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“Don’t even try to get me to turn around like that. All I want to do right now is enjoy every inch of your lovely face. I wouldn’t even blink if I had the choice.” The hoodlum leader flashed me a leering smile before ending off as such. “A beauty like you will be more than enough fun to last me a lifetime!”

“…” How I desperately wanted to cut those eyes out right now. At the same time, I felt strangely exhausted by his idiocy as well. His two lackeys were still clutching their throats behind him in an awfully rigid manner. There was no doubt that zombification was upon them, and soon these newly minted zombies would leap upon the closest target to them: that hoodlum leader.

All I could hope for was that this idiot wouldn’t shoot me by mistake in a fit of panic…

“Woo… they are going to awaken soon…” Jiaojiao sneaked a peek from behind Bitong’s back. “They are going to turn into zombies…”

“Step back.” I herded the girls back a few steps.

Seeing that, the hoodlum leader mistook that as a sign that we were afraid. Jiaojiao’s whimpering had clearly fallen on deaf ears as he proudly waved his gun about, lips curled into a disgusting smirk.

Yet just as he was about to open his rotten mouth, he felt something grab his shoulders. Unlike the other time however, both his shoulders were grabbed…

“Hey! What are you two trying to do? Scare me or something? Don’t push your luck or I might shoot you two as well!”

It was only when his shoulders were grabbed that Jiaojiao’s words came back to him. However, he merely shrugged it off as his two lackeys pulling a prank on him.

They were definitely the culprits here… but they were also zombies now, and they had just taken a chomp out of him…

“Move!”

There was no way in heck I was wasting another second on a scumbag who had a gun trained on me just seconds ago. While those two zombified lackeys were keeping him busy, I grabbed the girls and ran. Even if the outside of the elevator was still unbearably hot, now wasn’t time for hesitation anymore.

“S̲h̲i̲t̲… get back here this instant and save me…”

As I zipped past the hoodlum leader, I had, for the briefest of moments, considered slicing off that gun-wielding hand of his. While I might have had no problem killing a zombie, doing the same to a human being just felt wrong. Even if he was ultimately going to become a zombie, he wasn’t one yet, which was why I merely thought about slicing off his hand.

“Damn it… my gun…”

By now, the hoodlum leader was so preoccupied with the pain that he dropped his gun out accidentally… Well. That saved me some time.

As for the gun he dropped, I had never once considered picking up something so dirty…

Now that we were safely out of the elevator, Bitong did not waste any time at all in shutting the door behind us remotely. She then sprinted for a good distance without turning back, until she finally began panting a little.

Normally, a ten meter sprint like that would have been manageable even for an unathletic girl like herself, but with Jiaojiao on her back, the task was a lot harder, despite Jiaojiao not being that heavy.

“Big sis… Jiaojiao is fine to walk on her own now…” Realising as well how tired Bitong was, she offered to get off like the good child that she was.

“But…” Bitong hesitated a little. She was worried Jiaojiao would get frightened again, and that would make things even worse than if she had just stayed on her back.

“Let her walk by herself. With the situation being what it is, it’s good that she learns to toughen up too.”

As I said that, I reached into my inventory, took out a small, blue bottle, then gulped it all down.

This bottle was the same bottle of mana recovery potion that I received from the Newcomer’s Gift Box. Since the system updated, the name of this potion had changed to Small SP Recovery Potion.

Barely five seconds later, I could feel my SP(spiritual energy) rapidly recovering by 50. Because my maximum SP was just 60, a potion like that was able to recover a fair amount for just 10 points, the price of the potion on the Marketplace -not a bad deal, at all.

The weakness I felt from depleting my SP so rapidly had disappeared as well. Considering the price of this potion was just killing ten normal zombies, it was a really economic consumable.

For the most part, we encountered scattered zombies after leaving the elevator, because the larger packs had already been gathered up and burnt to a crisp before.

At long last, our weary party had some time for rest.

“Your Highness, what’s our plan next?” Lixiang asked right after we stopped. Bitong and Jiaojiao both looked expectantly at me, having clearly handed over the decision making.

Blessed with such trust, I couldn’t help but feel a little happy, but also pressured by the responsibility at the same time. Just as a precaution however, I decided to seek a second opinion first.

“Sis, any ideas?”

“I still think we should focus on arming ourselves.” Bitong answered without even considering. “Times are dangerous now, it would be best if we had some means of protection.”

She was right on that front. The underground shelter wasn’t safe anymore, or perhaps there was nowhere that was safe.

Even without the sudden threat of someone next to you turning into a zombie, normal humans might turn traitor at the drop of a hat. Those three hoodlums were the best examples of this.

“It’s just too bad about that gun just now…” Hearing that, I immediately realised how foolish I was to abandon a weapon just because of some misplaced sense of hygiene…

“Other than Ke, all of us are ordinary folk, we need some way to defend ourselves.”

Lixiang, however, seemed to take umbrage with that categorization. “This one is a Primal Angel of the Apocalypse, not some puny mortal!”

“…” Bitong threw a red-eared Lixiang an exasperated look before ignoring her to continue on. “That’s why our next stop should be Game City!”

“Game City?!”
“Game City?!”
“Game City?!”

“Has the mortal girl gone daft?” Lixiang looked questioningly at Bitong. “Does the mortal girl really think now is the time for playing games?!”

As always, Bitong calmly ignored the girl. “There should be some exosuits there. They might be for entertainment purposes, but they can at least serve as some protection.”

Hearing that, my eyes immediately lit up.

Those zombies might be very aggressive, but their actual attacks weren’t even that strong… This suggestion was very plausible.

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The stalling by the two lackeys nearly made the hoodlum leader explode on the spot. “If I knew you two were so useless to begin, I would not have wasted all that money buying those serums for you all to drink! I should have drunk them myself!”

“Don’t be like that, boss. The serum really did improve our bodies, even my girlfriend was begging for mercy last night…”

“And isn’t the money stolen from your dad anyway? What’s so hard about just taking?”

