After a long while, Su Su finally found her voice again.
“…Let’s go down first.”
“Okay.”
Pang Cancan obediently jumped back to the ground, but her expression was still somewhat dazed, and her legs felt unsteady, almost disobedient to her control.
Once Su Su also came down, she immediately crowded over. “Sister Su Su, what exactly is going on with them? Why are they surrounding the stadium and refusing to leave? It can’t be that they’re here just for us, right?”
What kind of joke was that? They were just a handful of living people. On the way into X City alone, they had seen dozens of survivor teams that had formed spontaneously. If these zombies were really after fresh blood and flesh, they shouldn’t be surrounding just their group of a dozen people!
Su Su was equally puzzled, only feeling that everything was eerily strange.
“We have to tell the others about this.”
Right now, everyone inside the stadium was in the same boat. If that horde of zombies truly surged in one after another, they would have no choice but to wait for death.
At this critical moment, Pang Cancan no longer cared about those bastards who had betrayed her.
“Alright! Let’s hurry back!”
The two of them, along with the snake, quickly made their way back. Just as they were about to pass through the corridor, Su Su, who was holding the lazy and motionless Xiao Hei, suddenly turned her head for a glance.
She was looking at the last lounge—the one that had remained completely silent from start to finish.
Only the empty doorway stood as proof that someone had once come out from inside.
Pang Cancan asked in confusion, “What’s wrong?”
“Something’s not right.”
“What’s not right?”
Su Su couldn’t explain it. It was just a feeling, or perhaps a sixth sense urging her—turn around, open the door, and take a look inside.
After hesitating for two seconds, her feet honestly changed direction.
As she walked, she said, “Cancan, do you remember when we first came in, we searched through every lounge?”
Pang Cancan quickly followed. “Yeah, except for that boy, we didn’t find a second survivor.”
Su Su pressed her lips together, flashes of fragmented images appearing in her mind—different lounges, all with the exact same layout. At the very back of each room, there was a half-person-high window. Some were tightly shut, while others seemed to be left slightly ajar… No, maybe they were closed, but not locked?
“No! We have to check inside!”
As she spoke, she was already standing at the lounge door, signaling Pang Cancan with her eyes.
The latter made an “OK” gesture, took a few steps back, then charged forward at full speed—executing a spinning back kick that forcefully blasted the tightly shut door open!
No matter how many times she saw it, Su Su always felt a subtle sense of envy, mixed with an indescribable sense of shame.
She was four years older than Pang Cancan, yet she was nothing but a burden with her lack of physical ability.
But before she could dwell on her self-pity, the scene inside the room instantly shattered all distractions—
Outside the half-person-high window, a dense swarm of zombies was packed tightly together.
A small, thin Tier 2 zombie was inside. Its fingers and body seemed especially agile. Somehow, it had discovered that the window was not locked and had silently pushed it open just enough to squeeze through.
It must have crawled in through that gap. The other zombies outside wanted to follow, but their fingers and bodies were far less nimble, and the opening was still too narrow. So, they could only wander restlessly outside, unable to enter.
At the moment when the door was kicked open, the Tier 2 zombie that had made it inside was crouched against a thin ice barrier, scratching at the only thing stopping it from feasting on fresh flesh.
The boy they had seen earlier in the restroom was curled up in the corner, with only this thin layer of ice shielding him from the zombie’s attack.
But the barrier wouldn’t hold for much longer. No one could tell which second it would shatter.
He didn’t dare call for help. First, his voice wouldn’t carry to the stadium. Second, the zombie horde outside the window was already watching hungrily—any noise would only excite them further, and they might start slamming against the window, forcing their way inside. Third… no one would come to save him.
The boy’s thin face was flushed red from crying, his tears soaking most of his t-shirt. His arms, barely managing to maintain his ability, trembled uncontrollably.
It wasn’t until he heard the sound of the door being kicked open and saw Su Su that an intense desire to survive flared up in his eyes.
“S-Save me… help me…”
His voice was hoarse and unsteady, as if he hadn’t spoken for a long, long time. His words were choked with sobs, making them sound even more fragile.
The zombie standing before him instantly caught the scent of two more living humans. It abruptly changed direction and charged straight at them.
“Roar!!!”
“Xiao Hei.”
