What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms – CH2

Chapter 2: Seducing Men Anywhere

Then, she heard what sounded like the voice of judgment echoing from hell.

“Kill her.”

“Wait a minute!” Pei Xiqing shuddered in terror, nearly tumbling down the attic stairs. She gripped the handrail desperately and shouted, “I haven’t completely turned into a zombie yet! You can’t kill an innocent person!”

When she turned around, the cold barrel of a gun was already pressed flush against her forehead.

The man holding the weapon stared at her for two seconds before his gaze dropped to her arm, which had already turned a sickly, infected green. He let out a harsh sneer. “It’s true that you haven’t fully transformed yet, but you will soon. How is putting you down killing an innocent?”

Pei Xiqing tilted her head, her eyes focusing on a handsome, white-haired young man wearing a black tactical mask.

This wasn’t the man she had seen smoking downstairs just a moment ago. For some reason, he looked faintly familiar, but her panicked brain couldn’t place him.

“Why are you staring at me?” the white-haired man snapped. “I’m doing this to stop you from harming others later.”

As his finger tightened on the trigger, Pei Xiqing scrambled backward, pressing her fragile, pale face against the rough wall. “I… I will be a good zombie! Even if I’m infected, I won’t bite anyone. I swear! If I do, I’ll never eat meat again for the rest of my life!”

“Really?” The man tilted his head in genuine bewilderment. “How is not eating meat a punishment?”

“To humanity, it’s a very serious vow!”

“I don’t trust a zombie’s guarantees.”

Realizing negotiation was futile, Pei Xiqing’s survival instincts kicked in. Zombies don’t feel much pain when they’re hit, she reasoned. Do I already have that super self-healing ability from the novels?

Without another word, she spun around and made a desperate dash for freedom—only to crash face-first into a chest as hard as solid rock.

The man she slammed into didn’t so much as sway.

Pei Xiqing looked up into a face chiseled from ice. His expression was completely unreadable, his features shrouded in a dull, apathetic stillness that made it impossible to guess his mood. In the dim lighting, his towering presence felt surreal. The immaculate dark suit he wore was entirely out of place in this blood-soaked, ruined city, giving off a dangerously mysterious vibe.

The man merely lowered his gaze, his cold eyes landing on her cheek. The emotionless stare felt like a swarm of man-eating ants slowly crawling over her skin.

Pei Xiqing’s lips parted in silent horror. She had definitely just run into a much, much higher-tier ability user. From the second he appeared, the sheer, terrifying oppression radiating from him was suffocating.

“Infected individuals cannot leave this city alive,” his deep voice resonated. “That is the rule.”

Pei Xiqing was entirely engulfed by his towering shadow. Faced with such overwhelming pressure, the latent energy of the man’s superpower seemed to violently clash with the zombie virus in her veins. She was suppressed so thoroughly that not a single sound could escape her throat.

The suffocating pressure accelerated the virus. Her body temperature spiked, and her vision began to blur.

“Then kill me,” she gasped out.

She figured that if she died here, she might just snap back to the real world—though her original body would likely be paralyzed from the stunt fall. Or, she might transmigrate into yet another alternate world. As long as she wasn’t fully consumed by the zombie virus first, her soul might still be saved.

The man said nothing.

Her head spun wildly. He was standing so close that the faint, sharp scent of his cigarette smoke filled her lungs, making her heart race. Barely conscious of what she was saying, she murmured, “But… brother, can you at least wait until I’m completely infected before you kill me?”

Duan Xiaolin lowered his eyes, his gaze locking onto the side of her face that had yet to be ruined by the infection.

Bathed in the pale moonlight, the woman looked incredibly frail. Her head was tilted up at him, but her eyes carried an innate, unspoken magnetism—a hook that naturally bewitched and seduced without her even trying.

“My team doesn’t want me anymore,” she whispered weakly. “I have nowhere else to go. I just wanted to look at this city one last time while I’m still conscious, before I die.”

“Who were you just shouting at?” the white-haired man frowned, stepping up behind her. “Who is ‘brother’? Me or him?”

Duan Xiaolin ignored his subordinate. “Why were you looking around here?” he asked in a low, even tone.

“Because I haven’t seen it yet,” she answered honestly.

She truly hadn’t seen what the post-apocalyptic world looked like. Since she was already trapped here, how could she not take a sightseeing tour before her inevitable death?

As she spoke, the sheer intimidation rolling off Duan Xiaolin made her legs give out. As she began to collapse, he calmly reached out and hoisted her up by the collar with effortless strength.

“Stand properly,” Duan Xiaolin ordered. He withdrew his hand, casually slipping it back into his tailored pocket.

Pei Xiqing quickly plastered herself against the wall, forcing her shaking legs to hold her weight.

A soft chuckle—so faint it was almost imperceptible—escaped his lips. “Have you always been like this?”

