“Since he’s Ruan Ning ‘s classmate, why don’t we go ahead and save him?” Lin Yang suggested from the side. “Leaving an unconscious person here, even if he doesn’t turn into a zombie, he’ll likely get eaten.”
If it were a stranger, they might feel sorry but still leave the person to fend for themselves. Call it cold-hearted if you will, but there were too many people in need of help in the apocalypse, and they weren’t saviours. They couldn’t save everyone.
“Brother, can we save him?” Ruan Ning ‘s voice was soft as she pleaded.
Ruan Ning ‘s thoughts were similar to Lin Yang’s. If it were someone she didn’t know, she could harden her heart and ignore it. But leaving someone she’d spoken to just days ago lying on the road—it stirred a small sense of guilt in her.
Her bright, hopeful eyes gazed at Gu Yicheng, the decision-maker of their group. As long as he agreed, Xu Chi would get a second chance at life. Whether he survived afterward would depend on fate.
Gu Yicheng looked into Ruan Ning ‘s hopeful eyes, squinting slightly before speaking in a calm tone, “Lin Yang, go with Captain Su and take care of him.”
Lin Yang immediately understood Gu’s decision to save the boy. He grabbed a coil of rope from under the seat and got out of the car.
Ruan Ning, understanding Gu’s response, smiled happily and said, “Thank you, brother!”
Gu Yicheng, however, maintained a composed expression. “But Ruan Ning, you should stay in the car this time. Lin Yang will take care of your classmate.”
Since ordinary people scratched by zombies could turn at any moment, it was safer to let only the ability users handle it.
Ruan Ning understood this reasoning well. Her goal was already achieved, and her relationship with Xu Chi wasn’t that deep, so she wasn’t about to insist on going over to check on him.
Lin Yang tied Xu Chi up securely and tossed him into the back seat of another car. Tied this way, even if he did turn into a zombie, he wouldn’t be able to harm anyone nearby.
With Xu Chi settled, the group resumed their journey.
Logically, as they approached the city centre, they should have encountered more zombies. At first, they thought that the swarm they’d encountered near the auto shop had drawn away the nearby zombies, so they hadn’t paid much attention. But even after driving several more kilometres, close to the gas station, the number of zombies didn’t increase. Instead, they seemed to decrease, and by the time they entered the next street, there wasn’t a single zombie in sight.
The gas station was situated at a corner of a crossroads. The traffic lights no longer worked, and abandoned cars and dried bloodstains on the road indicated that this place had seen the same chaos that had ravaged the rest of the world.
The surroundings were eerily quiet, and there was no sign of life in the nearby residential buildings. The trees lining the street had shed most of their leaves, leaving only a few scattered across the ground, making the area seem even more desolate.
Having fewer zombies was one thing, but in a country that had a population of over a billion before the apocalypse, a place like this—within the city—shouldn’t be devoid of zombies. Even if some strong ability users had cleared the area before they arrived, the street wouldn’t be this spotless.
“Mr. Gu, what should we do now?” someone asked.
Everyone remained on high alert, even after reaching the gas station, with no one daring to get out of the cars.
Anything out of the ordinary was a sign of danger.
Sometimes, a street devoid of zombies was more dangerous than one swarming with them.
“Everyone, stay sharp,” Gu Yicheng ordered, then glanced toward Ruan Ning, who sat beside him. He frowned slightly.
Sensing his gaze, Ruan Ning hurriedly spoke before Gu Yicheng could instruct her to stay behind again. “Brother, can I come with you this time? Don’t worry, I’ll take care of myself and won’t slow anyone down!”
Ruan Ning took out her gun from her space, swiftly loading the magazine with clean, practiced movements. Once she was done, she looked up at Gu Yicheng with a sweet, obedient expression.
Given the strange atmosphere of the area, and knowing that even staying in the car might not be safe, Gu Yicheng didn’t insist on leaving her behind this time. “Just make sure you stay close to me.”
“Okay, brother,” Ruan Ning replied.
She felt a quiet relief that he hadn’t forced her to stay in the car with a bodyguard. While being protected was nice and safe, she didn’t want to always be treated like a fragile flower. She preferred to learn how to fight alongside everyone else, to kill zombies and avoid being a burden on the team.
After getting out of the car, Ruan Ning followed closely beside Gu Yicheng, as she had promised. Thanks to their previous experience at the factory, where she had faced zombies head-on, Ruan Ning no longer felt that initial knee-weakening fear. This was definitely progress.
The gas station they arrived at was even larger than the one they had visited earlier when leaving the city. The team quickly spotted the fuel tanker sitting in the open space. Their intel had been accurate.
Lin Yang and Su Chen led the team, splitting up as they reached a junction to inspect the gas station. Meanwhile, the rest of the team stayed on alert, keeping their positions.
While Lin Yang and Su Chen were investigating, Jiang Jingchao used his mental ability to scan the surroundings of the gas station.
“Gu-ge, everything seems normal,” Jiang Jingchao reported to Gu Yicheng, shaking his head to confirm that there were no zombies detected around the gas station.
