What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms – CH48

Chapter 48: Don’t Take It Seriously

Pei Xiqing completely missed the focus of his gaze, her eyes tracking the jagged blacktop stretching out before them. “It’s a bit… difficult to calculate,” she muttered as they marched side by side.

It was entirely irrational.

Within a hyper-fortified human stronghold whose cybernetic engineering and automated weapon arrays far eclipsed the twenty-first century civilization she had left behind, the social dynamics remained tethered to such outdated, laughable, and vulgar paradigms. The structural imbalance left her entirely speechless.

Yet, running the data filters, the societal regression was directly linked to the biological ratio governing elemental awakening.

If her memory of the novel’s world-building sheets was accurate, the genetic distribution of active superpowers between the genders was severely compromised—hitting a staggering divergence of fifty to one.

For every fifty male assets who successfully jump-started their elemental cores, only a single female host achieved the exact same evolution.

This statistical unbalance had systematically driven the empire toward absolute patriarchal dominance.

The deeper her analytical mind penetrated the systemic implications of the data, the further her consciousness drifted from her immediate coordinates. By the time her radar snapped back online, the administrator was looking down at her profile with a faint, dangerous smirk playing on his lips.

Pei Xiqing blinked. “What structural variable are you analyzing?”

“Nothing,” he murmured, his voice a low vibration. “I simply calculated that your system was broadcasting a confirmation.”

Pei Xiqing’s brow furrowed. “What precise confirmation did my vocal receptors just release?”

Her processing units had been completely occupied by the plot data, and although she recalled the low timbre of his voice vibrating against her ear a moment ago, her processor had failed to store the specific transcripts of his statement.

Duan Xiaolin adjusted his cuffs, his tone level. “Bury the query. Keep your coordinates moving forward.”

Driven by a sudden, sharp curiosity, Pei Xiqing leaned closer to his shadow. “Brother Duan… what precise administrative task directed your line to this specific market grid today?”

The immediate perimeter was choked with lower-tier civilian vendors retailing uncultivated greens, closely mimicking the crowded marketplace layout she had bypassed earlier in the shift.

“I was executing a judicial clearance,” the man stated calmly, his boots hitting the pavement in a steady, unbothered rhythm. “The primary threshold of the base’s subterranean water dungeon is anchored only a short distance behind this alley.”

“Your cell was entrenched inside that black site just now?”

“Affirmative,” he noted, his face an impenetrable wall of calm. “I was conducting an audit of the prison vaults.”

“Mhm…” Her mind quickly finalized the deduction.

Since the public execution plaza was commanded exclusively by Franlun’s high tribunal, it was mathematically certain that a High Representative of his caliber would be directing the purge from the epicenter.

Pei Xiqing cast a rapid glance over her shoulder, her eyes tracing the dark lane.

“What variable is your radar tracking behind us?” he asked, his green eyes narrowing behind his lenses.

Pei Xiqing countered quickly, “Verifying whether any covert extraction squads are tracking your signature.”

“Does your system detect a hostile footprint?” Duan Xiaolin smoothly slid his large palm down, his fingers locking securely around her hand to anchor her balance, preventing her from walking backward and colliding with a heavily loaded cargo cart navigating the bottleneck behind her boots.

“Negative…”

“Which specific asset is your mind desperately seeking to isolate?” he murmured, his gaze cutting straight through her calculated defense. “An elite operator from Franlun’s high council?”

Pei Xiqing averted her eyes guiltily, her face burning. “No… drop the line. The data is entirely irrelevant to my board.”

Stumbling onto the pre-written apex villain was a matter of pure statistical luck, and her current timeline clearly lacked the clearance to force that encounter; she would simply have to hold her position and wait for the narrative to unfold. Her absolute priority right now was to utilize Long Yan’s titanium credits to secure the survival gear his squad required, before returning to the villa to share a ration pot with Duan Xiaolin.

