Chapter 44

It seemed a little different from their original plan.

Su Xing stood silently to the side. Initially confused by Wen Ruyao’s rhetoric, she quickly understood. Their initial prediction had been wrong.

Not everyone hated this ruined world, and thus, not everyone would pay any price to leave it. The information they held about the final evacuation had therefore become a useless bargaining chip.

So, Wen Ruyao had changed her strategy.

“They have two vehicles full of people, an unknown number of weapons. Just those two armored vehicles alone are mobile fortresses with great utility. Dealing with them would be troublesome, but they’re fat sheep.”

Leaning against the SUV’s hood, Zheng Xingjun fixed Wen Ruyao with his narrow, sinister eyes and smiled. “You’re very considerate, Miss Wen. But I don’t need that many weapons here. After all, if two-legged sheep get armed and grow bold, they become hard to control.”

The Madman stood behind Zheng Xingjun. Hearing the implication in his words, his expression grew uneasy. He had also been present during Wen Ruyao and Zheng Xingjun’s so-called private negotiation and naturally knew about the temporary airport. Although he was brothers with Zheng Xingjun for years and was now his most trusted confidant, he was still just an ordinary man, unlike Zheng Xingjun, who had gained powerful abilities after mutation. Like the many other ordinary people barely surviving in this chaotic world, he certainly wasn’t willing to live such a precarious, hopeless life forever. Moreover, Zheng Xingjun’s temperament had grown increasingly strange since his mutation. Once all the two-legged sheep they “raised” here were eaten, he didn’t think Zheng Xingjun would spare him out of past brotherhood.

“Brother Zheng… do you really plan on staying here forever? Don’t you want to go somewhere else and take a look? Besides, aren’t Guoguo and your wife still in A City…” The Madman swallowed nervously, carefully watching the scarlet, animalistic gleam swirling in Zheng Xingjun’s eyes.

At his words, Zheng Xingjun visibly paused, the inorganic scarlet in his eyes receding slightly.

After a few seconds of silence, Zheng Xingjun snorted. “Then let’s see if Miss Wen’s abilities are worth two tickets.”

“Go, take the car out. Bring those sick and crippled wastes along too.” Zheng Xingjun tossed the car keys to the Madman and rotated his wrist as he slowly walked toward the exit. “Been cooped up here for days; it’s about time we found some excitement.”

“Yes, Brother Zheng!” The Madman’s face lit up with furtive joy as he clutched the keys and got into the car.

————

Ten minutes later.

Somewhere several hundred meters from the mall, on the main north-south thoroughfare.

Su Xing sat in the car, looking out through the half-open window at the desolate, empty street outside. Amidst the apocalyptic scenery of universal decay, that strange, greenish-brown plant life displayed a starkly contrasting, vigorous vitality. It was not just in the park’s flowerbeds; it had overgrown onto the sidewalks along the road and the median strips on the street, and it climbed the outer walls of tall buildings like ivy, making this already unrecognizable city feel even more alien.

“Brother… Big Brother, please let me go back! I’m begging you, I… I really don’t dare go that way!”

A lame man, leaning on a wooden stick, stood in front of the SUV’s hood. His frail body was like a stalk of straw that could blow over at any moment. Beside him stood several other survivors dragged out from the mall—all old, weak, sick, or injured. Each had a collar fastened around their neck, with a broken chain attached to a small figurine toy.

The Madman held the submachine gun that had been “confiscated” from Su Xing and Wen Ruyao. Its muzzle forced the group forward. “Cut the crap! All of you, follow this road and move forward! No one turns back before you’ve lured them out. If one of you runs, I’ll shoot one dead!”

As his vicious words rang out, the survivors’ trembling intensified. Two of them were so scared they collapsed onto the ground, refusing to move forward even with the gun barrel pressed against them. Dragged forcibly out of the mall and thrown into the peril-filled outdoors, they had no defensive weapons on them. Who knew how many mutated monsters lurked in this deathly silent street? Any sound might attract something terrifying. To step out was a death sentence—a one-way trip with no return.

“Madman, you know I don’t like waiting too long to watch a monkey show.” Zheng Xingjun sat in the front passenger seat, touching his chin with a faint, cold smile.

“Yes, yes! Damn it, get moving, you scum!” The Madman turned and viciously kicked the lame man. Bang! Unused to the weapon, he fired a shot near the man’s feet.

The gunshot and screams made the people outside the car reflexively clutch their heads and run forward, like a flock of panicked, directionless rabbits fleeing in a frenzy.

“Not bad, make them run faster.” Watching the chaotic flight outside the car, Zheng Xingjun clapped his hands with a contemptuous sneer.

“……”

Sitting in the back seat, Su Xing clenched her fists. She glanced at Wen Ruyao beside her, who had also witnessed everything. Wen Ruyao’s lips were pressed tightly together, her brows slightly furrowed, her delicate features laced with gravity.

“Does it have to be like this?” Su Xing looked through the rearview mirror at the few spare “bait” following behind the car, unable to hold back her words.

Zheng Xingjun asked, “What, does Miss Su want to join them?”

“You—” Su Xing sat up, about to speak, when strange sounds came from up ahead.

“Dee-dee-da-dee— Dee-li-li-li-li-li-li-da-li…”

A series of bizarre, synthetic electronic music notes rang out from the people running for their lives ahead, echoing continuously through the silent, empty street.

The sound came from the figurine toys tied to them. Toys from that designer toy store, with built-in speakers capable of playing music and recordings. After they had run a certain distance, the Madman, grinning, pressed the remote control in his hand.

Clearly, this group had no idea these figurines could make sounds. Like startled birds, they frantically tore at the collars locked around their necks, trying to throw away these deadly objects. But the things were fastened to their collars with iron rings; they couldn’t be pried off bare-handed in such a short time.

“Dee-li-li-li-li—”

The cold, grating mechanical sound still emanated from their own bodies. At any second, the monsters lurking in this silent street would burst out from any possible hiding place upon hearing the noise and bite them to death.

The few “baits” were already terrified out of their wits, but turning back meant getting shot. They desperately tugged at the collars around their necks, able only to run forward faster, instinctually, like headless flies.

Boom!

The entire ground suddenly shook once. A second tremor followed quickly. Even inside the car, they could feel the undulating vibrations.

From the release of the bait to the shaking of the earth, the whole process was incredibly short. Su Xing’s hand froze on the car door. She stared intently at the quivering branches outside the window.

“What’s going on? Did those punks steal a tank or something?” The Madman scrambled back into the driver’s seat, looking fearfully at the scene ahead. Apart from the people they had forced out, nothing else strange had appeared on the street yet. But he still wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and twisted the car key, ready to floor it and flee at the first sign of trouble.

“You’re afraid?” Zheng Xingjun glanced at him, sneering. “Useless crap. Are you worried those beasts can eat you right in front of me?”

“No… of course not.” Under his cold stare, the Madman felt even more terrified.

“Ah—”

A piercing scream rang out from nearby. Moments later, the “baits” ahead all turned tail and ran back.

They ran back for their lives.