The woman, unable to wait for the man to detach from that inexplicable feeling, had already regained her senses in the back seat and cried, thanking Xu Yin.
“Thank you, really thank you,” the woman choked out, “without you, I would have definitely died just now.”
“It’s nothing,” Xu Yin smiled.
The man uncomfortably averted his gaze from the rearview mirror.
Perhaps it was urgent at the time, and the woman didn’t notice herself, but he had intended to abandon the woman there to fend for herself.
The woman cried and complained about not collecting enough supplies and almost losing her life. After finishing her complaints, she wiped her tears and asked, “Were you also collecting supplies at that supermarket just now?”
“Yeah, but we didn’t find much before you arrived,” Xuyin replied calmly.
The woman wiped her tears, sniffed, and examined Xuyin’s equipment.
He only had a baseball bat in front of his chest, and nothing else.
In the wilderness—what people in the current post-apocalyptic era refer to as “the wilderness“—a person wandering around without any baggage, completely clean from head to toe, calmly carrying just a baseball bat, looks strange no matter how you look at it.
Of course, it’s also possible that this young man had been living alone in some quiet corner all along, only coming out today, but there’s a good chance that…
He’s a spatial ability user, storing supplies in his personal space.
At the beginning of the apocalypse, they had seen such people several times.
The woman and the man who turned his head from the driver’s seat exchanged a glance.
Xu Yin seemed completely oblivious to the eye contact between the two, smiling gently as he asked, “Where are you headed?”
“Uh,” the man cleared his throat and asked back, “where are you planning to go?”
Xuyin raised an eyebrow. “Base B City.”
“Coincidentally, we’re also planning to go there,” the woman exclaimed, “Where are you coming from, and why are you alone?”
Xuyin didn’t intend to say more, just briefly replied, “My companion died.”
The woman and the man understood, nodding.
The man immediately said enthusiastically, “Then come with us. However, there really isn’t much left in our car, at most it can last one night. After that, we’ll still need to find food and water somewhere. It would be great if you could help out then. By the way, I’m Li Dongxiang, and my girlfriend is Ren Lan. What’s your name?”
“I’m called Xu Yin.”
***
Li Dongxiang and Ren Lan were very talkative. At first, Xuyin engaged in conversation for a while, but later he closed his eyes to rest.
Li Dongxiang gave Ren Lan a look, and after hesitating for a moment, she nodded.
Xu Yin wasn’t asleep; he was chatting with 018 in his mind.
018: “That man, Li Dongxiang, just now, had quite a greasy look in his eyes when he looked at you.”
Xu Yin chuckled: “Have you learned the usage of ‘greasy’ already?”
018 exploded: “After experiencing two task worlds with you, how can I still not learn this word! I’m so smart!”
Xu Yin keenly remarked: “Not only have you learned this word, but you’ve also started to understand the meaning behind men’s looks towards other men.”
He said meaningfully: “Little 18, what happened when I didn’t know? Speaking of which, another task world has passed, and you and little A…”
018: “Ahhhhhhh!”
He violently interrupted the conversation.
Xu Yin: “Oh.”
In his heart, he couldn’t help but sigh. These systems had infinite lifespans, but was it precisely because of this that everything moved at such a slow pace? It wasn’t until the third task world that there seemed to be some progress.
He even felt a bit relieved.
018 had a very awkward personality. He didn’t want to discuss this topic with Xu Yin for the time being, afraid that this veteran gay driver would once again say something shocking, making him… too embarrassed to show his face.
So he forcefully changed the subject: “There’s never a world where the beginning is comfortable!”
The first world started with a melodramatic gay love story, the second world started with an overbearing white lotus father, and in the third world, it seems like the whole world is in chaos!
He cautioned Xu Yin: “You need to be careful of these two people. Although you just saved that woman, she seems to have ill intentions towards you, like the farmer and the snake!”
“I know, don’t worry,” Xu Yin didn’t continue the love topic with 018 either, afraid the little system would explode from embarrassment. He smiled and said: “In this kind of world, people’s hearts can’t withstand tests.”