The black snake, nestled lazily in Su Su’s arms, slowly opened its eyes. In an instant, a small burst of blue flames ignited, reducing the pouncing Tier 2 zombie to ashes.
The moment the zombie died, the ice barrier—already at its breaking point—shattered completely.
The boy collapsed onto the ground, first sobbing softly before breaking into loud, uncontrollable wails.
Su Su swept her gaze around the room and noticed an empty bowl sitting by his feet. The food inside had long been eaten, and the bowl had been cleaned spotless.
A complicated emotion welled up in her heart.
She should probably be grateful for that bowl.
She had a feeling that after finishing his food, the boy would have placed the bowl back outside the door. But since so much time had passed without a sound from the room, either she had been overthinking, or the boy hadn’t thought about it at all.
Either way, they had saved him just in time.
Su Su walked forward and crouched down in front of the boy. “Don’t cry. It’s over now.”
The gentle voice of an older female finally made the boy lower his guard. He suddenly threw himself into her arms.
“…I thought I was going to die!”
He wailed, his tears soaking into Su Su’s clothes. Her heart softened instantly.
Only the black snake, caught off guard and squished between them, reacted with instant fury. Just as it was about to bite, a soft hand pinched the tip of its tail.
—No biting!
The black snake begrudgingly shut its mouth, but no matter how much it thought about it, it still felt extremely displeased that this young human had thrown himself into its servant’s arms.
In its mind, that was already its exclusive spot!
“Hiss!”
The black snake swayed its tail and pushed the human child away by several dozen centimeters.
The boy, now a short distance away, blinked his red and swollen eyes in a daze, staring at the massive python right in front of him. Strangely, there was no fear in his gaze—only confusion and bewilderment.
“A snake? Where did a snake come from?”
Afraid of scaring him, Su Su instinctively pulled Xiao Hei closer into her arms. “This is… my pet. Don’t be afraid, it’s very obedient.”
Raising a giant python as a pet—what a niche hobby!
Any adult would have been terrified to the point of trembling, let alone a twelve or thirteen-year-old boy… Wait.
Su Su was surprised to realize that even after processing the situation, the boy still wasn’t afraid.
He simply kept a bewildered distance, his small fingers quietly gripping the edge of her clothes.
“Sister, thank you for saving me.”
What a polite and well-mannered child. Even Pang Cancan, who usually found teenage boys the most annoying, softened and crouched down with a friendly smile. “I’m Pang Cancan, and this is Sister Su Su. What’s your name?”
“I’m Le Rui.”
Pang Cancan blinked. “Huh? That’s such a rare surname. I’ve only ever heard it once in my life.”
Su Su glanced at her. “You’re not that old.”
“Well, now there’s someone even younger.” Pang Cancan tried her best to maintain her friendly expression. “Why were you here alone in the stadium?”
Le Rui hesitated for a moment. But after getting the first sentence out, it became much easier to continue.
“When the zombie outbreak happened, my grandpa and I were passing by here. He brought me into the stadium to hide.”
“After that, he often went out to fight zombies and brought back a lot of supplies… until two months ago, when he never came back.”
Mentioning the disappearance of his only family, Le Rui tried his best to hold back his tears, but his voice became increasingly choked.
“Every time he left, he told me never to leave the stadium. I had to keep the front and back doors locked. Even if other survivors found this place, I shouldn’t open the door for them so easily.”
“S-So I wasn’t ignoring you on purpose just now…”
The more Su Su listened, the heavier her heart felt.
She thought of her parents, who had left to search for supplies at the beginning of the apocalypse and never returned. In this kind of situation, how could anyone still come back? Not seeing them again is the best outcome.
“There are a lot of zombies outside. For now, you should stay with us.”
Le Rui nodded and wiped away the tears clinging to his face.
Su Su stood up and instinctively reached out to hold his hand.
But just as her arm stretched forward, a thick snake tail whipped her hard, leaving a large, red mark on her fair skin.
Xiao Hei: “……”
Its tail tip froze stiffly in place. After a long moment, it guiltily swept back and forth over the red mark, as if trying to erase the evidence of its “crime.”
How could humans be so weak? It barely used any force, so why did the skin turn red so quickly?
Su Su sucked in a sharp breath but didn’t make a big deal out of it. She just flicked her hand to shake off the sting.
