
Guo Yingjun never expected that with a casual invitation, he would end up recruiting a Tier 6 ability user!
Who would have thought? He had only wanted to bring in a few more Tier 5 ability users, relying on numbers to snatch a slice of the pie.
Guo Yingjun, oh Guo Yingjun, your luck really isn’t bad! First, he managed to recruit a Tier 6 speed-type ability user, and now he had found a Tier 6 time-type ability user! Lowering his stance really did help him gather talent!
“Alright! When the time comes, all the loot will be yours to pick from first! By the way, I haven’t asked for your name yet, Miss?”
Su Su casually made up a surname. “My surname is Zhou.”
“Got it! Then, Miss Zhou, from today onward, we’re a team!”
After lunch, Su Su declined Guo Yingjun’s enthusiastic invitation and continued driving her own off-road vehicle, naturally blending into the second row of his convoy.
From the rear window, she caught sight of the newly joined vehicles behind.
In the back seat of one of them, a man’s expression turned particularly grim.
“Guo Yingjun, you’re giving the biggest share to her. What am I supposed to get?”
“Brother Yan, calm down, calm down.” Guo Yingjun gently patted Gao Yan’s chest, all smiles as he coaxed him. “She’s Tier 6, you’re also Tier 6. Now that our team has two Tier 6 ability users, are you still afraid that the other bases will cast us aside? As long as they can’t shake us off, we’ll be able to take advantage of the chaos and snatch plenty of benefits. When that happens, I promise I won’t play favorites—she’ll get the biggest share, you’ll get the second largest, and the others will just get a little leftover scrap. We’ll expand the cake first, and once we reclaim S City’s base, our good days will be ahead of us!”
Gao Yan looked up and saw Guo Yingjun’s plump face hovering just a few centimeters away. His beady eyes blinked at him, and his pudgy hand remained pressed firmly against his chest…
He took a deep breath and shoved the hand away in disgust.
“If you want to talk, just talk. Why all this weird touching? Trying to gross me out?”
A deadweight of over two hundred pounds, and he still hadn’t lost any weight in the apocalypse. What an eyesore.
Guo Yingjun, unfazed by Gao Yan’s bad temper, withdrew his hand and sighed internally.
Still lost out because of his looks.
If he had been a beauty, a little coaxing like this would have completely soothed Gao Yan’s temper.
Even if he weren’t a woman—just a better-looking man—it would still work! In the apocalypse, no one was that particular anymore!
Guo Yingjun deeply regretted that he couldn’t benefit from his appearance.
Winning people over was so much harder.
Gao Yan dusted off his clothes and muttered irritably, “My ability isn’t enough to compete with hers. For now, at this critical moment, I can lower my head. But I absolutely won’t let her keep pressing me down forever.”
“Of course! Brother Yan, we escaped from S City together—how could some random woman compare to that bond?”
Only then did Gao Yan feel a little more satisfied.
—
After traveling together for a day, Su Su could already feel the hostility from that Tier 6 speed-type ability user, Gao Yan.
It wasn’t worth worrying about.
She had no intention of actually partnering with them to seize territory—this was merely a surface-level alliance while maintaining her own agenda.
Su Su ignored Gao Yan’s hostility and continued to reject Guo Yingjun’s constant attempts at currying favor.
She ate alone by the fire, set up her tent alone, and, under the dim glow of the electronic lamp, saw Ah Xuan—now in a half-human form, wearing a flower crown—sneak into her bed.
The next morning, the convoy set off again.
Su Su plucked a few withered petals and blades of grass from her hair and gazed into the distance.
S City had arrived.
All the vehicles came to a halt at the city’s edge, and everyone gathered around Guo Yingjun.
Pointing at the bridge that spanned the river, he said, “The information I received states that the Tier 7 zombie’s range of activity is in the city center. The New S City Alliance’s initial plan was to charge directly into the center, swiftly encircle and eliminate that Tier 7 zombie first, then deal with all the Tier 6 zombies. Once the horde is left leaderless, they’ll lure the ordinary zombies north into a neighboring city.”
“A while ago, they dispatched a good number of earth- and metal-type ability users to construct a makeshift defensive wall in the nearby city. Once the zombie horde is drawn in, the ability users serving as bait will retreat, leaving the entire horde trapped there. That way, S City can be successfully reclaimed.”
