At three in the morning, Ye Zhizhou sensed some movements in his spiritual net. The creeping sleepiness instantly disappeared and he sat up looking far towards the darkness in the distance. He sent out more spiritual force to probe around the area with movements.

According to the original plot, a group of level three and four speed type zombies will come to this small gas station before dawn. Wei Xu's small team entered a hard battle and the original Liu Chen used this exact moment when everyone was distracted to take Xu Yi, who was hidden in the back of the offroad vehicle, and push him into a crowd of zombies.

As his mind went through the data from the system he glanced at the car quietly parked at a place not far from them, but very quickly took back his gaze. If he guessed correctly, the one he vaguely saw sleeping at the back of the car in the afternoon would be the protagonist, Xu Yi. Now the zombies came attacking and while the original Liu Chen wanted to harm Xu Yi, Ye Zhizhou needed to carefully protect him so he won't be separated from his group and meet the third male lead Liang Ping.

Wei Xu was alarmed by Ye Zhizhou's sudden movements and tightened the grip on his gun, looking over Ye Zhizhou with a frown, "What is it?"

Ye Zhizhou made a wordless gesture and carefully retracted his spiritual force, speaking solemnly, "A group of high-level speed type zombies approaching, we need to move out."

Wei Xu's expression changed at this, he quickly used his ability to feel around them. When he didn't find anything he put down his gun, exasperated, "Aren't you too tense? Fine, you can sleep, I can keep watch on my own."

If he sleeps at this moment he may never wake up again.

"Those zombies are about three kilometres away but they'll reach here soon because of their speed. We don't have time to waste, wake everyone up!" Done with talking Ye Zhizhou jumped down the roof and went to the supply car. He shook the pretty guy who slept on the outside, "Wake everyone up, high-level zombies incoming, we have to move out now."

Wei Xu was angered by his sudden movements. He followed him down and hissed, "Liu Chen what are you doing!? Everyone is spent! You can't just wake them on a whim!"

The young man heard Wei Xu's words right after he woke up and was confused and unsure of what should be done. Ye Zhizhou urged him to wake everyone again with a push then turned the other way towards the off-road vehicle, paying no heed to Wei Xu.

"Damn! You are so...." Wei Xu was close to blowing off his top. He quickly followed, hands out to pull Liu Chen away, "Don't disturb Xiao Yi, he needs a lot of rest after his upgrade! Come back here!"

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Ye Zhizhou nimbly dodged his grasp. His right hand swiftly pulled the car door open, nudging Qiu Xiangyu at the front seat and only glimpsed the dimly lit figure blanketed at the backseat, "Wake up! Get ready to leave!"

Wei Xu looked stunned at his hands for a moment, seeing that he just woke up Qiu Xiangyu he strode up to drag Ye Zhizhou away, "Liu Chen you're too much! You just told me you won't bother Xiao Yi anymore, what are you doing now?! I already said I don't like you!"

This bird-brain!

Ye Zhizhou had trouble breathing because of the tight grip. He struck at Wei Xu's hands on his waist, "Let me go! Just when did you see me bother your precious Xiao Yi?! Let go! Those zombies will be here soon, we have to leave!"

The woken up Qiu Xiangyu puzzledly watched them struggle. When he heard these words, on reflex he used his ability to probe around. His face hardened and he roared, "Get in the car! There are really zombies coming!"

The people on the side of the truck were already woken up by the commotion, now, hearing Qiu Xiangyu's shout they sprung up. Ye Zhizhou took advantage of Wei Xu's stunned pause and broke free from his hold, kicking Wei Xu towards the car while he ran towards the truck, "Go! Start the car!"

As his words fell the harsh roar of the high levelled zombies sounded nearby. The people in the truck didn't dawdle and started the engine. They started driving away. The young man anxiously shouted at the driver, "Don't go yet! Liu Chen hasn't boarded!"

The bald man covered up the youth's mouth and took him further inside the truck. The truck sped away leaving Ye Zhizhou with a face full of exhaust smoke. He could only watch all that happened helplessly.

The heck? I helped you escape quickly and you scurry off like this..?

The roars of the zombies were accompanied by a closer sound of a starting engine. He turned to see Wei Xu stretching half of his body out from the driver's seat and yelling, "Come up! I'll go slowly so get in this car!"

You finally showed some conscience!

Those hideous corpses were close enough that he could make them out with his eyes, and perhaps attracted by the sound and smell of humans, they rushed over to the car in waves. Ye Zhizhou glanced at them from the corner of his eyes then turned back because he couldn't look at them anymore, he grabbed the car door's handle preparing to perform some extreme car stunt.

He was about to get in the car when the bundled person in the back seat moved. The young and beautiful face that poked out of the blanket looked half asleep, he asked while stretching out his body, "Why is it so noisy?"

It was as if everything was in slow motion. Ye Zhizhou stared wide-eyed at the young man wriggling out his blanket and those little flags above his head. He watched him stretch out, his bare feet extend to.. kick his right hand that held the door handle.

Why does a support ability user have this much strength! He heard his bone dislocate and the pain followed. He let go and in a blink of an eye, the off-road vehicle had raced far away.

His vision spun. He fell to the ground on his back with a thud and looked up, coming face to face with a rotting face and some disgusting liquid that was dripping from its hollow eye sockets.

....This cruel world!