“You… “ The hoodlum leader glared at the two then finally sighed. “Don’t play dumb with me. I know what the two of you are thinking, but we’ve already offended her. If we don’t take it while she’s out for the count, we will just suffer in the future!”

The two lackeys turned to look at each other. “Together?”

“Alright, let’s…”

“Wait!” I suddenly interrupted them.

The hoodlum leader turned to me in surprise. “Girlie, your big brother doesn’t want to be rough either. If you just hand over the weapon, you can save yourself a world of pain. I know you’re out of gas right now, so don’t even try to struggle. As for your friends… if I get the weapon, I promise I won’t touch them.”

“I just wanted to ask: is it true all three of you drank that serum?”

“Of course, we did.” The hoodlum leader smirked. “What’s the matter? Scared? That serum is a miracle drug, ever since I drank it, I feel like I can take on a superhuman.”

“And when did you drink it?”

“Yesterday.” The hoodlum leader impatiently answered. “That’s enough questions. You have exactly one minute to decide, otherwise I will decide for you.”

However, I wasn’t listening to him at all. Instead, I was busy mulling over his answers…

That couple at the inn took about two days to zombify. If these two morons drank it yesterday, so that means tomorrow then? But does the serum react differently to each person?

Does it matter, though? Now that they’ve drunk it, they are done for. It’s only a matter of when.

With that, I looked at the three hoodlums as if I was looking at a piece of dead meat, “You’re not afraid I will kill you right now?”

“Girl, that sword of yours is just a medieval weapon. And judging by your face, you can’t cast another of that fire wall. Even if you did, there’s only five meters between us, you will end up hurting yourselves too. More importantly…” He reached behind himself, pulled out a pistol, then smiled triumphantly. “I have this. I liberated this off Officer Liao just now. I happen to know how to use such a weapon, so unless you’re not afraid of dying, I don’t suggest you resist. I doubt you can kill me faster than my trigger finger fires this gun.”

For the first time ever, I had a gun pointing right at me. I could feel the hair on my back raise from the cold stare of death it gave me.

Even Lixiang was trembling slightly beside me -seems like her middle school delusions did not extend to guns… there’s still hope yet…

Yet just as I was thinking how I was going to protect myself and the girls, Bitong leaned in and whispered, “Ke, weapons carried by the police all require authorization to fire, the kind only the police possess.”

Hearing that, I immediately asked with barely contained excitement, “So you’re saying it can’t fire?”

Bitong nodded confidently. “That’s right. Absolutely not!”

And yet…

BANG!

A tilt to the side later, the hoodlum leader’s gun fired a laser right at the corpse beside my foot…

Because it was a laser, I had no time to react at all. Furthermore, it was powerful enough to blast a gaping hole in the corpse.

A bout of cold sweat broke out. “I thought you said it couldn’t fire?”

“That…” Bitong flashed a crooked smile. “Unless he’s a hacker, or maybe has some relation to the police…”

“There’s no need to keep guessing… My dad is one of the heads of the enforcement division, and I am technically a hacker as well. He never gave me rights to fire a gun, but nicking that isn’t hard compared to nicking his money.”

Looking at that smug expression on his face, I finally understood that just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it most definitely could…

What a scumbag… and the fact that this obvious highschool dropout was actually technically proficient enough to be a hacker, and to be the son of a policeman was just…

The feeling was basically like finding out that the beggar down the street whom you accidentally kicked could actually call in a hit squad of police officers to get you arrested… and then break into your phone and steal your information – World changing, to say the least.

However, that begged the question of why didn’t his father arrest this obvious scumbag?

Having a gun pointed at me was unpleasant, made worse by the fact that it was this moron who was doing it… Oh, how I wanted to slice him up right now.

Honestly, there were five meters separating us right now. Even a superhuman couldn’t travel at a speed faster than a laser.

Thankfully, this predicament soon solved itself thirty seconds later. Still hiding behind Bitong’s back and crying, Jiaojiao suddenly pointed a shaking finger behind the hoodlum leader’s back. “Big brother… they are changing…”

Changing? I muttered silently to myself with a pause. The moment I realised what change could possibly mean, my eyes darted to the side where those two lackeys were.

Both of them were currently grasping at their throat with a strange expression on their faces, as if they were trying to say something but couldn’t. In fact, it seemed like they couldn’t move either. They were frozen in that posture like in a mime show.

A few seconds later, they collapsed to the floor.

“Time’s up. Now what’s your decision?” A minute had gone by like that. The endless abyss of that gun had never once left my eyes, and that hoodlum leader was immensely proud of that. “Hand the sword over to me, or should I help myself to it?”

To that, I merely smiled wryly and said, “Maybe you should look behind you instead…”

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“Oh, and how do you plan on making us answer to you?” I cast a cold glance over the three hoodlums, fingering Icy Inferno as I did so. A reddish-white haze began to spread outwards from its blade, turning the elevator icy cold one moment and blazing hot the next.

Threatened by a sword, the hoodlums backed away a step in near unison. The leader of the bunch warily eyed the strange glowing sword in my hands, then turned to look at the severed arm at the side, a hint of greed flashing past his eyes in an instant.

“Let’s be civil here… a lady doesn’t resort to violence…”

“That’s right. Civil.”

“Don’t get angry so easily, I was just trying to lighten the mood, that’s all… I’m sure we can come to an agreement about the door…”

“Sis, just open the door.” I told Bitong right away.

Being a hacker, she was able to access the shelter’s elevator system remotely with her AI. Remotely controlling such systems was usually only reserved for the administration of the building.

“Got it.” She gently set aside Jiaojiao then began work on the door.

The moment it opened, countless zombies swarmed towards the elevator. Because the door did not open completely right away, the first few zombies found themselves pressed against a gap in the doors like a pile of sardines.

Finally, the first zombie was let through the doors.

