Lin Weiran’s footsteps paused for a moment.
For some reason, when she saw Pang Cancan resolutely standing in front of Su Su, she was slightly stunned.
These two had only known each other for three or four days at most, so how had they already built such trust, even to the point of risking their lives together?
Even for her, though she was surrounded by so many teammates, the only one she could truly entrust her heart to was Si Zhe.
Unable to understand, Lin Weiran took two more steps forward.
The sound of venomous insects’ wings flapping grew faster and faster. The little boy beside them had also condensed an ice barrier, standing ready for battle.
Lin Weiran found it somewhat amusing. “We have four Tier 2 ability users here. If we really wanted to do something, you—one weak, one small—do you think you could stop us?”
As she spoke, her gaze complicatedly swept over the unconscious Su Su—
In the apocalypse, strength reigned supreme. The stronger one’s ability, the higher their chances of survival. If that Grade 4 crystal was still here, she would have fought to the bitter end for it, no matter what, she would have taken it.
But… it had already been swallowed.
No matter how much she regretted it, it was pointless. Lin Weiran continued forward. “I don’t want to do anything, I just want to take my person and leave.”
Only then did Pang Cancan realize that Si Zhe was still lying on her side.
She glanced at the unconscious man from the corner of her eye, her expression filled with both wariness and disgust. She wished she could just kick him over, lest Lin Weiran got any closer and pulled some dirty tricks.
Under Pang Cancan’s intense scrutiny, Lin Weiran supported the unconscious Si Zhe and was about to leave when, all of a sudden, she thrust her palm toward Su Su’s direction.
A scorching fireball instantly shot out from her palm, hurtling toward Su Su’s shoulder without warning. (TL: If the zombies won’t bite her, let me do the job instead)
“Fuck! Despicable!”
Pang Cancan tried to stop it, but her venomous insects couldn’t resist the raging fireball!
A small ice wall formed out of thin air, but the moment it neared, the intense heat melted it into water.
Nothing stood in the fireball’s way as it closed in on Su Su’s shoulder.
At such a high temperature, if it landed on her, at best it would burn through her clothes and backpack straps, at worst it would sear her skin!
At this critical moment, the black snake in Su Su’s arms suddenly opened its eyes.
“Hiss—!”
A burst of blue flames shot straight toward the oncoming fireball.
It was the last small wisp of flame the black snake could spit out, far weaker than usual. But it was strong enough to disperse Lin Weiran’s fireball and continue forward, returning the favor as it slammed into her shoulder.
“Ah!!”
Lin Weiran’s face twisted in pain. The blue flames danced over her body, burning through a large portion of her outer robe. Her reddened, scorched shoulder was fully exposed. If she hadn’t extinguished the flames in time, they would have burned even deeper into her flesh.
Her sneak attack had failed. Clenching her teeth, she was about to strike again when a swarm of venomous insects, each the size of a ping pong ball, flew straight at her.
But instead of attacking Lin Weiran, who still had the strength to resist, they cunningly darted toward Si Zhe.
“Get lost!”
Lin Weiran instantly broke out in a cold sweat.
If she hadn’t dodged quickly, the unconscious Si Zhe would have been viciously bitten!
Realizing this, she no longer lingered in battle and, supporting Si Zhe, stumbled back to her team in disarray.
Pang Cancan’s chest rose and fell violently in anger.
She hadn’t expected Lin Weiran to be so despicable—saying she wouldn’t attack, only to launch a sneak attack in secret!
“Bastard! Bitch!”
The young girl had never cursed so harshly before, which showed just how enraged she was.
Opposite her, Lin Weiran pressed her lips together tightly and said coldly, “I only wanted to burn through her backpack to get some medicine. Yesterday at the clinic, you took all the medicine.”
Si Zhe was already injured, and he had just been ambushed by the Zombie King. Only with medicine could he recover faster.
Pang Cancan let out a furious laugh. “That was a clinic I found, and we got that medicine with our own effort… Forget it. There’s no point in wasting words with people like you. I’ll just stand here today—if you dare try another sneak attack, I’ll let my babies bite your damn man to death!”
The atmosphere fell into silence once more.
Behind her, one of Lin Weiran’s teammates suddenly tugged at her sleeve. “Weiran, let it go. The zombie horde has already retreated. We can still find medicine elsewhere, there’s no need to waste time here.”
