With Xiao Hei’s backpack now filled with medicine, Su Su had no choice but to carry the snake herself, struggling slightly under its heavy weight of several dozen pounds.
“We’re leaving.”
“Hey!”
Pang Cancan ran over excitedly, flashing a smug grin at Lin Weiran before reaching out to help carry the python from Su Su’s arms.
“Sister Su Su, if it’s too heavy, let me—ow!”
Before she could even touch it, the snake’s tail whipped her hand twice without mercy. (TL: Ugh, this is genuine snakeskin. Don’t touch what you can’t afford. – Xiao Hei, probably.)
With a regal air, the black snake coiled around Su Su’s neck, gazing down at the other annoying human. Even though its tail still dragged along the ground, it refused to let anyone else carry it.
Ignorant humans.
Pang Cancan: “……”
Alright, alright. Cold-blooded animals are all introverts, not fond of getting close to strangers.
She had no choice but to help carry Sister Su Su’s backpack, happily trailing behind as they ran out.
“Wait!”
Lin Weiran suddenly stepped in front of Su Su, deliberately avoiding eye contact with the terrifying giant python.
“Leave the medicine behind, and we’ll write off Wu Zhi’s death.”
She said it so matter-of-factly that Su Su was stunned for a few seconds before suddenly chuckling.
“Wu Zhi’s life—what does it have to do with me?”
Lin Weiran stared at her intensely, trying to force some guilt onto this unexpectedly “unfamiliar” cousin of hers, even if just a sliver.
“You killed him.”
“So what?”
“Leave the medicine, and I’ll pretend this never happened.”
Su Su curled her lips into a smirk. “Does Wu Zhi know his life was this cheap?”
Without waiting for Lin Weiran’s response, she directly shoved past her.
“Move.”
“You—!”
“If you don’t, don’t blame me for being rude.”
The tide had turned. Now it was Su Su’s turn to threaten Lin Weiran.
Sensing the tension, the black python had already stretched its head forward, its cold, eerie gaze locking onto the confrontation.
Lin Weiran gritted her teeth and stepped aside reluctantly.
This cousin of hers had absurdly good luck—even the python she randomly picked up turned out to have an ability. And now, she was flaunting her success like this…
She couldn’t stop her. She could only swallow her frustration and back down.
As she watched the two figures and the python disappear into the distance, Lin Weiran suddenly spoke up:
“Su Su, I truly regret it.”
“I regret that when Wu Zhi died, I actually spoke up for you.”
Looking back now, her moment of soft-heartedness felt utterly laughable. (TL: This hypocrisy is top-notch)
Laughable?
The words landed in Su Su’s ears just as ridiculously.
She didn’t pause for even a second and soon disappeared completely from the clinic.
“Weiran!”
Only then did Lin Weiran remember that her teammates were still trapped inside the fireball. She had no choice but to let the two go and focus on rescuing her team instead.
“Hold on a little longer! I’ll blast open a gap!”
The orange-red flames collided with the raging fireball, but instead of breaking through, they were instantly devoured by the blue flames, merging into the fireball as fuel.
“Weiran, is it done yet? If we don’t hurry, we’re going to be roasted alive!”
The anxious shouts of her teammates, combined with her failed attempts at breaking the fireball, made sweat drip from Lin Weiran’s forehead in large beads.
“Just wait a little longer… I will get you out!”
But this “wait a little longer” stretched on for several minutes, with no progress at all.
The teammate carrying Si Zhe finally collapsed to the ground, looking like a suckling pig being roasted in an oven.
Just as despair set in, a hand suddenly pressed on his shoulder.
Si Zhe had opened his eyes at some point. His voice was hoarse as he said, “Let me… try.”
Even saying just these three words took a noticeable effort.
White light flickered from his lightning ability. Using the last of his strength, Si Zhe blasted open a half-meter gap in the fireball.
The team was overjoyed. The teammate carrying him immediately crawled through the opening, stumbling out in a completely disheveled state.
The others followed closely behind. The last person, however, was too slow—just as they were crawling through, the blue flames closed back in, scorching their backside until the smell of cooked meat filled the air.
“Si Zhe! You’re awake?”
Lin Weiran rushed forward in delight, grabbing his hand. Her eyes reddened uncontrollably.
Si Zhe forced a weak smile. “Yeah… I’m awake. Don’t worry.”
Lin Weiran wiped the tears welling up at the corners of her eyes. “But I couldn’t stop Su Su! They took all the medicine!”
The group exchanged uneasy glances. “Then what do we do now?”
Si Zhe might be awake, but his injuries were still severe—there was no way he could just endure it.
Lin Weiran touched his forehead. It was burning hot.
There was no time to dwell on what had just happened. She made a quick decision.
“Let’s find another pharmacy! I refuse to believe we won’t find medicine!”
—
Inside the slowly moving off-road vehicle, Pang Cancan leaned forward, holding onto the seat in front of her, curiosity written all over her face.
“Sister Su Su, were those people just now your old acquaintances? Their attitude was terrible!”
Su Su was silent for a few seconds.
She wasn’t sure how to describe her relationship with Lin Weiran, Si Zhe, and the others.
“I traveled with them for a while.”
“They were ability users, and I hadn’t awakened my ability at the time. Eventually, we went our separate ways.”
A simple, matter-of-fact explanation.
But to Pang Cancan, it sounded like something entirely different.
She had personally witnessed the arrogant and self-righteous demeanor of that team, heard the way they spoke in such a grandiose, self-important manner. Their actions were no different from shameless bandits…
Sister Su Su was soft-spoken, gentle in nature, and had a good temper—she must have suffered a lot under them!
Pang Cancan was young but considered herself mature. At this moment, she was gazing at Sister Su Su’s side profile with an almost doting look. As she kept staring, a sudden hissing sound rang in her ears.