“You crazy b!tches… you’re going to get us all killed…” The hoodlum leader immediately shrunk backwards, and would have already ran behind me… had I not waved my sword in his direction. Nowhere else to go, the three hoodlums huddled together in a corner of the elevator.

At the same time as I brandished my sword, I started to cast my skill.

A second later, a roaring wall of flames appeared in front of the elevator, completely blocking off its doors. Any zombie still foolish enough to try and enter the elevator was summarily burnt to a crisp.

“Phew… I think I went a little overboard there…”

Because this skill varied in cost depending on the distance and magnitude of each cast, I ended up using up all my spiritual energy in casting Fire Wall. Normally, such a skill would require five units of spiritual energy, but given that I wasn’t familiar with how strong five units actually was, I ended up scaling the wall to its highest magnitude – a full sixty units…

Even from a few meters away, we could feel the searing heat of its flames licking our skins. Our breathing began to hurt as the heat started to parch our throats.

Thirty seconds later, the fire wall disappeared. Outside, the floor was a scorched mess of flesh melted into stone…

“Magic! You know magic?! Are you some kind of evolved human? A new species of human? Someone with supernatural abilities? You must be!”

“To be able bring forth such powerful magic even in a sealed state, I expected nothing less from Your Highness!” Lixiang declared with a fervent look on her face, her ruby red eyes glowing with an alluring shine. “Hail Your Highness, the omnipotent successor of the Demon King of Pride. O noble purple wings…”

“Lixiang…” Worried that her middle school delusions were getting the better of her once more, I hurriedly cut her off. “Come help me up…”

“I hear and obey, my beloved Highness.” Thanks to the fire wall, Lixiang was no longer as afraid of those zombies as before. She happily scampered up to me like a loyal puppy then came close for my weakened self to lean on.

“I think I used up too much spiritual energy just now… my legs feel a little weak..” Just in case Bitong got the wrong idea, I quickly explained my condition. “But at least that fire wall should have burnt the surrounding zombies…”

Having said that, I peeked at my status menu, and found that my points had increased from 13 to 86. In other words, I just killed 73 zombies.

“You seem a little tired?” The hoodlum leader asked seemingly out of concern. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his hand shoot towards Icy Inferno. Unfortunately for him, I was already raising it once more in his direction.

Even if my condition wasn’t the best right now, I could still give off enough murderous intent to keep such rabble at bay. “And what do you think you’re doing?”

Sometimes, you encountered such people in the world: scumbags who did not learn a lesson unless you pounded it into their heads the hard way.

“That sword of yours seems rather special. If I’m not mistaken, your magic had something to do with that sword.” The hoodlum leader turned around and signalled at his lackeys. “Get her, I want that sword!”

“You’re sure about this?” I coldly eyed the hoodlums.

Too bad for them, that brain-dead leader of theirs was wrong again. I was able to cast Fire Wall not because of my sword, but because of the system!

Even though I did not say much, the aftermath of my fire wall was still fresh in their minds. The corpses behind them were still radiating heat that warmed the entire elevator. Such a supernatural phenomenon was more than enough to scare off a few hoodlums, even if I was deathly pale right now.

Scared off by my glare, the two hoodlums shrank back a little. “Boss, maybe we shouldn’t…”

“Yea, boss, we should look at this from the long term…”

“You morons! How stupid can you two get?! She’s just a little girl! Useless!”

“But she’s armed…”

“And she can conjure up flames… she’s not weak at all… maybe we should reconsider this…”

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This one thinks this mortal makes sense.

—You Qin Lixiang

“Murder? I would never. They were just in the way, that’s all. So I gave them a light push.” The hoodlum leader responded in his typical weaselly fashion. “Brothers, have you ever heard of a law that states that pushing someone is murder?”

His two troublemaker lackeys immediately chimed in, “Absolutely not. There’s no way such an unreasonable law would exist!”

“Exactly. Exactly. We are all law-abiding citizens here. Very law-abiding, in fact.”

Seeing that irksome grin on their faces, even Bitong couldn’t help but raise her voice at them. “You guys clearly knew that pushing them away would result in their deaths, but you still did it… you scumbags!”

“Now, now. Girlie, that’s not right, is it? What do you mean ‘knew’?” The hoodlum leader snorted at that point. “Even if we did not do that, there’s no guarantee they would survive either. In situations such as this, we can only look after our survival. It’s their fault for running so slowly.”

“You’re just twisting the facts!” Bitong hated more than anything else scoundrels like them, because her good friend was bullied by such a person in the past. People like these hoodlums touched a raw nerve for her.

“Twisting?” The hoodlum leader stared at Bitong, taking in her beauty for a good long while before licking his lips. “It’s all just survival. Survival of the fittest, and all that. They merely died because they were weak.”

“This one shouldn’t have kept the door open…” Even Lixiang, who normally liked to play the cool girl of the group, couldn’t stand the sight of these hoodlums.

“The old world is finished, don’t you see? The old order is gone, and the world will soon return to a more primitive state.” Having said that, the hoodlum leader’s eyes grew even more crazed. “Power is everything there… that will be the true face of our new world…”

Having said that, his two lackeys started fidgeting with excitement as well, seemingly influenced by his ravings.

Jiaojiao, on the other hand, did her best to duck behind Bitong.

Crazed though that hoodlum might be, one bit of his little speech concerned me. “How do you know it’s the entire world and not just Southern Plains?”

“What? You don’t know?” The hoodlum leader looked at me with a bemused look. Realising that I was genuinely seeking an answer, he stated as such, “That’s just how it goes in the movies.”

“Movies?” Bitong, Jiaojiao and I asked in unison.

We exchanged a quick look with each other: this guy is clearly out of his mind… No. These three!

Only Lixiang seemed to be silent, as if she actually believed them.

Lixiang… Come on. Now’s not the time for your middle school delusions. These guys are clearly off their rockers.

