Chapter 22

Su Xing: “Should we find a way to avoid those people?” After all, human hearts were unfathomable in the apocalypse.

Wen Ruyao shook her head. “It’s only the fourth day. The greatest threat in most people’s eyes is still the unknown creatures outside. Besides, they should have also received the message about the Safe Base. At a time like this, evacuating with more people is safer.”

“…”

Su Xing didn’t say anything further. Wen Ruyao’s analysis was logical and her reasoning meticulous. In comparison, all she needed to do was listen quietly. She couldn’t help but sigh inwardly—no wonder Wen Ruyao, at such a young age, could sit as an equal alongside the company’s old, scheming senior executives.

“However…” Wen Ruyao turned around, her slender eyes narrowing as she scrutinized Su Xing from head to toe, hesitating to speak.

“However what?” Su Xing unconsciously took a step back.

“We still need to be somewhat vigilant. How many bullets are in that gun of yours?”

Su Xing told Wen Ruyao about “picking up” the gun on the subway. Over these days, she had also crammed quite a bit of firearms knowledge through the intermittent network connection.

“There are six rounds left.” She pulled the pistol out from her close-fitting inner pocket. Ammo was limited, but it was currently the most lethal weapon they had. Unfortunately, she had never used the thing before, let alone had any shooting accuracy. Thinking it over, she handed the gun to Wen Ruyao. She now had the System’s Strength enhancement; it should be able to save her life at a critical moment. The same might not be true for Wen Ruyao. Leaving the gun for her as a self-defense weapon was better.

[Bootlick Value +1. You still need to accumulate 3 Bootlick Value for the next Attribute Point allocation. Please continue to work hard!]

Su Xing: “…”

What was with this new, strange kind of notification?

[Because there’s been plenty of energy lately~]

“…”

This system. When she didn’t need it, it sure talked a lot of nonsense.

Wen Ruyao saw her handing the gun over. She stared fixedly at Su Xing for a few seconds, a fleeting, unusual emotion flickering in the depths of her eyes. “You keep it. In my current physical condition, holding onto it would actually make me a bigger target. Besides… I believe you can protect me.”

“Pro-protect?” Su Xing looked at the other woman’s cool, serious face and blinked.

Wait, when had it become her job to protect Wen Ruyao?

“Aren’t we allies?” Wen Ruyao raised her eyes, suddenly taking a direct step toward Su Xing, who hastily backed away in alarm.

“You’re taller than me,” Wen Ruyao looked up at her, then lowered her gaze to glance at the muscles on Su Xing’s upper arms. “And stronger than me. You don’t even show signs of oxygen intoxication. As allies, shouldn’t we allocate resources rationally? If I could, I would gladly protect you.”

“Uh, I…” Su Xing blinked, momentarily at a loss for words. It wasn’t that she was unwilling to contribute; she just couldn’t quite process Wen Ruyao suddenly saying this.

“Right,” Wen Ruyao seemed to remember something, her lips curving slightly. “You’ve also eaten a lot of my food.”

“…”

Su Xing’s face flushed bright red.

…What was with the way Wen Ruyao talked?

She’d only eaten a little of her food. How petty. She really must be a bottom, huh.

Still, the one who eats another’s food is beholden to them. Blushing furiously, Su Xing sat on the sofa and muttered sullenly, “Of course.”

Wen Ruyao watched her reddened face and smiled softly. “Can you shoot a bow?”

Su Xing: “Huh?”

“There’s still some time. We don’t know what we’ll encounter out there. I’ll teach you some basics; it might be useful.” Wen Ruyao beckoned with her hand and led her toward the storage room to retrieve the bows and arrows.

…

There was a limit to what they could realistically take, so packing their evacuation gear didn’t take long that night.

Early the next morning, they were fully armed and ready to head to the underground garage.

They changed into moisture-proof, wind-resistant jackets suitable for easy movement, trousers tucked into combat boots. Their hiking packs contained roughly a week’s worth of supplies, some emergency escape tools, and essential medicine. Adding the remaining two drones, these alone were already at maximum capacity. Since Su Xing was in better physical condition, she naturally carried more. A bow and quiver hung on her back. Each of them took a long watermelon knife for self-defense and left this temporary shelter.

Stepping out the door, as they passed the elevator, they noticed it was stopped at the B2 level—the underground garage location. But they hadn’t touched the elevator yesterday.

That meant someone in this building had taken the elevator to the underground garage yesterday.

Su Xing and Wen Ruyao exchanged a look. After a moment’s thought, Su Xing decided to take the fire escape, which they’d already scouted and found temporarily safe.

In an eerie silence the whole way, they successfully reached the garage. The garage covered a vast area; standing outside the door, they could only see a small portion. No human figures were in sight. After a pause, Wen Ruyao swiped her card and opened the door.

Just as they were about to enter, a baseball bat suddenly swung out from a blind spot!

Su Xing, quick-eyed, pulled Wen Ruyao, who was in front, aside just in time to dodge it.

“You… are human?”