Pei Xiqing blinked in confusion.

His brows rose slightly. “Continue.”

The single word carried a chilling authority. Duan Xiaolin’s pupils caught the moonlight, revealing a faint, icy green hue. He rarely showed emotion; he was a man defined by bitter cold and terrifying endurance.

Years of military service had forged him into a man who kept everyone—men and women alike—at arm’s length. Since the apocalypse began, his sole focus had been slaughtering mutated hordes and dismantling human factions with monstrous ambitions. He wasn’t the type of warrior to blindly charge into the fray; he was the mastermind who stood on the high ground, dictating the board and watching his enemies crawl and beg.

Just like now.

The woman before him was dressed in scavenged, barely clean clothes. Her palm-sized face was delicate and pale, a stark scar marring her neck. She looked like a cornered prey animal, yet she still had the sheer audacity to look him straight in the eye.

Pei Xiqing had only wanted to invoke a little pity to buy some time, but realizing she had accidentally defaulted to calling him “brother,” she felt a flush of heat rise to her cheeks.

Duan Xiaolin’s smile faded into something darker than the surrounding night, his eyes brimming with frost. “I told you to tell me which team left you behind. I didn’t ask you to call me that.”

…Oh.

Pei Xiqing wanted to dig a hole and bury herself. She sounded like she was habitually seducing men wherever she went.

But then again, she wasn’t far off. The original owner of this body was exactly that kind of person. And honestly, before she transmigrated, she herself shared a few of those traits. The media in her old world had dubbed her the “Enchanting Rose”—a highly embarrassing title, but one backed by an army of rabidly devoted male fans.

The white-haired man snorted coldly. “Which team are you from? Why haven’t I ever seen you around?”

“I’m from… Team S1.”

“S1?” He stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Never seen you.”

“That’s why they abandoned me. I was the weakest link in the squad, and then I got bitten.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” he replied dryly. He racked the slide of his handgun and turned to Duan Xiaolin. “So… do I kill her?”

Pei Xiqing gulped. “If I completely lose my mind, you guys can kill me then. Right now, my head is clear, and I won’t bite anyone. If I feel a seizure coming on, I swear I’ll lock myself away. Could you please just… not rush the execution?”

“Keep dreaming,” the white-haired man snapped.

“Get in the car,” Duan Xiaolin commanded.

Both men spoke at the exact same time.

The white-haired man whipped his head around, staring at his boss in sheer disbelief. Are you serious?!

Duan Xiaolin’s expression remained absolute zero. “We’re leaving.”

His subordinate was utterly dumbfounded. What was his boss thinking? There had never been a precedent for letting an infected person walk, let alone taking one with them. Along their journey, no matter how pitifully the infected cried or begged, Duan Xiaolin had never shown a single ounce of mercy.

Pei Xiqing was equally stunned. She stood frozen for two seconds, letting out a heavy sigh of relief. Before she could process the victory, the white-haired man blocked her path.

“Hey. My boss told you to get in the car.”

Pei Xiqing blinked. “Huh?”

“There’s another massive wave of zombies heading this way. You might not have to worry about them biting you anymore, but we have to move.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want to intrude on your journey—”

“If you don’t get in the car right now, I will shoot you dead where you stand,” he threatened, raising the gun again.

Damn it.

These guys were absolutely unhinged.

Left with no choice, Pei Xiqing climbed into the back of the armored G-Class, sitting stiffly on the leather seat.

The interior was incredibly spacious, but half of it was piled high with elite tactical gear, heavy firearms, and crates of ammunition. Glancing down, she spotted several classified documents scattered on the seat next to her. They detailed the infrastructure blueprints for a massive terminal base, alongside high-level arms negotiation treaties.

These two were definitely not ordinary survivors. They were at the absolute top of the food chain.

Although the apocalyptic era was only a few years old, humanity’s evolution had been explosive. Almost everyone who survived the initial outbreak awakened some form of ability. Driven by these superpowers, the speed of rebuilding was astronomical. In just five years, the five largest human stronghold bases in the world had been established.

These five bases were military juggernauts, each governed by a Supreme Commander. However, above all five of them sat the absolute zenith of human authority: an organization—or perhaps a single man—known only as Franlun.

Franlun’s origins were deeply mysterious and strictly low-key, but they held the ultimate monopoly on power. In the novel, even after the male protagonist, Xiao Yue, reached his peak strength and secured a high-ranking position, he still had to tread carefully and act according to Franlun’s whims.

It was the ultimate source of frustration for the novel’s hero. Because within Franlun’s ranks existed a terrifying, universally feared villain.

That villain wielded unimaginable power and had nearly tortured the male lead to death on several occasions. If it hadn’t been for the protagonist’s plot armor, Xiao Yue wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Wait… Pei Xiqing frowned, racking her brain. Didn’t that ultimate villain get killed off pretty early in the timeline?