“An unexpected leak in some underground lab causes the entire planet to be infected with a strange virus. Those that survive the change evolve into a new human being, while the majority end up as mindless zombies…” The hoodlum leader rattled off about his theory without pause. Finally, he ended with a crescendo. “That is the new world! And I will definitely become a new human being and stand atop this world!”

“Ding~~” As if on cue, the elevator came to a halt just before he finished raving.

However, just because we were out of that hellhole didn’t mean we had time to entertain a crackpot’s delusions either. The moment the elevator doors slid open a tiny bit, a deathly pale hand shot in through the crevice grabbing blindly.

Lixiang immediately jammed down hard on the close button. But with a foreign object in between the doors, there was no way the elevator doors could shut. The best she could do was hold the doors in place by mashing the button.

Because we were all facing the other direction thanks to the hoodlum leader’s strange theories, the rest of us weren’t aware of this new development. Lixiang herself did not seem to have the presence of mind to warn us either, most likely because she was panicking.

Yet just as the hoodlum leader was revelling in his sweet dreams, a hand suddenly tapped him. Because of the distance between him and that hand, it only managed to tap him slightly.

Still, it was enough to make him turn around. By sheer coincidence, the zombie hand just so happened to dip below his field of vision.

“Hey. Did you two tap me?” As he said that, he saw that his two companions were all standing squarely on his right, and did not seem to have moved at all. That tapping came from the left instead…

It was then that he felt another tap on his left back, at which point he turned around to have a look…

“%&*&!!”

The hoodlum leader jumped back with a start, arms flailing about. Because the elevator still had some corpses from before, he ended up slipping… By the time he got up, his body, face and hands were all covered in blood.

In his defense, anyone would have gotten a fright if a hand suddenly reached out and touched you like that…

Ignoring the strange sensation of stepping on a corpse, I bravely took a step forward and sliced the hand with Icy Inferno.

With the arm gone, the elevator door finally closed.

“Is there some way to remotely open that door? Preferably with some distance to spare.” Even without looking, I could tell that there was probably a horde of zombies waiting for us outside the door. My first thought was to employ the Fire Wall skill just given to me by the system.

According to the system, this skill grew with the amount of spiritual energy I put in. However, I had a feeling that my version of the skill could adjust its own output.

“I can.” Even though Bitong still had no idea as to what I was planning, her trust in me made her reply immediately. “Lixiang, step back, I’ll control the door.”

“This duty is yours now.”

“No! Do not open that door!” Frightened by that zombie hand just moments ago, the hoodlum leader immediately reacted when he heard what I was planning. While he might not be the brightest of bulbs, his survival instincts told him that what was on the other side was bad news. “It’s all zombies out there, if we open that door, we will all die!”

As he said that, he signalled at his two lackeys who merely lagged for a second before immediately shouting, “Do not open that door! It’s your own business if you want to die, but we still want to live!”

“If anyone dares to open that door, they will have to answer to me!”

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Good people die young, while those who are bad live forever.

—-Mo Ke

“Big brother… What about all those people over there?” Just as we were about to leave, Jiaojiao suddenly pointed at the screaming people who were still fleeing from the zombies.

In all likelihood, these people were doomed unless someone helped them.

There were hundreds still left in the shelter, while the zombies probably numbered in the dozens.

However, these zombies were all scattered about, and would take considerable time to round up and kill. More importantly, their numbers were increasing. Just as we were looking in their direction, one of the bloody corpses on the floor suddenly stood up, hobbled towards a person, tripped… then got back up and continued chasing someone.

That corpse had only died mere moments ago…

“He… He’s alive again…” Seeing a corpse reanimated before her very eyes, even Bitong couldn’t help but gasp in surprise.

“Hmph. Don’t we already know that?” Lixiang stated nonchalantly, though her teeth were already chattering.

“We’re leaving, now!”

The corpses were already starting to zombify, which meant that if we did not leave quickly, all those dead bodies on the floor might soon rise up as well… By then, protecting ourselves would be difficult, let alone these strangers.

That wasn’t to say I didn’t want to save them, but the girls took priority.

Facing us now were two choices: the elevator or the stairs.

The closest elevator to us had at least twenty bodies lying around it. Not only that, there were three zombies munching away on them. In order to take this elevator, we had to clear up the zombies first. And as a precaution, probably behead each of the corpses as well, to prevent any of them from suddenly popping up for a snack.

As for the stairway… it was my firm opinion to just skip it… who knew how many had died already in its narrow pathways, or how many corpses might just suddenly reanimate as we pass them.

“Follow me!”

I beckoned to them then sprinted towards the elevator. In a flash of steel, the three feasting zombies were beheaded by Icy Inferno. Not only that, I made sure to stab each and every head I came across, turning the pathway even more gruesome, if that was even possible…

At this point, there wasn’t a single inch of floor that wasn’t covered in blood. As Jiaojiao gingerly treaded the bloody path, her eyes watered and her legs went soft. “Big brother… maybe… maybe we should take the stairs instead? It’s scary…” “

Unfortunately for her, that was out of the question. The stairways were definitely worse than the elevators; plus, it’s not like I could stab every dead body there as well.

However, Jiaojiao was too young to consider such matters, and I did not want to hurt or scare her with my words.

Yet just when I was mulling over how to solve this conundrum, Bitong walked up to Jiaojiao, then casually stooped down and motioned for Jiaojiao to climb on. “Don’t worry, big sis over here will carry you. There’s nothing to be scared of then.”

“Mmm…” With Bitong’s encouragement, she calmed down somewhat and carefully climbed onto her.

Jiaojiao safely on board and Lixiang close behind, we safely made it to the elevator panel.

“Wait… wait for us…” Dozens came running towards us when they saw that we were planning to board the elevator. Seeing their hopeful faces as they ran towards us, and also because their group wasn’t that big to begin with, I couldn’t bear to turn them away now. Even if it was a risky choice, I did not want to completely give up my humanity for survival.

“Let’s wait for them.” I immediately told the girls.