Her fingers tightened around his palm, forcefully pulling his massive frame toward an adjacent transit vector. “Accelerate your pace. Sister Long Yan issued a strict command requiring me to harvest supplies from the commercial boulevard, and my schedule is running critically late. You are accompanying my line.”

Duan Xiaolin allowed her physical weight to smoothly dictate his stride, his green eyes tracking the small, warm contact of her fingers wrapped around his palm with absolute stillness. “What specific inventory are you authorized to secure?”

“The vanguard intends to anchor its coordinates inside this stronghold for a prolonged duration, but the column will inevitably re-enter the frontier transit corridors later. She ordered me to prep a massive load of daily necessities and tactical gear to pack into the replacement transport,” she explained, her voice dropping as she looked up at him. “Didn’t the squad’s entire vehicular grid suffer a total lockdown back in the bottleneck of City B?”

“Form up on me.”

With that brief directive, his long strides altered her deviant trajectory, guiding her straight toward a reinforced structural archway ahead.

“The target sector is anchored here.”

Pei Xiqing’s visual sensors blinked in confusion. “Huh?”

The bustling market street directly adjacent to their coordinates was packed with a dense wall of merchant stalls and flashing digital signs; why was his navigation systematically bypassing that prosperous sector?

“That specific grid is governed by the unauthorized black market,” he noted flatly.

Pei Xiqing’s eyes widened to sharp circles. “The high command permits an active black market to operate inside a hyper-fortified stronghold?”

“Mhm,” he murmured. “The administrative codes explicitly prohibit the traffic on paper, but the transaction metrics remain aggressively prevalent behind the scenes. The vast majority of the merchandise circulating through that grid represents high-tier assets plundered straight from the corpses of fallen ability users. The network involves an immense demographic of corrupt military directors, which is why the base command has failed to initialize a purge against the market.”

He paused, a dark, testing smile tracing his lips. “Or does your system desire to breach the threshold? It’s highly probable your lens will isolate a rare component within those vaults.”

“What inventory is liquidated inside?”

“High-end jewelry matrices, ancient relics from the old world, and hyper-dense uncultivated medicinal herbs.”

“Every single item has been contaminated by the cells of the dead,” she muttered, an immediate revulsion flaring in her chest.

Reselling the private belongings of slaughtered refugees… those independent ability users were simply launching sweeps into the hot zones to strip the flesh of the deceased, generating immense black-market profit by plundering graves.

The entire industry was indistinguishable from grave robbing.

Her interest parameters hit absolute zero.

Pei Xiqing cast a single, flat look toward the dark corner of the boulevard where a heavy black canvas shroud hung to obscure the market entrance, before resolutely turning her boots away.

“If your timeline desires an artifact from that grid, we can clear the vault,” the man noted, his palm squeezing her fingers.

“Negative,” she shook her head firmly. “I run a calculation that utilizing plundered assets would systematically degrade my internal lifespan.”

Duan Xiaolin’s fingers tightened around her wrist, a low, genuinely amused chuckle escaping his chest. “My secure ledger will absorb the financial invoice. Even if the human lifespan metrics are discounted, consider the transaction a tribute to stabilize your timeline.”

“Then you are absolutely restricted from purchasing anything from that grid,” she stated, her expression turning dead serious. “I was merely running a piece of ironic banter; do not integrate it into your ground truth.”

“Furthermore… my system genuinely harbors a zero-interest parameter regarding those dead relics.”

Duan Xiaolin offered a slow, compliant nod. “Acknowledged.”

The two of them advanced into the hyper-fortified commercial boulevard.

The architecture here stood in violent, staggering contrast to every single civilian quadrant they had navigated through since clearing the main gates. The interconnecting steel alleys and armored storefronts branching out in a hyper-precise grid perfectly demonstrated the immense material variance hoarded by the stronghold’s elite.

The sector closely resembled a massive, fully active munitions factory.

