HSB Chapter 8

Five years post-apocalypse, the power users possessed a strict hierarchy of their own.

The most common were the five elemental powers of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Besides these, there were some mutated elemental powers, all of which were powerful.

For example, there were space-type, lightning-type, psychic-type, ice-type, and other mutated powers. Because these powers were mutated, once awakened, the power user was at least a B-class and they were highly sought after by major bases.

Among them, psychic-type powers were the most mysterious and rare.

So far, he only knew of the psychic-type power user at South Base. The specific level was unknown, but this power user was very strong—strong enough to fight against two Level 5 zombies alone, keeping up with them without much difficulty.

Zombies had a hierarchy of their own. Level 5 zombies were equivalent to A-class power users.

This power user was known as the Super God-king, a code-name that was rumored to have been created by the man himself. Though the name was dumb, it didn’t detract away from his terrifying strength.

The most fundamental manifestation of a psychic-type power user was summoning objects at will; wherever they went, anything could be used as a weapon.

As long as their powers were strong enough, they could even control the enemy’s mind and make the enemy fight with himself. This was where psychic-type power users were so terrifying.

Ivan never expected to meet a psychic-type power user in such a place, especially a little girl.

If it wasn’t for the honor of having watched the battle video between the Super God-king and the Level 5 zombies, Ivan wouldn’t have been able to determine that the little girl was a psychic type.

The kitchen knife floating threateningly behind the little girl was the biggest proof of this.

Ivan’s heart gave rise to a strange feeling as if he just hit the jackpot. Ivan tried to smile as kindly and harmlessly as possible, despite his deathly pale face. “Hey sweetie, my name is Ivan. I’m hurt very badly. Can you help me?”

The little girl nodded and even stretched out her little arms to help Ivan up.

“Thank you.” Ivan gritted his teeth, as he held his breath and put his weight onto the door as he tried to stand and then stumbled into the room.

He kept his eye on the kitchen knife and noticed when the little girl moved, the knife would move as well and the blade was always pointed straight at him.

Ivan didn’t consider this a sign of the little girl’s unfriendliness. It only meant that the girl was vigilant despite her young age.

It was no wonder that she was able to live here alone.

Guessing from the fact that he hadn’t seen signs of anyone else other than Bambi since he woke up, Ivan inferred that Bambi lived there alone.

If there were other “adults” Living with her, they would have already shown up.

When Julius saw Bambi heading towards the living room, he hastily put away the kitchen knife just before the scene switched to the living room.

With the threat of the kitchen knife gone, Ivan quietly sighed in relief.

“Mister, you can sit.”

Bambi rarely got the chance to interact with strangers because Hugo didn’t allow her to be alone with strangers.

In the past when she was with her grandpa, she only needed to greet others but now it was different; this master was badly injured and he was asking for help from her. Bambi remembered her grandpa saying that if someone asked her for help and she was able then she should offer a hand. Even in a cruel, apocalyptic world, Hugh didn’t want Bambi to develop a cold-blooded nature.

Bambi pushed over a chair for Ivan to sit on, then went into another room where her grandpa had left his clothes. She found a clean set and ran back to Ivan with the clothes in her arms.

As she ran, the leg of the pants was dragged onto the ground. In her haste and inattention, she stepped on the pant leg, and she suddenly lost balance of her body.

This time, Julius was careful not to pick up Bambi, but to support Bambi’s small body with his fingers, so she didn’t fall but stumbled; thus, Bambi had no idea that she didn’t fall on her face because the so-called “bad guy” helped her.

After planting her feet firmly on the ground, Bambi hurriedly rolled up the pant leg dragging on the floor and handed it over to Ivan. “Mister, your clothes are wet. This is Grandpa’s clothes. You can change into these.”

Ivan’s head was dizzy, and when he heard the word “grandpa,” his brain jolted awake a little. He took the clothes from Bambi, his voice weak. “Where is your grandpa?”

Why does this guy want to know about Bambi’s grandpa? Is he planning to hurt Bambi, so he wanted to make sure there weren’t any adults around?

Hurt as he was, this guy was still being treacherous. Julius narrowed his eyes and picked up the bottle of water on the table behind Bambi.

When Bambi heard Ivan’s question, she bowed her head and stopped talking.

“I’m sorry, I…” Bambi’s reaction made Ivan realize that something might have happened to Bambi’s grandfather and immediately apologized, but as soon as the words came out, he saw the water bottle floating threateningly behind the little girl, making him swallow his words.