Yet as they kept running and yelling, they soon caught the attention of a number of zombies. With an entire buffet’s worth of prey parading themselves before them, even these zombies started to abandon their half-eaten meals in order to leap at them.

The zombies weren’t particularly fast, per say, but their fright and the abundance of obstacles in the form of corpses served to slow the escapees significantly.

A number of them ended up falling prey to the zombies, but thankfully more than half of them managed to escape. Once again, the old adage was proven right: when escaping from a bear, you do not have to run faster than said bear, you merely have to run faster than someone else.

Thanks to the zombies, there were now twenty or thirty left running towards us.

Unfortunately, another incident was about to prove their undoing.

At the forefront of the pack was a decidedly chubby person. Looking at his almost 240 pounds body sprint towards us, one could only wonder where he got all that speed from. However, one need not wonder long as a hand suddenly reached forth and grabbed him. Caught off-guard, he tumbled onto the ground, rolling up to a zombie.

Slowed down, the zombies took the opportunity to catch up, blocking off the pathway to the elevator.

With no way forward, the poor escapees scattered about like headless chickens…

These people are done for…

At least that was what I thought. Miraculously, three escapees came charging through the zombie blockade.

Yet their escape was anything but miraculous. Ruthless was more like it. The only reason they were able to pass through the zombies was because they grabbed those that were nearby and pushed them at any zombie they encountered. With that distraction, they sprinted at full speed towards the elevator.

Their survival was built on a mountain of corpses.

“Wait… for us…”

It was only when they came up to us that I finally saw who they were. These three were the same garish hoodlums who harassed us at the start…

I definitely wasn’t planning to wait for these scumbags, but it was already too late.

Even if I were to close the elevator now, they had more than enough time to stick out their hands to block the door from closing…

Just like that, the three hoodlums successfully boarded the elevator. Lixiang didn’t waste any time at all in closing the door afterwards.

“Jeez… that place was a mess…” One of the hoodlums griped as the elevator slowly closed.

“Phew… oh would you look at that… we meet again, girlies.” The hoodlum who spoke up was the leader of the bunch. Not that I would ever forget about him, given his disgusting aura and punchability.

Can’t believe he’s actually still alive… no wonder they say good people die young but evildoers live a thousand years.

I coldly stared at the hoodlum leader. “I saw what you did back there. You’ve murdered quite a few people just to get here.”

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See. I told you apologies aren’t needed.

— Mo Ke.

In face of the great unknown that was death, humans were insignificant. From the moment the first seeds of fear were sown from that zombie, it only took a mere minute for its flowers to bloom across the entire hall.

I had no way of knowing how many people had been bitten now, but I was dead sure that dozens had died from the stampede already!

Without a question, this was a massacre, and not by the zombies…

“Ding! Mission received: Calm Amidst the Storm”

Amidst the deafening screams, the system suddenly dinged, though I had no time to check due to the chaos.

Like a pack of lemmings, the crowd rushed ever forward into a narrow passageway, pushing anyone who stood in their way down onto the floor. Those who were unable to resist the force of the crowd were forever relieved of the need to stand up…

The elevators and stairways of the shelter were built to be wide, but even they could not accommodate so many evacuees at once. The stairways were one thing -at least you could constantly fit more people in as more ascended – but the elevators were an utter nightmare. Each could fit a hundred at most, and that led to fights breaking out over who would board them first…

Ironically, there wasn’t a need to rush at all. A thousand people might have seemed like a lot, but given the capacity of the escape routes, almost everyone could have gotten out in no time at all. The amount of zombies weren’t that many to begin with so the actual casualties because of them weren’t high at all…

If only everyone could have acted rationally, this tragedy could have been avoided entirely. Unfortunately, there were no ifs in this world.

By now, the first wave of elevators were about to take off. Yet just when it looked like safety was finally in sight for them, a horrific wail echoed from behind the closing doors of one of the elevators – another person had zombified…

The doors of that elevator were practically torn open as people gushed out head first to escape from that metal cage of death… resulting in another wave of deaths from stampedes…

It didn’t take long before the same situation happened in the rest of the elevators. Given how popular the serum was before this virus was discovered, there was no telling how many had actually taken it, or when even. The consensus was that there were a lot, and it was only a matter of time before more appeared.

This staggered zombification was what made this virus outbreak especially sinister.

Even with her eyes closed, Jiaojiao had a basic inkling as to what was going on outside. She dared not open them and leaned in closer. “Big brother… what should we do…”

“Your Highness, at this rate, there’s no end to the foolishness of these humans. This one plans on activating her World-ender powers to clear a path forward!”

World-ender power? More like potato power… ahem… She probably means spiritual energy… that’s the basis for her dad’s Martial Sage Arts of the Primordial Energies, after all. I doubt she wouldn’t have learnt it.

Unexpectedly, Bitong did not tease her for that. Instead, she leaned in with a worried look on her face. “Ke, leaving now is going to be difficult, should we…”

“It’s alright, I have a plan, don’t worry.” I answered with firm resolve, though my heart was pounding right now. But I wasn’t going to show that to the girls.

Still… I wonder how many people will be alive at the end of this chaos… Either way, I’m protecting the girls with my life!

Because the area we were in wasn’t in the path of the exits – I even went so far as to put distance between us and them- barely anyone bumped into us during this mad rush. And even if they did, I was more than ready to use force to chase them away.

Just like that, we safely made it through the initial carnage of the rush. Roughly ten minutes had passed, and over half the people had evacuated.

Even so, the shelter was still a chaotic mess despite its huge size. Those who did not escape yet were running around like headless chickens, definitely deprived of any rationality.

The shelter that was supposed to protect them ended up becoming a slaughterhouse. Blood and gore painted the floors, made only worse by the pungent smell of blood and bile lingering in the air. It was the smell of death that filled our noses.

The zombies, for the most part, did not bother the living, not when there was so much food to be had. Because of that, the survivors were safe for the time being.