Armored weapon repositories of every tier lined the blacktop, and even the lowest-grade tactical daggers on display were segregated into dozens of hyper-specific alloy configurations.

“Do not disrupt your tracking vector, operatives! The tactical assets hoarded within my vault represent the most comprehensive and optimized combat gear in the entire base registry! Do not miscalculate this procurement window!”

“Analyze the diagnostic sheet on this communication array! It carries an absolute ten-year military warranty! If the hardware experiences a microsecond of system failure, return the unit directly to my desk for an immediate replacement!”

“If your vanguard cell requires an engineering overhaul on your close-quarters equipment, lock your credits onto our inventory! A verified twenty-year structural warranty! Absolute structural perfection!”

…

Intercepting the high-frequency shouting echoing from the automated storefronts, Pei Xiqing discreetly tugged the crisp fabric of his suit sleeve. “A twenty-year warranty on a tactical weapon? Is that a verified metric or a fabricated marketing lie?”

Even if the structural integrity of the steel didn’t fail after two decades of high-intensity combat, the edge would inevitably hit critical dullness and succumb to environmental oxidation.

The parameters sounded entirely exaggerated; were these blades forged from unverified alien elements?

“The metric runs close to the projection,” Duan Xiaolin noted smoothly. Reaching onto a magnetic display rack, his long fingers casually pulled a razor-sharp tactical dagger from the slot, the polished steel catching the floodlights to emit a cold glare across his glasses. “Weapons synthesized from a hyper-dense compound of compressed iron and high-tier crystal core matrices do indeed sustain an operational lifespan vastly superior to standard military blades. However, a twenty-year calculation is mathematically overstretched. A ten-year baseline is the realistic ceiling for the alloy.”

“Even a ten-year threshold is exceptionally impressive,” she murmured.

The boulevard was heavily crowded with active personnel, the vast majority being elite ability users who had broken rank to replenish their ammunition stores and recalibrate their close-quarters gear. Within minutes, the interior ring of the primary repository was packed to maximum density with heavily enhanced bodies.

Pei Xiqing maintained a detached posture, idly scanning the weapon configurations with zero intention of authorizing a transaction. However, the store director—who had been frantically managing a sequence of high-volume military invoices at the central terminal—caught sight of their profiles. He instantly abandoned his terminal, a hyper-enthusiastic, subservient smile plastering his face as he ran toward their coordinates.

“Good god… two exceptionally distinguished high-tier assets have graced my humble repository today,” the director beamed, stroking his neatly trimmed beard as his eyes scanned Duan Xiaolin’s custom suit. “Whatever specific weapon system your cell requires, authorize an immediate download. Whether the high command’s primary mess halls are short on logistics or not, my vault remains completely unlocked and stocked to the brim.”

Pei Xiqing shook her head, her voice polite but firm. “Bury the pitch. My line requires no armaments.”

Her cognitive database possessed absolutely zero training parameters regarding advanced cold weapons, and her motor functions lacked the muscle memory required to wield a blade under pressure. If a critical survival crisis breached her perimeter, her most efficient and lethal defensive maneuver was to simply unhinge her jaw and take a massive bite out of the threat’s throat.

“Hey, listen to me, miss—my inventory currently holds the two most optimized, premier weapon systems tearing through the base’s popularity logs,” the director countered aggressively, refusing to yield the sale. He tapped a reinforced titanium display case. “The traditional Emei Alloy Dao, running right alongside the hyper-velocity J-01389 heavy suppressive fire machine gun. This exact combination is currently flagged as the absolute favorite tactical loadout among the elite female ability users registered in the inner ring. For immediate close-quarters evasion, you deploy the blade; the second the target coordinates shift to long-range horde density, you unleash the heavy machine gun. No matter how many thousands of wild mutants attempt to press your line, you will systematically erase their cells from the board.”

Pei Xiqing let out a faint, quiet laugh behind her collar. “An Emei Knife?”

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