Chapter 160: Zombie King
Everyone was keeping an eye out for any movement or sound coming from upstairs as they watched the bottom floor. It was at this time that Xiao Mi suddenly widened her eyes and shouted frantically,
“Not good Captain! We’re being surrounded!”
Looking out through the building’s ventilation window, they could just see swarms of zombies all densely packed downstairs. They were unbelievably quiet, not making a single scream and just slowly walking forward and surrounding the building. From far away, they could also see many more zombies swarming in, most of them T3s.
Tao Xi Ran’s face had gone completely white. They had, from the start, fallen into a trap bigger than the sky above; the first and second level zombies were just bait. There was no time left to think and she immediately made a decision.
Yelling loudly and sternly, she said,
“Retreat!”
Team 7 immediately flew downwards, preparing to rip open a hole in the zombie horde. Most of them were level 2 ability holders, with the highest just on the edge of level 3.
Facing up to this sudden crowd of T3s, every curse was about to come out of their mouths.
Tao Xi Ran fluidly moved with the blade in her hand like she was dancing, leaving only her bare shadows behind, and forcefully managed to open up a path. But right after, the endless horde of zombies immediately blocked the exit once more and she couldn’t help but yell out angrily,
“Fuck! Didn’t they say there were no high level zombies here? Why are there so many T3s! Use your radios to send an SOS to the base as fast as possible!”
Xiao Mi was sweating all over,
“We can’t, the signal seems to be blocked!”
They looked everywhere but all around them were cold barren high rise buildings swallowed up in the ashy grey smoke. Like a shapeless black hole that was slowly enveloping everything around, they could see humans and objects without a spot of sunlight to be seen.
There seemed to be an enormous monster standing high above them, looking down at them as if they were ants.
Tao Xi Ran was suddenly filled with regret.
Perhaps she should not have accepted this mission.
The blade in her hand was already bending out of shape and her body was covered in blood splatters. She kicked the zombie by her feet away and began to use her ability to attack. The icy blue color of her flames were scorching hot, hot enough to immediately turn a human into ashes. But to these zombies with their hard, rock solid flesh and bones, it did not do much.
Pei Ran had not rushed down with them and had instead turned around to run back up the stairs. Unexpectedly, there were no zombies up on the third floor, just an empty floor where it was quiet enough to even hear echoes. He called Qu Yan’s name out a few times, but he did not get a response, and he could only continue to run as fast as he could up the fourth floor.
Despite the mid autumn weather, their backs were forcibly covered in cold sweat.
Pei Ran had always thought Qu Yan was the main character, never getting injured nor dying, but for some time now, he had started to realize that the other was purely just an average, normal human being.
A skeleton thin body layered with flesh covered in old wounds and injuries. He crawled out from the abyss with a body covered in pain, with half broken childhood memories. Paired with his dark and gloomy eyes, all this came together to form a Qu Yan who was alive but filled with the aura of death.
Pei Ran’s simple minded brain could clearly remember every moment when the other was so delicate and weak: from the hopeless and painful cries of being dragged to the washroom by Zhou Cang Ming, to his shocked and broken expression when he heard him say I like you, to that overly pale white face when his back was etched with broken shards of glass, to the overly tired face of his when he went to nap after hunting zombies for an entire night……
When the apocalypse broke out, Qu Yan was in his graduating year of high school.
Even now, he was just a student who hadn’t even stepped foot into a university.
Climbing every step of these stairs, passing all these floors that only kept going up and up with no end in sight, Pei Ran couldn’t even count how far he had climbed. He tightly grasped onto the railing and was just preparing to take a break when a familiar shadow suddenly burst into his sight that was starting to swirl and fade into black.
The two of them had been running; one climbing up with as much energy as he could use while the other was flying downwards as fast as he could. If Pei Ran had not stopped just in time, he would have been hit really hard and be in great pain.
Qu Yan probably had not thought that Pei Ran would come looking for him. His dark eyes had suddenly brightened up and he lurched right into Pei Ran’s embrace. Pei Ran was knocked off guard and stumbled backwards a few steps but he automatically hugged Qu Yan back before harshly falling back against the wall.
“Fuck,” for the first time, Pei Ran had the desire to be more fit than he actually was and breathlessly said,
“If you hadn’t come down now, I would have died on the way up.”