Therefore, Xu Yin didn’t believe that just saving Ren Lan’s life would make her grateful to him.
He just wanted to hitch a ride.
As for how long he could hitch a ride for…
He’d hitch for as long as he could, and if it didn’t work out, he’d just switch to another ride.
Anyway, they were nearing Base B City, so there would probably be plenty of people passing through.
With that in mind, Xu Yin calmly closed his eyes to rest.
The car drove onto the highway and arrived at a service area in the afternoon.
This service area was very small, and whether outside or inside the gate within sight, there were plenty of things scattered around, including the bodies of many decapitated zombies, indicating that it had been breached by others multiple times before, and it was unclear what was left inside.
One and a half years into the apocalypse, many food items had already expired and were no longer edible.
Li Dongxiang and Ren Lan woke up Xu Yin and said, “There’s no other way, we can only try our luck.”
Li Dongxiang discussed with Xu Yin, “Young man, you see, Ren Lan is like me, she has no special abilities and not much strength. Maybe it’s better for her not to go in. She can stay in the car and sit in the driver’s seat, while you and I go in to check it out, what do you think?”
Xu Yin shrugged, “Sure.”
Since they agreed, the three got out of the car.
Ren Lan went to the driver’s seat, while Li Dongxiang and Xu Yin entered the service area.
Both Xu Yin and Li Dongxiang were armed with sticks, Xu Yin’s being a baseball bat and Li Dongxiang’s a regular iron stick.
There were indeed many zombies lingering in the service area, some lying in the corridors, others huddled in the shops, all seemingly asleep, occasionally twitching and making a sound similar to a broken fan.
Li Dongxiang’s scalp tingled, and he couldn’t help but hold his breath.
The interior lighting wasn’t very good, so the two had to carefully widen their eyes as they passed each shop to determine if there was anything worth taking.
They spotted a small supermarket ahead, and Li Dongxiang excitedly waved at Xu Yin to signal.
Xu Yin nodded and followed. Li Dongxiang hastened his pace with excitement, but as he stepped into the door, he accidentally stepped on a zombie lying across the entrance, plunging his foot into its rotting body!
The zombie instantly arched its body and emitted a sharp scream—
“Ahhhh!” Li Dongxiang was scared stiff, sitting down abruptly on the ground, hastily pulling his foot out of the zombie’s body.
However, their noise also awakened other zombies.
The zombies in the service area instantly opened their eyes, their eerie gazes slowly turning towards them.
A second later, they began to twist their bodies and crawl up, turning around, staggering towards them while groaning.
Xu Yin: “…”
Not to be pessimistic, but surviving in the apocalypse for a year and a half was already quite lucky for these people.
Li Dongxiang was in despair— the morning’s encounter in the supermarket still lingered in his mind, and now they faced another ordeal in the service area. Was fate determined to prevent them from finding anything today?!
He was both irritable and regretful, immediately telling Xu Yin, “Forget it, let’s get out of here quickly!”
As soon as he finished speaking, he angrily smashed the zombie that had just crawled up from the ground with his stick, the same zombie that had almost killed him!
This sound seemed like a signal. Other zombies paused, then screeched sharply, spreading their arms and lunging towards them!
Xu Yin shook his head, gripped his baseball bat tightly, and also began to act!
Zombies become more aggressive when stimulated by sound, and it’s nearly impossible to keep things quiet when fighting them off.
Therefore, as long as there are still many zombies lingering in an area, a battle is unlikely to end easily.
Li Dongxiang’s fighting style against zombies was aggressive, with roaring outputs and chaotic swings, not letting the zombies get close to him at all.
Xu Yin, on the other hand, was much calmer. He surveyed his surroundings, mobilized his body’s senses, and constantly paid attention to the movements around him. Even if he sensed a slight unusual breath behind him, he could instantly turn around and swing his bat, fiercely smashing the zombie approaching him from behind into the wall!
While fighting, the two quickly moved towards the entrance. Waves of zombies surged towards them, but they dealt with them quite swiftly!
Li Dongxiang’s face turned red as he swung his bat desperately, shouting, “Die, die!”