“!!!!”
A pair of deep emerald-green vertical pupils were staring at her coldly.
Pang Cancan awkwardly withdrew her gaze, mumbling under her breath, “What? I can’t even look now?”
This python was way too possessive! And way too human-like!
“Hiss!”
The black snake domineeringly draped its thick tail over Su Su’s thigh, wrapping possessively around her soft flesh, then bared its fangs at Pang Cancan in warning.
This was its human!
Stealing its servant’s attention was one thing, but staring at her with that weird look? Unacceptable!
As the black snake consumed more and more energy crystals, it was also absorbing more and more human emotions. It had become increasingly sensitive, especially toward outsiders like Pang Cancan, whom it instinctively rejected.
“Forget it.”
Pang Cancan pouted, leaned back into her seat, and casually glanced out the window.
“Huh? That car… isn’t that Lin Wenzong’s car?”
What she had spotted, Su Su also noticed at the same time.
However, Pang Cancan focused on Lin Wenzong and the others inside the vehicle, while Su Su’s attention was locked onto the old acquaintance sitting in the front passenger seat.
“Zhao. Zhen. Yu.”
Her eyes fixed intensely on the speeding vehicle ahead, a storm of confusion churning inside her.
What was going on?
Wasn’t Zhao Zhenyu supposed to be traveling with Lin Weiran’s group?
Why was he now with the very same ability users who had abandoned Pang Cancan?
Their speed… was way too fast!
The vehicle almost grazed past them as it sped by, but what was even stranger was that the people inside didn’t even glance their way—as if they hadn’t noticed who was sitting in the car next to them. Instead, they kept looking backward, their faces filled with panic and fear, as if… they were fleeing for their lives.
Pang Cancan mumbled Su Su’s exact thoughts: “Are they running for their lives?”
The eerie scene instantly put Su Su on high alert.
She pulled her gaze away and looked into the distance.
Moments later, she saw it.
A massive horde of zombies was surging in from all directions, a black tide of heads and bodies. Whether it was towering skyscrapers or old residential buildings, figures leaped and bounded between them—defying gravity.
A zombie horde! Another zombie horde!
That speeding car… was running from this!
Su Su yanked the steering wheel, making a sharp turn as she slammed the accelerator, chasing after the vehicle that had just flown past them.
“What’s going on? Why are there so many zombies all of a sudden? It’s not like every single zombie in X City just—”
She abruptly stopped.
Her gaze lifted, meeting Pang Cancan’s eyes in the rearview mirror.
Fear flashed across both their expressions at the same time.
What if… that’s exactly what happened?!
Su Su stomped on the gas, speeding after the car in front.
They absolutely could not get trapped in the city!
They absolutely could not let the zombie horde catch up!
“Cancan, keep an eye on the rear! Look for any powerful zombies leading the charge!”
Su Su was especially worried that a zombie king might have formed in such a massive horde. If one did appear, its speed would be more than enough to catch up to their car!
“Got it!”
Pang Cancan pressed herself against the rear window.
The wave of zombies crashed through the city like a flash flood, devouring everything in its path. The more she looked, the more terrified she became.
Suddenly, another vehicle entered her vision.
She squinted for a few seconds—then realized it was the very same group they had encountered at the clinic!
” Sister u Su! Your old acquaintances are back there too!”
“Hm.”
Su Su didn’t have the time to worry about Lin Weiran’s group. She was entirely focused on what lay ahead—only to see, without warning, the car in front suddenly swerve, slam its brakes, and crash into several scrapped vehicles, skidding into the right-side lane.
Why?!
Why weren’t they taking the road out of the city?
Why were they diving deeper into the city center?!
The moment confusion arose in Su Su’s mind, she saw it.
Ahead, the once-open roads—the main avenue, the sidewalks, the side streets—were being swarmed by more zombies, cutting off every possible route out of the city.
Screech—!
Su Su had no choice but to hit the brakes and swerve into the same right-hand lane as the vehicle ahead.
“Why are they here too?! Are they targeting us on purpose?!”
Pang Cancan’s head whipped around, scanning both the front and rear. Her mind was spinning—until suddenly, she spotted something ahead.
A fork in the road!
The first to enter the fork in the road, Lin Wenzong’s group, had stopped at the intersection, hesitating.
Pang Cancan decisively suggested, “Sister Su Su! Take the right path, go through the side road! There’s a sports stadium there—before the outbreak, it was closed for maintenance. We can hide inside for a while! The stadium is solidly built, and as long as we guard the entrance, we can hold out until the zombie horde moves on!”
“Alright.”
Su Su didn’t hesitate for even a second. She sped past the stopped vehicle, swerving directly into the right-hand alleyway.
—-
Lin Wenzong watched the unfamiliar off-road vehicle disappear into the side road. His eyes were bloodshot, the overwhelming pressure of the situation weighing heavily on him.
Instinctively, he turned to look at the man sitting in the front passenger seat—someone who was both a recently met teammate and the strongest ability user in the vehicle.
“What do we do? Do we follow them?”
Zhao Zhenyu wasn’t doing much better.
This zombie horde was even more terrifying than the one they had encountered on the highway. As a Tier 2 ability user, he couldn’t fight it head-on—his only choice was to run and hide.
The suffocating tension made it impossible for him to recognize the very familiar off-road vehicle they had just seen.
He clenched the stolen talisman in his pocket, gritted his teeth, and said, “The locals of X City definitely know the area better than us. Follow them!”
At the very back of the pursuit, Lin Weiran had the same idea.
She hadn’t gotten a clear look at who was inside the other vehicle, but she did recognize that Su Su’s companion was familiar with X City.
That meant—sticking close to them might lead to the safest possible route!
No matter what, their situation couldn’t get any worse than it already was!