This was Z City’s highest building, consisting of 121 storeys, and enough to make someone climb to their death.
“My bad.”
Qu Yan smiled and kissed him before pulling Pei Ran down the stairs with him. He did not say a single word of what happened upstairs, but the attacking zombies downstairs suddenly seemed to have lost their puppet master and were starting to attack randomly and scream in dissonant tones.
Tao Xi Ran and her team were back to back, forming a circle. Fighting for so long with their abilities and unable to absorb a single orb to replenish their depleting abilities, their muscles were beginning to cramp and throb in an abnormal way. When Pei Ran got down to the first floor in his haste, he got there just in time to see a new wave of zombies storming towards them and he quickly shot forward a purple net of electricity. At the same time, Qu Yan used his net as a cover and discreetly forced those zombies to back off with his own psychic ability and created a tiny opening.
The members of Team 7 looked over reflexively, and upon seeing that it was Pei Ran and Qu Yan, their faces lit up with delight. And then a blueish purple net of electricity with ropes about the size and thickness of a pinky was cast once more as a protective cover in front of them. This time, the power of the net was much stronger, immediately creating a road to the exit about the width of three people.
Pei Ran yelled,
“Run!”
Team 7 immediately ran like their asses were on fire, heading towards the military van left on the roadside1.
Xiao Mi did not know that this was thanks to the help Qu Yan discreetly gave and her heart was only filled with curses and swears,
“Fuck, this electric ability is too much of a deus ex machina!”
The ten of them chopped and slashed for half an hour and couldn’t even open up a road to escape, yet Pei Ran was able to casually cast his ability a few times to kill more than a few dozen; it was truly maddening if you were to compare yourself with him!
“Don’t waste your time talking shit and get in the car!”
Tao Xi Ran jumped onto the van with a few leaps and quickly took attendance of her team. Once she saw Pei Ran and Qu Yan get on, she yelled out to their team’s driver,
“Leave now!”
And then grabbed a hand grenade out of a corner of the truck and directly threw it at the zombies chasing after them. With only an ear piercing bang, their sight was filled with clouds of dust.
Preemptively, Pei Ran had covered Qu Yan’s ears before quickly burrowing as far down as he could like the rest of the team. Once the explosion and its shockwave was over, he lifted his head, his ears ringing and vision shaking.
The others in Team 7 were not faring much better either; each of them tired and lying like a dead dog. Tao Xi Ran exhaled a breath, her gorgeous face covered in blood stains. She slowly slid down with her back against the wall and couldn’t hold in her curses,
“Fuck your fucking grandma, I almost called it there.”
Pei Ran took out a wet wipe from his bag to clean his face before rolling up his sleeves and slowly wiped his hands. Once that distinct looking hand was clean, he looked behind him, looking as that high rise building that reached up to the clouds slowly fade into a black dot, never to be seen again.
This had been the tallest building in Z City, and it had once been the pride and joy of Z City.
Qu Yan was also looking at the building, but there was an indecipherable, meaningful look to his expression. After a moment, he boredly retracted his gaze and looked over at Pei Ran instead. He found a spot of dirt on the other’s pale face, having evidently not cleaned up very well.
Qu Yan was quite familiar with the other’s obsession with cleanliness and wanting to look good, so he took out another pack of wet wipes from his bag. Pei Ran slightly turned to the side at this and pushed his face forward. Once he was wiped clean, he dropped his head onto Qu Yan’s shoulders.
Pei Ran whispered discreetly into his ear,
“What happened at the top……”
Qu Yan smiled and kissed his forehead, quietly saying,
“I’ll tell you when we get back.
Team 7: unamused face.jpg2
The car was flying through the roads yet they were all empty, as if all the zombies in the city were gathered somewhere. Xiao Mi hesitantly asked,
“Captain, should we report what happened today to the base?”
Tao Xi Ran flopped onto the ground, unmoving and looking a bit agitated,
“Report your fucking what! The mission’s not even complete, how embarrassing!”
Xiao Mi knew in her heart of hearts that Tao Xi Ran didn’t want to be embroiled in any troublesome situations and only quietly urged,
“But don’t you think it’s so weird? When we entered the building, there was nothing strange anywhere. And normally, where would there be so many T3s! Meeting two to three is already a rarity but there were more than 50 today!”