Xu Yin kicked away a zombie pouncing towards him, swept out with his stick in his right hand, and smashed the heads of three zombies in a row!
Blood splattered, limbs flew!
For a moment, the air was filled with a strong stench, and the ears were filled with the muffled and eerie sounds of the bats hitting the rotten bodies.
As they fought their way to the entrance of the service area, Li Dongxiang was already panting heavily, shouting, “Hurry, hurry!”
Xu Yin stopped, squinted to assess the entire service area, then turned his body and ran towards the other side, smashing the remaining zombies as he ran!
Those zombies flew into the wall, their heads completely shattered, and then slid down the wall.
Li Dongxiang angrily said, “What are you still running for? I said, hurry!”
After Xu Yin finished off the last two zombies still slowly approaching, he walked to the end of that side, glanced around, and said calmly, “All the zombies here have been dealt with.”
Li Dongxiang was stunned, “No more zombies?”
He clearly remembered that there were quite a few zombies here when they first entered!
But they did just deal with quite a few…
Li Dongxiang quickly ran over to take a look, then turned back to scan the entire hall, exclaiming in surprise, “We’ve dealt with all the zombies in the service area?! There are no more zombies here?!”
Obviously, the hall’s floor and walls were now in a terrible state, but no more zombies emerged to attack them.
…With this, wouldn’t the entire service area be theirs for the taking?
This was the first time Li Dongxiang had encountered such a situation. He called Ren Lan in with great excitement.
Ren Lan had been nervous in the car after hearing the sounds from inside, but she didn’t expect Li Dongxiang and Xu Yin to have dealt with all the zombies here. She was pleasantly surprised.
They eagerly searched the small supermarket first, quickly stuffing items into the trunk of the car, then moved on to other stores—clothing, toiletries, anything they could use!
Xu Yin leisurely browsed through other shops and also stocked up on some daily necessities into his personal space.
After a while—
As he walked past a shelf, he suddenly heard a noise.
Continuing to walk forward slowly, Xu Yin looked up and saw Li Dongxiang holding a stick standing at the doorway, his lips curled in a smile as he stared at Xu Yin. “Young man, thanks for earlier. I didn’t expect you to be so formidable even without offensive abilities.”
Xu Yin replied calmly, “Likewise.”
As he spoke, he noticed a couple of safety T-shirts on the shelf, only two left.
He picked them up, inspected them, but they weren’t the right size. He calmly put them back.
Li Dongxiang was panting even harder, his gaze towards Xu Yin like that of a greedy snake.
The original plan was to have Ren Lan wait outside the door while they gathered supplies and then knock Xu Yin unconscious with a blow from behind, leaving him at their mercy.
But things took an unexpected turn, leading to the zombie encounter.
Fortunately, now that the zombies were all taken care of, the place was safe, making it even more convenient for his plans.
Li Dongxiang felt his throat parched.
He walked over, placing one hand on the shelf in front of Xu Yin, blocking his path, and the hot breath sprayed onto Xu Yin’s face.
This man was about the same height as Xu Yin, but a bit more robust. It was hard to tell when was the last time he had a bath, emitting a distinctive smell—of course, after spending half a day in their car together, Xu Yin had grown accustomed to this odor.
Xu Yin looked at Li Dongxiang.
Locking eyes at close range, Li Dongxiang’s mind raced even faster. He licked his lips and smiled, “Young man, if you want to safely travel with us for the next stretch of the journey, let’s make a deal, what do you say?”
Although Xu Yin had shown excellent combat prowess during the battle just now, Li Dongxiang felt that he should be even more formidable than Xu Yin. He had that confidence.
Xu Yin smiled, “What kind of deal?”
Li Dongxiang reached out his hand, reaching towards Xuyin’s face—
…
Meanwhile, Ren Lan had been searching for someone the whole way, struggling in her heart.
There wasn’t much communication in the car, but she knew to some extent that Li Dongxiang not only wanted to rob the young man named Xu Yin, but also…
She bit her lip.