If all of them went all out, they might not be unable to subdue the woman and the child before them. However… venomous insects didn’t discriminate. They weren’t confident they could dodge them. Whoever got bitten, it would be purely up to luck.
Dying from poisoning—what a pathetic and pointless way to go.
Lin Weiran hesitated for a moment before finally gritting her teeth and making her decision. “Let’s go! Find medicine elsewhere!”
The eyesore of a team finally left.
Confirming that they wouldn’t return, Pang Cancan immediately collapsed onto the ground.
“They’re finally gone.” She wiped the cold sweat from her forehead. “If we had fought them head-on, we might’ve had to give in.”
Le Rui squatted beside the unconscious Su Su, his brows furrowed in concern. “Sister Cancan, what should we do now?”
“Let me think.”
The front and back metal gates had already been smashed open, turning the entire stadium into an unguarded space where zombies could come and go freely. It was no longer a safe place.
But leaving now… With the zombie horde in X City leaderless, Pang Cancan couldn’t guarantee she could lead the group through it safely.
“For now, let’s wait until Sister Su Su wakes up.”
“But we need to find a different place.”
She walked over to Su Su, just about to move her, when she met the cold, vertical pupils of a reptile.
Dangerous and indifferent.
Pang Cancan immediately lowered her stance, humbly saying, “Xiao Hei… ah, no, Lord Hei Snake, I need to move Sister Su Su into the lounge. Would you mind stepping aside for a moment?”
As if understanding her words, the black snake slowly slithered out from Su Su’s embrace and followed them into the lounge.
—
Su Su had a long, long dream.
In it, scenes from her past life surfaced, interwoven with events from this life, until they finally froze at the moment when the zombie tide receded.
Then, the dream became eerie.
She plummeted from the clouds, falling into a pitch-black abyss, so dark she couldn’t see her own hand before her eyes.
Su Su crawled through the tunnel for what felt like an eternity, with an indescribable creature shadowing her every move. Just as dawn seemed to be within reach, a thick, powerful snake’s tail suddenly coiled around her waist, forcefully dragging her back into the deepest depths of the cave.
In the darkness, she couldn’t see the creature entwining her, only the sensation of soft, segmented limbs looping around her body, tightening and loosening repeatedly, toying with her for what seemed like forever. Suddenly, a cold hissing sound came from the back of her neck. The monstrous being opened its hideous maw and swallowed its captured prey whole…
“Hiss—”
Su Su jolted awake, gasping for breath, her heart still pounding in lingering fear.
The black snake coiled around her immediately slithered closer, its cool, forked tongue licking her cheek as if celebrating her awakening with excitement.
Su Su instinctively hugged the increasingly hefty python, only to realize that its entire two-meter-long body was wrapped around her, binding her tightly from head to tail!
…No wonder she had that kind of dream.
Helplessly, she stared up at the ceiling, allowing the snake to lavish her face with enthusiastic licks from every possible angle.
“Xiao Hei, stop messing around.”
But the black snake ignored her, fixating intently on its newly awakened human, greedily rubbing against the corner of her lips as if addicted.
Su Su didn’t have the energy to stop it—her priority was checking on her abilities.
The immense energy from the Grade 4 crystal had been completely absorbed, with all impurities expelled from her body. She felt no discomfort, and her abilities now flowed effortlessly… Raising her hand, she saw a white glow emerging from her fingertips.
The black snake, still licking the corner of her lips, immediately moved closer, refusing to miss out on any trace of warmth.
It looked like she had successfully broken through to Tier 4!
A flash of joy flickered in Su Su’s eyes, but just then, Pang Cancan’s head suddenly popped into view.
“Sister Su Su, you’re finally awake!”
Seeing that everyone she knew was safe, Su Su instinctively smiled—a sight so stunning that it nearly dazed the young girl before her.
Pang Cancan stared openly at the “Sleeping Beauty” on the ground and even wiped away imaginary drool from the corner of her mouth. “Sister Su Su, do you have an older brother? Or a younger one? Even if he’s ten years younger than me, I can wait for him to grow up. But any younger than that is too much, the time investment wouldn’t be worth it.”
Su Su was caught completely off guard. “I don’t. I’m an only child.”
The lustful young girl looked truly disappointed. “Ah, what a pity.”
To avoid further discussion on this topic, Su Su pushed away Xiao Hei’s head and struggled to sit up.
