BANG—
Sounds of explosions echoed out from the direction of the laboratory they had just been in. Enormous plumes of smoke drifted high into the air.
Shi Sheng stood in a pile of chopped up zombie corpses, and lifted her head to look at the sky. Her expression was filled with ridicule yet her eyes were as apathetic as ever.
She was like a ruler of worlds, standing atop mountains of corpses and seas of blood; her aura was incredible, she was like a dazzling star.
Qing Yu’s trio were stunned by this scene for a moment, but were soon brought back to reality by the sound of explosions.
“Are those helicopters?”
“Fuck, they’re bombing the facility!”
“Then the people inside…”
The helicopter flew off after it had finished bombing the building. Had they flown forward a bit, they would have seen an extremely shocking sight—the zombie corpse-filled streets.
“They’re dead for sure.” With such a large-scale bombing, that place should’ve been levelled, right?
‘Did they bomb them because the stuff inside couldn’t be brought out or because they couldn’t leave any witnesses? How extreme. They didn’t even let off their own people… Not that it has anything to do with me.
I have to go find my boyfr- PEI! The future Zombie Emperor…’
The county capital wasn’t too big. Now that Shi Sheng had calmed down, she didn’t really attack much, instead choosing to use her ability to bypass the zombies in a blatant manner.
……
Qi Mingxue and Song Shi’s group were currently in a small building that was a little out of the ways. There weren’t many zombies here so it was relatively safe.
Song Shi had managed to open that hidden door at the last moment, but Shi Sheng hadn’t shut the emergency exit door when she left the second lab, so zombies had already entered it. That fourth stage zombie was there too. Song Shi’s group hadn’t been able to kill that zombie before the explosions had begun.
Although they had managed to escape, they had lost a comrade. As for everyone else, it wasn’t known whether they had died or managed to escape too. Now, only Qi Mingxue, Su Jiye, Zhao Jing and Song Shi were left. The tall dark-skinned man had died. Song Shi had been injured. Qi Mingxue, on the other hand…
Song Shi’s eyes narrowed as he watched Qi Mingxue busying herself. When the explosions had started, he could vaguely make out that she had vanished for a while and had only reappeared when the explosions stopped.
“Ah Shi, have some water.” Qi Mingxue handed him water that contained some amount of spirit spring water.
Song Shi lowered his head to take a sip before frowning slightly. ‘This water is different.’
Ever since clean water had stopped flowing, the only kind of water available for drinking was bottled water from before the apocalypse or water created by water ability users. But neither of those were as sweet as the water he was drinking. Song Shi didn’t show any signs of hesitation as he finished the water.
Qi Mingxue was a bit nervous. She had never given Song Shi any spring water before. He was too sharp, she was afraid he would discover something different about the water.
But now they were all injured. If she didn’t give them any to drink, who knows when they’d be able to recover.
The water was quite effective. The next day, everyone had pretty much healed up. Song Shi gazed deeply at Qi Mingxue. ‘She seems to have a lot of secrets…’
“Boss, why are you just staring at Mingxue-jie?” Su Jiye sat down next to Song Shi, and poked fun at him. “Have you fallen for her? Hehe, if you ask me, the two of you look great together! Mingxue-jie’s pretty and has ability to boot! It’s just that she’s a bit too nice sometimes… though I guess that’s not a bad thing. If she was a cruel person, who would be willing to trust her?”
“Shut up.” Song Shi glared coldly at him.
“Don’t be shy, Boss. If you like her, pursue her. Have you seen how many people want to court her? If you don’t seize the opportunity now, there’s no such thing as medicine for regret!”
Song Shi glared at him again, which made Su Jiye finally shut up. Su Jiye covered his mouth and sat down next to Zhao Jing. Zhao Jing’s expression was a bit strange as his gaze moved back and forth between Qi Mingxue and Song Shi.
……
Shi Sheng had nearly flipped over the entire D County looking for Qian Li yet still couldn’t find him. She could only return to the B City safe-zone. Meanwhile, her three little bros kept asking her stuff like:
“We’re not looking for your boyfriend anymore?”
“Is it really fine to just leave that zombie on his own?”
“What if he takes a liking to a pretty girl zombie?”
And all sorts of similarly uneducated questions.
‘I’ve already said it a few hundred times: He’s not my boyfriend!!! I don’t have a zombie boyfriend!!! And that fellow ran off on his own! The world is too big for me to search for him! And I don’t have that rumoured GPS tracker that comes with the System other System MCs have!
Maybe Qian Li, that bitch, ran off already and just left me here to look for him like an idiot…
Since he’s the final boss, he’ll turn up sooner or later.’
On the way back, the four saw Qi Mingxue and Song Shi’s group. Since they were the main characters, Shi Sheng had never entertained the thought that they would die in the explosions, so she wasn’t surprised to see them at all. However, something seemed to have happened, for Song Shi looked as if he disliked Qi Mingxue now…
And only Su Jiye was left. The other two were missing.
When Qi Mingxue and company were escaping from D County, they had met with another fourth stage zombie. Qi Mingxue had pushed Zhao Jing towards the zombie. Though it had been inconspicuous, Song Shi, who had been paying attention to her, managed to see it.
By the time he reacted, it was too late to save Zhao Jing. He could only watch as the zombie killed Zhao Jing. When Song Shi questioned her afterwards, Qi Mingxue only said that she had been scared at that time. After all, it was a fourth stage zombie. Of course, Song Shi didn’t believe her, resulting in the current schism between the two.
As to why Qi Mingxue wanted Zhao Jing dead, it was because Zhao Jing had discovered her secret. He was using it to blackmail her to be with him, or else he would tell it to Song Shi.
In the original storyline, Zhao Jing would betray Song Shi and gang for Zhao Yan’s sake in the later parts of the book. By that time, Song Shi and Qi Mingxue’s relationship was already stable and Song Shi had discovered something off about Zhao Jing, so he had been prepared; nothing much was lost.
But right now, things were different. Zhao Jing still held some weight in Song Shi’s heart; at least, more so than Qi Mingxue.
……
When they returned to the safe-zone, Shi Sheng waited outside, not in a rush to enter. Song Shi’s gang was taken away the moment they entered. ‘As expected, they’re planning on silencing the witnesses! I wonder how they’ll escape this time.’
“Boss, you’re so smart!” The trio worshipped Shi Sheng even more after this. Had they entered just now, they would’ve probably been taken away like Song Shi’s group.
“Even if you used your toes to think, it’s obvious. Since they dispatched helicopters to bomb the place, it means they don’t want people to know what was in there.” The leaders of the safe-zone had probably wanted to retrieve some materials from that place but hadn’t expected a fourth stage zombie to pop out and result in the discovery of that laboratory.
‘Perhaps Chang Xin’s original mission was to retrieve whatever it is they wanted from the lab. First, he’d get people to clear out the building, then when they had to gather up, would take the opportunity to grab whatever it was.
Pity they met that fourth stage zombie though. Weren’t expecting that, were they? For the sake of survival, he had no choice but to allow people into the underground lab.’
Shi Sheng was actually quite smart when she used her brains. A pity that… she preferred to use her fists more often.
Shi Sheng’s gang disguised themselves as lucky survivors. She used her own name to enter the safe-zone this time. Since photographs weren’t used when people registered, it was rather easy to fool people. There were officially three ability users in the team, so they didn’t meet with much trouble.
They naturally couldn’t return to the place they had been staying in before, so they had to find a new dwelling.