Don’t be a Kept Man – Chapter 152

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Chapter 152: Golden Leg

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The sound of breaking bones rang out nonstop as the smelly zombie brain matter fell to the floor, until at last only one zombie remained. Its throat let out a murky breath as it stood amongst the corpses of its brethren. Its body wanted to escape but something was controlling it, making it unable to move a single step.

Under the moonlight, an icy glint flashed by the back of its neck and its head fell off as its body crashed onto the floor.

Qu Yan stepped over all this mess on the floor, his hand rising and falling with the splatter of blood and splashing some of that dark red color onto his cheeks.

A successful hunting trip which seemed to have finally satisfied him. He wiped his blade clean, preparing to head back into the car when he unexpectedly faced up to a pair of familiar eyes. Through the muddy glass window, they could see each other’s faces very clearly.

Qu Yan’s footsteps halted. The pair of eyes peering into the car was emotionless, filled with an unending coldness that was about to explode along with his mind; his state was especially highlighted with how half his face was illuminated by the moonlight while the other half was cloaked in darkness, split into two clear states of light and dark.

Swloop —-

Pei Ran had originally been using his hands to prop up his body, but who could have expected that the leather seats were a bit slippery and he fell with a big whoop right onto the floor. He hissed in pain, holding his waist and about to get back up when out of the corner of his eye, a spark of light entered his vision and the car door was opened.

Wafting into his face was a thick stench of blood, so thick it was almost suffocating. Pei Ran was the most afraid of this kind of scent and he subconsciously dropped his head back, scooting further inside the car.

Qu Yan, who had been silently watching his retreat, suddenly laughed. With both hands behind his back, he leaned slightly into the car in a very obedient manner. But behind his back hid a sharp blade with just the pointed tip exposed.

Pei Ran gave a glance at the trails of blood on the side of his face, and his senses slowly came back to him, 

“You’ve awakened an ability?”

The smile on Qu Yan’s face grew even deeper at this, but on a closer look, there was no emotion in his eyes at all. He squeezed into the car and the scent of blood became even stronger. His tone was light and calm, almost delighted even, as he said, 

“Yes, I have……”

He lifted his hand, a large pile of orbs in his palm shining in the dark of the night, so much brighter than diamonds. Qu Yan’s fingers slowly opened up and those orbs fell down like grains of sand and landed on Pei Ran’s legs.

Pei Ran’s sharp eyes found that these orbs had not been wiped clean, with blood still remaining, and he reflexively kicked them away, afraid of dirtying his clothes.

Qu Yan leaned over to pick up the crystal orbs one by one, looking quite pitiful, as he said in a tone of voice that was a bit pitiful and also had a bit of humor, yet frightening enough to cause goosebumps, 

“Do you not like them? I had dug these out especially for you……”

As he said this, his eyes kept staring at Pei Ran’s lips, as if the moment the other said no, he would feed these hard and sharp orbs, one by one, right down into his stomach.

Pei Ran responded automatically, 

“Yes.”

Why wouldn’t he like it.

Perhaps the system wanted to emerge but was shaken enough by Qu Yan’s frightening state that it only emerged to whisper into Pei Ran’s mind: 

[ Shh, even if you like them, you can’t take them, the galaxy’s self-reliant and self-sufficient system is earnestly here and at your service ]

Piece of shit system.

Pei Ran was just about to say something when his body suddenly became heavier. He lifted his eyes to see Qu Yan on him, happily sticking close. Qu Yan tilted to his head to ask, 

“You really like it?”

Pei Ran hugged him back, 

“Yes, I just had not expected that you would awaken your ability this fast.”

He had even been afraid that there would be a butterfly effect because of his transmigration, creating the situation where Qu Yan would never be able to awaken his ability. So this was perfect, an actual deus ex machina, the perfect plot immunity, a golden leg, as the only one with the psychic ability to control zombies!

Qu Yan narrowed his eyes slightly at this, feeling very satisfied by his reaction. The corners of his lips hooked up slightly and he leaned over, prepared to kiss him when Pei Ran turned his head and avoided it.