“Mister?” Looking up at Ivan, whose face contorted in a strange expression, Bambi was confused.

Ivan swallowed nervously and said sincerely to Bambi, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Bambi, who received such solemn thanks, smiled and solemnly responded to him in return.

“My name is Ivan Young, and you?” Ivan introduced himself again, trying to ignore the threat of the water bottle and show Bambi he was friendly and harmless.

His body began to tremble unconsciously. It was the cold brought about by excessive blood loss, plus his clothes were drenched, and his whole body was soaked. He was hanging on by mere willpower.

Even if he got inside the house, there was only a little girl and she was so young she might not be able to help him treat his injuries, so he had to rely on himself.

Instinct told him he couldn’t faint; if he fainted, he would never wake up again.

“My name is Bambi.” The little girl’s voice was soft.

Ivan unconsciously softened his voice, afraid of scaring her. Bearing the pain, he started to change out of his wet clothes. Seeing the little girl’s doll-like eyes staring directly at him, his face blushed. “Bambi, I need to change out of my clothes, can you turn around?”

Bambi nodded obediently and turned around.

Julius hastily moved the water bottle so that Bambi couldn’t see it. In his haste, he couldn’t control the water bottle very well, and it hit Ivan in the head.

Ivan grunted.

“Mister?”

“I’m okay,” Ivan said. Compared to the pain in his chest, the pain on his head could be ignored. He eyed the water bottle still floating in the air warily and assumed that though Bambi awakened psychic-type powers, she was too young to understand how to control her powers.

After this interruption, Ivan realized Bambi’s dress was still wet and clinging to her body, which made her appear even smaller, reminding him of his own little niece before the apocalypse.

She was about the same age as Bambi, smart and cute. Then the apocalypse came, and everything was gone.

With his very own eyes, he watched as his cute little niece mutated, and he would never be able to hear her call him uncle in her angelic voice.

The world had changed dramatically.

Ivan shut his eyes in pain, and when he opened them again, there was warmth in his eyes when he looked at the small figure in front of him.

The little girl was home alone, but she was willing to save him—though the threats of the “kitchen knife” and “water bottle” were vividly remembered—and warmed Ivan’s heart that had just been torn apart by the betrayal of his friend.

“Bambi, your skirt is wet. Go change out of it, lest you catch a cold.” Ivan coughed and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, which he wiped away with his hand.

Bambi tugged uncomfortably on her wet clothes. She just changed into this new dress—Bambi sighed like a little adult and obediently went into the bedroom and chose a new dress to change into.

While Bambi returned to the bedroom, in the living room Ivan gritted his teeth and peeled off his wet clothes as quickly as he could and changed into the clean clothes previously worn by Hugh.

Ivan didn’t put on the shirt. He examined the wound on his chest. His skin was already turning white around the open wound and it no longer bled profusely.

The pendant he wore around his neck, given to him by his mother before the apocalypse, was no longer there.

Ivan was startled, and then his eyes flashed with joy. He could feel the bullet didn’t hit his heart and was stuck in a layer of muscles.

It was all thanks to the five years of apocalypse life, Ivan didn’t dare relax for even a moment and spent a lot of time training every day just to run faster than others at critical moments when encountering danger.

Most importantly, the pendant he wore mitigated the impact of the bullet, so the bullet didn’t hit his heart.

The pendant his mother gave him saved his life, but the bullet was embedded in the wound and he had to remove it.

But how to remove it?

With a click, the bedroom door opened, and Bambi, who put on a new dress, walked out. Then Bambi realized that she couldn’t see anything.

To be precise, it was as if an invisible wall appeared in front of her, blocking her view and making her unable to see the living room.

Bambi thought there was in her eye and raised her little hand to rub her eyes.

In fact, a certain fretful father who peeped into the screen was glaring at Ivan, who was shirtless.

He didn’t even wear clothes when he was in the same room as his baby girl! What was his intention?

Didn’t he know that girls and boys should maintain privacy between them?

Julius, who feared Bambi would see something inappropriate, reached out a finger to block Bambi’s little face, while his other finger picked up the shirt and tossed it at Ivan.

Ivan, who had the shirt smashing onto his head, saw Bambi covering (rubbing) her eyes, and suddenly remembered that he wasn’t dressed appropriately, and immediately tossed on the shirt.

Only then did Julius release the finger blocking Bambi’s face. Just as Bambi finished rubbing her eyes, and when she opened them, her vision was clear again.

Bambi’s long eyelashes fluttered like mini fans, and her little finger pointed to Ivan’s chest. “Mister, there is blood there.”