She knew that her current appearance was barely enough to pique Li Dongxiang’s interest. If there were other women around, Li Dongxiang probably would have abandoned her long ago.
But she couldn’t afford that. She saw Li Dongxiang as her support. Even after they reached Base B, she couldn’t guarantee finding another man like Li Dongxiang who was willing to take care of her.
Therefore, she didn’t dare to stop Li Dongxiang.
There was jealousy, bitterness, and guilt in her heart.
When Li Dongxiang disappeared just now, she guessed he went to find Xu Yin.
Now, unable to hear any sound, she walked forward anxiously, suddenly hearing a scream—
She was startled and jumped, but when she recognized the scream as Li Dongxiang’s, her face changed color. She shouted, “Dongxiang!” and hurried forward, her heart pounding as she ran to the entrance of the shop where the sound came from!
—Then she saw Li Dongxiang lying on the ground, both hands pinned behind his back.
A handsome young man had one foot on his back, holding a dagger in his right hand, pressing it against Li Dongxiang’s neck where the artery was throbbing with every beat.
As long as he applied a little force, the sharp blade could easily pierce through the skin and veins.
Li Dongxiang was terrified— he hadn’t expected Xu Yin, who looked thin and weak, to be so strong. As soon as he tried to reach out, he was knocked unconscious with a single punch!
When he came to from seeing stars, he found himself pinned to the ground, his hands restrained!
The hand pinning him down was gripping tightly, almost dislocating his joints, while the foot on his back pressed him firmly into the ground, making it impossible for him to struggle!
He desperately lifted his head, afraid to touch the dagger. Cold sweat poured down his face, and he stuttered as he spoke, “D-don’t, don’t, don’t kill me. W-what I said earlier, j-just pretend you didn’t hear it, okay? No deal, no deal!”
“Hmm? But I want to make a deal with you guys,” Xu Yin said with a smile.
His voice was gentle, but his grip was strong, and the blade of the dagger even pressed deeper into Li Dongxiang’s flesh.
Li Dongxiang was utterly terrified, feeling like his heart was about to leap out of his throat!
This guy wasn’t just some unlucky bastard he could rob or seduce; he was a downright demon!
He had thought this person would be easy to bully, so he invited him into the car, but it turned out he had invited a devil!
Now, driven by fear, Li Dongxiang’s brain was working at lightning speed, regret surging from the depths of his heart—he should have thought about it earlier, he should have! It had been a year and a half since the apocalypse began, and a normal spatial ability user should know better than to appear empty-handed in front of others. Generally, even if one was disguising, they should at least make some effort!
The reason he didn’t disguise was that this young man simply feared nothing! He wasn’t afraid of anything at all!
Meanwhile, Ren Lan stood at the door, stunned, about to scream and run over. But in the next second, hundreds of ice shards quietly appeared around her, surrounding her like a hedgehog!
The sharp ends of the ice shards reflected the faint light inside the service area, cold and chilling. Once activated, they could easily pierce through a person’s body.
Ren Lan screamed again and quickly stopped her steps, unable to believe the sight of the ice shards surrounding her, her face pale, her whole body trembling with fear.
Li Dongxiang was completely dumbfounded—this young man not only had a personal space but also had offensive abilities!
He had been using a stick to fight the zombies just now, merely preserving his strength. This person had been vigilant of them from the very beginning!!
Moreover, they had encountered ice ability users before, but the sharpness and quantity of these ice shards were beyond anything they had seen, surpassing even the most powerful ice ability users they had encountered!
Who on earth was this young man?!
He had actually wanted to do something to this young man just now—
Xu Yin flipped the knife and gently tapped Li Dongxiang’s throat with the side of the blade.
Li Dongxiang shuddered as the icy-cold blade made contact with his throat, feeling his whole body go weak, almost suffocating.
The young man spoke leisurely, “Take me to the B City’s Base, and I’ll let you go. How about that?”
How about that?
What else could they do?!!
…
Five minutes later, the three of them were back in the car.
The atmosphere inside the car was eerily quiet.
Li Dongxiang sat in the driver’s seat, while Ren Lan sat in the passenger seat. Both of them were stiff, with rigid bodies and expressions.