This reaction caused the atmosphere in the car to drop straight down, becoming cold enough to form icicles. Qu Yan’s face was starting to darken, his eyes coldly staring at Pei Ran as if he was a poisonous snake drawn out from the dark of the night, able to take someone’s life in a split second.

Pei Ran sensed none of the danger and instead just reached out to try and find something under the seat. After a moment of searching, he grabbed a bottle of water, opened the car door, and pulled Qu Yan up to sit on his legs. With a heavy infliction on his tone, he said, 

“Your face is full of blood. You need to remember to clean yourself next time.”

And then dumped water onto a towel to wipe at Qu Yan’s face. He then reached his hand out the door and washed it with water before finally feeling satisfied.

Much like how Pei Ran would never be able to understand Qu Yan’s emotional states, Qu Yan would never be able to guess what path Pei Ran’s brain was going down.

From beginning to end, Qu Yan let Pei Ran do as he wished. His eyes took on an evaluating gaze, right up until the other resettled him in his embrace and gave a long intimate kiss, only then did he slowly close his eyes.

With Qu Yan’s head facing downwards, his eyebrows created a small shadow. Both his legs wrapped around Pei Ran’s waist, rubbing around his tailbone. Contemplating about something, Qu Yan suddenly lowered his voice, as if trying to confirm something, 

“You said that you like me.”

Pei Ran was a bit sleepy, almost to the point where he was too lazy to think about when Qu Yan had awakened his ability, so he said listlessly, 

“Hmm, I do.”

Qu Yan’s fingers slowly began to brush the other’s hair at this, and his voice took on a strange but cold lilt, 

“If you like me, then you must always do so.”

Pei Ran did not even think about what he was saying at all and only muddily responded, 

“Hmm I know.”

Qu Yan paused, then laid back in the other’s embrace, finally looking like a pure and innocent youth of his age. After a long while, he quietly and clearly said word by word, 

“Even if I have awakened my ability, you must protect me, just like before……”

Hearing this, Pei Ran’s brain immediately woke up. He opened his eyes and stared right at Qu Yan before slowly leaning forward to catch onto the other’s lips. Slowly, taking his time, he intertwined his tongue with the other through their kiss, biting at that warm and soft tongue before lying back down. He smiled helplessly, 

“Alright, I’ll protect you.”

After he said so, he patted Qu Yan’s back and said, 

“Go to sleep, don’t think so much. I’m already very tired.”

The scent of mint had already faded until it was so faint it couldn’t be detected on the man’s body, but Qu Yan felt that it was still quite sharp and clear. His eyelids were slowly getting heavier and heavier, and following the heartbeat of the person beneath him, he fell asleep.

In other people’s eyes, this place was already a dead city. When the virus had erupted with high infection rates, X City had suffered the most. Everyone started to move away, and perhaps the south base was already built, with all the remaining survivors gathered over there; only they, with their long phase of hiding in the underground storage space, never seeing the light of day, missed the best chance to escape.

The moon light was icy cold, shining down on the plants that had grown uncontrollably to abnormal heights. Zombies hiding in all sorts of spaces were quietly evolving and starting to walk slowly towards a destination, as if a very strong power was controlling them from the dark.

Pei Ran had quite liked to laze around in bed; always one to sleep in the morning, party at night, and never waking up until the sun was high up in the sky. But today, he woke up quite early. The moment he moved slightly, Qu Yan quietly opened his eyes. He didn’t say a word, only lightly nuzzling the other’s jaw.

“If you’re awake, then get up.”

Pei Ran’s voice still sounded a bit sleepy. He woke Qu Yan up and then used a bottle of water to quickly do a simple wash up before eating two bakery buns. He had planned to continue hunting for zombies as his gut feeling told him they couldn’t stay much longer in X City; so he wanted to leave quickly.

Qu Yan’s hands were still full of orbs. When he lifted his hands, those orbs fell onto his legs, 

“Are these not enough?”

It was enough, but the dumb idiotic system wouldn’t let him use it.

Pei Ran could only say, 

“I want to go find some myself. These, you go and use it for your own cultivation.”

