The chilly morning air of late autumn carried a hint of coldness in the outskirts.
It was not yet five o’clock, and the sky was just starting to lighten. Xie Fei, who was on the last shift of night watch, sat crouched on a roadside rock, tightening his coat around him while wondering if he should start wearing more layers.
Suddenly, a blood-curdling scream shattered the stillness.
Xie Fei immediately snapped to attention. He stood up from the rock and looked in the direction of the sound.
The scream came from a small forest to the north—their route to B City passed through that area.
Sensing urgency, Xie Fei jogged back to report the situation to the others.
The scream had been loud enough, and the team’s vigilance high enough, that everyone was already awake when Xie Fei arrived. Some were standing outside the vehicles, weapons in hand, their faces filled with caution.
Gu Yicheng had opened his eyes the moment the scream rang out.
“Brother Gu, what’s going on outside?” Ruan Ning rubbed her eyes, turned her head toward the male lead, and asked groggily. Although she was awake, her mind hadn’t fully caught up.
This road on the outskirts was practically deserted, though it was safe. The downside was that they hadn’t found a proper place to stay, and there was nowhere on the road to pitch tents, so they had been forced to spend the night in their vehicles.
Ruan Ning, being small, could sleep comfortably on her seat. The same couldn’t be said for the men in the team, most of whom were over six feet tall. They couldn’t even stretch out their legs.
Gu Yicheng said, “There’s some commotion nearby. Someone might have been attacked.”
At the word “attacked,” Ruan Ning immediately thought of zombies. Her instincts, honed by the apocalypse, kicked in, and she was fully awake in an instant.
Since all routes to B City passed through the northern forest, taking a detour wasn’t an option. They would have to head that way sooner or later. It was better to go now and gather more information.
Their vehicle drove for only a few minutes before they spotted several dishevelled men and women running out of the forest toward the road. They looked utterly panicked.
The escaping group seemed shocked to encounter humans—especially a well-equipped team with vehicles—in such a remote place. Their expressions lit up with hope as they shouted, “Help! Save us!”
From inside the car, even at a distance, Ruan Ning could hear the desperation in their voices. It was the sound of people clinging to life after glimpsing salvation.
However, although their vehicles had stopped on the road, no one got out. The team members remained inside, quietly observing.
In the apocalypse, anyone roaming the outside world was bound to have some level of capability. Moreover, Ruan Ning had noticed that one of the fleeing men had thrown several ice spikes behind him—indicating that they had at least one ability user in their group.
For people like them to be this desperate, the threat pursuing them must not have been just a few simple zombies. It could be a zombie horde or something even more dangerous.
As the group ran closer, Ruan Ning faintly heard barking sounds. Moments later, a pack of dogs appeared in her line of sight—Chinese rural dogs, commonly referred to as “tugou”.
But these dogs were far from normal. They were much larger than usual, with distorted appearances, sharp fangs, and blood-red pupils. They looked rabid, relentlessly pursuing the fleeing group.
Ruan Ning froze for a moment.
Mutated animals?!
In the apocalypse, animals could also be infected by the virus. However, their evolution process was slower compared to humans. Most animals lost their intelligence during the infection, transforming into mindless, aggressive creatures driven purely by instinct to hunt for food.
Later on, mutated animals became just as significant a threat to humans as zombies—sometimes even worse. Packs of mutated animals could be far more terrifying than zombie hordes.
Fortunately, zombies devoured all living creatures indiscriminately, and the lack of food meant that most animals perished in the early days of the apocalypse. Only a few survived long enough to evolve into true mutants.
Previously, everyone had been in the cities, where animals were scarce. They hadn’t had the chance to encounter many, which was why the phenomenon of animal mutation hadn’t felt real to them.
Even Ruan Ning, who knew from the novel that animals would eventually mutate, had no idea how far their evolution had progressed.
The human survival instinct was strong. Within less than a minute, the person running at the front reached the road, just ten meters from their car. Behind them, the pack of mutated dogs drew closer.
A young woman in the group stumbled in her panic and fell to the ground. She had been in the middle of the group, but now she was left behind.
The others, consumed by their own need to survive, didn’t notice her fall. They kept running forward, leaving her behind.
Seizing the opportunity, one of the mutated dogs lunged at the fallen woman with its bloodstained jaws open wide.
“Ah!!”
Frozen in terror, the young woman sat helplessly on the ground, unable to react or even scream. She waited, despairing, for the pain to come.
But the pain never arrived.
“Hey, are you okay?” Xie Fei asked, having driven the mutated dog away with a fireball.
Snapping back to reality, the young woman looked up at Xie Fei and realized she had been saved. Earlier, when she saw that no one had gotten out of the vehicles, she had assumed they wouldn’t help. It was understandable, but she couldn’t deny feeling a pang of disappointment.
Now, the relief of being saved overwhelmed her, and she nearly burst into tears. Choking back sobs, she muttered, “Thank you,” and wiped her face with her sleeve.
Seeing her crying, Xie Fei assumed she was scared out of her wits. He scratched his head awkwardly, unsure of what to do.
Aside from Ruan Ning, the team consisted entirely of men, and even Ruan Ning had never reacted like this in dangerous situations.
Finally, he said bluntly, “If you don’t get up soon, I won’t be able to hold off this pack of dogs for long.”
“Sorry, sorry!” The young woman hurriedly scrambled to her feet.
“Find a safe place over there,” Xie Fei instructed before turning back to help his team deal with the rampaging dogs.
The young woman staggered toward the road, dodging the ferocious mutated animals. When she reached the cars, she spotted a few familiar faces.
“Yiyi, that was terrifying! I thought you were going to be bitten by that thing!” A woman rushed to support her, looking worried and fearful.
Their team had left Base Three together, starting out with nearly twenty people. Now, only three men and two women remained. Less than a third of them had survived.
The young woman—Yao Yiyi—looked pale and shaken after her brush with death. “I’m fine, aren’t I? I have to thank that man for saving me.”
“These people are so strong,” said Chu Yu, the woman supporting her. Watching the men fight off the mutated animals, she couldn’t help but marvel. “They look even stronger than the most powerful team at our base.”
Their team had been considered above average at Base Three, yet they had suffered catastrophic losses here. It was a testament to how dangerous these mutated animals were.
And yet, this group handled the beasts with apparent ease. Their movements were swift, efficient, and deadly.
Especially the man in black—he didn’t even use any abilities. With one clean strike, he decapitated a mutated dog.
“Here, drink some water and rest.”
Having decided to help, the team had split up to deal with the animals quickly. Meanwhile, Ruan Ning watched the exhausted survivors collapse on the ground. She retrieved several bottles of water from her space and walked over to distribute them.
“…Thank you.”
When the survivors saw the clear, 300-milliliter bottles in their hands, they froze for a moment.
Everyone at Base Three knew that all the nearby water sources had been contaminated. Initially, people thought it was just a matter of impurities and drank the water after filtering it. However, within days, those who drank the water developed severe diarrhoea, then large red patches on their skin. In the worst cases, they turned into zombies.
Since then, no one dared drink the contaminated water. They relied on bottled or purified water from water-element ability users.
Even on this mission to the border of B City and S City, their main goal had been to find a clean water source.
At Base Three, water was even more precious than food.
Now, this girl had casually given each of them a full bottle of water.
Was she… a water-element ability user?
At the thought, the five survivors stared at her with barely concealed excitement.
Ruan Ning blinked, puzzled by their suddenly fiery gazes. Their team had been drinking bottled water all along and hadn’t realized that the nearby water sources were contaminated.
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