“Where are we?”
“We’re still in the stadium. We all moved to the lounge and were waiting for you to wake up before leaving. And you woke up just in time—we’re making instant noodles, come have a bowl!”
The spicy aroma of instant noodles wafted into her nose, triggering an instinctive sniff.
Classic braised beef flavor.
Just the thought of it made her mouth water.
With perfect timing, Pang Cancan handed over a bowl of instant noodles. “You’ve been unconscious for a whole day and night—hurry up and eat something!”
Su Su was stunned. “A whole day and night? I was unconscious for that long?”
“Yeah, we’ve already had three meals. If you didn’t wake up soon, we would’ve eaten all the food.”
The supplies they had taken from the supermarket were limited. Su Su had a big appetite, and Le Rui urgently needed nutrition, so their backpacks had emptied quickly.
Fortunately, Pang Cancan was very considerate—since Su Su hadn’t woken up, she never touched her backpack.
Holding the bowl, Su Su took a few bites of instant noodles and drank a sip of the broth. Only after filling her stomach a little did she pull her backpack over and shoot a glance at Xiao Hei.
The black snake activated its spatial ability, and the previously flattened backpack bulged once again.
Su Su flipped the backpack over, causing a cascade of food to spill onto the floor.
“I still have more.”
“Wow!”
Seeing the bread, instant noodles, sausages… and even seven or eight cans of meat tumbling out, Pang Cancan’s eyes sparkled with excitement!
At this moment, in her eyes, Su Su was glowing with a divine radiance.
She wanted to give Su Su a tight hug, but when her gaze landed on a certain possessive cold-blooded creature, she hesitated and instead grabbed Le Rui, vigorously rubbing his little head.
“See? I told you Sister Su Su still had a lot of food! You don’t have to be so cautious when eating!”
Su Su smiled slightly. “Mm, and there’s more where that came from.”
She didn’t deliberately explain Xiao Hei’s spatial ability, but she also didn’t try to hide it.
If Pang Cancan had been paying attention, she would have noticed something off about the way Su Su kept producing supplies. Since neither of them brought it up, the matter remained an unspoken secret.
Glancing at the still thin and frail Le Rui, Su Su thought for a moment and then took out a few eggs.
“Let’s boil some eggs, too.”
Pang Cancan happily took them. “Got it!”
As for Xiao Hei, while Su Su had been unconscious, it hadn’t gone hungry either—it had already feasted on the smoked duck stored in its space.
Its dark green vertical pupils flicked toward the eggs as they were handed over, rolling slightly in thought.
Five eggs.
One for that noisy human;
One for the scrawny human child;
One for its servant;
And the remaining two… were its.
Satisfied with the food distribution, the black snake slithered contentedly into Su Su’s embrace, quietly watching her eat.
Su Su had no idea what Xiao Hei was scheming.
After finishing the spicy, slightly scalding broth, a thought suddenly struck her. “Where are the others?”
Pang Cancan, munching on an egg, jerked her chin in a direction. “They left yesterday. Before leaving, they tried to steal our medicine, and we nearly got into a fight. If it weren’t for my babies being strong enough, they probably would’ve treated us like zombies and killed us too!”
Su Su was stunned for a few seconds.
In her memory, Lin Weiran wouldn’t kill people outright—she simply disregarded emotions for the sake of what she wanted, even if it meant pushing someone into the fire.
Thinking about it this way, a lot must have happened while she was unconscious. Pang Cancan must have gone through a lot of effort to hold her ground.
Taking a deep breath, Su Su said, “Cancan, Le Rui, it’s time for your abilities to improve too.”
Their team was small and weak—without increasing their raw power, they would always be vulnerable to the covetous eyes of others.
Le Rui was easy to handle. She still had some Grade 1 and Grade 2 crystals, enough to push his ability to Tier 1 for now. Once his body recovered, they could work on advancing him to Tier 2.
As for Cancan… Su Su no longer had any Grade 3 crystals.
Then she suddenly recalled the hundreds of zombies they had killed at the back entrance. If she remembered correctly, there should have been a few Tier 3 zombies mixed in.
“What about the zombie corpses?”
Pang Cancan finally remembered as well and scratched her head. “They should still be piled up at the entrance, right?”
Without hesitation, Su Su got to her feet.
“Let’s go collect our spoils.”
Caught up! Thank you for the translation!