The situation now was that the higher the level of their abilities, the better. After all, no one knew what the situation outside X City was like. Pei Ran wondered if he should drive the car a bit farther away to find zombies when Qu Yan seductively hugged him from the back and quietly whispered into his ear, 

“I’ll help you……”

And then used his psychic ability to force all the nearby low level T0 zombies to come forth. Before long, the car was surrounded with the shadows of the swaying zombies, all growling lowly but as if they were frozen in place, they did not take a single step forward nor did they attack aggressively.

Pei Ran laid in the other’s embrace in shock. Qu Yan nuzzled and kissed his cheeks, as if comforting a child. His tone was quite delighted as he said, 

“Look, they’re all here. Go grab those orbs.”

This golden leg was a bit strong. What was the difference between receiving rewards out of nowhere?

Pei Ran couldn’t help himself and picked up Qu Yan to kiss him hard on the lips, 

“Rambunctious child, alright you, even stronger than me. You were already better at studying but your skill in using your ability is already this amazing.”

Qu Yan ignored his playful nickname and used his red tinted tongue to lick the other’s earlobe. His voice was as sweet as honey as he said, 

“As long as you keep liking me, I can give you anything.”

Pei Ran was quite simpleminded and nodded his head in delight at this, 

“Don’t worry, I’ll definitely always like you.”

The system didn’t really want to disturb their show of affections, but it quietly emerged: 

[ My dear beloved host…… ]

Pei Ran knew it would come out, 

“Shut up. This isn’t called being a kept man. This is called working together as a team.”

[ But…… ]

Pei Ran: “Shut up. I’ll split 30-70 with him.”

[ Alright mua~ ]

The system left with satisfaction.

On one hand, Pei Ran was practicing his ability but on the other hand, he was still quite afraid. He would only zap them from a distance away, electrocuting the zombie to death before daring to come close. But he was getting braver, and ignoring the time it took for his ability to recharge, he had dug out quite a few crystal orbs and exchanged them with the system for a dimensional space of about forty square meters.

In the meantime, Qu Yan was walking around nearby and silently controlling the zombies. He pushed his psychic ability to its limits every time, and with repeated usage like this, it only served to raise his ability level.

Pei Ran took all the supplies he found in the supermarket, but then, thinking that there could still be other survivors, he left a section behind before driving away with Qu Yan towards the south.

Pei Ran felt that he should tell Qu Yan where he stored the provisions so as he drove, he said to Qu Yan, 

“I think I have awakened an ability for a dimensional space.”

Qu Yan kept using an almost crazed and gentle look at him. Hearing this, he lightly chuckled and said, 

“Wow, so amazing.”

Pei Ran felt a bit awkward, as he had been quite the rambunctious child in his youth, doing all sorts of delinquent activities like fighting and skipping classes. His exams always remained below the passing grade and every time his parents looked at him, they could only sigh. So no one had really complimented him before.

He ruffled Qu Yan’s hair and gave out a very automatic response of a compliment as well, 

“Uh that, you are quite amazing as well.”

The car continued to head south and more and more zombies were appearing on the road. They had even met survivors on this path but Pei Ran was afraid of incidents so he didn’t stop for them, stepping on the pedal to speed past. He only stopped when they reached a gas station or a supermarket to refill their supplies.

“There’s a shopping mall, we could go check it out.”

Pei Ran didn’t have a lot of changes of clothes. The shirt he was wearing now was all wrinkled. They only had cookies and crackers to eat, making his face grow skinnier and skinnier, becoming distinctly more angular. He stopped the car by the road and pulled Qu Yan out of the car, planning to find some clothes.

Watching him walk around so cautiously, Qu Yan used his psychic ability to investigate, and then he said, 

“Don’t worry. There aren’t any high level zombies in there.”

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TL Tidbits:

This and the previous chapter has been brought to you by a very sick translator haha (thankfully nothing related to the pandemic), but that has made me quite late in realizing that I missed saying Happy Lunar New Year to everyone, so here’s a belated one haha. Hopefully all you Galactic Judges stay safe and healthy throughout this new year and see you in the next chapter!

Edit: my brain fogged brain has finally figured out a better word than mental ability, which has been bugging me for a while, so you may see that changed from previous chapters to psychic ability instead! (previous chapters should be updated now though : ))

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Edited and Proofread by Plum

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Previous – Chapter 151

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Next – Chapter 153

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