In every corner of the shelter, there were pockets of zombies feasting about. Each elevator at least had a couple of zombies within them. Naturally, the stairways were no exception either.

At this point, fighting our way out was the only way, and we had to do it fast before the dead became zombies as well.

“Ding! Calm Amidst the Storm has been completed. Dispatching a reward right now… complete. Please verify receipt.”

Mission? I paused in surprise. Thinking back, I did have some impression of the system mentioning something.

Mission: Calm Amidst the Storm.

Requirements: Our valued host has to protect himself and his harem members for ten minutes.

Reward: Fire Wall (Skill). Requires spiritual energy to be used, minimum of five units. Magnitude and duration are decided by the amount of spiritual energy used.

Comments: This is basically a giveaway mission. If our valued host cannot even protect his own harem, then this system has no need for such a useless host.

Status: Complete.

Hmmm… complete. The system even accepted the mission on my behalf. No penalty was stated as well. Very convenient… all that nonsense about changing hosts can be ignored.

The moment I accepted the reward, my brain was hit with a foreign set of knowledge that somehow seemed familiar at the same time. In barely a second, I had learnt the Fire Wall skill. With just a wave of my hands, I could now create a wall of fire. However, now wasn’t the time for experimentation. We still had to get out of here!

“Let’s move!” I passed Jiaojiao to Bitong then said, “I’ll take point. Bitong, I need you to look after Jiaojiao. Lixiang, you can handle yourself. Let’s go!”

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If apologies mean anything, then what do we need zombies for?

—-Mo Ke

No matter what, Icy Inferno was staying by my side -this was my means of protecting the girls and myself.

Even so, Officer Liao had no intention of yielding either. Voice slightly high from tension, he fired off another assurance, “It’s very safe here. I will swear I will protect you… ahem… I meant to say that I will protect everyone. That’s my mission!”

I could tell he was being sincere there. He really did mean to protect everyone, but I did not reply at all. Instead, I trained my eyes on the hoodlums who were sniggering at me arguing with the officer.

Being an experienced officer, he realised where my eyesight was at.

A moment later, he whipped his head around and singled out the hoodlums. “You lot. Apologise to Miss Ke, right this instant! Or else I will teach you a lesson!”

Miss Ke?

I don’t remember introducing myself to him, so how would he know… Wait, I’m not even Miss Ke, I’m Mo Ke!

I got it. It’s those busybodies. They must have spread my picture around the net… who knows how many strangers know my face at this point…

“But Officer Liao, that’s where you are wrong.” The leader of the hoodlums smiled in his typical weaselly fashion. “We’re not the ones carrying a weapon here, why would we go out of our way to antagonise the scary sword lady over there?”

The hoodlum leader was a cunning one. With just one simple question, he easily turned the issue back onto me. His logic was irrefutable as well, who would even try and antagonise a fierce looking newcomer, armed with a sword and a deathly glare…

Officer Liao raised an eyebrow at the implication. “So you’re saying she’s the one who picked a fight then?”

“I never said that. I’m just stating that her weapon is scary.” The hoodlum deliberately danced around the subject again. This was his usual tactic, and it was more than honed at this point. To begin with, what he did wasn’t even that serious so it would resolve itself anyway.

Just like that, we entered into a stand-off; no one wanted to compromise in the slightest.

Officer Liao was put in a spot because of my insistence to hold onto my weapon. On the other hand, the hoodlums were practically giggling to themselves right now as they constantly winked at me, as if to say, what’s the matter, girlie? So what if we harassed you? It’s not like you can swing that fancy sword at us.

Truly abominable, this situation. But I couldn’t just hack them to pieces. That would be against the law, especially in front of Officer Liao…

The atmosphere grew tenser by the minute. Officer Liao was stuck between me and a bunch of hoodlums who were only growing bolder with their taunting.

Looking at those failures of the human race, I truly cursed at their kind, the kind of miscreant who never committed any grave sin, but did enough just to annoy you… Ugh!

Yet just when my temper was about to reach its boiling point, the herald of bad news came riding in on a piercing wail amidst the refugees. “AHHH… he got bitten! Someone just got bitten to death…”

From the epicenter of that scream, a horde of people began running outwards. At the start, no one knew exactly what was going on, but when a person with blood spilling from the sides of his mouth like a waterfall started pouncing on random people, the realisation immediately sank in.

Like a herd of stampeding horses, waves of people rushed towards the closest exit they could find. Within this shelter, there were a total of eight exits – four staircases and four elevators, located in the four directions each.

With a human stampede rushing towards us, it didn’t take long before the five hoodlums were swallowed up by the wave.

Seeing the crowd in such a panicked state, I immediately pulled the girls close to me, herding everyone to the side so as to avoid direct contact.

Naturally, Officer Liao had already sprung into action. Waving his baton about as he yelled, “Everyone. Stay calm… do not panic…”

Yet no matter how amplified his voice was, no one was going to calm down just because he said so. In fact, they seemed even more frightened now.

In mere moments, cries for help and children wailing began to fill the cramped exits as more people fell to the ground, trampled to death by the crowd they were part of not too long ago…

As the trampling got worse, the blind nature of human fear only spurred on their frantic desire to rush for the exits. Everyone was controlled by the monster known as fear, and that monster was cruelly whipping them ever onwards, right through their fellow humans.

Sometimes, it was another person who had failed to keep up with the rapid pace of the crowd, only to get trampled to death as punishment. Other times, it was a mother desperately trying to find her child in the midst of a forest of humans.

“Big brother, what’s going on over there?” Jiaojiao mumbled as she shrunk closer into my arms, horrified by the merciless crowd and their poor victims. Not too long ago, she had witnessed another boy around her age stumble, only to to never stand up again. She dared not raise her head, burying it deep into my chest as she clutched down on my shirt. At the side, that trampled boy continued to look lifelessly in her direction.

“Don’t worry, your big brother is here.” The instant this whole mess started, I made the quick decision to evacuate everyone to the side, basically somewhere where we weren’t in a straight line to any exit. Thanks to that, we managed to avoid the horde entirely.

