The Tier 7 zombie was dead, but the central area was still packed with an endless tide of zombies.
As usual, a broad and open path cleared before Su Su.
By the time she returned to the three-story building, the group of twenty to thirty ability users who had been resisting the zombie horde had dwindled to only a handful. Among them, the most conspicuous figure was none other than the 200-plus-pound Guo Yingjun.
His abilities seemed to be nearly depleted. If they delayed for even another quarter of an hour, these few people would be completely swallowed by the zombie tide.
Su Su’s appearance made Guo Yingjun’s despairing eyes light up.
“Miss Zhou!!!”
His cry was laced with three parts shrillness, three parts grief, and four parts excitement—it was clear he had just spotted a lifeline.
“Save us, Miss Zhou! Hurry and save us!”
As the white light spread to their front, the raging zombie horde instantly halted.
They were saved.
Realizing this, Guo Yingjun collapsed from exhaustion. Ignoring the filth around him, he plopped down onto the ground. He didn’t even have the energy to pull out the severed zombie limb beneath his backside.
“Thank goodness… we made it out alive…”
Su Su walked unhurriedly along the “broad path” that the zombie tide had cleared for her.
The few who were slumped on the ground stared blankly at her figure, as well as at the terrifying snake man trailing behind her.
The moment his gaze swept over them—even if it was just a fleeting glance—everyone’s scalps instantly tingled with numbness, as if their spirits had been transported straight to a funeral hall.
Xuan Mang paid no attention to the reactions of these insignificant insects.
His mind was already filled with the words “break up” and “turning back into a companion.”
At this moment, he was like a lost soul, wandering behind the female, unable to question her, unable to interject—because he knew she still had other matters to attend to.
Su Su stood before Guo Yingjun, sweeping her gaze around. “Where are the others?”
The only ones left here were a few Tier 5 ability users, and Guo Yingjun, who had just advanced to Tier 6 that afternoon.
Where were Ding Zhengyang and Luo Hong?
At the mention of this, Guo Yingjun gritted his teeth in hatred. “When the zombie tide surged in, they were still willing to hold the front line, but when they realized that the horde was endless, those bastards pushed us out and ran!”
Ding Zhengyang, Luo Hong, the Tier 6 ability users under them, and even Gao Yan—those cowardly bastards!
The way they fled, their speed and posture, was exactly the same as the day S City fell!
“Ding Zhengyang and Luo Hong ran first, but Gao Yan is a speed-type ability user. He ran the fastest. Before I could even react, only a few of us were left here.”
Guo Yingjun spoke while pounding his chest in fury.
“A bunch of worthless cowards! That S City had such ability users is the greatest misfortune of all!”
He spoke with great passion, filled with tragic heroism, as if he would burst into heartbroken tears the very next moment.
Su Su remained indifferent.
She wouldn’t be fooled by Guo Yingjun’s act, thinking he was some kind of good person.
This guy simply hadn’t had the chance to run. If he had, he would have definitely been right on Ding and Luo’s heels, his fat shaking as he scrambled to be the third one out.
Guo Yingjun cursed for quite a while before sneaking a glance at Su Su, only to realize that this young and beautiful woman had a heart of stone!
It seemed Miss Zhou wasn’t buying into his act.
He wiped his face and decided to save his energy and get straight to the point: “Miss Zhou, what should we do next? There are so many zombies. Even with you here holding the line, if we keep fighting endlessly, we’ll just exhaust ourselves to death first!”
Su Su still didn’t respond.
She gazed around for a moment.
The dense sea of zombies stretched out endlessly, almost without a visible end.
But reclaiming this city wasn’t her goal. The Grade 7 crystal had already gone into Xuan Mang’s stomach—her mission for this trip was complete.
She had no attachment to this place.
“I’m leaving.”
“Good!” Guo Yingjun was the first to start clapping. “I’ll go with Miss Zhou! Wherever you go, I go!”
Su Su’s gaze landed on the others.
Guo Yingjun immediately caught on and took the initiative to act as the boss’s assistant. “And what about you guys? Are you going to find your own captain, or are you coming with us?”
Their captain… had long since abandoned them and fled.
The remaining people let out two bitter chuckles before answering one after another, “We’ll go with you.”
Su Su said nothing more and turned to leave.
The zombies still surrounded them, and no one knew how long this “broad path” would remain open. Guo Yingjun didn’t dare to waste time. Supporting each other, he and the others hurriedly followed behind Su Su—no, to be precise, they trailed behind that vicious snake man, cautiously ensuring they didn’t fall behind.
Xuan Mang still paid no attention to the few insignificant insects behind him.
He followed closely beside the female, flicking out his forked tongue with careful precision. “Hiss—”
I will hold you.