Xu Yin lazily said, “Let’s drive.”
“O-Okay,” Li Dongxiang forced a smile and started the car, slowly leaving the service area.
Both of them had a circle of densely packed icicles around their necks.
018 grumbled: “You should have taken them out earlier!”
Xu Yin replied in his mind: “Using abilities consumes energy.”
After responding internally, he yawned and continued to rest with his eyes closed.
*
The rest of the journey was much more comfortable for Xu Yin.
Both of them dared not speak much, not even daring to breathe loudly, allowing Xu Yin to get plenty of rest.
As the sky darkened, Li Dongxiang respectfully suggested that they needed to refuel and find a gas station in the city before continuing their journey. Xu Yin agreed.
By the time they managed to refuel, it was completely dark. The three of them found a quiet corner to stop and decided to rest for the night, planning to continue their journey in the morning.
Li Dongxiang and Ren Lan cautiously asked Xu Yin what he wanted to eat. Xu Yin told them to take care of themselves, and then without further ado, he took out a piece of bread from his space and ate it with water.
Li Dongxiang and Ren Lan envied him—the personal space of a spatial ability user was frozen in time. Once any food was put inside, it would never spoil. This bread was probably put in by Xu Yin shortly after the apocalypse began.
While they could only nibble on some recently expired biscuits.
After finishing their meals, Li Dongxiang and Ren Lan, who had just restocked their supplies, got out of the car briefly to freshen up before returning to the car to sleep.
Throughout the night, they all wore “scarves” around their necks.
Xu Yin had slept too soundly last night, so he probably wouldn’t fall asleep as early tonight. He kept his eyes closed, thinking about what to do next if there were no Lao Gong of his at Base B.
Lao Gong were unlikely to turn into zombies, as zombies were unconscious, and since his Lao Gong‘s soul was with them, they would certainly maintain human consciousness.
Of course, there’s also the possibility of turning into a half-zombie.
Half-zombies are more troublesome because the pills he previously took were only for himself, not for others.
Frowning, Xu Yin thought for a moment, then suddenly, 018 said: “Hey, a random mission just popped up.”
Xu Yin opened the task panel with his mind and checked.
[Please get out of the car. Walk ten meters ahead, turn left, continue fifty meters forward and rescue three unlucky fellows who turned into half-zombies midway. Reward points: 4.]
The sound of zombies’ moans could already be faintly heard by his ears.
Li Dongxiang and Ren Lan hadn’t really fallen asleep, and they were abruptly awakened by the sound, exchanging glances.
“Someone’s being attacked by zombies,” Ren Lan whispered.
“Ignore it,” Li Dongxiang listened for a moment, then lay back down, “It’s not our concern.”
After some thought, Xu Yin still got out of the car.
Li Dongxiang and Ren Lan turned to look at him.
Li Dongxiang asked, “Are you going to rescue them?”
“Yeah, you two keep sleeping,” Xu Yin said, getting out of the car and closing the door.
Left in the car, Li Dongxiang and Ren Lan: “…”
The “scarves” around the necks of the two not only did not disappear with Xu Yin’s departure, but even in the instant he closed the door, they became “thicker.”
Xu Yin glanced at the task panel, estimating that solving the zombie companions of those three unlucky guys shouldn’t be a problem, so the points for this task were so low. This should be the result of the system anticipating a random task that had been intervened by someone and had already been cut in points.
However, just in case, he decided to go and check it out.
Following the instructions on the task list, Xu Yin quickly saw a black SUV parked diagonally not far away, with tire marks on the ground.
At this moment, the car door was wide open, and in front of it, a zombie was bound by vines, with its hands and feet tied to the ground, desperately roaring and struggling.
A man stood in front of the zombie, at a loss, hoarsely shouting, “Nianqin, he… he has completely turned into a zombie, what should we do!”
A tall and handsome man wielded a metal spear fiercely, cutting down the zombies approaching them. At the same time, dozens of sharp blades flew out, instantly harvesting a swath of zombie heads.