As for why didn’t we just rush to the elevator… Honestly, my instincts just told me that the elevator most likely wasn’t going to be safe for long.

Officer Liao tried his hardest to maintain order, but the startled masses would have none of that. Faced with an unstoppable, unthinking wave of people, the best he could manage was keep himself safe for the time being.

Amidst the chaos, I could hear other police officers shouting over the crowd to try and calm them down. As I had expected, Officer Liao wasn’t the only officer on duty here.

Unfortunately, without an exosuit, these policemen couldn’t even guarantee their own survival.

Suddenly, Bitong whispered in my ears. “Someone is changing.”

Even amidst the din of the crowd, I was still able to catch some key phrases, like bitten, dead, etc.

It was only to be expected that some would start turning into zombies…

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Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

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If apologies mean anything, then what do we need the police for?

—-Mo Ke

Barely ten seconds into our ride, the elevator came to stop, opening up to a sea of people.

For the most part, everyone was clumped up into groups of three or four amongst acquaintances, each group being separated by a fair distance.

Individually, they weren’t talking too loudly, but the sheer amount of whispering, coupled with the confined space, created quite a din.

When the elevator door slid open, the closest ten or so refugees were slightly startled by our appearance. Now this wasn’t just me bragging or anything, but the girls were all top notch beauties, the kind who could win a pageant. Being surprised was only to be expected.

However, they merely gave us a cursory glance before returning to their own business. Perhaps the zombie apocalypse had dulled their interests in strangers.

Yet there was always an exception to the rule. One such person, sporting a garish hairstyle with a mix of orange, red and green, mouth smoking an unlit cigarette and curved into a lascivious smirk, approached with an equally garish bunch of men. With one look, I could already tell these were hoodlums.

“Look what we got here, boys. Who would have thought we would bump into a bunch of cuties like you four even in the middle of an apocalypse. Scared aintcha, girlies? Don’t worry, those monsters can’t hurt you now that big brother is here. All you need to do is lean in and he will handle the rest.” The leader of these hoodlums tugged on his collars as if to emphasize his point. “There’s more than enough room here for all of you…”

“Big brother…” Youngest amongst us, Jiaojiao immediately ducked behind me like a startled little rabbit.

“Don’t be scared, they don’t dare try anything funny here.” I patted her head while giving the five hoodlums a sharp glare.

Having slayed some zombies not too long ago myself, my cold glare that practically radiated murder was enough to make those hoodlums think twice, especially when I still had Icy Inferno in my hands. None of them dared push this matter further.

This was the underground shelter. Just from a quick glance, there were over a thousand refugees gathered here right now. Under such circumstances, there was bound to be a security system set in place. As long as we stirred up enough of a ruckus, the security personnel should come knocking. Most people wouldn’t start trouble here, not unless they were morons, of course.

“What are you lot cowering for?! She doesn’t dare use that sword to cut us!” The leader of hoodlums bellowed, both as a means of encouraging his lackeys as well as himself. Unfortunately, his four lackeys were still scared stiff, and even he himself wasn’t advancing a step further.

Seems like my sword didn’t even need to cut to scare them.

Bitong and Lixiang were just as fierce as I was. The former transformed out her magical wand, while the latter aimed her doll at the hoodlums, as if it was some kind of doomsday device.

These hoodlums were just as I expected, all bark and no bite. Bullying a helpless girl was one thing, but if the target was firmer like us, these scoundrels lost their spines in an instant. Scum of Gaia, I say.

This standoff lasted ten seconds more before a stern voice suddenly interrupted us from behind the hoodlums. “Hey! What’s going on over there?”

A black uniformed policeman swiftly stepped around the hoodlums, baton stretched out to separate us and the hoodlums.

The policeman didn’t have a face shield on so we could see that he was a young man, roughly twenty years of age.

“You lot again! Why can’t you people learn to behave?!” Clearly, this policeman knew these hoodlums and was even scolding them already.

The leader of the hoodlums seemed just as familiar with the policeman as well. With practised ease, he gave a weaselly grin and answered, “Officer Liao, we aren’t causing trouble at all. We just saw that these beautiful ladies were in trouble, so we decided to help them.”

“Help them? Do you think I was born yesterday?! Hmph. I’ll take care of you lot later.” The officer was finally done scolding the hoodlums and turned his attention to us. His eyes immediately went wide with shock, but quickly recovered a second later. “Miss, may I inquire as to why you have a sword on you? Did the guards just let it through? Forget it, just hand it over to me for now, it’s illegal for ordinary citizens to carry weapons.”

“First off, I’m a man. Second, I’m not handing my weapon over to you.” I firmly emphasized the first, and since I was already being rebellious, I decided to emphasize the second as well.

“But your current actions constitute a threat to the other citizens.” Officer Liao patiently tried to persuade us. “I know times aren’t very peaceful right now, but that weapon in your hands is no toy either. The law doesn’t allow you to bring a weapon into a public place.”

I knew he was in the right here, but I still raised an eyebrow at him and curtly rebutted. “You’re saying you want to take my weapon away then?”

“That’s right. For the safety of the others here, as well as yourself.” Officer Liao nodded his head; his words couldn’t be clearer at this point. In his mind, this zombie outbreak would be over soon enough. Once that happened, he would get into trouble for allowing a civilian to carry a weapon, while I would get punished by the law for doing so.

Naturally, all that was predicated on the zombie outbreak ending… In other words, on Southern Plains receiving aid soon.

Honestly, his concern was only to be expected. A weapon made a person bolder. Ideas that would not have existed before would start to rise to the surface, nefarious ideas.

Especially now that the entire city was in chaos, maintaining law and order was more important than ever. Allowing a sword-wielding maniac to run amok amongst the populace would cause as much of a disaster as those zombies.

At the very least, I could guarantee that I was no maniac. Whether or not he would believe me was another matter. Just like whether or not I was going to run foul of the law was another matter.