Su Su slapped away the arm he extended toward her and politely replied, “We are just companions. Companions should have some boundaries. Things like hugging—it’s best if we don’t do that anymore.”
Hiss!!!
Xuan Mang stared at his arm in shock.
As if unwilling to accept this, he slithered a few steps forward again, but the female gave him no opportunity at all. The more he tested the waters, the colder her gaze became.
And so, the group cautiously left the “palace.”
Outside, only two cars remained.
Guo Yingjun immediately cursed, “Those damn bastards! They actually took our cars when they ran!”
He was so caught up in his outrage that he failed to notice the dismembered corpses not far away.
Su Su, however, found them somewhat familiar. After glancing a few more times, she recognized one. “That’s Gao Yan, isn’t it?”
“Gao Yan?”
Following her gaze, Guo Yingjun looked over. Based on the clothing, he finally recognized that the headless male corpse was indeed Gao Yan!
“How did he end up dead here???”
Seeing an old acquaintance die so miserably left an unpleasant feeling in his heart, even if the man had just betrayed them… After all, they had known each other for some time.
Guo Yingjun hesitated for a few seconds before finally stomping his foot and searching around for Gao Yan’s head. Finding it, he placed it back with the body—at least giving him a complete corpse.
“This must be Luo Hong’s doing. Such a clean wound—only his wind blades could have done it!”
“Gao Yan… sigh.”
Guo Yingjun couldn’t find anything else to say.
Su Su watched his actions without interrupting. Only when he was done did she nudge his heel with the tip of her shoe. “Go drive. I’ll ride in the same car as you.”
Xuan Mang, of course, would follow her, leaving the others to squeeze into the remaining vehicle.
The two cars finally drove off—heading in the opposite direction of S City.
With the Zombie King dead, all the remaining zombies lost control. The moment they caught the scent of the living, they would pursue them relentlessly, never stopping until death.
What should have been a perilous return journey became unexpectedly smooth under Su Su’s ability. The two cars drove as if through an empty wasteland, completely unimpeded.
The last traces of sadness in Guo Yingjun’s heart finally dissipated.
He cautiously glanced at the rearview mirror—
In the reflection sat Miss Zhou and the suddenly appearing, vicious snake man, who occupied nearly the entire backseat.
The two were sitting very close together, but the atmosphere between them was… strange.
If one looked closely, it could only be described as—
That snake man had been gazing deeply at Miss Zhou from start to finish, his tail restlessly twitching before quietly slithering toward—
Su Su suddenly lifted her head, catching Guo Yingjun red-handed in his act of peeking.
“Focus on driving. If you get into an accident, I’ll throw you out.”
To Guo Yingjun, “Miss Zhou” had always been a cold and formidable ability user, indifferent and reticent, with a temper that wasn’t exactly great. The moment she spoke, his gaze, as if it had been set on fire, snapped back to the road at lightning speed. He didn’t dare to sneak another glance.
“Ay, ay, okay, okay! I’m driving, I’m driving!”
The car returned to silence once again.
Su Su lowered her gaze and lifted her foot, kicking away the snake tail that had silently slithered over.
Xuan Mang’s breathing hitched.
He stared mournfully at the cold-hearted female who was so close yet seemed so distant.
“Hiss—”
No breaking up.
He didn’t want to break up. He didn’t want to be just companions.
His slender hand tried to grab the female’s hand—she avoided it.
His stubborn snake tail tip tried to coil around her ankle—she stepped on it.
Su Su shrank into the farthest right corner of the back seat, her small figure occupying the smallest possible space, as if she didn’t even want to touch Xuan Mang’s tail.
The strange atmosphere in the backseat made Guo Yingjun, sitting in the driver’s seat, feel like he was sitting on pins and needles.
He really wanted to say—why not let someone sit in the front seat instead?
Sigh.
Why did it feel like his entire 200-plus-pound body was radiating light?
Guo Yingjun let out a troubled sigh. Just as they were about to leave S City, he suddenly caught sight of a few familiar vehicles.
“Eh? Aren’t those our cars? Why are they stopped there?”
His words caught Su Su’s attention. As the window rolled down, she clearly saw the scene as they passed the vehicles—
Several familiar corpses lay sprawled outside the cars, while a frenzied zombie was trapped inside one of them.
Perhaps catching the scent of the living, the zombie inside began ramming violently against the car door.
A familiar face slammed into Su Su’s line of sight.
“Luo Hong?!” Guo Yingjun was the first to exclaim in recognition, then quickly identified the other bodies one by one. “Ding Zhengyang, Wang Zhe… Why are they all dead here?”
“Roar!!!”
The zombie inside the car continued to slam against the door. The fragile car door wobbled under the force—at this rate, it wouldn’t take long before it completely broke open.
Su Su instinctively turned to look at Xuan Mang.
The latter had been waiting for this glance.