Wei Xu and Qiu Xiangyu were stupefied from that completely unexpected development. Qiu Xiangyu's head whipped back to Xu Yi and his baffled state completely altered his tone, "Why do you wake up now?!"

His shout stunned Xu Yi who looked at his own foot as if realising something, but Xu Yi had a guileless expression as he replied, "You woke me up with your noise, ah. Why is the car door open? Oh right, did I kick something just now? Why are you driving away in the middle of the night? The car light will attract zombies." He closed the car door tightly as he said these.

That sound of dislocating bones echoed in Wei Xu's mind, his powers unconsciously seeped out making cold winds blow inside the car. Wei Xu braked with a scowl and hit the steering wheel, "We have to go back for Liu Chen. He has no ability, facing those zombies alone is the same as death!"

"Liu Chen?" Xu Yi frowned and his face revealed a bit of his loathing, "What's up with him now? So annoying. Don't bring him next time, he'll hold us back."

"Shut up! If it wasn't for him we'd have died there!" Wei Xu pounded on the steering wheel, recalling what he'd seen in the rearview mirror his jaw clenched. He gripped the steering wheel until his hands turned white, "It's all my fault, I should've called for a retreat when he warned me!"

Xu Yi was taken aback because this was the first time Wei Xu ever treated him this roughly. He hung his head disgruntledly.

"No, we can't go back!" Qiu Xiangyu's tone was composed. He restrained Wei Xu and pulled the wheel towards himself to stop him from making a turn, "There are a dozen more of them lurking nearby. You saw it too— a zombie attacked him right after he fell. He might've..... We can't go back! We definitely can't fight off those zombies with just us!"

Wei Xu was furious, "So we should just watch him die!?"

"Yes! We can only watch!" Qiu Xiangyu squeezed into the driver's seat and took control of the steering wheel, making the car drive away.

Wei Xu struggled harder and harder glaring with wide eyes like a raging lion. "Qiu Xiangyu! Fuck off!"

The strength of a metal ability user is not comparable to other ability users — Wei Xu couldn't break free of his restraint at all. He got more and more anxious and couldn't help looking to Xu Yi, "Xiao Yi, quickly help me!"

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Xu Yi had roughly understood what had happened from their talk, he halted for a moment but then said firmly, "Brother Wei, those are high-levelled zombies that we can't fight off even with all our strength. Liu Chen likes you so much, he definitely won't want you to risk your life for him.... Brother Wei, just stop struggling."

Wei Xu couldn't believe it, he looked at Xu Yi as if he was seeing him for the first time. He was appalled, "This is someone's life! You can actually say that sort of thing.. You...."

[Probability of Wei Xu falling in love with the protagonist dropped to 80%, may the host persist in his efforts.]

"Persist, my ass!" Ye Zhizhou cursed as he turned to avoid another attack. He strengthened the spiritual force around his body, running wildly while lighting up explosives from his space and tossing them behind him. "They chase after scent and sound, Tongtian, any pills to hide my smell?! I can't run anymore!"

A beam of light containing the pill flew into his mouth. He quickly swallowed it and took a sharp turn around a corner. He chucked a few more explosives behind him. He bent down on the ground, bated his breath.

These explosives were made for fun in his last life so the force was not great, they could only halt the zombies' movements. Ten or so seconds later the footsteps got closer. He stayed put until the footsteps pulled away very quickly.

He finally threw them off.... His tense body relaxed on the ground, turning soft. He breathed out in a hurry. The wound he got from a bomb hurt, his dislocated wrist recklessly tossed things around and hasn't healed at all, still hurting a lot. He ran too fast and lost one of his shoes so his feet's condition now ought to be a horrible sight to see. "Tongtian, let's talk. Let's get a more peaceful world next time, alright?"

The mirror in his pocket vibrated. A beam of light shone in front of him, a small bottle of pills contained within it.

"What's this?"

The little bottle floated down lightly into his hand, then the screen lit up: [Top grade cut medicine.]

".....You're such a thoughtful system."

The screen flickered, appearing very bashful.

The sun crawled up, faintly there were footsteps close by. Ye Zhizhou who was peacefully sleeping by relying on the scent hiding pill stirred then woke up shortly.

Sounds that came from far before suddenly sounded right next to his ears. A pale, expressionless face appeared within his vision, hoarse voice came out from the man's parched lips, "Hey, got any food?"

Ye Zhizhou's lips pulled up when he saw the other's long fringe and black-framed glasses which covered the larger half of his face. He took out an apple from his space and tossed it over to the man. "That, um.... you want to follow me back to my base?" A doctor's white coat, hair that hadn't been tidied for a year, black-framed glasses, coupled with a blunt personality bordering on being unpleasant and speed type ability..... Great, the third male lead Liang Ping had actually met him first.

Liang Ping caught it and wolfed down the apple. He seemed to have got a new lease on life after that bite. He came over and looked deeply at Ye Zhizhou, asking softly, "Your base.... does it have any food?"

"Yes! Follow me and your three meals a day are guaranteed!"

"I'll go with you." Liang Ping continued to nibble on his apple, resolutely selling himself over.

Ye Zhizhou was speechless. A feeling of guilt was born in his heart, he felt like he just abducted a simple-minded child.

Translator: Padam | English Editor: Divetus

[1] breath suppressing pill, their presence or aura of human, I might change it later but right now scent seems close