Everyone immediately couldn’t help but fall into a state of contemplation at this. Yet only Pei Ran had his head lowered, counting his orbs. Qu Yan was resting on his thighs with his eyes closed to restore his energy, as if he had heavily taxed his psychic ability and his body was full of fatigue.
The apartment they rented was not very secure, so the orbs Qu Yan had gotten yesterday were all stored in Pei Ran’s dimensional space. At this moment, Pei Ran used his sleeves as a cover while, slowly, a small handful at a time, stuffing them into Qu Yan’s hands and letting him use them to restore his ability. In a few moments, more than 400 orbs were used up, which meant that whatever happened up that tower was not very good, or otherwise Qu Yan’s psychic ability would not have been used up to this extent.
After half an hour, they reached the base. When Tao Xi Ran jumped down, her legs wobbled and she almost fell face first onto the ground. Seeing this, Pei Ran gave up his desire to be cool and held onto the railings, taking the utmost care to get down from the car.
Tao Xi Ran: “……”
Pei Ran held out a hand to help Qu Yan get down and then smiled in embarrassment at Tao Xi Ran,
“Never wrong to be cautious.”
Tao Xi Ran used her sleeves to casually wipe her face,
“Being cautious is good. I almost lost my life today because someone tried to dig a hole for me to jump into with this mission. I must thank you for today, but as I have some business to discuss with the base leader, I’ll have to treat you two for dinner sometime later.”
“No worries.”
Pei Ran waved his hand in the air to reject her well wishes. After they bid their farewells, Pei Ran and Qu Yan went to the reception desk to exchange all their orbs into contribution points and then used them all to pay for their electricity and water bill. But even with that, it probably wouldn’t even last for more than a few days.
When they reached their apartment, Pei Ran was in a rare state of not rushing to clean up and instead sat down on the sofa with Qu Yan in his arms, quietly thinking. After a while, he asked,
“Was there some kind of crazy strong zombie at the top of the tower?”
Qu Yan did not immediately answer and instead took out a T5 orb with very high purity. Passing it to Pei Ran, he then said,
“There was a T6 zombie up there and it was enhanced enough to have developed the psychic ability, able to control its own kind. It looked like … as if there was no difference from another human being.”
Lying lazily in Pei Ran’s arms, his legs casually crossed over the arm of the sofa. In this state of comfort, it seemed as if Qu Yan did not know how shocking his words were. Pei Ran subconsciously tightened his grip on that orb and asked in complete shock,
“You killed that T6?!”
Qu Yan’s fingers played with Pei Ran’s shirt pocket, looking a bit unwilling, but after a while, he shook his head,
“No.”
When he got up there, the zombie was just devouring the orbs from its own kind. Qu Yan killed off a few T4s and a T5 on the side, and as he was worried about Pei Ran downstairs, he didn’t stay long before immediately leaving. That T6 also seemed to be unwilling to face Qu Yan directly in a fight and did not chase after him.
“If you didn’t, it’s fine. Being safe is the most important.”
In a split second, a lot of things flashed through Pei Ran’s mind, but then he thought that there wasn’t much use in thinking too much. In this world, you really only need to protect yourself. He ruffled Qu Yan’s hair,
“Are you hungry? Go eat something.”
Before they had reached the base, they had swept through quite a few supermarkets and gas stations; they had enough provisions for the two of them. Pei Ran grabbed a packet of instant noodles, looking at the expiration date out of habit before finding that it was already expired and grabbed a new bag.
As men, the two of them weren’t that meticulous, so after quickly eating their noodles, they were good for their meal. Pei Ran was just planning when they should head out again, as they had been thinking of only escaping and surviving, without putting much thought into grabbing orbs. It seemed as if Qu Yan could tell what Pei Ran was thinking and quietly said beside the other’s ear,
“We shouldn’t head out at this time. It’s very dangerous.”
He rarely used such a serious tone to speak before so, naturally, Pei Ran would listen. But it was hard to placate that bit of hard-to-describe anxiety in him. He read a bit and then, seeing that it was dark, grabbed Qu Yan with him to shower, only coming out after quite a while had passed.
Their bodies were a bit damp as they fell hard onto the bed. Pei Ran had not been willing to hurt Qu Yan last time and had been holding back. In the end he had instead given Qu Yan the chance to go kill zombies. So this time, in his head, he decided that he would not let the other go so easily.