Without needing words, he instinctively flicked out a wave of blue flames, instantly incinerating the zombie inside the car and the corpses scattered outside.
Only then did he eagerly look at the female.
Su Su had already withdrawn her gaze.
Xuan Mang’s eyes dimmed.
But he refused to give up. Seizing the moment, his hand silently reached over and clasped hers, his thumb subtly rubbing against her palm.
One second, two seconds, three seconds…
Only then did Su Su pull away.
A flicker of light passed through Xuan Mang’s eyes.
He didn’t blindly chase after her hand but instead retracted his own, silently savoring the delicate sensation he had just felt.
Hiss—
Familiar faces had died one after another, and in such an undignified manner. From the looks of it, a mix of unfortunate accidents and internal strife had led to their demise.
Even if Guo Yingjun wanted to feel sorrow, he simply couldn’t muster it.
Forget it—better to just keep driving.
—
In the latter half of the night, the car finally exited S City, reaching the desolate outskirts where not a single soul could be seen.
Having narrowly escaped death, the group was utterly exhausted. None of them had the energy to review the events of the mission. They scattered, some collapsing onto the grass, others slumping in the car. Though no one truly fell asleep, no one spoke, either.
Even if they weren’t entirely sure what they had encountered in S City, once their minds cleared and their awareness returned, the most terrifying realization struck—
They had unknowingly eaten zombie meat for several days!
Just this one fact alone was enough to make the few remaining survivors tremble in horror. No matter how hungry they were, they suddenly found themselves unable to eat a single bite.
Some even wanted to vomit up the rotten zombie flesh festering in their stomachs!
The atmosphere outside was heavy and oppressive, but inside Su Su’s tent, it was another kind of eerie.
“We’ve already broken up. Now we’re just companions,” Su Su calmly emphasized. “So tonight, you’ll sleep in the sleeping bag on the left. If you dare to cross this line—”
She placed a small night lamp exactly in the middle of the two sleeping bags.
“I won’t acknowledge you anymore.”
Xuan Mang stared at the small night lamp, his vertical pupils reflecting a dangerous glint under the dim yellow light.
If a timid person had been here, they would have immediately moved the night lamp aside.
But Su Su remained indifferent.
There was a time when she had feared Xuan Mang’s viciousness, but she gradually adapted. Now, she could even outright ignore it.
“Go to sleep.”
Su Su crawled into her sleeping bag, leaving only half of her head exposed.
Hiss—
The hissing sound was filled with grievance and sorrow, like a husband abandoned outside the door.
Yet, Xuan Mang didn’t get into his sleeping bag. He stayed curled up at the edge of Su Su’s, his tail tip resting exactly in line with the night lamp—not crossing the boundary but always prepared to.
Su Su forced herself to close her eyes.
But the moment she did, all she could see was the image of Xuan Mang standing in front of the Tier 7 zombie.
At that moment, she had truly felt hurt.
What if he had really picked up that zombie? What if he had turned his blade against her? What if…
When it happened, she had been calm and rational enough to understand Xuan Mang’s choice. But after it was all over, she had gotten irrationally angry with him.
She tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Even the air felt thinner.
Frustrated, Su Su abruptly sat up and crawled out of her sleeping bag.
But the moment she did, she saw Xuan Mang still stationed by the night lamp outside.
It seemed he hadn’t moved at all, his massive body pitifully curled up in the narrow space, his unwavering gaze locked onto her sleeping bag the entire time.
He looked like the one being bullied.
Su Su bit her lip. “If you think the space is too small, then change back to your original form.”
As for his human form… She could still sense the Grade 7 crystal inside him—he hadn’t fully absorbed it yet. Besides, everyone had only theorized that reaching Tier 7 would allow a complete transformation, but no one had ever confirmed it.
Su Su chose not to dwell on the matter. She had long since gotten used to the non-human version of Ah Xuan.
“Go back and sleep!”
Xuan Mang didn’t move.
He refused to return to his original form, refused to get back into his sleeping bag, his snake body stubbornly coiled beside the night lamp.
Seeing how completely impervious he was to reason, Su Su fumed. “Sleep or don’t, I don’t care!”
She burrowed back into her sleeping bag, this time pulling it over her head entirely.
As her thoughts drifted in a chaotic mess, she somehow slipped into a state of half-sleep, half-wakefulness.
Until she, along with her sleeping bag, was pulled into a broad embrace.
A low, unfamiliar voice murmured against her ear: “No breaking up.”
“I don’t want to be just companions.”
A venomous snake that had long since awakened to emotions had finally waited for this moment of confession.
“Su Su.”
“Su——Su——”
“Su Su.”
The name, spoken with lingering unfamiliarity, was repeated again and again beside Su Su’s half-dreaming, half-awake ears—until it was finally pronounced with absolute precision.
“Love me.”