In his haste to put on the shirt, Ivan tugged at his wound, and it once again started bleeding out, wetting the shirt that he just changed into.

The pain kept Ivan awake. Not wanting to scare Bambi, Ivan raised his hand to cover his chest and said, “Bambi, is there a small, sharp knife?”

Bambi said, “There is a paring knife.”

“Can I use it?”

The little girl jogged into the kitchen, and after a while took out the paring knife that was used to cut the apple yesterday.

“Here you go.”

Ivan didn’t take it. He had overestimated his physical condition.

Gazing into Bambi’s eyes, Ivan wet his chapped white lips, gasping on his last breaths as he said, “Bambi, there is a bullet in my wound that must be dug out. I don’t have any strength now. Can you help me dig it out?”

Actually, Ivan wanted to say “use your powers,” but he then considered Bambi couldn’t control her powers very well. If there was a little mishap, she would end up stabbing him in the heart. If he died, he’d have no one to blame but himself.

After reconsidering it, Ivan swallowed these words back down.

Bambi understood what Ivan meant. This mister had a bullet in his wound and was asking her to dig it out for him with the knife.

“But…I don’t know how,” Bambi whispered, twisting her little hands together helplessly.

Ivan smiled wryly. If there was someone else there, he wouldn’t ask a little girl to help him.

But he really had no more strength left in him; all his strength was used to maintain consciousness.

Digging for the bullet required help from another person, and this candidate was only the little girl in front of him with the most mysterious powers.

Awakening psychic-type powers, he believed that Bambi wouldn’t poke him to death.

However, seeing that the little girl was about to cry, Ivan sighed. He couldn’t bear to force her, not to mention this kind of thing really shouldn’t be done by her.

Ivan bit the tip of his tongue fiercely. The pain instilled some strength into his body. Ivan said, “Bambi, is there any bandages?”

Bambi went into the bedroom and grabbed her little medicine box that had the band-aids and she offered them generously, saying, “It’s all here. Mister, you can use it.”

There was indeed a small roll of medical gauze inside and even a small bottle of rubbing alcohol; these were a treasure because of how difficult it was to find them outside.

Ivan was overjoyed, and no longer hesitated as he sterilized the paring knife with rubbing alcohol, and lifted the hem of his clothes.

However, after several attempts, his hand holding the knife trembled violently, and he had no strength to stab the knife into the wound.

Bambi had obediently turned around at Ivan’s request. Holding the teddy bear in her two small hands, Bambi felt that Ivan must be in pain.

“We’ll give Mr. Ivan a candy later. It’s sweet and it won’t hurt anymore,” Bambi whispered to the teddy bear.

“…”

His baby girl was acting thoughtful towards a stranger and even planned to give him candy!

Thinking about his ­–50 intimacy, Daddy Xander was feeling really sour as he poked at the screen.

Then seeing how Ivan was taking forever to thrust the knife into the wound, brushing along the edge—not like a real man at all—Julius’s OCD overtook him as he grabbed the paring knife in Ivan’s hand, yanked the shirt down, and directed the tip of the knife at the wound and thrust—fast, precise, and fierce.

It was all controlled by his fingers on the screen.

The System prompt practically roared: [You’re going to kill Ivan!]

Julius: “So you tell me when it’s time to poke forward or move backward, or left to right.”

The System:”…”

Julius: “Hurry up, or he’ll be poked to death by me.”

The System’s words popped onto the screen one by one: [A little to the left, now tilt the tip upward.]

The bullet popped out.

Ivan watched as the paring knife in his hand was taken away by an invisible force, and then thrust into the wound on his chest, and for a moment, Ivan felt that he had died.

The violent pain exploded from his mind, instantly setting off a storm, and the pain made him cry out.

Then the bullet popped out.

Ivan:”…”

Bambi, who heard Ivan’s cry of pain, was so frightened that her small body shook and hesitated before slowly turning around.

Seeing this, Julius quickly shoved the knife back into Ivan’s hand.

Perfect.

Ivan held the blood-stained paring knife in his hand and slumped on the chair. Large beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, and though his face was pale, he looked better than he did before.

He knew that it was Bambi who used her powers to remove the bullet for him.

Although she was afraid, she still helped him.

Ivan’s eyes became moist and he smiled weakly at the little girl. “Thank you, Bambi.”

Psychic-type power users lived up to their name.

Bambi blankly accepted Ivan’s thanks, but the little girl’s large doe-eyes were confused—why was Mr. Ivan thanking her?