Qu Yan’s entire body was tightly wound up, powerlessly heaving up the top half of his body, like the tail of a fish that had left the water. Sweat was mixed with tears as they dripped down, slowly drenching his hair. He moaned out quietly and in stutters before burrowing his face into the pillow, leaving only the sounds of quickened breaths.
Pei Ran did not stop as he pulled the other back out from the pillow. Half of his pale white fingers went to investigate Qu Yan’s mouth, slowly rubbing at the bottom lip. His amber eyes clearly reflected the other’s face, and he asked with great interest,
“Do you still have the energy and strength?”
Qu Yan’s eyes were blurry, unable to pull together a scrap of consciousness. He forcefully gathered his mind at Pei Ran’s words.Looking up at that handsome, smiling face, he smiled as he moaned out,
“No… no more energy……”
Pei Ran caressed the other’s slightly shaking legs, confirming that this was the truth. In this position, he buried his face in the other’s neck and asked after a while,
“Comfortable?”
Qu Yan felt that Pei Ran’s hands were very beautiful, unable to find a single blemish. He played with them for a while and then stuck them to his face. He hoarsely said,
“Yes……”
He was rarely embarrassed; facing up to Pei Ran and however his position was manipulated, he was open to them all.
Pei Ran brushed over the blushing corners of his eyes,
“If you’re comfortable, that’s good.”
It was naturally the best if both people involved could enjoy it.
In the month that followed, Pei Ran did not take a single step out of the base, but he could still faintly sense that the situation outside was not looking very good. Quite a few teams that accepted missions came back worse, one trip after another. It was considered a good result if they only suffered one or few losses. Half a month ago, Team 3 had stumbled across a zombie horde ambush and no one was left alive.
Things were starting to change within the base’s higher ups. On one hand, they were sending out researchers to set up the newly invented power grid, and on the other, they started recruiting en masse for ability holders. Qu Yan and Pei Ran had been requested twice, but both times he had declined vaguely to smooth over any tensions from the rejection.
They couldn’t get out of the base, which meant there was no way to kill zombies. Pei Ran couldn’t always just sit here and do nothing, so in the end, he went outside of the central district to set up a stand, selling the food in his dimensional space that was quickly expiring.
In the midst of this increasingly harsh environment, people would only hoard their provisions, not sell it. Even the stores at the base were only selling bottles of water as the only supply so Pei Ran’s stall was truly one of a kind.
TL Tidbit:
Hello Galactic Judges! It’s been a while since I’ve added a bit here as I had a bit of a busy period with so much on my plate (I can only say I’m very proud of past me for translating so many chapters ahead without knowing how much time would be taken up by everything else later on, and so much love for Plum for always getting everything in order and reminding me when I have to edit/proofread the chapters for release. Thank you Plum <3). On that note, I did want to add that we are ever so close to the end of this volume and so close to the end of the entire novel… (so close, it’s almost in reach!). With that, it seems customary to say if there was any update to the release schedule, and for now, the current schedule works out really well for me (and I think Plum, although I will have to ask them later on…) so it most likely won’t be changing, with a chapter to be released every two weeks, either on a Sat or Sun! : )
Thank you to all you Galactic Judges who are still on the journey with us (or just joining!), and I hope you enjoy the near end of this ride!! Thank you for all those who have left your kind words and support (I’m so sorry to catch up to the comments after so long), but thank you nonetheless! I’ve enjoyed reading all your comments : ) Thank you to those that have left likes for a lot (if not all) the chapters! I always get bombarded with the messages of likes left and it’s always a pleasure to see someone enjoying the novel translations : ) In any case, I just wanted to add a short message for my gratitude (as it’s been a while, but I wanted to remind you all as it’s all encouragement to continue and makes it worth so much more to keep going, so thank you!), and I hope you have a beautiful and safe week! See you next chapter (●’◡’●)/
Click here to bypass all the footnotes!
Notes:
*1 military van: I just realized we never did have a picture to make it easy to envision but here’s a pic of something of I’ve been calling the military truck/van:
*2 unamused face: We went with unamused face but it’s more like the emotionless emoji like😑or 😐, or called something like cold stare like the stickers below:
Edited and Proofread by Plum
Winteree Translations 
Thanks for the update ❤
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