A young man in his twenties with a pallid complexion appeared in the doorway, eyeing them nervously.

Su Xing was about to step forward, but the guy immediately tightened his grip on the bat, looking jumpy again.

“Don’t be nervous. We’re normal people, residents from one of the upper floors in this building,” Su Xing quickly explained.

“You, you’re not injured, are you?” The young man’s tension eased slightly. He scrutinized Su Xing and Wen Ruyao up and down. Noticing their bulging backpacks, his expression shifted subtly. “Come in quickly, close the door.”

Once inside the garage, the young man immediately shut the door and turned to walk deeper inside, raising his voice as he went to call out: “More people have come down from upstairs!”

The garage was brightly lit. Su Xing followed the young man inside. After rounding a row of vehicles, they saw a group of seven or eight people huddled in a corner. Seeing unfamiliar faces, some immediately stood up alertly: “Do they have any wounds?”

“I’ve checked them, they should be fine,” the young man said as he walked up to a man with a crew cut, who was relatively sturdier and whose complexion looked slightly more normal. He gave a subtle, meaningful look.

The crew-cut man held a long knife in his hand and was wiping the blade with his sleeve. Hearing this, he glanced at the backpacks they carried, bared his teeth in a seemingly friendly grin, and took the initiative to step forward. “You two also escaped from upstairs, right? Just last night, a girl whose window shattered got lucky and made it to the elevator. She only survived by getting down here. You’re both lucky. We were just about to head to the survivor base the government announced.”

The crew-cut man kept staring at them as he spoke. And it wasn’t just him; the people behind him also intentionally or unintentionally kept their gazes on them. It was because Su Xing and Wen Ruyao looked too “clean,” too “presentable.” Their appearances alone were attention-grabbing, but compared to everyone else here, the two seemed even more pristine. Even their hair looked freshly washed, while the others hadn’t washed for days, and some probably hadn’t even had water to drink.

“Most of us here are neighbors from the building. Acting together is safer. Would you two like to join?”

Although the crew-cut man wore a smile on his face, he kept a firm grip on his knife the whole time, and the way he stared at them was extremely unsettling. Su Xing frowned and turned to look at Wen Ruyao, only to see her nod without hesitation. “We’ll join.”

Su Xing immediately looked at her with wide-eyed surprise.

“Hahaha, that’s great.” The man promptly laughed, his eyes even more brazenly fixed on their backpacks. “But you see… we’ve all been trapped here for days and are very hungry. Everyone who joined later shares their supplies. After all, only when we have strength can we unite and escape this godforsaken place…”

The man didn’t state it outright, but judging by Su Xing and Wen Ruyao’s condition, he could tell they didn’t lack food. If it weren’t for Su Xing looking so “burly”—clearly not as weakened by hunger as they were—and holding a knife, he might not have spoken so politely.

This man was probably the first one trapped in the garage. That day, he had been about to drive to work but just as he pulled out, a super-dense fog arose in the blink of an eye. His instincts screaming that something was wrong, he immediately stopped at the garage entrance. Soon after, he witnessed a horrifying scene from inside his car. Panicked, he reversed back in and closed the garage door. But after scrambling back to his apartment upstairs, he found that the pet dog he kept at home had suddenly become terrifying, even biting his wife to death in one bite. Amidst shock, fury, and disbelief, he drew the long knife he collected and used for fun, slashing it at the dog that was barely recognizable anymore. But even though he cut its neck clean through, the dog still staggered back to its feet. In his panic, he had no choice but to flee back to the garage.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about going out, but outside was far more dangerous than inside. Over the next few days, several more people successively escaped to the garage. The man survived on the small amounts of food these people carried. Initially, people still had some goodwill left, but two days in, as food dwindled, all sense of morality vanished. But the man, relying on his knife and sturdy build, always secured the largest share of food. Later, when someone injured began showing signs of mutation, he was the first to notice and decapitate that person with one swing of his blade. From then on, he became the de facto leader of this garage group.

Once the crew-cut man finished speaking, the others immediately fixed their stares on them. When people are extremely hungry, their minds can hold nothing else but the desire to eat—unless they are too weak to even stand.

Those several “hungry wolf” gazes made Su Xing’s heart clench. She instinctively moved closer to Wen Ruyao, gripping her watermelon knife.

“Of course. We actually do have a little food left…”

Under Su Xing’s continued astonishment, Wen Ruyao took off her own backpack, placed it on the ground, and unzipped it. The bread, biscuits, and bottled water on top were exposed before the group of people whose eyes were glowing green with hunger.

Those who still had some strength immediately lunged forward to grab the food, even starting to push and shove.

“Everyone, back off!”

The crew-cut man bellowed, and the rest no longer dared to step forward. He swallowed, squatting down to rummage through the bag on the floor. His eyes instantly lit up, and he looked up, lunging toward Wen Ruyao. “This much! Do you have any more—”

“Don’t move.”

Behind the man, Su Xing had her gun pressed firmly against his head and said coldly.