“Xiao Hei, your strength is getting stronger and stronger.”
Its temper is getting worse too.
Su Su no longer insisted on holding Le Rui’s hand. Instead, she adjusted the weight of the heavy Xiao Hei in her arms, went to lock the window securely, and then turned to leave the room.
“Let’s go. We need to tell them about this.”
When they came, it was just two people and a snake. When they left, it was three people and a snake.
Aside from a certain cold-blooded animal, the rest were either small or weak—the exact kind of people who would be the easiest targets in the apocalypse.
“Hey, kid, do you want me to hold your hand?”
Hearing Pang Cancan’s kind offer, Le Rui shook his head vigorously and trailed closely behind Su Su. Only when his gaze landed on the snake head peeking out from his new sister’s shoulder did he instinctively take two steps back in reverent caution.
The group returned to the empty stadium.
Before they even had the chance to explain the situation outside, they saw the two rival ability-user teams gathered near the metal gate, their expressions grim.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The sound of heavy impacts against metal, the clashing of iron chains, and the deafening roars of the zombie horde echoed through the vast stadium.
The peace from earlier was completely shattered.
It was as if the zombies had received an invisible command—they no longer restrained their instincts. Wave after wave, they surged forward, pressing together like sardines in a can, madly slamming against the metal gate.
At this point, Su Su didn’t even need to say anything. Everyone already understood—
The zombie horde hadn’t left.
On the contrary, they had deliberately stopped and surrounded this enormous stadium in an abnormal siege.
Lin Weiran’s face was dark. “Why are they surrounding us?!”
Logically speaking, zombies were mindless creatures with only muscle memory. Unless they caught the scent of living humans, they wouldn’t act so aggressively—much less repeatedly crash into a metal gate like this.
But now, their behavior didn’t resemble the usual hunger-driven instinct. It was as if they wanted to completely flatten the stadium!
Lin Weiran’s sharp gaze swept across everyone, trying to find a clue. But she found nothing.
Amid the tense silence, a calm female voice gently spoke.
“This zombie horde… originally followed after Zhao Zhenyu and his group.”
At the very back, Zhao Zhenyu had been keeping his right hand in his pocket ever since the zombie howls started outside.
His nerves were already stretched to the limit, and upon hearing those words, his temper immediately snapped. “What the hell do you mean by that?! Are you saying they’re after me?!”
Su Su looked at him quietly. “That’s what you said.”
“You fucking asking for a beating?!”
Zhao Zhenyu rolled up his sleeves and charged forward, but before he could take more than a few steps, a scorching blue flame shot toward him!
He hadn’t expected the python to breathe fire. He dodged a second too late, and half the hair on the back of his head got burned off!
Zhao Zhenyu reeled back in shock. His new teammates couldn’t just stand by and watch, so they immediately stepped forward.
In an instant, four grown men stood in opposition against two seemingly frail women.
“You—!”
“You what?!”
Pang Cancan shouted back at the top of her lungs. Seven or eight poisonous insects, each the size of a ping-pong ball, flew to the front, glaring menacingly at Zhao Zhenyu and his teammates, who were attempting to charge forward.
Even Le Rui, whose ability had only just reached Tier 1, silently stepped up. He struggled to form an ice spike, letting it hover in the air, ready to strike at any moment.
The other ability users exchanged uneasy glances, while Zhao Zhenyu hesitated, his face shifting between shades of pale and green.
He had never expected that this supposedly weak team had a poisonous snake with abilities, a Tier 2 poison-type ability user, and even a Tier 1 ice-type ability user.
What dumb luck did this woman have to latch onto such a group?!
“Enough! At this rate, the zombies won’t even have to break in—you’ll kill each other first!”
Lin Weiran’s sharp voice shattered the tense standoff.
She swept her gaze over Zhao Zhenyu. He still held some lingering attachment to their old team, so after a cold sneer, he backed down.
Then, she turned to Su Su. After a brief pause, she said, “A zombie horde attacking—that’s something no one can predict. Zhenyu just happened to be unlucky enough to run into them.”
“Right now, the most important thing is figuring out how to drive the zombies away from the stadium—that’s our only chance to escape.”
Her words sounded sincere and reasonable on the surface.
But they carried an unmistakable sting.
Su Su held back Pang Cancan, who was about to retort.
“Then what solution do you have?”