Hearing this, he paused for a moment, and said in a deep voice, “Then don’t let emotions cloud your judgment!”
Nighttime is when zombies are most active, attracted by the noise, more and more zombies are rushing towards them.
The tall man’s left shoulder was injured, with a hole pierced by someone, and blood was still flowing.
Perhaps due to the injury, or perhaps because he had consumed too much energy earlier, at this moment, he was clearly struggling to hold on.
Seeing the man’s face clearly, Xu Yin’s pupils suddenly contracted.
Li Nianqin’s body had reached its limit—over this entire month, they hadn’t stopped, both he and Yu Dong’s energy were nearing their limits.
Yet they couldn’t stop… they couldn’t stop yet…
The wound continued to bleed profusely with each vigorous movement, but Li Nianqin seemed to have lost all sense of pain, only continuously condensing and dispersing the shattered metal blades, wielding the long spear in his hand, slashing at the zombies!
At a certain moment, Yu Dong behind him cried out.
With a roar, vines burst from the ground and crazily entwined around the zombie’s head, shattering its skull in the moment he closed his eyes.
Then, there was a rustling sound, and a chill swept over!
Just as Li Nianqin’s metal blades had extinguished one group of zombies, the remaining ones closing in on them had their heads pierced by thousands of icicles, all falling down!
Both Li Nianqin and Yu Dong froze, following the direction of the ice shards. A handsome young man emerged from the darkness, stopping a few steps away from them, his gaze falling on Li Nianqin’s injured left shoulder, his eyes somewhat icy.
The night breeze brushed past.
Xu Yin squinted his eyes, controlling his emotions, and slowly spoke, “Are you guys okay?”
Yu Dong had just cried, his mind a bit sluggish, not knowing where Xu Yin had come from. He sniffed and said blankly, “W-we’re fine, thank you, bro.”
More zombies were approaching from both sides. Li Nianqin muttered softly, “Get in the car first!”
With a reluctant glance at their fallen comrade on the ground, Yu Dong hastily ran back to the driver’s seat, tears still in his eyes, and closed the door.
Li Nianqin turned around, then paused, looking sideways at Xu Yin.
The moment he saw this young man, a strange, burning emotion surged within him.
Li Nianqin didn’t know what was happening, but he instinctively stopped and looked at this young man, at a loss for words.
Without a word, Xu Yin pushed Li Nianqin into the car and got in himself, closing the door.
Li Nianqin: “…”
Inside the car, besides Yu Dong, there was also a man wearing glasses sitting in the passenger seat. Since he didn’t have any abilities, he had been left in the car and witnessed everything.
He breathed a sigh of relief and asked, “Is everyone alright?” His gaze swept over Xu Yin.
“We’re fine, it’s just that Li Nianqin was stabbed by Huang Zi just now, and we’ve run out of medicine in the car, what should we do?” Yu Dong said, crying.
Li Nianqin remained composed and said, “I’m fine, let’s just get out of this area first.”
“Yeah.” Yu Dong quickly started the car, drove off the sidewalk, and left before the zombies on both sides could approach.
Li Nianqin lowered his head to look at his left shoulder, just as he lifted his hand…
Xu Yin frowned and pulled his hand away, saying, “Don’t touch.”
Then he took out medicine and bandages from his space.
Li Nianqin and the man in the passenger seat glanced at Xu Yin.
Without lifting his head, Xu Yin made use of the setting of spatial abilities in this world, saying, “I have medication in my space. Let’s use it first.”
In fact, the spray medication he took out from his space was a healing agent he had just bought from the store for 5000 points, which could be used on others.
With such a big wound, and in this hot weather, just covering it up might lead to who knows what by tomorrow morning.
Xu Yin furrowed his brow tightly as he sprayed the medication on Li Nianqin’s left shoulder, feeling a bit sorry for him.
The man in glasses wanted to say something when he saw Xu Yin spraying the medication, but he was stopped by a look from Li Nianqin.
As he watched Xu Yin tenderly treat the wound on the young man’s face, Li Nianqin’s gaze softened inexplicably.
He whispered, “What’s your name?”