To be fair to him, no maniac had ever claimed to be anything other than sane.

“Perhaps you’re right, but I have to insist on keeping my weapon, for my own protection.”

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Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

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4511 put on an impressive showing right there. Or rather, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that his exosuit was much stronger than the zombies he faced, judging by how he managed to mow them all down from a good distance away.

Now that the zombies were taken care of, 4511 suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned around to look at the sword in my hands. “Miss Ke, I know now might not be the best time to say this, but I should at least remind you that carrying a long bladed weapon like that is against the law…”

“What’s that, 4511? You have a problem with our Goddess?!” Before I could even answer him, 3007 had already jumped out to defend me. “Just look around you! There’s zombies everywhere, if it wasn’t for my timely arrival, my Goddess would have… if it wasn’t for that weapon, and if I hadn’t arrived on time… do you expect my Goddess to take on those disgusting monsters empty-handed?”

Ahem. Wasn’t it your colleague, 4511, who found us first, though…

Naturally, neither of them had no way of hearing that. With regards to his colleague’s almost incendiary response, 4511 patiently tried to explain to her, “But it’s not like Miss Ke knew that Southern Plains would meet with a disaster before this, right?”

“Who’s to say she didn’t pick that up in the inn?”

“As if she could just randomly pick up such a pristine weapon… it’s not like we are in the ancient times… In fact, I doubt they even had weapons as sharp as that sword she’s holding right now…”

“That’s because our Goddess is lucky! Haven’t you heard of luck?!”

“Have you been reading too many novels again?!”

“Bah! Stop being such a whiny b*tch already!” 3007 irately interrupted him once more. “The city isn’t even safe anymore, what’s wrong with my Goddess carrying a weapon now?! If it wasn’t for regulations forbidding me, I would have already taken off this exosuit and given it to her. And how can you expect her to protect those lovely ladies accompanying her without a weapon? I don’t care what law you think she’s broken, but you had better forget that sword even exists!”

“…”

I can’t see his face right now, but I’m sure it’s amazing. Also… is this the power of a fan on a mission? Takes blind support to a whole new level, doesn’t it…

At the same time, Bitong, Lixiang all gave me a look. Jiaojiao even quietly pointed at her head before sighing. Finally, all of them turned to look at 3007… seems like everyone agreed that she had a screw loose…

Under 4511’s leadership, our party did not take long to reach our destination.

The so-called shelter was a pavilion structure deliberately made to resemble ancient architecture. It was squarish and roughly measured twelve meters long.

The building was guarded by five fully armed policemen. Unlike 4511, they were decked out in black riot gear, complete with a face shield, and pistols at the ready for the slightest hint of danger.

Should any zombie try to even take a step towards the shelter, a bullet would be ready and waiting.

Around the pavilion itself was a sea of zombie corpses strewn around. Every one of them had a bullet hole in their head. In all likelihood, they had been drawn here by the scent of meat. Too bad they never got to even get a glimpse of said meat before dying.

We so happened to stumble upon a few zombie stragglers assaulting the pavilion upon our arrival. One of the policemen calmly took aim and easily finished off the approaching zombies.

In this day and age, even mechanical guns were equipped with aiming systems. Given that these zombies were mindless, and that there was a system aiding them, every bullet basically hit the head of one zombie.

“We’re here.” 4511 strode up to the front of the pavilion, and without paying the dead zombies a single glance, began talking to the guards on duty.

In the meantime, 3007 took this opportunity to chat with me until 4511 finally dragged her away with him.

Honestly, ever since 3007 appeared, 4511 was a lot more normal. At the very least, he wasn’t trying to be flirty like before. In fact, he seemed almost a little wary of me? But it wasn’t hostility either…

Does 4511 like 3007? But she doesn’t seem to harbor any such feelings towards him.

Well. That’s not my problem. Survival is our priority now.

Even though I could farm those zombies for points right now, if I could simply skip over this whole disaster by hiding out somewhere, I wasn’t going to stick out my neck either.

Besides, I could still earn points by absorbing faith. It was a lengthier process, but a much safer one. Plus, Bitong and the girls weren’t able to fight right now -I did not want them to suffer. And even if they were okay with it, 4511 and 3007 would have probably dragged me here anyway…

End of the day, why risk your life when you did not have to?

“Goddess, I’m sad to say that I can’t stay by your side and protect you because of my duty. Before I go, promise me that you will look after yourself… If anyone dares to bully you, just tell them you know me. My name is… Blast… I’m forbidden from telling you as well. Never mind, we can exchange contact information instead…”

Finally, after much nagging, she left, though not without promising that she would come find us once she was free.

At the side, 4511 tried to remind her that they were still on patrol but he was quickly met with a death glare from her.

On the argument front, this female cop definitely had him beat!

Thankfully, 3007 was sensible enough to rein herself in after glaring at her partner. She realised that we were still outside the safety of the shelter so she didn’t try to hold us here any further.

As I looked at their rapidly disappearing silhouette, I could only pray for them silently.

Farewells finally taken care of, I turned my attention back to the shelter.

The entrance area of the shelter was in the dead center of the pavilion. There weren’t tables or chairs as you would expect. Instead, there was a giant stairway that led underground.

Thanks to the lights at the side, the stairs were decently lit up.

Upon descending, we found three pathways laid out before us. The center was a set of stairs to be climbed down manually. The other two were marked with the sign of an elevator.

“Jiaojiao’s tired! Let’s take the elevator instead!” Realising that there was an elevator to take instead, Jiaojiao finally regained some of her usual childishness now that we were safe once more. “Big brother, let’s take the elevator instead. Jiaojiao’s feet are tired…”

“Mhm. Let’s do that.” There really wasn’t much argument there. Who would choose the stairs when there was a perfectly fine elevator right there? Since no one disagreed, we quickly picked one of the elevators.

The elevator itself was quite wide, and from the looks of things, could probably fit a hundred at once.

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE