To be able to support the base's normal day operations Liu Tao must have a lot of resources. The size of it rendered Ye Zhizhou speechless. The original story didn't mention what father Liu did before the apocalypse, it only mentioned that the military aristocrat family of Wei was an old friend of his, but looking at the situation now.... The Liu family might have been in the supermarket business.
He'd guessed right!
Goods and materials stamped with supermarket seals were neatly stacked in the warehouse. It was guarded by several hundred armed men and twenty or more ability users, even a fly wouldn't be able to break through. The head of logistics Li Hao slid down a rope from the top of the warehouse. His rough face had a beaming smile.
"I heard Xiao Chen awakened an ability? Old Liu, are you taking things out to celebrate this great occasion?"
Liu Tao's smile rose, he couldn't help nodding, "That's for sure! Take out what you want! Xiao Chen awakened a spatial ability and there are fruits in there. We'll give each person one fruit when the time comes, it'd always been hard on everyone guarding the warehouse."
The guards cheered hearing that there would be fruits. Li Hao smiled wider and said, 'good boy' as he patted Ye Zhizhou's shoulder. Ye Zhizhou endured his patting quietly and swept his gaze through the thin faces of those guards. He felt quite moved; behind these people are huge stacks of food and yet they eat a strict two meals a day, doing their best to leave more food for the ordinary people in the base.
After simple greetings everyone went in to start moving the supplies. Ten minutes later the amazed guards followed Ye Zhizhou to the next warehouse. All three warehouses were all cleaned up in a matter of two hours. The highly efficient Li Hao once more patted hard on Ye Zhizhou's shoulders.
In the following two days, Liu Tao and Li Hao counted the members who will remain in the base and sorted out the amount to be left behind. On the third day the gate to the base opened up, a line of military trucks lined up to leave, emitting a trail of smoke.
Wei Xu's gaze moved from the leaving trucks. He opened the off-road vehicle door with a composed face, leaning out his body towards the team, "Who would like to go with me?"
Everyone looked at each other then looked to Xu Yi and Qiu Xiangyu. These three were the core of their unit; now, squad leader Wei Xu insisted on leaving, vice-leader Qiu Xiangyu was on the fence, while the head of logistics and medics Xu Yi was insisting on staying. Their three leaders were having differing opinions for the first time, making the subordinates feel torn.
"I'll go with you!" The good-looking young man was the first to step out and sit in the backseat of the off-road vehicle, not sparing a glance at Xu Yi and Qiu Xiangyu. He didn't dare to stay in this sort of team after knowing what really happened when Liu Chen fell that day.
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The bald man saw him get in the car and angrily cursed under his breath, he brandished his fists to beat this 'traitor'.
Wei Xu's hand raised to meet that fist. His eyes were chilly, "When they board this car they're already a member of my team. I dare you to lay a hand on him!"
Xu Yi's face changed. "Brother Wei, what does that mean? Are we not your team members anymore?"
"You even recruited members without my knowledge and only reported afterwards.. I don't dare call this team mine." Wei Xu's eyes on him were harsh with a hint of mockery. These few days they held a lot of meetings to decide whether to stay or leave and he always persuaded everyone to leave with him while this 'pure' youth who once sought his protection fought him with everyone in the team. This sort of team... This sort of mockery.... Well, his family is still in B city waiting for him, plus he owed Liu Chen to go even more, and there's not a single thing to be missed from this team.
Xu Yi felt pressured by Wei Xu's eyes. His tone turned gentler, "Brother Wei, it's not that we want to be against you, it's just that right now with base leader gone, we will be the strongest people in this whole base.. If we also go, what will the remaining residents do?"
Isn't it being unable to let go of the status of base leader? Yesterday he was clearly discussing about future management of the base with Qiu Xiangyu..... The last bit of feelings he had left for Xu Yi completely vanished. He gazed deeply at Xu Yi before releasing the bald man's fist and getting in the car. He started the car and raced off.
[Probability of Wei Xu falling in love with the protagonist dropped to 30%, may the host persist in his efforts.]
Ye Zhizhou who was checking the time and place where male lead number four will appear in the story tilted his head, he looked at the system notification pensively and touched his chin. It looks like Wei Xu would leave the base, but Xu Yi would not be going with him.
Li Hao flipped through the map and nudged him with his arm, "Xiao Chen, why do we have to make a detour to J province? Won't it be faster to go straight? We can save fuel."
Of course it's because we're going to save the male lead number four who's about to kick the bucket..... He turned off the screen and put on a very enigmatic expression. "J province seems to have a hidden arsenal. As you can see we don't have much ammunition."
At that Li Hao's eyes brightened, he patted Ye Zhizhou with his big strong hand again, "We have to take that detour! There's enough fuel to go!"
Two days later their cars reached a small hill on the outskirts of J province. Ye Zhizhou unearthed the arsenal that was supposed to be found by male lead number four in advance with no mental pressure whatsoever. He left Li Hao who was putting away the goods, circling around to the back of the small hill by himself. He found the small river not far from it and squatted down to wait.
Two hours later, an emaciated man floated down the river clutching a piece of driftwood. His handsomely angled face was deathly pale and his eyes faintly closed, it was unclear whether he was awake or unconscious.
Ye Zhizhou's eyes lit up, he hurried to get down and drag the man ashore. He gave him first aid and a rejuvenation pill, cracking a smile at the dying man, "As the old saying goes, the favor of one drop of water is repaid with a spring. So, will you be my bodyguard? Three meals a day guaranteed, and there are crystal cores in it. We will put an end to this end of world. What do you say?"
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As the man gradually became more awake, his blurry vision cleared up and he saw a cute face beaming at him. Yan Zheng struggled to move his hands, but facing Ye Zhizhou's smile his pupils shook, he then nodded, "Sounds good to me."
[Probability of Yan Zheng falling in love with the protagonist dropped to 60%, may the host persist in his efforts.]
It actually dropped so low? The surprised Ye Zhizhou poked the man who fainted right after saying those few words. He smiled until his eyes squinted, how can the male leads in this world be so generous and cute? Truly the paragon of male leads! What a good example for all the missions to follow!
A day later the cars arrived at a city not far from B city. That night Yan Zheng woke up from his coma and the first thing he saw was the straight faced Liang Ping.
"Here." Liang Ping passed him a small strawberry.
Yan Zheng who hadn't seen fruits for so long couldn't hold back his saliva, but he firmly shook his head, "That's alright. Do you have water? I'd like some water, thank you."
Liang Ping was very dissatisfied. He stuffed the man's mouth with the berry and took out a fruit knife from his pocket. He wiped it while saying softly, "You ate my fruit so now you're my younger brother, call me second brother, got it?"
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Yan Zheng was a bit shocked by the strawberry and coughed. He asked afterwards, "Then who's our leader?"
"That would be me." Ye Zhizhou poured him a cup of warm water. He took out grapes with a flick of his wrist and said, "Call me boss, and you'll get fruits to eat."
He put down the fruit and took out a map as he spoke, pointing to a red circle on the map, "This hospital has a warehouse with things I need. So, my bodyguard, it's time for you to take the stage!"
"......" If you forgot, isn't your 'bodyguard' still injured?
The place Ye Zhizhou circled was a hospital's warehouse. It stored expensive imported medical equipment which was exactly what was needed to make the vaccine to zombie virus. In the original plot, just to get these pieces of equipment Zhong Qiu ran over here despite his family's protests and almost failed fighting with the hospital's high level zombies on his own. But now, Ye Zhizhou decided to obtain the equipment first in order to prevent any upcoming threats on that genius's life. He'd rush to B city afterwards and donate it so that the genius can focus on saving the world in the safety of his own lab.
The warehouse was located in the far corner of the hospital; to reach it he'd have to go through the intensive care building, two other buildings with hospital wards, an emergency unit, the cafeteria and three of the hospital staff's quarters. With the sheer amount of people packed into the hospital before the apocalypse you can clearly surmise the difficulty of taking the equipment out.
However, this was all nothing in the face of the scent hiding pill!
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Ye Zhizhou smiled kindly and, channeling his inner con artist, shared 5 pills each with Liang Ping and Yan Zheng, "My dad didn't know I wanted to go here so we have to do this quietly. Come, come, come, eat your pills. We'll set off when it's darker."
Liang Ping swallowed his pill without so much talk. He turned to Yan Zheng and brandished his scalpel, "Third bro, eat it."
Yan Zheng's eyes narrowed. He suppressed the growing doubt in his heart with a deep breath, shut his eyes and swallowed the pill. He was full of sadness and grief, ready to die here for a righteous cause. In the middle of the night he has to search through a hospital packed full with zombies for machines with an unclear location...... This bodyguarding gig is so hard.
At midnight it was dark without the moon or stars.
Three men departed swiftly from the car they were resting in. After they've paced through several hundred metres, Ye Zhizhou took out a car from his space. He signaled to the other two to board the car, stuck a scent hiding mark from the system on the car, then sped off to the hospital.
Their journey to the hospital was wholly unobstructed. The three got out of their car quietly and ran towards the direction of the warehouse with the help of the pill. Contrary to Yan Zheng's expectations, the zombies let them slip by as if they were 'blind' and unable to 'sense' the humans at all. He felt his worldview being seriously shaken.
They arrived at the vicinity of the warehouse in 20 minutes. Now they were surrounded by countless 'blindly' swaying zombie-stalks, so densely packed, watching them would make a man's scalp tingle. The zombies outside the building were too densely crowded together that even taking a detour to avoid them was not possible. Upon seeing this they halted in place.
Ye Zhizhou was the first to take out his sword and cut his way through a nearby zombie; Liang Ping and Yan Zheng followed his lead and took out their weapons, reaping the rotting monsters noiselessly. Occasionally they would come near some high level zombies and it would make everyone's nerves more tense. They slowly made their way to the warehouse while doing their best to quiet the slashes of their blades.
50 metres..... 20 metres.... 10 metres.... 5 metres...
Just when their goal was right in front of their eyes, a big and repulsive high level zombie fell from above, landing smack in front of the entrance! Ye Zhizhou's hand clenched around his sword, his spread out spiritual web unconsciously shrank back, his heart beat faster. This zombie can actually pass through his spiritual web's probing.. It's so unusual!
Yan Zheng stepped forward so Ye Zhizhou and Liang Ping were behind him. His eyes were fixed on that big zombie. Yan Zheng's fire ability rolled out of him and dangerous sparks of fire crackled in the air.
The high level zombie seemed to sense the inexplicable warming of its surroundings and retreated. The zombie's head swayed back and forth, it aimlessly circled the same spot. The three men exchanged glances and agreed silently to take a step back so that they're out of the zombie's attack range.
The surroundings became quiet.
Clack— the sound of the door opening rang in the air. Ye Zhizhou looked up at the previously tightly shut warehouse door opening and the outline of a tall thin man coming out of the half opened door.
"I smelled something pleasant, was that you?"
How can there be someone in the warehouse?!
The high level zombie heard a human voice and stopped searching. It turned, cocking its head uncertainly and drew back in fear, as if it had encountered something terrible. A gentle breeze from who knows where swept through everyone. That zombie stopped abruptly, the hoarse cry was cut short and it fell backwards, its head was cut off from the body. The head rolled, stopping right before it reached Ye Zhizhou. When his head dipped down he looked right into the corpse's empty eye sockets.
Freak-ing--hell!
He quickly stepped back with his hand over his too-quickly beating heart. All of his fine hairs were standing on its end.
Something's off with this stranger! Yan Zheng and Liang Ping stepped forward in unison, shielding Ye Zhizhou behind their bodies and eyeing the tall man who had suddenly came out of the building.
Another gust of wind passed and Ye Zhizhou only saw a flash before his waist was gripped firmly, having already left Yan Zheng's and Liang Ping's ring of protection. He was held by the tall man, chest to chest, eye to eye, breathing the same air as he.
"Not that thing..... So that smell.. was you?"
The tone of that voice filling Ye Zhizhou's ears were cold, the breath puffed to his face was also cold. Looking carefully — the man's calm handsome face was a touch too pale against the moonlight. His pupils were an unnatural shade of yellow-brown and his lips were purple. Ye Zhizhou fearlessly took and felt the hand clasping his waist. His insides shuddered.
The symptoms of people in the early stages of zombie infection: their temperature would rise before falling suddenly, their face would become completely colourless, eyes turn yellow brown, their lips turn purple, their hands have blue veins bulging out unnaturally...... He speedily raised his hand to the other man's chest while shaking his head, "This brother, I haven't bathed for five days, my body smells really bad, I swear!"
Translator: Padam | English Editor: Divetus
[T/N:] thanks for the feedbacks! stock zombie = it and leader-second bro-third bro, it is!