As expected, a few minutes later, Lin Yang and Su Chen returned, having found nothing suspicious. They had thoroughly searched the entire station, even checking every nook and cranny where something could be hiding, but it was eerily clean and untouched. No signs of looters or disturbances. The place was suspiciously safe.
But that exact safety made everyone feel a creeping sense of unease.
Ruan Ning, however, was more tense than the others. Her nerves were tightly strung, as though something terrible was about to happen at any moment.
She suddenly remembered the storyline from the novel—this exact gas station, and the glimpse of the kindergarten she had seen earlier while they were driving.
It wasn’t until Su Chen and Lin Yang mentioned that the supplies were untouched, perfectly preserved, that it all clicked into place for Ruan Ning. She recalled this specific plot event.
This place was far from safe. It was filled with zombies, and not just any zombies—a horde of child zombies.
In the apocalypse, children had an even harder time surviving than adults, but once they turned into zombies, their small size became their greatest strength. They were more agile and far more difficult to defend against.
The reason they hadn’t encountered any zombies on the way, why the area felt so off, was that the entire region had been claimed by these child zombies. Every living being that entered would be stalked by them.
“Brother, let’s get the fuel and leave as quickly as possible,” Ruan Ning whispered nervously, trying not to alert the lurking threat of the child zombies.
Her voice carried a tremble she hadn’t even realized was there, but Gu Yicheng noticed it immediately. He glanced at her, sensing her fear, and his eyes softened as he reassured her, “Don’t worry, I’m here.”
Ruan Ning wanted to warn him about the dangers ahead, but the words caught in her throat. How could she explain something she shouldn’t know? In the end, she just nodded in response.
She vaguely recalled that, in this part of the novel, even Gu Yicheng had been seriously injured while dealing with these child zombies. She couldn’t remember the exact details of the encounter, but the mere thought of what was coming made her heart race with dread.
Although the plot ensured that with the protagonist’s protection, Gu Yicheng and his team would safely reach the capital, making it unlikely they’d meet their end in S City, this place was still the first truly challenging encounter for him after his rebirth.
Regardless of how dangerous the gas station might be, since they had already arrived, they still needed to collect fuel. Working together, the team quickly found dozens of bottles, big and small, to hold the gasoline.
While the others were busy finding containers, Ning headed straight for the tanker.
Previously, Ning might have hesitated to show her full abilities, but given the current situation, she wanted to load up the fuel as quickly as possible and get away from this dangerous place.
No longer concerned with the earlier pretence about her spatial ability not being large enough to hold a tanker, she focused on getting things done efficiently.
Of course, Ning wasn’t reckless. She wouldn’t reveal all her cards so soon. She had already prepared a reasonable explanation in case anyone asked—she would simply say her space had levelled up. After all, Gu Yicheng had given her quite a few crystal cores over the past few days, more than enough to justify levelling up her ability. It’s easier for someone with a larger space to claim their space expanded further, so she felt confident that no one would question her.
With that settled in her mind, Ning acted without hesitation. With just a thought, the tanker vanished into her space.
Such a large tanker disappearing into thin air naturally didn’t escape the notice of the others in the gas station.
Ruan Ning, already prepared, explained with feigned surprise, “It seems my space levelled up this morning, but I wasn’t sure, so I thought I’d test whether I could store the tanker…” She smiled brightly. “I didn’t expect it to actually work!”
The fact that Ruan Ning could store the entire tanker was a huge boon to the team. Originally, they had planned to take as much gasoline as they could carry, hoping to replenish whatever they needed along the way. But now, with this much fuel, they had more than enough to last their two vehicles all the way to the capital.
After stashing the tanker and all the gasoline bottles they had collected, Ruan Ning quickly ran to Gu Yicheng’s side, unable to hold back her worry any longer. “Brother, now that we have enough fuel, can we leave quickly? I… I feel uneasy, like something is watching us from the shadows.”
Gu Yicheng had sensed the same. The longer they stayed, the stronger the feeling that something was lurking, watching them. If Ruan Ning hadn’t stored the tanker just now, he would have acted himself.
“Everyone, let’s move out! Now!”
Although the rest of the group didn’t have Ruan Ning’s foreknowledge of the plot, they could sense the growing danger as well. It was clear this wasn’t a place to linger, and after securing the gasoline, they quickly retreated to their vehicles.
Nothing happened around the gas station during this time. Everything remained eerily quiet, as if the danger they sensed was just a product of their overworked nerves.
But the moment the engines started, a dark shadow suddenly darted out from a nearby residential building. In just a few seconds, it slammed into the windshield of Ning’s car with a loud “thud!”
If their car hadn’t been reinforced, the windshield would have shattered.
“Zombies incoming! Stay on alert!”
Ruan Ning, with her excellent vision and heightened sense of alertness, saw the scene clearly. As the dark figure hit the car, she caught a glimpse of its grotesque yet childlike face, and at that moment, she knew there was no escaping the scenario described in the novel.
These zombies wouldn’t let them leave easily.
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