Apocalypse 06

At that very moment, the door behind them was suddenly pushed open. Everyone turned simultaneously to see a woman standing at the entrance, clutching a sharp knife.

Almost instantly, several people raised their crossbows, but hesitated the next second.

"Help... help me," the woman trembled, slowly lifting her head.

"It's the villainess, Wu Mengmeng," Little Hei reminded from the side.

Fang Zhiyi pondered for a moment before saying, "Come with us."

In this life, Wu Mengmeng hadn’t joined forces with the female protagonist. Instead, she had escaped the school on her own, only to return home and find her parents already infected. They had grabbed a kitchen knife, intent on "fixing" her, forcing her to flee again. Along the way, she had even killed an infected to survive.

Listening to her story, Fang Zhiyi couldn’t help but sigh to Little Hei, "Now you see why she’s the villain, right? A high school girl, without any rebirth advantage, dares to take on infected with a knife—she’s a rare talent."

Little Hei replied, "I get it now. In the female protagonist’s first life, she was nothing but a naive do-gooder, almost getting Wu Mengmeng killed several times. Whether it was sheltering infected people or stopping to help villains, she even scolded Wu Mengmeng for being heartless. If it were me, I’d have twisted her head off long ago. It’s a miracle Wu Mengmeng endured it for so long."

Fang Zhiyi nodded in agreement.

Little Hei became even more meticulous in his scouting, terrified of a repeat of the earlier situation. Under Fang Zhiyi’s leadership, the nine-person team slipped into the police station’s armory through the back door—only to face the awkward realization that they didn’t have the key.

Fang Zhiyi hadn’t expected the infected carrying the key to have wandered off.

"They’ve gathered at North Park... barbecuing," Little Hei reported.

At the mention of barbecue, Fang Zhiyi could guess the scene.

"We need to ambush over a dozen infected, grab the key, and get back here as fast as possible," Fang Zhiyi began assigning tasks. The others listened intently, knowing there was no turning back now.

The infected, roaring and howling in the park, were in high spirits. A few were even performing acrobatic human pyramids in broad daylight, while the rest huddled around a fire, staring hungrily at the human limbs roasting above it.

"These ones are dumber than the last batch. Take them out now," Fang Zhiyi whispered into his earpiece.

A volley of arrows sliced through the air, instantly dropping two of the pyramid performers. The woman in the middle remained ecstatic, unfazed by her fallen comrades—until an arrow pierced her forehead. Old He stared in surprise at the newly recruited girl beside him, impressed by her natural talent.

Fang Zhiyi joined in, felling an infected reaching into the fire for meat with one arrow, then another who turned to look. Finally, the group realized something was wrong.

Seizing the moment, Fang Zhiyi fired again, dropping an infected who had stood up. He snatched a crossbow from someone nearby and loosed another shot. Seeing this, his teammates stopped aiming and focused solely on reloading for him.

The fight ended swiftly, leaving the squad in awe of Fang Zhiyi. Out of twelve infected, he had taken down eight—without wasting a single arrow.

As Fang Zhiyi bent to search one of the corpses for the key, he remarked, "Don’t get cocky. This was easy because they were idiots. If we’d run into the organized kind, there’s only one option: run."

The team nodded solemnly. Fang Zhiyi decided they’d need a crash course on infected behavior once they got back.

"Host, the previous group of infected has returned. They’re blocking the road into the city... and they’ve caught a live one," Little Hei reported.

"That’s trouble. If they’re blocking the way, Old Fang and the others won’t be able to drive through," Fang Zhiyi muttered. He had little faith in civilians who’d never faced the infected head-on.

Back at the villa, Old Fang finally heard the message over the walkie-talkie and leaped onto a pickup truck. "Move out! Let’s fetch them!"

A convoy of heavily armed vehicles set off.

"You can’t be serious, young master!" Old He protested, while the others looked equally nervous.

Fang Zhiyi shot them a sidelong glance. "If I don’t go, will you? None of you can even look at an infected without shaking. Move!" He swung onto a rickety motorcycle, struggling to start it before the engine roared to life. "Old He, get everyone back! That’s an order!"

Meanwhile, the infected on the road were tormenting their captive, eager to extract as much "fun" as possible before the person turned. Suddenly, their golden-haired leader whipped around at the sound of an engine. Down the street, a figure on a battered motorcycle grinned at them, then slowly raised a hand to flip them off.

"Over there!" the golden-haired woman shrieked, dropping the fresh severed limb in her grasp to give chase. The other infected followed, leaving behind their mutilated victim—now transformed—laughing grotesquely from a wooden post.

Fang Zhiyi swerved and gunned the bike toward the city. Thank goodness civilians didn’t have guns, or this stunt would be suicidal.

"Host! Another group of infected ahead! Turn right!" Little Hei yelled, panicked. The host couldn’t die here.

Fang Zhiyi veered right just as the new group spotted him. "Stop! Hahaha! Stop!"

"Damn it!"

"Host, left up ahead!" Fang Zhiyi held his breath, navigating through corpses, debris, and wrecked cars—his driving skills pushed to the limit.

"Host, survivors ahead!" Little Hei exclaimed excitedly. "Lure the pursuers toward them, and we can escape!"

But Fang Zhiyi braked hard.

"Host?"

He glanced at Little Hei. "You may look human, but you’re not one yet." With that, he turned the bike around to face the approaching horde.

"Host, you’re not planning to—" Little Hei was horrified. This was suicide. The infected feared neither injury nor death; they’d throw themselves at the bike to stop him.

"Planning nothing. One versus fifty—the advantage is mine." Fang Zhiyi reached into his backpack and pulled out two grenades.

Indeed, the apocalypse had erupted too swiftly for the military or police to react, leading to mass infections—and the infected now had guns. Human strongholds only survived later because they’d secured enough firepower.