“If we want a piece of the action, we must get to the city center as soon as possible. They may have arrived a day or two ahead of us, but there’s no way they’ve solved this tricky problem so quickly. They might not have even found the Tier 7 zombie yet—meaning we still have a huge opportunity!”
Guo Yingjun pulled out a map and roughly sketched several routes. “These are the main paths to the city center. If we encounter any obstacles that prevent us from proceeding, we’ll immediately switch routes to avoid getting trapped. Is everyone clear on this?”
“Clear!”
No wonder he had what it took to be a leader. Although his strength was somewhat lacking, and his face was a bit thicker than most, his intelligence network was vast, and his planning was meticulous. It was no surprise he could sustain a small base and even attract Tier 6 ability users.
Su Su stood at the front of the group, silently memorizing all the routes.
She also had a map, but it wasn’t as clear and intuitive as Guo Yingjun’s. If they were to get separated, finding her way could take a lot of time.
Guo Yingjun even smiled warmly, his tone amicable, as he asked Su Su, “Miss Zhou, do you have any thoughts?”
“No.” Su Su maintained her cold and aloof persona. “Your plan is solid.”
Guo Yingjun’s grin widened.
With a dramatic wave of his hand, the flesh on his body jiggled noticeably under everyone’s gaze. “Move out!”
The convoy drove straight into S City.
As they crossed the bridge, the number of zombies around them surged. Hearing the roar of the engines, they howled and lunged toward the vehicles.
The road ahead was blocked in the blink of an eye.
However, this team had a high level of coordination, and a barrage of abilities blasted through the zombie horde, forcefully carving out a path.
After advancing about ten kilometers, they encountered their first major obstacle—amidst the zombie horde ahead, a Tier 6 zombie had appeared!
With it leading the charge, all the lower-tier zombies went berserk, hurling themselves recklessly at the noisy “moving metal boxes.”
In an instant, the wide-open road was completely clogged.
Even worse, the Tier 6 zombie leapt high into the air, heading straight for them.
Inside the lead vehicle—
Guo Yingjun and Gao Yan’s faces paled.
But they had anticipated this scenario. Guo Yingjun immediately made a decisive call: “Take a detour—”
Before he could finish shouting the last word, something abruptly changed.
The frenzied horde suddenly froze in place, all movements ceasing at once.
Even the Tier 6 zombie, its fangs bared in mid-lunge, halted just two meters away—completely unable to move!
Everyone was momentarily stunned.
Then, the window of the second vehicle rolled down, and a crisp, cold voice rang out from inside: “What are you standing around for? Kill them!”
The group quickly snapped out of their daze.
The Tier 6 zombie under ‘time stop’ was slain, and the rest of the frozen zombies were mercilessly slaughtered, opening a path through the horde.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The convoy passed through the crisis unscathed.
Guo Yingjun’s face could barely contain his joy. If time weren’t pressing and they didn’t need to hurry forward, he might have run straight to Su Su and kissed the back of her hand—or even the top of her foot.
Too powerful!
Time-type abilities were simply too powerful!
With such a formidable expert in their ranks, not only could they secure a slice of S City’s resources—no! They might even seize the biggest share!
Meanwhile, Gao Yan, seated beside him, wore a much more complicated expression.
That scene just now had deeply driven home the sheer disparity between different abilities. His jealousy and resentment toward this newcomer had been largely ground away in that instant.
As they continued their journey, they encountered one or two more Tier 6 zombies.
However, none of their backup plans were ever needed—because Su Su consistently stepped in at the most critical moments, allowing the convoy to advance unhindered toward the city center.
Guo Yingjun’s words from before entering the city echoed in everyone’s minds—
“Once we actually reach the city center, our abilities will be nearly depleted. At that point, we shouldn’t run around aimlessly. Running into a Tier 7 zombie would be a death sentence.”
“So, head straight for this building—it was the most heavily fortified part of the old base. We can take shelter there and rest for a while. If we’re lucky, we might even run into the New S City Alliance there, saving us the trouble of searching for them.”
It was a solid plan.
But when the convoy drove into the city center, they found—
The entire area was eerily empty.
Not a single zombie could be seen in any direction!
What’s going on?
Had the newcomers already wiped out every single zombie in the inner city?